Head Trauma

A/N: Refer to Important notes.

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Kagome sat outside Kaede's hut along with Miroku, Shippo, and Sango quietly. They all were staring hatefully at her, even Shippo and Kilala seemed annoyed at her. She sighed and shifted her skirt and frowned when she noticed Miroku didn't even try to steal a glance. She drew traces in the dirt with a stick and sighed again.

'They're really mad at me. I didn't mean to hurt him! It was a simple accident...'

"ACCIDENT?! HOW COULD IT BE AN ACCIDENT?! YOU KNEW WHAT THE HELL YOU WERE DOING!" Kagome sharply looked up upon hearing her father's voice again. This time, it sounded so...so real. Looking down the alley, she saw one of the village men yelling at his apprentice, who appeared sheepish and embarrassed. Kagome sighed and rubbed her eyes again. Perhaps she should go home and get her Barton and Lambb eyedrops. Or talk to Dr. Delia about her reoccuring flashbacks.

'Silly me...thinking daddy would be in Feudal Japan. Hell, he isn't even in Modern Japan. Is he?' Kagome sighed and drew her knees underneath her chin and sat there, staring at the man and apprentice, immersed in her own thoughts of her dysfunctional family, or what it was before...

Kaede shuffled about the hut, mixing herbs and potions to try to make the swelling inside Inuyasha's head go away. She knew that trephination was probably the only way to stop it, but even as a priestess and healer, she had never used that particular practice. It was highly dangerous, but effective if you could drill the hole in the right spot. The fact that there was already a gaping jagged hole in the man's head meant nothing as far as relieving the pressure. Sango's skirt was now soaked crimson with Inuyasha's blood and chunks of blood clots. Kaede placed medicated salves on the deep wounds inflicted from the rocks he landed by his back on, the same salves that she and her sister, Kikyo used on the thief Onigumo some 50 odd years ago. She wrapped a tarp around his torso to keep him from shifting and displacing any internal injuries attempting to heal and then sat in a chair across from the straw bed he was lying on, head in hands.

Inuyasha groaned and struggled, but was so weak that Kaede could easily hold him down. She cursed herself for giving Kagome those beads to place around Inuyasha's neck, but it had been because of Naraku's deception to make all of them belive Inuyasha was evil. She had not even considered that she was demeaning the human part of him, to bring up the direct correlation to humans telling dogs to 'sit'. She remembered Inuyasha and Kikyo's happiness, and how her sister told him to be especially nice to her because of her eye, but treated Kaede no different than anyone else. Likewise, Inuyasha saw that Kaede didn't want a free pass or sympathy because her eye was gone. For that, mutual respect was gained. Kaede felt Kagome really was lucky to still be alive after testing Inuyasha's paitence so many times. The old priestess could remember Inuyasha coming to her about a week previous to this incident complaining of severe headaches. After questioning him of his daily activites, the only constant was the numerous sits that he endured from Kagome's hand, and the question of the origin of the headaches was solved. She did her best to clean the hanyou and stablize him, although he had yet to keep his eyes open. He was muttering something in an Inu-demon language that Kaede didn't understand, so she placed cool cloths on him and walked outside to update his friends on his condition.

"Ye friend is not doing well. He is running a fever and has an immense amount of pressure building in his head. He is on the verge of death, I am sure of it." Kaede placed a small drop of opiate in a pipe with tea leaves and lit it up. Sango stared wide eyed at Kaede. "Is there nothing you can do?"

Kaede blew smoke out of her mouth and coughed. "The only thing I can think of is to trephinate him, but I don't know if it will work. I have personally never attempted the proceedure on human, youkai, or hanyou. The fact that he has a massive open head wound complicates things as well, but that is also helping him."

Kagome gagged at the thought. She studied the ancient art of brain surgery in a psychology class and frowned upon the crude method of drilling a hole into someone's skull. She still was in awe that the practice had a high suceess and low fatality rate. "I could take him to hospital in my time," She announced loudly. Everyone stared at her and Sango itched to slap her again.

"He'd die before you'd make it to the other side of the well," Kaede whispered.

"Oh."

Kaede turned to Kagome with a chiding look on her face. "When I gave ye the prayer beads, it was to keep Inuyasha from hurting himself or others. Yes, it was for punishment, but not for sport! This trauma was a long time coming. The hanyou had been complaining of headaches to me for awhile now. That means pressure and fluid were building before he fell. His head was so full of fluid that when he hit that rock, it probably cracked as easy as an egg would have. We are lucky that when you sat him from such a high peak that he did not break his neck or spine. Or die on impact." Kaede stared at Kagome with her one working eye and spat on the ground beside her feet. "My sister would have never been as uncouth as you." Kaede shuffled back into the hut, leaving Kagome staring at her teary eyed.

"You guys, I really didn't mean to hurt Inuyasha! I just wanted to know where he was...." Kagome trailed off when she realized no one was listening to her.

Miroku rubbed his chin. "How close is Inuyasha to death?"

Sango shrugged. "Kaede said he needed trephination to save his life. One of the slayers in my village fell from a great distance and also had to be trephinated. They waited too long though. By the time they had drilled into him, he was dead." Sango leaned against the hut and frowned. "Inuyasha needs medical attention immediately if he is going to survive without impairment."

The monk nodded and sighed. "Perhaps Sesshoumaru can help him. I mean, the powers of the Tenseiga can save him, right?"

"SESSHOUMARU?!!!" Everyone yelled, making Miroku shrink in his robes.

"What are you, some kind of an idiot?" Shippo squeaked, his fluffy tail wagging. "He'd laugh in our faces! Why would you even suggest that?"

"When did you become the personal authority on Sesshoumaru?" Miroku muttered under his breath, infuriating the kitsune.

"I KNOW SESSHOUMARU WONT HELP! YOU WANT HIM HERE SO HE CAN BRING THAT NINGEN AND YOU CAN ASK HER TO MATE AND SPREAD YOUR SPAWN SEED!"

Miroku and Shippo ran around the village screaming at each other while Kaede, Sango, and Kagome watched sadly. Sango turned her head when she saw a water pot fall over for no reason. The little green toad couldn't get away fast enough from the expert slayer's grip.

"Jaken," Sango purred, holding him up and staring at him. She smiled at the sweatdrop that appeared on his head. "I have a message for your master. Deliver it, or I'll kill you and feed you to Kilala. She likes toads. See?" She wiggled Jaken over a full demonized Kilala's face, making the neko growl with hunger. Jaken sighed and listened to Sango's demands.

~The Western Castle~

Sesshoumaru sighed and ran a clawed finger over his lips. Listening to Jaken's story was quite boring, although it would have been nice if the slayer had fed him to the neko.

"So my half-breed brother has allowed yet another human to screw him over. Hmmm...how sad." Sesshoumaru picked invisible lint off of his mother's fur pelt and adjusted it on his shoulder. His golden eyes fell on his ward, Rin, who was playing with some of his old toys. She had a wooden cart and multicolored marbles to go in it. It was a counting game that his father had Totosai create for him to keep the young and mischevious youkai occupied. It served it's purpose, and some of the colors in it to this day Sesshoumaru had never seen outside the marble toys. Rin was also captivated by the colors and sometimes held the marbles up to the sun and just stared at them. Other times she threw them at Jaken when he was being mean to her or AhUn.

"M-My Lord, will you fulfill the slayer's wish and save the half-breed? Or will you allow him to perish and take Tetsaiga for yourself?" Jaken personally wished for the latter, so that Sesshoumaru could become all powerful, but why he wished for that he was not entirely certain.

Sesshoumaru stood and glared down at Jaken. "Had you not been spying, they would not have asked me to help." Jaken cringed in fear and waited for the blow but it never came. "Come along Rin, we are going to the village."

Rin stood happily and quickly put on her green kimono with the yellow sash. "Sesshoumaru-sama, may I wear this?" He nodded and she squealed in delight. She grabbed the prettiest of the marbles and followed in behind Sesshoumaru, yelling for Jaken to come on or be left behind. No one noticed the slight red hue in Sesshoumaru's cheeks, or the fact that he was happy to go and claim what was rightfully his.

On the box: Nine Inch Nails-Closer