"You'll stay with me for the night and I'll tell you all about what happened", Hatsuki told them on their way back to her hut.
"We need to investigate", Inuyasha hissed in Kagome's ear. "Remember? The last sacred jewel shard? You said it was in—"I KNOW WHAT I SAID!" she snapped. Everyone else slowly turned their heads to look back at the two in confusion. Kagome offered a bright smile while Inuyasha just glared at them. They soon approached Hatsuki's hut and entered it.
"Please make yourselves at home" she told them, walking farther into her place. "I will prepare some tea."
As she disappeared, Shippo jumped on Kagome's shoulder and looked at her worriedly. "Kagome, I think there's something up with that woman." Kagome tried to ignore Inuyasha's mocking grin, just concentrating on Shippo for right now.
"What do you mean, Shippo?"
"...She has a demonic aura around her."
She sighed and looked over at Miroku and Sango. "What about you two? Sense anything weird about Hatsuki? Because I think she's being awfully kind to go out of her way just to give us shelter and food for the night. Don't you think?" she said through gritted teeth, wanting somebody to agree with her about this woman.
Miroku grinned. "I trust her, Kagome." There was silence for a while, everybody knowing that Miroku's response was completely biased. "Sango?" she asked hopefully.
"Well..." Before she could finish her sentence, Hatsuki returned with more than just tea. She'd brought over stew, bread, steak, ramen and much more. Then she smiled at Miroku. "And I will definitely consider bearing your child, monk. However many you want, in fact."
As Miroku seemed to get happier, Sango deflated and 'humphed', turning her back on the two and looking at Inuyasha and Kagome.
"Not in the least. I wouldn't trust her with my life."
Kagome sighed some as she watched Hatsuki give food to everyone. It looked great—better than what she managed to make for them most of the time, anyway, and her shoulders slumped some at the thought of them liking Hatsuki's cooking better than her own. "This is delicious!" Shippo said, happily eating some of the soup.
"I agree. You're a pretty good cook, Hatsuki" Sango commented.
The woman grinned at them all, her gaze stopping on Inuyasha. "And you? How do you like it?"
"I'm eating", he said around his mouthful of food, devouring it like he hadn't eaten in weeks.
Kagome stared at them all and couldn't help but clench her hands into fists. Sango and Miroku had always told her they liked her cooking, so she didn't feel any animosity towards them. Inuyasha on the other hand favored whenever she brought along anything instant as opposed to her real cooking. She glared at him until he looked up. "...What?" he muttered, his mouth full. She scowled and turned her head away from him. "Nothing. Forget it." He glared at her, wanting to know why she was acting so weird today. He knew something was up as soon as she told him a jewel shard was in the sky. "Kagome—"I'm sorry to interrupt", Hatsuki put in, looking at all of them. "But I brought you here for a reason..."
Miroku put down his tea and nodded. "You did. What exactly do you need our services for, Hatsuki?"
She lowered her eyes and took a deep breath before answering. "It's my sister. She was kidnapped and taken away to a castle in the sky by a demon. I'm not sure who he was...all I can remember is he had long black hair and was dressed extremely weird..." "Naraku", they all said at the same time. Hatsuki raised her eyebrows. "Do you know this demon?"
"A little too well", Inuyasha put in, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the wall of the hut. "We've all got some kind of bone to pick with him one way or another. And I guess we'll do it if it can't be helped. The sacred jewel shard is in the sky too, isn't it? We'll kill two birds with one stone."
Hatsuki beamed gratefully at all of them. "I can't tell you how happy I am! Please, have some more food as my thanks."
No one turned her down and soon they were all turning in for the night. "My tongue!" Inuyasha screamed, wrinkling his nose. "Feels like it's gonna burn off from that stupid spicy rice ball. What kind of idiot makes one that spicy anyway?!" He sniffed, and then sneezed. Sango raised her eyebrows. "Are you getting sick? That's so unlike you. Y'know, I've never heard you sound like a foghorn before."
"LIKE A WHAT?!" he snapped, clenching his hands into fists. Sango started to laugh. "I've only ever seen you dress sloppily—remember when one of the sleeves had ripped off your kimono?" Inuyasha growled and turned his head, quickly spotting Miroku and running over to the monk, hitting him hard upside his head. Miroku yelped and turned to glare accusingly at his badly-tempered friend. "Inuyasha! What was that about?!"
"Humph. What wasn't that about?"
While the two of them were arguing, Sango and Kagome walked over to their section of the sleeping arrangements, Shippo asleep in Kagome's arms. She reached in her yellow bag and pulled out a little rectangular device with some headphones attached to it after putting Shippo in her sleeping bag. Sango stared at it inquisitively. "Kagome...what is that?"
"Hm?" Kagome held up her iPod and grinned, pointing to it. "Oh, you mean this? It's called an iPod. You can listen to people singing on it, watch videos and even listen to the radio. It's pretty cool." Sango raised her eyebrows, unsure of how such a small thing could allow someone to do all that but then again, this was Kagome's world. She smiled and lay down, sighing. "Good night Sango." Sango grinned before closing her eyes.
"Night Kagome."
Hatsuki grinned as she looked out the window of her castle in the sky. "They'll never find me. And then I'll be the one to find the last jewel shard..." She looked behind her at the sleeping form of Kagome and grinned wickedly. "Isn't that right, little jewel detector?"