InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ One Step Forward, Two Steps Back ❯ Step 10: He is SO dead! ( Chapter 10 )

Thank you everyone for your encouraging reviews! I wouldn't have been surprised to get more rude reviews than I did, but surprisingly few people chose to comment on how much time passed between posts (there were a few though, that I would have gladly smacked upside the head, had I been able to). I know how irritating it can be when people don't update for very long periods, so I'm very happy that almost everyone decided to be kind. And attitudes like that always make me want to update faster. I really do appreciate your patience.

 

I do have to say, though, to the ones that made some rude comments along the lines of 'how hard can it be to get one stupid chapter posted' (as well as a few other things that I am just going to ignore) that it can be a lot harder than you think. Writing isn't my life, and I don't get paid to do it. I write because I enjoy it, and because I enjoy entertaining others as well. So when life gets very stressful (and believe me, it has been really bad lately...a lot of horrible things have been going on at work) it is hard to find anything funny. So writing anything amusing is very hard for me at times like that. But when I do find my inspiration again, I try my very best to write - not just for myself, but for the people that have encouraged me without being rude and obnoxious.

 

Anyway, now that I am done with that, it seems a lot of you are still enjoying poor Inuyasha's suffering. Sadistic, aren't you? (As if I'm one to talk...) I'm sure you'll find this chapter especially entertaining, then!

 

On with the story!

 

.

 

.

 

Disclaimer: You know, I've never really thought about it this way before, but it would be rather silly for someone to sue someone else for writing fan fiction about their characters. Because really, if they love the characters that much, then surely they have bought a lot of the official merchandise that supports the company. And if they were sued, they wouldn't have the money to buy anything else, and then the company loses business. And I really think WAY too hard about pointless stuff sometimes...

 

.

 

.

 

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Chapter Ten

 

.

 

.

 

Kagome wrapped her arms around herself in a protective manner as her eyes darted from side to side nervously. She hated feeling so exposed and unprotected in the middle of a forest. What if someone came along and accidentally saw her like this? She knew the others in her group would hear her if she screamed, but that thought wasn't as comforting as it should have been.

 

'I'm not sure which would be worse,' Kagome thought to herself as she stood next to the stream, waiting for Sango to come back. 'Getting seen by a stranger, or by Inuyasha and Miroku?' She knew both men had seen her naked more than once, but the very idea still embarrassed her to no end. Really, it was a wonder that she had any modesty left after all the times both men had somehow managed to catch her in her birthday suit.

 

Sighing, she crouched down next to the water's edge and trailed the fingertips of her right hand in the water while still managing to keep her chest covered with both arms. It was an awkward position, but she didn't care. It wasn't as if anyone was around to see her.

 

"Sango-chan, please hurry up!" She whined out loud. "What could be taking so long? Surely Shippo-chan isn't that hard to catch!"

 

Shippo...

 

Was he REALLY the one that had stolen her clothes? It seemed like a very strange thing for him to do, but who else would have done such a thing? Certainly not Kirara. And as many times as Miroku had tried to spy on them, he'd never once taken any of their clothes because he had been far too distracted by other things. So what other possibility was there?

 

The thought of a stranger managing to get close enough to their camp without anyone else noticing made Kagome shiver. Surely Inuyasha would have noticed if something like that had happened, wouldn't he?

 

Inuyasha...

 

The very idea made Kagome laugh out loud. "He may be acting strange lately, but I can't even begin to imagine him pulling a stunt like that. It must have been Shippo-chan...but still, it's so odd...Shippo-chan was asleep when we left the camp, and he normally sleeps like the dead. I would be surprised if an earthquake managed to make him stir!" She shook her head in amusement before allowing a frown to return to her face. "But if he had woken up, wouldn't he have just joined us instead of sneaking around and stealing things? That seems more like something he would do."

 

Once again, Kagome started to doubt the idea of Shippo being the culprit.

 

"Oh, this is all so confusing!" Out of frustration, Kagome slapped her hand on the surface of the stream and managed to splash herself with the cool water. "Acckk, that's cold!" Removing her arms from her chest, she started shaking the water off. Running around naked was bad enough, but naked and wet twice in one evening definitely wasn't a good idea. She really didn't need to get sick if she could help it.

 

Standing up and moving away from the small stream, Kagome figured that she might as well do something productive while she was waiting, and so she walked over to where her bathing supplies were and dug around until she found her hair brush. Sighing happily, she proceeded to pull the brush through her thick, damp hair.

 

Several minutes passed as she concentrated on brushing out all of her hair until is was hanging smoothly down her back. The repetitive action of the activity was familiar and comforting, and was helping her to relax and forget about her predicament, at least for a little while. Pretty soon she started to hum as she used both hands to remove a few of the more difficult tangles, meaning that any attempt at modesty was completely forgotten.

 

Kagome had very nearly reached a state of complete relaxation and had even closed her eyes when she suddenly thought she heard a sound. Was Sango finally coming back?

 

Snapping her eyes open, Kagome paused in the middle of a stroke looked around for any sign of her friend. "Sango-chan?"

 

Hmm, that was strange. No one answered her call, and she didn't see anything. So what was it that she'd heard?

 

Glancing around in confusion, Kagome was about to go back to her previous activity when something caught her attention at the very edge of her vision. Was there something pink on the ground under the tree where she'd originally hung her clothes? Or was she just seeing things?

 

Excited and nervous at the same time, she put her brush down and recovered her chest with her arms before jogging over to the tree to see what it was. Maybe her pajamas? Perhaps Sango had made Shippo bring them back to her!

 

Eagerly, Kagome snatched up the pink item on the ground, and beneath it found something green. But that was all.

 

"Well, this is my pajama shirt...and this it my school skirt. But where is everything else?" Baffled, Kagome peered up into the tree above her to see if the rest might be hanging there. But no, there was nothing else that she could see there or on the ground. "How irritating! Where are the rest of my clothes!?!"

 

Grinding her teeth, Kagome figured she would just have to wear what she had and then go hunt Shippo down herself. At least he'd had the decency to return enough to cover both her top half and lower half, though she knew she would look very ridiculous. But oh well, clothes were clothes, right? Anything would be better than running around naked at this point!

 

Or so she thought, until she got a better look at the clothes in her hands.

 

"W-what in the world? What happened to my clothes!?!" At first she could only stare in complete bafflement at what she was holding, but soon enough comprehension started to dawn. There was no way Shippo could have done such a thing...but there was one demon (actually half-demon, but Kagome wasn't feeling very technical at the moment) in the group that could. And he was about to die...

 

"IIIIIINUUUUUUUUYAAAAAAAASHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

 

.

 

.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

.

 

.

 

Deeper in the forest and a good distance away from the stream, heavy, frantic breathing was the only thing that could be heard as a lone figure huddled on the branch of a very tall tree.

 

'How could I have been so STUPID? STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!' The figure berated himself in his head as he cowered in fear of the source of the scream that still had his eardrums ringing, despite the distance. 'How could I have let myself get distracted like that? HOW?'

 

The red-faced hanyou wanted to dig a hole for himself in the ground and never come out, because he knew that as soon as Kagome found him, he was going to die. Actually, once Kagome found him, she would probably dig a hole for him first by using the rosary. There would be no escaping her wrath this time. Why in the world had he ever listened to Miroku?

 

The task really hadn't seemed that bad at first. At least, it didn't seem nearly as difficult to him as grabbing the items had been. He'd had every intention of just returning the clothes the way that he'd stolen them without ever opening his eyes, and then making tracks before anyone saw him or vice versa. And he'd almost managed to do just that, too. He had just made it into the tree without being noticed...

 

But then Kagome had laughed out loud and nearly given him a heart attack.

 

As an automatic reaction to the unexpected sound that had broken his intense concentration, his eyes had snapped open, and they immediately focused on the source of the sound - a naked Kagome. A VERY naked Kagome. After that moment in time, everything in his memory was just a blur with only specific moments and details standing out in his mind.

 

He recalled Kagome talking to herself, but he couldn't remember anything that she had said. And he could certainly remember feeling every tiny bead of sweat that rolled down his paralyzed body as he stared at her as she moved around the edge of the river, her skin glistening in the moonlight. And then when she had moved her arm exposed EVERYTHING to his intensely focused vision...well, he could clearly recall his blood pounding through his veins as every single one of the muscles in his body tightened all at once...and then the sound of ripping fabric...

 

Inuyasha was thrown out of his more pleasant memories as suddenly as if someone had set off a bomb right in front of him. His ears flattened, and muscles tensed to the point of being downright painful. Recalling that one horrible moment in time was all it took for him to suddenly be feeling as if he were three years old again and afraid that his mother was going to find him and punish him for trampling her favorite flowers.

 

During all of this, it went completely unnoticed by Inuyasha that he was still holding what was left of Kagome's clothes. Some he had actually dropped while standing in the tree from shock after realizing what had happened, but the rest had remained firmly in his grasp as he frantically attempted to escape as quickly as he could. They were tattered and very nearly shredded beyond recognition by now from his sharp claws and death grip, but they would still make the perfect testament of his guilt should Kagome actually catch him with them. Sadly, though, Inuyasha didn't have enough presence of mind to think about that as he continued to cling to them as if they were his only lifeline.

 

At the rate things were going, Inuyasha wouldn't live to see the next sunrise.

 

.

 

.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

.

 

.

 

There was a stunned, tense silence in the camp as Sango and Miroku waited to see what would happen next. The echo of Kagome's enraged cry had faded into nothing several minutes before, but they still didn't dare to venture in the direction of the river. They knew that the results of getting caught wouldn't be good at all for Inuyasha, but at the same time, they couldn't bring themselves to go help him.

 

After all, Kagome could be REALLY scary when she was angry...

 

Exchanging a look of sheepishness, Sango and Miroku suddenly realized how silly they must look. A powerful monk with years of spiritual as well as combat training and a demon slayer that had taken out youkai thirty times her size were both scared a young human girl. How absurd was that? Well, perhaps not as absurd as an insanely strong hanyou being scared of her, but still...

 

"We should go see what happened." Sango finally ventured to speak first. "Inuyasha might need us to rescue him..."

 

Miroku smiled and tried to look as careless as possible, though he wasn't succeeding nearly as well as usual. "Oh, no need worry about him! He can take care of himself just fine without our help I'm sure, Sango-sama."

 

She eyed him doubtfully, not sure if she should take the safest route and just go along with him, or actually argue the point and go help their friend. But just as Sango opened her mouth to respond, the sound of someone crashing through the woods stopped any attempts at conversation dead in its tracks.

 

"WHERE IS HE!?!" came a very angry shout just before Kagome came into view. She was seething and her glare was fit to kill, causing even Sango to step back from her in fear. Through all of this, Shippo didn't even stir.

 

"H-he? What do you mean, Kagome-chan?" Sango tried to smile, but quickly gave up when it became obvious that nothing was going to deter the angry girl from her goal.

 

"I mean Inuyasha! Where did that idiot go?!?!" Kagome, who had originally had her right fist wrapped tightly around the cloth on the front of her shirt, let it go to gesture wildly. "I swear, when I get my hands on him I'm going to take his sword and shove it up his-"

 

"KAGOME-CHAN!" Sango broke into Kagome's rant before covering her mouth in a gesture of what the other girl assumed to be horror.

 

"I'm sorry, Sango-chan." She was suddenly looking very contrite and a lot more like her usual self. Even her murderous aura had dimmed slightly. "I know I normally don't say things like that, and certainly not in front of Shippo-chan, but I just couldn't help myself. Because this time Inuyasha has REALLY gone too far!"

 

All the while that Kagome was speaking, Sango was shaking her head back and forth almost violently. "N-no, no, it's not that!"

 

Miroku cleared his throat and spoke up for the first time since Kagome had entered the clearing. "Kagome-sama, I do not believe that Sango-sama is upset about the violent nature of what you were saying. She is actually upset about..." For once, Miroku seemed to have a hard time coming up with an appropriate way to word what he was trying to say, and finally settled on gesturing towards Kagome's chest with an indiscernible expression on his face.

 

Baffled, Kagome looked down and nearly had a heart attack at the sight that met her eyes. "Oh my GOD! Why didn't you tell me sooner!?!" Frantically, she pulled the tear in the front of her pajama top closed with her right hand again while her left went up to cover her beet red face. And just when she'd thought the day couldn't POSSIBLY get any worse, too...

 

"I'M GOING TO KILLLLL HIM!" She shouted, making both her companions cringe and take a step back. "And then I'm going to bring him back to life and kill him all over again! And again!"

 

Realizing that Kagome was probably angry enough to actually follow through with her threats, Miroku finally decided that some damage control would be needed if his special little 'project' would have any hope of survival. And so the first order of business would be to see exactly how deep Inuyasha had dug his grave.

 

"Kagome-sama, did you actually see Inuyasha-sama with your-" He stopped and stared at Kagome's retreating back as she had already begun another reckless rampage through the forest.

 

"This is bad. Really bad." Sango looked as if she were tempted to run the opposite way of the trouble for once in her life. But really, Miroku couldn't say that he blamed her. The whole mess was making everyone act strange and do things that they normally wouldn't do. Inuyasha trying to be a pervert, Sango actually agreeing to keep one of Miroku's little plots a secret, and him pretending to have no interest in women. But really, that was half the fun!

 

Best not to say anything like that to Sango, though.

 

"Fear not. I am sure that Inuyasha is at least intelligent enough to have gone far, far away for a while. And after Kagome-sama has worn herself out from fruitlessly searching for him, then perhaps she will stay in one place long enough for us to talk to her and see if we can remedy the situation." He nodded, satisfied and sure of himself.

 

And for once, Sango wanted desperately to believe that he was right...

 

"INUUUUUYASHAAAAAA! OSUWARIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

 

The ground then shook with the force of a huge impact somewhere in the distance, and after that the clearing was completely silent for a moment as the pair registered what must have happened.

 

"It really was too much to hope that he would be 'at least intelligent enough,' wasn't it?" Miroku sighed despondently.

 

Sango looked just as miserable as he felt. "It was. It really, really was. Kirara, stay with Shippo-chan."

 

With that the demon slayer and monk set off as quickly as they could in the general direction of the sound, hoping to at least prevent some of the bloodshed they knew would occur that evening. And as they left, Shippo let out a loud snore, completely oblivious to it all.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

Finished! So, did all of you sadistic people enjoy this chapter? LOL I'm sure you are wondering how he's going to get out of this! Or if he even will!

 

Just as a reminder, if you are wondering about the progress I'm making on my chapters (of this story or any of the other stories I'm currently working on), be sure and check out my profile. Every now and then I'll update it if I've been working on anything, so at least it will give everyone some sort of indication of how soon they might expect a new chapter. Thanks for reading!