InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Final Bow ❯ Dojos and Dancing ( Chapter 4 )

Kagome stormed down the stairs in a huff, fully clad in a pair of knit jogging shorts with twin white sports stripes down the sides, ankle socks, white tennis shoes, and a comfy white cotton tee shirt over a black sports bra.

Her cheeks were still pink with the embarrassment of the mornings events.

She wasn't exactly certain of what to expect from their training, but she was fairly certain that most of it would be physical. Everyone was already waiting in the drawing room and she felt a renewed surge of embarassment for being late yet again.

They spent an hour in the gym under the strict instruction of the physical trainer Sesshoumaru had flown in. The gym was neatly situated on the western side of the house and one entire wall was made up of huge ceiling to floor windows overlooking the ocean.

The house its self was located a good twenty feet above sea level thanks to a natural overhang so she couldn't see the waves actually rolling into shore, but the endless expanse of blue was breathtaking. She could only imagine how gorgeous the sun set would be from here, maybe she'd have to sneak back down here tonight and see.

She was curious as to how you were supposed to get down to the shore. Kagome was practically itching to get down and wiggled her toes in the soft sand and feel the warm gentle waves wrap around her ankles. She had always loved the beach, ever since she was little. The sound of the crashing waves and the gentle cry of the seaguls always calmed her and made her feel peaceful.

She was startled from her daydreaming when Giana, the personal trainer, walked over to the treadmill Kagome was using and slapped her hand down on the pannel to turn off the machine. Kagome was so stunned from the sudden stop that she tripped over her own feet, if it hadn't been for the hand rails flanking her she would have ended up flat on her face.

"Time to change." Giana shouted in her thick Austrian accent. Kagome scrambled to regain her composure before moving over to the rowing machine beside Sango.

"Begin." Giana shouted slapping the wall with something that looked disturbingly like a riding crop.

Kagome's eyes widened and she quickly began pulling back on her `oars'. Surely Giana wouldn't hit them with that, though watching the way she meandered among them making sure they were pushing themselves Kagome had to wonder.

The woman was kind of scary, like a female Arnold Schwartzeneger only not all that feminine. She was very built, almost disgustingly so, like those girly body builders. All muscle and no…feminine charms.

Giana walked toward Kagome and she immediately began to row faster. She did not want to piss that one off.

Everyone had shown up for the morning workout except for Sesshoumaru. She vaguely wondered where he was as her arms began to burn with her efforts. Probably thinks he's too good to work out with us `lowly pions', she thought bitterly.

Even Inuyasha had shown up, though by his bedraggled appearance and incoherent mumbling Kagome guessed that he was even less of a morning person than she was.

"Stupid girly exercises." She heard him grumble from the stair machine he was currently working on.

Unfortunately for him Giana happened to be walking by at that exact moment and whapped him good across the backside with her riding crop. He yelped like a startled puppy and Kagome was at a loss as to whether she should snort with laughter or gasp in horror.

One glance out of the corner of her eyes at Sango showed she was having the same problem. Koga, however, had no qualms over laughing at the poor guy and Ayami, who was spotting for him on the bench press, was doing her best to shush him.

"What the hell was that for?" Inuyasha shouted indignantly, though a heated blush had spread across his cheeks.

"You vant nice buns, you climb stairs." Giana told him while tapping her crop in her hand. "So climb."

"Now listen here…" he started angrily.

"CLIMB!" Giana barked, slamming the crop against the pannel of the machine.

Inuyasha sobered and immediately started climbing again looking much more awake than he had before and muttering something about `massocist personl trainers.' Kagome couldn't quite catch all of it.

"Man she's scary." Kagome admonished to her self, starting to feel a little fatigued.

Sango was on the machine next to her and heard her quite clearly even though she was being quiet for fear of a `spanking'. "You havn't seen anything." Sango told her with a mischievous smile. "Sesshoumaru has used her before and she loves to harass the men."Sango chuckled fondly as she took on a far off look, obviously recalling something funny. " I remember the first movie I ever worked on with Sess, Miroku was in that one too and he fell asleep on the weight bench. Oh god, its too funny to even tell, but lets just say Miroku behaves himself now during exercise time. "

Kagome giggled as her imagination ran wild with thoughts of what Giana must have done to Miroku with that riding crop of hers. Poor guy. She wondered if she left marks on poor Inuyasha's rear, then redened and turned away when she realized she was actually looking at it.

It was nice though, looked firm and…Gah! Bad Kagome! One little semi erotic dream and your staring at poor defenseless men's backsides. Still, she thought with a chuckle, it was funny to watch him get whipped.

Her laughter was cut short however when she noticed a certain pair of eyes focused intently on her. A certain pair of cinnamon hued eyes to be exact.

Kagome squirmed slightly under the intense scrutiny. Naraku wasn't exactly glaring at her, but he wasn't smiling either. Had she done something to offend him? Other than the tabloid comment that is. He certainly wasn't looking at her like that last night.

No, last night he had been too busy trying to charm himself into her good graces, and probably her pants as well. Something was different now, but she just chalked it up to P.C. S. Pre-Coffee-Syndrome.

She expected him to look away when she caught him staring like any normal person would, but he continued to watch her with no change in expression. Not even a 'good morning' smile. It was creepy and he probably knew it too. The guy was definitely weird, just looking him in the eyes like that sent an icy pang of foreboding straight through her soul.

Unable to shake the feeling, Kagome looked away. The intensity was too much and it left her feeling exposed before him, but no one else seemed to notice his strange behavior.

She only hoped she wouldn't have to spend too much time with the weirdo, but considering that technically he was her co star she couldn't hope for too much. As long as she didn't have to be alone with him.

Finally their hour was up and Kaede came in to announce breakfast. They wearily made their way up to the dining room where an absolutely mouth watering spread of fruit, toast, and eggs had been laid out on the buffet. Strangely enough, Naraku had disappeared somewhere on the trek from the gym, not that Kagome was disappointed. Not in the least.

Kagome slumped into a chair leaning heavily on one elbow with a plate of fruit and a large cup of coffee. She was tired already and if the rest of the day was as intense she would be a zombie before lunch.

Not to mention Giana was a slave driver, whips included.

That thought made her smile as she took a sip of her coffee. It might just be worth getting up so early if she got such an interesting show.

It wasn't as if she was out of shape or anything. She was a dancer afterall, but it had been nearly a year since she'd left her troup. With college and everything…well…it just got to be too much. Heh, and here she was not even a year later getting ready to be in a movie.

Maybe she really wasn't meant to be a dancer after all. She'd always thought about moving to New York and dancing full time, but Mama would be heart broken.

Kagome sighed and took a half hearted bite of melon, perking slightly when the sweet juice hit her tongue.

Sesshoumaru strode in mid-meal looking about as casual as she'd ever seen him in a pair of loose linnen pants and button down short sleeved shirt.

For some reason Kagome was having a hard time picturing him in jeans and a tee shirt, he just didn't seem the type to allow himself to relax that much. She grinned mischievously as she tried to picture him in a pair of sweatpants and a truckers cap. It was a very funny picture; him lounging around with the guys, beer in hand, watching the game, though he probably needed that more than most.

The poor guy would probably end up with a heart condition by the time he was thirty. Stress could kill just as easily as cancer now adays.

He had a small stack of papers tucked neatly under his arm and a scowl on his face. For someone who generally wore a look of indifference this couldn't be a good sign. Sesshoumaru was not happy about something.

He slapped the stack of papers down in the middle of the table making everyone jump and with out another word walked out of the room.

"Well, that was rude." Kagome commented absently picking at her plate. She wondered what had upset him so.

"Don't' worry about him." Inuyasha told her with a mouthful of scrambled eggs. "He's got a stick wedged permanently up his …"

"That's not very nice Inuyasha." Sango scolded teasingly. "He is your brother afterall. And don't talk with your mouth full."

"Keh, half brother." He sneered, then just for emphasis he shovled another bite of eggs making sure to give Sango a nice eye full.

"Ah, seafood, how charming." Ayami said wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"Yeah, have some manners dog breath." Koga threw his napkin at Inuyasha. "There are ladies at the table."

"Feh." Was Inuyasha's subtle form of appologie. "Hey, the truth hurts. Even when we were kids Sess only had two facial expressions; bored and pissed."

Kagome laughed. "Don't forget cynical." She added thoughtfully. "I've seen him do that one too."

"Like you can tell the difference." Inuyasha scoffed.

"Sure you can." Kagome said honestly. "This is pissed." She turned her mouth down in the slightest scowl while the rest of her face remained impassive. "And this is cynical." Her lips curled just a fraction into a smirk.

It was such a good impression of him that it had everyone at the table rolling.

Koga snatched up one of the papers off the top of the stack with one hand, the other occupied with a piece of toast.

"What is that anyways?" Miroku asked nonchalantly leaning across Sango to grab one himself and "accidentally" brushing his arm across her chest in the process.

Sango turned an interesting shade of red and promptly pushed the pervert out of his chair and into the floor.

"It's our training schedule." Ayami said looking over Koga's shoulder "accidentally" rubbing her chest on his arm.

Kagome sniggered and shook her head, thinking how familiar the scene was, except Ayami didn't end up in the floor. Infact, Koga didn't seem to notice her attentions at all. Either he was incredibly thick headed or he was really good at pretending he didn't notice.

"Keh. Looks like you're with me this morning girly." Inuyasha said looking over his own copy at Kagome.

"Girly?" Kagome said flatly, leveling her gaze on him.

"Uh…toots." He tried again. Miroku slapped a hand to his forhead while Koga rolled his eyes.

"Toots…" Kagome repeated again her ire rising.

"Babe?" Inuyasha was sounding desparate now, Kagome looked pretty scary when she was angry.

Kagome picked up an orange from the table and nailed him in the head with it.

"Damn woman, what were you a major league pitcher in a past life?" Inuyasha demanded rubbing the angry red whelp that was springing up on his forhead. "What do you want me to call you then, if you're gonna be so picky?"

"No, it comes with the territory of having a little brother." Kagome huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "And you could try calling me by my name, or is it too many silables for you?"

"Whatever." He huffed. "Let's get going, We've got a lot to go over this morning."

"What! Now? But I wanted to take a nap."

"Too bad, Kagami."

"KAGOME! KA-GO-ME!"

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Kagome found out quick that Inuyasha was definitely given the job to train them in weaponry for a reason. He was good. Really good.

The dojo was a huge building in the back yard built much in the traditional style with shoji and tatami mats, beautiful oil paintings and kanji scrolls. Unfortunately it was not air conditioned and after only five minutes in the warm, salty sea air Kagome was sweating like a pig and feeling pretty gross.

Today he was teaching her the basics of kendo and iiado. She stood with the wooden sword held limply in her hands as she watched him go through a few simple katas. He made it look so simple and graceful, and Kagome was sure she wouldn't be nearly as good.

There was some very intimidating looking armor hanging on the walls, Kote gloves, head masks, and chest guards. Kagome eyed it nervously and asked why they weren't wearing armor. Even though they were only practicing with wooden swords she imagined it would still hurt pretty good to get hit with one.

"We'll get to that eventually" Inuyasha explained. "We're just going to go over the basics and a few simple katas today. OK, go ahead and try it." He instructed raising his bokken up to where the tip pointed about throat level. "Hold your bokken like this."

Kagome adjusted her grip and raised the tip of the wooden sword. It felt awkward and uncomfortable in her hands. "Like that?" She asked somewhat frustrated at how ungainly she felt compared to Inuyasha, who seemed to hold the sword with as much ease as she would a barre.

"Uh…no." He made a bad attempt to immitate what she was doing, holding the bokken like a baseball bad and looking incredibly stupid. "This is what you're doing," he said before readjusting his grip once more and taking the proper stance, "and this is what you're supposed to be doing."

Kagome pulled a face at him, his impression of her wasn't very flattering in the least. She readjusted her grip on her bokken and tried again to mimic his pose. "Is this better?"

Apparently it wasn't, and judging from the comically blank look he was giving her it may have been worse than her first attempt. He let the tip of his psudo sword drop to the tatami mats they were training on and ran a hand over his face with a frustrated sigh.

"It's going to be a long day." He grumbled from behind his hand.

"Hey," Kagome snapped a little irritated by his impatients, "I've never used a sword before so cut me some slack. Besides won't they have stunt doubles and stuff?"

"Yeah if you really suck Sess will have to hire a double, but you still need to learn how to hold the sword for close ups and stuff." He huffed impatiently. A slow smirk spread across his handsome features. "I should have known a prissy ass girl like you wouldn't be able to do it."

Kagome's grip on the bokken tightened as her anger rose like the tide. "I'll show you prissy!" She shouted taking a swing at him.

"Whoa… hey….watch it…ow! Damn it woman it's not a baseball bat!"

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