A/n: Yippeee! Chapter 2 already! Am I good or what??? Yeah, I know I am. Thank you, thank you. Okay everyone! Read and review!

Disclaimer: You aren't getting another one out of me...read the other ones....

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Chapter 2 - The Beauty

Kagome sat smiling in her hut, preparing some medicinal herbs that were needed throughout her village. Her brother Souta was snoring in a corner, and her grandfather was doing the same thing in another. The only person missing in the hut was her mother.

Kagome looked up again, peeking around the curtain that was masquerading as a door. She squinted, hoping that it would help her spot her mother running up the path to be welcomed home.

She'd been gone for nearly a week now, and although it wasn't anything totally out of the ordinary, Kagome was beginning to miss her mother.

She had said something about helping Kagome's godmother Kaede over at the now abandoned lord's castle. Something had happened there a long time ago, and Kagome wondered what it was, though no one would tell her.

She had heard about the lord of the castle who used to reside there. "A powerful demon," one would say. "And the most beautiful human in the world as his lady," said another. Then the comical one in the crowd would burst out laughing while saying, "And together, they created a powerful hanyou who was beautiful as well!"

Then someone (like Kagome's grandfather) would correct them stoically, saying that it was the demon lord's previous son, a full-blooded demon, who was rather beautiful for a man. Then the snickers would erupt once more, and the conversation would be forgotten.

Kagome clung to those little outbursts. She wondered desperately about what had happened to them, and about what had happened at the castle.

Sadly, Kagome had her own problems to worry about. And in her opinion, they were much, much worse. Ah, she thought wearily, here comes the specimen now...

"Kagome!" A hand pushed the "door" aside, and a well muscled body that was vaguely concealed burst into the hut. She his her grimace with a disgustingly fake smile and rose to bow to Kouga.

Before she could bow though, the wolf-demon rushed forward and grasped her hand and kissed it formally. Then he pulled a bouquet of flowers from behind his back so fast she got whiplash watching.

He kneeled for a moment, the anticipation and happiness on his face making her want to throw up. She liked Kouga, really, but come on, enough with the flattery and melodrama.

Smiling, she tugged her hand away and patted Kouga on the head.

"Thank you Kouga," she said as she accepted the flowers. She tried not to sneeze at the scent of the lavender. "But I'm a little busy right now..." She looked down at her herbs and looked a little nervously at the sleeping forms of the other males in the vicinity. They snored in response.

Kouga pouted and kissed her hands again, one at a time. She shivered at the contact. It was kind of creepy. Then he stood and hugged her to him.

"You're my woman Kagome." He announced, and then proceeded to high-tail it out of the hut, leaving a sputtering Kagome in his wake.

The miko waited until her suitor was out of earshot, then shook her hands in front of her.

"Eeeeew!" she squealed, and ran over to her sleeping brother to wipe her hands on the blanket covering him.

The noise woke up her little brother, and he grumpily opened his eyes, glared at her, then rolled over and cursed under his breath. Frustrated, Kagome slapped his butt with a roll of parchment at the utterance of said curses. Bad 12 year old brother, bad.

Kagome trudged over to her herbs once more, and not even a minute passed before yet another presence darkened her curtain-way.

Without even looking up, she said, "Hello Naraku," in a kind tone.

The man in the curtain-way huffed and smiled, but stayed where he was. Kagome sneaked a peek at him. He really was a handsome man, but damn, was he creepy. At least Kouga was amusing. Naraku was just full of himself.

"So, Kagome," he drawled. "Would you care to take a walk?" he asked. Kagome looked up, her smile firmly in place. Slowly, she shook her head.

"I'm sorry Naraku, I must finish these poultices first thing. The epidemic that's started - " Naraku quickly cut her off.

"Kagome, Kagome," he shook his head with a goofy smile that didn't fit his face at all. "That's all you ever think about. Silly miko, you need to learn to relax, have some fun!" The sentence sounded forced from the usually grumpy-looking man.

"Yes," she agreed with a smile. "We human mikos are so funny sometimes..." She waited.

Naraku's face lost it's smirk, as she'd expected. "What do you mean by that?" he whispered. She smiled innocently. "Well, I'm pretty sure that demon mikos are no fun," she said sweetly. Naraku's face lost it's harshness and he began to smirk again.

Kagome hid her own smirk. She was probably the only person who knew he was a hanyou... and a filthy one at that. He certainly didn't have any good intentions. So she tended to leave the man alone. Unless of course, he came over to her hut like he did now...

"Come on, Kagome. One little walk, and you shall return once more to medicines and herbs." The smile he showed as he said this was unnerving, and Kagome shivered.

"No thank you, Naraku. I must tend to the wounded." Naraku stood there for another moment, before scowling and leaving the hut in a flourish. Kagome sighed and tried to finish her poultices.


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The girl paced up and down the hall, frustrated beyond all reason. The monk was supposed to be tending to the master, not sleeping! But she would be damned if she was going to enter those chambers herself.

She sighed and thought about the master for a moment, then wearily returned to pacing. The new moon had passed, and still Inuyasha wouldn't come out. One whole moon since he'd isolated himself.

She stopped again and banged on the door to the houshi's rooms. This was getting extremely tiring. She could only pace for so long before she burned a hole in the floor. She looked down at said floor, trying to make out skid marks she knew were there...

And then she was hit in the face with the door.

Miroku peeped out, having heard and felt the collision. And he knew who was standing behind the door. No one could pound on a door that hard, other than Inuyasha and one other person.

And that one other person happened to be laying on the floor holding her nose in pain, while trying to glare at him with rage.

He gulped and backed into his room again. Sango pounced up onto her feet again, not going to miss the opportunity to kick Miroku's butt.

"Houshi!" she screeched, resuming her pounding on the door. No matter that her arms were tiring and her fist was turning red. She was angry.

She stopped when she heard a familiar growl behind her. Slowly, she rotated around to glare into the color red. Slowly, she frowned, then stepped back to allow her eyes to give her an entire view of the figure before her.

Nope, still all red. Another step back, and she gasped a very un-Sango-like gasp. The hand flew to the mouth and everything.

Standing before was Inuyasha as he now was. And he was scary. Even Sango, who had seen many frightening demons in her day, (like Sesshoumaru on a bad hair day), was frightened. But somehow, she could still see the old Inuyasha in him. Of course, he looked about the same, except for those strangely Sesshoumaru-like stripes, and the whole pink-eye problem.

On further inspection, which she was not annihilated for, she found that it was no case of pink eye, but his eyes had quite seriously turned red, and had the prettiest cerulean blue irises...

She pulled back with a comical gulp and let Inuyasha decide what to do next. He raised an eyebrow at her, then at the door, still silent. She returned the look.

"Miroku," she whispered, then glared at the door. Inuyasha glared with her, and punched a hole over the doorknob of the heavy oak door and opened it easily.

There was Miroku, hiding cowardly under the sheets of his great big bed. Upon hearing the hole being made in the door, he had stared wide-eyed at it. Who knew Sango had such strength?

Then he discovered the real vandal. It was none other than his master Inuyasha, who was looking horribly grumpy this morning. Apparently he'd been staying up too late for the last month now, and he'd also been playing warrior or something...maybe he was pretending to be Sesshoumaru on a bad hair day?

No, he realized. This was why his master had disappeared. He was a monster.

The monk squinted, trying to decipher the aura around his master. Sure enough, he felt the presence of a full-blooded demon, not that of a hanyou. And it was a very ticked off demon presence.

Inuyasha snarled, getting both the humans' attentions.

"Stop making that racket," he growled, his voice an octave deeper than normal and a raspy twang to it. "And get me some meat. Raw." he ordered, then stomped back out of the room.

Sango and Miroku just stared in silence at the space he'd occupied, then shared bewildered looks.

What had happened to Inuyasha?

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Weeeell, there you go. I would like to apologize for my last author's note. That was only a Just-In-Case scenario. I am still writing, and as some of you may know, I have posted the 16th/17th chapter of So Much For Pretending (depending on whether or not you think of the prologue as a chapter). So, I have not stopped my other two fics by creating this one, I was merely struck by sudden genius. And, I know, you're all wondering, "Who are you and what have you done with our angsty and depressing Ariana?!" Well, I can't kidnap myself, so I suggest you drop that chain of thought and simply accept the fact that I can write happy, funny stuff :) Hope you have fun in all of your future readings! PLEASE REVIEW!!! I can't write without knowing whether or not I suck! Because that in itself would suck! Okay??? So review! Teehee.... later days! Thanks! -Ariana