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Hanyou Wars	By : inumom Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > InuYasha/Kagome Views: 3736 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

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Disclaimer: they�re not mine, damn it!

5. Homecoming

Kagome stuck her head up over the rim of the ancient wooden structure near the edge of the forest and found herself facing a pair of gleaming golden-amber eyes. With a squeal of surprise, she lost her grip on the side of the well and would have fallen backing had she not been caught in the powerful arms of her mate. �What the hell happened?� he grumbled, looking around in surprise when his sensitive nose detected the scents of both the hanyou pup his mate had rescued and a lecherous Buddhist monk at the well.
She laughed a little self-consciously. �He just surprised me, that�s all.� Turning her attention to the child, she asked, �What are you doing here?�
The pup shrugged. �I woke up and you were both gone. I tracked you, but both of your scents stopped here. That one,� he said, gesturing at Miroku, who had started to pick up the bundles they had dragged out of the well, �Thought he could stop me.�
The older hanyou instantly turned his attention to the monk. Although he seemed to be sporting a nice collection of colorful bruises, there was no scent of blood on him. He sighed in relief, then turned to his mate with a slight nod. Picking up a double handful of the shopping bags. �Let�s get back to the house. It�s a long story, and it�ll go better over something to eat.�
He watched with undeniable pride as the hanyou child began the long walk back to the house, refusing all assistance even though his wounded legs restricted him to a slow limp that was painful to watch. Those bastards may have captured and tormented him, but they hadn�t broken him--this kid had pride, something that he himself had only recently found in the arms of his mate.
Although the child had healed remarkably well over the past twenty-four hours, the deep wounds on his legs still pained him, causing him to limp slowly along. Rather than allowing him to fall behind, the woman who had become the village�s teacher kept pace with him, conversing quietly. Of course, even though the monk couldn�t distinguish their words, she knew without a doubt that they were perfectly audible to the hanyou ears of her mate. �What were you doing at the well?�
He shrugged, suddenly looking very much like her own lover. �I told you. You two were gone when I got up, and I tracked you there. What were you doing down there, anyway?�
She smiled. �We weren�t actually in the well. You see,� she explained, �I�m not from around here. My home is five hundred years in the future. That well is the doorway between this world and the one I came from.�
He gave her a skeptical look. �Just because I�m hanyou doesn�t mean I�m stupid, you know.�
She gestured at the tall figure walking briskly at the head of the group. �Take a look at my mate. If anybody knows how smart a hanyou can be, it�s me. If you don�t believe me, you can ask Inuyasha. Maybe we�ll try to take you through the well so that you can see for yourself.�
For a moment he almost looked as though he was going to give in and believe, but he sniffed, dismissing her claims. �It could be some kind of trick.�
She shook her head slowly. It had been a long time since she had managed to break the shell of her mate�s defenses built against a world that would have preferred to see him dead. She had forgotten the intense suspicion and wariness of their early days together. �If I�d wanted to hurt you,� she said, �I could have done it at any time--you slept in my house for a long time in the past day or so.�
She could see him considering the matter, then the boy nodded briskly. �I guess you�re right.� He looked at the bundles they carried for the first time. �What�s all that stuff?�
Her smile broadened to a wide grin as she explained. �It�s food from my home. I usually bring some back when I go to visit. I bet,� she said, thinking of another inuhanyou who was hopelessly addicted to ramen, �That you�ll like it.� She thought briefly, deciding that since the boy seemed no more than six or so he would probably like some of the same things as Shippou. Pausing briefly, she dug into one of the shopping bags she carried, producing a small chocolate bar. �Try this,� she said.
When he made no move to take the candy, she realized that he didn�t yet trust her not to try hurting him. Unwrapping the chocolate, she broke it in half and ate one part. �See? There�s nothing here to hurt you, unless you eat way too much and get a stomach ache. My son loves chocolate,� she added.
He looked up in surprise. She didn�t smell like a mother--he�d have sworn that she�d never borne a pup. �You don�t have a pup,� he accused, convinced that everything she had said to him was a lie.
She realized what he meant when she noticed that he was sniffing delicately in her direction. Damn those inuhanyou noses anyway! �Well,� she said, �You�re half right. I never produced a pup from my body, but my mate and I adopted an orphaned fox youkai kit a few years ago. In fact, he�s the one who found you in the forest.�
The boy shook his head, eyes wide. It suddenly seemed to him that everything he had learned in his short life was completely wrong. �But--you�re human!�
She laughed out loud, finally understanding why he looked so shocked. �That�s right. I�m human, my mate is hanyou, and my son is youkai.� She smiled softly as she considered the adjustments each of them had had to make for the sake of their new family. �It�s an interesting combination.�
�A hanyou has a mate?� He had been surprised to learn that a hanyou--no, two--had managed to survive to maturity. To learn that a hanyou could gain the trust of anyone--even a human--enough to become their mate was more than he could handle. The boy dropped to his knees, silent tears rolling down his face.
Uncertain exactly what was wrong, she stopped in her tracks, dropping her bundles. At the spike of distress in her scent, her mate turned around and returned to the pair. Seeing that there was nothing physically wrong with the child, he motioned for Miroku to continue on to the house and tell the others that they would be returning soon. He stopped when he noticed that his mate was kneeling on the ground, the child in her arms sobbing uncontrollably, whispering �It�s okay now,� over and over into his drooping ears.
Although it was a little embarrassing, Inuyasha understood that this release was necessary for the boy so that he would one day be able to move past the horrors of his early life and make a future for himself. Ignoring the bags that smelled so enticingly of instant ramen, he carefully scooped up his mate and the pup, carrying them effortlessly the rest of the way to their home. Only after depositing the woman and the now-sleeping child in their futon did he return to retrieve the packages he had left in the forest.

*

When the child once again stirred, he found that he was surrounded by warmth and a sweet scent that--though not yet completely familiar--was comforting all the same. Opening his eyes, he realized that he was lying curled into a ball in the arms of the human woman who had bandaged his wounds the day before. Holding completely still so that he would not disturb her, he noticed that she was asleep, her head resting in the lap of her hanyou mate who watched him closely, lightly stroking her hair with one hand.
The boy�s eyes widened. �What is she?� he whispered.
Understanding the source of the child�s confusion, the hanyou explained, keeping his voice low so that he wouldn�t wake his sleeping mate. �She�s a human woman, but she�s also a lot more. She�s never been afraid of youkai because there aren�t any where she comes from. She never knew that a hanyou could exist outside of old legends, so she didn�t know that she was supposed to be scared and disgusted by us. She�s a powerful miko, but she won�t destroy even a youkai unless she had so. She has the biggest heart and purest soul I�ve ever seen--she believed that I was worth caring about when the rest of the world around us told her that I was nothing. She took a hanyou�s withered, tortured heart and healed it, teaching him how to love for the first time since his mother died. She adopted an orphaned youkai kit that most of the wise or holy people in this world would have let starve or kill outright. She let me--a worthless hanyou--become her mate. She�s the reason for my entire life, and I�ll personally destroy anything that hurts her.� To help dispel the implied threat in his words, he sniffed appreciatively. �You�ve got chocolate?� he asked, gesturing at the brown mass that was starting to melt in the boy�s hand. �You should probably eat it soon--she won�t be happy if you get sticky handprints all over her clothes.�
Suddenly unwilling to do anything to make the woman who had comforted him when he was hurt and vulnerable unhappy, he bit into the softened chocolate, his eyes going wide at the taste that flooded his mouth. Within seconds it was gone, and he was industriously licking his fingers clean of every trace of the candy. �I want to do something for her,� he said.
The older hanyou nodded. �Later, pup.� He had already noticed the unmistakable devoted expression of yet another of his remarkable mate�s unintentional conquests. He bent himself almost in half to reach the spot on her right shoulder that was covered by her clothing. With a light nibble through the fabric, he brought her instantly awake, trembling slightly from the sensations caused by his attention to the mark he had left on her when they had become mates. �Time to get up, love,� he murmured, pulling her tight against the hard muscles of his chest.

Her voice was still a little thick from sleep. �What happened?� she asked. �Did I fall asleep?� She glanced around in a near panic until she caught sight of the hanyou child sitting to the side watching the interaction between the mates. She reached out to lightly stroke his ears, causing his eyes to slip halfway shut in pleasure. �Feeling a little better now?� she asked.
He nodded slowly. �I think so,� he said softly. He frowned thoughtfully, trying to recall something from his half-asleep state of the day before. �What was it you called me?�
Kagome blushed slightly. �Takara. I hope you don�t mind, but I don�t think there can be anything really evil about a boy your age. It was the first thing I could think of.�
He thought about it for a few seconds, then decided that he didn�t really mind at all--in truth, he had never thought that he would be valued by anybody. For someone to think of him as a treasure was intensely appealing, if a little strange. �Can I go and see your home some day?�
After a quick glance at her mate followed by an almost imperceptible nod, she smiled and said, �We have to go back in seven days� time. Would you like to go and meet my family there?�
With a bright smile very much like the ones she had first seen on her mate when they had started to become serious about each other, he said, �Yeah, I would.�

*

The week flew by, and Takara rapidly became completely integrated into the workings of the household. Although his rapid hanyou healing was somewhat slowed by the state of malnutrition in which he had been found, all that remained of his injuries was a slight limp and haunted eyes. Even though he was unable to perform any strenuous activities, he insisted on being allowed to participate in the daily routine of the house by doing what chores he could.
It was in this way that Kagome learned that he was both extremely willful and exceedingly intelligent. When told that he was not able to assist in a given task, he would push himself beyond his physical limits to achieve what had to be done regardless of the risk to himself. In addition, even though he had been living on his own since he was four or five--and had had precious little help even before that--he only had to be shown how to do a task once before he mastered it.
Before his second day in the household was over, he had learned to help prepare meals--and had discovered his immediate love for instant ramen. Kagome shook her head in amusement as the two inuhanyou in her life seemed to be holding an impromptu contest to determine which of them could consume the greatest amount of ramen in the shortest time. Unfortunately, his nearly complete recovery had caused them to overlook the fact that Takara had been half-starved when he had been found: the large meal consumed rapidly after what had looked like weeks of near-starvation did not sit well on the boy�s stomach.
It was a very contrite Kagome who held his head while his body rejected the food, rubbing his back through the spasms and keeping his ebony hair from falling forward into the mess. �I�m sorry,� she murmured. �I should have thought--you�ve been healing so fast from your injuries that I completely forgot that you haven�t been eating well. I think you�ll be able to eat a full meal by the time we go through the well next week, but until then we�ll just have to take things slowly.�
The boy�s endless curiosity and eagerness to please what he was gradually coming to think of as his family made him of great help to Kagome in her classroom. While he could--and did--work tirelessly to help keep the school clean and organized, he also took advantage of the opportunity to learn the very basics of reading, writing, and math. Of course, mastering the necessary skills would take more than the week she had before she introduced him to her family in Tokyo, but she was amazed at the progress he made in a very short time.
Takara had been with the odd little family for four days when Inuyasha raised the subject of his past. By this time, he no longer feared the people with whom he lived, and had even started to become less jumpy around Sango, Miroku, and the villagers. When the older hanyou took him aside that evening and began to question him about his earlier life, he realized that it was with the intention of both avenging the wrongs done to him and also stopping those responsible so that they couldn�t do the same to any others.
Unfortunately, Takara could provide them with little real information. He had been taken captive in the mountains a short distance to the north, but he could not determine exactly how far it was from there to the place where he and the others--he had seen five for sure--were kept. It had taken his captors four days to get him there, but they had been hampered by having to carry him. Their base of operations was located deep in a forest to the east of where he had been taken. After his escape it had taken him several days to reach the forest in which he had been found.
�Did this seem like a permanent base, or was it just a campsite?�
He looked at the golden eyes of the older hanyou, thinking hard. �There was a campsite, but I think their base itself was more or less permanent. They kept us caged in a cave near the campsite.�
�Caged?!�
Takara looked up to see the human woman who had already started to earn his trust standing in the doorway. He nodded slowly. �They kept us in small cages most of the time. They weren�t quite big enough to stand up in, but we could lie down if we curled up. They took us out once in a while to show us to buyers, or to punish us if we were causing trouble.� His eyes glowed with a sort of perverse pride. �I was out of my cage more than all the others.�
�Didn�t they take you out to attend to your physical needs?�
He shook his head. �They fed us in the cages--sort of--every day or two, but they didn�t let us out. Every four or five days they�d dump a few buckets of water over us when the stench of our filth got too bad for them.�
Kagome shuddered. She knew exactly how sensitive inuhanyou noses were, and realized instantly what torture those conditions must have been. �Why would they punish you? It doesn�t seem like you had the opportunity to cause much trouble.�
He shrugged. �A few times I threw the rotten food they gave me back at them. I bit the one that fed me once. I tried to break out of my cage in spite of the seals they put all over it. I would throw the filth in the cage at them when they came too close. I�d try to attack the buyers they brought to see me.� He shrugged again. �You get the idea.�
The two adults shared a horrified look, then Kagome knelt to embrace the child yet again. �We have some things to do in my world in the near future, but when we have that all taken care of we�re going to track down the monsters who did this to you. We�ll need whatever help you can give us. Will you try?�
He shook his head slowly. �It won�t work. They don�t make contact with outsiders--the only people they ever see are the hanyou kids they catch and the buyers they sell them to.�
The woman looked momentarily thoughtful. �Maybe one of us could pose as a buyer�.�
�Not a chance,� her mate snarled. �Don�t you remember what Sango said? They were her students. That means that they know Sango and Miroku, and it�s a safe bet that they�ve at least seen the rest of us. No,� he said, baring his fangs in a feral grin, �What we need is bait--something they can�t possibly refuse.�
Takara nodded briskly. �He�s right. Besides, the only people they let see their merchandise are either previous customers or those introduced to them by people they�ve done business with before. What we need is bait that will make them wealthier than their wildest dreams--a hanyou unlike any other.�
Kagome simply stared at the two, absolutely certain that she didn�t like the way things were heading.
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Hanyou Wars