InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Sacrifice ❯ Returning ( Chapter 4 )

 

 

Kagome clung to Inuyasha's shoulders and giggled happily, laughing with a joy so pure she felt as though she truly were flying.

 

“Higher!” she urged the hanyou happily.

 

“Higher?” he asked her with a laugh at her happiness.

 

“Yes! Higher!” she giggled and her thighs clung around his waist tightly, her legs held by his hands under her knees as he fairly flew across the land.

 

“What are you doing?” Inuyasha as he felt one of her hands leave his shoulders.

 

“It seemed so close,” she laughed. “I thought I could touch the clouds!”

 

“Feh, silly wench, you can't touch the clouds!” he yelled back over the sound of the wind rushing by their ears as he raced and leapt higher and higher each time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Sango-neesan!” Rin cried out and raced from behind Sesshoumaru's legs, between her adoptive father and the strange inuyoukai who had appeared nearly two weeks ago that Sesshoumaru called father and made a bee-line for the taijiya.

 

“Hello Rin,” Sango greeted the girl happily and hugged her in return, the girl's arms wrapped around her waist.

 

“Is it true?” Rin asked excitedly. “Is Kagome-sama truly alive?”

 

“I don't know sweetie,” Sango said. “I hope so though.”

 

“Oh I think it's her alright,” Kouga said with a laugh. “I haven't seen mutt-face jump that high even in battle!” the wolf laughed from his perch high in nearby red oak tree. “He's coming fast!”

 

Sure enough not moments later the sounds of excited squeals of Kagome's laughter filled the air along with the hearty happy sound of Inuyasha's own laughter. They heard the far off voice of Kagome call out for the hanyou to go higher and saw Inuyasha jump into the air far higher than any of them had ever seen before. It was true; he was at his best when with Kagome. Nothing could defeat him when she was near.

 

 

 

 

 

“I lost him to her a long time ago,” Kikyou said as she shook her head and smiled softly in wonder. “He was never that powerful or that happy when he was with me. She changed him, far more for the better.”

 

The resurrected miko was not standing near the others, but rather standing inside her sister's hut and looking out from within the doorway, the bamboo curtain pulled back slightly as she saw the tiny red and silver spot appear in the sky only to lower, disappear and rise again higher than before. The sound of laughter and the feel of happiness floated over the wind and encompassed all who were in the wind's path.

 

“Kaede,” Kikyou said as she released the flap and went to her elder sister's side. “Kaede, Kagome is alive, and Inuyasha has brought her back.”

 

“Tell me ye do not jest,” Kaede said weakly as Kikyou helped her to stand.

 

“Come see for yourself,” Kikyou said and led her to the door, pulling back the flap.

 

Kaede looked out and did in fact see what it was her sister spoke of. The red and white blur, it was Inuyasha and she knew it, the giggling voice, that belonged to Kagome and only Kagome. The strange girl from the future was indeed alive and Inuyasha had found her and brought her back to them all. Suddenly Kaede laughed at turned to her sister.

 

“I do believe that I feel a world better Kikyou.”

 

 

 

 

 

“Kagome!” Sango called out happily and ran toward the girl still mounted on the hanyou's back.

 

“Hi!” Kagome greeted the strange woman brightly. “What's your name?”

 

“What?” Sango asked stopping in her tracks and looking as though all the breath had been knocked out of her.

 

“Do I know you?” Kagome asked, tilting her head as Sango had seen her do several times in the past when she was confused.

 

“You-you don't…remember me?” Sango asked feeling as though the ground was falling away beneath her, and felt a strong arm wrap around her waist and draw her tight up against Miroku's side.

 

“Lady Kagome, how are you?” Miroku asked as he kept Sango from collapsing to the ground with an arm wrapped tightly around her waist.

 

“Oh I'm great!” she giggled and lightly kicked Inuyasha with the side of her bare foot when he tickled the sensitive skin of the back of her knee. “Stop that,” she giggled, wrapping her legs tighter about him and hoisting herself higher on his back as she looked at the man and woman. “Riding Inuyasha is fun, you should try it!” she said happily, her cheeks flushed with the excitement of their travels.

 

Choked coughs covering laughter sounded from Miroku and the tall man with silver hair pulled into a top knot and wearing spiked armor.

 

“Did I say something wrong?” she asked innocently, not seeing Inuyasha flush with what her innocent statement had implied. “Do I know you?” she asked Miroku as she looked between him and Sango. “Am I suppose to know them?” she asked Inuyasha frowning in worry when neither the man nor woman answered her.

 

“Um, yeah,” Inuyasha said his voice oddly choked as Kagome's excitement died away and she slid slowly down his back and then moved to stand beside him, his arm wrapping around her waist as he held her against his side. “The woman's name is Sango; the man holding her is Miroku.”

 

“Oh…I'm sorry,” Kagome said as her blue eyes looked to the ground and she bit her lip. “I don't…I don't remember anything…except that I have a son,” she said her eyes searching the eyes of all those around her. “Please does anyone know who and where my son is?”

 

“Oi! Runt!” Inuyasha suddenly called out when he saw Shippou perched on his father's shoulder as the two walked through the village a bit away. “Come greet your mother!” he shouted to the pup.

 

“Your mother?” Shippou's father said to him confused and looked to his son when the pup stilled completely before shaking and leaping madly toward the hanyou.

 

“Kagome!” the fox kit shouted sobbing in happy relief as he bounded into Kagome and would've knocked her over had it not been for Inuyasha supporting her. “Mamma. Mamma. Mamma. Mamma,” he kept chanting the word as he sobbed into her chest, the girl holding him tightly and kissing his hair as she ran her hand in small soothing circles over the pups' small back.

 

“So you're my son,” she said softly in wonder as she looked at the tiny kitsune youkai pup clinging madly to her as he sobbed. “You're so precious,” she said as she leaned against Inuyasha's side and held the crying pup in her arms.

 

“Of course I'm your son,” Shippou said in a choked trembling voice as he raised wet eyes streaming with tears to look up at the woman he treasured as his mother. “Don't you remember me?”

 

Kagome's eyes grew sad and tear filled as she looked at the tiny child in her arms. “I'm sorry sweetie I don't,” she said softly her voice shaking as she struggled not to cry. “I don't remember much of anything. I don't even really remember who I am. Inuyasha was the one who told me my name.”

 

 

 

 

“What the hell are you doing here bastard?!” Inuyasha yelled at Sesshoumaru as he shoved Kagome behind him and drew Tetsusaiga, the rusty katana transforming into the giant fang.

 

“Put down my fang pup,” The inuyoukai standing beside Sesshoumaru said calmly as he looked at his hanyou son.

 

“I don't know who the hell you are, but this ain't your fang,” Inuyasha growled darkly.

 

“That is my fang pup, as I am your father. It was my fang that made that sword,” he said calmly as he began to walk forward disregarding his elder son's soft words of caution.

 

“I don't who the hell you are old man, but I ain't got no father! Stay back!” he yelled and began growling low as he prepared to attack.

 

“Inuyasha, pup, put down my fang. I mean no harm to you, nor the girl,” he said as he stepped closer.

 

“Stop callin' me pup,” the hanyou's growls turned more vicious the closer the youkai proclaiming to be his father got.

 

“He doesn't look like he wants to hurt us,” Kagome said softly from her place behind Inuyasha.

 

“Looks can be deceiving,” Inuyasha snarled back at her.

 

Kagome gasped and before Inuyasha could react, the youkai had knocked Tetsusaiga from his grip and had him on the ground on his back. The girl looked on with impossibly wide eyes as the scene before her unfolded. The youkai picked up the sword, the hilt not harming him in any way as he transformed and untransformed the sword a few times.

 

“If this weren't fang pup,” he said calmly as he looked into Inuyasha's eyes steadily, no emotion showing. “The seal would have burned me, I would not be able to hold it, nor wield it in such a manner.”

 

Transforming the sword into its resting state, he stabbed the rusty katana into the ground and took Inuyasha's hand, pulling the hanyou to his feet. The inuyoukai cut his a line in his palm with his claw and did the same to Inuyasha, putting their bloody hands together before the hanyou could pull away.

 

“That's my blood, the same as your blood. I am your father pup,” he said as he looked into his son's eyes hoping that it would convince him of the truth.

 

Inuyasha snatched him hand back as he felt his youkai rising and boiling in his blood. His nose was telling him that this inuyoukai was indeed his father, but his mind, his heart was unwilling to accept it. He snarled darkly, deadly as he snatched up his sword and sheathed it before snatching up Kagome and swinging her up on his back as he began moving away.

 

“You ain't my father. If that bastard were still alive he'd know not to come near me, not after what he did.”

 

Inuyasha was stopped from moving away when the blue crested inuyoukai leapt in front of him and grabbed the cloth of his under kimono to keep him from moving away. His son was hurting, terribly hurting, his anger and the way his ears were folded back and pressed against his head proof enough of that and he wanted to know why.

 

“What did I do to make you hate me so?” he asked softly as he looked upon his son, searching the golden eyes so much like his own for the answer to his question.

 

“You abandoned my mother,” he snarled and could feel the old pain resurfacing and forming tears like acid behind his eyes, tears he'd be damned to show. “You threw her out into the cold when she gave birth to a hanyou.”

 

“Who the hell told you these lies?!” he asked outraged by the thought of it. “I did no such thing. I gave my life for you and your mother! Who told you this?”

 

“My uncle, her brother.”

 

Inuyasha was breathing harshly now as he tried to subdue the tears, tried to fight away the urge to cry. If he could get away, Kagome had seen him cry only twice before she had disappeared, and both times she had held him, comforted him, and soothed him. He could cry with her.

 

“Pup he hated me, her whole family did, not to mention the village. She was mated to a youkai, they hated that the most, but then you were born.”

 

“Look I know they hated me. I don't care about that, but the way they treated her. The way they said you treated her,” he growled. “They said you beat her!”

 

“I did no such thing!” he snarled as he released his son and began pacing angered at the way his mate's family had poisoned his son against him. “I loved Izayoi! I loved her with everything I had, she never wanted for anything when she was with me. She was cherished, protected, and above all never once harmed when she was with me. I protected her, your brother protected her. Your brother loved her as much as you did.”

 

“Like hell he did!” Inuyasha snarled viciously. “If it wasn't for the two of you she wouldn't be dead!” he yelled as Kagome slid off his back with Sesshoumaru's help so that she wouldn't be caught in the middle of the fight that was starting.

 

“What the hell are you talking about pup?!” he shouted, as he looked on his more than distraught pup.

 

“They killed her; they stoned her to death and tried to do the same to me! The villagers killed her! Her father said I could only stay with them if I looked human so he tried to cut off my ears!” his anger and pain forcing out the most painful childhood memories.

 

“They did what?!” both Sesshoumaru and his father snarled at the same time, their voices melding into one.

 

“I fought back and they tried to stone me after killing her!” he yelled as all around including Kouga listened on in horror. What Inuyasha had been through…

 

His father looked at him in stunned silence, seconds before snatching his hanyou son up in his arms and leaping into the tree, holding the boy's wrists in one vice like hand to keep him from hurting him and himself. His other arm was wrapped tightly around Inuyasha's back and cupped the hanyou's head as he pressed his son's face into his chest and bent his head down to his ears that were folded back.

 

“My son,” he growled through his onslaught of emotions. “My pup! Mine!” he growled as he felt the silent tears of his son falling against his chest, soaking his haori.

 

“I-I'm not a pup anymore,” Inuyasha's trembling voice was mumbled by his father's clothing as his hands that had been released fisted in the silk and he tried to move away and press closer at the same time, not knowing which he wanted more.

 

“No, I know,” he said softly as he held the hanyou and purred to him. “But you still hurt, the memories still hurt you.”

 

 

 

 

“Inuyasha,” Kagome said, her voice said and somewhat trembling as she looked up into the tree where he sat crying with his father. She couldn't see his tears but felt them all the same.

 

“You mustn't miko,” Sesshoumaru said as he lifted her away from the low branches she'd been trying to climb to reach Inuyasha. “They need this time alone.”

 

“If his father is dead,” she said and looked up at the stoic taiyoukai that had a small bit of happiness shining in his cold eyes. “Then how is he back?”

 

“You did this,” Sesshoumaru said to her as he looked upon his father and brother. “You returned my arm and my father, as well as so many others when you made your wish upon the jewel.”

 

“How do you wish on a jewel?” she asked with a soft laugh. “That's just silly; a wish can't bring people back to life.”

 

Sesshoumaru's cold stunned eyes snapped over to the miko at his side. Not only had she forgotten herself, but the jewel as well it would seem. He could only wonder how much it would hurt her when she got her memories back. She had a pure heart, he knew that from past experience, but something had to have happened to make her make that wish. It was clear to him, from reports of what had happened that the wish was meant to have taken her life, but instead returned her without a memory. He knew why, but he wouldn't be the one to say it to the others, he knew that much at least.