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Any Way The Wind Blows	By : Jinxy Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Sessh?maru/Kagura > Sessh?maru/Kagura Views: 3609 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha (obviously). No profit is sought, nor made, from my misadventures in fanfiction, just so ya know.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
A/N: (2/14/10) Turning a two-day timewaster into something more serious in tone is no small feat, even after this most recent of many revisions… and that's assuming I've actually accomplished anything. X3 At least everyone is a little closer to being in character. My thanks for reading, particularly to anyone passing through for the rewrite! :) Any update information concerning which, as well as the integration of additional material, will be posted in the AWTWB section of my story updates on my profile. Hope you enjoy and, again, thanks for reading!
Chapter 2
Rin kindly passed the fish she skewered and cooked to each member of their party; Sesshoumaru first, who waved his away, Jaken eyeing the extra piece as he was passed over. Kagura happily accepted the second helping, ravenously tearing into her first. She paid their stares no mind; it had been a long and arduous journey and she was hungry.
"So." Rin held back a giggle, bits of fish clinging to the corners of the wind user's mouth when she looked up. "What brings you to our camp?"
Kagura's chewing slowed, eyes staring blankly wide a moment. "I'm." She paused to swallow, gaze drifting to her food. "Free."
"Naraku set you free?" Jaken's froggy eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"Perhaps you could enlighten us as to how such a thing came to pass."
Crimson eyes flicked in the dog lord's direction, the former wind sorceress feeling grateful such a vision graced her sight: Sesshoumaru lazing against the tree, gilded eyes half-lidded as they fixed on her. So strange to see this man… relax, at ease away from his brother and the battles they waged… often with each other. She was not so grateful, however, that her mouth was full of food, forcing her to chew with her mouth open, much as she tried not to while he was actually showing interest in her plight. She slid off the log she'd been sitting on and leaned against it, head lowered in thought… and in avoidance of that stare, at least while she was still breaking her food down into more manageable pieces.
"I'm sure you have no idea what it is to be consumed by fear," she began once she swallowed, setting her fish aside. "With your power, I'm sure you've never had occasion to feel the need to look over your shoulder… ever." She shifted under the weight of their stares, unaccustomed to such a captive audience. Before the only one to hear her troubles was the wind, but she no longer had the luxury of its voiceless counsel, her disconnection from what drove her spirit from its very origins sinking in then, putting that much more distance between her and what she wanted but would never be. "Not that it mattered; there was no use hiding. No honor in it either, not that that mattered to me much considering… except that, if there was one thing that was mine, it was my death and the honor of facing my destiny with what little dignity I carried in no longer fearing it—in welcoming it…"
Dark clouds eddied overhead as Kagura approached the foot of the mountain, at the top of which sat their most recent base. Naraku floated down before her, the smug smile creasing his features distorted by his coward's barrier, his incarnation's lack of reaction only serving to feed his derision. She'd gone as far as she could—as far as she would dare—and now she was back, back to Papa. There was no question that was what he was thinking; it was written all over his face.
"Kagura," he leered, hovering high above her. "What a pleasant surprise. I have something for you."
"I'm sure you do, Naraku. Well, here I am." She opened her arms, chin raised, all her vital parts left completely open. "Do your worst."
Perspiration beaded over her body, the only reaction she would allow herself to the beating heart held in his hand. To think, after all that mental preparation, he could still strike fear into her this way. Her eyes widened as he tossed it at her, snapping shut at the thumping sensation filling her chest. A sigh of relief no sooner left her, her eyes opening to find she was still alive, when the gentle thud of her heart was replaced by excruciating tightness, the wind user unable to breathe at all.. The only thing she could picture was her veins being gathered into a grotesque ball, her brave façade falling with her to her knees. The gathering quickly changed to an outward pushing, as if her insides were going to burst from her skin.
Naraku's cruel grin grew, his red eyes narrowing almost into slits. "You know as well as I do that I could kill you," she heard him say through her veil of agony. "But this is so much more satisfying. Death would be too easy for you, Kagura. You should suffer more than that. I've given you a human heart. Each mortal joy… and inevitable pain shall be yours to know and relish. Enjoy your short and ultimately disappointing existence."
Crimson eyes lifted over clenched teeth, her father's final punishment in control of her reactions now, choked gasps and growls of pain the only answer she was allowed to the second heart he now held. Before she could so much as think to summon an attack, he crushed it to dust, thin streams of material like grains of sand slipping between his fingers and carrying wispily on the wind.
"You are free now." He brushed his palms together with a sneer, as if to have any piece left of her made his skin crawl. "I have no use for you now. Be gone from my sight, your pathos makes me ill."
Kagura made her way to her feet, the pain abating enough she wouldn't have to give him the satisfaction of a struggle, plucking a feather from her bun as she turned. She tossed it in front of her, expecting the giant plume that always carried her from one place to another, instead watching it float away on the breeze. Naraku laughed behind her, the sound of his delight echoing into nothingness as his presence dissolved.

"Okay, Kagura." She shook off the ache still pulling at her figure, seeming to slowly return to normal, save for the new sensation thumping in her chest. "Concentrate." She tried again. And again. And again, with the same results.
"Dance of the Dragon!" she cried, spinning. Still, nothing. The feathers still replenished—her fan still hung from her wrist—but almost as a tease, unresponsive to her commands, as was the element from which she was created. "My powers…" Her knees gave, spilling her to the ground once more. " Gone!" Her head fell, hands catching her tears. There was a downside to having no direction, no place she had to be, nothing she had to do—no way to do it—not the way she'd always done anyway. What was she to do now? Where was she to go?
His gilded eyes flashed through her mind then. Sesshoumaru—she had to find him. If it was the last thing she'd ever do, she had to find Sesshoumaru…
"Didn't take you long to find us," Jaken scoffed. "Awfully lucky, isn't it? That Naraku dumped you so close to our camp? It seems more than a coincidence if you ask me."
"Well, I guess it's a good thing no one asked you then, you little green eyesore." Kagura glared. "Besides, how do you know how long it took me?"
"Jaken," Sesshoumaru scolded.
"My apologies, my lord; my only concern is for you!"
"No one need concern for me," Sesshoumaru said without looking, his eyes drawn again to Kagura. "How did you come to find us?"
A tiny smile tugged at her lips, gaze lowered again to her food. "Let's just say a little flea told me."
"Myouga?" The daiyoukai raised a brow. "But what reason would he have to help an incarnation of Naraku?"
"It was a happy accident. Apparently his grip isn't what it used to be in his old age. He fell from the sky—from a crow, he said—and landed on me. He recognized me mid-snack. Found the taste of human blood coming from me a bit curious, naturally, so he asked me what happened. I told him and mentioned I was looking for you. He was quite helpful. Hopped off just as I arrived, said he'd forgotten business he had to attend to."
Sesshoumaru displayed a smirk of his own. "Hn, I'm sure he did."
Kagura stared in confusion, her mouth full of food again making the expression that much more comical. "What does that mean?"
"Nothing." The youkai lord shook his head. "Carry on."
She finished chewing, setting her food aside again. "I wouldn't say it was an easy journey here, though it may seem that way." She moved back up to the log, sweeping her hair from her forehead with a shaking hand. "For days I traveled with barely a drink of water—hunger, thirst, tiredness—never did I have such terrible need to sate those urges."
"You will have all the food, water and sleep you need now, won't she, Lord Sesshoumaru?" Rin smiled up at him.
His eyes went to her briefly, drifting back to the former wind sorceress. "She may as well reap the benefits of your care while she is here."
The child grinned, pulling at Jaken's robes as she stood from the campfire. "Come on, let's go pick some flowers to celebrate."
"All right, all right, stop tugging at me!" Jaken stumbled to his feet, Rin yanking him behind her as she skipped away.
Kagura allowed her gaze to drift in Sesshoumaru's direction once again, his own lifted to the sky. She pressed her hands against the log with the intention of moving closer to him but hesitated, her rump refusing to lift from where she sat. Before she could give her lack of motion any further consideration, he stood, walking from camp.
"Sesshoumaru," she found herself calling.
He turned, strands of his silver hair carrying on the breeze, leaving her dumbstruck. "Kagura?"
"Oh," she tittered, figure bending under her embarrassment. "Sorry… Where are you going?"
"I have some things to attend to. You will be all right by yourself for a while, won't you?" The question may have hinted at some concern had there actually been any in his voice.
"Y-Yeah." She nodded emphatically. "I'll be fine. I'll… take a nap or… something."
It didn't matter what she said. What she did was no concern of his, as long as it didn't disrupt his camp anymore than she already had, a sentiment conveyed as succinctly as his original disregard for her earlier that morning, his back turned on her yet again.He walked to where Ah-Un was resting, the dragon standing in preparation for his master to groom him.
She supposed it was time for her to make up a bed, out of what she had no clue. Did these people not have bedrolls at the very least? Did the little girl sleep on the ground? If there were any blankets to be found, Ah-Un was most likely carrying them, and Sesshoumaru made no mention of it. She supposed foliage would do, getting up from her log to gather some. She arranged her makeshift mattress by a tree at the edge of camp, a fair distance from the one Sesshoumaru seemed to have claimed as his own, and lay down, watching the clouds cross the sky. Her heavy lids eventually closed, opening as evening arrived, the smell of fired fish filling her nose. They dined in uncomfortable silence, night falling and sleep supposed to, her nap killing any hope of it coming easily.
She sat up and looked around. Sesshoumaru's companions were sleeping soundly, Jaken with a huge snot bubble growing and contracting with each whistling breath. The inuyoukai himself was seated on the other side of his mossy tree, staring into the starry distance. Kagura quietly got to her feet, taking tentative steps toward him, her desire for stealth having little point considering Sesshoumaru's extraordinary senses. He stirred when she closed behind him, turning his pretty face up at her, gilded eyes looking her up and down. It was a good start, the way his gaze lingered seeming to suggest there was something remarkable about the way she was framed by the cosmos above. Maybe there was some meaning behind his rescue of her from the river after all… behind his rescue of her now.
She supplied a nervous half-smile. "Don't you sleep?"
"No." He turned his face back to the nothing in particular he'd been staring at. "Not often."
Kagura grinned stupidly in spite of herself, taken by the fall of his beautiful hair down his slender shoulders in the moonshine, the color of snow reflecting a blue sky in its shadows. It looked so silky; how she wanted to touch it, but feared the thought of losing her hand more. He wasn't ready for that… yet. Maybe some day, one day—if he allowed her to stay long enough—maybe, just maybe she would get the chance. "Mind if I join you?" Her voice came shakier than she would have liked, but she couldn't be picky when her heart was fluttering in her chest this way, happy to produce any syllables at all.
He didn't decline, but he didn't exactly invite her either, a barely perceptible nod his only reply if any, the distant horizon holding his gaze. She sat guardedly beside him, whatever he was looking at—or looking for—garnering little interest, the wind user more concerned with delving the depths hidden beneath the demon lord's cold exterior. Something had to stir underneath all that impassivity, something had to change his mind that morning. But he certainly wouldn't make it easy, a turn of his head prompting her to avert her inquisitive stare, the clear night offering a prime opportunity at stargazing, something she enjoyed in her few moments of downtime, even if until now a lonely pastime. Somehow she thought a free sky would feel different, that there would be little that wouldn't, disappointed at the way it seemed to still weigh on her… especially when he turned away.
"Are you happy?" Sesshoumaru finally broke the thick silence burying them in its hollow quiet.
"Hm?" She barely heard the question among the mess in her head, his even baritone catching her entirely off guard.
"Are you happy?" he repeated. "You are free. Free to choose what you do and where you go." He met eyes with her, an ethereal light cast across his face as his head turned in her direction again. "With whom you share the moon's light."
Her pulse thrummed in her ears, jaw working in false starts, the wind sorceress almost laughing at her own awkwardness. But they were talking… and, perhaps more importantly, he was listening. "If only things were that simple."
"How much more simple does it get?"
Kagura shifted, cool blades of grass tickling the blistered soles of her bare feet, lowering her head. "As I said, I would not expect you to understand fear."
Still his stare lingered, as did his lack of emotion, despite the query to follow. "What are you afraid of, Kagura?"
She raised her eyes to his, mouth hanging open for a reply that wouldn't come.
He nodded blandly. "You went to him expecting death and instead he gave you freedom, the full cost of which you are still counting. But I would hardly be a warrior worthy my reputation if there were anything to fear in my camp."
She gave a slow nod of agreement, allowing her gaze to drift toward the horizon she would soon be heading for at this rate. It was clear his understanding of fear—of emotions in general—was of at the most primal level. Anything more complex than that was beyond his grasp… might have been hers too if Naraku hadn't cursed her with this human heart. But, then again, it was his hand on her cheek just now, turning her face toward him, a palpable electricity between them when her eyes tentatively touched his again. He stole her breath as his fingers gently traced her jaw, Kagura covering his hand with her own, pressing it to the cheek his surprisingly smooth palm held moments before. She turned a kiss to its warm contours, Sesshoumaru detecting a tingling long forgotten down below, a pressure that prompted him to draw his hand away.
Kagura dropped her head; so close and, yet… She slumped beside him, turning from the Lord of the Western Lands, propped up by one weak and shaking arm. "I think I'll go to bed now. Good night." She stood unsteadily, stealing one last wanting glance at the demon lord's face. He appeared much more pensive than before, if that was even possible. But, then again, it was likely only more wishful thinking, his mixed messages leaving her little else to go on. She turned with a heavy sigh, trudging back to her bed, where she unceremoniously dropped back, curling up into a ball.
"Such an idiot," she whispered to herself, one hand mushing her tearstained face. "Idiot."
She didn't see the way the demon lord turned, her back to him as his acute hearing picked up her self-scolding, nor could she read the thoughts in his head as he watched her figure jerk with sorrow. But think he did, considering the sensations she sparked within him. Perhaps she was more dangerous than he thought.
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Any Way The Wind Blows