InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ My Priest Charming ❯ The Angry Dog ( Chapter 2 )

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha.

A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the first chapter! I'd like to hear your thoughts on the story, though- am I keeping everyone in character? Have any ideas for romantic/silly moments? Read and review please!

"My Priest Charming"

CHAPTER 2: The Angry Dog

Sango was blushing madly, was sure she was beet red. Forget the falling teacups- she had almost tumbled headlong into a very handsome monk's lap! Here he was- the man she had been waiting for, for the last five years, and she wasn't even prepared to serve him tea properly.

Somehow, though, in her surprise, she still managed to regain her balance, her head spinning slightly.

When she checked the looks on their faces, she realized that both her father and Miroku were giving her strange looks. Plastering a smile on her face, she set the tea down between them, her hands still shaking a little as she placed the cups in front of them. She silently made a mental note to kill Kagome straight after this meeting.

"F-forgive me….." she said, quietly.

Fortunately, Miroku just shot her a very formal and respectful smile, bowing kindly to her. "I see you've grown much since our last meeting, Lady Sango. I am honored to be in the company of the taiji-ya once more."

Her mouth formed a small, shy smile and the redness in her cheeks resurfaced as he smiled at her. Tensing her fingers, she carefully poured the boiling tea into the monk's cup. -Ooooh Sango, don't screw up. Don't spill the tea--. She could just imagine what it would be like if, instead of Miroku being pleased at her dignity and grace, that he would leave again because he didn't want his hand further burned by hot tea.

She let out an inaudible sigh of relief as the tea reached the brim without spilling over or splashing, and then turned to delicately fill up her father's cup. Sango sat back on her heels, folding her hands in her lap. She watched silently in the way he moved- so practiced, nearly perfect.

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A short time later, the friendly meeting between Miroku and the chief of the village was done, and the priest rose to his feet to leave the house.

"Are you sure you won't stay with us, Houshi-sama?" Sango's father suggested, standing also, in courtesy.

Miroku smiled politely. -There's no use in taking advantage of the cleverest of the village..-he considered to himself. "Thank you kindly for the offer, but I'm sure I'll find the inn down the road sufficient for tonight. Thank you for your hospitality." He bowed to both Sango and her father, and then, pulling his priest's staff upright, moved to leave their dwelling.

Sango's father bowed back, watching him leave.

Sango stood motionless for a few seconds, watching the man leave, and not knowing what she should do. If he walked out of that door right now, perhaps he would never come back again! Not even saying a word to her father, she pushed her way through the bamboo curtain that hung over the door, and followed the monk.

He had just stepped out of the front room, when she found him. "Houshi-sama!" she called, quickly.

He stopped, and turned to face her in the doorway. She drew in a small breath. His dark robes and hair were framed by the red and pink hue of the sunset outside, and it caused him to have an almost ethereal glow. His chiseled face and dark eyes shone a deep smile to her.

"Yes, Miss Sango…?" He raised the question lightly.

She was suddenly angry at herself for being so forward. Now he was staring back at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something.

"Ah….I was……" she suddenly found the fire next to her very fascinating. "….Do you remember when you told me…..when you told me that you would come back to stay with us…..?"

Miroku smiled warmly at her. "I do."

Sango dug her fists into the fabric of her kimono, meeting his violet eyes. "…did you mean it….?"

She could hear a light chuckling from his chest. He was laughing at her, but not in a way that made her feel any more embarrassed. "…I am here right now, am I not?"

She nodded quietly.

He thought for a moment, his eyes glittering at her. -Is the fearless Sango blushing because of me? She certainly has changed a lot.-

"Miss Sango, you have grown quite pretty since we last met….how old are you now?"

"Seventeen."

"Seventeen…." He said the word thoughtfully, almost as if it had been a proposition to him. Suddenly, outside of the house, there came a loud clatter, and he snapped to full attention.

-He couldn't have found me here, could he?-. The monk leaned out the front door, looking wildly down the road between the villagers' houses. Nothing was there. He blew out a relieved sigh.

Sango looked slightly concerned. "Is something wrong, Houshi-sama?"

He turned back to her, the wide smile back on his face again. "Everything is just fine, Miss Sango. Nothing to worry about….I think I should be going, now, and leave your family in peace. I'm sure I'll see you again quite soon!" He waved quickly, and then moved out into the street.

Sango waved back, watching hid back as he left. She was sure he looked a little worried as he walked, but she shook it off. The thing that mattered was that he had called her pretty….

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"ONE!…..TWO!…..Higher!….Faster! Push it, Kohaku! Push it!" The ceramic circles shattered and sprayed out one by one into millions of shards, as the sharp sickle came in contact with them. Clatter after deafening clatter, Sango coached her younger brother with the persistence of a drill sergeant.

The young boy had sweat running down his jaw, and soaking the front of his short kimono. He grunted with the effort of seizing back the heavy iron and slamming it back with perfect aim to hit every single circle. His wiry muscles and his quick mind were used to the training though, and he sped up to hit the last three.

When the last pieces of ceramic fell onto the plot of grass, Kohaku mopped the sweat off his face and walked over to where his older sister stood. "How was that?"

She smiled down at him. "That was good. You've improved since last week!"

Kohaku beamed under the praise.

"You want to try it again, and see how fast you can go the second time around?"

He groaned good-naturedly, but nodded his compliance. Sango trotted lightly to place new cups on the standing wooden posts that the exterminators used for their weapon practice. Twenty posts in total, and, when all were filled up, she ran back to stand behind Kohaku.

Almost immediately, he began moving at the targets, his chain swooping through the air, and causing his weapon to hit with deadly accuracy.

In the midst of the smashing glass, Sango's sensitive ears picked up unusual sounds from the village across the field.

"Kohaku, stop." Almost as suddenly as he had begun, Kohaku lowered his weapon, and turned his focus towards her.

"What is it?"

She listened for a moment, some loud noises and voices floating down the hill. "Something's going on up there. We should go check it out."

In a demon exterminator's village, there was always risk. No matter how cheerful the people remained, everyone was always on guard and had their senses attuned to anything unusual. Who knew when the demons might take revenge on them, or some unknown enemy would decide to attack. The fact that their village was hidden on an isolated mountaintop made the disturbance even more alarming.

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The monk was cornered. Cornered like the damn rodent that he was!

"So, Miroku…..thought you could get away from me, eh?" the eyes of Miroku's captor flashed in amusement. He pushed the edge of his wide blade deeper into the flesh of the monk's throat, grinning in deep satisfaction. "What an idiot!"

Sango and Kohaku were ready with their weapons, standing a few feet behind the scene where a small crowd of onlookers had gathered. Why in the world was this vicious-looking creature cornering a peace-loving Buddhist monk? No matter what the answer was, Sango wasn't ready to let Miroku go down without a fight.

The demon stood with his feet planted widely apart, his chest thrown forward proudly, waiting for Miroku to speak. The monk looked up at the demon, his dark eyes clouded with something- fear, rage, humiliation- Sango couldn't tell, but was worried for him.

And, suddenly, Miroku moved to take action. Calmly, he sat up, and batted the end of the sword away from him. Carefully, he picked his body off the ground and dusted the dirt off his robes. Leaning down to pick up his staff, he met the demon's eyes with a devious grin. "You look like a ruffled dog, Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha growled fiercely, his dark brows lowered over his eyes. "I'm not a fucking dog, Miroku!" he yelled, shoving the monk back a few feet. "I came to get back what you stole from me!"

Sango watched in a mix of surprise and horror as Miroku recovered his balance easily, and then, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet, swung the end of his staff to smack his opponent square in the face. Inuyasha spluttered at the hit, and then, all at once, the two men were swinging and blocking their weapons with all their force, pushing back and forth in the middle of the crowded street. Bloodcurdling yells of frustration split the air, and the clanging of sharp metal rang from both weapons.

Adrenaline pulsing through her veins long ago, Sango rushed forward into the fray, effectively stalling the fight by shoving hiraikotsu in between the men. Yes, nothing stopped a fight quite like a 6-foot bone boomerang. The two still scuffled on either side, muffled insults flying out. Sango shot each a venomous glare, shutting them down almost immediately.

"Although this is a taiji-ya's village, we do not promote fighting as a means of solving problems." The two drew back, astounded at Sango's even, no-nonsense tone. Growing up as the daughter of the chief had certainly taught her a few pointers on breaking up scuffles.

Sango snapped her eyes to burn into Inuyasha's, leveling him quickly. "Why have you disrupted the peace of our village?"

Inuyasha looked somewhat ashamed, now noticing the ruckus they had caused. "Er….Well, it was the damn monk's fault- I followed him here to get back what he took from me!" He raised a clawed finger to accuse Miroku, who raised his hands in a gesture of innocence.

Sango fumed at the tall man and demon, yanking her boomerang back to rest over her back. "Now," she continued, forcefully. "You two will come inside, and discuss this problem like civilized people." Turning delicately on her heel, she marched towards her home, the two men dragging behind her like shamed little boys.

Kagome and Kohaku shared an amused glance, proud as always of Sango's show of power. No matter who was involved, Sango never would standing for violence inside the village. The two fell in line to follow the Sango back home.

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Kagome rolled out her kit of medicines and bandages with practiced ease, deftly picking up three different sizes of bandages, and the correct kinds of salves.

Inuyasha watched her quick fingers with interest. "So….does this kind of thing happen often…?" He winced and almost growled as her cold fingers lightly rolled over his bruised flesh.

The pretty girl smirked as she placed a small bandage on a cut over his eyes. "These people deal in the trade of death. Of course this kind of thing happens often! Plus, I always have the little kids to deal with. Scraped knees and all. You get pretty good at it fast…"

He nodded quietly, trying to keep an unaffected face under the stickling pain of the tiny wounds.

Miroku was on the opposite side of the room, leaning against the wall with a rag soaked in cool water held up to his black eye. Sango wasn't tending his wounds, but was sitting in front of the fire, thinking. What had happened out there? Miroku had attacked like a trained fighter, and was already showing a roughness around the edges that she hadn't remembered. Perhaps he had always been that way…?

"So," she began, thoughtfully. "It seems you two have met before?"

Inuyasha scoffed loudly.

Miroku shrugged. "We happen to know each other quite well, the dog and I."

Inuyasha growled menacingly. "….not a dog…." He grumbled. He whipped around to face the dark-haired monk, his nostrils flaring. "We were like partners! Then that damn sneaky monk stole my money from me and ran off with it!"

Sango looked back and forth between Inuyasha and Miroku, her face twisted in disbelief. "Houshi-sama?! You stole his money?"

Miroku grinned sheepishly. "Oh, it was there for the taking…he wasn't even GUARDING it, and so, I just did what any person with some amount of wit might have done…."

Both Kagome and Sango glared at the monk. "A person with….wit?!"

He sighed. "All right, I admit, it was kind of a low thing to do…" He reached deep into the sleeves of his purple and black robes, retrieving a small wallet of coins. With a flick of his wrist, he threw it at Inuyasha's face where it connected with a particularly tender bruise.

Inuyasha spluttered a string of unrepeatable words, shoving the bag of coins into the folds of his red kimono while glaring back at the monk.

Miroku sighed, as if he missed the money already. "Either way, it wasn't as if it was your money in the first place! We stole it from that mansion…"

The room might have exploded. Sango was up on her haunches, her eyes shooting daggers at the monk. "You STOLE that money from others?! I thought you lived under the teachings of Buddha?"

Miroku looked a bit more than scared at her change in temper. It was if her eyes were on fire. "Er….Sango…..You see, when you're a monk, you don't really get much money….."

Sango sat back on her heels, blowing out steam. "Monks shouldn't worry themselves so much over material goods…" She grumbled. At this point, her image of a humble monk was pretty much up in flames.

Miroku looked regretfully at her, but didn't dare try to press further.

He leaned his head back against the firm wall, fingering the blood that he felt on his lip. "Inuyasha, I forgot how hard you punch. So…how'd you track me down anyway?"

Inuyasha grunted, looking rather proud of himself. "You forget I'm an expert tracker…." He pointed to his nose. "I can find anyone with my sense of smell….teach stupid pervert monks like you that you can't steal from Inuyasha and expect not to feel the consequences."

Miroku closed his eyes and grinned widely. Inuyasha was so entertaining.

"…..Dog….."

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A/N: Did you like that? Should I develop the Inuyasha/Kagome relationship too, or should I just focus on Miroku and Sango? I'd like to hear your feedback, so review please!