Inu-Yasha
A Feudal Fairy Tale

Disclaimer: This episode of Inu-Yasha is of my own creation. I do not own any portion of Inu-Yasha. "Inu-Yasha" and all related characters, names, etc. are ©1998-2006 Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan, Inc. Inu-Yasha is a trademark of Viz Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

A Change of Heart
Scroll Eleven:
Reunion

Inu-Yasha leaps aside as Koga throws a powerful punch intended for him, a small crater forming where the youkai's fist lands. "Hey! What's the big idea?" the young hanyou complains while jamming his Tetsusaiga into the ground and giving the ookami in front of him a disgruntled look. "You got no reason to attack me anymore so why don't you just leave me the hell alone?"

"I'm not done with you yet Inu-yasha!" Koga shouts, his entire body shaking with rage. "Its because of you that my Kagome's losing interest in me…her own mate!"

"What the hell are ya yappin about?"

The youkai growls loudly as he tries to stay calm enough to answer. "I don't know what's goin' on, but she's been pushing herself away from me lately, and it started right about the time we bumped into you and your dead miko." He begins to crack his knuckles one by one. "I'm getting pretty sick and tired of you always gettin' in the way for my Kagome…even after I've marked her as mine!"

That last comment brings up an old spark of anger in the hanyou, the painful memory of finding out the truth and seeing them together still stinging him. He pulls his sword out of the ground and faces off against his formal rival. "Well," he growls, "if you really wanna fight so damn bad, then come here and fight me you bastard!"

Nearby up in the trees, Kikyo watches on with a good bird's eye view while cradling Rin in her arms. The young girl has suddenly become very afraid by the presence of the temperamental youkai whom Inu-Yasha seems to know. "What is wrong child?" the miko calmly asks, brushing aside some of the girl's hair from her eyes. "Why have you become so frightened?"

"I-I remember him," the young human shakily responds, looking down at Koga with frightened eyes. "He attacked the village I used to live in. He sent a bunch of ookami out and they killed everyone…and then they went after me." She curls up into a tight ball and Kikyo wraps her arms around her to help console her. "I ran as fast as I could, but they were too fast and they caught up and…and…" tears fill her eyes and she buries her face into the miko's white gi.

"I knew I recognized his scent from somewhere," a calm, cool voice says from below. The two in the tree look down and see Sesshô-maru calmly watching the battle between the youkai and his brother. "If I had not have been there to revive Rin with the Tenseiga, she would not be sitting in your lap at this current moment."

Kagura walks in next to the inu youkai, a hint of amusement on her face. "Well I did not realize what a big softie you are, bringing a human child back from the dead and letting her follow your every move. I am surprised that…" she never gets to finish as Sesshô-maru shoots her a sharp glare that makes her shiver, though it is not entirely in fear. The reincarnation of Naraku looks over to Inu-Yasha and his opponent, smiling slightly. "Koga, chieftain of the ookami youkai tribe, what an annoying nuisance."

Kikyo looks down from her spot in the tree, still cradling young Rin in her arms. "Your paths have crossed before?" She looks back at the surprisingly fast youkai, thinking, 'Koga…so he is the one who assisted in nearly destroying Inu-Yasha's will to go on living.'

"Several times," the wind witch answers with a definite distaste in her voice, her deep crimson eyes never leaving the current topic she is speaking about. "Shortly after I was 'born', Naraku sent me to his old keep to kill several of Koga's ookami brethren and then use their dead bodies to lure him in a trap with Inu-Yasha. They escaped and Koga has been on a never ending vendetta to kill Naraku ever since to avenge his brethren's unjust deaths. We have fought once or twice and he assuredly doesn't think too highly of me." She pauses for a moment as a dark look passes through her eyes. "While I was under his hold, Naraku had me watch over the young chieftain many times, occasionally drawing him in closer, then sending him off in the wrong direction. Naraku got a sick pleasure with 'toying' with all of his pawns." She shudders uncomfortably at the horrible memories of the evil hanyou she used to serve.

"If he does indeed have such a reason to despise Naraku and wishes him removed from this life," the only true full-blooded youkai in the group begins, "then why does he now battle with Inu-Yasha?"

Five hundred years in the future, Kagome lies down on her bed and lets out a sigh of content as her body sinks into it. The bath she just took helped to release some of the stress that has been building up inside her lately. The young woman closes her eyes and feels sleep start to take her when the doorbell downstairs rings quite loudly, hastily awakening her. With a loud sigh, she gets up off of her bed and shouts "I'll get it!" to her family downstairs.

She rushes down the stairs and opens the door. She is startled momentarily by the sight of her three friends Eri, Yuka and Ayumi on the other side, who all look just as startled as the young time traveler in front of them. "Kagome," Eri begins after blinking a few times, "wow…uh…we didn't expect to see you up and about, especially after that nasty bout of North European Chicken Pox."

"Yeah," she nervously chuckles while a large sweatdrop forms on the side of her head, "it pretty much went in and out of me. I'm feeling a lot better now."

Yuka claps her hands together with a large smile. "Oh that's great! We were planning on visiting you to see how you're doing and then go shopping afterwards, but since you're better now, do you wanna join us?"

"Uh…sure guys, just let me get my purse." The woman turns around and runs back up to her room and grabs her purse. With a quick glance in the mirror to make sure she is completely presentable to go outside, Kagome rushes back downstairs. "I'm going out for a bit!" she says towards the kitchen where her mother is busy cleaning.

"Okay dear," Mrs. Higurashi replies. "Have fun and be careful."

"I will."

Miroku, Sango and Shippô all sit down inside Kaede's hut, all three of them looking road weary and grateful to relax. Kirara walks up near the fire burning in the center of the hut and curls up into a ball, the warmth of the flames quickly putting the little nekomata to sleep. The houshi leans against the wall behind him while letting out a sigh. "I do not know about you guys, but I just cannot seem to fully put myself in our search for Shikon Jewel shards right now."

"Yeah," Shippô agrees, lying down on his back with bleary eyes. "It's just not the same anymore without Inu-Yasha with us. Koga's okay at times but I think he's too much of an idiot to be a good replacement." The two humans next to him both nod in agreement.

Keade chooses that moment to enter and she pauses as she looks at the small group before her. "My," she begins, "all of ye have such long faces. Has there been any word from Inu-Yasha?"

"We did get to seem him not too long ago," Sango replies while stretching her arms over her head, "but we were a little too busy fighting off the harpies and afterwards he left with Kikyo and Sesshô-maru before we could really say anything."

"Sesshô-maru?" the old miko questions while her good eye rose slightly. "Inu-Yasha's elder brother?" When the taijya nods she continues, "But I thought Inu-Yasha and his older brother were not on the best of terms?"

Shippô yawns loudly and stumbles his way next to the sleeping Kirara and lies down next to her. He mutters out, "So did we…" before passing out.

Koga easily dodges a rather sloppy swipe from Inu-Yasha, the ookami's anger continuing to grow, as well as his confusion. He leaps back several yards and places a hand on his hip in annoyance. "What's the deal!" he shouts, "there's no point in fighting you if you're not even gonna really fight me! I hate to admit it mutt-face, but I know you're better than this!"

Inu-Yasha growls slightly. "Well then why don't ya run off back to your pack with your tail between your legs like ya always do and stop wastin' my time?"

The thickheaded youkai, in an act of extreme stupidity, decides to invoke his rival's anger…and he knows one of his biggest sore spots. "You know, I think I know why Kagome left you for me." He pauses for a moment to smirk confidently. "She needed a real youkai, not some weak, pathetic half-breed who turns into an even more pathetic human on nights when the moon's not in the sky!" The last comment catches the attentions of everyone nearby just inside the forest. "She probably took one look at the weak human you become and has been thinking of a way to get away from you ever since." Koga's confident smirk slowly fades as he notices Inu-Yasha tightly gripping his sword, which now has strange whisps of wind swirling around it in a way that is making all of his hairs stand on end.

"So you wanna real fight with me?" the hanyou growls out, Koga's little rant reminding him of a nightmare he had shortly after reuniting with Kikyo, "then let's see how you like this!" He lifts his Tetsusaiga above his head and shouts out, "Wind Scar!" as his sword's second most powerful attack surges forward on a collision course with the ookami youkai.

Using the Shikon Jewel shards in each leg to their fullest extent, Koga leaps extraordinarily high into the air to dodge the attack. He grunts slightly as the attack passes by harmlessly below him. The full-blooded youkai lands on the now torn up ground, a deep growl rumbling in his throat. "Hey!" he shouts, "if that'd hit me it coulda killed me!"

He only gets a cold glare in response from Inu-Yasha. "That's the point."

Kikyo watches the fight between the loud ookami and her beloved in concern. "That fool. What does he think he can gain by arousing Inu-Yasha's anger?"

Kagura calmly fans herself though she silently agrees with the miko. 'This fight between those two fools is doing nothing but wasting valuable time and effort we could be using to hunt down Naraku,' she thinks to herself. 'Perhaps I would have made more progress if I had decided to do this alone instead of joining this colorful bunch.'

Down at the base of the tree, Sesshô-maru is looking quite bored. "I grow tired of this meaningless squabble." He reaches down and pulls out the Tokijin. "I too have an unsettled score to deal with this ookami." With half a glance up at Rin, he calmly walks out into the clearing, his sharp golden eyes watching both combatants closely. They both look at the youkai in confusion as he stands in between them. "This trifle fight has gone on for quite long enough." He turns towards Koga and points the Tokijin at him. "You there, ookami, state your reasons for attacking Inu-Yasha and slowing our progress."

"I'll tell you why," Koga growls, itching to dig his claws into his rival's body and tear him apart, "He's stealing my woman away from me…again!"

As Inu-Yasha snorts in amusement his brother's eyes narrow dangerously. "So that is the reason for all this nonsense? A wench?" He points his sword at Koga. "I am afraid that your fight with my dear little brother is to come at an end for I am your opponent now."

"W-W-What!" the ookami stammers out in surprise. "My fight's with Inu-Yasha, not you!" Though he's too proud to admit it, Koga has no intentions of fighting Sesshô-maru…ever. He's seen the inu youkai in action and he knows that if they were to fight and it were serious, he would not make it out without getting seriously injured…or possibly worse. "And besides," he adds, "I have no reason to fight you!"

"I disagree ookami," Sesshô-maru replies, his eyes narrowing just a fraction of a bit. "You and I have some unfinished business that I have passed off for far too long."

"Good," Inu-Yasha growls while sheathing his Tetsusaiga. "You go on and keep him busy for a while Sesshô-maru. I've got something I gotta take care of." He leaps over onto the tree that Kikyo and Rin are sitting on. "Kikyo," he starts while looking the miko directly in the eyes, "I gotta leave for a little bit to get rid of some unfinished business. I shouldn't be gone for too long, okay?"

Seeing the look in his amber eyes, the reincarnated woman nods once. "A-Alright Inu-Yasha…but please return soon."

With his patented smirk, the inu hanyou leans forward and captures the miko's lips in a brief yet meaningful kiss. "Ya know I will Kikyo."

The former guardian of the Shikon Jewel watches her beloved leave in quite a hurry, confusion and worry etched across her pretty features. 'Where is he rushing off to? Is this sudden departure connected to that ookami attacking him?'

In her arms, Rin also watches Inu-Yasha leave in confusion, her head tilted a bit to the side. She looks up and asks, "Why did Lord Sesshô-maru's brother leave?"

"I do not know Rin, but I assume it must be important for Inu-Yasha to leave during a battle. I have never known him to do such a thing."

Below them Kagura too keeps her deep crimson eyes glued to the hanyou she had for a time considered her enemy. Her curiosity continuously grows with each passing moment at his unorthodox actions. Ever since she took her heart back from Naraku she has truly been free for the first time in her entire existence. She has been absolutely relishing in the feel of it; to be able to do whatever she so desires without worrying about suffering any consequences for being disloyal. True she joined this merry little bunch but for the sole reason of having allies powerful enough to destroy Naraku once and for all. When that finally occurred she would most assuredly leave them and…and…well even she did not know what she would do.

For some reason…that pleased her greatly.

In the current, the wind witch lets her curiosity get the best of her. She backs away from the tree the deceased miko and little human child are resting in and while they all are distracted, she reaches into her hair and pulls out a white feather. In a gust of wind she is airborne on her giant feather, manipulating the wind towards her target and staying up high enough to keep her scent away from his sensitive nose.

Kagura keeps a close eye on Inu-Yasha from her bird's eye point of view as he rushes through the seemingly endless forest. She curiously tilts her head to the side, wondering just exactly what he is up to. After a short while the hanyou enters a clearing with an old wooden well straight ahead. He stops right in front of it and turns his head up at the reincarnation of Naraku and gives her a cheerful wave before leaping inside of the well.

The wind witch is completely startled. 'He…he knew I was following him?' her mind says. 'How did he know?' She lands onto the ground and walks up to the well while fanning herself. 'I made sure to keep up high enough to hide my scent…yet he knew I was following him.' She lets out a small smirk. "What an interesting character," she mutters under her breath, "but I wonder what is so important abut this old well?" She looks in it and to her surprise finds that the bottom is not so far down…but Inu-Yasha is nowhere to be found inside. "Increasingly curious." The wind witch leans down to get a better look inside the well when the inside starts to glow slightly.

Kagura backs away from the well and as she does the glowing fades away. 'Interesting reaction,' she thinks while reaching inside her kimono and pulling out a single shard of the Shikon Jewel. 'I wonder if it has anything to do with this jewel shard I stole from Naraku before I escaped?' She holds it up into the sunlight in admiration. 'I am quite surprised he did not notice me take it from him…and for that matter why that deceased miko did not comment on me holding one. I know both she and that other girl with the strange clothing can sense jewel shards so why did she not say anything?'

The reincarnation of Naraku shakes her head to clear herself of all those troublesome questions. "Those are thoughts for another time…but for now…" she walks towards the old Bone Eater's Well again with the Shikon Jewel shard firmly held in her grasp, "…my main interest is this odd little well and where Inu-Yasha has vanished to."

Kagome laughs merrily at a joke Yuka just told, feeling truly happy for the first time in days. The young time traveler and her three friends have just exited a clothing store in town, each of them carrying several bags of their purchases. Getting back to her own time and actually acting like a normal teenage girl turned out to be the best cure for her recent depression. "Hey guys look!" the young Higurashi suddenly says as she spots their favorite fast food spot, a WacDonalds, right across the street. "I'm a little hungry guys so why don't we go get a bite to eat. If you want something too I'll pay…huh?" she looks around as she notices that her three friends are nowhere around her.

"Hey Kagome!" a voice says from across the street. The young woman looks over and her shoulders slump at the sight of Eri, Yuka and Ayumi already across the street and waving at her. "You coming or what?"

Kagome sighs deeply, a giant swaetdrop forming on the back of her head. 'Maybe I shouldn't have said that I'd pay,' she thinks while hefting her bags across the street to join her friends. Unfortunately for her, paying for her friend's meal is the least of her problems at the moment…

Inu-Yasha leaps out of the ancient Bone Eater's Well, now in the Higurashi shrine in present times. He walks outdoors and heads straight to Kagome's room, still knowing where to go almost by instinct. The inu hanyou leaps up into her window that is conveniently open. Unfortunately the young woman is not in her room at the moment. He leans his face in and closes his eyes while sniffing the room. He allows a slight smile to escape him. 'I forgot how good Kagome's scent is,' he thinks to himself. 'Hmm…it's still pretty fresh so she might still be in the house.'

Kagome's door suddenly slams open and the startled hanyou loses his grip on the windowsill and crashes onto the floor. Sota stands in the doorframe, a large smile on his face. "Inu-Yasha!" he shouts, "you're back!" With impressive speed for such a small human, the young boy dashes over to the hanyou and wraps his arms around him in a tight hug.

"Hey Sota," Inu-Yasha greets, rubbing the top of the youngest Higurashi's head with a light smile. "Do ya know where Kagome's at? I really need to talk ta her."

The young boy scratches under his chin in thought. "I think she's out with her friends shopping. I don't know where really." He looks back up at the hanyou he thinks of as a bigger brother. "I missed you. You haven't been around here for a long time. Are you and my sister fighting again?"

The hanyou shifts his feet on the nice soft carpet uncomfortably. "Something like that," he mutters in a barely audible voice. He swiftly turns around and begins to climb back out the window. "Well I'm gonna go searchin' for her. I'll try to stop by later okay?" Sota nods in response with a large smile. "See ya later kid," Inu-Yasha says while leaping out of the window and landing at the front door. He falls to all fours and sniffs the ground a few times, finding Kagome's scent strong at her front door mixed with three others. All four scents lead off away from the house and the inu hanyou quickly followed after them.

"So Kagome," Eri begins between drinks of her soda, "tell us about your boyfriend. Have you made any progress with him?"

The young woman stops eating her fries, suddenly losing her appetite. "Um…we're sorta not together anymore," she muttered while fighting back the tears. 'Why do they have to ask now?' she thinks in despair. 'I was just starting to really enjoy myself!'

Ayumi sighs lightly and comments, "So he dumped you huh?" she lets out a squeak as Yuka pinches her leg with a disgruntled look.

"Well…not exactly," Kagome comments, wanting to discuss anything but the current subject. "Some…stuff happened but I really don't feel like talking about it right now okay guys?"

"Okay," the three of them sigh, always wanting to get in with the latest gossip.

Yuka suddenly looks up with a smile. "You know Kagome, now that you're single you can go out with Hojo! He constantly is asking about you…that guy's got it bad."

The young time traveler winced at the thought of the guy in this time who is infatuated with her and always bringing her gifts for her assorted 'illnesses'. "Well…" she hesitantly begins, "…I didn't say that I'm single now…I just said that Inu-Yasha and I aren't together right now."

"Whoa," Ayumi says while looking impressed, "you get done with one guy and toss him aside go right to another. Way to go Kagome!"

The current center of attention bangs her forehead onto the table in front of her. "Guys," she moans, "can you please just let it go? All I want do…" but she is distracted as all three of her good friends all gasp simultaneously. She looks up at them and sees that they are all staring at the entrance of the fast food restaurant.

She turns around and her eyes widen as she sets her sight on the one subject she was just trying to put off. "Inu-Yasha?"

Back inside the Higurashi shrine the inside of the well glows for a moment before a figure suddenly appears at the bottom. She around for a moment before commenting to herself, "Well that was interesting." She looks up and frowns slightly. "Hmm…it is dark already…odd."

She unfolds a fan in her hand and with a great gust of wind she lifts herself into the air but quickly crashes into the roof of the shrine. The woman lets out a yelp of pain and tumbles back down into the well in an unceremonious heap. "Damn it!" she shouts while getting to her feet and dusting herself off. "What the hell was that?" She looks up again and lets her eyes focus to the dark. "A roof?" the woman question aloud. "Where did this old well take me?"

She uses her fan to lift herself out of the well once more, this time heeding the roof above her head. The kimono clad woman looks about, her frown deepening at the unfamiliar surroundings. Within a few moments she sees the door and walks outside into the warm sunny day.

Kagura's deep crimson eyes widen as she takes in everything around her. Just down a few wooden steps lies several stones on a dirt path that lead to a building of sorts to her right, the likes of which the wind witch has never seen before. She takes several steps out and turns around to gaze at the wooden shrine the well is inside…as well as the larger shrine a short distance behind it.

What is bothering her the most is the…feel of this strange place she is currently located. It is as if everything if different…everything is changed somehow to the world she was created in. The winds move in a slightly erratic motion and the air itself feels…lighter and tastes dirty, like something has went and lightly poisoned the air…similar to Naraku's shouki but nowhere near as potent. Her ears take in strange sounds from somewhere below her and she lets her curiosity, which has already reached an all-time high, get the best of her. She pulls a white feather from her hair and is once more airborne on her enormous white feather. As Kagura floats higher and higher her breath catches in her throat at the sight before her.

More and more buildings of strange designs and shocking sizes litter the ground all ahead of her. The rest of the ground around the buildings are covered not with dirt and grass but what appears to be incredibly flat stones that stretch on as far as the eye can see with tall circular pieces of what appears to be metal jutting forth from the stones every which way. Humans are walking all about in every which way, each and every one of them covered in strange garments. What shocked her the most was the sight of what appears to be some fantastic design of sorcery…large metallic like objects that appear to be carrying humans inside moving about with no horses or oxen to pull them along.

Kagura places a hand over her rapidly beating heart while her head pounds from the overflow of new sights, sounds and smells. "Wh…Where am I!"

To be continued…

Author's notes: Holy friggin' crap! It's been a long ass time since I updated this fic! Truthfully it didn't even feel that long because I've always been busy between writing a bunch of my other stories and going out with friends. I've been getting into drinking lately so my nights haven't been as productive ;P. As you can tell I have been getting back to writing and updating at a much faster pace than I have been lately. I've been trying to get back into my older fics and getting at least one new story in to make myself happy. I've finally updated both Inu-Yasha fics and now I'm going to move onto my Tenchi 'Darkness' series once more. I'm very close to completing 'The Prelude to Darkness' and it's looking awesome! As for the other Tenchi stories…I'm going to go through them again and try to work on new chapters but it's going to be tough. I've seen the first three episodes of the new OAV and those have helped to inspire me to continue on.

As for Love Hina, I'm trying to work on all of those as well. 'Different Promises' and 'Uncontrolled Passions' are going well but I'm having trouble working on 'Family Affairs'. I'm always up for comments and views on what you think should happen between Haruka and Keitaro so e-mail away. I'm churning out the newest chaps for both my Naruto and Negima! fics. I'm working a bit on my Ranma ½ story and I have a nice little one-shot in the works and I'm also getting some work done on my X-Men: Evolution fics too. Just stay patient as usual my dear readers. – lighthawkdemon

Questions or comments? E-mail me at: lighthawkdemon (at) Y!