Across the Universe by Sassy C
Strawberry Fields
Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim any rights to these characters. They are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. I also disclaim all rights to "Strawberry Fields Forever", which was written and owned by the Beatles.
Note: An idea I had a while ago. I haven't written fanfiction for Inuyasha in a few months, so please be gentle in reviews. Hopefully it gets better. Every chapter will be based off of a lyric from a Beatles' song. And I'm not sure where this is going. But I hope you enjoy, nonetheless.
Chapter One:
Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out, it doesn't matter much to me.
“On the count of three, open your eyes.”
“Okay, Kagome!” replied the eager, young voice of her precious, mischievous adopted kitsune son Shippo.
“One, two...three!” Her eyes snapped open and a blue sky greeted her, white clouds bound in silver cushioning the sun so that she only had to raise her hand a small bit to shield herself from its rays. “Wow...” she said in awe. You didn’t get such picturesque skies in her time.
Something so untouched by pollution could only be found in the feudal era. It had only taken 15 yea rs of her life and then falling 500 years into the past to realize this.
“There,” Shippo’s small hands caught her peripheral vision, pulling her gaze to her left where the small kitsune lay in the grass beside her. “Look!” Kagome followed his finger and studied the cloud she thought he pointed to. “Its Inuyasha!”
Kagome studied the cloud closely and suddenly she found it - the cloud split at the top, appearing as if to have dog ears and then scattered about a rounded center as if it had mussy hair. There was even a scowl in the shadows. Unable to keep her lips tightly shut, she burst into a fit of giggles.
“Oh, Shippo! That’s excellent! 10 points, for sure!”
“Your turn, Kagome! Should we close our eyes again?”
“Yup. Close them.” She closed her eyes. “On the count of three. One...two...” there was a rustle in the grass, the wind making waves out of the long strands and for a moment Kagome was caught up in a sea of thoughts and feelings, connected to nature in a way she found only available here in the past.
“Three!” crowed Shippo and Kagome lazily opened her eyes...
And nearly jumped out of her skin for what greeted her was not the sky but the disapproving glare of a very tall, very frightening taiyoukai.
“Sesshomaru-sama!” she greeted once she was sure she wouldn’t talk with a tremor in her voice. “Welcome back!” She gave him one of her most radiant smiles as she sat up.
“Kagome-chan!” exclaimed the small child beside him. “What are you doing in the grass?”
“Rin-chan!” Kagome hugged the small girl. “Me and Shippo were just playing a game. Do you want to join us?”
“Yeah, Rin! Come play with us!” Shippo urged, waving a paw at her.
Rin looked up at the tall youkai beside her, pleadingly. Sesshomaru slid his gaze from Kagome to Rin, and finally consented with a slight inclination of his head. Rin and Shippo cheered.
Once Rin had settled in the grass and Kagome had explained to her the rules, Sesshomaru sent a wave of youkai toward Kagome to gather her attention in his direction. “Come,” Sesshomaru demanded and the priestess nodded.
“Play with Rin, Shippo. I’ll be right back.” She stood and followed the tall youkai toward the make-shift campsite in the trees. “What is it you need, Sesshomaru-sama?” she tried to sound as cheerful and as clueless as possible.
“Where is the hanyou?”
Kagome trie d to hide her wince as best as she could. Of course, she could lie and say she didn’t know where Inuyasha had gone. But one did not simply lie to a youkai, let alone the most arguably known powerful youkai in Japan. But she didn’t want to tell the truth either. That Inuyasha had run off two weeks before and had not returned. She didn’t want to admit it to anyone - not even to herself - that Inuyasha was probably with Kikyo.
Luckily, at that moment, Sango and Miroku chose to return from their scavenging of firewood. “Oh, Sesshomaru-sama!” Miroku hailed once he dropped his gatherings onto the fire. “To what or whom do we owe the pleasure of having you with us on this fine spring evening?”
Sesshomaru wasn’t one to repeat himself, so Kagome said, “Sesshomaru-sama’s looking for Inuyasha.”
Sango stood by the fire as her lover approached Sesshomaru and said, “Inuyasha isn’t here right now, Sesshomaru-sama.”
“I can see that,” Sesshomaru said, his voice as deadpan as ever. “Where can I find him?”
All three companions exchanged looks and finally Miroku said, “We don’t know where he is, I’m afraid. He disappeared a fortnight ago and has not returned to us since.”
Sesshomaru’s molten gaze studied all three humans for a moment. Kagome held her breath in the silence, staring at her bare feet as if they were the most interesting pair of feet in the world.
Finally, Sesshomaru inclined his head and spoke, “Rin will stay. The priestess will come with this Sesshomaru.”
Kagome’s head snapped up and she stared back at the taiyoukai. “What?”
“I have need of your services.”
“What sort of services?” Kagome asked hesitantly.
The intensity of Sesshomaru’s gaze seemed to harden on her, and Kagome flinched away, a nervous giggle threatening to bubble up into her mouth. But once again, Miroku came to her aid.
“Would you like to stay for supper, Sesshomaru-sama? I’m sure with your hunting prowess we can have it going in less than an hour’s time and we can talk over your request in the meantime?”
Sesshomaru nodded and in a blink of an eye, disappeared into the trees. Sango turned to Kagome, gripping her arm gently. “This is strange,” she said, “So unlike Sesshomaru. What does he need you and Inuyasha for?”
“I...I don’t know,” Kagome admitted. The minute he found out Inuyasha was gone, Kagome thought to herself, he went straight to me. What’s he up to? Granted, her group of friends and Sesshomaru often found themselves colliding and working together to find shards and fight Naraku, and Kagome could admit that she could trust the taiyoukai in their thin alliance, but she could also agree with Sango: something wasn’t right.
When Sesshomaru returned not thirty minutes later, the fire was hot enough to cook meat over and the children were crouched in the tall grass plucking roots and trying to blow them like whistles between their thumbs.
Sesshomaru lay the pre-skinned carcasses of five rabbits out in front of Kagome expectantly, and she handed them off one by one to Miroku, who spoked them and set them over the fire to roast. This had become a small tradition between Sesshomaru and Kagome, one that often got Inuyasha frustrated. Whenever Sesshomaru hunted for the small party, he would place the food like a peace offering in front of Kagome.
Minutes passed in awkward, tense silence before finally Miroku, the most charismatic of them all, spoke up, “Sesshomaru-sama, I believe it is within our rights to ask why you request for Kagome’s sole presence in whatever venture you are planning.”
Nothing outwardly changed in Sesshomaru’s countenance, although Kagome suspected she saw a tick in his jaw. Finally, he spoke.
“There is a storm demon named Tatsumaki who lives on the east of this Sesshomaru’s territory,” it seemed like it pained him to share this information. “For several moons, tales of his growing greed in strength and his pleasure in the destruction of villages has circulated my land.”
His gaze slid to Kagome, now, and held her eyes. “It has been assumed that he is in possession of a shard.”
Kagome let out a breath she had been holding. She wasn’t surprised, somehow. That’s what she was, after all; a shard detector. She was the key to finding the shards. Everyone wanted her for only this reason. If it wasn’t for that and her ramen, Inuyasha probably would have dropped her long ago.
“Okay,” she conceded.
“Wait a minute, Kagome!” Sango had been so quiet throughout the entire evening that it surprised everyone to hear her speak out now, “You’re just going to go along with this? This could be dangerous. And what about Inuyasha?” Kirara mewed in agreement.
An anger she hadn’t let herself feel before tumbled out of her mouth like a tidal wave. “Inuyasha? What about him? He’s been gone for two weeks straight! Not a word from him or anything! You and I both know where he’s gone, Sango! I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to wait around for him to come back for us. He’s gone. The new moon is in two days and he’s not even back! He abandoned us!” She let out a shuttering breath as she looked at her hands, “Who knows if he’ll ever come back,” looking at Sesshomaru, “I’ll help you in any way I can.”
“We will leave in the morning,” Sesshomaru stood and turned to the other two humans. “Follow suit in a day’s time.” Turning to Kagome, he said, “Prepare yourself, priestess. This will not be short.”
As he left the campsite to find Rin, as her friends stared at her in confusion, awe, and worry, Kagome dropped her head into her hands and wondered what, exactly, she had gotten herself into.