Chapter 2

"Show yourself you worthless half-demon!" Squeaked Jaken's little voice, but Naraku had already vanished when Jaken finished his sentence. Everything was silent, except for the voice of the wind left behind by Naraku. The trees swayed and the grass rustled at the disturbance of peace.

"Master Jaken! Come on! Lord Sesshomaru is leaving!" Rin cried as she ran to catch her lord. Jaken followed, but in a more clumsy way.

It was nighttime and everyone was getting ready for dinner. Rin had been ordered to get some wood for the fire in the forest, but she kept thinking about what Naraku said earlier. She couldn't help but feel like something wrong with the whole situation. Distracted by that thought, Rin smacked straight into someone.

"Whoa! Sorry… Rin?! Uh, no time to talk now, we need to run! There are a bunch of wolves chasing me!" And with that, Kohaku grabbed Rin's arm and started sprinting. Rin however, dropped all the wood that she had managed to find. They kept on running towards the opening of the forest, near where Sesshomaru and Jaken were waiting. They heard the barks of the hungry animals, and soon, the wolves were on their tail.

"Kohaku! I see Lord Sesshomaru, he'll protect us!" Rin cried as they sprinted their hearts out. Hearing the voice of Rin, and the barks of wolves, Sesshomaru rose from his sitting position under the tree. He immediately recognized the smell of Kouga's wolves. He had encountered the wolf demon before, and his wolves were the ones that had killed Rin when she was little. Sesshomaru waited for Kohaku and Rin to run into the clearing. Finally they did, and Sesshomaru held out his sword for attack.

"STOP!" Kouga's voice commanded. He calmly came out of the forest from behind his wolves. "Sesshomaru, we meet again."

Pointing his sword at the wolves, he said "Give me one reason I should not kill these creatures." Sesshomaru, with is usual expression stared at Kouga.

"Well, number one, they were hungry, and number two, I didn't know that it was the demon slayer's brother and your little friend that they were after. If I knew, I could've told them to stop." Kouga replied calmly. 'Sure, I he knew it was us, he would've told them to stop. That's just plain old crap.' Kohaku thought; Sesshomaru was also thinking along those lines.

"Since you have no business here, I suggest you leave." Sesshomaru said in a command tone.

Kouga smirked, "Fine." And so, he walked away along with his hungry wolves. When they were out of sight, Sesshomaru walked over to his tree, sat down and closed his eyes.

"Phew, that was close," Rin sighed. "What are you doing here anyway? I though you were traveling with Inuyasha and the others."

Kohaku replied, "Well, I was gathering some firewood, then all these wolves come and chase me, then I run, losing my direction. Yea, and that's how I got lost. Well, I'm not lost though; I know where my sister and the others are headed, so I can meet them there. They finally found some trace of Naraku, and I personally think it is a big hint. One of the monsters we fought the other day told us that Naraku is planning to do something at Abunai Shiro, a supposedly haunted castle in seven days."

After Kohaku was done talking, Jaken asked, "Are we also going to head there milord?"

"Yes" Was Sesshomaru's simple answer.

"You can travel with us; you'll be a lot safer too." Rin said.

"Are you stupid girl? Why would Lord Sesshomaru let another worthless human travel with us? One stupid human is enough, we don't need two!" Jaken ranted, pointing his staff at both of them.

Rin responded in a pleading way, "Please Lord Sesshomaru, we're going the same way, and I promise he won't bother you from whatever you're doing. Please, he'll be much safer with us."

Still not opening his eyes, Sesshomaru replied another simple 'yes'. Rin smiled in delight, and Jaken sighed, rolled his eyes, and went to a corner and fell asleep. Soon, both Rin and Kohaku followed.

The next morning, the group started to head towards the castle. On the way, Rin and Kohaku had become acquainted rather well. They shared interests, and every so often, both of them would laugh at something funny. Rin enjoyed his chattering company, compared to the boring words coming out of Jaken's mouth all the time. Sesshomaru however, was annoyed at so much conversation between Rin and Kohaku. He began to think how happy Rin seemed talking to Kohaku; it made him feel how lonely Rin was everyday, without anyone to talk to. 'Stop it! Why are you thinking such meaningless thoughts about her? You never seemed to care before, so why start now?' his conscience told him. Sesshomaru shook his head to free himself of all his thoughts. He had been ignoring the conversation behind him ever since it started, but this new topic they started discussing caught his attention.

"Hey Rin, why do you travel with him? Don't you ever get lonely or something? I mean, he doesn't talk very much, and the frog guy is just plain annoying. You might not know it, but maybe he's plotting to kill you at any moment." Kohaku asked curiously.

"Lord Sesshomaru would never do that! If he did, he would have done it a long time ago, and besides, I was already dead before he revived me. He revived me for a reason, I might know what that reason is yet, but I know he didn't just revive me for nothing. If he didn't like me, he wouldn't have let me follow him. He could have let me die, but instead, he saved me countless times." Rin was now looking down at her feet, afraid Sesshomaru might say something to her. Hearing nothing, she continued, "I might get bored at times, but I have this feeling, actually, I've always had this feeling that I belong here, with him and Jaken. I couldn't imagine anywhere else where I would fit in." After Rin finished her little speech, Sesshomaru was in deep though about the whole situation. She hadn't even told him this before, and now, he felt like he just got punched straight in the heart. Sesshomaru felt amazed, confused, surprised, and all these other weird emotions not know to him. The Lord Sesshomaru was truly at a loss.