First Day Out
The next morning the six friends were ready to set out on their adventure once again, only this time, they had one more person following them.

Everyone waited outside of Haruko's hut for her to come out. Finally, after 10 minutes or so, the girl exits her hut, wearing an outfit similar to Sango's, but the colors remains yellow and white. She's carrying with her, her bow and arrows, hair tied back so that when she fights, they won’t get in the way. Miroku's eyes lights up at the sight, but before he can run up to her and does something perverted, the girl takes out an arrow, steadies it on her bow, and aims it at the Houshi. Miroku gets the point and settles down.

Hanako comes out and hands Kagome a small, brownish pouch. "There are some powerful herbs inside, suitable for both human and youkai. But because of the herb's powers, you should only use them in case of emergency." At that she turns back, and says no more.

Haruko is getting teary. She had a talk with her mother last night, but she is still protesting the "test" her mother decided to set on Kagome and the others. But seeing how her mother refuses to say good-bye, she knows it's pointless to wait. So she turns around quickly to lead the others out of the small village.

When they reach the edge of the village, Haruko suddenly stops. "I need to go somewhere first." She then runs by herself toward some small woods nearby, with her new companions following right behind her.

"Shit, if she runs off before we even get out of this place; we'll never get the shards." Inuyasha curses, "That little bitch." But he runs after her as well.

The group follows Haruko for about 3 minutes and stops in front of a tombstone. Then they realized everything.

"Haruko-chan, is that your father's..." Kagome asks softly, not sure how to finish her question.

Haruko nods. She kneels down in front of the grave, and lowers her head to the ground three times. Then she clasps her hands together to say a prayer. Being a monk, Miroku prays as well.

"Bye, father, I'm going on a short journey, but I'll be back soon." Haruko let two streams of tears fall from her eyes. Lowering her head once again, and stands up, ready to follow the strangers.

Inuyasha looks at the girl with brand new understanding. So her father was a hanyou. He sighs softly, and walks in front of everyone. He could feel his youkai blood returning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Haruko gazes in surprise as she watches Inuyasha's black hair slowly turning silver. His eyes glows amber, claws extracting. Every inch of his body is brimming with energy. It's a sight she’s sure she would never get sick of.

As the transformation completed, Inuyasha cries out in triumph: "Youshi!" He lets out his usual arrogant laugh. "Sankontesou!" He yells out loud while extracting his claws and shreds a bamboo tree in pieces.

Haruko gulped in fear, thinking that she might have had the same fate as that tree. Twenty minutes into her journey, and she has already developed both respect and fear for the hanyou.

Inuyasha laughs at Haruko's half-curious, half-terrified face. "If you don't want to end up like that, little girl, then you better tell your mother that we deserve the seven Shikon shards."

"Inuyasha, osouwari." Kagome closes her eyes and says the subdue spell, causing Inuyasha's upper body to crash into the hard earth once again. Shippo lets out at giggle at the sight of the hanyou's "obedience". Inuyasha raises his fist, and gets himself another "osouwari", sending him deeper into the earth.

Haruko watched all of this in surprise. Not quite understanding what's going on. But when she laid her eyes on the rosary around Inuyasha's neck, her miko trainings came back to her. So Inuyasha is controlled by Kagome, no wonder a hanyou with so much pride would travel with a miko. She laughs to herself, not ready to let loose her emotions yet.

Miroku suddenly pops up in front of her face, grabbing her hands when she is unable to defend herself. "Forgive Inuyasha, Haruko-sama, he does not know how to behave in front of a lady."

"Like you do." Sango appears behind Miroku, almost breaking his neck with her Hiraikotsu.

Haruko turns to Kagome and Inuyasha's direction. Kagome is scolding the hanyou, while he's struggling against the subduing spell. Shippo is giving a raspberry once in a while. Are those two bound to each other only by that rosary?

Then Haruko remembers her mother's words from the night before: "Find out why Inuyasha wants the Shikon shards. It would not benefit him even if Kagome collected all the shards. I know his intentions are not evil, he would not harm you. But my child," Hanako was looking at her daughter when she stressed this sentence, "There are other hanyou in the world…do not stand between Kagome and Inuyasha." Haruko was confused at first, but now she understands. Her mother always knew that Haruko wants a hanyou for a husband, in respect for her dead father. But she is not in love with such an arrogant, idiotic, and rude hanyou like Inuyasha. He is handsome though...What am I thinking!!

Haruko forces herself to focus on the road ahead. Two months can pass by instantly, but to her, it is going to be the longest two months in her life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After only an hour's walk, Haruko was no longer able to feel her mother's power besides her. She looked at her new companions, each with their own story, each with their own reason to help Kagome restore the Shikon no Tama to its original shape, and it was Haruko's job to find their reasons.

"So where to, Inuyasha?" Kagome asks.

Inuyasha does not answer at first, instead he thinks back to his dream. Otoosan said Naraku was in disguise and even a powerful miko can't track him down. My only chance is to get the seven Shikon shards in Hanako's hands. So I can't track down Naraku for now. "Damn it!!!! This is so irritating!!!" Inuyasha yells out loud.

Everyone turns to look at him, shocked at the strange outburst. "What's irritating, Inuyasha?" Miroku takes the liberty to ask.

Inuyasha has just lost his train of thought. "Uhh...I mean, I can't smell Naraku anywhere. I can't track him." Inuyasha even surprised himself with his quick answer.

"Naraku, who's Naraku?" The word "track" attracts Haruko's attention; perhaps this Naraku is the reason why the others are helping Kagome.

"None of your business, nosey bitch." Inuyasha shoots Haruko a look before anyone can answer. This time, Kagome doesn't use her subduing spell, knowing Inuyasha better than anyone else, she knows that when it comes to Naraku, Inuyasha would never let a stranger interfere. Instead she just apologizes to the girl.

"Gomen ne, Haruko-chan, but for now, it's better if you didn't know who Naraku is."

Everyone became quiet.

"Let's go back to Kaede-sama, Inuyasha. We'll tell her about Hanako-sama, maybe she'll be able to help us speed up the process so that we won't need two months to get the shards." Miroku's seriousness scares Haruko for a while. I guess a monk will be a monk, no matter how corrupted he is. Then she realizes what they are planning.

"No one can convince my mother to change her mind once it's made up." Haruko says with a little pride and some irritation in her voice. "Not even me."

"It doesn't matter, we should go back anyhow. The new moon is only a few days away." Sango's holding her head up, upset at the name "Hanako", and seeing Miroku’s eyes light up.

"Nani?!?" Inuyasha yells. "But I just turned back into a hanyou!"

Kagome thinks about it for a while. "Sango-chan is right, we should head back, both to protect Inuyasha and inform Kaede-bachan about what happened."

Inuyasha almost goes up in flames at Kagome's suggestion. "Protection?!? Who says I need anyone to protect me?"

"But Inuyasha, you always bleed so much during your time of the month..." Miroku has not yet finished talking when Kagome and Sango started to crack up at his choice of words. Haruko stayed quiet, although she was using all of her strength trying not to laugh. Just realizing his mistake, Miroku barely has time to dodge the blushing Inuyasha's attack. Shippo is sucking on his lollipop and gives a sigh, still trying to recover from the meeting with Hanako, he has decided to stay to himself for the time being, and getting hit by Inuyasha would not help his health.

After Inuyasha stopped chasing Miroku around the woods, they were finally able to move on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A day has passed since they left Haruko's village. As nighttime fell, they stopped at the foot of a mountain, took up camp. Since Kagome's cup noodles were finished by Inuyasha before they even left Kaede-sama's village, Inuyasha had to find food for the group again.

"If we get up early next morning, we'll make it back before noon." Kagome yawns. Shippo catches it and yawns as well.

Sango takes out a handkerchief to clean her Hiraikotsu. This bone-marang made from youkai bones attracted dirty as well as trouble. Miruko eyed her every two seconds while he sat in a lotus position. Kagome and Shippo took out their sleeping bag to catch a few minutes of shut eye before Inuyasha comes back. The camp was quiet, no one made any noise.

Haruko sat farthest from the group, still not sure what to make of them. Okaasan told me that they would not harm me, but then why did she tell them that she wasn't sure if they were good or evil? The moonlight reflected off the bamboo trees, setting a silvery light upon everyone's faces. They don't look evil to me.

Still she kept her bow close. But the peaceful scene was causing her to doze off as well.

Suddenly someone screams behind her, causing Haruko, Kagome, and Shippo to wake in a hurry. Sango jumps up with her just cleaned Hiraikotsu, Miroku with his right hand, ready to use the kazaana.

Haruko pulls all of her miko training into her mind and draws out an arrow, aiming it at the direction of the scream. A shadow appears behind the trees, the shape is becoming larger and larger. A horrible laugh is echoing through the trees. Haruko is more alarmed than ever, pulling back the string on the bow at top strength. She tilts her head in Kagome's direction, about to tell them to get ready. But to her surprise, everyone has assumed their original position. Shippo in Kagome's arms, both dozing off in the sleeping bed, while Sango and Miroku are at it again.

The shadow came closer and closer, soon the shadow took on a human shape…Inuyasha's shape. He drops off some rabbits he found, along with two of the largest fish Haruko has ever seen in her life. He drops off his prizes, and notices Haruko, still holding the bow, eyes wide open, unable to talk.

"Nani?" Inuyasha asks with agitation.

Haruko stood still for another 30 seconds before she manages to collect all her courage and asks: "Was that you who screamed?"

Inuyasha blinks twice, not understanding what she means.

Miroku smirks, and answers Haruko's question: "The scream was probably a village woman from nearby who saw Inuyasha hunting. Am I right, Inuyasha?"

It took the hanyou another three seconds to digest the conversation. "Oh, you mean that," He says with his eyes closed. "Keh, that human bitch screamed when I wasn't even trying to hurt her. Hurt my ears like hell." He sticks his little finger into those sensitive dog ears of his, signaling that they are slightly damaged from the loud sound.

"Then who was it that laughed so horribly?" Haruko is still holding her bow and arrow, although no longer pointing at anyone.

"Huh?" Inuyasha falls into confusion again.

"That would be Inuyasha." Sango answers this time. "I would guess that something not very terrible, but humiliating happened to that poor woman. It wasn't a horrible laugh... it was Inuyasha cackling."

"Oh yea..." Inuyasha says innocently, "That bitch screamed so loudly that a live squirrel I just caught slipped from my hand when I was trying to cover up my ears and the damn animal ran up her dress." Inuyasha cackles again at the memory, it's the exact same sound as before. "I let her keep the squirrel for the laugh."

Haruko stares in amazement at the group. She can't figure out how they are able to tell what happened to their friend with just two sounds. But no matter how, the bond they share must be very strong.

"After two months, Haruko-chan, you'll understand." Kagome opens one eye and answers as though she just read Haruko's mind. Haruko could only nod.

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