InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Camomile Tea ❯ Chapter Eight ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter Eight

The full moon's bright light gently illuminated Kagura's way as she gently floated away from Naraku's hidden palace. He'd been furious with her beyond belief. Secretly, she hoped he'd leave her be but of course no such thing would ever happen. Since Kagura had been born of Naraku, she'd never wanted anything more than a life without him. Day in and day out she did nothing but try to please him in the hopes he'd return her heart and end up failing miserably every time. The youkai could sense her end nearing as Naraku had begun summoning all his forces in what appeared to be an invasion on all the other lands. How he was going to win, she didn't understand nor wanted to know. Now that she was of no use to him, she'd hoped she'd be able to slip away for a short time, his anger with her would be of some duration, during which, she'd hope to find a way to hide from him. Her only option at this time was to find the miko she'd been ordered to follow before and hopefully kidnap. Kagura didn't know or care about the miko's part in Naraku's plans. But her intuition told her that the miko might be the key to defeating Naraku. It was a long shot but Kagura now was facing the end of her life if she did not take action.

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Kagome blinked her eyes as she seemed to come out of a daze. She was standing in the courtyard of the temple at her home in the modern era. Something felt different, older somehow.

“Okaa-san!”

Kagome's face automatically formed a smile as she turned to look at who had called her.

An remarkably beautiful teenage girl was running towards her with tears of joy spilling down her face.

“Okaa-san! I just got the letter! I got accepted at University of Tokyo! I can live out my dream now!”

“Oh, koishii, that's wonderful! Wait until your otou-san finds out.”

“I know, okaa-san. Can I go to Rika's house and tell her?”

“Go on, and be sure to call Oba-san and Oji-san too.”

“I will, okaa-san. Ja ne!”

The girl turned and sprinted down the temple steps.

Kagome smiled as she watched her go, she turned and walked back inside the house. Somehow it wasn't the way it'd been when she lived there as a girl. Kagome couldn't quite understand what was happening. When that girl had been speaking to her, her brain seemed to be on auto-pilot and all she could do was sit back and watch. What Kagome found amazing about the girl was, her hair was an amazing silver-gray color that gave just a little shimmer in the light, her eyes were a deep blue with flecks of gold around the iris.

Kagome decided to sit down on the couch. It was a burgundy suede and very comfortable. After about 15 minutes, she heard a car pull up, followed by an engine turning off and a car door slam. The lock on the door turned and a man walked in.

Kagome heard from her own mouth,

“What are you doing home so early, anata?”

“Why, I have a surprise for you, koi.”

Kagome was surprised enough, the man seemed so familiar. His golden eyes sparkled as he smiled at her. A blue crescent and magenta strips appeared on his face as he dropped his concealment spell. Kagome lost sense of what her auto-pilot brain was saying to this man but she couldn't understand why she felt this sense of knowing who he was and more importantly why she felt a flutter of pleasure in her heart whenever he smiled…

&&&&&&&&&&

“Kagome-sama…Kagome-sama…Kagome-sama!”

“Waaa!”

Kagome woke with a jump and promptly rolled off her bed onto the floor.

Rubbing her eyes, she looked up to see Sora smiling at her.

“Glad to see you're awake, milady.” She said with a sparkle in her dark eyes.

Kagome pouted, “You're making fun of me, Sora-san. That's not nice…”

Sora sighed, “Milady, the household will be leaving without you if you don't get up and dress.”

This definitely caught Kagome's attention causing her to snap her head up. Being early in the morning however, this also meant that the fast motion caused her to crack her neck.

“Aaaaah…oh, that hurt. Wait, what do you mean the household will be leaving?”

Sora's face took on a more serious look, “Inutaisho-dono has received information that Naraku intends to attack us again soon. You and your family need to be removed to a safer location.”

Kagome frowned. She and her family seemed to draw unwanted trouble wherever they went. She slowly got to her feet, shook out her hair and said to Sora,

“Well, I'd best get dressed then, what should I wear?”

“Well, we need to keep you disguised somehow. You can't wear what you did last night for obvious reasons. We have nothing that would allow you to blend in with the common unless you don't mind dressing as a street beggar. Inutaisho-dono desires that you dress yourself as a miko on the hopes that you will be taken as a traveling miko going village to village helping others.”

Kagome frowned again, this didn't seem the smartest strategy to her considering Naraku was after her family and it wouldn't do well to be dressed in peasant clothes and yet have body guards.

Kagome said, “Would it be possible for me to wear hakamas other than red?”

“Certainly, milady but why?”

“Well, I don't want to well recognized. People all know mikos wear white haori and red hakama. If I wore a different color, they would know I'm not a native.”

Sora looked at her for a moment.

“Alright, milady I believe that can be accomplished. Please wait while I fetch your clothes. Oh, and if you know a cloaking spell for your ki that might be useful, we don't want to attract unwanted notice from others.”

Sora immediately hurried from the room. Kagome frowned again. By the sounds of thing, it was getting more and more dangerous to be away from Inutaisho and his family. It seemed as though they were the only ones that could provide any sort of protection. And yet Kagome wasn't sure if it was wise for her to remain. She wasn't sure now if it was her family Naraku was after or her. It made more sense that it was her seeing as she was carrying the jewel.

Sora suddenly reappeared with Kagome's clothes, a white haori and a deep orchid hakama.

“Hurry, milady, everything has been packed and we shall be leaving shortly.”

Kagome nodded and hurriedly got dressed.

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By the time she actually got outside, Kagome noticed that there seemed to be a lot of frenzied scurrying going on, a LOT more than when she'd first arrived and that had been frenzied enough.

Servants wearing the signature white and red of the royal* household were skirting about the grounds gathering things and taking them back into the manor. There were no signs of transportation round the place at all. Kagome suddenly remembered that Japanese didn't use wheeled horse-drawn carriages yet. It would years before they would do so. Kagome's frown deepened, she wasn't sure if she understood how they exactly planned on getting to this safer location. Though it would be faster to travel they way they arrived, it wasn't exactly what she called conspicuous. On the other hand, traveling by foot would be much slower however, they had a slightly lower chance of being seen.

As Kagome continued pondering her thoughts, Sesshoumaru suddenly appeared next to her. She didn't notice seeing as her thoughts were occupying the majority of her thoughts process. That is until she turned and suddenly bumped into him. Unfortunately, she had been moving rather quickly and proceeded to lose her balance. As her world suddenly tipped the wrong way, she landed on something soft. When she opened her eyes again, she realized she'd been caught by someone…someone with very strong and warm arms. Kagome blushed when she realized who it was. When she looked up and met Sesshoumaru's eyes, her blush deepened.

“Gomen…I was lost in my own thoughts.”

“I noticed. May I inquire as to what you were pondering?”

“Erm…I guess. I was wondering exactly how we were going to get to…”

“The seaside manor?”

“Yeah, that place…how exactly are we?”

Kagome cringed inwardly at her momentary return to the style of speaking she had used in the modern era. When she was around Sesshoumaru, he scared her slightly and she was afraid to talk like she normally does.

“Otou-san has decided that we will split into three groups on the hope that the enemy will be confused by out movements. We will take separate paths to the place. The journey shouldn't take more than a few days.”

“I see, what will happened it one of us it attacked?”

“You need not worry, we're all competent warriors, that is Otou-san, Inuyasha and myself. We will not allow you and your family to be harmed.”

Kagome wondered to herself if it was because he had to or because her wanted to. She almost opened her mouth to ask but decided it would improper to ask. I suppose I'll find out at some point.

“Sesshoumaru, you and Kagome-san need to be leaving soon.”

“Hai, Otou-san. We'll meet again in a few days time.”

“Wait, what? Am I traveling with you alone?!”

Sesshoumaru looked at her from the corner of his eye.

“Does that bother you, miko-san?”

Kagome detected the coldness in his voice and eye. Damn it! Said the wrong thing at the wrong time.

“You misunderstand me. I merely thought it would be inappropriate since we are not married. We barely know each other at that.”

“What better chance, then, to familiarize ourselves with each other.”

The coldness melted away momentarily and he cast one last amused glance at her before turning to get the supplies they needed for the trip. Kagome stood rooted on the spot. Did he just imply he wanted to get to know me better? No way, he's pulling my leg! Well, it's a changed from the bastard he was being before…

So there they were; Inuyasha and Kikyo in one group; Inutaisho, Ji-chan, and Sakura* in another; Sesshoumaru and Kagome completed the last group.

“Be safe, my sons and take good care of your companions.”

“Hai, otou-san safe journey to you too.”

“I'll be sure to do so, otou-san.”

And so they began.

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Naraku was once again found in his dark study. He could be heard quietly snickering as his face was lit by light from a mirror. This little treasure Kagura had brought him was most useful. He had yet to use it for its more deadly purpose but he was sure he would be able to at some point. He had just discovered a little plot to confuse him but he decided to use it to his advantage. He learned that Inutaisho's party had planned to split up to find separate ways to his seaside manor. That place was more secure than their present location. He had a number of reasons he wanted to interfere: A) he hadn't had any fun in ages. B) he couldn't and wouldn't let them get there and C) he wanted some hostages, it'd been ages since he had any. He had his eye on that little blue-eyed miko for some time but decided why not have two and a couple of youkai princes thrown in for good measure? Heh heh heh…this will be absolutely DELICIOUS

He suddenly burst into manical laughter that rang about the mansion.