Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha.

Beauty is Only Skin Deep

By: Angelwarrior1

Edited on 7/12/2006

Prologue: The Encounter

Inuyasha walked along the rocks as the waves crashed down against them. He always enjoyed walking on brisk days as these, there was just one thing bothering him.

"What is that smell?" He wondered, running towards the scent that seemed to be luring him to it.

He stopped in front of a cave, which he deduced was where the scent was coming from. The cave looked big, but the entrance was blocked by many rocks.

'What's with all these rocks? Was there a cave in?' He thought.

He eventually decided not to wonder about anything and to just investigate what was behind the rocks, so he pulled a few rocks away. Being an impatient man, however, he grew tired of this task and punched through the rocks in one blow. He walked through the dust and clutter from the rocks, not caring about getting dirty. When he found out where the scent was coming from, it was something unexpected. To say the least. In fact, he was just down right pissed that he wasted his time.

"What the fuck?" He asked out loud.

A little too loud in fact, because it woke her.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the guy who just wasted his time rescuing your ass, Granny." He said annoyed.

"Granny! I'm no granny!" The woman screeched.

'Is she batty or something?" He pondered, looking over the woman who stood before him.

She did look old, face wrinkled, black hair with streaks of white running through it, blue eyes with a grey quality
in them that hinted her wisdom. She was definitely old, though she wasn't as bad looking as the other old ladies
he'd seen before. Upon further inspection, he noticed how dirty she was. Her clothes were filthy and slightly torn, her hair frazzled.

'What happened to her? Sigh Guess I'll have to help the old granny out.' He thought.

"Come on, I'll get you fixed up.

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"Sir?" The maid rushed in to announce her presence.

"Yes?" Inuyasha asked, turning from the window.

"The woman you brought in will not allow us to bath her. In fact, she's throwing quite a fuss about going
anywhere near water." The maid reported.

"Well...just leave her with some fresh clothes then, who knows what she's been through. Maybe she's afraid
of the water because of something that happened to her." Inuyasha replied.

The woman came down in fresh clothes. Inuyasha could tell from her scent though, that she still had not bathed.

"Do you remember anything about yourself? How about you name?" He enquired.

"It's Kagome." She replied.

"Anything else?"

"That's all I can remember."

"I see, well you can stay here for as long as you need to." He responded.

"Thank you." She whispered.

For the next couple of weeks, things went by uneventful. Kagome still hadn't bathed. Though Inuyasha noticed, that
she didn't smell that bad for someone who didn't bath.

"Why are you afraid of water?" He finally asked.

"I don't know. Whenever I get near it, I panic." She answered.

That day, they had an unexpected visitor.

"Hey Miroku."

"Hey Inuyasha. Who's the woman?" Miroku asked, hinting toward Kagome.

"Oh, that's Kagome. I found her in a cave." Inuyasha replied.

"Oh, I see. I didn't know you liked the more mature women." Miroku whispered to Inuyasha.

"What the fuck was that!" Inuyasha yelled, pissed off.

"Whoa! Calm down, just kidding!" Miroku said quickly, waving his hands in front of his face frantically.

"Oh, I know you were Miroku. 'Cause if you weren't, you'd be splattered all over that wall behind you." Inuyasha said with a smirk.

He flexed his fingers, showing off his sharp claws.

"So, what's her story?" Miroku asked, changing the subject.

"I don't know, she doesn't remember. All I know is that she's afraid of water." Inuyasha said, looking
worried.

"Well, why don't you try to help her get over her fear. She needs a bath." Miroku said, holding his nose.

"Yeah, I know. I just don't want to rush her. I don't know what she's been through." Inuyasha replied.

"Look, I know you want to help her. But you can't if you don't actually help her face her fear." Miroku
said.

"Hmm...I guess your right." Inuyasha said, thinking of a plan.

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From that point on, Inuyasha tried each day to get Kagome near just a little bit of water. The first day was at
dinner, when he put a cup of water next to her dinner plate. The next day, he asked her to pass the pitcher with
water in it to him. Soon Kagome was even drinking water. He noticed that when she drank, that her lips looked
different from before, though he couldn't figure out how. She still wouldn't actually touch the water though, no
matter what he tried. So, he finally did something drastic. He was painting that afternoon, when Kagome came in.

"What are you painting?" She asked, coming up behind him.

"A landscape." He replied.

He turned quickly, with the bottle of paint in his hand.

It was then that he "accidently" dumped some paint on her lifted hand that was pointing to the painting.

"Oh! I am so sorry! You must get that paint off of your hand immediately. That's acrylic paint, very hard
to get off." Inuyasha pretended to panic.

He led Kagome off to the bathroom. She walked into the huge bathroom, terrorized. She couldn't wash her hands, it
would be too much for her. Coming to the marble sink, she took a deep breath in front of the mirror. She turned
the faucet, letting a small stream of water flow from it.

"Okay Kagome, you can do this." She told herself, as she stuck a finger under the water.

A memory of being surrounded by water, bubbles floating around her and not being able to breath, streaked into her
mind for a brief moment. She jerked her finger from under the water, gasping.

'What was that?' She thought, looking at her finger.

Upon further inspection she made a startling discovery. She gasped once more.

'It looks-looks, it couldn't be!'

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Well there you go, there's the first chapter. Let me know what you think and review!