InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Changing Lives ❯ Getting Away ( Chapter 3 )

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

Within minutes Kagome had his haori off and new bandages on. Kouga was gone - a definite plus. The subject had been entirely dropped and didn’t look like it was going to be brought up again. Thank the Gods for that, at least.

The day hadn’t turned out so bad.

AE Thirty Five

Luckily, the rest of the day passed without further incident. Inuyasha was suspicious of Miroku and Sango, however. Their behavior was becoming increasingly wary, most of all to one another. Shippo was taught another word for laugh: cackle.

The kit was saying it nonstop! At any point of the day, he’d suddenly say, “Cackle, cackle!”

. . .and give Inuyasha a headache. Where the hell did he learn that word, and why did he have to say it instead of laugh like it! The hardest question of all, is which would be worse: the laugh or the word ‘cackle!’ at such a high-pitched voice.

And why the fuck wasn’t anybody saying anything?!

Just now Kagome giggled at something Shippo said or did, and once again Inuyasha was thrown into a feeling of jealousy. Why did she pay so much attention to that kid, anyway? Shippo wasn’t the injured one. Shippo hadn’t been hunted his entire life for being what he was. Shippo hadn’t gotten into life-threatening situations for a woman who hardly paid him more attention than the firecat.

Inuyasha caught himself there. Why was he being so jealous, anyway? He was the only one who could go to her time. She was the only one who could come to his. He could just follow her there one day and then smash the well. End of quest, end of admirers, end of annoying little fox kits who stole her time from him.

And possibly the beginning of his own courtship of her. . .

What the fuck am I thinking!

He shook his head violently and tried to clear those thoughts. That damn story of hers was really screwing with him.

Just wait till tomorrow morning. Then you can leave and hide and not come back for a whole day, he thought, trying to calm himself. A whole day to yourself. No kits screaming “cackle”, no enticing scents to tease you, no weird glances between Sango and Miroku, no more irritating thoughts about whether or not I could go to Kagome’s time and smash the well and make her mine. . .

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

He sighed. I really need this day off. Getting himself together, he ignored Shippo’s continuing “cackles” and his own feelings.

By nightfall he had had enough.

“Would you fucking stop that!” he snarled at Shippo.

Kagome gasped. “Inuyasha!”

“Well it’s fucking annoying!” he snapped. “Where did he learn that! Why haven’t you told him it’s so damned annoying!”

“It’s cute!” Kagome snapped back.

“Maybe for a human!”

Kagome growled. “If you hate it so much, why don’t you just leave! I’m not telling him to stop anything!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!”< br>
Growling, he got up and turned, stalking away without even noticing the ache in his gut. He didn’t look back. Instead, he kept going, calming himself and sniffing out a good place to stay the night, and possibly tomorrow night, too.

He found the edge of a cliff, overlooking the ocean. He recognized it, too. Once upon a time he’d been chased out here and hid under the overhang, scared spitless but not about to cry. Demons scented tears too well, and seemed to key to it.

It was the first lesson he learned out on his own. Never cry.

And this was the last place he wanted to stay. He turned his back to the place and started a new route, not fully caring where he ended up. Wherever he was heading, he’d get there eventually. It was just a question of how long it would take.

He realized he was being followed after an hour or so, but he hadn’t the slightest clue how long whoever-it-was had been following him. He didn’t stop, though - that was another lesson he learned fairly quickly. When followed, don’t stop and face the follower unless you knew who it was, knew if they were hostile, and if they wanted you.

He was trying to figure out who it was, though. Unfortunately they kept downwind, so he couldn’t scent them. It was getting annoying.

Kagome could call him impatient all she wanted, but when it counted, he could wait forever. He was only impatient with her because it got her flustered and angry.

Not that again. . .think of something else!

A branch snapping thankfully took his mind off his supposed attraction to Kagome, a welcome change. This had to be the first time he was actually glad to be followed. It worked wonders in taking his mind off subjects he’d rather not think about.

In front of him was a clearing, very wide and sloping upward - a treeless hill. Damn. Well, at least he’d know who was following him.

On the one hand, he supposed he could just change his course, but that would key in whoever-it-was that he was onto them.

He walked out onto the hill. Upon reaching the crest, however, he saw something that almost literally froze his blood.

Ah-Un, Sesshomaru’s two-headed dragon demon he rode around on. Near them were Rin and Jaken, which meant that Sesshomaru himself was not far away.

Inuyasha turned around and searched the line of trees. He was expecting to see Sesshomaru step out, but whoever-it-was had stopped. This didn’t fit together right.

He heard footsteps running up the hill and looked down just as Rin screeched out, “Inuyasha!”

Jaken was hot on her heels. “Come back here now, Rin! Lord Sesshomaru will skin me if you go too far, now get back here!” the demon croaked.

Rin reached the top panting and grinning. “Do you know where Sesshomaru is?” she asked.

Inuyasha shook his head. “But there’s someone following me, so stay back, okay?”

Jaken squealed. “Someone following you? Who? Is he dangerous?”

“I don’t know yet, so stay with Ah-Un. Got that?”

Rin nodded several times, and despite Inuyasha’s dislike for young, bubbly children, he had to admit that she was a cute little girl. She ran back down the hill, almost tripping several times with Jaken right behind her. Jaken, however, did trip and rolled halfway down.

Had the situation not been so ominous, Inuyasha might have laughed. He shook his head and turned back to the treeline, trying a bit harder to find this person - or thing. From behind him a twig snapped audibly, and Inuyasha knew immediately that whoever-it-was was letting him know he was there.

Looking over his shoulder, Inuyasha mentally swore. There was Sesshomaru. And in Sesshomaru’s usual, better-than-thou direct way, he got right to the point.

“What are you doing here?”

Inuyasha glanced back at where the follower still lurked. It gave him a moment to think over his response. Trying for a careless tone, he said, “Someone’s following me.”

He didn’t notice Sesshomaru move, but knew when he showed up beside him.

“Who would follow you?”

“Someone who wanted something,” Inuyasha replied, ignoring the slight insult. He kept his arms crossed, hoping that if he didn’t make a single aggressive move, neither would Sesshomaru.

“There’s more than one,” Sesshomaru informed him. “Three, at least.”

“Great,” Inuyasha said with a roll of his eyes. “Just what I need.”

If he’d have been paying any attention to Sesshomaru at that moment, he would have notice Sesshomaru’s glance, the slight curve of one brow and the measuring gaze.

“You’re still healing.”

It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

“Yeah, what of it?”

No point in denying the truth around Sesshomaru. No one has ever gotten away with a lie in front of him.

“So this would be a bad time for you.”

Another statement.

“Never miss a beat, do you?”

If Sesshomaru had something to say to that, he never got his chance. Just after Inuyasha closed his mouth, demons began springing forth from the trees. They were roughly the size of monkeys, and had the same basic body structure, but were obviously much faster. Inuyasha counted seven of them.

The leader was bright blue and the rest were white. Inuyasha’s hand had already grasped Tetsusaiga, and Sesshomaru had drawn Tojikin. The leader monkey shrieked.

“The half-demon only!” The rest of the monkeys agreed to this with many more shrill shrieks. “We have no quarrel with you!”

Sesshomaru’s only response was a slight tilt of his head.

“What quarrel do you have with me?” Inuyasha shouted back.

The leader monkey hissed, a reptilian sound. “Half-demon,” he said. It was enough to explain everything.

Inuyasha snorted. “That’s it?” he asked in disbelief. “None of you know of me, do you?”

The monkeys began leaping up and down, possibly one of the funniest things Inuyasha had seen a demon do yet. They were screeching in outrage, it seemed.

“Reason enough!” the leader was yelling. “Reason enough! Reason enough!”

To Inuyasha’s complete shock, Sesshomaru spoke to them.

“Do you know me?” he said, quietly.

They stopped jumping and squealed to one another, seemingly trying to figure out who Sesshomaru was. In unison they turned back and shook their heads.

That’s it, Inuyasha thought sarcastically. Say “no” so he’ll give you the full title. Egotistic bastard.

“Lord Sesshomaru of the Western Lands,” Sesshomaru was saying. “Do you know me now?”

It sure looked like it. Several of the monkeys had backed up. The leader, however, remained firm.

And did the stupidest thing you could do to Sesshomaru. He questioned him. “We only want the half-demon! What would Lord Sesshomaru be doing protecting a half-demon?”

Inuyasha winced. That was so fucking stupid.

Sesshomaru’s eyes narrowed. “I do not need to explain myself.”

The leader monkey knew what was coming before it happened. With a single swing of his sword, Sesshomaru had decimated the demon and the other six monkeys were cowering. Sesshomaru walked slowly and surely towards the rest of the monkeys and spoke very quietly, with an incredible amount of control and severe coldness.

“And I protect no one.”

The monkeys were scrambling past themselves in their haste to get away. Inuyasha knew that Sesshomaru would spare none of them, and that bought him a bit of time. He turned to his right and began walking away, careful about how fast he was going. If he ran, it would show fear; if he walked too fast, it would be disrespectful; if he walked too slow, it implied he wanted something. None of these options were good in front of Sesshomaru.

“And you dare to walk away from me?”

Aw, fuck.

Inuyasha stopped and turned halfway towards his brother. “I figured you wouldn’t want me to stay.”

That was true, and Sesshomaru realized it as soon as Inuyasha said it. Sesshomaru turned away, saying simply, “Do not return.”

Inuyasha scoffed. “If I do, I’ll skin myself to save you the trouble.” He didn’t spare a second to glance at Sesshomaru, knowing that he would probably glare and possibly bare a fang.

They could hate each other as much as they wanted, but in the end, even Sesshomaru couldn’t deny they were family. Inuyasha himself had never truly wanted Sesshomaru dead, and he had a feeling that Sesshomaru’s intentions, cruel as they were, were often done for the sake of reproving dominance rather than to actually kill one another.

It would be the reason why Sesshomaru never tried his fullest to kill Inuyasha, never attempted to finish him off, never hunted him down upon scenting him. Inuyasha several times over his life had scented Sesshomaru but not seen him, probably just the two of them passing by one another. But neither had stopped, ignoring the other instead of meeting for whatever reason.

But of course Sesshomaru would never admit to any of the above, even as he proved and reproved his actions through Rin, through mercy upon demons he would have otherwise killed, through his own walking away in times when he clearly had an upper hand.

He’s such an ass, Inuyasha thought. He probably knows it, too. Better-than-thou, ha! He’s so full of himself.

It was true that Sesshomaru needed to be brought down a peg or two, but at the moment Inuyasha wasn’t exactly in shape to do so. He kept walking and scented out a place to stay the night, a cave well-hidden by the simple fact that it was right out in the open. Tomorrow night at sunset, he would be human and mostly helpless for a night, and this seemed the perfect place.

Or at least, it would do.

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And chapter 35 is now done, ta-da! :dances:

The “cackle, cackle” thing is an inside joke that will probably never die, between myself, two of my cousins and a friend of theirs. It’s really funny but a bit too long to explain.

On a worse note. . .

I can an e-mail stating yet another fanfiction.net story that ripped off Transformations. Isn't that lovely? The story is called "Black Rose" and the author's penname is "Black Sugar". I copied some of the text of the e-mail for you. . .

"Normally I would give Black Rose (or anyother person) the benifit of the doubt, but little (okay not so little) things made me suspicious untill something confirmed it.

First: They named Kagome's mother Ray

Second: Kagome was bit by a Huge Black Inuyoukai at a hotspring. A odd blue acid foamed in its mouth and went into her wound. The dog also has 3 tails.

Third: The Inu visits Kagome's dreams. It tells her his name is rare and some crappy mumbo jumbo about hearts desire. She wakes up a hanyou.

I didnt have to read anymore. >.< It was plain sight that Transformations was victim. . . ."

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2488693/1/ (story)

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/825420/ (homepage)

I'm sorry that this day doesn't appear to be a happy one, but I do have a teeny bit of good news to hopefully set your day straight.

On the 26th of this month, I'll be going back to Arizona until somewhere around mid-November. This is good because I'll have my computer (Oh, happy day!!) which means I can scan all my new pictures (which I've been dying to do) and I'll have all my nifty programs and AMVs. . . Damn, I miss my computer. And no mistakes this time; I'm copying everything from THIS computer to CDs while I still have the chance!

See ya in two days! (By the way. . . I'm leaving it up to you guys to do whatever you see fit to this 'Black Sugar'. . . half because I don't like confrontations, and half because I love having you guys attack. I am shameless, that I am. . . Now, ATTACK my pretties!! :Cackles like the Wicked Witch of the West: )