An alternative fanfic created by Phlie.
Disclaimers: I've been a good girl so I'm gonna ask Santa Claus if he'll bring me Inu Yasha for Christmas since I don't already own him or the gang. No furry woodland creatures were harmed in the making of this story.
Chapter 4 - Inu Yasha's Realization
Kagome took her time relaxing as she waded down the cold spring. It was such a beautiful day and she was in a great mood. She wasn't going to rush anything. She had no where to go and nothing to do. Besides, she had a feeling that being so leisurely would really upset Inu Yasha. He seemed to always be in such a hurry. Running here and there. He always seemed to be in the middle of what was going on. 'Speaking of which, here he comes', she thought to herself as she spotted him coming around behind a smaller tree. Kagome pretended that she didn't see him. Instead she took that moment to start examining the light fluffy clouds up in the sky. Inu Yasha waited for a minute and then stepped out into the open. Kagome didn't look up, just kept gazing up at the sky. Inu Yasha slowly started walking towards her. He was almost up to her before she turned and started walking back upstream to where Sango was sitting on the bank of the spring, trying desperately to keep Miroku's hands off her.
'What? Is she ignoring me', Inu Yasha wondered. That pissed him off. He knew that she was different now, but nobody just ignored him! He quickly caught up with Kagome and spun her around to face him, only to find that she had a smile on her face. "Eh?" She had been playing with him. He was about to yell at her, gonna tell her that she needed to stop fooling around cause they needed to get back to looking for the damn shards, when she leaned in and whispered to him. "Stop messing around. We need to get going."
Inu Yasha just stood there as Kagome walked back towards the village. He was too shocked to move or say anything. He couldn't believe that she was being this way. If she gave him one more mixed signal, he would end up going nutty. It was bad enough that she was toying with him, but she seemed to know how it was affecting him. He turned to follow her and the others, staying to the back.
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By the time they got back to Kaede's hut it was almost noon. Shippo skipped out to meet them, going on and on about how he had helped make the meal they would eat. Inu Yasha ignored the child as he stalked into the room and let himself drop into the corner. His brain was almost like mush, trying to figure Kagome out. He didn't think he liked the new her too much. He still loved her, but couldn't stand her - all at the same time.
Shippo was put out by the fact that Inu Yasha wasn't being his usual, grouchy self. It was almost like he wasn't even there. The kitsune thought he could cheer him up. He brought Inu Yasha a bowl of ramen, but Inu Yasha wouldn't even look at the food. 'He must be brain dead if he's not gonna even eat ramen', thought Shippo. He tried everything he could think of to get Inu Yasha to respond to him, even though he just knew he was gonna get hit over the head. Nothing pried the hanyou out of his stupor, not even Shippo dancing with the bowl balanced on his head, until Kagome stood up and announced that she had a strange feeling.
"It's like my brain is tingling. Why is my brain tingling? It's getting stronger." She looked towards Inu Yasha. Somehow she just knew that he would be able to tell her what was going on. "Make it stop", she yelled to him.
"The shards! Kagome, that's what it feels like when shards of the Shikon no Tama are near. Grab your pack, bow, and arrows. We have a demon to kill!"
Hearing the word 'kill' sparked a new, even stranger feeling than the tingling in her brain. She grabbed up her belongings and ran after Inu Yasha and their friends. They all looked around, not seeing any dangerous looking creature around. Suddenly, Kagome pointed to an innocent looking squirrel and yelled out, "The shards. That squirrel has the shards!"
All heads turned to the girl. Who was she kidding? That innocent squirrel couldn't hurt a flea. Inu Yasha was just about to say as much when his own, built in signals started going off. He whipped his head around just in time to see the squirrel start morphing into a huge black shadow demon. By the time it had completed its change, it was as tall as the trees and was blocking out most of the sunlight. It was actually sucking in the light, thriving on it, leaving nothing but its shadow.
Miroku and Sango both pulled Kagome back away from Inu Yasha. They knew that the girl would be all but useless in a fight against the creature. Her bow and arrows wouldn't be able to harm a shadow. Kagome fought them off. She wasn't afraid of the demon, even though she couldn't remember seeing anything so horribly fantastic in her whole life. Of course, that wasn't saying much. As far as she new, this demon was child's play.
Inu Yasha pulled out the Tetsusaiga and ran charging at the demon. He leapt thru the air and slashed at would have been the demons neck, if the demon had been something other than a shadow. Nothing happened. The blade didn't make contact with anything but air. The shadow swatted at Inu Yasha, slicing thru the fire rat cloak and piercing the hanyou's side. Inu Yasha fell to the ground.
Kagome was visibly upset. She was about to run to Inu Yasha when she noticed that it was getting darker. She glanced up at the sky. The pillowy white clouds she had observed earlier in the day had drifted over the sun, leaving little light to shine down on the shadow. As all shadows, the demon needed light to exist. Without the sun, the demon began to morph back to his smaller size, retaking the form of an innocent woodland creature.
Kagome was ready. She pulled back her bow and let the arrow go. She could hear it zipping thru the air as it reached its target. It was almost as if it was singing to her. The arrow found its mark and the demon's heart exploded with the impact. A lifeless pelt was all that was left. Shippo timidly crept over to the corpse. He wasn't much bigger than the squirrel. He gulped and looked over at Kagome.
"Please promise me that you will remember to look before you do that again. I would hate to think that you would kill me by mistake!"
'Kill'. Once again that word sparked something in Kagome. She had killed a demon. Her whole body sizzled. She picked up the kitsune and started dancing with him in her arms.
Miroku and Sango ran over to where Inu Yasha was slowly picking himself up off of the ground. He had already started to heal, but he would be sore for awhile. They tried to help him over to the hut. He pushed them off.
"I don't need your help. I can walk; I'm not a fucking baby." Inu Yasha growled as he approached the dancing girl. "You could have gotten yourself killed! What the hell did you think you were doing?"
Kagome swung Shippo into the air, towards Sango's waiting arms and grabbed Inu Yasha. "Saving you", she replied.
Inu Yasha didn't find this dancing very amusing. They could have been killed. She could have been killed, and he didn't want to think about that. He tried to push away from her, but she grabbed his prayer beads and brought him in closer. He was afraid she was going to say the 's' word, but she just smiled up at him.
'I can't believe I'm this giddy', she thought. Suddenly she sprung up and quickly gave him a kiss, then spun off. Inu Yasha was left to stare after her, along with their friends.
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"I think that it's cute", Miroku said quietly to Sango. "Kagome seems so happy and Inu Yasha seems so confused." 'Maybe I could use that to my advantage', he thought to himself.
Sango looked up from the fire that they shared together. Kagome had gone off on one of her nightly walks and Inu Yasha had mumbled something about not wanting to be near anyone. They hadn't seen him in a few days. "It's not cute. He seems miserable. The more she kills, the more she toys with him. It's like the thrill of the kill is making her drunk and stupid. She's gonna wind up hurting him, or worse herself."
"Well, I guess you're right. He does seem mad at her all the time now. I know that she's different than she used to be, but for the most part she treats us the same. She's still friendly and sweet. She still looks the same too, those long legs, those curves-", Miroku stopped in mid sentence as he realized that he had been thinking aloud. He was rewarded with a rock upside his head.
"Stupid pervert!" Sango got up and stomped away. She was never jealous of her best friend, but sure did wish Kagome didn't have to look as good as she did. It seemed like all men liked Kagome. All she wanted was for the monk to show some emotion for her. She had slowly started to have feelings for the lech, but to no avail. He seemed as though he had feelings for her, but couldn't keep his mind out of the gutter, or off of Kagome.
Before she realized it, Sango found herself down at the spring. Kagome had gone there to take a dip and relax. Sango new the girl was there, her clothes were hanging on a branch near the bank, but couldn't see her friend. She peered into the dark night and finally found her friend. She had heard Kagome swimming about in the water.
"Kagome, mind if I join you?", called out Sango.
"Of course not, come on in. It feels wonderful"
Sango disrobed and timidly put her foot into the water. Kagome was right, it did feel wonderful. The sun had warmed the water, yet it was still cool enough to make her skin tingle. Diving into the water, she let the water wash away her worries. She came up giggling. "I left that stupid pervert back at the fire, drooling over you, with a huge knot on his head."
"Oh, not again. I get so sick of his attentions. Come to think of it, I get sick of every guy's attentions. Especially Inu Yasha's." Kagome leaned her head back against one of the larger rocks that jutted up from the bed of the spring.
"But Kagome, you encourage him."
"I do no such thing!" she said as she jerked her head back up to look at her friend.
"Yes you do. Remember just the other day? After we had that encounter with Sesso-maru? Inu Yasha offered to carry you back to the camp site on his back and you just patted his butt and said that you would walk behind him so you could keep an eye on his 'nice ass'. What did you think he was gonna do? Ignore your touch?"
"No, but I certainly didn't think that he would try to crawl into my sleeping bag later that night!
"And so you insulted his manhood and then threatened to go find Kouga because you would rather sleep with him. No wonder Inu Yasha doesn't want to have anything to do with you. You are giving him mixed signals. It's been nearly 2 weeks of this and it's wearing everyone thin."
Kagome lowered her head, trying to hide the tears that were welling up in her eyes. "I know, but I can't help it. I don't want to have anything to do with him, but it seems like I can't help myself after a battle. Something about the victory just makes me giddy. But it's not just him. I don't want to have anything to do with any of the guys around here."
"Well you both seem pretty miserable. Maybe it's a good thing that Inu Yasha is gone for awhile."
"I don't need him for anything. I find the shards and kill the demons. I don't get kidnapped anymore, either. Seems as though the relationship he claims we used to have is none existent. So he can stay away as far as I'm concerned."
Kagome got out of the water and went over to where her clothes were. She got dressed and sat near the bank, waiting for her friend to join her so that they could help each other get back to camp. It was darker than usual out and Kagome realized that there wasn't much of a moon out tonight.
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Inu Yasha had crawled up in the tree that overlooked the spring. He hated to admit it, but he wanted to get a glimpse of Kagome's wet body glistening in the water. She had been a thorn in his side, constantly turning him on and then being icy cold to him. He couldn't resist her, though. Everything about her screamed out that she wanted him, especially now. He knew she was in heat and he had left the company of the group. He knew everyone would think it was because of their last fight. That did have some bearing on the situation. And now after listening to the conversation she thought she was privately having with her friend, he knew why. 'She fucking hates me.' It was as if Kagome had shot him and made his heart explode like she had done to the shadow demon.
Inu Yasha waited until Kagome and Sango had gone back to the camp site before he sulked away. He knew he had to stay away for good.
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Wow. I really like this chapter, but I don't know if anyone else out there will. Let me just say in my defense that I know how this story ends and you don't - yet. Don't be sad. There had to be some angst or it wouldn't really be an Inu Yasha story, now would it? lol btw, I was listening to Puddle of Mudd's "She Hates Me" while writing this and almost named the chapter that, but thought that would spoil the end of this chapter.
Chapter4