~ ~~~ 3 weeks later ~~~ ~

Kagome sighed as she watched the gradually darkening horizon for Sesshoumaru’s return. She had somehow managed to fix the trust that had been broken a few weeks prior, and in a record three days. She realized that Sesshoumaru had said those harsh words in a moment of anger and had not actually meant what he said. She had not seen Inu Yasha since that day either, but she knew that it was better off that they didn’t see one another… At least, not until after Naraku had been slain.

Her nose twitched as the wind shifted slightly. She caught a distant scent of hanyou blood, but she wasn’t sure that it was Inu Yasha. She felt somewhat hesitant about doing anything in this particular area, seeing as they had wandered to the northernmost border of Sesshoumaru’s territory. Finally, she gave a quick glance to Rin, who was sleeping next to Aun (the two-headed dragon) and Jaken. She gritted her teeth as she lifted her quiver of arrows and threw them over her shoulder, then picked up her bow, doing much the same with it.

Kagome bounded over the long plain and into a forest, wherefrom the scent had come. She moved cautiously through the shadows of the trees. As she heard voices, she drew an arrow and knocked it in her bow. [I’ve trained well enough over the past several weeks… this bow is like an extension of my arm… My aim… my aim is deadly within three hundred yards…]

Kagome gasped when she finally noticed Sesshoumaru’s scent—so close to the hanyou scent that she had come here for. She pushed through the bushes in front of herself as she heard a metallic clang reverberate through the area. She narrowed her eyes as she saw Sesshoumaru fending off a hanyou woman.

Kagome was surprised, though, when she saw that the woman had only a small cut on her arm and that Sesshoumaru was gradually seeming more and more fatigued from the fight. The woman rushed at Sesshoumaru with a short, half-length sword in each hand, her ferocity enough to make Kagome flinch just by watching. Kagome drew back on the string of her bow, raising it to aim at the hanyou woman who was attacking Sesshoumaru. "Sesshoumaru-sama, who is this woman?"

The woman allowed a feral growl to rise from her throat as she pushed Sesshoumaru back once more, forcing to defend himself rather than be able to attack. "I am Sayaka. This bastard killed my mother many years ago, so now I am making him pay for his crime."

Kagome moved her arrow downward as she averted her heated gaze towards Sesshoumaru. "Sesshou-kun, did you do that?"

Sesshoumaru growled as he pushed the woman back and caused her to lose grip from one of her swords. "I don’t even know what this woman is talking about! She says that I have killed her mother and that I deserve… (swords clang)… to die for my sins, but I know not the name of this woman that I have supposedly killed!"

Sayaka growled in rage as she flattened her hanyou ears against her skull in sheer rage. "Bastard! You were supposed to love her—you left her and then you killed her! Aki! Aki, does the name ring a bell? You were the one to murder my mother!"

Sesshoumaru’s concentration broke when he heard the name ‘Aki’. He stepped back in disbelief, knowing that the girl had been misinformed about her mother’s fate. Before he was able to ready himself for such, Sayaka thrust her blade through his armor and into his abdomen.

In anger for the injury brought to her friend, Kagome brought her bow back level and took aim. She released her arrow with blinding accuracy and then hurried to Sesshoumaru’s side.

Sayaka stared in disbelief at the broken sword in her hands and then to the woman who had shot the arrow to break the sword.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, daijoubu ka? Sesshou-kun?" Kagome was quick to pull off the broken armor and pull down his blood-stained kimono. Kagome growled as she heard Sayaka moving to retrieve her second sword. "He didn’t kill your mother, Sayaka. Sesshoumaru-sama could never kill a woman, no matter how angry he was, he could never do such a thing… Your mother was killed by an assassin who was supposed to kill Sesshoumaru."

(Daijoubu ka? = basically means ‘are you okay?’)

Kagome sighed as she tore a large piece of Sesshoumaru’s kimono off and began wrapping it over his injury. "Sesshoumaru-sama… hey, are you alright?"

Sesshoumaru nodded weakly as he reached for his sword, but found that it was too far for him to reach. "I’ll survive…"

Kagome smiled in relief as she moved her hand over his arm and then leaned to reach his sword. She lifted it from its place in the dusty forest floor and moved it closer to Sesshoumaru. "What did you need this for? You can’t fight right now…"

Kagome’s ears flattened against her skill as she heard Sayaka charging at her. Kagome turned and held the sword in a defensive position so that Sayaka’s attack would not find its true target. Kagome stood, a scowl settling over her features as she prepared to fight the other hanyou woman. "I told you, he didn’t do it!"

"Like hell he didn’t!" Sayaka spat as she charged Kagome. Kagome was slow to react, but able to adjust to Toukijin’s weight as she began to unleash her own attacks. She swung the great sword into the air, though somewhat wildly, and Toukijin met Sayaka’s blade.

Sayaka chuckled as she leapt backwards and stared at Kagome, still flailing the Toukijin through the air as though it were a magical wand. "You’ve never handled his sword before have you? Feh… You aren’t skilled enough to fight me with that."

Kagome scowled as she dropped the Toukijin and nodded. "You’re right," she said as she lifted her bow from the ground and knocked an arrow, "I’m not skilled enough to fight with a sword."

Kagome drew back the string of the bow as she aimed carefully at Sayaka’s sword. She narrowed her eyes, re-examining her aim and target and then released the bow-string. Once more, Kagome’s arrow struck metal and broke the blade in Sayaka’s hand. Before Sayaka was able to defend herself, Kagome rushed at her and thrust her fist into her stomach, causing Sayaka to lose consciousness.

Sesshoumaru groaned as he tried to sit upright. "I thought for a moment you were going to kill that girl… Why didn’t you?"

Kagome sighed as she threw her bow over her shoulder and picked Sesshoumaru’s sword up for him. "She didn’t know that she had come for the wrong reason. She thought that you killed Aki."

For a split second, Kagome could see Sesshoumaru’s eyes glaze over in pain, and she wasn’t sure if that was because of his injury or because he had been accused of killing the woman that he had once loved. Sesshoumaru was barely able to maintain his balance in a sitting position as he reached out for Toukijin and sheathed it. He winced as he tried to sit all the way up, but noticed Kagome’s hand resting upon his shoulder. "Come on, I’ll get you back to our camp…"

Sesshoumaru nodded slowly as he glanced at the hanyou woman lying unconscious on the forest floor. "What about her? Are we going to leave her there or take her with us?"

Kagome shrugged as she picked Sesshoumaru up and began carrying him on her back. "I’ll figure it out in a while. Right now we need to get you somewhere that I can make sure you aren’t bleeding. Currently, the only place I can really do that is next to our fire."

Sesshoumaru nodded, glad that Kagome was so willing to help, even though ordinarily he would absolutely deny needing assistance. [Everything seems so different, though… I’ve actually gotten used to Kagome’s quirks and her need to care for everyone… I suppose… I’m glad for it too.]

"Kana-chan… bring her with us. I want to speak with her."

~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~

A.N. ^_^ Whew… two whole chapters in one weekend… And I wasn’t even at the computer the whole time. Also, for those of you who had been wondering about what I was talking about with the Author’s Note at the end of chapter 14, with me having relationship problems, those have all been solved, resulting in the fact that I never want to see the person that caused the problems ever again—which, if I may say so myself, is uncharacteristic of me. Please, don’t worry about anything, because right now I don’t want to even think about it. ^_~ Don’t worry, ‘cause I’m doing terrific!

Oh, for those of you who didn’t quite understand when I said this before—No more asking for Sess/Kag or Inu/Kag pairings! ^_^ I’ve already figured out what I’m going to do. Trust me, you’ll be guessing until the end…