Strength

Wow, wow, wowI love you all so much for reviewing,

And as thanks this is a totally unplanned, but brought on by your wonderful reviews chapter. It is almost an interlude, and seriously may be the first chapter I have ever posted in this fandom, without my puppy in it, in some way. Ahhh but I am betting he would have loved to be here to witness this. Anyway submitted for your pleasure... and dedicated to all those who asked for some retribution.

Edited by Me!

Chapter 3 : Stupid Ningens!

Kouga was ecstatic, Naraku was dead, it was time to celebrate and he wanted to tease the ridiculous doggy eared pup for needing his big brother's help in killing Naraku. He had some great lines that he fully expected to get get mutt-face's ire up, and it would be good to have a fight with the puppy. Kouga had not seen the gang since he had withdrawn from the battle with Naraku, after losing the jewel shards in his legs. He had missed them and he really looked forward to seeing all of them again.

He was fully expecting to find the village in a celebratory mood, but to his surprise it was rather quiet. The gang sat around a fire outside Kaede's hut, and the dog eared Hanyou was missing.

"Kouga its so good to see you." Kagome said in relief as she ran up to the wolf demon, for a hug. Kouga hugged her absently and looked around, now that he did not need her ability to see the jewel shards, he wondered how attracted to her he really was.

"Where is mutt-face?" Kouga said, his nose twitching, there was something off about the scent in the village, something was not right.

"Inuyasha is off pouting somewhere, he has totally spoiled the celebrations, Kouga can you please go and find him. He's been gone almost four days. Shippo can't seem to catch his scent, and Kilala refuses to." Kagome pleaded. The rest of the group looked hopefully at the wolf demon, he frowned slightly and nodded. Kouga quickly went off into the forest to look for mutt-face, he wanted to know why Inuyasha was pouting after winning his greatest battle. Kouga tried to catch Inuyasha's scent but there was nothing. None of the trails leading out of the village had Mutt-faces' scent on them. Kouga headed to Ginsenboku and finally caught a scent of Inuyasha, a few days old. He followed the trail that led back to the village.

He came to a tiny clearing, the scent was suddenly very strong here, it smelled almost as if Inuyasha had been in a great battle at this location. But there was no scent of an enemy, only Kagome.

Then a glitter in the long grass caught the wolf demon's eye, scattered on the ground were the broken pieces of the Kotodama beads. Hesitantly the wolf demon picked the broken pieces up, the residue malice he felt in the beads, made his skin crawl.

Kagome had commanded these monstrosities.

Kouga shuddered. He had never realized how disgusting they were, that Inuyasha had worn them for so long, that bloody mutt was a lot stronger then he realized. Kouga using a leaf to minimize contact, carefully put the pieces into an empty pouch. Then he tried to pick up Inuyasha's scent, it was heading back to the forest from here, Kouga followed for about a hundred more yards, and then... nothing.

Inuyasha's scent trail had totally vanished. Kouga could not believe it. He spent an hour fruitlessly searching for any sign of the Hanyou's trail but there was nothing. There was only one explanation, Inuyasha did not want to be followed, not by anyone. He had hidden his trail, there was nothing, not a single clue to tell which direction the Hanyou had gone in. Kouga clutched the pouch hard! This was wrong, really wrong. He needed to know what the hell was going on and he wanted to know now. Kouga was sprinting back to the village before his next thought.

They were waiting rather anxiously for him. Kaede was with them, and the wolf noted that she looked older then when he had seen her last. She looked tired and sad.

"There is no sign of Inuyasha, nothing. He has hidden his trail. You want to tell me what the hell is going on?" Kouga asked without fan-fair. "Why would Inuyasha be 'pouting' when he should be fucking celebrating?"

"One would like to know as well. What transpired that caused Inuyasha to reject your help after the battle?" Kaede finally asked. She had wanted to ask earlier, but had hesitated as she had not wanted to confirm that she had indeed lost the Hanyou.

The group paused, they looked at each other with uncertainty, and then Miroku began talking. "Well, you may have heard that Lord Sesshoumaru fell into one of Naraku's traps. It was actually an ancient InuYouaki ritual, that split the aura apart. Sending Sesshoumaru into instinct driven madness."

"I had heard rumors of that, but I did not really believe it." Kouga replied.

"Well its true." Sango continued. "Even Rin and Jaken were almost killed by him. We tried everything we could to stop him, nothing worked. We were at our wits end, coming to the point of killing him rather then curing him, when Myoga came up with a strategy to save Lord Sesshoumaru."

"Yes, and it worked. Sesshoumaru is saved and Naraku is dead. Inuyasha is pouting because we forced him to save his brother. He is really childish about it." Kagome finished, in a defensively self righteous tone. "Seriously you have to nag Inuyasha into doing the right thing."

"How exactly did Inuyasha save Sesshoumaru?" Kouga addressed Kagome directly.

"It was ridiculously easy in the end, all Inuyasha had to do was sacrifice a bit of his pride and submit. You will not believe how much convincing it took to get him to do that much." Kagome said in exasperation.

Kouga went sheet white, his eyes widened. "K..K.. Kagome! You, all of you, as a pack.. asked Inuyasha to submit in the way of InuYoukai to a maddened DaiYoukai?" Kouga's voice cracked as he asked the question.

"Yes... Kouga what's wrong, you look like you have seen a ghost?" Kagome asked in concern.

Shippo as soon as the talk of what happened began, had been hiding behind Kagome. Very slowly Kouga turned to the only other demon that could speak in the group. "Shippo, I know that the humans rarely listen to the Mutt, but surely you said something?" Kouga asked.

"Nn..nnn..no, everyone thought it was the best idea. Inuyasha is strong, he can take anything. It probably was not bad." Shippo said quickly, ignoring his demon instincts in favour of human thoughts.

Kouga went whiter, then slowly his face began to flush red. "NO ONE IS THAT STRONG! YOU UNMITIGATED IDIOTS" Kouga exploded. "I know humans have little brains but I never imagined you all are so lacking in heart!"

"Kouga how can you say that!" Similar expressions of shock were displayed by the group.

"How can I say that? HOW CAN YOU DO WHAT YOU DID AND SLEEP AT NIGHT! Inuyasha is an Alpha, do you have any idea what you did to him?" Kouga's voice was thunderous.

"Inuyasha said nothing, on his return, he just did not want anyone to touch him. Wolf prince please say what is needed. What is involved in the submitting that these young ones forced on the Hanyou?" Kaede asked keeping her emotions firmly in check.

"Submission among the ancient InuYoukai means that the one that submits is nothing and the one that they submit to is everything. Sesshoumaru in his maddened state could do anything, anything to Inuyasha and Inuyasha would have to allow it, to welcome it, keep kneeling and allowing more until Sesshoumaru returned to normal! You stupid human, this was not Inuyasha sacrificing a little bit of his ego to Sesshoumaru, it was Inuyasha submitting everything short of his life, to a being trapped in madness!" Kouga yelled the explanation. "What the hell do you THINK Sesshoumaru did to him!"

The 3 humans looked at the wolf demon as comprehension dawned. Shippo was appalled but was still too young to understand all the implications, Miroku caught on first. "No, you don't mean... Sesshoumaru is his brother! He wouldn't..."

"Its about dominance, you idiot, among DOG DEMONS! Of course he would! What better way to own someone then that!" Kouga bit off. Kaede's whole body shook, she could not think of it, the horror of it was almost too much to bear.

"He did that for you IDIOTS, his pack! What a joke! And what did you do for him in exchange? You were the last person to see him from this village Kagome tell me what did you do?" Kouga looked accusingly at the girl, she was teary eyed with guilt. She didn't want to say anything but he was staring at her, so was everyone else.

"I.. I scolded him for being such a downer and.. and.. when he acted coldly... I... I.." She could not continue.

"YOU SAT HIM!" Kouga finished, he flung the pieces of the beads at Kagome. "Only it did not work, Inuyasha is obviously much stronger then your pathetic human magic, he has broken your leash on him. He has left and he has no fucking reason to come back."

Kagome sank to her knees tears flowing as she picked up the broken beads, she kept repeating "No! No!"

"No, we made a mistake a big one, an enormous one. We did what we thought was right. B...but we were wrong that was too much. We will find Inuyasha and apologize..." Miroku said his voice broken.

"He may need some space. We should wait for a bit, give him time to come back..." Sango began, but was cut off by Kouga's harsh laugh.

"Stupid Ningen! For what reason would Inuyasha come back?" he asked.

"Of course he will come back... we are his pack!" Shippo said, the Kitsune was shaking, he just wanted things to go back to how they were. Inuyasha would forgive him, he always did.

"The only one more foolish then you here Kitsune, is the so called Miko. Inuyasha would have died for both of you, and in a way did die for you, but you threw it back in his face. Now I doubt that he will even open the door for you." Kouga said flatly, Shippo was young but Kouga could not forgive the kit for being a coward and choosing the humans' side over the Hanyuo's.

"No, Inuyasha loves us... he will come back." Kagome said suddenly. "He will come back, he loves me!"

"Arrogant, ignorant child." Kouga said snidely. "the correct term is that he LOVED you, how do I know this? Inuyasha's scent was always on all of you. Whether you realized it or not all of you carried his scent on you. The scent said that you were of his pack, protected by him, and that he would fight for you. The scent was strongest on the Kitsune and you, Kagome. No matter the distance between all of you, even when you separated for months, that scent was on you, as my pack carries my scent. That was the difference when I came into the village. Inuyasha's scent is still here, BUT only on Kaede and the Fire Cat, there is no scent of Inuyasha at all on the rest of you. It was like it was never there. For an Inu to do that, let me tell you, you ridiculous child, IF he ever LOVED you, HE LOVES YOU NO MORE!"

"No! No! Its not true Inuyasha would not do that to me, he would not do that to us!" Kagome said covering her ears and trying to ward off the truth.

At her words something snapped. Kaede reached out and grasped the handle of the broom they used to clean the muck around the house.

SPPPAAALLLAAATTTTTTTT!

The business end of the broom, hit the miko across her shoulders and face. Painting her with dust and muck. "How could Inuyasha do that TO YOU! How could HE DO That to You!" The broom rained down. "You stupid, stupid girl. He did almost everything FOR you, YOU are the one who did things to HIM. You tell him its okay to see Kikyo, then get disgustingly jealous and sit him. You flirt with every other boy you meet and you dare get JEALOUS! You laugh at him, mock him, make a fool of him in front of his rivals, sit him till he is buried in the ground, and you DARE say how can he do that to YOU! You misused the beads, twisted it into something it was never meant to be, I gave you that power! What a fool I was. You treated Inuyasha like a toy, in this birth and the last! What a fool I was! You, like my sister are selfish, short sighted, self centered, stupid women!" Each adjective was punctuated with a swipe of the broom. Kilala and Kouga kept the others away as the stupid Miko cowered on the floor. Covered in muck, and bleeding slightly from the scratches made from the broom. The girl was crying and covering her face, but the old miko was merciless.

"Inuyahsa, he was a constant in my life, no matter what I lived through he was always there. I never feared him, I never hated him, he was MY puppy, even when all others died or left, he was there for me. Now, because of you, because you were so selfish and stupid, my Inuyasha is gone." Kaede hit the Miko hard across the thighs, the broom snapped as the stick bit deep into the Miko's thigh. Kagome cried in pain, but Kaede did not hear her. The broom handle tumbled to the floor, as the old woman covered her face and sobbed. "I saw his eyes, I know you all did something terrible to him, I just never imagined it was this terrible! My Inuyasha is gone, I know it in my heart, he is never coming back. I have lost my Inu and it is all your fault. I am alone and it is all your fault." The old woman sobbed as her heart was broken, Kilala went up to her and she clung to the Neko. She would be strong later, for now she needed to mourn.

Kouga looked at the dirty bloodied Miko on the floor, she was crawling away from Kaede in fear. "Now bitch, imagine crawling to Kaede and begging for more, not blocking the blows as you did earlier. Times that feeling by a 100 and you will have an inclining to what you put Inuyasha though." Kouga spat on the Miko. "You are all unworthy, never come into the lands of my pack, we may just decide that some humans are only good for meat after all. Lady Kaede I can stand their presence no longer, you are welcome in my lands, call on me if you need me." Kouga said with a small bow to the old Miko he disappeared into the forest.

Kaede limped back to her hut, Kilala helping her along. She firmly shut the door in the faces of the gang, they were no longer welcome in her home.

The night was silent as they were all forced to look closely at themselves. They searched for Inuyasha,, but it would be years before they finally found him.

-tbc-

Muahahaahah! Man I have been waiting to do that. Hope you liked your angst free interlude. All warnings in force for the next chapter.