"Who does that blond idiot think he is making me feel so weird?"
Naruko wasn't happy, she was really annoyed but oddly enough she didn't feel angry. And she wanted to be angry, she wanted to be mad, scream, shout, curse, and break things. However, Haruto's words rang in her head. He wanted to care… He wanted to put effort into being concerned about her?
That was too damn… "Stupid, isn't it?"
Naruko turned around, finding Kikyo's double, "What do you want?"
"I want to talk, that's all." The girl said.
"Don't you mean abuse me with your damn spell?" she shouted, pulling her new necklace.
Kagome let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding, "I mean it. I am a girl too, you know? I can try to understand what you're going through…"
Naruko huffed, "The only reason you could be of use is if you'd give me the jewel."
Kagome replied instantly, "See? That's your problem, and it's why I said Haruto making you feel weird can feel stupid." She added a smile on the last part.
Understandably, the hanyo blushed, "You heard nothing, you hear?"
"My lips are sealed, so long as you talk to me." Kagome said and sat on a nearby log, after dusting it, "I know you want the jewel, and right now you actually terrify me…" she admitted, putting her hands on her knees, staring at her knuckles as she considered her next words, "I don't even know what's going on or why I have this but… Haruto is the kind of guy who enjoys helping others, and dislikes harming everyone unless he needs to… It may sound very strange, considering he enjoys fighting. I may not have known him for long, but I can already tell he means every word he says when he has his mind set on something."
Naruko let out an unladylike huff, "You say that after showing your small chest to him?"
Needless to say, Kagome could feel the blood going to her head, boiling with rage and embarrassment, "D-Do you have any sh-shame?! How can you speak like that so casually?! Also, that was an accident! I just stumbled on you holding him so close to you!"
Naruko jumped back to her feet, her face a shade of red matching Kagome's, "I was asking him how to find your sorry, tit-less ass!" she then looked down, and turned her head to the side, her arms crossed in superiority, "Besides, my breasts are not only bigger but far better shaped, and both my ass and even Kikyo's are better than yours, so I got no reason to feel shame."
Kagome was too taken back by the girl's language to be mad, well, to be completely mad. "H-How dare you?! And you call yourself a girl?!" she couldn't help but stutter while trying to pick up a comeback line, Naruko's mouth would make anyone blush.
Naruko put a finger in one of her dog ears, and flicked off the filth she pulled out, "Wouldn't you be the girl?" she asked casually, intentionally staring at Kagome's smaller assets to rub salt on the injury.
Rather than using the magical necklace that would allow her to send Naruko's face to meet the ground, Kagome resorted to her secondary master plan, and pulled on her ears, "See? That's the problem! One tries to be nice to you and you act like a bitch!" She didn't want to say that word, mainly because of the pun, but Naruko was truly being one.
Said dog girl replied by grabbing the corners of Kagome's mouth and pulling them apart. By now both girls had small tears on their eyes while keeping on their childish fight, "Shut up! I hate your face the most!" she groaned when Kagome yanked on her ears harder, "Just like Kikyo, you and that idiot are a pain while saying shit you don't even mean!"
The two locked eyes angrily, "But Haruto means it!" Kagome shouted, "I don't know what he sees in you, but he was trying because he wanted to instead of forcing himself! I only wanted to be nice because of him!"
Naruko growled and pulled back, to which Kagome mimicked, "So you don't even care."
Kagome shook her head, "No, I do, if only because you're trying so hard to shun others away even if someone wants to see something good in you."
Naruko had a brief flashback to Haruto's smile and his warm words, and turned her head to the side so Kagome didn't see this blush, "Do you think I care about him or what he thinks of me? He's human, even if he has a strange power in him, he's still another human like you and Kikyo." She then turned to the girl with her teeth bared, "I will not be damned just because I believe in someone's pretty words."
That was something definitely worth noting, "So… You were close to Kikyo."
Naruko grunted, this girl was almost as persistent as Haruto, "I was, and that's in the past…"
Kagome crossed her arms and gave the dog girl a cheeky grin, "Then, why not try something different with the boy that makes you feel weird?" To see the dog girl's face go through countless shades of red was amusing to say the least. Kagome did an inward victory dance, Should've used it sooner, but oh well, at least I can get her better…
Meanwhile, "Such power…No wonder I woke up sooner than expected. That boy with the golden hair has such a nice fragrance… Mmm… what I'd do to tie him up and run my fingers on that sun-kissed mop…"
The poor boxer's new stalker was a woman with an overly developed body that curved in all the right places. Her outfit consisted of a revealing black kunoichi uniform that kept her breasts hidden with two straps of cloth and hid her lower body with a very short mini-skirt that left even less to the imagination. She had short black hair in a bob-cut, ruby red lipstick, red mascara and a red headband on top of her skull like a tiara. And to complete the ninja look she even had a short sword.
She was currently playing with, oddly enough, hair. The kunoichi smiled when seeing Naruko and Kagome argue while the blond simply walked back to the well. The scantily clad woman pulled one hair to her mouth, bit on it, and pulled it with her teeth like she was flossing her teeth. This caused the hairs in her hand to make a heart-shaped web… and a demonic crow behind her to explode in a rain of gore and blood.
The kunoichi scoffed, "Trying to get the jewel before me, huh? What an annoying pest." She then turned her attention to someone else, "But that dog girl may be a handful. She is strong enough to kill demons with a flick of her wrist, and that golden haired cutie is also strong if he stood up to her. Hmm… Decisions, decisions…" she raised the heart-shaped web, in a way that she was looking at Haruto through it like a lens.
The decision seemed to be made for her at the sound of footsteps. In came Naruko, with her face set in a scowl. Kagome arrived soon after, with her cheeks slightly red. Not only that, but were Naruko's ears twitching? Not like how a dog would twitch them if they heard something, but more like they were pulsing out of some strange sensation.
"You're back." Haruto said to Naruko, who felt the urge to retort with a cynical comeback but wasn't prepared for the next part, "Are you ok?"
His words about wanting to care for her rung in her ears, she came with another reply, "Stop caring, it's none of your business."
Kagome growled and pushed Naruko forward, so she was face to face with Haruto, "Come on, say something nicer." And whispered without Haruto listening, "Or I'll tell him what I heard."
Haruto blinked, "What did you do with her?"
The raven haired girl forced a smile, "We talked."
"About what?" he asked, truly curious at the strain of her fake smile.
"Girl stuff." She answered calmly as her fingernails sunk into Naruko's shoulders.
He turned to Naruko who narrowed her eyes at his, "She kept pestering me about giving you a chance." She then stared at the trees, "And I got to ask, how did you get such an annoying woman to be yours?"
Kagome blushed madly and before Naruko knew it, the dog girl's face was eating dirt from the loud shout of, "OSUWARI!"
Naruko growled, "You… bitch…" she spat some dirt from her mouth and glared at the Kikyo double, but nearly shuddered when two strong and gentle hands helped her up.
"Hey, don't you think you went a bit too far?!" Haruto asked, a concerned and somewhat terrified look on his face aimed at Kagome as he tended the pained dog girl, "I mean, I know she's rude, loud, unrefined, blunt, impulsive, smells like a wet dog at times, stalks me like she wants to eat me, has a lot of issues, and doesn't get what personal space means, but... Where was I going with this?"
Naruko growled at the sad attempt at defending her, "I hate you…"
"Ah, there it is!" Haruto replied when he heard those words and he stared at the white haired girl once again, "See, even for all of her flaws… Why not try to accept her the way she is?"
Kagome and Naruko blinked, simultaneously asking, "What?"
Haruto chuckled, "Far as I know, we're born how we are, so rather than try to change to please others, why don't we try to accept someone's flaws so long as they don't harm us?"
Kagome panicked, "But she wanted to make sushi out of us! And the only way to make her do something is with that magic necklace!"
The blond chuckled again, albeit forcefully if the beads of sweat running down his brow were any indication, "I did say try, and she hasn't really harmed us… yet…" he looked away, sweating a bit more, and scratched his cheek, "Ok, she did cut my cheek, but as a boxer that's nothing, so—"
"No." Kagome said and gently pulled him away from Naruko, "Haruto, you're a great guy, I know you care for others and that you want to be a good person but…" she turned to Naruko, "I think you should have standards."
"I do!" he replied with a sheepish smile, patting her shoulders with both hands, "My standards are to keep you safe and smiling until we can return to see Sota."
Kagome blinked, "Do you even know what the word standard means?"
Naruko spoke next, "Hey, what am I? Chopped liver?"
"Ah, there it is again!" Haruto said, aiming his index finger at Naruko with a smile, "See? You don't want to be left alone."
She growled, "What kind of game are you coming up with now?"
Haruto smiled at Naruko a warm, and disarming, grin, "Just now you want to get involved with us, hanyo or whatever, you want to be with us, even if it is for the jewel." He looked at the sky, "Ah… that surely helped take a lot off my shoulders, because it means you can be good."
Naruko was trapped in the choices of snapping or snapping his neck, "Make some damn sense already!" she shouted, fed up with his attitude.
"I once… used to be like you." he admitted, looking at her straight in the way with a soft and slightly melancholic smile, "When I was born, I got sent to an orphanage. People would then look at my hair and eyes and move away. I tried to stop it from bothering me but… it didn't quite work." He admitted like a kid who admitted to having done a harmless prank, "I pulled pranks, acted like a punk, and put on an attitude to shrug it off. In the end I got into fights, and even adults would look at me like I was something bad…" he then grinned, "Then, I just happened to see these guys trying to get a little girl's money."
Kagome blinked while Naruko stared stoically at him, trying to see his point.
"They were bigger than her, pushed her around, and told her to give them all of her lunch money. Of course, she didn't want to… And something kind of clicked in me…" he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, "I didn't like the way they were treating her, so I jumped in and beat them up using only my fists. I was eight so I didn't know how to properly fight. But at the end, even if I did get a little beaten up, I managed to win and forced them to leave the girl alone… And then she thanked me and said something I won't forget…" he put up his fists and got into his stance, "She said that I looked like a real boxer…"
Kagome, with her eyes slightly widened, spoke, "So that's why you wanted to become one…"
He nodded, "I got someone to cheer for me and look up to me, so I decided to go all out and be one. Then, the more fights I got in, the more people cheered for me whenever I won." He then turned to Naruko and smiled, "So that's what I think you need, Naruko-chan, someone to cheer for you." He approached the girl and gave her the peace hand-sign, "I've decided, I'll cheer for you."
Naruko, understandably, didn't know what to make of this. All she knew was that her face must have carried a shocked look, and, dare she admit it, a deep shade of red, "What're you—?!" she then shut up, and remembered why he pissed her off so much, "You… You're saying the same words Kikyo spoke of when..." she shook her head, "What I want is power, not some fool to cheer me up."
Haruto pressed her nose with his finger, getting a growl from the dog girl as he smiled, "I said I'd cheer for you, not cheer you up." He pulled back his finger before she could bite it off, "It means that if I can, I will back you up with whatever you want. So long as you can show me a better answer than wanting to be a demon just because of power."
Naruko glared at him, "Are you serious?"
He nodded, "I am, I'll even give you the Shikon Jewel, only if I get a better answer than just wanting power."
"Haruto!" Kagome cut in, looking understandably horrified, "The Shikon Jewel isn't something to play with, remember what Lady Kaede said."
"Then if it is used by someone made of pure evil all the way to their core, we beat their ass." He replied like it was the simplest thing in the world.
Their audience of one arched a brow, "How do you even function?"
The trio turned to see the scantily clad kunoichi revealing her position by standing midair, or so thought Kagome until noticing that some strings were keeping her up for her loincloth—a funidoshi—to show off her skirt. Naruko's nostrils flared for she smelled the scent of the dead, and of something foul, a monster. Haruto for his part was both busy trying to make out how she was standing in the air, why she wore such revealing clothing, and forcing himself to not think of what'd happen should the straps of cloth on her chest pop open.
He was about to speak, but both Naruko and Kagome stood before him, "Who are you?" the girl in the priestess outfit asked.
The woman chuckled, "Oh, yes, manners… I am Yura of the Hair, and I'd like something from you?"
"Lady, what could you even want?" he had every right to ask that, she was already stacked to the skies.
She smiled, "You will know soon."
And, with a flick of her wrist, our heroes found themselves tied to the trees with hair. Naruko gasped for breath, feeling a rather sharp thread on her neck squeezing the life out of her and also trying to cut off her head from her shoulders. Her arms were tied together in front of her chest, and her legs pulled back behind the tree to stop her from moving. Kagome for her part had two thick tendrils of hair pinning her to the lug, one wrapped around her torso below her breasts, and the other crushing her thighs. The schoolgirl gasped and then shivered in fear and displeasure when a few tendrils started to slide around her robe, trying to pull it down. Haruto for his part yelped when his feet were trapped by coiling hair ropes which pulled his ankles in a way so he fell on his back. He groaned and finally noticed his hands were bound to his sides by more hair ropes on his wrists, like an old medieval torture method to rip his limbs from his sockets.
Yura smiled, a hand on her mouth to press a delicate nail to her ruby red lips, "Hmm, it wouldn't have been so easy if you weren't bickering, but I'll take what I can…" She reached for Kagome, whose kimono was already hanging from her waist and showing off her white bra, a sight which made the kunoichi chuckle, "Hn…"
"W-What is it?" Kagome asked with a shiver, before noticing how Yura's rack nearly exploded from her outfit, and then looked down at her own chest, "H-Hey, what's with that attitude?!" she snapped.
"I heard the priestess resurrected, information I was happy to gather but… to see you now…" she chuckled again, "Truly, nothing compared to the original."
"Hey, you perverted kunoichi!" said shinobi girl turned to Haruto, an irritated look on her face, "You can't say stuff like that!"
Yura walked to him, her wakizashi out, "Oh, then I'll amuse you and ask, why?"
He looked at her with a serious expression, "Kagome's Kagome, she's no-one else. You can't compare people. I'm me, and there's no-one else like me." He then stared at Yura's outfit more, "Besides, Kagome's much more modest than you, Ero-Ninja."
He didn't regret his words, not even when her foot was slammed hard on his gut, "Do you ever shut up?" she asked, finally tired of him, and how dare he say something like that to compliment a plain girl when a full grown woman was before him? Besides, her outfit was meant to distract, not to be modest. "Fine then…" she turned to Kagome, wakizashi ready, "I'll make this little girl cry for you as I take the jewel from her. I'm sure her parents will cry in shame when I'm done."
Naruko growled, trying to hold her breath and break free. Damn it, this bitch won't take the jewel from me when it's so close… She struggled more against the hair ropes, but did so in vain when Yura wiggled two fingers. With such a simple motion, the ropes on her wrists pulled her arms behind the dog girl's back, "Shit…" Naruko gasped, glaring at the scantily clad woman.
"Perhaps I should cut off her head first…" Yura said, and then turned to Kagome, "I could also gut her to take out the jewel…" and she finally turned to Haruto, "But there's this immense power emanating from you, and I am eager to do anything to take what I want…" she said and walked to him.
Kagome and Naruko's eyes widened, and their faces went red with anger when Yura walked to the blond with a sway of her hips, got on top of the blond by straddling his stomach, and put her index finger in his lower lip, "Then, let them go." He said, glaring daggers at Yura but speaking without an ounce of playfulness, "I've heard that I got a lot of power in me. Perhaps more than the Shikon Jewel's, but you have no idea of what I really am or what I can do with this."
When things go south… bullshit your way through.
Yura listened, "What could make me interested in letting go of these two for your power?"
"I'm…" he really was hoping this could work, so he whispered his answer even if he knew this was enough bullshit to fertilize the entire world, but he had to try. Naruko and Kagome watched Yura lean in, listening intently, "I'm… your first kiss." And, leaning his head up, Haruto smashed his lips on a wide-eyed Yura's mouth.
The girls and him felt their hairy shackles loosen up, allowing Naruko to cut hers, Kagome to squirm out of her own and pull her kimono back up, and Haruto to roll over in order to be on top of Yura before punching her in the face. Her head was rocked backwards, forced to bounce on the ground, and then she rested there on the floor with what looked like a… pleased look on her face.
Haruto stood up, red-faced and panting, "Ok… that solved it…" he turned to see his two red-faced friends.
Naruko was boiling with anger, "What… was that?"
Kagome swallowed an embarrassed lump in her throat, "Did that… really happen?"
Haruto panted, "I think I sucked some of her lipstick…" he spat and wiped his mouth, "Before we talk, can I get something to wash my mouth with? I think she used blood for that paint."
"Don't change the subject!" The two girls said in unison, though Naruko's tone had some anger that with her ears made her look like a cat rather than a dog for some reason, and Kagome's was one of embarrassment.
He closed his eyes, cringing, "Ok, sorry! I didn't have any other idea to distract her, and I could only move my head, so…"
"So… you'll have to repeat that."
That voice sang those words behind Haruto, making him let out a confused, "Huh?"
And then, he found his entire body wrapped in a hair cocoon while Yura leapt back into the air with him following closely, "I think I've made my decision, and you sealed our deal…" she said with a grin, before winking at Kagome and Naruko, "Don't worry, you two, I shall take good care of him before coming for your lives."
Naruko growled and tried to slash at the kunoichi, but Yura was quickly gone with a dumbfounded Haruto who could only comment to this with another, louder, "HUH?!" he turned to the girls and yelled at them, "Kagome-chan, Naruko-chan, save me! I want my first time to be special!"
Somehow, admitting of not having much experience with women made Yura's cocoon tighten around him and a blush to rush her grinning face.