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The Ages and Between	By : Kuronohime Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Inu no Taisho/Kagome Views: 17813 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: Done for purely non monetary pleasure. I do not own Inuyasha or the franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. All characters © Rumiko Takahashi

Chapter List
- 12
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"They are pushing past the borders in the southeast." An old and grumpy looking inu youkai slammed his fist down the floor at the feet of all the clansmen. Each of them were seated on a zabuton, a sitting cushion on the tatami floor. The atmosphere was tense and ominous. Candles flickered with the sheer force of the punch. "Inu no Taisho, how long are we going to tolerate this?" The same dog demon continued and won approving murmurs from the other clan leaders.
Inu no Taisho, the great dog general, sat calmly on his cushion at the front of the room. His steely, cold eyes masked his thoughts as he took in the reports, which voiced a yearn for a war, from his lieutenants. The lords mumbled their displease at the current situation and the room was filled with intensifying commotion.
Toga and Inuyasha sat on both sides of Inu no Taisho. Currently neither one commanded any troops themselves, but since one of them would eventually become the new Taisho, it was of great importance that they attended these tactical meetings.
Toga had heard most of what had been discussed, but his mind wondered. If a war between the bakenekos and inugamis was to break out in full effect, it meant that the inugamis would return to the mortal realm. Usually demon wars were not a concern to humans, but a war of this proportion, between two of the most strongest clans – it posed a threat for the mortals as well.
'Would she get caught in between?' He worried. Still unsure of her whereabouts. He had tried to approach Kimiko and ask her about the human woman, but Kimiko had completely secluded herself in her mansion. All Toga's intel had managed to gather was a confirmation that where ever Kagome was, she was not in Kimiko's care even though Inu no Taisho has specifically appointed the human under the care of the Sesshoumaru clan.
But Toga understood from past experiences, he glanced at his brother, no inu youkai wanted to associate with humans. Not to even take them as servants. And Kimiko had plenty of reasons to despise Kagome, even if she wasn't a human.
Toga had to fight back the bubbling image of Kagome being splayed underneath him on the grass, begging for him to take her. Her deep chocolate eyes filled with denied lust they both shared. His face almost flushed and he tried to focus his mind on something else.
The heated arguments of the lords grew louder, but he was uninterested in their debacles. When it was time, his father would take charge of the conversation and announce his decision about the bakenekos. The lords could vent out as much as they wanted in the meanwhile.
Toga looked at Inuyasha's direction once more.
His brother had been unusually tepid for the whole day. Distracted. Even now Inuyasha was staring at the window screens and the dimming light outside, looking absent-minded. Toga couldn't be sure but it almost looked like there was a smile tugging the corner of his mouth.

***

By some sinister luck, Kagome was still alive after the events of the previous night. Either Fuyuki hadn't heard of the incident in the great hall, or was incapacitated by other duties to dish out her severe punishment. Either way, Kagome wasn't much enjoying scrubbing down the washiki, the common lavatory of the mansion which had been visited upon quite a lot last night. She sighed and stretched her stiffed fingers. She wasn't sure what time it was, but she could feel the dusk approaching.
A violent sneeze echoed in the empty lavatory.

***

Once the brothers had returned from the very long gathering that was to continue the next day, Inuyasha's strange behavior seemed to become even more so. He scarfed his dinner down with only few bites, almost downing his chopsticks in the process, before announcing that he felt like he needed to get out.
"Inuyasha?" Toga called at his brother's back.
Inuyasha impatiently turned around, his feet tapping the tatami.
Anyone was able to read Inuyasha like an open book, he was so straight-forward and miserable at hiding things. Always wore his emotions on his sleeve.
"Is something the matter with you?" Toga wanted to know.
Inuyasha's feet stilled.
"Nah, it's just... You know." He let out an awkward laugh. "I've lived the woodsy and outdoorsy life for some time now, makes me anxious to be locked in whole day."
That wasn't the reason, Toga knew. But whatever it was, his brother wasn't ready to tell.
"I understand." Toga replied, yet giving his older brother a concerned look which was completely dismissed by the receiver.
"Don't stay up late waiting!" Inuyasha hollered while making his anxious exit.
Hadn't Toga been so preoccupied with trying to find the human woman, he would have followed his brother. A decision that did not lack irony.

***

Kagome hauled the waste from the washiki to the outdoor compost. A task all of the sensitive nosed demons were more than happy to let her do. No-one questioned her going out and no-one was expecting her back any time soon since this was her last chore of the night.
The girl watched from the corner of her eye the patterns of the guards before there came an opportunity for her to slip into the darkness of the night without being seen by anyone.
She jogged back to the tree of the previous night. Not seeing a thing, but confident there was nothing in the dark she'd have to worry about. This realm was surprisingly comfortable. No snakes, no bugs, no evil spirits looming in the shadows. A paradise for some.
"Oy!" She was shaken awake from her thoughts as Inuyasha slipped down from the tree. He fell beside her, even though she could not see him, she felt the earth tremble under her feet and could hear the grass rusting few feet away from her.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's not very ladylike to make others wait?" The reprimand was given with a light tone of voice. He was smiling, even though she could not see it.
Kagome didn't want to start bickering right off the bat so she didn't reply. She marveled his familiar voice instead and the powerful youki that was identical to her Inuyasha's. She had only seen this Inuyasha's face for a glimpse in the party, but he had been the spitting image of his reincarnation.
"Can you see me?" She asked him. She knew demons had vastly superior night sight.
"Yes." He replied softly, he knew she must have felt disadvantaged to not see him in the dark, but it didn't seem to scare her the least.
"The guards can see us as well, so it would be safer for us to continue this conversation on higher ground."
He pointed his finger at the top of the tree until quickly realizing that, of course, she could not see the gesture.
He walked beside her. "Can I..." Inuyasha carefully requested and wrapped his arm around Kagome.
Her heartbeat quickened suddenly. But it wasn't from fear, that much Inuyasha could smell. He tightened his hold on her waist, hauling them both up the tree with one effortless jump. She grabbed the front of his suikan and he kind of wished he would have climbed up slower.
When they were back on their branch, Kagome quickly scooted away from him. It was strange and confusing to be near him. This Inuyasha who wasn't Inuyasha, but was Inuyasha.
"Soooo." He drew out the vowel, trying to chase away the silence that was attempting to fall between them.
"You still haven't explained how you know me? Since I'm fairly sure we've never met."
Kagome chewed on her bottom lip pensively. She needed his help to get away from here, but was unsure how she could convince him to help her. Lying was exhausting. All she had done with Toga was try to keep her true past a secret. But if she had traveled this far to meet the preincarnation of Inuyasha, there must have been a meaning for it.
"We haven't met, not exactly." She began an explanation that would take some time and some suspension of disbelief.
"I come from the future. 3000 years from now, but I was taken aback 500 years to the past due to a curse. A curse that actually involved your incarnation and my preincarnation." Kagome explained. She went on to tell him everything – everything about Inuyasha, Kikyou, Naraku, the connection of the well, and her duty to the Shikon no Tama. All of it. Almost.
Inuyasha didn't interrupt her even once, but silently listened to her lengthy explanation.
"Hmm. So, if you're involved with my incarnation in the future, that must mean that I don't get to live to my retirement age." He deducted, sounding very casual about his own demise.
"You... You believe me then?" Kagome asked in disbelief.
Inuyasha just scratched his chin and mused aloud "Well, it all makes sense." Inuyasha admitted.
The human girl blinked her eyes and hoped she could see his face. How could anyone in their right mind digest such information so readily.
"How? How could any of this possibly make any sense?" She demanded to know, wishing to have that same unfazed attitude.
"Hey, lady, I've lived for a long while. This isn't even the craziest shit I've heard this week." He answered and laughed. That raspy, snotty laughter that was so like Inuyasha.
"How can you know I'm not just some... lunatic making all this up? I couldn't possibly prove any of this to you anyway." She admitted and began to wonder if he was the crazy one of the two for believing her so easily.
"You don't have to prove it." Inuyasha replied, sounding more serious now. "I felt it."
Inuyasha could see her puzzled expression and decided to be as candid with her as she had trusted herself to be with him.
"Two moons ago, I felt something surge. I could not explain it then. But it was like this energy that had suddenly appeared in the human realm. No-one else felt it. I didn't know what it was, but it was something within myself. It must've been at that time when you were brought here. And..." He fidgeted with the sleeve of his suikan. Feeling rather embarrassed about the next part. "At the party the other night. When I saw you. I knew you were something else. In that one gaze. And when you called my name. I felt it again."
He sounded kind, like he was remembering something lovely. She had evoked something pleasant in him.
"What does all of this mean?" She hoarsely asked.
"Well, crazy future priestess lady," Inuyasha answered with mirth in his voice. "It means that our souls have a special bond. It seems that our reincarnations cannot escape each other even when separated by time."
She was actually starting to like this rendition of Inuyasha. He had that boyish childishness to him, but unlike his future self, this Inuyasha wasn't bitter. Kagome's chin dropped at the realization.
Would this have been how Inuyasha had grown up to be if he hadn't been cruelly depraved of a decent childhood.
"So, let me recap." Inuyasha cut her train of thought before she had the time to become saddened by it, either by intentionally or accidentally. "The Kikyou person is dead and you are stuck with my reincarnation in the future. Kikyou and the next Inuyasha were lovers. But what about you and him?"
The expression on her face gave away her answer long before her words did. She bit her lip again and blushed.
"I... We... It's complicated." She sighed and turned her face away. She knew he was staring at her, even though she could not see. This was probably the most surreal conversation she had ever had in her life. And she had had her share of those, running around three time periods, trying to obliterate talking spider demons, having a fling with her father-in-law, fighting with a dead clay copy of her soul, lying about her gout to her future friends trying to hide her demon hunting past-times and she was currently a housemaid to a near-immortal powerful demoness. What a crazy life.
"I'm not sure about his feelings..." Kagome silently answered and thought of Inuyasha. Her Inuyasha.
"Well then." The other Inuyasha chuckled. "Seems like reincarnating doesn't get rid of stupid."
Her blush only took a deeper shade of rouge.

***

Kagome hadn't made all the way inside when she was halted by Fuyuki who was standing next to the outer shoji.
"What the hell are you getting yourself into, princess?" The amami rabbit hissed quietly, trying to steer clear off all the prying ears she knew wondered the halls inside. That's why she had decided to have this conversation outside.
"What do you m-" Kagome tried to feign ignorance, but Fuyuki stopped her feeble theatrics at the get-go.
"You know perfectly well. You and master Inuyasha. This is the second time you've sneaked out to meet him."
Kagome swallowed down hard. She couldn't afford to expose anything of their conversation to Fuyuki who would then realize that the human girl was plotting her escape. She had explained to Inuyasha that she needed to return to her own time. Even if Kagome pleaded with Fuyuki and told her about the time travelling, the reincarnations and the whole nine yard, she would either think her mad or wouldn't sympathize with her situation regardless.
"I... I..." Kagome tried to come up with a feasible sounding lie, but Fuyuki wasn't interested in one.
"Listen, princess. Master Inuyasha was expelled from this realm for a long time for cavorting with humans. It didn't work out for him. And the humans he cavorted with, they all died. So it didn't work out for them either."
Kagome listened to the rambling outburst of the demoness with daunting curiosity. They had spent the whole night only talking about her, but she really didn't know anything about the current Inuyasha. She had been too baffled by him actually believing her to ask anything about his life.
"They are not for you. Neither master Toga or master Inuyasha." Fuyuki concluded firmly.
Kagome stared at Fuyuki and matched the intensity of her eyes. It was all such a chaos. She didn't know down from up anymore. Her feelings were in a turmoil she didn't know how she could ever survive from. Her heart had no place.
"I know!" Kagome nearly cried out and startled the older woman. There was a world of hurt behind the blazing eyes of the human woman.
"I know." She repeated and pushed her way past Fuyuki, not wanting for the demon to see the tears that spilled down her cheeks.

***

Inuyasha tried to sneak his way back in, just as a precautionary measurement, even though he had used a great deal of his youki to mask her scent and he had rolled in some more waste. By the disgusted looks of Toga's guards and staff, his reputation no doubt would gain new dimensions with his choice of perfume.
He almost had made all the way to the bathing room until he sensed his brother's youki that approached him with great speed.
Immediately afterwards, Toga appeared next to him in a state of great urgency.
"Inuyasha!" He breathed quickly and grabbed his brother's suikan, ignoring the potent smell of manure.
"Yesterday, at the party" Toga almost panted. "Did you see a human woman?"
Inuyasha's eyes widened. Toga's voice was not berating like his brother would have assumed from the subject matter - it was desperate.
"What?" Inuyasha needed clarification.
"I heard a rumor today that there was some sort of commotion at the party. There was a human. Did you see her?" Toga's grip on Inuyasha's suikan tightened with the haste of his words.
Inuyasha stared at his younger brother, full awareness dawning on him. Inuyasha recognized the symptoms immediately, having suffered from the same ailment himself.
His brother was in love. With a human.
Inuyasha clenched his fists and cast his eyes away, a painful memory stroking his heart.
Anything that was in his power to protect his little brother form the same ostracism he had had to suffer for so long, he would not shy away from doing. He would not wish the loss of a loved one upon even his greatest enemy – let alone unto his own flesh and blood. Humans, with their fleeting lifespan, only served to cause misery with their inconstant love.
This was something Inuyasha had experienced first hand and had severely been punished for.
"No, Toga, I didn't see one."
The persisting, madly glistening hope in his brother's would not die so easily, so Inuyasha decided to fortify his lie.
"I saw the servant in question who caused the ruckus. It was a kitsune, pretty fine looking one, I'll admit." He forced out a laugh, trying to sound authentic. "Trust me, the lords and the ladies were so hammered by that time of the night that most of them could not have been able to tell the difference between their thumb and their asshole." He paused for a new thought. "Not that they actually can distinguish the difference even while sober."
As Inuyasha prattled on, the glimmer in his brother's eyes slowly dimmed. Toga nodded and tried to hide his more than evident disappointment.
"What's that to you?" Inuyasha asked and leaned his shoulders against the wall. "That human."
There was one more connection Kagome shared to inu youkais she had clearly left unmentioned.
Toga remained quiet for a while before clearing his throat. He couldn't possibly admit the true state of things to his brother, a brother who had lost so much for his involvement with humans. It was like a cruel joke it was happening again in this family.
"I..." Toga began, not actually sure what to answer. A truth, a some sort of truth. "I met a powerful priestess in the human realm and she was supposed to work for Sesshoumaru. I owe her something."
Inuyasha studied his younger brother who was working really hard to compose himself. There was a story he'd learn sooner or later, but for now Inuyasha placed his hand on Toga's shoulder.
"If it's something important, otouto, I will help you find her." He smiled reassuringly.
Of course, he had no intention to do so.
He wanted to convince himself that his reasons were undefiled, a mere act of brotherly love, but they weren't.
He could feel greedy jealousy gnawing at his soul.

***

A/N: Even though this story has taken on dimensions I never intended while I first began to write this, and it has certainly lived its own life, I'm feeling that we are entering the final third of the story. I never intended to include the preincarnation of Inuyasha until I realized what a huge impact this character could to be to both Kagome and Toga. The ending is going to be nevertheless the same I always envisioned when I first began writing this story. If I had the time or the energy, I'd probably make some revisions to earlier chapters for the sake of continuity, but since I'm a lazy bum, please forgive me for not doing so. T_T
I feel that in these seven years of writing this (AND OMG YOU CRAZY BASTARDS WHO HAVE BEEN READING THIS FROM THE BEGINNING!) I've matured as a person and as a writer. I hope my quality keeps on improving. As you guys have probably noticed, I've been able to be way more profilic in the past six months than EVER before! Actually this chapter was written today, in five hours, which is ridiculously short time for me. The past me would have needed at least a week to produce as much as text. But your wonderful reviews made me so excited about my own story (thank you, guys! <3) that I couldn't keep myself away from writing. And I'm immediately starting on chapter 14 as soon as I post this. So, I hope you can expect another update within the week.
I love you guys as much as Inuyasha loves ramen.
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The Ages and Between