The sun beat down on a small group of friends walking along an old abandoned dirt path. The lush green tree tops only provided a small amount of relief from the sweltering heat that threatened to swallow them all whole. Piling her long dark tresses atop of her head, she secured them with an elastic band creating a rather messy bun. Sweat dripped down the side of her face and she could feel her summer clothes sticking to her.
"InuYasha I'm done. I'm not going any further. We haven't found a jewel shard in two days. I don't think there are any in this direction," the sigh that followed her words sounded dry causing her to drop her bag to the ground to locate a water bottle as she couldn't remember the last time she had drank any.
"Excuse me wench? I'm the leader and I will say when we are done!" His tone grew in volume as his attitude rose, marching a few steps towards her he stood before her angerly. "So quit your bitchin', pick up your bag and get your ass movin'." His voice was low, deep within his chest despite the volume in which he spoke. He was serious and his subtle threat that was well hidden in his words spoke clearly to her.
Standing up right abandoning her search for her pink water bottle, she squared her shoulders and looked him dead in the eyes. "What did you just say?" Her brow quirked in a way that faintly resembled the young hanyou's brother, she watched as his mouth opened the words forming on his lip. Suddenly taken over by frustration, Kagome stomped her foot. "Sit boy!"
InuYasha's body crashed into the ground forming a small crater. Grumbling could be heard and she was certain that amongst the profanity he was surely using would be threats in which he would never carry out because he needed her. He needed her in order to find the shards and that one thing guaranteed her safety. Turning to her other companions she looked at them. Each was worn out and dirty, their clothes disheveled with bags under their eyes.
"We are going to camp here for the night," a glare was shot to the still stuck hanyou with the last word. He was probably going to lay into her once he was able to stand again seeing as it was only early afternoon, but their group needed a moment to rest and regain the strength they were using trying to keep up with his ridiculous pace. "Shippo if you could so kindly locate water for me? Sango and Miroku please get the fire going and set things up. When I get back from grabbing water with Shippo I'll see what kind of food I have in my bag. Perhaps we won't need to hunt tonight."
The group nodded to one another, each setting off to complete one small task that would get them closer to having a completed campsite. Taking Shippo by the hand, she let him lead her into the woods. "I'm not sure what kind of water source it is mama, but I'm guessing it's a stream."
His small voice caused her to look down at him. Motherly pride soared through her as she watched the look of concentration spread across his face, his little brows furrowing together. "Why do you say that? Let's walk through what you know from your senses." Her tone was warm and light as she spoke to the young kit.
"Well I can hear the water moving and it smells fresh. So, it can't be a pool of water because those smell different." She nodded to his words as they continued to walk through the under growth. "It doesn't babble like a brook, it's faster." He looked up to her as blue clashed with green.
"You are doing really well Shippo. In no time you will be way better at this than InuYasha is." Hearing the water now, she moved forward taking the lead as her protective instincts took over. It felt as if something was watching them, but her reiki wasn't reporting any auras in the area. Pushing her reiki out a little further she flared it in warning.
Coming around a rather thick old tree, Kagome laid eyes on a rather large stream that looked pretty deep towards the middle. "Well look at that Shippo, you were right!" Hearing his exclamation of joy at her statement she smiled widely. Handing him a few water bottles, she let him go near the edge to fill them. Following his lead she filled the bottles within her possession and soon the pair was making there way back to where camp was going to be.
She heard him before she could see the edge of the treelined path. Rolling her eyes, she sent Shippo ahead to alert the others of their arrival and hopefully InuYasha would come to her. That way they could fight out of sight from Shippo. The boy was already losing fear of the older demon and it would only be a matter of time before he put himself between herself and InuYasha. She didn't want to see what would happen once that occurred as InuYasha would most likely see it as a threat to his being the alpha of their small group.
"Oi, wench! How dare you tell them to set up camp! The sun hasn't even started setting yet! Every minuet we spend wasting on you guys resting, Naraku is out there getting the shards for himself!" Gold eyes locked on her as their owner charged through what little woods stood between them. Roughly he grabbed her upper arms and gave her a shake. "Now we are going to back there and you are going to tell them that we are still moving forward!"
Giving a zap of her reiki, she smelt the burning of his flesh as he promptly let go of her and took a step back. "What the fu-" "Inuyasha I need you to shut up and listen okay? I know it's had for you, but you need to really hear what I am going to say."
Turning his head away from her to peer out into the woods, he shoved his fists into his sleeves. "Good. Now I have been doing a lot of thinking and we have a large portion of the jewel. Last time we fought Naraku, he also had a large portion. I don't think we are going to find many more, there's a chance there isn't any left to find."
"Keh, that jewel shattered into hundreds of pieces. There have to be more to find, you're just being lazy." She watched him turn to face her. "You just aren't strong enough to sense the shards unless they are close by which is why we need to keep pushing forward."
"I think the only shards left to get are the ones we know about like the ones in Koga's legs," closing her eyes she stretched her reiki as far out as she could coating the ground. "There are tons of demons around us and none of them have a shard," eyes opening she looked up into the hanyou's face, "I think it's time to reach out and gather everyone we can to prepare for the final battle."
The look that settled onto his face filled her with hope. At last he seemed to be taking her seriously. Moving forward knowing he would follow; she broke through the trees edging the path and felt the sun kiss her skin. Her eyes landed on her kit as worry swallowed her. She would have to send him away unless they could come up with a fool proof plan that insured his safety.
Forcing herself to smile she set about her normal tasks and started pulling food from her pack while happily chatting with Shippo and the others. InuYasha on the other hand, had stopped by both Sango and Miroku to say something quietly which each of them nodded to before he looked to her and gave her a small nod. Sighing, she gathered they would be having a group meeting after the kit went to bed for the night.
For InuYasha to set a meeting in motion caused Kagome's anxiety to start back up. He rarely wanted their opinion about anything, so this all meant that he was either worried himself or he was going to give them a way out. Shaking her head to free it from such thoughts, she instead occupied herself with coming up with a list of demons they could reach out to for help. Stirring the ramen she was cooking, she stared down into the liquid and wondered how quickly all of this would go.
A/N: As always leave me your thoughts! Open to suggestions as well as long as they don't mess with my overall plot.
