InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Wild West and the Gang of Four Souls ❯ Unwanted Clues ( Chapter 11 )

I am so sorry for the long time it has taken me to update but all hell has been colliding in the last few weeks, and for the first time I have finally gotten a chance to breathe and write. My next update will be much more timely and hopefully longer (fingers crossed).

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Kagome was a wreck. She wouldn't eat or sleep, and neither Sango nor Miroku had been able to drag her from Inuyasha's side.

It's my fault. I should have been there. I should have saved him. I never should have let my guard down. Now he is going to die and it's all my fault.

After she had spotted the gunman the world had gone slow motion, and it had yet to start up again. She felt like she was living in a dream, or a nightmare. Everything seemed surreal. She wouldn't lose him, not now when she needed him so badly. Not now that she still had so much to tell him. Not now because it was her job to keep him alive.

Miroku and Sango had managed to make camp at a near by stream and they helped Kagome bring Inuyasha over near to the fire.

The first job was to get the bullet out and to stop the bleeding before it was too late. Night was coming soon, and they had to work fast as to not lose the light.

Inuyasha had been hit in the shoulder. He was unbelievably lucky for that one. If it had been an inch lower or an inch over it would likely have either hit his heart of puncture his chest cavity.

It was the body's natural reaction to the bullet that had caused him to fall from his horse but to Kagome it was like watching him die, and she was not going to let that happen twice.

Besides the shoulder he had suffered a pretty nasty fall off Soul Stealer that would likely give him an incredible headache for a long time. They were still unable to tell if he had a concussion or not but at least his breathing was normal, though a little shallow and he appeared to be pulling through.

Miroku was the one that got the bullet out, after living so long by the gun you learn talents that prevent, at least your friends from, dieing faster by the gun. Besides that Kagome had been in too much shock to manage yanking the bullet out. After he finished he had left the rest of Inuyasha's care to Kagome. She was his nurse now and he trusted his best friend's life in no one hands like he did in hers.

Kagome had sat at Inuyasha's side from the point of Miroku's departure, only moving when absolutely necessary. She made sure his wound was always clean and that he never came down with a fever, which would have been a disaster he wouldn't pull through.

It had been two days since the incident, and while Kagome kept watch over the sheriff, Miroku and Sango were busy at work. The shot at Inuyasha was a distraction to allow any body caught the chance to escape, and while there were plenty of dead to search and bury any one they could question had slipped through their fingers.

They spent the first day after the attack taking care of the dead. They searched and buried all the bodies, and though they turned up next to nothing in regards to things on the attackers, they did discover something in particular that put both Sango and Miroku on high alert.

They didn't tell Kagome what they found. Her finding out that some of the men had spider tattoos, would be a little bit too much while she still wasn't sure Inuyasha was going to pull through. Putting more strain on her wouldn't be a good thing

The thing that worried Sango and Miroku was how closely followed by the Spiders they were. Kagome was highly sought after; too sought after to merely blame on her last name. She had something the Spiders wanted, but what was the question in their minds.

~ ~ ~ ~

The sun was setting and Sango was pissed.

She had never lost a prisoner in her life, and she had never, save the one occasion at the Miko ranch, come across a situation that her, or one of her partners, hadn't been able to find a lead from a crime scene.

"Damn it Miroku, It's been two days and the only thing we have is the fact that the attack was backed by the Black Spiders. We have no idea where they went, no idea where they are, and absolutely no clue where to go from here." She kicked a rock and scanned the horizon for threats.

"Don't worry, my lady Sango. If my diagnosis is correct Inuyasha should be awake by the time we arrive back, and then I'm sure he can handle the ride into the nearest town."

Sango looked at Miroku a little puzzled. "But how would that ever help us with finding the people who attacked us?"

Miroku thought for a second, "Hmmm I don't know, but at least we'll be able to sleep in a nice bed tomorrow."

Sango sighed; she couldn't argue with that, she just wished that she could have some way of catching the attackers.

Then Miroku continued. "Yes, a nice bed is just what we need, that and some whiskey, not to mention a few …um… fancy women."

Sango turned, glared and nailed the perverts face into the dirt. She then turned and walked away. "You sick, perverted, lecherous, thinking about the wrong head at a time like this. I can't believe…" Her mumbling grew fainter as she put as much space between herself and the disgusting man who was currently eating dirt.

"O Sango you know I would never chose any woman over you. Which does bring to mind a question…"

"Don't even think of it. What ever the question is, the answer is NO."

Miroku picked himself up off the ground, and with as much dignity as he could muster, he began to brush himself off. That was when a glint of metal caught his eye. What the…?

"Hey Sango take a look at this." Miroku reached down and picked up the object.

Sango kept ignoring him and walking away.

"I am serious Sango." Miroku ran to catch up, "Do you doubt my sincerity? Have I ever done anything that would show me as an untrustworthy person?"

Do I even have to start the list? None the less Sango turned around to see what the lech had found.

Sango gasped at what Miroku was holding, "That's a sheriff badge, but what is that doing out here. Isn't that hill where the shot that got Inuyasha came from?"

Miroku nodded, "That is correct, but the thing I found most interesting about the badge is what is carved on the back of it."

Flipping it over Miroku pointed at a small spider design on the back.

Sango took the star and held it in her hand examining it. "I remember where I've seen this before. When the gang fell apart originally the rangers helped track down a lot of the high ranking members and their contacts. There were a number of sheriffs with marked badges among them. At the time I thought it was pretty stupid that someone in that position would keep such tangible proof of their unlawful loyalties. My dad latter explained it to me as a way that the sheriffs could have power both in and out of the law's eyes. If ever challenged by a bandit all they had to do was show the spider and they would get complete obedience."

She handed it back to Miroku and walked back to where he had found it. "The sheriff whose badge this is was high in the ranks for the Black Spiders. The only question now is what town he came from."

"One more question to add to our list, my lovely Sango, and until we figure all of them out we can trust absolutely no one."

Sango gave one last look over the area and turned back to the smooth talking deputy as they both started to walk back to camp. "So who wants to be the one to tell Kagome and Inuyasha all the good news we have discovered."

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Inuyasha smelled smoke. It slightly alarmed him, but as he tried to sit up and open his eyes to discover what was smoking, he felt a throbbing burst of pain go through his entire body.

Ug, I feel like I fell off a cliff and got shot on the way down.

He felt a warm cloth press against his forehead.

Ahh this feels better.

The cloth was lifted and a small hand pressed against his forehead checking for fever and the checking his pulse.

"Inuyasha please be alright. Don't die because of me. I'm going to take care of you till you are better."

Inuyasha liked that idea. He probably could have opened his eyes or whispered something so that she knew he wasn't going to die, but he liked the attention too much and he was curious what she was going to say to him if she didn't know he was listening.

Kagome continued speaking to him, completely unaware that he had regained consciousness.

"It is all my fault that you were shot. I should have had your back. I should have seen the man who did it and shot him first."

What happened was slowly coming back to Inuyasha, the trip to the hide out, Sesshomaru, the arrow, the attack, was all slowly creeping back into his brain.

Why would Kagome feel responsible for me? What is she talking about shooting someone for?

"Well I guess now is the time to tell you everything, nothing to lose except a lot of weight from untold secrets."

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Sango and Miroku made it back to camp just as the sun was starting to come down.

Sango saw Kagome sitting as if she wasn't quite there. She seemed to be in a different world or time, while talking to Inuyasha as if she was describing what she was seeing before her eyes.

Normally Sango would have left her like that, but Kagome had been in far too much of a trance like mood lately, and that isn't a good thing for anyone.

Sango walked up to Kagome and put her arm around the pale looking girl's shoulder.

"How's he doing Kagome?"

"I'm not really sure. He should be up by now. I was just talking to him a little to see if he would come to."

Miroku had been listening to Kagome prognosis and decided to try a few doctoring tricks of his own to revive the sheriff from his current condition.

He walked over to the bucket of water that Kagome had been using to wet Inuyasha's head and picked it up. He took one last look at his seemingly unconscious friend before throwing the whole bucket on his head.

Kagome eyes opened wide with shock, "MIROKU, HOW COULD YOU? What if you drown him, then he is never going to wake up. How could you be…"

Kagome's righteous speech was cut off by Inuyasha's coughing.

"cough… Damn it Miroku…cough… you just had to come along and screw up. I was about to get to the good part of the stor..." Inuyasha stopped when he saw the look on Kagome's face.

"YOU HAVE BEEN AWAKE THE WHOLE TIME!!!!!!!! O MY GOD I ALMOST…"

THUNK!!! And with that Inuyasha was out again. Kagome laid the cooking pan back down, grabbed her bath stuff and took off following the stream.

Sango and Miroku burst out laughing once Kagome was out of sight.

It might have been the strain, it might have been the color red that Kagome's face had turned, or it quite possibly have been the position on the ground that their idiotic friend lay in, but whatever it was they couldn't stop laughing.

It felt good to just laugh and not to have to think about everything that was wearing them down. For the first time in a long time the world, no matter how many bad things were happening, seemed good at that moment.

To celebrate Miroku decided to take out some whiskey while Sango fixed up the fire. There they sat like best friends sharing a drink, sharing a laugh, and sharing stories till the other two ever decided to join them their group woke up and returned.

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Kagome stomped through the under brush still fueled with anger towards Inuyasha. How long had he been awake listening to her? Did he know how much torment she had been going through since he wouldn't wake up? How close had she come to telling him…

Kagome froze; she tried to remember just what she had told Inuyasha but she couldn't think back. She hadn't been completely sure what she was saying the whole time; things just came pouring out of her. O God did I tell him everything?

Then reasoning with herself she decided that couldn't be. If Inuyasha had heard anything that he found particularly interesting he would have reacted and probably been furious with her not telling him everything before now.

She started walking again still feeling a little uneasy when another thought struck her; maybe Inuyasha had been unable to move so couldn't react but still heard everything. This gave her a worst feeling because not only did he know too much, but she got mad at him for no reason.

By this time Kagome had reached the stream and was distantly preparing for her bath while her mind still ran at a mile a minute.

Think Kagome, think! You have to remember somewhere what you told him. Ok it started with me him that I would tell him everything and then what. Let's see I said something regarding not telling him everything about my past. Then I think I went into my parents being murdered, but I didn't tell him my name. Thank God. From there I started talking about why I didn't tell him, I think I was preparing him for telling him I'm a Miko, but then what? O God did I tell him?

Kagome slipped into the water during this thought process barely registering the icy temperature of the water she was in. Absently she reached for her shampoo and poured it onto her hand.

Sango interrupted!!! That's it; I'm safe for now. Why shouldn't I tell him though, he deserves it? No, it will raise too many questions and he'll want to know everything. Sango didn't push it, but I know Inu will want to know where the family fortune is hidden and where the Shikon no Tama is now, and if he asks what happened that night…No I can't tell him, but I should apologize to him for earlier, he did have a near death experience.

With her inner battle decided, Kagome continued her bath. Bringing the soap to her hair, she relaxed a little and began to lather the stuff deep into her roots.

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Inuyasha was leaning on a near by tree waiting for Kagome returned lost deep in thought about what he had been able to learn about Kagome before they were interrupted.

Everything she had told him he had figured out already and it was of little importance. Of course Kagome wasn't telling everything about her past, he remembered when he first met her and she would quickly change the subject when it involved her past.

Inuyasha was still sticking with his daughter of a Black Spider theory, and with all the evidence he had learned, it was still looking pretty good.

What is she hiding? Why won't she tell me anything? Have I ever done anything to hurt her…

Inuyasha suddenly jumped up from his sitting position causing an electric shock of pain to nearly knock him down again.

"Whoa there sheriff." Said a slightly inebriated Miroku as he watched his friend try to steady himself from his recent pain burst and blood rush to the head. "What's the hurry?"

Inuyasha looked at Miroku a little worriedly. "Umm Miroku you know as my deputy you are sworn to protect my life right?"

Miroku raised his eyebrows, "Inuyasha where is this thought process going?"

Inuyasha still looked a little frantic but still he was perturbed by Miroku's answer, "Just answer the goddamn question!"

"Yes I am sworn to protect you at all costs. It is my job to forfeit my life for yours whenever the need arises." Replied Miroku in a school children's chanting voice as if he was repeating a well know lesson.

"Good because I think I might need you to protect me from Kagome."

Miroku groaned, "O God Inuyasha. What did you do this time?"

Inuyasha grinned nervously, "O nothing that will cause her any permanent harm. It will just make her a little ma…

His sentence was cut off by Kagome's shrieking voice, "INUYASHA!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE SO DEAD!!!!"

Inuyasha slid behind the tree and prayed for Kagome to calm down before she found him.

Sango whistled, "A little mad? Miroku how far was she down the river from here, and how loud do you have to yell to cover that much distance?"

Miroku grinned a little at Inuyasha's position and took a swig of whiskey from the bottle. "Enough of a distance to promise great entertainment to us for the night, miss. So sit back, have another drink and enjoy."

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Thank you so much for reading PLEASE REVIEW and give me any opinions you have on the story (I really don't care if they are mean I just want to know people's opinions).

Thank you all past reviewers, I'll do a nice long shout out next chapter to show you how much I love you.