InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The More Things Stay The Same ❯ Running Away ( Chapter 2 )

Notes: Due to overwhelming response, I've decided to go ahead and post the short second chapter sooner rather than later since I'll be gone over the weekend. If you enjoy, please review. If you hate it, please review. Before you get too far, you should read some of my other one shots at http://palace.freezing-kiss.net/index.htm since I integrated some elements from my own personal Inuyasha time line. Theres only 3 and I promise you'll enjoy them as much as you do this story.

 

 

 

Inuyasha was never much one for inns and taverns. Fact was, he couldn't remember ever staying in one longer than Miroku forced him to. But for some reason today, he felt like going inside and drinking sake. He had the coins, and no children or women to slow him down, so inside he went. The establishment was a dive. Just some clapboard tables near the road that mostly catered to travelers with no taste buds. He decided to occupy a table in the middle of the room, and yelled for the barkeep to bring him a large quantity of the house's finest.

“We don't serve Youkai here!” the bartender scowled. He was a large man, well over 6 feet tall, and obviously never had any trouble with patrons he didn't care for.

“Oh?” Inuyasha cracked his wrist and brandished his claws. “No sake in the house for the beloved son of The Lord of the Western Lands? Such a pity…. And me with all this gold in my pocket.” In any time or culture, money, as always, talks. With a grumble of dissatisfaction the man reached behind the counter for a large decanter of aged rice wine, and brought it, and a dirty cup, to Inuyasha's table. Inuyasha threw a quantity of coins on the table, and the human man scooped them up, and left with a less than polite bow. Inuyasha had suddenly come to realize why Sesshomaru enjoyed being such an ass.

The more he had to drink, the more free he was with what was on his mind. At one point, he was rambling to the barkeep's wife about how he'd spent two days on a diamond ring for Kagome, only to be sealed out of her room and see it discarded on a window. He still didn't know what had happened to it, he'd not seen it since that night.

“But that bitch better notta sold it or lost it!” he slurred.

 

 

Unfortunantly, none of the travelers that came in took any interest in the Hanyou, and finally when he had drank his fill, he stumbled out the door and into the woods to relieve himself.

Before long, a dustcloud began to form that slowly made its way closer.

“Inu-kuro… what the hell are you doing?”

“Taking a leak, what does it look like dumbass?”

“Augh…. You smell awful…. You're as drunk as a damn tanuki. What's the happy occasion? Kagome finally sick of you and set off for my cave?”

“Keh… hardly. She thinks it stinks in there.”

“Who says?”

“She does.”

“I'm not arguing with a drunken Shit-Tzu, now where is she?”

“Beats me.”

“What? You left her alone and unprotected you moron?

“She can take care of herself.”

“Hmm… I see… she finally kicked you out of the pack. Well I heard you picked some damn dead woman over her, never knew that's how your tastes went…. I like em live myself….. and screaming for more.”

“Fuck you're slow on the uptake… that happened like two years ago! And it wasn't like that anyway…”

“Not interested. Where's Kagome, I want to take her home to meet some people.”

“See… I went to go see Kikyo, to tell her I couldn't see her anymore.”

“You what?”

“Shaddup!! I'm telling you what happened! I looooove Kagome!!.” Inuyasha re-did the ties on his hakama after he slurred the revelation to his rival.

“So? I told her that the first time I met her.”

“I SAID SHADDUP… ..it's different…. She used to love me too. And I blew it!” Inuyasha started to sniffle and sob. “Koneko-chan!!! Gomen na sai!!”

“This is… pathetic. `koneko-chan?' Pull yourself together Inu-kuro!”

Inuyasha held onto the tree trunk for support and howled.

“That's it… I'm not staying here with you in that pathetic condition. I'll just follow your trail back to her to find her and take her home. I've waited long enough.”

Inuyasha straightened up for a moment. “You're a fucking youkai! Time has no meaning to you!”

“Yeah… but I'm impatient, Ja, Inu-kuro”

“Wait, you wanna take Kagome away from me?”

“She's already not with you…. Just away.”

“I won't let you do that Kouga. If she wanted that, she would have gone before.”

“You gonna stop me you lush?”

“If you really loved her, you'd only want to see her happy, even if it's without you. But no, you want to own her, and I can't allow that.”

“This is stupid. She's not your female, she's mine. And it's my right to do what I want. And now I am going to take her home. She'd find Naraku faster with me anyway.”

“Bastard!” Inuyasha delivered a surprisingly accurate drunken blow to the wolf-prince's jaw, knocking him on the ground.

“Temee… you, idiot! What got it into your head to do that??”

“You pissed me off!”

Kouga sniffed Inuyasha more carefully. “Oh! I smell now!”

“You smell what??”

“The sake covered it, but its still there. Your blood is changing. Man I had no idea you were such a kid! I went through that like eighty years ago!”

“What the fuckareyou bitching about?”

“I'm not fighting you in this condition. I have to get home… treaties and crap. And you're too unstable. But next time. Oh, and if you try to force yourself on my woman, I'll castrate you with my bare claws. See ya.”

And that was it, fast as he had arrived, Kouga left.

 

Inuyasha was confused.. and suddenly very, very drowsy. He started to jump up the tree he was nearest to, to take a nap. On his second leap, he slipped, and crashed down to the ground, landing on his stomach He got up, and tried again, made it a little bit farther, and came down to earth again, this time on his backside. Inuyasha started to laugh. He laughed deep and long at his own expense. Then he pulled himself up with his back to the tree, and cried.

 

 

Meanwhile, a good distance away, Inuyasha's “pack” was having some problems. After they set out from the disused barn, they came across a village that was having problems with a weasel demon. Apparently, like an ordinary weasel, it had a penchant for the theft of livestock, only this much larger one was making off with three or four cows and horses a day, as opposed to one or two chickens. Naturally, there was a reward offered and Miroku was never one to turn down a reward on an exorcism.

 

The group split up. Sango and Miroku went together. In the past year, Miroku had been relying more on Sango's fighting skills and had been working on harnassing his spiritual powers in an effort to use his wind tunnel as rarely as possible, and hopefully extend his lifespan longer than that of his father.

This left Kagome and Shippo on their own, which suited them just fine. Shippo had become almost as talented a tracker as Inuyasha in his young age, and there were few demons Kagome couldn't purify single handedly. They had been searching for several hours, and come up empty handed. Kagome was fairly certain that the Taijiya was on the right track of the creature when she thought it went Southwest, but they were just covering bases by checking on another trail. By this time, Kagome and Shippo were enjoying the walk in the woods and gathering mushrooms and healing herbs, until Shippo caught the smell of someone they didn't know coming closer. After some time, it stopped. Then started again. When he was about to say something to Kagome, a human man appeared from a thicket. He looked to be a bandit. Hard, cruel, and calloused to life. Kagome looked up in alarm. Shippo wasted no time jumping on top of the bandit and biting him. The bandit screamed and flung Shippo off of him. Shippo went sailing across the clearing, hit his head and was out cold. The man was approaching her quickly, her arrows and bow were on the ground a meter from her. She made a mad scramble for her sacred arrows, and failed as the bandit pushed her on the ground.

“Here you are, such a pretty thing, in dangerous country and your weapon is out of reach… not smart.. if I didn't know better, I would think you were expecting me. “ He took a large cruel looking knife from his waist. And held it up for her to see. Kagome was terrified, unsure if he just planned to rob her, or worse. As he began to search for ties to her hakama, or where they would be had she not been wearing blue jeans, she knew he had more in mind than just her money. She screamed the first thing that came to her mind. The name of the one that had dutifully protected her for years now.

“INUYASHAAAAAAAA!!!!” The bandit slapped her across the mouth. Causing her much pain, and sobering her hysteria slightly.

“You… you would violate a priestess?”

“This gets better and better…. I can promise now that you won't go back to your shrine a maiden.”

“No….. Inuyasha,,,, tusketeiyo…. save me…”

 

At her words, kagome began to feel a comforting warmth spread through her, within an instant, a blue light shot from within her, knocking back the bandit. The light became a barrier, and when he tried to get to her again, the barrier knocked him back. Kagome wasted no time running to Shippo. He was starting to come to and she didn't want the bandit to remember he was there. She stooped down next to Shippo and the barrier faded.

“Shippo-chan? Shippo-chan???” Shippo groaned.

“Get up! Run to Miroku and Sango! Hurry!” She propped Shippo up and ran off to mis-lead the bandit. Within moments, the bandit saw her and gave chase. Kagome looked over her shoulder before pulling some paper slips out of her pockets, reciting an incantation, and throwing them over her shoulder. Suddenly two more Kagomes appeared, running in different directions.

She ran for a good long time. She thought she had lost the bandit behind her several minutes before, but kept running. She ran until she was so deep in the forest it was dark at midday. At last she stopped to ponder what had happened. The spell that protected her was not one of her own. It obviously wasn't the bandit, and Miroku was too far away to have done any kind of ward.

Then she realized the mess she had gotten herself into. She was alone in the heart of the woods. She had nothing on her but a swiss army knife and a handful of assorted seals left. She had left her backpack with everyone's food, her medical supplies, and most importantly, her yumi and sacred arrows. No can of mace… not even that stupid poetry book Inuyasha took.

“Oh man…. What am I going to do?”

 

 

 

They were back at Goshinboku.The night of the kiss, it was a warm spring. Kagome had taken him to the movies where they had sat close together in darkness, watching some kind of story play across the screen. They went back to her home at the shrine and sat there, under the future sacred tree next to one another, The stars were barely visible, but the moon was bright. When Kagome got up to walk in the house she twisted her foot on her high heeled shoes and fell to the ground. Inuyasha helped her up and over to a bench, then made her take off her shoe. He examined the lines of her foot very carefully and declared it not broken. She tried to get up again. This time the other shoe slid on some gravel and she crashed into Inuyasha's chest. She shyly looked up at him. His amber eyes softened when they met hers. He deftly placed his clawed hand below her chin, and turned her face to his own. Her cheeks flushed crimson and she tried to look away. Instead he brought is mouth to hers and closed his eyes. The kiss was chaste and rapturous. And also explosive and thrilling all at once. All thoughts fled Inuyasha's mind as his lips touched her own. Once his mouth released hers, he wrapped his arms tightly around her as he did the day they first encountered Naraku, before they had even met Sango, When he demanded she go home to stay. When he thought he would see her for the last time.

“Inuyasha?”

“Kagome?”

“You need to wake up now.”

 

He blinked and she was gone. It was dark. He was in some tree, he had an awful headache and he smelled of his own urine.