Disclaimer: THIS GOES FOR ALL CHAPTERS!!! I do not own any on the characters from the series Inuyasha. I make no profit off of this story. Anything you recognize does not belong to me.

Chapter 1: Dilemma

"Mama, I'm going now." A woman with short black hair came out to the well house and held out a package to her 19 year old daughter, smiling brightly. The gift was in a box about twelve inches long, ten inches wide and six inches tall.

"Mama, what's this?" Kagome asked. This was unexpected…was it some special day that she forgot or something? While she was thinking about it, her mother laughed, as if she knew her daughters thoughts.

"Just a little gift for you and Kaede, but don't open it up 'till later, okay honey," Haruka said, with a pleased look on her face. She hoped her daughter liked this. There were two copies, one for her daughter, and one for her mentor.

"Okay Mama. Well, I really do have to go now. I'll see you after we defeat Naraku." With that, she hugged her mother, who then helped her throw the five travel cases into the well, and jumped in. She didn't know how long it would be until they finished Naraku off, but she wanted to be prepared. She had brought everything she could think of that was practical; a sleeping bag for Shippou (who was now a little too big to stay in hers with her) three bottles of shampoo/conditioner, wash clothes, clothes, sewing kit, books, paper, many, many markers, candy and a whole super-sized suitcase full of ramen.

The familiar soft blue light surrounded her, and in a moment she landed rather awkwardly on top of the cases. She called out for the familiar presence she felt nearby, needing a little help getting out of the well with the cases.

"Sango? Can you come help me please?" she called, wondering why it was her near-sister who came to great her instead of the rough hanyou. Had something happened? Or…maybe he wasn't here because he was with Kikyo. She sighed, knowing that was probably it.

Her friend leaned down and her eyes opened wide. "Kagome, what the heck is all this? We can't take all this with us," she said, wondering what her friend was thinking. Kagome laughed a little as Sango reached her hand down for the smallest case. "I've decided not to go home again until we finish things here, with Naraku and all. I brought lots of stuff to tide us over."

She climbed up the ladder and stopped to straighten her clothes, then pulled the huge duffle bag over her head, and pulled up the handles on the four roller bags. "Here Sango, could you help me with these? They have wheels on the bottom, so you just have to pull them behind you." She demonstrated with her own two bags, and they started off.

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"Sesshoumaru-sama?" The girl was hesitant to speak, because she knew that the only reason she was allowed to travel with her Sesshoumaru-sama was because she was not 'another annoying piece of dirt under his lordship's feet'. She was afraid that if she spoke up, he would abandon her. She didn't want to be without her Sesshoumaru-sama.

He heard his ward speak and wondered at it. It was unlike her to break their companionable silence when the toad wasn't there. "Rin, what is it?" He knew it must be something pressing for her to speak.

"Um, Sesshoumaru-sama, Rin would not ask except that Rin's tummy hurts really bad, and she wants to cry," she said, ending in a whisper. She was really afraid now, her lord did not sound pleased with her.

Sesshoumaru sniffed the air lightly, and did indeed smell both pain and fear in her scent. "We will go to the miko Kikyme," he said, knowing his 'slip-up' would amuse her, and hopefully take her mind off of the pain for a moment. He hated to ask aid of a human, but he knew nothing of tending human illnesses. Besides, the village was only a few hours walk, and the young miko and Rin seemed to have a fondness for each other.

After perhaps half an hour, Rin could no longer walk on her own, so she rode Ah-Un. Sesshoumaru was slightly worried. He did not know how much pain she could take, but this did not seem good. Less than hour after that, the girl began to sweat blood and she soon let out an ear piercing scream before passing out. With that Sesshoumaru grabbed the girl off of the dragon-steed and, with instructions for it to meet him there, took off as fast as he could, covering the remaining distance in twenty minutes, by his guess.

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Kagome and Kaede were delighted to open Haruka's gift, and discovered two cookbooks. Inside were recipes that looked rather good, with notes on each meal's use in healing or aiding certain illnesses. All of the recipies could be cooked using foods and herbs in the sengoku judai. It was really thoughtful, and there were two copies (one for Kiede and one for Kagome to take while traveling) which Inuyasha (who had come back a few moments ago) thought was useless, since it had no recipes for ramen in it.

"Well, that was quite thoughtful of your moth-"

She cut off as she and Kagome looked to the west. A demonic aura was approaching fast. All of a sudden Sesshoumaru appeared at the entrance to the hut. "Miko, your assistance is required." He said, looking slightly out of breath.

Inuyasha jumped up immediately. "Keh, there's no way she's gonna help you, you bastard!" With that, he prepared to jump, only to be cut off by Sesshoumaru's words.

"The assistance that is required is not for myself, fool, but for her," he said, nodding his head to the girl in his arm. "She is ill."

"I don't care, she came with you, so Kagome ain't gonna-"

"SIT BOY"

Thump!

"I'll not leave an injured child alone just because you can't get over some stupid ego problems!!" With that she ran to the girl and moved her over to the mat on the other side of the room. She knelt down next to the sleeping child and closed her eyes in concentration. She sent her mind seeking outside of her body and into the girl's, examining her organs and tissues, her mind, her blood, everything. She helped ease the pain and speed the changes where she could and then withdrew.

"She, umm, well, it seems that she is turning into a youkai," she said, before she too passed out next to the mat.

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AN: Ok, this is my first shot at writing fanfiction, and I desperately need a beta. I also need REVIEWS!!!!! I don't care if they are flames, or whatever (although constructive criticism is of course welcome)

I'm gonna TRY to keep the characters as cannon as possible, but since this is a Sesshoumaru/Kagome pairing, of course that means there are going to be deviations.