A/N: I must say this was a fun chapter to write. Kouga makes a comeback! The insanity, I tell you! I guess that's all I have to say at the moment. Thanks so much for the reviews!
Three days had passed since the two groups split their separate ways. On the third day, the tension in the air had lessened to be not quite as intolerable, which was good to a certain extent. Kagome had come to the conclusion that if she ever in the distant future decided to have children, she did not want boys. The male gender had already caused her, in the last three days, more headaches than she ever wanted to endure. She hadn’t thought that there was anyone even remotely as arrogant and obscenely self-assured as Inuyasha…and she was wrong.
Yusuke Urameshi. He was, as she’d come to find out, half-demon as well, though he had mentioned that his lineage was quite complicated. He wasn’t exactly sure how he received his demon powers, but he was still of demon blood. At any rate, she had originally hoped that it would give Inuyasha someone to identify with. An equal, so to speak. Somehow she had thought that having an equal would do him good, since he seemed to consider humans and practically everyone else ‘below’ him and his ‘superior’ strength. She hadn’t had a problem with this fact, except that he had that tendency to be an obnoxious jerk most of the time. However, yet again, she was wrong.
It was obvious that having an equal was not what Inuyasha wanted. Yusuke didn’t seem to care; he went along with Inuyasha’s taunts, clearly enjoying himself by showing up the dog demon, and clearly not viewing Inuyasha as an equal. It was annoying the living hell out of the Inuyasha, and while it was humorous at first, Kagome was getting sick of it. She could tell the other two were as well, even though Hiei hadn’t spoken more than two words. It was just getting ridiculous.
It was a constant thing now, and Kagome could tell that it wouldn’t ever end no matter how long they traveled together. On the third day, they had stumbled upon a particularly rabid and aggressive demon, during which Botan had been scraped up a bit, but there were no serious injuries. While trying to subdue the beast, Inuyasha had been trying desperately to keep up with Yusuke’s spirit-gun attacks with Tetsusaiga’s ‘Wind Scar’ attack, but he had not found a perfect opportunity to fire it off without hurting one of his own team in the process. Finally he had resorted to his blood claws, which had little to no effect. The only thing keeping his spirits up was the fact that Yusuke’s spirit-gun attacks also weren’t causing a lot of damage.
Unfortunately, the longer it took to subdue the demon, the angrier it got. It somehow managed to get away from the two fighting it…and had decided that Botan looked like a good target. The terrified girl had run as fast as she could, screaming.
“Botan!” Yusuke yelled. “What are you doing?!”
“I’M RUNNING YOU IDIOT!” she called back, and narrowly missed getting her head ripped off, but not before the demon’s claw grazed her back. She yelped in pain but somehow managed to keep running.
“Inuyasha, get her out of there!” Kagome yelled. “Don’t just stand there!”
Inuyasha took that chance to use his blood claws one more time, this time aiming for its eyes. It squealed in protest, momentarily blinded while Inuyasha grabbed Botan and got her out of harm’s way. Yusuke had recognized the opportunity, when the demon was confused. He focused a great amount of strength and energy into one shot, obliterating the beast in an instant.
Kagome was speechless. How could one person be able to use so much spirit energy at once? And how, if he was half-demon, was he able to fuse holy energy with demon energy? Kagome was amazed, and she had to admit she was a little put off with Yusuke’s power…but she was glad. He would be of tremendous help against Naraku.
Inuyasha, however, didn’t see it that way. Once he regained his voice, he started sulking, accusing Yusuke of trying to show him up. Yusuke couldn’t deny it.
“That’s the third one now,” Yusuke replied calmly, saying nothing else. It was all about the competition. Inuyasha was fuming: he had only killed two.
Kagome just wanted them to shut up about it. Competition was fine, but she was convinced that if they ran out of things to kill, the two of them would go looking for things to kill. That would only end up with trouble finding them, and she didn’t want that.
They hadn’t come to a village in the course of three days, and decided that evening to set up camp in the woods. Sitting around the fire, watching the sun disappear over the horizon, Kagome cleaned the wound on Botan’s back, the other girl still silent and lost in thought. The group was silent, until Yusuke decided to break the tension with some conversation.
“So…Kagome, how did you end up in this time?”
“It’s a really long and complicated story,” she said. “But I suppose we aren’t in any hurry.”
And so she explained that day when the vengeful centipede demon had pulled her into the well at her family’s shrine and she had crawled out of the well…to end up in Feudal Japan, where she discovered Inuyasha pinned to the tree. She told them how she had been the one to split the Shikon jewel into several shards, and that Kaede had convinced her and Inuyasha to travel together to find the shards. She declined in telling much about Inuyasha’s dealings with Kikyo, deciding to let him tell that part if he so desired. She did tell them that she was the reincarnation of Kikyo, and that Kikyo had been reborn but was technically undead.
“We may very well run into Kikyo,” Kagome warned, glancing at Inuyasha, who said nothing. “If that happens…well, we’ll just see.”
Yusuke, Botan, or Hiei didn’t miss the look on Kagome’s face as she glanced at the half-demon. Yusuke stared at the two of them and raised an eyebrow. “I take it there’s a lot of…unresolved issues there.”
“That’s an understatement,” Kagome replied with a bitter smirk.
Inuyasha rolled his eyes. “Feh.”
Kagome bristled. “What is THAT supposed to mean, Inuyasha?”
Any smart man would have lied and said “Nothing.” Even Yusuke knew this, though he would be the first one to admit that he wasn’t very smart. And it was clear that Inuyasha wasn’t very smart, either…at least where it came to Kagome.
Because his reply was to stand up and practically shake his clawed fist at her, yelling, “It MEANS that what happens between me and Kikyo isn’t anyone’s business but mine!”
She was on her feet in an instant, shouting back at him, her finger pointing directly in his face. “Oh REALLY? So does that mean you hide things from me, too? Just what exactly have you hidden from me?”
“I haven’t hidden anything from you!”
“Oh yeah? Well then why are you getting so defensive about it?”
“I’m getting defensive because it’s none of their business?”
“How about me? Is it none of my business, too?”
Inuyasha growled. “Dammit, woman, why can’t you just drop it? Do we have to talk about this now?”
The arguing continued for several minutes. Botan and Yusuke glanced at each other and shrugged, deciding to leave well enough alone. Hiei couldn’t help but be slightly amused at their carrying on, but of course he didn’t let that show on his face, which he kept as stoic as ever. He was also still trying to remember where he’d heard the name Naraku before, and hadn’t paid the rest of the group much attention at all. Not that he really cared what they did; he just happened to be traveling with them.
Finally Botan raised her hand and cleared her throat in an attempt to stop another war from going much further. “Do you think the two of you kind of tone it down? What if you attracted unwanted visitors? Like more of those demons from earlier…”
They stared at her, a surprised look on their faces. Kagome sighed. “I guess we were being pretty loud.”
Inuyasha lifted his head in the air, sniffed, and began growling deep in his throat. “Speaking of unwanted visitors,” he mumbled.
Yusuke was about to ask what Inuyasha meant when Kagome gasped and announced, “Shikon shards, coming this way…fast!”
Not two seconds later, a loud voice rang out, “KAGOME!!!”
All anyone could see was a cloud of dust moving rapidly towards Kagome. It dissipated abruptly and standing in the midst of flying dirt, stood a well-muscled man who was holding Kagome’s hands in his and looking at her with an adoring expression. He had black hair, some sort of fur as armor, and….
“A tail?” Botan asked, squinting to see clearly through all the dirt.
“WOLF! What are you doing here?”
Kouga ignored Inuyasha, who was clenching his fist and trying to get Kouga’s attention. Instead, Kouga produced a small bouquet of wild flowers and handed them to Kagome.
“Kagome! How have you been without me? Come on, let’s get away from here and go look for Naraku on our own!”
“Um, Kouga, I can’t leave our
new friends…” Kagome said nervously, glancing at them apologetically, trying
to smooth things over before Inuyasha began trying to pull the wolf apart.
She gestured to the three people standing to one side, two of which
looked very confused. “Besides,
it’s almost night, and we’re tired. We’ve been traveling all day.”
“Oh.” Kouga stared at the new people and asked, “Who are they?”
“They’re also going to help us find Naraku,” Kagome replied.
Kouga scoffed. “Come with me and I’ll kill Naraku way before this dog crap finds him.” He then noticed the scents of the new companions she was traveling with; interesting enough was the fact that two of these new people smelled demon. Before Inuyasha could reply to his insult, Kouga went over to Hiei and sniffed. Affirmative…this one was definitely demon.
Hiei stared back at Kouga with a slightly annoyed expression as Kouga folded his arms across his chest and stared back. “You…why are you traveling with Kagome?”
Hiei shrugged. “What does it matter to you?”
“It matters because you’re traveling with my woman,” Kouga replied.
“I have no interest in ‘your woman’…”
“Oh? Well you’d better not.”
Hiei snorted. “Hn. Perhaps you are talking to the wrong one…I think you should be talking to him.” He pointed at Inuyasha, who was already looking quite furious.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Inuyasha snarled. “Kagome’s not my woman, either.”
Kagome looked hurt for a moment, and then huffed, turning away and folding her arms across her chest. “Why would I want to be? Maybe I will go with Kouga.”
“WHAT?!”
Kouga looked positively overjoyed by this. He immediately rushed back to her and clasped both of her hands in his. “Let’s go, then, Kagome!”
“W-wait, Kouga, I –“
She didn’t get a chance to finish her protest before Kouga picked her up in his arms and raced off, Inuyasha screaming at him to put her down. Enraged, Inuyasha pulled Tetsusaiga from its sheath and yelled, “THAT IS IT! I’m going to kill you for real this time, wolf!”
“Catch me first, dog crap!”
And the chase was on. Inuyasha ran after them, screaming at Kouga to put her down, while the wolf had since left a trail of dust behind him. All the rest of them could see was a furious dog demon chasing after a rapidly disappearing whirlwind. The three of them looked at each other, wondering what in the world had just happened.
“Who…who was that?” Botan asked, stunned. “And where did they go?”
Yusuke chuckled. “It seems that Inuyasha has competition.”
Hiei sniffed and said, “More wolves, coming this way.”
Indeed, they all turned to see the rest of Kouga’s pack, two wolf demons followed by a band of wolves, running towards them, short of breath and looking very annoyed. “Kouga!” one cried. “He left us again!”
They stopped when they realized that neither Inuyasha nor Kagome were standing there…and there were three new people staring at them. “Who are you guys?” Yusuke asked. “You know that Kouga guy?”
The two wolf demons blinked. “So he was here,” one of them said, sounding defeated.
“Kagome and Inuyasha were here, too,” the other one added, sniffing the air. “Where did they go?”
Botan pointed in the direction. “They went that way. Kouga took off with Kagome and Inuyasha went after them.”
They gasped, shocked. “Damn! We don’t have time for another fight to break out!”
“We’d better go. Come on, Ginta.”
Yusuke sighed as they watched the wolves run after the dissipating cloud of dust left by Kouga the Whirlwind. “I wonder if it would even be worth it to follow them.”
Botan shrugged. “Hiei already left.”
“What? When?”
“With the wolves. He will most likely beat them to the others, but still, it’s odd. He’s acting differently, don’t you think?”
Yusuke shrugged. “Not really. He’s the same old Hiei, all the personality of cardboard and then WHAM, he surprises you.”
***
Kagome wanted to kick herself. She’d
only intended to make Inuyasha mad by saying that…obviously because he had
made her mad. She hadn’t
expected Kouga to suddenly kidnap her. Way
to go, Kagome, she thought. You
have succeeded in screwing up yet again.
She sighed. “Kouga, put me down.”
“No way, you said you wanted to go with me!”
“No I didn’t, I said I might go with you.”
He grinned down at her. “Well, I just made up your mind for you. You’re better off with me, anyway.”
“Kouga…please put me down. I have to go back to the others.”
“Nope.”
She sighed again, frustrated. Obviously talking wasn’t doing much good…it NEVER did, not where the male gender was concerned. She took a deep breath and shoved against his chest hard, surprising him and relaxing his hold enough to where she could push herself out of his arms…and landed hard on the ground, nearly causing him to trip over her.
“Oomph!” She rubbed her backside, wincing. “Owww…maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.”
Kouga came back to her, standing over her with a scolding look on his face. “Of course it wasn’t such a good idea. Now dog crap will catch up to us.” He was about to pick her up again when his nose caught a familiar scent in the air. He tensed, and a second later, ducked. The air zinged as Inuyasha swung Tetsusaiga with the intent of cutting off Kouga’s head, and missed it by a fraction.
Kouga jumped several feet away, grinning. “What took you so long?”
“Damn you, wolf, Kagome isn’t going anywhere with you!”
“Of course she is. She wants to go with me. She just said so back at your camp.”
“That’s not what I said!” Kagome yelled. “Would you people stop putting words in my mouth?”
“I don’t care if you do want to go with him, I’m not letting you,” Inuyasha snarled.
She felt like pulling her hair out. “That is NOT what I said! And I only said that because you were being a jerk!”
“How was I being a jerk?!”
“Oh forget it!” She stood up and began stalking away. “I’m going back to camp, and I don’t want EITHER of you to tell me what I am or am not going to do!”
“Wait, Kagome!” both said in unison, then glared at each other. “You stay away from her, wimpy wolf,” Inuyasha snarled.
“Go to hell,” Kouga snarled in reply. “She deserves better than you.”
“Shut up!” Enraged, Inuyasha lunged at the wolf, sword raised. Kouga dodged Inuyasha’s attack easily, leaping again to one side, and taking off again before Inuyasha realized he was aiming at nothing but thin air. Kouga raced after Kagome’s retreating form, fully intending to snatch her again and keep the game going as long as she would let him…and nearly ran into a silent black figure blocking his path.
“What’s the big idea?!” Kouga snarled at the fire demon. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Hiei stared at him. “I don’t believe that she wants to go with you.”
“What do you care?” Kouga argued. “And get out of my way.” He moved to the left, then to the right, trying to get around Hiei, not really wanting to get into a fight, since the longer he took, the farther away Kagome would be. Surprisingly, the little demon was as fast as he was.
“No,” Hiei replied.
Kouga laughed. “Want a fight, do you? Don’t bother, you wouldn’t last two seconds against me.”
Hiei only smirked, his hand moving to the hilt of his sword. Kouga took that as an invitation and flexed his claws. “Ok, half-pint, don’t say I didn’t warn you. No one gets in between me and Kagome, not even that dog!”
Said dog demon had come upon the two and had stopped to watch what was going on. That small fire demon was blocking Kouga’s path to Kagome. Inuyasha couldn’t help but want to see what Hiei would do, and if Kouga would tear him apart. He felt a small amount of indignation at the fact that his fight had been taken away from him, but he could overlook it for now. He could even overlook Kouga’s words for the moment, vowing to get him for it later. Really this whole fight had been stupid, even he knew that, but he still had the issue of pride to think about. Kagome debasing him like that was unnecessary…even if he might have been a jerk, as she put it. Feh. Silly woman.
Inuyasha watched as Kouga made the first strike, attempting to rip at Hiei with his claws. The small demon moved deftly to avoid it, his sword drawn. Kouga sliced at him again, but Hiei blocked the attacks with the blade. Kouga could see that his defense was perfect despite his small size, so he attempted a surprise attack. That, of course, was in vain, as Hiei could clearly see the wolf’s fast movements. Kouga had attempted to zip around to behind the fire demon and catch him off-guard. Hiei met him evenly with a swift swipe of his sword, catching Kouga on the arm. Kouga cried out and clutched his arm.
“Shit,” he cursed. “You’re a fast bastard.” He then leaped into the air as fast as he could, wondering if the little twerp could pick up his movements if he used the wind to help him. He then brought his leg down, aiming a forceful kick at his head, but instead his foot slammed into the ground. Hiei had moved several feet away in an instant, staring at him from a crouched position on the ground. He looked ready to strike at any second.
Kouga smirked, wincing slightly at the pain in his arm, and decided that this could probably wait until later. He really needed to get back to his pack despite the fact that he had been willing to play around and annoy Kagome’s group longer, and he had a feeling that a fight with this little punk could last longer than expected. How could he see his movements so well? Kouga knew he was fast…but this guy was faster. Not many opponents could have injured him so soon in the game.
“Heh,” Kouga laughed, and straightened his back, folding his arms across his chest. “My fight isn’t with you, anyway, half-pint. Till next time!” Without another word, he sped off, leaving a trail of dust behind him. Hiei sheathed his sword, a somewhat disappointed look on his face as Inuyasha approached him, the Tetsusaiga also sheathed.
“Hn. Pity he didn’t stay,” Hiei said quietly.
“He always runs off whenever he thinks he might lose,” Inuyasha said. “He’s a dumbass.”
Hiei smirked. “I don’t find him to be much of a problem. He could have fought longer if he wanted to.”
“Feh! He always causes trouble, especially with Kagome.”
Hiei said nothing.
Inuyasha stared at the fire demon, a questioning look on his face. “Why did you even pick a fight with him, anyway?”
Hiei shrugged. “He was annoying.”
Inuyasha couldn’t help but grin at that. It would seem he wasn’t the only one who thought that of the wolf demon.
At that point, he saw the other two from Kouga’s pack running towards them. They stopped, huffing and puffing, trying to regain their breath. “Where’s…Kouga?” they gasped. “You…didn’t…kill him…did you?”
Inuyasha flexed his claws. “No but I will if he tries anything like that again…and he went that way.”
They nodded and quickly sped after their leader. Inuyasha shook his head. Why those two still followed Kouga was beyond him, when they were always so far behind. He supposed that was what being a team was all about…or something to that extent. At any rate, it would get annoying.
And so ends chapter 8. Wrote it pretty fast, hope you liked. Please review!