InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ To Shed a Little Light ❯ Chapter 8 ( Chapter 8 )

A/N: Thanks for reading, everyone, and lots of love to dsm1980 and thyme_cat who beta read this chapter. I've had a few more correct guesses of the story that this fic was inspired by: KawaiiGirl, Ashley, Techie, Krystal, forthright (pretty much). Gold stars for you!

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

 

 

Chapter 8

 

`Would you really have gone to hell with Kikyou?' Kagome wondered as she watched Inuyasha walk at the head of the group, back straight and silver ears twitching. His mane of silvery hair, only a few shades darker than the hair that filled her dreams, sent pangs of wistful longing through her chest. As horrific as going to hell should seem, she couldn't help but feel a little jealous; after all, his lover was willing to spend an eternity with him, even if it was in torment, whereas hers…well, she just didn't know what to think.

 

She hadn't seen or felt his youki since their altercation, if that's what you call being yelled at then walked out on without being able to finish a damn sentence. Hurt and alternately irritated and disappointed by his absence, she'd spent the last several days rehashing their argument and wondering if there was anything that she could have done differently. She supposed that she could have asked to see him before shining a flashlight in his face, but if he had denied her, then she would still have had to force the issue. This line of thinking always brought her back to the question of why he was hiding himself in the first place, for he seemed most angry about her brief glimpse of his face than anything else. After all, he hadn't chewed her out for her sojourn into the future until after she had peeked: he'd been more than willing to let that slide in favor of a quickie. Could he want her as much as she wanted him? She desperately wanted to believe so. Unfortunately, the signs pointed to him being the kind of person to hold a grudge and it wasn't something she was going to bring up with Inuyasha.

 

The pages on which she'd been organizing her thoughts of her lover (and now that she thought back to that list, she couldn't believe how dense she'd been) had been safely shredded in her high school's document disposal room. Good thing, too, because she'd caught Inuyasha rooting around in her backpack the other day, and since he'd already had his daily allotment of ramen, he could only be after one other thing. He hadn't said anything since the battle, but Kagome was no fool…well, maybe she was a fool, but she wasn't an idiot…actually, she felt pretty stupid. Never mind.

 

Amazingly enough, for it was such an obvious thing to her that she jumped whenever someone mentioned the Shikon no Tama, no one had noticed that not all of the several shards around her neck were actually real. Even Kikyou had been too wrapped up in bewitching Inuyasha and dragging him to the underworld to comment on her little deception. At least they'd been able to add a few true shards to her collection since her meeting with Naraku, though she doubted she'd be able to keep them for long.

 

A misstep on the steep little path leading away from the massacred village threw her off balance and she caught herself on the gnarled trunk of a tree. The muscles in her arms screamed in protest, reminding her (as if she needed reminding) that she had just help bury a village full of corpses. Unable to help the groan that escaped her lips, Kagome gratefully accepted the hand on her elbow as the monk helped steady her. Before the hand could travel elsewhere, she shrugged out of his grasp and grinned at him, rolling her sore shoulders.

 

“I guess I may have overdone it,” she said a little sheepishly, blushing slightly when the monk's eyes strayed to the fabric that strained against her breasts as she stretched.

 

He shrugged, dragging his eyes back up to her face though his fingers twitched. “Anyone would be tired after a day of such draining labor.”

 

“Hey! Are you two finished? `Cause I, for one, have a score to settle with Naraku!” Inuyasha griped from the front of the line, fixing the humans with an irritated scowl as he gripped the hilt of his sword.

 

Kagome startled guiltily at the sound of the demon's name and almost missed Miroku's curious glance. The monk knew more than he let on, she was sure of it; he hadn't said anything blatant, but she'd caught him watching her with a strange light in his eyes, and not just her ass. Though he stared at that a lot, too. Through innuendo and hints, he sidled around her affair just enough to let her know that he was willing and able to supply what she might not be getting elsewhere. Or, maybe she was just paranoid: he hadn't asked for anything in return for keeping her secrets, so he could just be a pervert who was looking to get laid.

 

“Inuyasha's such a jerk,” Shippo grumbled from her shoulder and Kagome nodded as she started walking again, studying the hanyou's handsome, annoyed face before he turned around. If he weren't so committed to his ex-lover and she weren't so smitten by her own lover, then she thought she could have fallen for the gruff, overprotective male. He could be quite dashing and exciting when he wanted to be, not to mention he had a great body. Too bad he wore those loose, baggy pants so she couldn't watch his butt as he walked. She was quite positive that it would be just as hard and muscular as the rest of his body.

 

The hanyou in question slung an odd look at her over his shoulder and she choked, realizing where her mind had wandered. `What am I thinking? My lord…Sesshomaru…would be so pissed if he knew that I was thinking about his brother's butt! If he even cares anymore. I hope he cares.'

 

This last thought sent her mood plummeting into her shoes and left her with a heavy, cold lump at the pit of her stomach. What she really wanted to do was to see Sesshomaru's ass: not just see it but squeeze it, smack it, maybe bite it a little. It didn't help that the demon was doing things to her in her dreams that left her hopelessly frustrated and unsatisfied when she woke. And now that she had a face and body to fill in the gaps, those dreams were sharp, detailed, and pulsing with vitality: what Dorothy must have felt when she'd stepped from her black-and-white house into the full color of the Land of Oz.

 

Sometimes, he even had two arms and what he did with those hands…Oh! Kagome couldn't help a little shiver and squeezed her legs together for a moment to help relieve the ache between them. Yes, if they were ever able to patch things up and have a real relationship, then replacing that arm was one of the first items on her agenda, right after a straight twenty-four hours of hot, sweaty, dirty sex. Then, they could take that arm for a test drive!

 

Shippo poked her right behind her ear with his claw and Kagome sighed, recognizing his signal for: `you smell like a bitch in heat'. Her mischievous little kit had never said anything like that, of course, but the meaning was clear, especially considering the type of demon who instigated this response and the type of demon that was often mortified and alarmed (when he wasn't juiced up on instinct and pheromones) to be on the receiving side of the after-effects.

 

She heard the distinct sound of sniffing and frantically tried to smother her libido when something huge and flat crashed through forest and almost decapitated Inuyasha, who pushed her head down out of danger. Whirling back the way it had come, it was caught by a glaring Amazon in a sleek black bodysuit. Dark ponytail flying in the breeze, eyes snapping with righteous anger, the woman declared her revenge against Inuyasha and launched another attack.

 

“That's Sango, the demon slayer! You mustn't attack her!” Myoga, a lily-livered flea demon and Inuyasha's vassal, piped into the hanyou's ear.

 

`Revenge? What on earth does she think he did?' Kagome thought as Inuyasha flung back the demon slayer's giant bone boomerang. Feeling useless since she didn't have her bow with her, not that she was very good with it anyway, Kagome stepped away from the fray and froze when a familiar, muculent voice oozed into her ears.

 

“I will take the rest of your shards, today.”

 

Trembling with fear and anger, Kagome tried not to betray to anyone the fact that Naraku was lurking somewhere behind her.

 

“If you do not resist, your secret will remain safe. If you do resist…” he chuckled malignantly, “I will inform Inuyasha of your indiscretions and then take your shards.”

 

Kagome railed silently against the demon and his demands, calling up every vile word she'd learned from Inuyasha and applying it to his person, his parents, and his masculinity until she was dragged out of her thoughts by a cloud of bulbous winged insects swarming toward them, revealing a fur-covered figure sporting a baboon mask, grinning at them all. `How did Naraku get there so fast?'

 

“Miroku, look out! They're Naraku's insects! You'll be poisoned if you suck them in!” she shouted at the monk who stood, cursed hand outstretched and wind tunnel uncovered, trying to pull the boomerang into the void. He snatched his hand back and wrapped it in his prayer beads, a frustrated grimace stretching his mouth.

 

Inuyasha launched himself at the fur-covered demon but was blocked by the woman's giant boomerang, then thrown to the ground by a chain wrapped around his ankle. Despite several wounds on her back that were bleeding profusely, the warrior woman fought as one possessed. A twinge of jealousy poked at her chest as she watched the demon slayer move: so graceful, strong, self-confident, and hardly much older than herself!

 

`I bet Miroku is getting an eyeful,' she thought spitefully as the woman pirouetted, her uniform clinging to her lean curves like a second skin, and swung the enormous boomerang at Inuyasha, then gasped as the telltale glow of a shard shining from her back. `She is possessed!'

 

Suddenly, and seemingly from nowhere, a disembodied hand streaked toward her, heading straight for her chest, and Kagome screamed like, well, a little girl. After so much time spent in Miroku's company, her first instinct was to cover her breasts with her arms to avoid the immanent groping, but the hand hit her just below her collarbone, fingers scrabbling for the vial that depended from the chain about her neck. Squealing, she batted at it, but the hand grabbed the little bottle and yanked it from the chain. Incensed, Kagome was about to chase after it when she caught another glance of Naraku.

 

I will take the rest of your shards, today.

 

Even though the baboon mask hid his face, she knew he was watching her, waiting for her to make a wrong move. Oh. So he meant to steal them in front of her friends, showing them how worthless she was. Great.

 

She didn't have to try very hard to trip over her own feet, thus giving the hand the exit it needed to abscond with her shards…and her way back home…Sesshomaru had better be worth all this…

 

Sure enough, the arm flew straight back to Naraku, reattaching itself to his shoulder, and she could swear that he smirked at her. She glared back.

 

As an acrid, burning stench assailed her nose, her attention was drawn to Inuyasha and Sango, surrounded by a gaseous, green cloud. Showing her typical use of good judgment, Kagome abandoned her staring match with Naraku to run directly at Inuyasha and into the cloud, just as Sango collapsed from her injuries. Kagome had time to wonder, `Why on earth did I run into poison?!' before her lungs seized up and her brain shut down.

 

XxxxxxxxX

 

“I can't fucking believe you lost those shards to Naraku. What'd you do, let him take `em?” Inuyasha shouted into Kagome's face, intensifying the throbbing beneath her temples that had been present since Naraku had taken the shards. It didn't help that the hanyou had felt the need to bring it up every hour or so for the last several days.

 

“Calm yourself, Inuyasha. You know that Kagome would never do something like that,” ever the pacifist (when he wasn't making his own brand of trouble), Miroku raised his hands in a peaceful gesture.

 

Inuyasha would have none of it. “Well I sure didn't see her put up much of a fight!” Inuyasha snapped at the monk and pointed at Kagome accusingly.

 

Kagome just clutched her head and tried to become invisible. Patting her calf in a reassuring sort of way, Shippo let her know that he supported her, only making the teen feel more like the scum that one picked out of the tread of farming boots. Worse even: she was the sludge one snaked out of a clogged kitchen drain. The fermented muck that had collected all day in those outhouses they had at that the fair!

 

“You're a useless, weak, pathetic-“

 

“Osuwari!” That didn't mean she wanted to hear it from the hanyou, however. Unfortunately, the subduing command didn't even silence his tirade, only muffled it with dirt. Ashamed of herself and knowing that every angry word that the hanyou said was true, she jumped from her seat and ran into the woods. Sprinting as fast as she could, embracing the cramps in her legs and burning in her lungs, she ran until her foot was snagged by a hidden hole in the ground and hit the dirt at full tilt. Elbows and knees torn and bloodied and her uniform hopelessly soiled, she lay on the ground and sobbed, curling into a comforting fetal position as she buried her face in her hands.

 

How had she become such a horrible person? It had all started out so innocently…well, not innocently, as such, but it had been a way to reaffirm her life in a near-death situation. Then, he had kept coming, but it was only a bit of fun and romance! No harm done, right? Now she was the kind of girl she would never have associated with - even Yuka's promiscuous mouth had nothing on her behavior lately. At least Yuka didn't lie about what she did! If anything, she was a little too detailed…but that was beside the point. Kagome couldn't remember interacting with a human being more despicable than herself. Inuyasha was right with every demeaning word he said, but did she confess? No, she punished him and accepted Shippo's support!

 

Despicable, disgusting, tramp, that's what she was, because she'd continue to lie if it meant that she might get to see her lover again…Sesshomaru…

 

Gods, but she missed him! It was as if he had taken a piece of her soul when he'd disappeared that night, a much larger chunk than the one that resided in Kikyou's clay body. Worse was the fact that she didn't want it back; she wanted him, and the longer they were apart, the more she yearned for him. It had surpassed a spiritual ache and had grown into a physical pain, like a sliver under her skin that swelled and festered. But she didn't try to lance it or remove the splinter of silver; she coddled it, cherished it, promised it relief in her dreams, all the while knowing that something about it wasn't quite right…wasn't quite normal…or as normal as any part of a relationship with a demon could be.

 

Or maybe it was normal? What did she know about demon culture anyway, except that they didn't like hanyou? Perhaps Sango would know…?

 

A faint brush against her senses, a prickling of the hair on the back of her neck alerted her to the presence of a demon in the vicinity and she wiped her face with the back of her hand and sat up, adding to her list of stupid decisions: running into the forest alone with no weapon. When the tingle spread through her chest and into her belly, she simultaneously relaxed and tensed, breaking out into a light sweat, the strange winding up of her body wrenching a moan from the depths of her soul.

 

As quietly as it crept into her mind, the youki faded away, leaving her trembling and damp, and not just her skin. His very proximity was affecting her libido, and she would have to change her panties before bed. Tears began to flow again, slower this time but still bitterly mournful. Did he know what he did to her? Was he teasing or testing her? What was his problem, anyway? Why couldn't he just show himself, even yell at her again so that they could make up afterwards? As frustrated and bewildered as she was, not to mention her heart screaming in loss, a glimmer of hope blossomed in her chest that he had not dismissed her, that maybe he still wanted her and would come back to her.

 

Hiccupping mid-sob, an interesting idea occurred to her, `Maybe Naraku is blackmailing him, too?'

 

XxxxxxxxX

 

Sango's eyes lingered on the bite on her collarbone and then darted away to fix on the steamy water of the hot spring. She had done that several times now and Kagome was wondering if maybe bathing with the demon slayer wasn't the best idea she'd had. She'd only wanted to get cleaned up and perhaps pump the older woman for information on demons, but apparently her keen gaze and sharp mind were taking in more than Kagome preferred to reveal. Why she would show interest in that wound in particular confounded her, though now that she thought about it…Shippo had taken a look at it, too. `Oh well, nothing to do about it now. Trying to cover it up would only draw attention to it.'

 

“Ah! This is wonderful,” Kagome sighed happily and slipped a little further under the surface of the water so that the bite was submerged.

 

“We love bath time! Right Kagome?” Shippo chimed as he floated past in a plastic ring that Kagome had brought back from the future.

 

Laughing a little nervously, Kagome hoped that the slight blush now staining her cheeks could be attributed to the hot water. “You bet, Shippo.”

 

“It is nice,” Sango murmured quietly. She was so sad and brave that Kagome's heart ached for her. Remembering the slayer's tragic story, loosing her family and village in one day, helped put Kagome's own troubles into perspective. Well, not really, but she liked to think it did.

 

“Are you feeling any better?” she asked, then wanted to smack herself. `Stupid! Would a couple of days and a bath make you feel any better if you had just lost all of your loved ones in one stoke?'

 

Sango didn't answer; instead, she drew circles in the water with the tips of her fingers. Ashamed of herself, Kagome looked everywhere but at her.

 

“Kagome,” the slayer said suddenly, and Kagome startled, loosing purchase on the boulder that served as her seat and sliding under the surface of the water. Sputtering and wiping wet hair from her eyes, Kagome came back up and stared at the woman apprehensively.

 

“Uh, yeah?”

 

“That bite…” Sango gestured to the tooth marks on her collarbone.

 

`Oh no! I knew it!' Kagome laughed airily and waved a hand, “This? It's nothing! I get bit up all the time! You should see this scar I have on my waist-“

 

“When did you get it?”

 

“The scar? When I first came through the well. See, there was this-“

 

“No, the bite on your shoulder.”

 

“Oh, um. I don't really remember.”

 

“Hmmm,” the demon slayer's eyes glazed slightly as she stared at the wound and pulled a finger out of the water to tap her chin. Kagome thought she was off the hook until she spoke again, “That is strange.”

 

Not sure if she wanted to know but unable to help herself, Kagome asked hesitantly, “Strange?”

 

“Yes, you see it looks remarkably like a scent-mark left by a demon on the female he has claimed.” Dark and guarded, Sango's eyes bored into Kagome's until the teen squirmed uncomfortably and dropped her gaze.

 

“Um…I think I would remember something like that…” Kagome's mind whirled with possibilities and unknown terms. `Scent-mark? Claimed? What did it all mean?

 

“You would, believe me. I hear it hurts.” An uncomfortable silence stretched between the two women, broken only by the Shippo's soft splashes as he paddled around the spring.

 

“So…what is your relationship with Inuyasha?” Sango's piercing stare was back, but this time, Kagome was able to answer easily.

 

“What relationship? He's still hung up on his clay girlfriend,” Kagome groused, hoping a little misdirection would do the trick. `Let her believe that I like Inuyasha: maybe she'll think we fooled around a little and I don't want to talk about it.'

 

The demon slayer shrugged noncommittally, wincing a little as the skin pulled at the scar on her back. “You really should be more careful not to get bit; some demons inject venom into their bite.”

 

Kagome shuddered delicately and wrinkled her nose. “Don't I know it. Miroku always manages to get all poisoned up whenever we meet Naraku's insects.”

 

“He's somewhat of a pervert, isn't he,” Sango stated, her voice edged and annoyed.

 

“Yeah, but he's not all bad,” Kagome assured her. `Especially now that there's another female rear in the group!' “He can be quite charming and wise when he wants to be.”

 

Unconvinced, Sango rolled her eyes and ducked under the water to rinse her hair, leaving Kagome for a brief moment to think unobserved. However, her thoughts refused to connect themselves into any meaningful pattern, so she huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

 

“Shippo, we need to have a talk later!”

 

 

 

A/N: Thank you, my reviewers!

 

MMorg: vita - perhaps a tad harsh, but he's a tough guy and can handle it; McSlave44 - excellent! Glad to keep you guessing!; coldTenshieyes - everyone in this fic is twisted or exaggerated, even Naraku!; Anime Lady PIMP - yep!; Inusbab at work - thank you!; Narakulover77 - glad you liked it!; Keke - I'll see what I can do; KawaiiGirl - exactly right; mj - thanks!; obese_a_tron5000 - can't hear that enough!; AngelsRellion_lo - yeah, she always has a difficult life in my fics; InuYasha_demon509 - ^_^; animegirl2005 - thanks! I'll take a look; Mrs_Sesshomaru - I love it! “punked her for the shards”! Fantastic!; docbevculver - hmm, I wonder…; inuyashaloverr - yep, life is getting interesting for our girl; White Luna - you did, thank you! I saw the reviews ^_^; Sar17 - yeah, he's got issues;

 

A Single Spark: sore wa himitsu - couple more chapters after this one; wiiTneSs - yep, bad choice; CiraArana - really? Which ones? And here I thought I had something original…; Xiomara - sure!; Koi - here ya go; Joy - thanks!; Youkerie - ha!; feisonna - ^_^; REDWOLF - hope you are feeling better!

 

AFF: Aka Kitsune Rei - ^_^; WeIrDpErSoN - thanks!; amber - I try; Mazoku_Onna - Wow! Thanks!; infinite silence - glad to hear it! Will do; Krystal - yep!; Anon - here it is!; tsukashi aka draonflyelj - I don't know what to say! You don't know what this review means to me!; Amanda_chan - OMG! Here it is!