"Give me strength to be kind,

To combine,

All the good things in life that are so hard to find,

But I have and I won't let them go like I do with my friends,"

Blue October, "A Quiet Mind"

Gloomy days like these would make a person wonder if it was really all worth it. Sure, InuYasha had his priority's set out, right? He would help gather the shards, put the Shikon Jewel back together, destroy Naraku, and everyone would go home happy, or was that just the plan in the beginning? Of course things before this mess happened was a lot different, InuYasha was on his own, and the world was quiet, unlike the chaos it became the day he was sealed away to a tree for a destined eternal sleep, and things changed then. Shippou slept quietly for a few moments, before sitting up, the poor kitsune was looking exhausted, he rubbed his tired eyes, to see yet again, Kagome and InuYasha arguing. "That InuYasha will never get more than half a brain," Shippou muttered as he place his hands over his ears, turning on his side, as he tried to ignore the loud and probably violent fight that was bound to happen.

"InuYasha, can't you think about anybody but yourself?!" Kagome shrieked, another uproar of argument that was occurring in the group yet again, and Kagome, the poor girl, she looked as if she were to burst a vein.

"Since when do I only think about myself, Kagome?!" InuYasha shouted back, shaking with unneeded attitude, deepening his voice to give the group an even larger headache, just so they could feel the "sting" and not to mess with him ever again, which was highly unlikely to happen.

"Well here we go all over again," the houshi, Miroku, spoke with a long and nearly depressing sigh. Times like this were always crazy, "it always has to start with a little fight, then everything turns to anger and flames," Miroku thought bitterly, which was unlikely for him, but hey, if everyone else got the be in a bad mood, then he didn't have to be left out of the crowd!

"You're only going to make this more unbearable by sighing, Miroku," Sango spoke, standing beside him as she rolled her brown eyes tiredly. She lifted her hand up to the leather like strap of the Hiraikostu, her hand beginning to sweat as she clutched onto it's cool surface. A sigh from her as well, escaped her lips. This was going to be a long night for all of them, if InuYasha and Kagome kept arguing like this. "I don't understand why they have to argue about every tiny detail about every tiny thing!" Sango muttered coldly as she lowered her head, she too was getting annoyed, but she would have to keep her own temper down, or be pushed into the lions' den and face the wrath of Kagome and InuYasha, well mostly InuYasha.

"What is there to understand, Sango? It's quite obvious that they have feelings for one another," Miroku said, scooting over to her, holding a hand up beside his mouth, to make sure their conversation was as "secret" as possible, glancing over at the quarreling couple every few seconds, to make sure neither of them heard him.

"Well now that I think about it--" Before Sango could finish her sentence there was a loud crash. In less than a blink of an eye, both Sango and Miroku looked over to Kagome and InuYasha. There as anyone with half of a brain could guess, Kagome had used the magical sit command on the poor dog demon.

Kagome's face turned red with anger and exhaustion. "InuYasha!" She started, stomping over to him and looking over him as he laid there on the ground. "You insensitive jerk! Sit!" Kagome shouted for the final time before stomping into the woods, not having any clue of where her final destination was.

Sango and Miroku both sighed at the same time, their gazes returning from Kagome to the fallen hanyou, on the ground. "Now why do you always have to treat Kagome like that all the time?" The houshi sighed out, walking to the dog demon, who was in his crater.

InuYasha stood up with angst, brushing himself off he crossed his arms. He lifted his clawed hands, hiding them away in the crimson sleeves of his haori. "I don't know what you're talking about, monk. She was the one who started the fight with me!" InuYasha snapped at him. Shouting this with more length in his voice than before.

"Well maybe she wouldn't fight with you if you weren't such an easy and stupid target," Shippou said sarcastically, as he popped into the conversation, obviously finished sleeping, if he got any at all from all the chaos.

A look of anger and darkness fell upon InuYasha's face. With a blur of redness, a loud slap like sound could be heard. So loud, it had made an echo in the foliaged area. To everyone's displeasure, it was InuYasha whom was the source of the sound. As if anyone would guess, Shippou received a smack on the head for his "smart ass" comment. Shippou fell to the ground, tears already streaming out of his eye ducts. He lifted a hand to a rather large bump on his head which he got from InuYasha. He wiped away some of the tears away, standing up, only to be half crying again. "InuYasha! You'll pay for this!" The young kitsune wailed as he clenched a tiny fist, shaking it violently at the hanyou.

"Oh please," InuYasha started, "like you could ever beat anyone in combat," he spoke, rolling his eyes, not believing a word that come out of Shippou's little mouth.

"You'll see! When I'm older you will!" Shippou yelled with a glare as he turned away, his tears already dried from all his fiery.

Soon after a few hours everything had returned to the awkward silentness of the night. Kagome returned quietly, already asleep in her sleeping bag before anyone (besides InuYasha), had found out that she had came back. It was true she wasn't in the mood to talk, or to be near the others at all, especially InuYasha. Shippou slept besides Kagome, him being the only one she could be with while feeling this way. He was young, so he wouldn't understand too much. Or that was at least what she thought. Earlier InuYasha had started a small fire in the middle of the place where they slept. As usual he would be the only one who wouldn't sleep. Especially when he was in his mood, he was to angry to sleep, and who could blame him? Well Kagome could. Sango slept silently, Kirara, curled up in a tiny little ball besides the taijiya's head. Miroku slept on the opposite side, a small smile on his face, he was most likely dreaming of women, or something else that was perverted.

InuYasha's eyes slid open, something was tickling at his nose, a bitter smell that strangely had a sweet tone to it, it came to InuYasha's mind as pepper and flower petals, he stood up quietly, following the trail of the scent through the forest, not going to far from where Kagome and the others where sleeping. "It probably wasn't to good of an idea to go off and leaving Kagome on protected," InuYasha thought to himself. There InuYasha stopped dead. He realized what the source of the smell was. "Blood," InuYasha muttered, looking upwards to see a dangled body hanging up above him, covered in moss and other strange plants from head to toe. The hanyou jumped up on the branch the body hung on, and cut the vine that hung it up. The corpse fell to the ground with a loud thump, InuYasha jumped down to the ground, turning the mass on it's back. He moved his hand up to the face of the body, grabbing a clump of the moss and other plants that covered it. Soon the face was revealed. InuYasha gasped with horror, at who the identity of the body was. "Kikyou," he breathed out, his heart nearly stopping.

Author's Note: Yeah I decided to do it like this, cool cliff hanger, eh? What happened to Kikyou?! Well, check in and see what happens next! I was sort of bored, so I decided to make up this story, I'm going along as I go so don't be surprised if it starts to get crappy! Please no mean reviews or whatever you call them. Thanks.

- Exterminating Dreamer