Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

In a New Light	By : Sylean Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Naraku/Kagome Views: 17606 -:- Recommendations : 5 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha nor do I make any profit from this story.

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In a New Light
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha nor do I make any profit from this story.
Chapter 9:
Their search that day was typical, interrogating villages for any information, wandering aimlessly waiting for Kagome to sense a shard, and not allowing said accident-prone girl out of their sight. Unlike earlier, where their protectiveness annoyed her to no end, her better mood now gave her a renewed sense of clarity.
"Inuyasha," Kagome called, pulling the attention of a tempermental hanyou. "I understand the reason for always having one of you with me is so Naraku can't ambush me alone-"
"Duh, Kagome," he scoffed rudely, "you just figured that out?"
She huffed back and crossed her arms, "No, Inuyasha. Now if you would let me finish." She took a deep breath, organizing her thoughts. "I want training, to fight and to defend myself. If I can make a barrier that can withstand Naraku's attacks, then I should be trusted to be able to take care of myself."
"No way!" he aggressively disagreed. "Training your clumsy self would only slow us down and it's not like you'll ever be good enough to defend yourself against him. You're not strong like Kikyo!"
"Inuyasha..." her scathing tone spoke of soon to be intimate times between Inuyasha and the ground, until she was interrupted by Miroku.
"That sounds like a very wise idea, Lady Kagome," his tone calm and measured as always. She brightened up, seemingly forgetting the imminent sit command. "You need to remember, Inuyasha, thus far, Kagome has been the only one of us to land a decent blow against Naraku. Only good things will come from her being better trained."
"Keh, fine," Inuyasha reluctantly agreed, "but you'd better not waste too much time." She smiled brightly and nodded. Her plan was in motion, all she needed now was to learn how to make a barrier, even a weak one, and she'd be free again.
"Since we have yet to detect any trace of Naraku nor any shards today, what say you to working on that training now, Kagome," Miroku suggested. Wandering aimlessly was obviously accomplishing nothing. "I would be honored to assist in honing your spiritual powers."

The monotony of Miroku's spiritual training, meditating, focusing her mind, etc, was broken up only by the small improvements she accomplished. She seemed to be making very little progress. The whole afternoon and all she accomplished was a weak and unsteady barrier. The slightest touch or distraction was enough to shatter it like glass. Despite her disappointment at the slow pace, Miroku was quite impressed. It had taken him a solid year to erect a barrier of equivalent strength in his youth.
"That is enough for today, Kagome," Miroku decided when Kagome's mind seemed to wander. She needed a break. "Perhaps a change of scenery? We could enjoy a nice long soak in the hot springs that Sango found-"
"Pervert," Kagome jibed as she slapped him teasingly upside the head.
"Can't blame me for trying," he gave her that same charming smile that screamed innocent, even though she knew he certainly wasn't. She simply shook her head at him.
"We've been sitting for way too long," Kagome answered mostly to herself, but loud enough for Miroku to hear. She stood, stretching her sore legs. "I'd prefer to do something physical before taking a bath."
Mirokus eyes lit up, "Well, if that's what you want, I would be thrilled to oblige you." The innuendo was heavy in his voice.
Kagome's cheeks burned red realizing Miroku took her words in the most perverted way possible, "That's not what I meant at all! I mean physical training, archery or maybe get Sango to show me how to use a sword." She paused, making sure to clarify her words. "And not that type of sword either!" She stormed off, intent on distancing herself from the monk.

During Kagome's spiritual training, Sango had flown off with Kilala to find a suitable place to camp for the night and as luck would have it, she found a small hot spring not too far away. That's where they were all headed now.
Kagome spotted the steam rising above the tree tops as Inuyasha lept into the air. To her right was Sango, Miroku, and Shippo riding Kilala and to her left was a small clearing. 'It would be perfect for more training,' she noted as they passed it. Once they had camp all set up, Kagome announced, "I'm going to go to that clearing to practice my archery." It was a generic request for whoever was going to watch over her this time.
"I'll come with you Kagome," Sango offered, even though they all knew there was no need for niceties, Inuyasha was still being strict on Kagome's freedom. "I'll do some work with my sword. A workout sounds nice right about now."
At hearing that Sango would be moving her slender body in such a graceful and artful manner, Miroku couldn't help but blurt out, "I will accompany you ladies-"
"No need," Sango shot back when she saw the perverted grin on his face, causing the monk's enthusiasm to deflate noticeably. He had been groping her all throughout the flight here and she was sick of it.

"Yes!" Kagome exclaimed, having hit that particular knot in the tree dead center. Other arrows littered the area around the knot, attesting to her lack of consistency, but every little victory felt grand to Kagome.
She walked up to gather all her arrows, preparing for another round. This would be the fourth or fifth time she'd emptied her quiver. Couldn't recall exactly. As she resumed her position away from the tree, she noticed Sango going smoothly through her routine. It was a mesmerizing display. Kagome watched, her gaze transfixed on the dazzling slayer as she moved precisely but with such fury and conviction. It was times like this that she felt she paled in comparison, being as clumsy and untrained as she was. But that was going to change.
She waited until Sango finished that routine before speaking, she didn't want to interrupt her, "Can you teach me how to do that?"
"Huh?" Sango looked to her friend. "You mean sword fighting?"
Kagome nodded, "I mean, I don't think I'll ever be as good as you, but it would probably be a smart idea to learn how to use a short range weapon."
Sango gave an easy smile, "Of course I'll teach you." She handed Kagome her sword and moved behind her, ready to give her a basics course in how to swing around a fancy stick.

Some time later found Kagome panting and sweating profusely. Swordplay was much more exhausting than she'd expected, but also much easier to pick up, she noticed. They even got to the point of light sparing, where Sango used the hidden blade on her arm as defense.
Kagome lay on the grass, letting her mind wander to the reason she was doing all this. She had to prove to Inuyasha that she was capable of defending herself so her freedom would be returned and she could see Naraku again. Her dream about him the night before only increased her desire to see him again, enough even to push her body to exhaustion. She replayed in her mind their encounters, starting with that first time he persuaded her to kiss him in order to free Inuyasha. She had been so shocked at how incredibly delicious that kiss had been. Then there was the time he 'ambushed' her in the woods and got her so worked up that she was tempted to go all the way with him right there. Last, was her conversation with him at the well. 'Oh yeah,' she remembered, 'I'm supposed to ask Sango about her village and how they went about slaying demons, but how to approach this...'
"Sango," Kagome began, trying to be careful not to trigger any painful memories, "I'm sure you have many stories of slaying demons from living in your village. Can you tell me one that's note worthy?"
"Sure," Sango jumped at the chance to reminisce about her happier years. "Let's see, my first job was a scorpion that used the corpses of its victims as ornamentation over its back," Kagome winced in disgust at that one so Sango continued on, "or a swarm of parasite demons that possessed an entire village we frequently traded with." Seeing no spark of interest, she tried again. "Then there was that time we were called to an eastern village to take care of a trio of foxes."
"Foxes?" Kagome inquired, this story gripped her attention strongly. She didn't know much about the species other than what she gathered from Shippo.
"This was a story I first heard as a young girl of about 10," Sango began, smiling at the memory of when her father first told her the tale of their latest victory. "It was before I started participating in jobs and was a well known tale in the village that inevitably had the details exaggerated, but I'll stick to the original version." Sango leaned back on her elbows and let the memory flow over her. "We received word of a fox that continually raided a nearby village and stole away children. My father, uncle, and a younger, apprentice slayer left to take care of the problem thinking there to only be one fox, but there was three. As you know, foxes are tricksters, we send multiple slayers to make sure at least one would always be free of their illusions. It turned out to be a difficult battle considering it was one on one rather than three on one."
Kagome couldn't help but think those odds weren't very fair, but if the foxes were stealing children, than they needed to be taken care of no matter how 'fair' it was. "So what happened?" Kagome inquired.
Sango giggled, remembering the humorous events from the story, "Well, the foxes were initially disguised as beautiful women and ensorcelled both my uncle and the younger slayer with ease. My father saw through his opponent though and revealed their true forms using a sort of smoke bomb. It revealed two adolescent males, one mostly animalistic the other mostly humanoid in appearance, and an adult female who was also mostly humanoid, except for her five tails.
"I don't remember all the details, but what I remember of the story is they battled, using the smoke bombs constantly to prevent illusions and keep the foxes off balance, but the smoke bombs ran out. This is where it gets funny. With the air cleared, the foxes were free to transform again, each of them copying the form of one of the slayers then multiplying so there was several of each person. Afraid of attacking their own team members, the slayers were at a standstill and chaos ensued.
"Whenever they told the story, it was always through bellyaching laughter, so it was quite hard to interpret the actual events. From what I gather though is through split-second thinking, they asked questions of each other that only the original could possibly know. Questions like, 'Who were you caught kissing behind the stable?' The answer being 'no one' but the foxes tried to use a vague answer of 'the most beautiful girl in town.' They eventually ended up slaying one of the young males when he botched his question, which sent the adult female into some kind of careless, blind rage, leading to her demise as well. Then the third was easy to pick off."
Kagome was quiet, something didn't seem right about this version of the tale but she couldn't put her finger on it so she just smiled at her friend. Maybe it was because they simply took the human's word for the transgressions and didn't try to get both sides of the story before attacking. It felt similar to when Jinenji was accused of killing people when it was in fact a centipede demon. There was no way to go back and ask for details now though, so she opted to let it go.
After a time of silence, Kagome ventured, "So, you ready for the hot springs? I know I am."

While the girls were busy training and bathing, Inuyasha preoccupied his time with complaining about all the time they were wasting that he could be using to hunt down Naraku and obliterate him with Tessaiga. "What's the point in trying to train her anyways?" he ranted childishly. "She's weak, clumsy, and only useful as a shard detector."
Miroku sighed, he'd already tried to explain the rationale several times but it never seemed to get past Inuyasha's thick skull, "If it were not for Kagome, we would all be dead by now." There, that got his attention, at least enough to shut him up for a few seconds. "Naraku is not the type to give up easily. If he has a scheme for Kagome, he will return. She needs to be able to defend herself, at least long enough for us to rescue her. Also, she has far more potential than you give her credit for. Properly trained, I suspect her powers will far surpass my own."
"I still don't think we should waste time on her," Inuyasha grumbled, earning him a 'sit' from a freshly bathed Kagome. She returned just in time to hear Inuyasha's rant.

Their daily routine continued as such, making camp after only half a day of traveling, spiritual training with Miroku for several hours, than physical training with Sango, bath if possible, sleep, and start all over again.
Kagome had been improving substantially each day. Today found her barrier stronger and stable. Miroku decided to test its strength. Without notifying Kagome, he poked the side of her bubble like barrier with his staff. Her eyes opened, alerting her to something trying to disturb her, but the barrier didn't even flicker at the attempt. Seeing a poke was not enough to break it, he instead swung his staff hard, but in a location that it wouldn't hit Kagome if it did shatter her barrier. He was pleasantly surprised when his attack was sent back with the same amount of force.
Kagome turned around, a questioning look on her face at the monk who had recently fallen on his rear. "What are you doing, Miroku?" she asked, annoyed that he was disturbing her concentration. She could feel her mood swings returning again, but having a purpose and the meditation with Miroku helped her to keep it under wraps.
"I merely wished to test the strength of your barrier, Lady Kagome," he explained as he got up from the ground, brushing off the dirt. "It would seem you have now surpassed my own abilities."
Her face lit up at the immense compliment, "Does that mean I'm ready to face Naraku?"
Miroku rubbed his chin, "I think we should practice a little more. Perhaps have Inuyasha try to break through."
She nodded emphatically, thrilled that she might be given her freedom soon. She still assumed that was the main reason for her looming, tempermental mood.
A few minutes later found the entire group gathered in the clearing as Kagome faced Inuyasha. "Keh, you really think she is ready to fight me, Miroku?" he scoffed, not believing for a second that she was capable of such.
"That is what we intend to find out, Inuyasha," Miroku reminded for the third time now.
Kagome mocked back, all too eager to prove the arrogant half-demon wrong, "Come figure it out for yourself." An uncharacteristic smirk was plastered on her face. She was so going to enjoy this. It was high time she put him in his place with her own abilities rather than relying on Kikyo's rosary.
"Feh, just don't go running off crying when I prove you weak," he uncrossed his arms and casually walked towards Kagome as she rose her barrier. Their gazes met and she nodded, signaling she was ready. Inuyasha drew his fist back and struck the barrier head on, expecting it to shatter with ease, but instead got thrown back. The look of shock on the dog's face was priceless.
"That all you got?" Kagome called to him, she barely felt that and honestly wanted to know just how much she could resist. The best way to get him to really test her was to taunt him.
He lept back at her, claws raised as he began cycling through his basic attacks, trying now to prove his strength to her. Every one of his attacks had the same result, casting him away from her barrier with equivalent force.
Inuyasha was getting very frustrated, the weak little human girl who he had to rescue countless times was making him seem weak in comparison to her. He was the alpha, he was supposed to be the strongest, his demonic side did not like this one bit. Deciding to put an end to this non-sense in short order, he went to his end-all option, Tessaiga. The sword transformed immediately and he caught Kagome's eyes widen. 'Good,' he thought, 'she still knows I'm stronger.' He pushed off from the ground, intent on regaining his pride.
Kagome's eyes had widened in slight worry, but not due to Inuyasha, she trusted he'd never actually hurt her. Rather, she felt some jewel shards approaching quickly. The situation she was in however, prevented her from focusing on how many or how far away, in favor of protecting herself. The jewel shards could wait, she decided, as Inuyasha flew through the air, coming at her with Tessaiga raised.
She clamped her eyes closed, using all her focus on repelling the powerful demon sword, just waiting to feel it strike the swirling, holy powers that made up her barrier. When nothing came, she peeked her eyes open. Inuyasha was not in front of her. 'Where'd he go?' she wondered, then heard an excessive amount of snarling and angry growling coming from a good fifty feet to her right.

(A/N: Oooh, someone with jewel shards is approaching. What will he think of the sight before him?)
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In a New Light