Author's Note: Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter! Well, it's been awhile since I wrote a fanfic (roughly four years) so this may be slow going. This chapter will set a few things up but please be patient, I promise everything will come together soon! Hopefully the next upload will be two chapters to really get this thing started!

Chapter 2

'Damnit,' Inuyasha thought as he paced on his side of the well. She said she would be gone seven days. Usually he could count on her to be true to her word but he had noticed that lately she had been coming back to him (yes he was conceited enough to thank that her main reason to returning to the Feudal era was him) increasingly early. He assumed it was to keep him from coming after her after only a few days. "Feh," this was said aloud to no one in particular, "I'll show her! Just how stupid does she think I am?!" He crouched to leap into the well just before hearing a shout from within it, "Inuyasha! Are you there?" It was her so Inuyasha followed her crouch all the way to the ground and folded his arms impatiently, "Yeah, I'm here."

Luckily for Kagome Inuyasha couldn't tell that in the well, Kagome was saying a quick and almost teary-eyed prayer of thanks for finding her favorite *cough* hanyou alive. Once she had composed herself she climbed out of the well, throwing her bag before her for Inuyasha to catch. "So, what's the plan for the day?" she put on a big smile and put her arms on her hips in what she hoped looked like a sarcastically-adventurous way.

Inuyasha "feh"ed again before hefting her pack on his shoulder, "Sango and Miroku have a demon cornered at the edge of Kaede's village, they think that he may have a shard of the Shikon Jewel; I was just about to come get you." He related the rest of the tale as Kagome climbed onto his back and started toward the village. Kagome noticed nervously that he was taking the same trail as she had in her dream . . . or was it a vision? . . . no definitely a dream.

It only took a few minutes to reach the scene of the fight, during which time Kagome tried to focus on what Inuyasha was saying, however she kept dozing off into what she had learned in her psychology class were "micro-sleeps" brought on by lack of rest.

Once they joined the demon hunter and priest she told Inuyasha that she did sense a jewel and that it was in his belly-button and let the dog do his work, she, thank-you-very-much would be in Kaede's hut.

It didn't take the old miko long to feel that something was wrong with her sisters reincarnation and, once the story was spun by Kagome she tapped her chin and "hmm"ed as old people tend to do. (Kagome guessed that that was the same no matter what time you were in.) "Well, Lady Kagome, it seems to me that this could be a premonition that ye have," Kagome's heart skipped a beat, "or, it could be ye ate something that disagreed with ye the night before. Ye see, with dreams one can never tell if they are meant to be sent to ye or if it is just some mystic imbalance (or bad meat) that skewed the stars and set you toward a path that will not come to pass."

"So you're saying that I shouldn't be worried?" Kagome stirred the pot in front of her as Kaede tossed in some herbs for a potion a pregnant woman down the way had requested.

"Ah, child, ye should always be worried when grave things are involved, I am merely saying that it is possible that these things shall not come to bear."

"We did it!" the arrogant shout from the door way came from Inuyasha, "He put up a fight but I got the jewel shard!" Kagome turned around to see the boy holding up a bloody hand covered in what she assumed were the demon's viscera, holding up a tiny jewel fragment. With a slight scoff he tossed it to her, "Here, keep that safe, will ya?"

Kagome caught it with a slight cringe, "You actually enjoyed that didn't you? Ripping your hand through that demon's belly . . . boy's are gross."

At that moment Sango sauntered in, her Hiraikotsu propped up on her shoulder, she was just as covered in demon guts and Inuyasha, in fact only Miroku and Shippou, who was riding on the priest's back, remained clean.

Inuyasha sat down next to Kagome and looked into the pot she was stirring, "Okay, old lady, we got rid of your problem and got the jewel, I feel we should be rewarded," he reached his hand out to the pot only to have it slapped away by the "old lady".

"Now listen here, Inuyasha, this is not for you and it is wrong of you to be requesting payment for what you both should do and would be doing anyway. Now, take Kagome, and the others and continue on you quest. The villagers do not like you staying here long periods of time; it makes them worry." With that she shewed them out of the hut in much the same way guides in video games do after they've sent you on a mission.

For the next few miles Inuyasha could do nothing but grumble about how hungry he was and how that "bat" could have at least fed them first. Miroku, though he agreed and made to second the motion, remained silent after a scowl from Sango.

Soon Kagome dropped back from the group, fatigue wearing her thin. Sango and Miroku (the former pulling Shippou along) continued ahead and left Inuyasha, because he had yet to apologize to Kagome for what he had done four days ago, to see to the girl.

He sighed, waiting in the middle of the trail for Kagome to reach him, "Okay woman, you've been quiet since you got here which is, for you, a miracle, so spill; you can't still be this mad at me over that little joke I made."

Though his words were condescending, Kagome had known him long enough to know that he was trying to be sincere so she flashed him a smile, "Oh, I'm over that now, I'm just tired," she let lose that yawn she had been holding in, "all those tests and cramming, and grandpa . . . honestly, my list could go on."

Without a word, Inuyasha pulled her onto his back and set off down the trail, staying back from the others. Soon he heard the girls breathing lighten to that of sleep and was careful not to jostle her too much.

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