InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Simple and Clean ❯ Under a Familiar Sky ( Chapter 21 )

Hello my faithful readers! Speaking of faithful, I hate to seem ungrateful, but if people don't review, I don't know how I'm doing… Reviews are ways for the reader to actually give feedback to the writer so that we can improve our writing so the reader can enjoy it more (if you get my drift). So people, take time to read, then take a small bit more to tell me what you liked, what you didn't, and what needs improvement. Trust me; a little comment goes a long way!

 

Recap:

Kikyo immediately took the leadership position and set everyone to a task. Koga, with his newfound speed and strength would collect firewood. Miroku, who had once been a boy scout (before he was kicked out for lighting his leader's tent on fire), set to work on the fire, while Sango and Rin went to find a water source. Sesshomaru was assigned the task of guarding the campsite, though he passed most of the time playing snake on his cell phone. Kikyo on the other hand, made herself useful by using her skills in archery, learned while still in high school, to bring back a pheasant and a large rabbit to cook on the now happily crackling fire.

Kagome still showed no signs of waking, her mind dreaming of another world. A world where they should have been, yet were not.

Chapter 21

 

Under a Familiar Sky

 

Inuyasha woke the next morning feeling refreshed, though a little bit pained by a small rock digging into his backside. Leaning to one side, he brushed himself off. He shifted his weight to the hand holding him up, and pushed himself up off the ground. His legs were a little unsteady, because they had fallen asleep, and he braced himself against the tree that he had been sleeping against. He now felt the indents on his back where the tree bark had marked him. Rubbing the spots, he looked around him, freezing in mid groan.

He was smack dab in the middle of what seemed like a make-shift campsite. A pile of ash encircled by rocks marked the fire, and he could smell that it was fresh; probably from the night before. He also caught the scent of cooked meat, making his stomach grumble loudly, reminding him how hungry he was. He surveyed the camp a little more. There were no tents or bedrolls, but there seemed to be fairly large piles of leaves in different placed that bore both the shape and smell of people. Something in the back of his head rang a bell. Something here was very familiar.

Sitting back against the tree, Inuyasha listened. A faint, rhythmical sound came from close by. As the boy listened harder, he realized it was someone breathing. Following the sound, his eyes came to a halt on a small form, only about three or four feet away from him, sprawled out on one of the piles of leaves. It was Kagome.

* * *

 

Sango shuddered as the ice cold water of the stream coursed playfully around her bare legs. If she wasn't awake already, this had definitely done the trick. Regretting that she had no soap, let alone a bathing suit, she made her way slowly into the water the rest of the way, trying to get used to the cold. Giving up on that approach, she dove in head first, and smiled happily as she opened her eyes under water. This world was serene and silent, the water crystal clear. A small school of fish flashed like silver coins through the water, stirring the bottom sediment slightly.

Her body broke the water, sending ripples across the sluggishly moving water. A rustling in the bushes startled her out of her reverence. “Who's there?” She demanded, dismayed at the small tremble of fear that she found in her voice. Sango was a strong, self-defending young woman, but this world was not her own, and it gave her a growing sense of unease.

Another rustle from the foliage caused the girl to crouch low into the water, wishing for the world that she had her clothes. She bit her lip as a stone from the bottom of the stream started to dig into her tender heel. Then an idea came to her. Leaning a bit more into the water, she picked up a handful of stones. Choosing an especially heavy rock, she aimed at the bush and swung her arm back, letting the stone fly from her fingers. There was a soft thud and a cry and she heard something large hit the ground. Wading quickly through the water, she made her way to the shore, giving the shrub a wide berth.

She grabbed and donned her clothes, not caring that she was still wet, and picked up a large stick she had found the night before: it was always better to be armed when alone. She went over to examine the thing she hat hit more closely, but to her dismay, it was already gone. Glancing around suspiciously, she jogged towards the direction of camp, not noticing the person hiding behind an especially large tree, a comical bump on his head, a contented smile on his face, staff in hand.

* * *

Sesshomaru's backside was beginning to ache. It was probably the work of the especially large rock he was perched on, and the young girl who insisted on sitting on it as well, driving him to sit halfway off of the boulder. It wasn't the most comfortable of positions to be in, to say the least. He stuffed his cellphone a little too forcefully back into his pocket, cool eyes not reflecting his apparent annoyance. He had tried for the last hour to get his cellphone to work, with no success. He had even had Rin climb a tree (which she was most willing to do) to try and get better reception, at no avail. It seemed as though he was stuck in a place with no technology whatsoever, no way to contact the normal world. At least he had games on his phone.

As if on cue he heard a dreaded, muffled beeping from inside his pocket. Slowly, trying not to crush the small device, he drug the phone from the depths of his pockets just as the light flared out of the screen. He watched as the screen displayed two blinking words before completely turning off: RECHARGE BATTERY. Sighing agitatedly, the designer tossed the phone over to Rin. She caught it, and stared at it in reverence, looking up at Sesshomaru, eyes wide. “For me?” She asked, eyes tilting upwards to form crescents.

“Do as you wish with it.” Sesshomaru waved a hand at her, and she hopped off the rock, bowing formally. “I'll call him Poncho!” Sesshomaru looked up at the clear blue sky, a sight the Tokyoite had seen few times in his life, as if to ask what did I do to deserve the weird one, As Rin flounced off with the newly christened “Poncho”.

* * *

Bracing one foot on a knee-height boulder, Kouga stared out at the land that stretched below him. It was a strange sight. There were no cars, no paved roads, no skyscrapers, just miles of green forest, farmland, small huts that formed primitive villages and in the far distance, a large mountain. It had been worth the climb up the hill to see this.

“Beautiful isn't it?” He asked, sensing the woman in back of him before he saw her. He was amazed at how much he could sense now, after the crossing into this place. Kikyo settled down on the boulder, not minding that she had force the doctor's foot from it. “I'm guessing that the priestess Midoriko has transported us back in time-from the looks of it, the Feudal Era.” Kouga raised an eyebrow, surveying the closest village, and where it was in location to their campsite. “I wouldn't know,” he said finally, I don't really know a lot about Japanese history.”

“Nor would I expect you to. You are an American.” She said, a hint of humor in her voice.

“And that was supposed to mean what?” Kouga asked, feigning hurt at her jab.

“Nothing,” the singsong tone in her voice echoing out over the trees.

* * *

When Sango neared camp, she was met with the sound of yelling. Kikyo was there, so was Kouga. The yelling was coming from an awake, and very disgruntled Inuyasha. “What the hell did you do to her?” He yelled, the force of his words reigning upon an unsuspecting Kouga. Getting himself under control, the older man took Inuyasha firmly by the shoulders. Inuyasha broke away, “Don't you touch me you asshole!” he seemed to calm down a little, getting his anger under control. He plopped himself down on one leaf-bed, raising clouds of dust that circled in eddies through the beams of light that made their way into the clearing.

“Inuyasha, Kagome is fine,” Kouga explained calmly, “She just needs to sleep. She used up a lot of her energy to bring us here. It took a lot out of her to transport seven people and herself five hundred year into the past you know.” Sango gasped at this. Five hundred years into the-did he say-past? Kouga waved a hello to Sango as Inuyasha whirled around, surprised. Kouga cleared his throat, “It seems even with heightened senses you don't pay enough attention.” He couldn't resist the jab. Inuyasha glared, barely resisting the urge to slug Kouga across his smart, know-it-all face. Instead, he asked Sango, “There are more of you?”

Sango nodded, “There's Miroku, Sesshomaru-” Here she was cut off as Inuyasha let out a string of curse words. “He's here?” Sango nodded, ignoring Inuyasha's annoyance, “-and Rin, Sesshomaru's foster child.”

“Now he's a pedophile,” Inuyasha grumbled, wondering how in the world he had gotten himself five hundred years into the past with a cocky, flirtatious doctor, his stuck-up, and apparently now child-molesting half-brother, his ex-girlfriend, his substitute teacher, Kagome, Sango and some random little loser kid. This whole thing was getting stranger and stranger.

As if on cue, Inuyasha's ears perked upright, catching the sound of footsteps. Miroku brushed aside a low-hanging branch as he entered the clearing, followed by a young girl who could only be Rin. Sango waved him over. Miroku raised an eyebrow as he noticed Inuyasha, “Looks like sleeping beauty's finally woken up,” He said, oblivious to the tension in the air around him. Bending down to Rin he told her, “I have to start up the fire to boil water I brought back from the stream for breakfast, why don't you tag along with Inuyasha for a while?” Rin nodded happily and proceeded to introduce a bewildered Inuyasha to her new pet cellphone, Poncho. He didn't find it too funny.

“Leave me alone, squirt! Go bother someone else,” he said, prying the child's iron grip away from his sleeve, “Isn't Sesshomaru supposed to be watching you?” Rin shook her head gravely, then whispered to Inuyasha, “Sesshomaru-sama instructed me to,” At this point the young girl lowered her voice in mock imitation of the designer, “ `do as you wish' with Poncho, and to “leave him alone as he contemplated the fact that he was now completely isolated from anything of intelligence'.” Inuyasha made a phft noise, and retorted, “Whatever that means.”

* * *

When breakfast, which consisted of fish seasoned with a few herbs Kikyo and Kouga had found on their hike, was over, the group decided it was time to establish a course of action. Kouga was the first to speak up, “I spotted a village just beyond the trees, hardly two miles away from here, on my hike. We could make our way there and find an inn or something.” Miroku shook his head, “I don't think there will be an inn-and for that matter, how would we pay, the money five hundred years ago is different than the money today, and I don't think we had anything to trade except for Sango and Sesshomaru's cell phones,” Glancing over at Rin he added, “One of which doesn't even work.

Rin pulled the little device close to her and retorted, “Poncho isn't going to be traded, not on my life.” At this, Inuyasha grumbled under his breath, “We could just trade the runt and the phone.” Sango elbowed him in the ribcage roughly. “Well, it was just an idea.”

“Why don't we just go to the village and decide what to do when we get there?” This was Sesshomaru. Sango nodded her agreement, “We can always beg some nice old lady to let us stay a while. If worse come to worse, I'll-” She paused; as if it was hard for her to go on, “-I'll trade my cellphone…” she shuddered at the thought, as protective of her phone as Rin was of Poncho, though not in the same sort of way.

When everyone agreed to the terms, the eight misplaced people set out for the village. Only when they were almost halfway to the village did Inuyasha mention his encounter with the villagers. The rest of the group didn't take the information too well.

“Well thanks for telling us now, mutt-face,” Kouga said callously, glaring at the younger man, “There goes my hopes of sleeping indoors tonight. No way they're gonna let someone with a tail get into their village if they couldn't handle a pain of kitty ears.”

“They're dog ears, bastard.” Inuyasha fumed, hiking the sleeping Kagome up over his shoulder a bit more to relieve his back slightly.

“In any case,” Kikyo's cool voice cut in, “You two, as well as you Sesshomaru will do better to sleep outside the village until Kagome wakes.” Inuyasha did not counter her, easily silenced by that all too familiar voice. A voice that stirred emotions that he thought had been long gone. Nor did Kouga counter her, for he knew better than to anger this strangely calm, yet threatening woman. Sesshomaru wasn't paying attention, but when he did find out, he sighed, raising a delicate brow at his brother. “I should have known my idiot brother would ruin my chances of a reasonable night's sleep.”

* * *

It was almost twilight when the company reached the village, the two demons, one half-demon, splitting from the others. The humans made their way into the village, where they were greeted kindly at the sight of Miroku's Buddhist monk attire, and Kikyo's Shinto priestess clothing. They were given a room in the headman's residence, as well bedrolls, rice, and a few necessities like soap, flint (Miroku had used the ole stick-and-tinder method) and some strips of dried meat. The headman, a kind old gentleman, assured them that Kagome would be looked at by the village healer in the morning.

Inuyasha, Kouga, and Sesshomaru, on the other hand, spent the night out in the cold. Inuyasha chose to perch himself in the old tree in which he had been spotted by the villager the day before. He wasn't afraid of a few angry villagers, especially as they were more scared of him. He looked up at the sky above him. It was clear, without a cloud in its inky darkness. The stars twinkled, as if winking at him. And there was the moon, a giant crescent of light, casting his shadow on the grass below the tree. It was the same sky he saw outside his bedroom window in Tokyo, however different it felt. It gave him comfort that he had found something familiar in this sea of strange new things.

* * *

Whew! Glad that chapter's done! I hope you enjoyed it. I meant to update yesterday, but my mother decided to drag my dad and I to a FIVE HOUR seventies concert. Needless to say, I had fallen asleep halfway through. Not to be offensive to those out there who like seventies music, but it sucked. All of the performers were way past their prime, and the entire concert consisted of mushy-lovey-dovey “pudding” music. You know, that bland, put-your-kids-to-sleep, elevator music. Bleh.