InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Vengeance ❯ Chapter Twenty-Seve: Bark ( Chapter 28 )

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

A/N: Thank you so much for the support I receive on ff.net. Wicca, thanks for continued reviews, here and on S'Spark! (I hope you didn't knock yourself out and right into a hospital...) Bakabokken, I'm glad to see you again...I enjoy your comments! Fyyrrose: LOL! I almost fell out of my chair, and I hope to read more...=) I think I don't get that many reviews on ff.net because I post chapters too quickly, but s'okay! I hate waiting for updates myself! I truly appreciate the ones I do get, so thanks!

WARNING: Some limes served---or alluded to by a certain hentai houshi. :P

Chapter Twenty-Seven (Bark)

The monk's shadowed blue eyes were troubled as he walked down the path, away from the village. He did not notice the people who waved to him casually from the fields, and he even ignored the pretty blush of a young peasant girl whose palm he had traced with an oft-repeated line about her fortune being tied to his.

"Miroku!" The houshi blinked out of his clouded thoughts, and the blue eyes lightened as he caught sight of another pretty girl, this one dressed in the red and white robes Kaede favored. Of course, Kaede didn't do things to those flowing robes that Koharu did...

A small smile touched the worried mouth, and Miroku felt his heart lighten as the girl caught up with him, slightly breathless and slightly sweaty---her bangs were curling across her forehead charmingly, and her brown eyes were dancing, just like the freckles across her nose.

*A man could get used to those freckles.*

Koharu gave him a soft peck on the cheek, blushing slightly at her daring, but still hooking her arm through his. Miroku had to bite back a laugh at the girl's sudden maidenly reserve. After yesterday, one would think that Koharu would be more than easy with her own feminine charms. She had certainly exercised them yesterday---and had even managed to surprise him.

His blue eyes fell on her rosy lips, and he missed what she was actually saying to him. Those lips were a bit wide for true beauty, but that in itself was the beauty of it. He had almost lost his (religiously trained) control when that wide mouth had taken him inside of it---all of him.

He was already hardening with the thought.

"So, Miroku? Do you want to come?"

Miroku blinked.

"Um...what?"

"Miroku!" Koharu gave him a playful push with her other hand, blushing. But then her brown eyes darkened and the hand turned soft and caressing along his deeper blue robes.

"I love your eyes." She whispered. "They darken to match your robes when you're thinking of..." She giggled, and then leaned up to capture his mouth with hers.

Shards, the girl could kiss.

It was quite a few moments before Miroku could climb down out of hentai heaven and focus again on anything other than Koharu's...er...skills.

Koharu gave him another husky laugh---ooh, he liked that---but seperated, though her hand clung to his. She tugged him along after her, and he half-hoped they would be finding another quiet spot to reacquaint themselves with her version of "I love you".

"Later, houshi-sama." Her promise made him harder, but his dreamy smile fell as her words registered. Koharu shook her head, making the long tail of her black hair swing with the movement. He wondered what that long, silky tail would feel like, freed and wrapped in his hands. He might be able to pull a few surprises on her...

"Come on, Miroku. They're this way." Koharu tugged on his hand again, leading him.

"What are?" Miroku asked, suddenly curious.

Koharu giggled. "You haven't heard a word I've said! I was going into InuYasha's forest to get some herbs for Kaede."

"InuYasha's forest?" Blue eyes brightened with possibilities.

Koharu gave him a knowing look out of warm brown eyes. "For herbs only!" She lightly scolded, though her fingers, wrapped in his, tickled his palm in acknowledgment.

"Um, yes. Of course." Miroku smiled, a wicked gleam escaping Koharu's gaze as she turned her attention back to the path, and made a sharp turn at some particular mark that Miroku could not detect.

Koharu had a nicely rounded posterior, and he was dreamily thinking of ways he could slide his hands over it as she bent over to cut plants she would need for Kaede...

Koharu let go of his hand, dissolving his little fantasy, and bounded down a slight depression to disappear among some thickly clumped trees.

*Hide and seek?* The monk mused, a smile playing over his firm mouth. The rings on his staff tinkled faintly as his hand curled tightly over it.

"Miroku!" The siren's voice drew him in. "Come on! You're slow today!"

*Well, if that's the way you want it...*

With hopefully un-religious thoughts, the houshi followed the surprising girl into the dark copse. Much of the interior of InuYasha's forest had burned in the Ash-demon's fire, but plenty of nicely shaded, nicely PRIVATE, places could be found in the abundant forest's so-called outskirts. Those outskirts of forest surrounded the village, and you could still get lost in there, if you weren't careful.

Miroku was always careful...well, mostly.

There was no sign of the girl when he finally ducked under the first line of entangling trees. "Koharu?" He called out.

"Miroku!" He almost jumped straight up as a rusty head and fluffy tail sprouted from his shoulder. Small paws gripped his robes, and big green eyes blinked at him innocently.

"Hi, Miroku!"

"Shippo!" Miroku scowled, his wrapped hand pressed to his chest as his heart pounded at the sudden fright.

"Kaede sent me to find Koharu, to tell her that Kaede wanted some more herbs, and so I thought I might find you, and then I would find her!" Shippo said, smiling smugly at his apt deduction as he made himself comfortable on the houshi's shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Miroku eyed the incorrigible fox cub with suspicion.

"Oh, you two smell like each other." Shippo replied casually. "I was wondering about that. You must be spending an awful lot of time together, Miroku."

"Er..." A flush slowly crept up the monk's face.

"Miroku!" They both glanced sharply to the left at that call, and Koharu stood there, arms akimbo and fisted on her hips. "Where have you...oh!" Her brown eyes brightened. "Shippo! How nice to see you!"

"Hi, Koharu!" Shippo leapt off of the houshi's shoulder and down to the ground. He bounded over to the girl, and scrambled up a convenient rock so that he could at least address her from a foot more in height than his own small stature allowed.

"What brings you all the way out here? I thought you were with Kagome." Koharu knelt down, so that she could be on Shippo's level.

"Oh, Lady Kaede wanted more herbs, and she sent me to tell you." Shippo said, self-important.

"I'm glad you did find me." Koharu smiled.

"It wasn't so hard." Shippo cast a sly glance in Miroku's direction. The monk's flush deepened.

Koharu eyed Miroku askance. "Why are you blushing like that, houshi-sama?"

"Oh, nothing." Miroku gave her a weak smile, even as his staff's rings jangled the lie.

*~*~*~*~*

Darkness had fallen outside of the caverns of the wolf-tribe, and Kagura stirred uneasily on the furs she rested upon. With night, Koga would return. He had yelled as much to the other wolf youkai before speeding out from the caves, just after he roared that she was to be guarded with their lives---or he'd have them for youkai bird bait. The flinching cringe of the other wolf-brothers had told Kagura that the young leader made good on his threats.

The wolf youkai had given her wide-eyed looks before ignoring her. She couldn't move far anyway. Even if her wrists were bound, the swelling of her broken ankle meant that she would not be able to do anything but limp herself outside in a feeble attempt at escape for at least the next two days.

Ginta had been shoved outside for guard duty by an angry Koga, but Hakkaku had managed to avoid the wolf youkai's ire, and had ducked out of sight. Kagura had actually missed the somewhat reassuring presence of her two defenders. But Hakkaku had returned, with a grumbling Hideki in tow.

The aging wolf-brother walked with a slight limp of his own. The greying healer was a gnarled replica of Ginta, and Kagura was still surprised at the resemblance. Ginta was so...young...uncertain...apologetic, almost. Hideki, now, he was a wolf of a different stripe entirely. He had no fear. She wondered idly if it was his more advanced years.

Hideki had rumbled and growled and made gruff comments about raging wolf cubs who shouldn't be chasing poor defenseless females around while his calloused fingers had carefully examined her ankle.

Kagura had stared at him in stunned disbelief as the old wolf had continued to grumble about impetuous wolf whelps making him continually heal poor defenseless women. The other wolf-brothers had given the elderly healer appalled looks, but seemed unsurprised by his fairly unflattering opinion of Koga.

Hideki had set her ankle into a plastered cast of drying mud and clay, carefully pressing leaves at certain points around the unwieldy bandage. He had made her drink a foul concoction of what he called "numbing juice", and Kagura had almost sputtered at the liberal spirits that made up three-quarters of the nasty draught. Whatever was in it, she was soon feeling quite "numbed", and had blinked tiredly at his departing growls about being more careful.

The numbness had allowed her to sleep, soundly, for most of the day. She had let the worries over her precarious situation flow away with the effects of inebriation. But when she reawakened, the numbing qualities of the juice had worn off, and her mind broiled with renewed fears.

The mud cast had hardened onto the sandy floor just on the edge of the piled furs she was lying on. The cast made an impromptu chain anchoring her to the spot. She speculated idly how she had been able to sleep with her foot cemented in such an awkward position. Her muscles ached from inaction, and she rubbed her thigh distractedly as her red eyes roamed the darkening caves.

Most of the wolves had disappeared. She wondered where they were---but she could smell roasting meat on the dry breeze that circulated throughout the cave. Her stomach rumbled hungrily, and she questioned sourly if she would be given food, or if Koga intended to torture her with starvation.

She didn't put anything past that mangy beast.

A whine toward the front of the cave had her stiffen defensively, and her eyes narrowed as she saw the flickering orange-red glow of a lighted torch creep around the edge. The flame danced in her red eyes as it came closer, and she blinked the light back, until she relaxed, seeing Hakkaku's distinctive white spikes and tentative smile.

One of the wolf-brothers who rested on the side gave him a warning grumble, but Hakkaku just shrugged past him. He carried a leaf-wrapped parcel in one hand, awkwardly balancing it while his other claws grasped the wooden torch precariously. He made a beeline for Kagura's spot at the back, and took the time to wedge the flaming torch into a convenient niche, almost dropping the bundle in his customary clumsiness.

Kagura hid a small smile, slightly startled that she could even think about smiling. Ever since that day by the pool, when Hakkaku and Ginta had spied on her bathing, the pair of them had been trying to make her laugh. Usually Kagura had no use for their nonsense, but sometimes their innate buffoonery caught her off guard---like now.

Hakkaku eventually got the torch righted and the bundle saved, and he gave her a toothily ingenious grin. Kagura nodded in thanks, keeping her expression guarded. The wolf demon scratched the back of his bald head before kneeling down and placing the leafy bundle beside her. Kagura eyed the package, and then eyed the wolf-brother.

"Some, uh, meat, Lady." Hakkaku said, smiling nervously. "I brought you some meat."

Red eyes narrowed briefly, before she nodded again.

"I thought you were hungry." The wolf youkai actually blushed.

"Thank you." The words felt strange on Kagura's lips.

"Sure!" Hakkaku brightened. "If you want, I could get you some wa---"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"

Both youkai stiffened at that distinctive roar.

Koga was there, snatching the poor, hapless Hakkaku by one shoulder and yanking him away from her side. Kagura cringed back, away from that icy glare, but she couldn't move far from her imprisoned foot. She brought her arms up, the rope abrading her wrists, and ducked instinctively as she heard a yelp and tumble of wolf-brother being sent flying across the room.

"You. Woman." Koga snarled at her. Kagura dropped her wrists, and glared back at him, red eyes glowing lightly in the flickering torchlight.

"What the hell are you doing to my men!" He roared at her.

Kagura didn't flinch, though her insides were knotting in dread.

"Koga!"

"WHAT?" The wolf leader swung around, his long black tail of hair swinging like a whip behind him. Kagura winced at the volume he could achieve in just one word.

Hideki limped across the cavern floor, his scowl deepening the craggy lines of his aged face. His whitening grey hair stood on end, and he actually growled, showing blackened teeth. Kagura's eyes widened as the wolf youkai, much gnarled and bent from old age, standing at least a good foot below Koga's tall height, came in between them. Hideki's arms crossed and his snapping black eyes glared up at his leader.

Koga gave a good imitation of a menacing growl, but suddenly turned away, stalking from the caves. He gave a good yell at the dumb-founded wolf-brothers who had watched the entire scene. The echoes rung around the cavern, and had the whole tribe emptying out of it after their volatile leader in swift reaction.

Once the last yipping wolf had departed, Hideki turned his scowl back on Kagura. She watched him with some astonishment as the dark look lightened into a black-toothed grin. One fang was slightly chipped, and she wondered idly why it had not healed itself. Even old youkai were capable of minor healing.

"Ha! Took care of him!" Hideki chortled. "Young snot."

Kagura arched a single brow.

Hideki grumbled to himself as he set about checking her wounds. He had treated the scratches on her skin earlier, and he patted the healing marks with calloused kindness. He growled over her tied wrists, and rubbed some stinky salve into them, but only shrugged over the tight rope. Even he wouldn't dare Koga's anger THAT much.

He was actually humming a bad rendition of a sappy love poem by the time he got around to her foot. He cracked the mud cast with practiced ease, and cleaned her skin carefully, pulling her ankle this way and that. Kagura hissed in her breath slightly, but the pain was far less than before.

Gnarled fingers patted her ankle like a child on the head. "It's healing nicely." He rumbled at her in his gruff voice. "You're getting better, and healing faster."

Kagura gave him a sour look. What good was that going to do her? Would she be able to heal faster after another run-in with rage-happy Koga?

Hideki snorted. "Don't worry about him. All bark and no bite."

Kagura gave him another look out of disbelieving ruby eyes.

"I'll just bandage this, now." Hideki pulled white linen strips out of somewhere in his mousy brown furs and went back to humming as he worked over her foot. He made a poultice out of paste pulled from a jar in his robes, and then wrapped her ankle tightly with the bandages. The paste felt cool when he first smeared it on her skin, and then heated to tingly warmth as he tied the last white strip in place.

"Let me see that scar." Kagura flinched back as a calloused hand pulled her chin to one side. She let out a mild protest as a claw traced the purple line on her right cheek. Naraku's poison had sunk deep into her skin, and pained her from time to time, as if to remind her of his anger at her failure.

"Ugly, that."

Kagura flinched, though her red eyes flared with repressed indignation. She knew, more than anyone, that she was marked for life with that ugly token of Naraku.

The old wolf wheezed out a huffy laugh, letting her chin go and patting her other cheek. "Don't worry, girl. You're still pretty."

Kagura glared.

"Quiet though." Hideki chuckled to himself as he gathered his supplies. "Unlike that young whelp, Koga. He's loud enough to wake the dead."

"I heard that, you old fart." A deep growl came out of the shadows of the cave's entrance. Kagura couldn't stop the faint shiver that coursed through her as the young wolf-tribe's leader came stalking into the caverns, his blue eyes like flecks of ice as he glared at them both, furred braces bridged as he stood, arms crossed and feet braced apart. A brown tail swished to the side in annoyance.

A gnarled palm was laid on her shoulder, and the old wolf youkai squeezed slightly in reassurance. "All bark, no bite, remember?" He whispered hoarsely, before leaving her side with more dry chuckles.

Koga glared daggers at Hideki's fur-covered back as the elderly healer started humming his bad tune again, his gruff voice torturing the poor poem even more than the content did already.

Kagura raised her head proudly when Koga's blue-eyed glare swept back to stare at her. She allowed a small hint of disdain to curl her lips and she arched one brow in practiced annoyance. The wolf youkai gave her a dark scowl.

"I don't know what you're doing to my men, witch, but I don't like it." He growled.

Rubies flashed, and Kagura gave a markedly uncaring shrug of her white shoulders. "And what do you think I could do, you mangy mongrel, when I'm trussed like this?"

The growl deepened to a more menacing level.

"You're a fool." Kagura spat, uncaring of the consequences. She loathed the way the demon made her tremble inside with fear, and she wasn't going to let him see it.

Light blue eyes narrowed and he stared at her for a long, long time. Kagura kept her face devoid of any emotion, but her red eyes were defiant. She braced herself when the wolf youkai sunk down to his knees beside her and eyed him with contempt.

"And you're scared." A flash of fangs, and Kagura couldn't stop her flinch at his words, damn him.

Rallying her courage, she lifted her chin and met him eye to eye. Her voice dripped scorn. "Of you? Hardly."

He only gave her a dark chuckle.

*Damn him!*

A claw-tipped hand swept out and pulled the leaf-wrapped bundle between them. With a casual flick of sharp claws, the leaves parted, and the succulent smell of roasted meat---prime pieces carefully chosen by Hakkaku from whatever animal they had roasted in front of the caverns---were scattered into an untidy pile. Koga picked through the meat and ate a piece with studied nonchalance.

*Does he think such a petty ploy will work on me?* Kagura thought contemptuously. *Fool!*

Koga sat back on his haunches, and stared at her for some time. "I don't know why you are here, but---"

Kagura's mouth curled into derision, and she turned her head away from him, determined to ignore the uncouth beast.

Koga began to growl again, but then he cut it off abruptly. That made Kagura's head whip back around to stare at him warily. A fist dropped down to grab some meat, and the wolf youkai extended it to her. "Eat." He ordered.

Red eyes firing with disdain, Kagura turned her head away again.

She almost choked in surprise as a strong hand pulled her chin back, not gently, and forced her mouth open. Her gasp of outrage was cut off as a chunk of roasted meat was popped into her mouth.

"EAT!" He roared at her, dropping his hand from her face and wiping it on his fur-covered thigh like he was soiled by touching her.

Kagura spat it back at him, right in his face. The meat fell with a greasy splat to the ground between them.

Koga blinked, and she smiled.

*Take that, you mangy dog!*