InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tales from Sengoku Jidai ❯ A Promise Kept; New Question Arise ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Tales from Sengoku Jidai
By Kitsune-chan

Chapter 2
A Promise Kept; New Questions Arise


Kagome opened her eyes. At first, her vision was blurry and distorted. After
blinking a couple of times it cleared. She attempted to move, but found that
she was tied to a tree, a very large tree. The tree roots, or what she
had thought had been disgusting tentacles, were holding her roughly in
place. Every time she tired to move, it would give her a squeeze temporarily
cutting off her air supply and making her gasp. She began wondering how
she got herself into these messes. Leaning her elbow on the root and her
chin in her hand she let out a long sigh.

"If I had just stayed AWAY from the well like my instincts told me to this
wouldn't have happened!!" She pounded her fist into the stupid tree root.
Then with a gasp she glanced to her left and sighed in relief. Kaname was
peacefully sleeping next to her, although too far to reach, on the damned
tree trunk.

'Okay Kagome! You'll have to think yourself out of this one, Inu Yasha isn't
here to save you now.' She gave herself a small pep talk and then did the
only thing she could; she beat the living hell out of that root. Clawing and
punching it until her knuckles were bleeding.

"That's not going to get you anywhere," A strange sounding voice said. It
sent chills down Kagome's spin and made her cringe inwardly.

"W-who was t-that??" She glanced around only to see darkness and some
checkered light from the moon where tree branches seperated.

"Up here, preistess," It said calmly. To her it sounded male but you could
never tell with the people in this era. Her thoughts once again traveled
to Inu yasha's older brother, Sesshomaru, and his girly looks. She looked
up and saw a -

-absolutly nothing but the tree.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! THERE'S NO ONE UP THERE!" She
screamed at whoever was talking. Her sturggling continued as she cursed
the person outloud in every insult she knew. Inu Yasha would have been
proud.

The whoever-it-was chuckled, "You are a funny specimen, Priestess."

Her shoulders dropped and she glared up at the tree, "And you're mean.
Are you the one who trapped us to this tree?"

"DuH! I thought it was obvious," The small chuckling turned into all out
laughing. This only managed to further irritate Kagome, but the realization
that she couldn't do ANYTHING struck her and she slumped back. When her back
didn't hit the tree and instead something that could shift and move with
her back she remembered her arrows! Reaching back, she grabbed one and said
a silent prayer before beating the root senselessly. Every time the arrow
hit, a bright purple light would flash.

"Hey! That hurts!!" The tree root shifted, making Kagome squeal with
surprise. Another tree root wrapped around her chest, digging into her
breasts and causing them to ache terribly. She began beating the tree
with her arrows with more force.

"You like that, you dumb tree?!" She'd figured that it was the tree itself
that had kept them there and not someone controlling the tree. It had
to be, of course, she never heard of demon trees. Her arm hurt from hitting
the tree as hard as she was. But she screamed at herself that she couldn't
stop! She had to beat this tree and find Inu Yasha! He could help Kaname
and chop this stupid tree into fire wood!!!! GO! GO! HARDER! BEAT THE
LIVING HELL OUT OF THIS TREE!!! (and piss off enviormentalists while I'm
at it!!)

* * * *

Inu Yasha stopped as he heard someone screaming, "BEAT HELL Of TREE!" His
ears instantly recognized the it has Kagome. Following the yelling her
scent, his feet hopped from branch to branch. He was aware of his friends
following him, but wasn't about to stop and wait up. If Kagome was in
danger he was determined ot be the one to save her ass! The other's could
catch up later. Also, that OTHER scent was getting stronger as well. He
was beginning to think it was culprit behind Kagome's situation, but
something told him differently.

"Feh! I'm just bein paranoid," He muttered to himself as he stopped and
snifed the air. Kagome's sweet scent of honey and strawberry's filled
his nose. Of course that was the kind of soap she insisted on using; he
preferred her natural female scent to that.

"KAGOMEEEE!!!!" He yelled running through a large group of bushes. He
drew Tetsuaiga the instant he saw Kagome tied to a tree by the tree itself.
She was beating it frantically with one of her arrows. Sweat poured down
her face and blood from her cuts, but she never stopped. Not even to
see him appoarching. Launching himself at the tree, Tetsuaiga hit it
with a flash of white light and bounced off, sending Inu Yasha flying
through the forest. He took down trees with him and created a long, thick
skid mark in the ground.

"What the hell!?" He cursed, looking up in utter surprise.

"Eh?" kagome looked at him with a bewildered expression on her face. It
soon changed to seer joy. "INU YASHA!"

"Now she notices me . . . " He muttered to himself. "Keh! I really
should demand more respect for the things I do."

"Hurry, Inu Yasha!" She pointed at her unconcious cousin, "Save Kaname!
I don't think she's breathing anymore!"

"Ar-e?" He glanced at the girl Kagome was pointing to. He couldn't see
much of her face, for the tree's roots covered it. But he could see her
feet and hands as they dangled lifelessly from their bindings. It was
THAT girl that filled his nose with the familiar scent that was bothering
him.

"Kagomeeee!!!!" Shippo came flying in through the tree tops. He was in
his big, pink ballon form. Before he got within thirty centimeters of
Kagome he was sent flying into the air by one of the tree branches.

"SHIPPO-CHAN!" Kagome cried. In anger she cursed the tree and began pounding
at it with her arrow again. "LET US GO! LET US GO!" The tree roots
shifted and multiplied. They sprung up from the ground like hundreds of
jack-in-the boxes and wrapped themselves around the base of the tree. Each
one snaked it's way around the trunk in a spiral. Tighter it wrapped,
Kagome felt like she under a thousand pound weight. She began to
struggled fiercly.

"Kagome . . ." The voice was weak and barely audiable. Kagome's head turned
and saw Kaname, hanging limply. Only her finger was moving, she was
signaling that was she who was talking by wiggling her forefinger. "Stay
calm, Kago-chan. Only when you panic does it tighten it's restraints.
Think of it as a solid quick sand."

"Hai." Kagome stopped, "Arigatou, Kana-chan." She was going to be alright.
Inu Yasha would save her. She told herself this over and over again,
concentrating on her breathing.

"Inu Yasha, how could you leave us behind. AGAIN?!" Sango cried as she
stepped off Kirara. "What is that?!" Her attitude changed from anger to
assertivness as she looked at Kagome's position.

"Kagome-sama!" Miroku said, "Don't worry, we'll get you and your finger
friend out of there!!"

"Finger-friend?" Kagome looked over at Kaname, and it was true, you could
only see her forefinger. 'She's not saying anything. She must have
passed out again . . . ' Kagome thought looking at her cousin.

The tree creaked loudly. It's branches moved as if in a great wind and
light began to glow within the trunk of the large plant.

* * * *

Kaname looked around with great wonderment. The air around her was misty
and the grass under her feet was slick with wet dew. In the horizen she
could the rising sun and a small village just ahead of her. Forest
surronded the village along with rice paddys and other crop feilds. She
ran through the rice paddy's and into the town. People were already awake
and bustling around with morning chores.

"Excuse me," She went up to one person, a lady wearing a peasent's
kimono and scarf on her head concealing black hair. She had dark brown
eyes and had to be in her late twenties; although she looked much older. The
woman ignored her and went back to pulling water from a well.

"How rude," She muttered. She walked on, of course the urge to smack that
woman and make her apologize sounded really satisfying. But for some odd
reason, she felt she had to be somewhere. She was completely confused. For
one thing, this certianly didn't look like Tokyo! And she smelled something;
she felt it was in her best interest to NOT investigate. (It reminded her
of a litterbox)

She walked through the town, unnoticed. No one even remotly glanced in her
general direction. At first, she thought they were ignoring her because she
was dressed weird. But her pajama's didn't look all that weird considering
it was half of her kendo uniform. She apologized when a man bumped into her
only to realized that he'd gone through her! Gapping at him, she began to
wonder if he was a ghost and if she was in some strange ghost town! It
was possible, wasn't it?

She stopped at the edge of the village. Ahead of her was a small house,
nice and humble, but not completely run down like some she had seen. Outside
a little girl was drawing in the dirt. She had long black hair pulled into
two pigtails, big blue eyes and pale skin. She wore a simple lavender
kimono and no sandals. A woman, probably the mother, hung up laundry on a
rope not to far away. She was a young mother and very beautiful. Her features
were feminine and kind. Her eyes were dark, chocolate brown and her hair
was shorter then her dauthers as it was cut just below the shoulder. She
wore a simple green kimono with a yellow skirt wrapped around it and sandals.

"What are you drawing, Kyoko?" The mother asked, looking down at the girl's
drawings with an amused expression on her face. Her voice was soft and it
seemed that she would never be incapable of yelling.

"It's a bird! See!" Kyoko jumped up, ran around the drawing, grabbed her
mouthers hand and pulled her to where she had started. "See! I drew it
all by myself! Can we leave it like this until daddy gets home!?"

"Of course," Her mother smiled, "Just be careful not to step on it. Your
father will be very surprised!"

Kyoko jumped up and down excitedly, "I can't wait to show him! Daddy also
promised to bring me a new doll! Do you think he will mama!?"

"Mama . . . " Kaname repeated. 'A long time ago, my father promised to
bring me a doll. And . . . '

The image of Kyoko and her mother began to black out. Giant black ink spots
were spilling onto the page of the dream. "Wait!" Kaname cried, "I want to
see more!" But as the picture dissovled a new one came into place.

"Naraku!"

She swiftly grabbed the back of his head and kissed him, she fell
to the ground as he jumped away from her. Faintly, the silver beads on her
necklace glowed.

"You bitch!" He cursed, spitting her blood from his mouth.

She lay on the floor cave, "Do as you will, but you will never succeed."

He laughed, "That's your opinion." In a cloud of purple fumes he vanished.
The fumes lingured and burst into flames as it reached the fire in the
cave.

Kaname gasped at woman who had been the little girl degraded herself like
that. The entire seen was replaced by fire. Bright, burning fire that
consumed everything like a living being. And then, in the midst of it all,
a bright purple light glowed. Faintly at first, but soon it took a
brilliance unlike any other. A figure stood behind it. A woman, she held
the bright glowing light in hands pulled together in prayer. She fell into
the fire, her body disentigrated before Kaname's eyes.

"What's going on?" Kaname cried. "I don't . . . I don't understand."


* * * *

The large tree began to glow a brilliant red. Soon it's branches began
to fall away, dropping Kagome and kaname to the ground. The large trunk
slowly transformed from a cylinder to an almost human form. The being
was tall, incredably so, and muscled. Red, youkai eyes glared at the
group intensly. As the light died down, details became more visiable. The
man was bald, with slited red eyes and black pupils. His clothes were
were chinese and firm fitting. A high collared, black shirt, another
shirt under that with large sleeves, black gi pants and black slippers.

Inu Yasha helped Kagome to her feet, and pulled her as far away from
that man as possible. His senses didn't trust this person's scent and
wanted kagome as far from danger as possible.

"Feh! Who are you?!" Inu Yasha demanded, Tetsuaiga ready to destroy
strike in his strong hand. "And what the fuck do you want?!"

The man gave him a cold, calculating look then turned his eyes away as
if Inu Yasha was nothing but a child screaming for candy. They landed
on Kaname's unconcious form to his far right. Her body was covered in
blood and bruises; she might have even had a broken arm from the way
it was twisted. He took a step toward, but was soon blocked by Miroku
and Sango. Mirko held his staff in front of him and was already chanting
a spell. Sango gripped her Hiraikotsu dangerously. He continued walking
toward the two.

"HEY! DON"T IGNORE ME!" Inu Yasha cried, his ego taking a bashing from
the silent man. He charged swiftly from behind the man, Tetsuaiga raised
above his head easily. It came down with enough force to destroy an
entire building and yet, it was blocked by a single finger.

"Do not interfer, boy." The man said, his accent strange. His eyes glowed
intensly for a moment and Inu Yasha was thrown back into a nearby tree.
Gathering up a strong amount of chi, the man pulled his hands into a prayer
and chanted. He jumped into the air and launched an attack at Sango and
MIroku. Miroku raised his staff and was able to block it for few moments,
but was soon forced back by the seer force of the blast. It exploded,
throwing Sango and Miroku to the side. Miroku hit a boulder and knocked
unconcious, Sango landed not too far from him, her boomerang bone thrown
who knows where.

Kagome ran to Inu yasha as he struggled to get up. Using his sword, he
quivered from a bleeding gash in his stomach.

"Are you okay!?" Kagome cried, her hands on his shoulder.

"I've had worse," He stood straight. Havng Kagome near him was enough to
give him strength to last him a life time. "I'll be fine, go check on
Miroku and Sango."

"Alright," She turned to go then looked back at the dog-demon, "I'm sorry
this happened."

"Keh! Don't apologize for something that you can't change. Now go already
so I can take care of this guy!" He said arrogantly, but a flicker in his
eyes told Kagome it was just for show.

By this time the man was already lifting Kaname off the ground by her
ponytail. Her bloodied face flinched and she opened her eyes. "Youkai
Hunter, I have waited a long time for this. "

"Wha?" Kaname wasn't even fully concious when the man spoke to her. All she
could think of was the pain running through her body and the horribel
ache in her head. She wasn't sure if it was from him holding her by his
hair or something else entirely.

"I told you not to ignore me, you bastard! You think you're so tough,
don't ya?! Picking on little girls and making assumptions. I should kill
you right now and leave you to rot!" Inu Yasha mocked. He hoisted Tetsuaiga
over his shoulder and strutted over to the chinese man. "If you want to
fight that bitch, you have to get through me first."

Kaname's eyes widened, "BITCH?! Hey! I don't even know you and you're calling
me a BITCH?! Why I oughta-!?" She began to kick at the man, her anger at
being insulted overriding her pain.

Kick! Smack! Punch! "LET ME GO YOU BARBARIAN!"

"Do not talk to me, boy." The man ignored her thrashing about and held her
firmly. "I have no quarrel with you. Leave my business, as my business."

"INU YASHA!" Kagome yelled, "IF YOU LET ANYTHING HAPPEN TO KANAME I WILL
YOU-KNOW-WHAT YOU SO HARD YOU'RE CHILDREN WILL FEEL IT!!!"

"Don't yell at me! I know what I'm doing, Kagome!" he yelled back at her.

"Yeah, and I'm the Queen of England." Kaname rolled her eyes.

"Queen of who-da-whatta?!" Inu yasha cocked his head questioningly, much
like a confused dog.

Fully awake and not too happy, Kaname glared at both of them. Here she was,
totally confused and being held by her HAIR of all things! She was throughly
pissed and her mind was a bit disoriented. "Will you just use that sword
thingy and chop his hand off."

"SWORD THINGY!?"

The man suddenly lowered her to the ground and released her hair. Before
their very wide and shocked eyes he got down on one knee, right hand over
his heart. "Forgive me, My lady, Kyoko."

"What the?!" Inu yasha gapped.

"I think you have to wrong person," She waved her hand and smiled nervously.
"I don't even know where I am, and I'm definatly NOT nobility. And my
name isn't-"

He grabbed her hand, "I thank you, for releasing me, Kyoko-sama. You have
kept your word and now I will grant you your reward as promised."

"Reward? Promise?!" Okay, NOW she was majorly confused. What was a Youkai
Hunter and who the hell was this guy?! The boy beside her seemed to be
spazzing out, veins were sticking out of his head and the grip on his
sword was turning his knuckles white. So much so that she hardly noticed
his dog ears. "My name isn't-"

He placed three leaves in her hand, where he got them from, she couldn't
guess. "I, Yu-I, will come to you in your greatest need. All you have to
do, is throw one of these leaves into the air and I shall come to your
aide." With that he disappeared in a blue mist.

"I don't understand any of this," She said looking down at the three
leaves in her hand.

* * * *

"So, he attacked you, then rewarded you and you have no idea as to why?"
Kaede asked. She rubbed her chin throughfuly. Kaede was sitting in front of
the small furnace while Kagome wrapped bandages on Kaname's arms and
legs. Miroku was still unconcious with a damp towel on his head. Shippo slept
and Sango watched over him contently, listening to Kagome and Kaname
tell their story. Once in a while someone would put in a part they had
forgotten or missed. Inu Yasha sat in the doorway, ignoring them all, his
sword resting againts his chest. Sometimes, he'd turn his head when he
though no one was looking and glared at girl Kagome called her cousin. When
he was noticed he'd turn away with a 'feh!' and pretend he hadn't looked
in the first place.

"That's right," Kaname said, then she turned to Kagome, "Kagome, I'm still
kind of confused about where we are."

"I know, " Kagome sighed, "I have a very, very LONG story to tell you. I
had hoped to not get you invovled in any of this." Kaname shrugged it
off, assuring her cousin that she didn't mind.

"I'm just confused is all."

Sango looked at kagome, "I think it would a good diea to tell her
tomorrow. IT's getting late and we're all tired."

"I think so too," Kagome agreed, finishing up Kaname's bandages. "Are you
alright Sango?"

"I'll be fine," Sango said, "But I think Shippo had too much excitment
tonight."

Kaname smiled, I'm guessing this is the place I couldn't go and you didn't
know why I couldn't go there, right?"

Inu Yasha growled, "Feh!"

Kagome clinched her fist, "Inu Yasha! Why are you being so rude?!" She
glared at his back and awaited his answer. He just looked at her over his
shoulder and humped. "Inu Yasha!"

"It's alright," Kaname said, "Kaede-baba, may I ask you something."

"Of course," Kaede said looking at her inquisitivly. "I'll gladly answer
you if I can." Kaede looked at the girl, and tried to ignore the raise
of bile in her throat. She looked so much like Kyoko it was hard not to
compare them. And the fact that she was Kagome's cousin was too much of
a coinsidence.

"Does the name, Kyoko mean anything to you?"

Kaede didn't even flinch, "It does. Why do you ask?"

"Well, the tree-man called my Kyoko-sama. I thought it might mean
something. He probably just mistaked me for someone else, though!" She
laughed nervously. The room was tense all thanks to that idiot Inu Yasha.
He didn't have to be so rude to her.

Inu Yasha abruptly stood, "I'm leaving."

He began to walk off, but Kagome's voice stopped him, like it always
did. He turned to face her, brown eyes pleaded with him. He knew she wanted
him to be civil and perhaps to apologize for being rude the HER. But he
couldn't stay, not this time. It was all too familiar and had happened all
too fast. Just like when Kagome had surprised him by dropping in from that
well and awakening him, this girl was intruding in on his life, bringing
up a past that should stay deeply buried.

"Sorry, Kagome." With an ache in hs heart he ran away and into the forest.