InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Of Dog Gods & Mortals (new version) ❯ Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER: I'll make this short and sweet. 'Inuyasha' and all character involved belong to Rumiko Takahashi and not to me. Any questions? No? Good, now on with the story.

 

This story has been posted before, under the same name. I was forced to remove it, due to complaints, but as you can see it is now rewritten and reposted, and hopefully I will not have the same problems with this version. For those of you who read my original version, this one has seen some changes in parts, and while the main plot of the story is unchanged I would still recommend rereading the entire story to avoid being confused.

 

Chapter 3

 

Though the next few weeks seemed to pass unbelievably slowly, when the day that marked the two month anniversary of Kagome's arrival at the Temple came, it somehow seemed to both Kagome and Inuyasha that barely any time had passed at all.

 

To say that Inuyasha was confused about his newest priestess would be an understatement. It seemed to Inuyasha that every time he thought he had Kagome figured out she went and did something that changed his whole opinion about her again. A lot of the time, she reminded Inuyasha of a younger version of Kaede, dedicated to her duties and compassionate to her fellow mortals. She went about her duties - even the simple housekeeping-like chores - with a passion, diligently studied all she could of healing from Kaede, and did all she could to help those around her. She actually reminded Inuyasha of Kikyo before she changed. But then, even before Kikyo became so closed and arrogant, her aura had never projected the warmth that Kagome's did. Kikyo was always more reserved, while Kagome was so open and trusting to almost everyone she met, and always seemed to see the good in everyone. Inuyasha thought that it might have something to do with her power to see the light and darkness in a person's heart that made her like this, but still he couldn't help but be amazed and impressed by just how huge Kagome's heart was.

 

But Kagome had other sides too; he had seen them come out on occasion over the last two months. For starters, there was her wicked temper, which he had to privately admit was almost as bad as his. Inuyasha was watching from the Temple roof the first time she unleashed her anger on an unsuspecting victim, and was simply shocked that someone so sweet and innocent looking could be so vicious. He had thought that if she was going to blow up like that, it would be at Kikyo, who, despite all the warning he knew she had been given, had been stubbing Kagome and making things as difficult for her as possible since she arrived at the Temple. But it wasn't Kikyo who Kagome had snapped at; it was one of the older village boys. And it wasn't because of her; it was because of a young village girl. There was a story behind Kagome's temper exploding that day which had been going on far longer than Kagome had been in the village. The village girl in question, Salome and her mother, Filia had moved to Ergos a little over year ago, and since then both had been met with prejudice and, in some cases, even open hostility by many of the villagers. The reason for this was because Filia had no husband when she moved here and had never been willing to state what happened to him, or if she had ever even had one. The evitable conclusion for many of the villagers was that Filia was a former whore who had given birth to a child out of wedlock, and Salome had unfortunately been forced to bare the brunt of teasing from many of the village children. That was what had happened that day when one of the village boys had made the mistake of making a particularly nasty comment within Kagome's hearing. Kagome, upon hearing this, had instantly jumped to the girl's defence and given the boy foolish enough to make the comment the tongue lashing of his life. Later on, Inuyasha had taken the time to ask her about the encounter, and Kagome had stated that she believed that no one should be judged by their origins, especially since there was no proof one way or the other about Salome's father. What was more, she hated those who picked on those who were smaller or weaker than themselves in order to make themselves feel more powerful. The boy in question was two years older and the son of one of the village's richest families. The whole thing left Inuyasha with even more respect for Kagome, and even a little wary of her. Her yell had been so loud it almost hurt his ears, even from the Temple roof. He would have hated to have been in that boy's shoes.

 

But for the most part, Kagome was a rather quiet girl, and acted rather shy around him, still unsure of how to act around him even after all this time. That is, except for those times when the two would meet in the gardens at night, like they had done that first night nearly two months ago. Since then they had had many encounters like that, when late at night when the rest of the Temple was sleeping and Kagome came out to take a walk through the garden. When this happened, Inuyasha would join her and the two would talk for a while. In these talks, it was almost like they forgot that he was a God and she his priestess, and they would simply talk like two old friends about a range of subjects. Through nights like this he came to learn about her family, her life before she came to Ergos, and many of her hopes and dreams for the future. She in turn learnt more about his fellow Gods on a more personnel level, and learnt about some of the advantages and disadvantages that came with Godhood. He knew that many of his stories frankly shocked her, as the stories the priests of the world told about the Gods, containing none of the flaws he saw in himself and his fellow Gods on a regular basis, but he had the feeling that she enjoyed hearing his stories anyway and was sure she would never use them to her own advantage as he was sure many mortals would try to. Inuyasha found himself enjoying these talks he had with her more and more, and found himself missing them on those nights when she actually slept.

 

Tonight was one of those nights as Inuyasha sat out in the garden, his thoughts centred around his newest priestess and his feelings for her. It was times like this that Inuyasha found himself wishing that he needed more sleep like mortals did. He wished he could just escape into the realm of dreams so that he could escape the confused thoughts running through his head until they threatened to drive him insane. Life in the heavens was never this confusing, he was sure.

 

Inuyasha was falling in love with Kagome, he was sure about it. Everyday he was near her and every time he learnt something new about her, he just found himself falling for her more. She was passionate, caring and determined. She had a hidden fire within her that called to his soul and a compassionate heart that warmed his own. She was everything he could have ever wanted in a woman, and the fact that she was stunningly beautiful didn't hurt in the least. The fact that he had fallen for her so fast, frankly, shocked him, especially since he had never really thought that he would fall in love with anybody like this at all. When his two closest friends, Jinenji and Shiori fell in love with each other, it happened gradually over the space of several years; and that was only after they had already been friends for a couple of centuries. He'd known Kagome two months and he was already head-over-heals for her. Vaguely he remembered his mother telling him about love when he was still a child. She had said that there were two kinds of love. One grew slowly, needing to be nourished in order to reach its full potential. The other was fast, and could hit you almost instantly. Both could be amazingly strong, but with the second you sometimes needed to be careful not to confuse infatuation with real love. He was starting to wish he had paid more attention at the time, but there was no way he was going to try to talk to his mother about love now. His parents were already bugging Sesshomaru about him maybe finding a wife and giving them some grandchildren, he didn't want them to start in on him too. Besides, he wasn't really sure how his parents would react to hearing that he was actually falling in love with a mortal. As far back as he could remember, Gods had been with Gods and mortals with mortals. Gods watched over and protected mortals. Sometimes Gods even had affairs with them, but never anything serious or long term. Gods simply didn't fall in love and marry mortals, it wasn't done.

 

And even if he wanted to be with Kagome, even if his parents would allow it, she would eventually die and her soul would go to the underworld while he would remain the same. Sure he could appeal to Yura to make sure that she had a pleasant afterlife, but any time they had together would be undeniably short by his standards and there was nothing he could do to change that.

 

And of course, all of this was assuming that Kagome actually wanted to be with him too, and so far he wasn't really getting the sense that she did. Yes, they did seem to be forming a kind of strange friendship, but he hadn't gotten the impression that Kagome wanted to have any kind of a romantic relationship with him. Not, he allowed, that she was likely to come out and say it if she did. He had the feeling that she reminded herself that he was her God and she his priestess three or four times an hour and acted how she thought was accordingly. The only times she let her guard down around him was during their late night talks and even then she would sometimes put her guard back up or apologize for something or other she said. He had the feeling that she would never come out and say it if she wanted more from him, and with everything going on around them, not the least of which Kagome almost being forcibly married to a man she both hated and feared, he couldn't bring himself to say anything to her either, not now maybe not ever.

 

Inuyasha sighed to himself as he let his head drop and rubbed his forehead. If he was mortal he had no doubt that he would have a killer headache right now. He never realized before that love could be so damn complicated. His respect for his mother was seeing a sharp increase, for handling this kind of thing every day.

 

Inuyasha sat there for a couple of minutes more, debating whether or not to go inside and try to get some sleep, when a bright green light suddenly appeared and grew in front of him. Surprised, Inuyasha nevertheless grinned, he knew what and who that was.

 

Sure enough, a moment later the light cleared and in its place stood Jinenji, God of Gardening and Inuyasha's best friend. Jinenji was a Horse God, and mortals always depicted him as a tall powerfully built man with a stallion's head, looking rather majestic. Well, he was tall and powerfully built, but he was also rather lumpy looking, and his head, although resembling a horse, looked far more funny, even ugly, than majestic. He had a good heart though, and was loved by all of his friends. He was far gentler a God than Inuyasha, and certainly a lot quieter. Even before he became the God of Gardening, Jinenji's greatest joys came from watching and helping things grow. He loved to work in the earth, and had created his own private garden in the heavens that even wild and unruly Gods like Koga had to admire.

 

“Hey, haven't seen you in a while.” Inuyasha said with a smile. Jinenji usually visited him every couple of weeks, but this time he hadn't appeared since three weeks before Kagome arrived. Then again, it was spring, and that meant it was a busy time for his friend.

 

“Sorry, you know how things get for me in the spring.” Jinenji said in his soft voice as he sat down on the bench next to him. “Things are as beautiful as ever here. I swear, one of these days I'm really going to steal that gardener-priest of yours away. It's not fair that the God of Protection has a garden that looks like this while far too many of my Temple courtyards are overgrown with neglect.”

 

“Yeah, well, that's your fault for having such bad priests.” Inuyasha said, slightly teasing. He knew full well that despite what Jinenji said, the gardens at many of his temples were among the best in the country.

 

“Speaking of priests, have you found a third priestess yet?” Jinenji asked.

 

“Actually, yes.” Inuyasha said. “Her name's Kagome, and she turned up two months ago, with that black-heart prince of Lorinth my parents are so worried about right behind her I might add.”

 

“What?” Jinenji asked, confused. “You mean Prince Naraku? Why would he be after your priestess?”

 

“The girl's from a long line of priests, and was trained as a priestess herself.” Inuyasha started to explain. “She also has spiritual powers, the most powerful I've seen in any single mortal in two centuries or more. She's basically the kind of priestess we all dream of having but can never seem to find. However, she didn't want to become a priestess unless she felt passionate about serving the God, and as such wasn't attached to a Temple despite that fact that she was already a few years older than most priestesses are when they start. She's also very beautiful, and had the dumb luck to run into Naraku about three months ago. He started lusting after her, and ordered her to marry. She's a minor seer as well as a priestess and had a vision about Naraku, and what she saw terrified her. She couldn't stand the thought marrying him so she ran away from home and ended up here. Naraku arrived the same day she did, although I don't think he realized he would find her here. Anyway, when she realized that Naraku was right behind her she actually begged me to either make her my priestess or kill her so that Naraku wouldn't be able to touch her.”

 

“Well, I guess there's no question as to which one you chose.” Jinenji said. “Is Naraku really as bad as the other Gods are saying? I've never actually seen him myself.”

 

Inuyasha barely resisted the urge to shutter. “He's even worse. I never even imagined that a mortal could hold so much darkness within him. Woe be it to the mortals in Lorinth if he becomes their next King.”

 

Jinenji saw how troubled Inuyasha looked, and instantly knew that this Naraku must truly be evil. Inuyasha wasn't one to become upset like this easily. “Well, good news then because rumour going around is that the King's chosen his second son as his successor and plans to skip over Naraku. He should be announcing it within the next few months.”

 

“Thank all the stars for that.” Inuyasha muttered. “So, what else is new? What's been going on in the heavens that I've been missing being stuck down here?”

 

Jinenji's eyes widened as he realized he had forgotten all about the news he had come down here to tell his friend. “Oh yeah, how could I forget! You'll never guess what your brother's gone and done.”

 

Inuyasha struggled to keep the grin off his face, expecting to be told another outrageous story about his madcap little brother. “What's Shippo done now?”

 

To Inuyasha's surprise Jinenji shook his head. “No, not Shippo, your other brother.”

 

“Sesshomaru? What's he done?” Inuyasha asked, confused. If Sesshomaru had done anything too big he should have heard about, even stuck down here on earth. Wars were big news to mortals after all.

 

“You know how there have been those little skirmishes going on with the barbarians to the north for heavens knows how many years now? Well, one of these battles completely overrun one of the small villagers near the border and every one died, including the women and children.”

 

“Well that's horrible, but I hardly see how that's big news as far as my brother goes.” Inuyasha said, even more confused. “That kind of thing happens all the time where Sesshomaru's concerned.”

 

“Yeah, I know.” Jinenji said. “But what doesn't happen all the time is Sesshomaru stopping at the scene, taking one look at the body of a young girl killed in the battle and being so overcome by guilt over her death he goes to the underworld and appeals to Yura to return her to life.”

 

“WHAT?!?” Inuyasha yelped. He had to have misheard. His brother, the most cold-hearted bastard to ever live on earth or in the heavens, appealing to have a little girl brought back to life? No, that couldn't be right.

 

“Yeah, that was my opinion too when I heard.” Jinenji said. “But it's true just the same. I don't know what was so special about that one little girl, he's never done that before and he claims he never will again.”

 

“Damn.” Inuyasha said, shaking his head in amazement. “And Yura agreed?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“How'd he do it, Yura never gives up a claim.”

 

“Well, you know how you, Sesshomaru and your father have all managed to bribe her with locks of your hair in the past?” Jinenji started. Inuyasha nodded. He knew all right. Yura was kind of messed up in the head, stuck around dead people all the time, who could blame her? But for some reason she had this obsession with the long silver hair that all the men in his family had save, little Shippo. Inuyasha and his father had been using this obsession to something of their advantage for centuries by bribing Yura with locks of their hair to secure happy afterlives for their favoured mortals. Even Sesshomaru had been known to do this on occasion, usually with powerful generals or the like.

 

“Well, Sesshomaru did the same thing.” Jinenji said, and Inuyasha saw to his surprise that his friend was struggling to keep from smiling. “Only he did it with all of his hair.”

 

“What?”

 

Jinenji lost it and started laughing. “Yeah, all of his hair.” He said with a laugh. “He cut it all off and gave it to Yura. He was walking around bald, but it worked. Yura brought the girl back to life.”

 

Inuyasha started laughing as well at the thought of his brother bald. He couldn't even really picture it, for as long as he could remember Sesshomaru had had hair practically longer than his and his father's put together. He wished he could have seen it, but he knew full well as fast as a God's hair could grow, it would be back to normal within a couple of hours.

 

“Damn.” Inuyasha said again after he was able to stop laughing and catch his breath. “How about the girl, have you seen her?”

 

Jinenji nodded. “Yeah, her name is Rin and she's about nine or ten.” He said, still smiling slightly. “Your brother's been keeping her close to him ever since he had her brought back. I've never seen him so attached to a mortal before. And she's been so happy to be alive again that she's been staying with him.”

 

Inuyasha just shook his head, trying to get his head around all of this. It went against everything he knew of his brother. Maybe he'd been gone from the heavens too long if this kind of thing could happen.

 

Just then Inuyasha's nose caught a scent he knew all too well, and he heard a quiet gasp coming from down the garden path. When he turned around to look, sure enough there was Kagome with a shocked look on her face as she took in Inuyasha and his guest. Realizing she had been noticed, she quickly bowed and started stuttering apologies.

 

“I'm sorry, I thought I heard… I didn't mean to… I'll go if you want…” She managed to get out, although it felt like her tongue was about to tie itself in a knot. Kagome had managed to go to sleep right away for once tonight, but found herself waking up for some reason not long ago and was unable to get back to sleep. She thought she heard something in the garden and went out to see what it was, wondering if maybe Inuyasha would be out there again and would like to talk to her. She knew it was wrong for a priestess to be in love with her God, but she couldn't help it. She did not expect or even hope for anything to come of it, but she was grateful for any time she was permitted to spend with Inuyasha.

 

When she came to the bench she and Inuyasha often sat on to talk, she was shocked to see not only her God there, but another being who could only be Jinenji, the God of Gardening. True, he didn't look anywhere near as regal as his statues did, but he looked close enough to them for her to figure out who he was. Part of her remembered Inuyasha telling her that Jinenji was his closest friend, but most of her was stuck on the thought that she had just interrupted a discussion between Gods.

 

“Kagome, it's alright.” Inuyasha said, realizing that Kagome was scared that she had upset him and wanting to comfort her. Even if nothing ever came of his love for her, he never wanted Kagome to be scared of him. “Jinenji, this is Kagome, that new priestess I told you about. Kagome, as I'm sure you've figured out, this is Jinenji, the God of Gardening and my best friend.”

 

Kagome gulped slightly, but at least the Gods didn't seem to be angry with her, she thought as she bowed to the new God. She had a great deal of respect for such a God, knowing full well that without the ability to farm their crops, her people would still be forced to rely solely on hunting and gathering, and would have not been able to evolve to the level of civilisation they had now. Then they would be no better the barbarians to the north.

 

Jinenji nodded. “A pleasure to meet you Kagome.” He said calmly. Like Inuyasha, he never much liked it when mortals feared him. Turning to his friend he added, “I see what you meant earlier, Inuyasha, her spiritual power's every bit as strong as you said it was.” He could feel her potential power as easily as Inuyasha could.

 

He then grinned slyly before he continued in a lower voice that even Inuyasha would likely not hear if he were not a God. “I also see what you meant when you said she was beautiful. Could it be that you're keeping her around for another reason besides her potential as a priestess?” He asked teasingly, well aware of his friend's habit of having short affairs with beautiful mortal women.

 

To his surprise, Inuyasha actually looked mad by his suggestion. “It's not like that, so don't say that again, got it?” He snapped angrily, though in a whisper so that Kagome wouldn't hear.

 

Jinenji was frankly shocked; he'd never seen Inuyasha react like that to a joke about him being with a mortal woman before. Sure he had a temper, but that was one area that he had never seemed bothered about before. What was so different about this girl that Inuyasha would blow up in his face like that?

 

Inuyasha looked up to see that Kagome still looked uncomfortable. She was wondering if she should leave, but was afraid she would insult her God and his guest if she left before she was dismissed.

 

“Take a seat Kagome, you might as well join us if you're out here.” Inuyasha said, trying to put her at ease. He scooted over slightly to make room next to him on the bench.

 

Kagome was shocked that she was being asked to join them, but smiled shyly as she took the seat offered. For a while, she just sat and listened politely to the Gods talk, but eventually she lost her shyness enough around her God and the kind Jinenji that she allowed herself to add a few words of her own here and there.

 

As the three quietly talked the night away about various subjects, Jinenji watched the interaction between God and priestess very carefully, and could barely believe what he was seeing. He was sure that Kagome didn't know it, but Inuyasha never acted so open with any female save Shiori, who had been a friend to both of them since they were children, and even her he didn't treat with the same kind of kindness he was showing this mortal girl. He'd never seen Inuyasha look at a female the same way he was looking at Kagome either, including all the women he had had affairs with over the centuries. Kagome on the other hand, although she was clearly not fully comfortable around Gods yet, was watching Inuyasha with a kind of longing he recognized instantly although Inuyasha seemed to be in the dark.

 

It was incredible, but by the time Kagome went back inside to go to bed and Jinenji prepared to return to the heavens, he was sure of it. Inuyasha had fallen in love with his mortal priestess, and she had fallen in love with him too. What this meant for the two of them he didn't know, but he sincerely wished them the best and hoped the fates would be kind on them.

 

Author's Note

 

Thanks Youkaineko for pointing out my mistake in this chapter, where I forgot to change something from the original version to make this a Greek based story rather than an Egyptian one. It's fixed now, and hopefully I won't make such mistakes in the future.