InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Call of Life and Death ❯ Strange Actions and Stranger Reactions ( Chapter 2 )

Author's note: I do not own Inu Yasha, or any of the other characters, no matter how much I wish I did. Please do not sue me, because I am very poor, and this work of fiction is o­nly for the enjoyment and entertainment of the readers. Also, thank you to my beta readers, you guys find my errors and save me lots of editing time. Please send any comments and/or reviews to: ArcainFire@yahoo.com.

The Call of Life and Death

Chapter 2: Strange Actions and Stranger Reactions

The following day Kagome was greeted by Inu Yasha as was normal. Kagome was too excited to notice that he seemed far away and distracted.

"Guess what, Inu Yasha," she prompted him as soon as he had pulled her out of the well. "I aced my math test!"

"Good. That means that we can leave without delay," he replied calmly.

"Oh, okay. Let me go get my other bag, the one with the supplies I'll need for the trip. How long do you think we'll be gone for this time?"

"Most likely less then a month."

"A month?!" she exclaimed.

"I said less then a month," he corrected her. At her glare he continued, "Oh alright. It will take us about a day and a half to get there, plus the time that it takes us to actually find the jewel shard, and the time to get back. Is that more helpful?"

"Yes, thanks, I'll be right back." Kagome jumped back into the well and crossed back to her own time. She returned less then twenty minutes later carrying her familiar, overstuffed yellow bag. "Oh, I meant to ask earlier, where's Shippo?"

"He's back at Kaede's hut, waiting for us to get back," Inu Yasha replied, turning to start the walk to the village. Kagome quickly caught up to the half demon. She talked at her companion for the first part of the trip until she caught onto the somber mood.

When they arrived at Kaede's hut, she found the kitsune wrapped in bandages, and lying close to the fire, sleeping soundly.

"What happened?" she demanded, turning to Inu Yasha.

"Don't look at me, I didn't do it," he defended himself.

"He was attacked on his trip back," Kaede interjected, saving the hanyou. "He was injured, and needs rest. Too much excitement might cause him to injure himself further. It would probably be best if you didn't wake him before leaving. Inu Yasha already knows where you two need to go."

"But I-," Kagome started to object. "Yes, you are probably right. Tell him that I hope he feels better soon." Outside the hut, she turned to Inu Yasha and said, "Well, we have a ways to go, so let's get going."

"It'll take to long if you ride your bicycle," the foreign word finally sounding normal as he said it. "Just leave it where it is in the hut, it'll be safe there. We need to move fast, and we move faster if you ride on my back."

She was too shocked to say anything. Inu Yasha normally hates when he has to carry me. She thought to herself. Why would he be willing to carry me now, when we could just ride on the back of my bike? Granted we do move faster when I ride on his back, but… Her thoughts were interrupted by Inu Yasha.

"Are you getting on? Or is there some way that we can travel faster by standing here and wishing we were there?" he asked acidly.

Sighing, she thought to herself, Same old Inu Yasha. Shouldering her pack, she climbed onto his back. With Kagome clinging to his back, he took off down the path at an easy lope that was easily twice as fast as Kagome rode her bike. She marveled at his power, and how he could move so quickly for so long.

Inu Yasha hasn't said much of anything to me since yesterday. I hope that he's okay, the girl from the future thought to herself.

They stopped for the night in a small clearing that would hide their camp and fire while still allowing Inu Yasha to see anyone coming. Looking through her bag, Kagome quickly found the camp stove and propane fuel tank for it. She deftly set it up, and in no time flat they were quietly enjoying their instant ramen.

"Inu Yasha?" she asked, worry evident in her voice.

"What?" he grunted between mouthfuls of noodles.

"What's wrong, Inu Yasha?" a look of concern coming over her face.

"What do you mean, what's wrong?" he replied, looking rather confused.

"Well, it's just that you've been really quiet since last night, and you have been really nice to me. Not like you normally are."

"Feh. Can't a guy be nice once in a while without people freaking out, wench?"

"I was just worried about-," she tried to say.

"I'm fine!" he shouted cutting her off. "No leave me alone, bitch!"

"SIT!" she yelled as loudly as she could at the vexing half demon. As soon as the spell wore off, he took to the trees to find a place where he could think, preferably outside of `sitting' range.

Finding an acceptable tree downwind of the campsite, he scented the air and could detect no immediate threats. Well, other then Kagome being pissed at him that is. Pushing thoughts of her from his mind, he pulled something out of his clothing.

Grasping the handle, he drew Tenseiga from its sheath. Holding it in front of him, he tested the weight, finding that it was almost as heavy as the Tetsusaiga was fully transformed. Odd, I always thought that the sword of life would be lighter then that of death. Drawing Tetsusaiga in the other hand, he noticed that the blades began to glow. Before he could really think about what was happening with the two swords, a shrill scream shattered his thoughts, and the quiet of the night.

Jumping to his feet, he quickly re-sheathed both swords and scented the air again. While he had been lost in thought a demon had crept up and surprised Kagome. He was moving before his thoughts fully registered.

He flew into the clearing, grabbing Kagome by the waist, and was back out into the trees before the attacker could react. Kagome made a gasping sound when the air got knocked out of her by Inu Yasha grabbing her. Coming to rest in the tree he had occupied before, he put Kagome down.

"What happened? Whisper, I don't know how good that thing's hearing is," he instructed her.

"I was getting ready to crawl into my sleeping bag and go to sleep when a rather large demon leapt out of the tree line at me. I was really annoyed at you for saying what you did, then running away that I didn't notice its approach," she informed him, once she had caught her breath.

"Stay here. I'll be right back," he instructed her, disappearing into the darkness. Kagome remained on the branch that she had been dropped on to await Inu Yasha's return.

After standing there for a few moments without hearing or seeing anything happen, she began to wonder what her protector was going to do. Then, just as she was about to get down out of the tree, the night air was cracked with the cries of fighting; After a few that sounded much like injured animals, everything returned to silence.

Shutting her eyes, she strained to hear anything she could. Unfortunately, her heart was pounding far too loudly in her own ears for her to be able to hear anything else. She was concentrating so hard on trying to hear what was going on, that she did not notice when Inu Yasha landed behind her on the tree.

Well, she didn't notice until he placed a hand on her shoulder. She spun and stretched out her hand, at the unexpected contact, causing a large red handprint to form on Inu Yasha's face.

"Gods woman, what the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded angrily.

"Sorry," she apologized. "You just startled me."

"Feh, whatever, I drove it off for now and grabbed your crap. We're going to have to keep moving tonight though. Now take your stuff and get on my back."

Doing as he instructed, Kagome took her bag from his hand and pulled it onto her back. As she climbed onto his back she felt something warm and slick on his shoulder. Bringing the hand closer to her face, she could smell what it was.

"You're bleeding!" she exclaimed in surprise.

"Really? I hadn't noticed," he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Forget about it and climb on."

"But you're hurt; we need to tend the wounds."

Turning to face the young Miko, he looked her straight in the eyes and said, "We don't have time. I drove it off for now, but it will probably be back with some friends real soon. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to be here when it does. Now get on my back and shut up!"

Frightened by the intensity burning in his golden eyes, she quietly and quickly got onto his back. No sooner had she gotten settled, then he took off into the night.

They had been traveling for close to an hour when he felt Kagome start to slip from his back. She had been stifling yawns for the last ten minutes, and he could tell that she really needed to rest soon. Stopping in a particularly tall tree, he almost lost his footing and very nearly fell out of the tree. He shook his head to clear the spots from his vision and the fog from his brain.

Standing there, he could feel the blood seeping out of the wound in his shoulder that should have closed by now. Looking around, he could see that they were close to the edge of the forest, and that not far away was a lone tree growing from the top of a hill.

Dropping to the ground, he made his way carefully to the tree and climbed as high as he could without using his hands. They were busy holding the now sleeping Kagome to his back. Pausing a moment, he concentrated as hard as he could on closing the wounds in his shoulder.

When he was sure that the bleeding had stopped, he gently placed the sleeping girl on the branch with her back to the trunk. Removing the bag from her back, he hung it from a nearby branch. Looking back at Kagome's sleeping form he could see that she was shifting her weight around, trying to find a comfortable spot, and would fall out of the tree if left unattended.

Sighing to himself he picked her up and sat down where she had been. Leaning against the tree's trunk, he held her in his lap, her back resting against his chest. He shut his eyes, and held Kagome still in his lap by wrapping his arms around her. Before the oblivion of sleep could claim him, he felt Kagome snuggle up against his chest, and murmur his name quietly in her sleep. Finally relaxed, he let exhaustion take him.

Kagome woke to the sound of birds chirping happily in the late morning light. She felt something warm wrapped around her, and her memories of the night before were completely gone. Waking slowly, she opened her eyes to find two golden orbs looking deeply into her own from but a few centimeters away.

She screamed in surprise, and before the realization of who it was came to her, she pushed him off of her and out of the tree. When she did realize who it was, she sat on the branch, looking at him with her hands covering her mouth.

Being who he was, Inu Yasha controlled his fall, and landed on his back, rather then on his head. As soon as he had regained his feet, he leapt back up to the branch that Kagome was sitting on, still in mild shock.

"What the hell was that for?" he demanded angrily.

"Sorry," she replied in a very quiet voice.

"Feh, whatever. Just get your stuff, we overslept and need to make up some time."

"How's your shoulder?" she asked, retrieving her bag from where Inu Yasha had hung it the night before.

"It's fine, now lets move!"

"Just let me check to make sure that everything is here."

Rolling his eyes at the delay, Inu Yasha replied, "Gods woman, let's just go."

"Um, Inu Yasha."

"What is it now?"

"It, uh, it looks like whatever it was last night found the shards in my bag…" the girl from the future informed the angry hanyou.

"WHAT!"

"The jewel shards are not in my bag."

"Can't you hold onto anything without losing it?"

"Hey," she said defensively, "If you hadn't run off like that last night, it wouldn't have been a problem!"

"Well, if you hadn't of freaked out at me, and said the word, I wouldn't have run off," he shouted, matching her volume.

"I wouldn't have yelled if you hadn't of been yelling at me and acting so weird." With that she pushed his shoulder, and felt that the cloth was warm and wet. Pulling her hand away, she could see that it was covered in fresh blood from the wound that hand reopened when he fell. "Your shoulder," she gasped.

"Forget it, it's fine."

"We'll see about that, let me see how bad it is," she demanded, digging the first aid kit out of her bag.

"I said it was fine. Now forget about it!"

"Don't make me use the `S' word, because I'll do it and that will not help your wound."

Muttering under his breath about people worrying about things that weren't their concern, and wasting time, he bared the injured shoulder. There was an even ring of punctures that formed a perfect half circle on both his chest and back. The kind of thing that screamed bite wound.

"What happened, Inu Yasha?"

"I got bitten by that thing last night, what does it look like happened?" was his curt reply.

"Well, you don't have to be nasty about it! I was just wondering." She dug through the first aid kit until she found some antiseptic, gauze, and adhesive tape. Using the water from her canteen, she flushed out the wound to remove any dirt. Then she dried it and applied the antiseptic, which caused Inu Yasha to wince slightly and mutter. Once she was sure it was clean, she covered the punctures with the gauze, taping it down. Then she used an ace bandage to cover the gauze and hold it all in place. "There you go, good as new."

Inu Yasha grumbled something under his breath.

"What was that, Inu Yasha?"

"I said, `thanks,'" her grunted, much to Kagome's amusement and delight.

"It was no problem, Inu Yasha. I'm always happy to help a friend. I just have one question."

"Yeah?" he replied suspiciously.

"Why aren't you healing like normal?" concern leaking into her voice.

"I don't know. Ever since I got this sword…." He trailed off looking rather pensively off into the distance.

"Ever since you got what?"

"Huh? Feh, forget about it."

"You mean the Tenseiga, don't you? Do you have it with you?"

"Yeah, I mean, what else am I going to do with it? I don't exactly have a place to store things, and this was a gift from my brother. Can we leave now, or do you want to play twenty questions instead?"

"What about the Jewel shards?"

"Can you sense them anywhere nearby? Because the last time I smelled whatever that was, it was leaving, and fast. I don't think I could catch up to it until it reached its lair; besides Miroku and Sango would probably be helpful in taking it down."

For the second time in as many minutes, Inu Yasha totally surprised her. Reaching out, she grabbed the sides of his head and pulled it toward hers. Scowling she examined his now worried face closely.

"What are you doing Kagome?"

"Who are you and what have you done with Inu Yasha?" she demanded.

"What?!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~

A/N: Thanks for reading, I should have chapter three typed up soon, and off to the beta readers.