Author's Note: This story basically plays around with the question -- what if Naraku was not entirely successful in persuading Kikyou and Inuyasha that each had betrayed the other? This first chapter is based on episodes 147 and 148 of the television series, though I've made some changes in details.
An Arrow Not Burning: Part I: Betrayal
Today, he would become a man.
Inuyasha crouched in the top of the sacred tree, the brisk wind blowing his hair straight out behind him, his eyes narrowed against the morning sun. The branch beneath his feet whipped wildly, but he ignored it, his body shifting to keep balanced without his thinking about it. The wind was bringing a multitude of scent messages as it passed over him on its trip from the forest to the village, but he was ignoring the external stimuli to concentrate on some unfamiliar feelings.
Like--anticipation.
Soon, he would no longer be hanyou. No longer would he be the object of hatred by two races. No longer would he be in a place that held only him. No longer would he be rejected by everyone.
Even more importantly, though, soon he would help the pain and loneliness disappear from her beautiful eyes. Soon, she would be free. Free to be a woman, not a miko. Free to care more about one, than about others. Free to love--him.
The white-haired hanyou shivered a little, closing his eyes. He recalled the moment from the evening before. They had taken a boat down-river that afternoon, ostensibly to check that the next village had not been affected by the demon attack they had fought off the day before. In truth, it had given them a chance to be together, alone, without anyone in the village wondering what a miko and a hanyou were doing together. They'd gained that much from his defense of the village--they had accepted Kikyou's explanation that she had won him to her side and that he was helping her.
They hadn't talked much, finding it preferable to simply be in each other's presence. He didn't know what she had been thinking, but for him, the silence had given him a chance to wrestle with a choice he'd never considered until a few days ago. Would have sneered at, before meeting Kikyou. Give up his demon blood, to become human? Lose his keen senses for the dullard ones he experienced once a month? Loose his strength, his speed, his ability to heal? Had he not already learned to care about Kikyou, he probably would have rejected the suggestion immediately. But he hadn't wanted to hurt her feelings, so he had said nothing when she first suggested it. He had found himself thinking about, imagining it, even dreaming about it. But he hadn't quite been able to grasp why he should say yes--
Until she had tripped getting out of the boat, fetching up against him as she lost her balance. Recovering, she had looked up. Their eyes had met. And somehow, in that moment, his world changed. The woman looking out of those dark eyes was beautiful, and so sad, and so -- vulnerable.
He dropped the pole, sweeping her into his arms, a wave of emotions sweeping through him. He wanted her, he needed her, she was his, to care for, to protect, to -- love. She returned his embrace, and for a moment, the inner, vulnerable hanyou, scarred by decades of loathing and hatred by almost everyone he encountered, wanted to flinch away. But the flood of feelings smothered that fear in wonder, and in a sudden, overwhelming comprehension.
"Kikyou," he whispered, tightening his embrace just a tiny bit as understanding came to him. He had been looking at the choice from the wrong direction. What counted was not what he would lose, but what he would gain. And what he would gain -- was love. Acceptance. And the woman in his arms, whom he could set free as could no one else, free her from a duty that she could not shirk and which she did not want. The woman who had dared speak to an outcast despised not by one, but by two races. The woman who had seen the human -- the man -- inside the wild, lonely hanyou, and drawn him out in spite of his will otherwise. The woman who had offered a way out of his isolated world. The woman in his arms, who did not shrink from him, did not despise him or hate him, who even trusted him enough to ask him for help--
Whom he loved. Loved more than his life. Whom he would do anything for. The gain from the choice was her, and their love more than outweighed any physical loss.
When she raised her face to his, he took her offering, sealing his decision with that kiss.
He would become human.
He landed at the base of Goshinboku, looking around. "She's not here?" he murmured, ears twitching, a tiny tremor of unease shifting through his thoughts. Had something happened at the village, which might have delayed Kikyou? Perhaps he should--
A low laugh came from the trees behind him. "You've appeared, hanyou."
Inuyasha whirled, ears snapping upright in shock. "What did you just say!"
Kikyou smirked, eyes glittering, her bow bent, an arrow aimed straight at his heart. "I said 'hanyou,'" she sneered. "Can't those revolting dog ears hear what I said?"
Inuyasha felt as if the world he knew had suddenly vanished. Hanyou? Revolting? Kikyou--! He stared at the figure beneath the trees, the woman he thought he knew, the woman he thought loved him. Shock held him motionless, without words, though his mouth worked. He felt almost dizzy, his skin was freezing, though something was starting to burn deep within his heart. Her words smashed into the hope and dreams she had nurtured within him. Hanyou! Revolting! Part of him wanted to scream, but all he could get out was a strangled, "W-why? You--"
Her face twisted with hatred and loathing as she drew the arrow back a notch. "Do you really think a hanyou would take the Shikon no Tama from me?"
Inuyasha shook, claws biting into his palms unheeded. Not in decades had he ever placed trust in anyone, human or demon. The last time, he had still been a orphan child, desperate not to believe that all the world was against him. Once that naïve, near fatal hope had finally shattered, he had never risked trusting anyone. Until Kikyo. Until she had looked at him without hatred or fear, until she had asked his name, talked to him, offered him hope, offered him friendship, offered him a chance for love. And it had been a lie! All of it, a lie!
"Hanyou," she snarled. "I will punish you here." The bow creaked as she drew it back a fraction more. "Die, Inuyasha!"
As the arrow ripped through the air, instincts overcame the confused roar of shattering heart-pain. Inuyasha leapt straight upwards, and the arrow missed his feet by less than a hands-breadth. Up he bounded through the sacred tree. A shout, from a woman's voice roughened with sneering hate followed him. "Do you like this, hanyou?"
"Damn it!" The yell tore itself from Inuyasha's throat as he fled the site of his shattered dream.
Behind him, the laughter started again. But the throat that uttered it was not Kikyou's.
Deafened by his internal tumult, Inuyasha did not hear.