InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dear Life, I Quit ❯ Tusaka of the Leopards ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha…yadda yadda yadda…but I do own Tusaka!

 

Kaori: Well, here I am again with another chapter. ^-^

 

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Dear Life, I Quit

 

Chapter 2 {Tusaka of the Leopards}

 

 

Inuyasha dusted the powered clay off his kimono; he watched the remains of Kikyo disappear with the light breeze. His heart was beating rapidly in his chest. `She wasn't supposed to hear it…' he thought, suddenly feeling a little weak in the knees. `It was a bluff…'

 

Over the past two weeks, Kikyo had had an idea to steal her whole soul back from Kagome. Inuyasha, secretly not liking the idea of losing the only person who actually loved him for that he was, had started to tell Kikyo to wait until all the jewel fragments were found before she take the rest of her soul back.

 

Kagome wasn't suppose to hear it…she wasn't suppose to think that he was actually plotting against her. `Kagome…' Inuyasha squeezed his fists together; he could still feel the tingle on his stomach where Kikyo's fragile body was smashed under Kagome's command. `She must think I'm ready to kill her now…' the hanyou thought bitterly.

 

Inuyasha ran back through the trees, a mixture of emotions swimming through his body. He did love Kikyo dearly…but his feelings for Kagome seemed to overwhelm them somehow. `Kikyo is most definitely gone now…' he thought to himself. `So I no longer have to worry about her taking Kagome's soul…but Kagome…' he let out a sigh as he neared the camp. `I'll have to explain everything to Miroku and the others, because I know she isn't going to come back very easily…I just hope Sango takes it easy on me.'

 

 

“BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!” Sango screamed as she rapidly hit Inuyasha over the head with her Hiraikotsu. “HOW COULD YOU!? BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!” she slammed the hanyou in the side of the head and took him off his two feet, she then rose Hiraikotsu up over her head, and was about to give him another hammering, but Miroku grabbed her arms and made her drop the heavy weapon.

 

“Hold on Sango!” Miroku yelled. “You don't need to kill him!”

 

“Get off me Hentai!” Sango yelled; she then looked down at the battered Inuyasha with a look of pure hatred. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn't!” As a reaction to Sango's temper against Inuyasha, Kirara also started to hiss and growl at the hanyou.

 

“Kagome-chan does so much for you!” angry tears were now streaming down Sango's face. “And you repay her by putting in this evil plot with Kikyo!? You should have destroyed that clay BITCH as soon as she was brought back to life! She never loved you in death as she did in life! She was going to kill Kagome-chan and then kill you too!” the youkai slayer tore away from Miroku and dragged Inuyasha to his feet by the collar of his kimono. “But you were too blind…blind and stupid…”

 

Inuyasha ripped away from Sango's assault and rubbed his dead. “It was a bluff I told you! Fuck! I wanted to hold her off from killing Kagome! She would have done it with or without me!”

 

“That still doesn't explain why you never destroyed her in the first place!” Sango screamed. “Kikyo wanted you to die with her…and she wanted to turn you human when she was alive.” Sango sank to her knees and started to cry more hurtfully. “Kagome loved you the way you were…she wouldn't change you for the world…and now look at what you've done…”

 

“And Kami only knows what poor Kagome-san is thinking right now.” Miroku said, kneeling next to Sango and rubbing her shoulders.

 

“Yeah,” Shippo glared up at Inuyasha. “She's probably running away terrified of you right now.”

 

Miroku nodded. “The thought is probably going through her head that you are ready to kill her for making Kikyo's body shatter like that.” The monk sighed and took the crying Sango fully into his arms. “We have a very low chance of finding her.”

 

Sango looked up at Inuyasha hatefully, she cuddled herself into Miroku. “…bastard…”

 

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Kagome fell to her knees; the mud over her body had hardened and started to crust off in large clumps. Her body was tired and bleeding, and she couldn't get a good grasp on her air intake, it felt as if her lungs were shriveled and tightened up in her chest. `How far am I after running?' the young miko thought as she looked around the unfamiliar field she had stopped in. `I don't recognize this place at all…'

 

A bunch of steam was rising over a small grassy hill…she recognized the look of it, and she gleefully stumbled to her feet. “…a hot spring…” she said as she made her legs run up over the hill. `It will clean off my smell barrier…but at least I can feel clean for a little while.'

 

As the young miko got to the top of the hill the hot spring came into view, like all the others she and Sango had been to, it was surrounded by rocks and boulders and looked very inviting.

 

Kagome took off her cloths and threw them into the hot water, she watched as the hardened mud started to separate from the white and green cloth, she then climbed in along with her cloths and sank completely in under the two feet of water. She ran her hands through her hair and made sure all the mud and tangles were out before she resurfaced.

 

“Ah…so warm…” she groaned as she rested her head on one of the rocks, keeping the rest of her body completely submerged in the water. She moved her hands around the small pool and took her cloths out of the water to let them dry on the surrounding rocks.

 

Her brown eyes looked up to the sky, the sun was setting. `They aren't going to come looking for me tonight…' Kagome thought as she closed her eyes and swayed her hands through the water. `So I'm safe here for a little while longer.' Her aching legs started to feel a lot better because of the warmness of the water, and it soon started to put her asleep.

 

Just as she was about to doze off, she felt something crawl up her stomach, coming to rest on her chest. Kagome's eyes slowly opened and she looked down, resting on her breast was a large toad, its three red eyes stared back at her. A sudden chill rose in the young miko's body, and when the toad let out a deep “ribbet” she screamed, making the startled toad jump off her and swim to the other end of the pool. It got up on a rock and stared back at her, not blinking.

 

“It touched me! IT TOUCHED ME!” Kagome scrubbed her chest with her hands and started to splash around, utterly terrified of the toad. “AH!!!”

 

“Hey! Hey!” a young man ran down over the hill and stopped near the hot spring. “Please, stop your screaming and calm down!”

 

Upon hearing his voice Kagome let out another vicious scream and curled up into a ball in the water. She looked up at him, he wore a red and yellow kimono, and had two daggers strapped to his sides, his hair was blue and spiked back,; his ears were pointed and a leopards tale was sprouted from his rear. `A youkai…' Kagome thought. She moved to his eyes, which were covered by his left hand…he had actually covered his eyes!

 

“Listen lady, if you can make yourself decent I maybe able to help you out here…” the youkai took another step towards the spring. “I can only imagine that you're naked since this IS the hot spring…”

 

Kagome slowly got up out of the water and put her damp cloths back on, she turned to the youkai who was now lowering his hand. His eyes were a brilliant green! They were beautiful cat eyes, which is how Kagome identified them.

 

The youkai smiled. “The toad is nothing to worry about; he just lives in the spring.” He explained, making a hand gesture towards the toad. “He will not harm you…though he tends to get a little in-your-face at times.”

 

Kagome twitched. “I'm not too good with slimy little reptiles…” she looked at the toad as it returned to the water. She sighed and looked back to the youkai. “I'm Kagome.”

 

“Tusaka,” the youkai saluted her and bowed. “I was part of the great Leopard Army until I ran for it three years ago.”

 

“You're a runaway?” Kagome asked.

 

“Hai Kagome-san,” Tusaka nodded. “I couldn't bare being off at war away from my beautiful Gina. When we were heading into our final battle it was made perfectly clear that very few of us would make it back alive.” He sighed. “I took off; if I was to die I wanted to do so near my beloved Gina. But by the time I made my way back to my home, Gina along with many others were long gone, and the town was burnt to the ground.”

 

“That's so sad…” Kagome said.

 

Tusaka nodded. “Ever since then I've been searching for them, but I haven't caught any of their sent, so I've been roaming blindly through the land looking for them. I have come to terms that now I am probably not going to find them, so I am just a wanderer looking for a place to belong.” He looked at Kagome. “What about you? You are not from around here are you?”

 

Kagome shook her head, “I am a runaway as well.” She told Tusaka of how she came to be in the feudal era, and the kinds of adventures her and her friends have been through thus far, including the fight against Naraku, all the way up to the most current event that had made her flee. “I bet Inuyasha hates me now, and I bet he would do anything to rip me to pieces.” She looked up at the rising moon. “So I am not going back there, I'll find a new place to live…”

 

“What about your home through the well?” Tusaka asked who was now sitting right along side of Kagome. “Can't you go back there?”

 

She shook her head. “Inuyasha can chase me through there.”

 

“Hai, I see.” Tusaka nodded his head. “So you are a miko, ne?”

 

Kagome nodded. “Hai.”

 

“That's interesting…” he smiled. “So Kagome-sama, are you in need of a travel partner?”

 

Kagome looked at him surprisingly. “Nani?”

 

“I just figured that you might want to travel with someone.” Tusaka smiled. “Someone to help fight off evil toads.”

 

Kagome laughed and nodded her head. “That would be great.”

 

“Sugoi.” Tusaka smirked. “Now Kagome-sama, where shall we camp to on this night?”

 

“Here should be good enough.” Kagome smiled.

 

Tusaka nodded. “As you wish, Kagome-sama.”

 

“Hey Tusaka,” Kagome looked over at him. “Just call me Kagome.”

 

“Hai, my miko friend.” Tusaka grinned.

 

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Kaori: Soooo? What do you think? Review ^-^