The Fox's Son

Chapter 58 - Rude Recovery

Inuyasha groaned as he clutched the side of his throbbing head. 'Oh my head......' he mentally groaned as his face contorted into a painful expression. 'What the hell hit me.....?' he thought as he waited for the spinning and throbbing of his head to go down a little. When he felt like he could move, he blearily opened his amber colored eyes and sat up, looking around the room. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he took the time to take in the appearance of his fellow comrades, who were all sitting around the room.

"You guys look like shit." He bluntly commented, earning a glare from everyone around the room.

However, as Inuyasha so kindly put it, they indeed looked like shit. Miroku's arm was wrapped in a sling, a feudal era cast donned his left knee, and a bandage was wrapped around his head. Sango's armor was cracked and broken in several places, and around her waist were several bandages wrapped tightly so that her bruised ribs didn't shift too much. The only one who looked normal was Kagura, but even she winced with a few movements.

Inuyasha tried to place his hand on to pick himself up, only to feel a sharp, piercing pain shoot up his arm. He released a shocked scream of pain as he collapsed on his back, spreading more pain through his back. This time, however, he managed to bite back his scream. His breathing became loud in his ears as his heart raced a little.

"Now, who looks like shit?" Kagura snorted, earning a glare from the dog hanyou.

"Bitch." he snarled.

He began to sit up again, this time moving step by step to take care of the injuries he now sported. He looked around again before his ears suddenly perked up. A sliver of worry now adorned his slitted gaze.

"Where's Kagome and Shippou?" Inuyasha demanded.

Miroku shifted slightly before he spoke. "Kagome's fine. She is down by the river, gathering more herbs and such." Miroku answered. "Shippo, however........" he said as he began to trail off.

Inuyashed tensed at his unfinished sentence. "What is it, Miroku?" he said. "What happened to Shippo?"

"Inuyasha!" a surprised voice sounded from the entryway.

Inuyasha turned to the doorway at the sound of his name. Standing at the door was a concerned looking Kagome, gazing at him with a relieved smile on face. As he looked at her, he noticed something odd about his picture. There was a fox on her shoulder......but wait, why did it have green eyes? He was snapped out of his ponderings when Kagome spoke.

"Inuyasha? Are you alright?" she asked, walking toward him. When she got to him, she kneeled down beside him, pulling him out of his stupor.

"Kagome, what happened to Shippo?" he asked, making the obvious connections.

The fox on shoulder began to yip before jumping off of her shoulder and running around. The miko said nothing as her eyes traveled to the little fox. He was currently jumping from foot to foot while waving two sticks in the air, thinking Inuyasha would be able to make the connection on his own. Inuyasha looked at the kit dumbly, not really knowing what was going on. Upon seeing this, the kit growled in annoyance before biting his hand.

Inuyasha batted the kittling away at this. "Not now, furball." he said before turning to the miko. "Kagome, tell me what happened to Shippo." he said as he began to grow slightly agitated at his question not being answered.

The fox kit growled again before lunging at him once more. This time, he latched his teeth onto one of Inuyasha's sensitive ears. Inuyasha screeched in pain before latching onto the fox's tail, pulling him in front of his face. The dog hanyou glared at the kit as he stared back into his green dilated eyes. He reared his arm back, ready to throw the kit out the window when he heard the word he despised more than Naraku's existence.

"SIT!" Kagome yelled, saying the first thing that came to her mind as she watched horrifyingly at what Inuyasha was about to do.

Inuyasha crashed harshly into the ground. No one could really describe the sound that came with the crash. It was a mixture of cracking wood and spinal crunchings along with a scream of surprise, pain, and anger, pain being the biggest one. The group could help but wince at the sound. There was a slow groan of agony at emitted from the hanyou's mouth after the impact of the prayer beads. It was one of those groans when one is at the receiving end of a hard kick to the nuts without warning.

Whatever incoherent words that escaped his mouth was further muffled by the furry fox kit that landed on Inuyasha's silver head. He gently prodded the hanyou's twitching ears. 'Inuyasha? Are you dead?' the kit said, but came out as something more like a whine to the others. Kagura snickered at his predicament while Sango just shook her head.

Miroku sighed. "Well.....if he wasn't dead before, he's certainly dead now." he said with a light sweat-drop.

Kagome looked down at his pitiful form. "Gomenasai, Inuyasha." she said, truly sorry for worsening he current state. "But you were about to hurt Shippo."

"Why didn't you tell me?" the hanyou asked, but it was muffled and came out as incoherent words and syllables.

Kagome blinked at him for moment before sighing. "I have no idea what you just said, but don't worry. As soon as I'm done patching everyone up, I'll get started with you since it'll take me awhile to redress your wounds. So sit tight." she said with a cute smile as she petted one of his ears.

She then turned to Sango, ignoring another one of Inuyasha's painful groans. In the corner, Kirara watch the whole scene play out before her. As Kagome went to aid Sango, the neko meowed lazily. 'Humans.......such strange creatures.' she thought to herself as retired back to her nap. She knew that they would be back on the road again once everyone healed properly.