Chapter 1- The Approaching of the Moon

"Are you ok?" she asked as she quickly rushed to his side. She was genuinely worried about his condition. She knew there were others in pain, injured worse than he was, and yet she knew that if she didn't show concern most likely it would go unvoiced. It was because of him after all that they were able to be granted pain, instead of an early death.

He stopped and looked at her for a brief moment before turning away and gripped his right index finger in the whole of his left hand and in on sickening crack, twisted, tugged and un-jammed it, resetting it into place.

"What do you think?" he asked gruffly. With all the fighting he had been forced to do in the past let alone these last excruciating months, a jammed finger was to be expected. When she walked around him to face him he finally looked at her. "Yeah," he whispered. "I'm fine Kagome," with that he brushed the hair from her face before walking away. She watched as he took a few steps and she decided to turn to the others.

"What about you?" she heard him ask, realizing he had returned. "Are you okay?" studying his eyes she smiled slightly when she found the hint of worry that she knew was meant only for her. She was relieved at his kindness.

"Yeah…" she muttered. "I'm fine." She scratched her head flashing him a smile and was surprised when she saw the corner of his mouth lift upward ever so slightly. She was happy having picked a good time to avoid blinking. Snapping back to reality she remembered the others.

Turning away she made her way to Sango and Miroku, to make sure they were doing okay. She hoped they were, this was by far the most intense battle they had in a long time… even Inuyasha had struggled.

"Sango, Miroku." Kagome called as she ran over to them. She was glad they were all okay, with the way the battle had gone they could have all been long dead; had it not been for Inuyasha, they would be. "Are you two okay?" she questioned them inspecting them as she made it to them.

"Yeah," Sango spoke rubbing her head slightly "It could be worse." Glancing over at Miroku, she gave him a pat on the shoulder. "What about you, are you alright monk?"

Giving her a quick stare, he soon changed his gaze from her to Kagome and then to Inuyasha who was now lying on his back looking at sky in the middle of the field where he had just destroyed the demon that was causing so many deaths as of late.

"I'm fine," he voiced. "But then again I'm afraid we may have someone else we need to worry about." His voice was low and he made a gesture consisting of cocking his head towards Inuyasha.

"Yeah?" both girls spoke in unison, "what do you mean?" they were confused due to Miroku's statement. Inuyasha was the strongest of all, surely if they were not in pain how could he be?

"I think something is wrong with him… look how he fared today. He was surely not his cunning, agile self. We all know that demon was pushover, a real weakling compared to Inuyasha and yet he had as much trouble with that thing as he does with Sesshomaru. This whole time we've been talking, his ears haven't even twitched once. Something's up."

"Well, tonight is a new moon and we all know what that means. So Inuyasha's bound to act strange, it's to be expected." Kagome had to agree with Sango on that one yet part of her was hearing what Miroku had to say as well. Inuyasha was acting rather different.

"I think there's more to it than that." He gave the girls a look that signaled Inuyasha was doing something. "Look all I'm saying is, we need to watch him close, because it might be nothing but it could be something."

"Alright." they both agreed.

Kagome gave them a wave and in the next instant had turned around and was headed toward Inuyasha. Making her way over to him she was quiet and stealthy and made sure to leap onto him when she was close enough. Sitting next to him she looked down at him surprised to find his eyes closed.

"That's a good way to fall victim to a sneak attack." She giggled.

Slowly opening his right eye he looked over at her. "I could smell you the whole time." He opened his other eye and sat up watching his knees. "It's a shame I'm going to miss it soon… I always do."

Kagome had not expected to hear that.

He stood up and walked away leaving her to wonder if it was because of the impending atmosphere of the new moon or if he hadn't realized that he was speaking aloud. Whatever the case was, he moved swiftly and was gain walking away from her.

'Too bad Kagome,' he thought to himself. 'Too bad I'll miss your scent for far longer than just tonight.'

It had been nearly five hours and he had still not said a word to anyone. Although he had made it clear earlier that it was not important, Sango had made it her duty that day to find a cave or something of the sort to be used as housing and shelter for his transformation. Having searched for nearly the total of five hours, she had found quite a few places and would take them all to the most suitable one.

Kagome was standing at the base of a large tree, hands on her hips looking up. "Inuyasha if you don't mind can you come down here please?" She spoke softly. When she received no answer she let out a heavy sigh. "Well if you won't come down, can I come up?" when he shrugged his shoulders she waited a few seconds, letting out a soft laugh, she kicked the tree. "Well come get me."

A few seconds passed before there was a red blur where she was standing prior. She had never seen him move so fast. Now that she had him the tree there was no escape for him, she would get answers if it killed her or him, whichever came first.

"Inuyasha," she began, "what is wrong with you?" she hated to sound so rude and blunt but he understood.

"What do you mean?" He asked suspiciously. "I'm fine." He was now looking at her with a weird gaze as though she had asked him to meet his parents. "That pitiful excuse of a demon would have been finished sooner; he just got a lucky shot in is all." She could sense the anger as it swelled off his tongue.

"But he was nothing compared to you and I don't mean about the demon." She said snapping back to her original intended train of thought and series of questions. "I meant, lately you've been withdrawn, quieter than usual. Is it the new moon?"

Staring at her for a few seconds he averted his gaze to the ground. "Yea, you might say that." She could tell he was upset about something. But what, was her main concern. "Kagome, I really don't feel like talking anymore, or answering questions for that matter." Before she had a chance to answer he gave her a hug catching her off guard and whispering in her ear. "We'll talk later, because then I can say what I need to, just know this time the moon will be… different."

With her still in his arms he leapt from the tree, set her softly on her feet, and waited a few seconds to break the hug as he took in a deep breath while his face was buried between her neck and shoulder. When he ended this he walked away leaving a very confused Kagome in the shadows of the tree.

a/n sorry short chapter, might be awhile before I update, if you like it let me know.