Chapter Three

Jaken's Dilemma

Jaken stared nervously in the direction in which Rin had fled, shocked that the normally cheerful girl had actually believed such an obvious lie. Now what was he going to do? When Sesshoumaru-sama returned and discovered his young ward gone, heads were sure to roll… his own head, to be more precise.

What could he possibly tell Sesshoumaru-sama about the child's disappearance? He couldn't possibly tell him that the child now believed he hated her… could he?

No… To do so would be worse than suicidal; it would be far better for his health to remain silent. Until he demanded to know where his precious ward was. Honestly, what was so great about a little human girl, anyway? All she did was slow them down with her constant need to eat and sleep, and with how often she was kidnapped and needing to be rescued, it was amazing anything got done at all!

He sighed as he climbed to his feet, kicking dirt over the smoldering coals from the previous night's fire. After the fire had been dealt with, he turned to the path Rin had run down and slowly began to trudge after her, occasionally calling out her name.

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Needless to say, Jaken's wonderful skills for tracking small human girls named Rin soon ensured that he hadn't the slightest idea where the girl had gone, and only the vaguest notion as to the direction in which their camp was. With a defeated sigh, he turned and began walking back to the clearing they'd been camped in (he hoped).

It wasn't long before he (quite literally) ran into Kohaku and Ah-Un. After picking himself up from where he fell due to his close encounter with a large, scaly leg, he turned to Kohaku, who held three rabbits ready to be skinned and roasted.

"I don't suppose you've come across Rin?"

"No. wasn't she with you and Sesshoumaru-sama?"

"Eh… Why, yes, she was, but… Well, you see…" And suddenly, what Jaken believed to be a brilliant idea occurred to him. "A short while after Sesshoumaru-sama departed this morning, only minutes after you, yourself, left to hunt, young Rin took it in mind that it would be a good idea to play a little game, and ran off, expecting me to chase after her. Naturally, I did just that, but I cannot seem to find her, and the girl has not answered a single call of her name. I dread to even think of what Sesshoumaru-sama will do should anything have happened to that girl."

Kohaku frowned for a moment. It wasn't like Rin to wander far on her own. If she didn't have either Ah-Un or Jaken with her, she tended to stay within hearing distance. He was sure there was something he wasn't being told.

"Well, I'm sure she's fine. I'm certain Sesshoumaru-sama will be able to find her when he returns."

"NO!" Jaken screeched. "I- I mean… What with her recent death, Sesshoumaru-sama has been even more protective of that girl. If he believes her to be in danger, he may do something foolish. I believe it would be in everyone's best interests if you, Ah-Un, and I find young Rin and get her back where Sesshoumaru-sama expects her to be before he returns."

Kohaku considered a moment, studying the nervous imp with a frown. "Very well. I'll help you find her. Where did you last see her?"

"She was still in the clearing we've camped in the last fortnight."

"Well, then, that would be the place to begin looking." He tugged lightly on Ah-Un's reigns and began leading him back the way Jaken had just come from.

Only a short ten minutes later, they found themselves back in their abandoned camp. After glancing around for a moment, Kohaku turned to Jaken. "Which way did she go?"

"Ah…" He glanced in the direction in which Rin had run off before pointing. "There…"

"Let's go." He turned to the small trail and began making his way along it. He noticed that the amount of footprints left behind and all the vegetation that had been carelessly crushed underfoot didn't indicate a simple game of hide-and-seek. It looked more like Rin had been running from something. He cast a suspicious look at the imp before he returned to tracking the path taken by the young girl. Jaken followed (silently, for once), leading Ah-Un behind him.

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"We should head back… The other's will probably get themselves killed if we leave 'em alone much longer."

Kagome blinked at the abrupt change of topic. "But… What happened when you guys got… wherever Sesshoumaru lives? Did anything happen on the way there?"

InuYasha looked away. "Kagome… This… isn't easy for me, ya know. I haven't ever talked about any of this before…"

"Oh… Okay. You will tell me more soon, though, won't you?"

"Maybe… I don't know."

She leaned her head on his shoulder. "Talking does help."

InuYasha blushed slightly at the contact before jumping up. "Keh. Let's get back to the others. Get on."

With InuYasha providing transportation, he trip back to the rest of the group (and Rin) was much quicker than Kagome's trip to find said hanyou.

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Upon returning to camp, InuYasha let Kagome down by the fire the others had started in their absence then leapt up into a nearby tree. Shippou hopped up onto Kagome's shoulder and buried himself under her hair.

"Is InuYasha gonna be okay?" he whispered, hoping InuYasha wouldn't hear him.

"I think so, Shippou. InuYasha just needs some time to himself now, okay?" The kitsune nodded slightly before hopping back down and scampering back over to Kirara.

Rin glanced up at InuYasha then slowly approached Kagome. "Kagome-sama…?" she asked hesitantly.

"Just call me 'Kagome,' Rin-chan. What is it?"

"Kagome-san… Did Rin make InuYasha-sama sad?"

"No, Rin-chan, it's not your fault!" She quickly gathered the little girl into her arms. "No, it's just that he remembered something that upset him."

"But he remembered because of Rin. If Rin did not come here, he would not be sad."

"Rin-chan… This is something he just needs to deal with. It's a good thing that it happened now, while we're here to help him, right?"

The girl frowned in thought. "Rin does not like to be alone when she is sad… Yes, you're right, Kagome-san. But will he feel better soon?"

Kagome glanced up at the distressed hanyou before she replied. "I think the only way he'll feel better is if he and Sesshoumaru talk, Rin-chan. I really do…"

"Then shouldn't we find Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin asked quietly, looking down.

"I don't know, Rin-chan… Normally Sesshoumaru finds us. To be honest, I wouldn't even know where to begin looking for him. Do you?"

Rin chewed her lip slightly, then shook her head. "Rin knows where we camped last, but he wasn't there when Rin left, and it's too far to make it before it's too dark to travel."

"And everyone's set up camp here already…"

"We're not looking' for him," InuYasha grumbled from his perch. "He just got rid of that whelp! What'dya think he'd do if we just came walkin' up to him, bringin' her back? Don't sound like such a good idea to me. He'd prob'ly just kill the little twerp so he wouldn't have to deal with her, and us for bringing her."

"Sesshoumaru-sama would never hurt me!" Rin yelled suddenly, glaring at the hanyou angrily.

InuYasha gave her a sad smile full of sympathy. "Yeah… Ya know kid, I remember a time when I would've said somethin' like that… But really, there's just no telling with him. You're prob'ly better off away from him, anyway. He can't hurt you that way…"

Rin stared at him silently for a long moment as tears welled up in her eyes before she threw herself at Kagome with a wail, clinging to her while she sobbed.

Kagome shot InuYasha a heated glare before scooping Rin up and walking over to sit beside Shippou and Kirara.

"Shh, it's okay, Rin-chan… Don't listen to that baka, he's just trying to upset you."

"But… What if he's right?" she sniffled.

"I'm sure Sesshoumaru had a reason for asking you to leave, Rin-chan. It wouldn't make sense for him to just have you leave because you upset him."

"D'you ever listen? This is Sesshoumaru we're talkin' about- he doesn't make sense, and he likes it that way! That's probably the only reason he let her travel with him in the first place- so he could mess with my head, and obviously whatever he had planned didn't work, so he had her leave!"

"Osuwari," Kagome said with a sigh. "InuYasha, you're not making any sense. He wouldn't have taken her in just to upset you. And if he did, I doubt he would have been so protective of her, right? There has to be some other reason…"

After a few moments of spluttering and spitting dirt from his mouth, the spell released him and InuYasha jumped to his feet.

"Bitch! What was that for?!" he snarled.

"You're upsetting Rin, you're overreacting horribly, and you won't shut up long enough to listen to reason! I needed enough quiet that I could hear myself think for a minute!"

"There's nothing to think about. Sesshoumaru's a heartless bastard, and that's all there is to it."

"What's that have to do with you being too loud?"

"It means instead of wastin' your time thinking, ya should be making some lunch!"

"Do you ever think about anything but food?" A sudden growl from her own stomach caused her face to flush slightly in embarrassment. "I give up…" she sighed before turning to Rin with a bight smile. "Would you like to help me make lunch, Rin-chan?"

She rubbed her fists across her eyes, attempting to wipe away most of her tears, before looking at the older girl. "Can I, Kagome-san?"

"I wouldn't have asked if it wasn't okay, sweetie. Sango, could you take Rin and go get some water, please? The water bottles are almost empty." She gave a pointed look to InuYasha, indicating she wanted to speak to him without Rin overhearing, and Sango immediately agreed.

"Of course, Kagome-chan. Come on, Rin." They collected the bottles and set off for a nearby stream.

After a few silent moments, Kagome turned to InuYasha. "We need to find out what's going on, InuYasha. It just doesn't make sense that Sesshoumaru would have her leave like that. I know you don't like him, and I know you think he's doing this just because of you, but if you actually think about it… It just doesn't make sense."

"I heard you the first time you said that, when that brat first showed up. I said she could stay, and Sesshoumaru's already gonna want to kill us for that, but we're not gonna go try and find him and fix this, Kagome. If he shows up, he shows up, but looking for him is crazy."

"I know it is, InuYasha. But we have to try."

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Jaken and Kohaku had spent three long days tracking Rin when Sesshoumaru suddenly dropped to the ground in front of them.

"S-Sesshoumaru-sama!" came Jaken's terrified squawk.

He gave each of them a long look before focusing on the trembling imp. "Jaken… Where is Rin?"

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Baka: idiot; fool(ish)

Kitsune: fox

I was looking through my messages and such on DevArt, when I realized, "My God, it's been more than three months since I posted chapter two of Black Moon..." I'm such a horrid person...

I would have liked this chapter to be a bit longer, but honestly, this whole setting up everything is entirely too tedious. And I can't believe how mean I'm being to Rin...

InuYasha and all related characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi; I am merely a semi-crazed fan-girl.
All OCs introduced belong to LadyVinicia and bret-michal-san