InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Time After Time ❯ Combining of the Packs ( Chapter 3 )

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

Chapter 3:  Combining of the Packs

Sugimi was annoyed at what his eldest had told him about the actions and behaviors of his youngest; yes, he'd been left alone at a very young age, and he regretted that his son had suffered as he had, but that was no excuse for the way he apparently treated the young priestess – and everyone else.

According to Sesshoumaru, the girl had been in love with his son for some time, only to be thrown aside constantly for a dead woman, though it looked, from their interactions now, as though she had fallen back out of love with the boy.  

He couldn't really blame her, either.

He had to admit, though, when Sesshoumaru had explained the 'it' thing, he'd laughed inwardly as if demented.  Both sire and eldest son had exchanged amused glances then.

It wasn't like the boy didn't deserve it, from everything he'd heard, anyway, and he determined then and there to watch carefully over the next few days, and take the discipline of his son in hand.  With that, his gaze went to her once again, and he watched her hips sway enticingly with each step.

Kagome was extremely nervous.  She could almost feel Sugimi-sama's weighing gaze on her back, and she didn't have a clue what to think. She couldn't understand why he was even looking at her - it made no sense.

I don't know if I can handle this, she thought despairingly, embarrassed at the way he was making her feel.  And I don't even know why I'm reacting this way... no one else has ever made me nervous like this - not even Sesshoumaru when he was trying to melt me with his poison!

Sango could see the waves of agitation coming from her friend, and dropped back to walk with her, hoping to find out why she was so upset.

"Kagome,"  she said quietly, trying to keep the rest of the travelers from hearing,  "what's wrong?  And don't tell me nothing - I can feel it!"

Kagome's eyes widened with panic.  If Sango could feel it...  "Oh man, this isn't good,"  she whispered.  "I don't know what's wrong, Sango - I feel like a mouse under the gaze of a hawk!"

Casting a secretive glance back, Sango noted the eyes of Sugimi-sama plastered to her friend's back, and frowned thoughtfully.  He was staring at Kagome... but why?  She got no bad vibes from him, so she didn't think there was any danger there.

"It could be because he's staring at you off and on as we walk.  And can you imagine him as anything else but a predator?"  She giggled under her breath.  "Though you are anything but a mouse.  Inuyasha wouldn't shudder in fear every time you glared at him if you were."

Kagome rolled her eyes, amused, but still apprehensive.  How was she supposed to function with someone like Sugimi-sama around?  He was just too much... everything.  Too much... male...

And that's it, isn't it?  I'm attracted to him!  she realized with horror.  How did that happen - I don't even know him!  This can't be... I'm acting like a bitch (no pun intended, she thought to herself,) in heat!

Sugimi was using his talent for multi-tasking to listen to his son, and also watch the miko before him.  She was fascinating - powerful, yet untrained in her power, her aura blanketed the lands around them for miles.  And yet, it was clear she didn't have the first clue how powerful she really was - and just as clear that even if she knew, it wouldn't change her.

He could feel her apprehension towards himself, her nervousness - and he could also sense her attraction to him - that's why she was so nervous.  He had to smile... he was finding himself attracted to her as well - her scent was intoxicating him, had been since the moment he'd become aware again, and that was the first indication to an inu that he was nearing someone compatible to himself.

This new lease on life was promising to be quite interesting...

---sSs---

Later that evening, after dinner had been finished, the enlarged group sat around the fire once again, and Sesshoumaru began to explain things to his father about their current circumstances.

After he had finished, Inuyasha grudgingly spoke about his own part in the mess, and Sugimi was surprised to find that the young miko he was finding so attractive was the reincarnation of the dead woman that his son had loved.

Well, that might explain a few things, he thought.  But still - it doesn't excuse his behavior.

Miroku and Sango explained their parts in the war, and then it came to Kagome.

With a sigh, she said quietly,  "I was born with the Shikon no Tama inside my body, five hundred years in the future.  When I was fifteen, I fell through the bone-eaters well that stands on my family's shrine, and ended up here.  When the jewel was torn from my body and shattered, I chose to remain here and fight to regain the jewel - and that degenerated into a race with Naraku to gain them all."

Both brows hiding in his bangs, the golden eyes of Sugimi stared with open fascination and surprise at the young priestess.  "Five hundred years... from now?  How intriguing..."  he trailed off, his gaze remaining fixed intently on a once-again flushing Kagome.

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed as he stared at his father, who was staring at Kagome.  He didn't like the look in the male's eyes at all.  Hackles rising, he scooted closer to Kagome and glared at his father.

"Yeah, so anyway, you can stop staring now,"  he snapped belligerently.

Sugimi turned his gaze on his youngest, as did Kagome, who was now beginning to flush with temper and embarrassment, he noted.  He stared at him with a weighing expression for several long moments, then said,  "You would do well not to give me orders, Inuyasha.  You do not have the power to enforce them.  And the miko is not your wife or mate, so you do not have the right to even give such orders in the first place."

The hanyou growled, ears snapping flat against his head, but before he could say anything, Kagome opened up on him.

While the fact that she was nervous that the handsome Lord kept looking at her in the way he did was true, it was also true that it was none of Inuyasha's business.  He was acting the same way he always did with Koga - and this time, she wasn't going to put up with it.

"You don't have any business telling anyone else what they can and cannot do, Inubaka!  So just stuff it!"

"Oh, so what, you want him to stare at you like that?  What the fuck, bitch?!"  he snarled.

"Fine then.  If you can tell others to stay away from me, then I can tell you to stay away from Kikyou, right?"

Dead silence followed that announcement as Inuyasha spluttered to a shocked halt, completely caught off-guard.  It was only in the last week or so that she had started standing up to him like this, and he didn't know how to handle it at all.

"Keh!  That ain't got nothin' to do with you - so you ain't got nothin' to say about it, wench!"  was the best he could finally come up with.

Shippo snickered at that, and Sango rolled her eyes, while Miroku just shook his head.  Foolish hanyou...

"And this doesn't have anything to do with you!  Whether or not some man stares at me, or not, is not your business, Inuyasha, and if you try to get bossy again, you'll be eating dirt.  You have no right to tell me what to do at all, understand?  You are not my husband, and I am an adult.  Butt out."  She turned back to the rest of the group, blatantly ignoring the now fuming hanyou.

"I apologize for his behavior, Sugimi-sama.  He has no manners to speak of."

Sugimi nodded as he looked at his son with irritation.  "Perhaps not, miko, but it isn't your place to apologize for his rude tongue.  Do not be concerned - this one will take him in hand.  I will not have a son of mine acting a spoiled brat - he will learn."

Sesshoumaru was highly amused, though he didn't show it, the thought of his powerful father cutting loose on his whelp of a brother interesting him to no end.  But perhaps it was time to calm things down and open a new topic of conversation - for now.

"What are your plans, then, father?  Will you go your own way, travel with me, or with the hanyou's pack?"  he asked.

"Feh, he can travel with you, bastard - but he ain't travelin' with us,"  Inuyasha muttered, and Kagome spun on him again.

"That is it!"  she yelled, finally angered enough to raise her voice.  "Osuwari, you colossal pain in the ass!"  With an irate glare into the hanyou's hole, she said,  "No one asked your opinion, Inuyasha - if we had, you'd have had Kikyou traveling with us - in which case we'd all be dead by now.  So if your father decides to travel with us, you'll suck it up and get the hell over it!"

Sugimi blinked, surprised, then looked around at the rest of the group, and noted that none of them were surprised at the little miko's words.  Apparently, she knew a few choice words - and used them.  He'd not known a woman to do so, before.  Perhaps they were more free with such speech in the future?

No matter - for now, he'd ignore the very amusing visual of Inuyasha in a crater, and answer his other son's question.

"At this point, after everything that you've told me, I think it best that we all travel together from now on.  With everyone separated and scattered here and there over the landscape, there is no real way to effectively create an offensive action against this Naraku."  He frowned thoughtfully, then glanced at a scowling Inuyasha.  "And besides... it seems I have a son to raise - this is a task that should never have fallen to such a lovely young woman as the miko.  No... in this, Sesshoumaru, I find fault with you - angry at my choices or not, you should have taken your brother in hand so that he did not disgrace our bloodline with his behavior,"  he finished sternly.

Sesshoumaru held his gaze for a moment, then nodded.  "Perhaps, father, but it does no good to look to the past and what might have been.  This is the way things are now.  And I still do not understand your choice in marrying a human."

"Why should I not have done as I wished in that matter, Sesshoumaru?  I did my duty and provided a full-blooded heir to my lands.  Why should I not do something for myself once my duty was done?"

It was clear that the younger daiyoukai had never looked at it in quite that light, since he merely blinked at his father, and looked thoughtful at his words.  

While the group was listening to the talk with interest, Inuyasha was finally out of his hole and fuming, and everyone knew that a showdown of one sort or another was imminent.

"Oi!  I don't care who you are, old man, but I ain't had a father all my life, and I ain't gonna start bowing and scraping to one now.  I'd like to know how you survived that encounter that my mother told me about, and yet abandoned us both to put yourself into an enchanted sleep.  Why should I listen to you?!"  he spat.

With a sigh, Sugimi looked away, staring into the fire with a distant look in his eyes.  After a few moments, he spoke.  "I would not have survived that last battle with Takemaru.  In the state I was in, I was dying.  But I was not ready to do so - I knew that I would be needed later on, and this was the only way to manage things.  With my soul tied to Tessaiga, and my body left with only its haku, it could heal, slowly, over many years, damage that should have been fatal.  There was no other way, Inuyasha."

The silence that followed was broken by the rattle of Miroku's shakujo as he nodded in support of the daiyoukai's words.  "Indeed, Inuyasha - I have heard the same said of humans injured fatally, then their bodies and souls separated and kept enspelled in a similar manner.  I have never seen it done - but there have been stories.  It is usually considered sorcery."

Kagome glared over at her very immature friend, then stood, and excused herself to ready Shippo for bed.  

She glanced at the Western Lord, then asked,  "Would you like me to prepare Rin for bed as well, Sesshoumaru-sama?"

He inclined his head politely.  "That would be acceptable, miko."

Kagome smiled at Rin, and held out her hand, and the little girl scrambled up and trotted off with Kagome, Shippo, and Sango, who also stood to follow.  

Inuyasha glared at the two silver-haired males across from him, then said,  "Feh.  I don't care, tag along if you want.  But this is my pack, and Kagome's mine to protect - so stay away from her."

At that, Sugimi sent his son an icy stare, and shook his head.  "This is a new pack, Inuyasha - and I am alpha.  You have not the strength to dispute that.  And protection of pack members is everyone's responsibility - the miko is not yours,"  he said, with distaste.  "If I see her in danger, I will react - as I would for anyone that is pack - and as I would expect anyone else within the pack to also do."

Inuyasha was just about to draw Tessaiga against his own father when an "Osuwari!"  rang out sharply in the thin air of the mountains, and he face-planted.  Kneeling down before his new crater, Kagome said,  "Please, Inuyasha, stop acting like this!  What do you think you're accomplishing with all your posturing and ranting, hm?  You can't defeat your father - so what, are you trying to get yourself killed?"  

She sounded tired, almost defeated, and the hanyou lifted his head to look at her - she was about ready to cry, he could tell, and he couldn't stand it when she cried.

At all.  

Ever.

With a deep sigh, and a glare in the direction of the other two Taisho males, he gave in.  "Fine.  I won't make a stink - for Kagome's sake, not because I'm scared of either of you.  If I ran away from all the opponents that were supposed to be more powerful than me in my lifetime, I'd still be running now."  With one last fulminating look at his father and brother, he crawled out of his crater and stared at the ground before Kagome.  "Happy now?"  he asked with a pout.

Kagome nodded, and smiled brightly at him, thankful that she'd finally broken his horrible moodiness and temper of the last week - at least temporarily.  "Thanks, Inuyasha.  I don't want you to get hurt - or anyone else, either.  We should all be concentrating on destroying Naraku - not each other."

Sugimi watched her chivy his obviously moody son out of his bad humor, and blinked, stunned, at her smile.  It was a devastating sight - brilliant, it held nothing back, showing every bit of her lovely personality.  

No wonder Inuyasha is so territorial over her - not only is she the future of his past love's soul, but she's absolutely dazzling in personality.  It would be interesting to find just how different she is from her former incarnation... I'm betting that she's very different.

Clapping her hands together, Kagome asked,  "So it's settled then?  We'll be traveling together from now on?"

Nods and approving murmurs broke out in a wave around the fire, with no dissenters - though Inuyasha's was very grudging.

Kagome smiled at Sesshoumaru, then looked at Sugimi, and a curious look crossed her face.   Suddenly shy, she asked diffidently,  "Sugimi-sama?  May I ask a question?"

He smiled back at her.  "Of course, miko - though I may not answer,"  he said teasingly.

She blushed, and her smile widened.  "While you were in the Tessaiga... were you aware?  I mean... well, I just wondered what all that was about after Sou'unga - when you appeared to everyone."

One brow quirked as he stared at the little onna in surprise.  He hadn't expected that question to come from her.  "Actually, that was more of a message spell than anything - set to go off once my sons joined together to cast the blade back to hell.  But as for being aware... I was, to a limited extent.  Enough that I could help Inuyasha at times when he drew the blade, and I was aware of the passage of time."  He sighed, then, and looked back at the fire.  "I had enough time to grieve the loss of my Izayoi."

She looked saddened at that, and turned her eyes away, suddenly shamed that she'd asked such a personal question.  "I'm sorry, Sugimi-sama, I didn't meant to resurrect painful memories."

He looked back over at her and smiled again.  "It is no longer painful, do not be concerned with that.  Time does heal the wounds, and after two hundred years, my grief is gone.  It is merely a bittersweet memory now."

The group grew quiet after that, all of them lost in their own bittersweet memories for a while, until the introspective mood was broken by Sesshoumaru.

"Since it has been decided that we will travel together, perhaps we should decide now where we head from here."

"Huh.  You actually said something that made sense, Sesshoumaru,"  Inuyasha said sarcastically.  He looked at Kagome.  "How are we on supplies - taking into account that we've got all these extra mouths to feed, of course,"  he finished sourly.

"I've got enough for probably another seven days,"  she said, figuring everything in her head.  "That's why there were two bags - so I could pack enough food, and medical supplies to last awhile."

He grunted in acknowledgment.  "And we're four days from the well... we should probably head back so that we can gather enough supplies to last for at least fourteen days - maybe that dragon of yours, Sesshoumaru, will come in handy - that's a lot of stuff to haul around for all of us."

Sugimi looked thoughtful for a moment, then caught Kagome's gaze.  "What are these 'supplies' of yours, miko?"

"Foodstuffs mostly, and medical supplies,"  she noted his confused expression and smiled,  "things for healing,"  she explained, and his expression lightened.  "In my time, the healers are very advanced - many things that kill here are minor where I'm from.  I take advantage of as much of that as I can in my medical kit.  Then the rest is clothing and cleansing stuff."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes.  "Yeah... get used to stopping near every stream and hot spring we come across - the wench has to bathe if one speck of dust hits her skin or clothes."

"Sorry, baka - I like to be clean.  And with all the youkai guts I get sprayed with because of your over-enthusiasm in killing them, I need regular baths."

"Hm."  He eyed his son askance at the way he spoke of Kagome, but let it slide for now - he could take him to task for it another time.  Right now, they needed to get some rest.

"Very well - on the morrow, we head back to this well so the miko can gather what is needed,"  he said.  "And now, you should probably all get some rest.  I will stand watch tonight - I believe I have slept long enough,"  he finished with a chuckle.

That broke most of the remaining tension, though Inuyasha was still aloof, and everyone went to their beds content with the way things were, as Sugimi disappeared under the trees to patrol around the camp.

All but Inuyasha, of course.

He was not at all thrilled to have his leadership taken away - but there was nothing he could do at this point in time, and so he jumped into a tree directly above Kagome's bedding, and leaned back, prepared to get little rest.

Not sure if he could trust the youkai that was his father, he wasn't about to let his guard down.

Not now - maybe not ever.

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