Two.

Sesshoumaru sent Kouga out of his domain with a fierce glare. He had caught him leering at his sister and though he didn't particularly cared for Inuyasha before, his protective side raged that this bakayarou – though Kouga was the prince of the Northern Lands – was openly leering at a girl, his sister no less! Inuyasha as a male was perfectly old enough to take care of himself. Inuyasha as a female was not. She was so young and though her scent said otherwise, she did not have the exact maturity to mate.

Which was why she had been relegated to stay with Rin while he spoke to the exterminator and the male miko – who he lately understood to be the female miko turned male that went by the name of Kagome – about what they could do for Inuyasha and the new upcoming situation. He did not like to speak to humans, but it was the best thing he could do for the moment. This was the second day they had been inside his castle.

It was late at night when Sango – the demon exterminator – remembered about the strange surrounding youki and decided to go tell Sesshoumaru about it. What she found was a bit on the 'twilight zone'… Sesshoumaru and the kid – who was no longer a kid – named Rin were in a passionate embrace. And she suddenly decided to leave as quickly as possible. As she was retracing her steps, a voice she knew very well stopped her from the shadows.

"Does it surprise you?" – she turned to see golden eyes in the middle of the dark… they pinned her in her place and she was suddenly shocked to the very core of her existence to realize that while male Inuyasha was somewhat clueless on matters of the heart, female Inuyasha was a genius when it came to other people's feelings… except maybe her own.

"Uh.. yes it actually does. I didn't expected it." – there was a snort and Inuyasha came out of the shadows.

"It was in his scent when he grabbed me. Didn't realize it until I saw Rin later, the mark on her shoulder is supposed to be a mating mark." – Sango gasped.

"I thought…" – she couldn't help it, knowing that Rin was a human… she didn't know however how it had ever come to be that one little girl would suddenly turn into the tai-youkai's mating interest.

"Just so you know… inu-youkai mate for life. So unless Rin dies – which I don't think would be happening anytime soon – Sesshoumaru would never take another female to his bed."

This however did nothing to assuage the questioning turmoil in Sango's heart. She was suddenly grabbing Inuyasha and trying to hug the life out of her. At first, the hanyou girl was shocked to the core. She didn't do anything, but let Sango hold her. And then… slowly but surely she began to feel agitated. She didn't like people hugging her. Not when she was male and more so now that she was female. She struggled with Sango's arms and finally managed to hold Sango at arm's length.

"Oi… don't get too sentimental on me Sango!" – she said while turning to look at the two people standing on the left doorstep of the living room.

Miroku looked like he was about to sprout bad words if he could before he seemingly remembered himself and decided that it was okay because Inuyasha was a girl instead of a boy this time around. But the other person next to him was not so easily comforted. Anger radiated through every single pore of his identity. But before he could unleash the angry purifying energy that surged through his being, Inuyasha walked over – after letting Sango fall down on the floor – towards Kagome and said quietly…

"Stop giving me the glare, baka." – Kagome blinked twice and then turned to look at Inuyasha looking a bit bewildered. "You're beginning to annoy me. I'm going to bed." – and before all of them could ever say anything, she left.

°°°°

Early the next morning, Inuyasha sat outside in one of the many gardens that sat near the castle. She wore an exquisite form-fitting red kimono. Her hair had been combed and braided by Rin who – giggling much like the young woman that she was – told her it'd help her feel a lot better about herself if she looked clean and beautiful. Inuyasha wasn't feeling very confident that looking clean and beautiful would make her feel better, but she indulged the young Hime. She was confident now that she had gone truly weak. In her male form, she would've scoffed at Rin's desire to make her look beautiful which would've been the death of her since shortly after that Rin would've cried and Sesshoumaru would've hit her for it.

But now… she sighed. Things were beginning to feel weird. She was sure that it had something more to do with the gender switch. Her body was changing. If before the change, she had been somewhat confident over her skills to defend herself and being able to wield Tetsusaiga… she was not so confident now. The sword responded just the same to her… in fact, now it seemed to sing to her… whereas before it only seemed to demand that she'd take it and defend what was hers. But now it seemed to know her darkest secret… that she was scared. The jyaki that came off from Kouga made her quiver. The ominous presence of her brother calmed her jittered nerves somewhat, but sometimes – like the day before when he had grabbed her by the front of her haori – it made her private parts itch. An itch she would've never ever felt before if she were male.

She recognized it for what it was… in youkai terms she was nowhere near mating age, but in human terms she was more than ready to have a whole brood. So now that she were female… the half of her being – her youki – was confused and it was sending the wrong signals to any male youkai in a 50 mile radius.

So… when her brother had commanded to her that she wear a concealment charm on her neck that would hide her youkai scent to other demons searching for a mate, she had accepted without complaining. His worry made her worry. It wasn't as if they were that close, but now she needed someone to make her feel safe. And of the three males she had met so far since the switch, only Sesshoumaru made her feel safe although it was a bit uncomfortable to know that he knew far more than she did.

Fact was that, though the charm worked – she knew it did 'cause none of the other male youkai that lived near Sesshoumaru's lands had come over and tried to mate her – it was too late for Kouga. The annoying wolf was still hunting her as a future mate and it scared her a lot. At the moment, Sesshoumaru could be found speaking with Sango – again – about the 'protection' thingy. And though they were almost over with the Naraku business, there was no need to not be guarded about this new development.

She flopped back onto the ground and stared at the blue sky. In the short hour span since the evening before when they had arrived Sesshoumaru's castle, she felt more attuned to her new body than before. She knew without a doubt that a female body was much more weaker than a male body, she had lost a lot of muscle in the change. She felt lighter, agility made up for the loss of strength. She had tested her abilities, earlier and found out that she was faster, could creep up on anything because she had stealth, and that she could fly!

That had been a big no-no when she was male… she wondered briefly why she could fly now. Although since she wasn't used to this new means of transportation – she found out quickly that while it didn't take much of her youki to fly – it was tiresome. The next thing she noticed was that her movements were graceful instead of rough and ditzy as she often believed himself to be. These new changes… they were both gratifying and a bit terrifying. When she changed back into himself – what would happen? Could she grow to love this body more than the one she had been born with?

"Konnichi-wa puppy-san" – a deep voice rumbled out from behind her. She moved her eyes towards the voice's source and was surprised to see Kouga with a big wild-flower bouquet in his hands.

She couldn't help her reaction towards him. She blushed. He smiled, although the light in his eyes indicated that he was himself again instead of the evil-minded youkai he had been two days before. She sat up and brushed her hair from the leaves around it while presenting him with her erect back. She then propped herself onto her feet and turned to look at him all the while trying to stop the rapid beating of her heart.

"Here puppy-san. I thought you'd like these." – she was just about to grab them when out of the blue they went flying into the air.

As bits of flowers rained down on them, she turned to look at Kagome who had an altogether unsettling expression on his face. It was a mix of hurt and anger… not anger, more like jealousy. Was Kagome jealous? Of whom? And dared she think of the reason why? She found out that her heart beat a bit faster at the thought of Kagome being jealous. She didn't notice however how strangely familiar was this new turn of events as she zoned out to control the rapid beating of her heart and the blush that threatened to overwhelm her face.

"You keep away from her!" – Kagome stated. He was so angry! The nerve of the wolf prince infuriated him.

It did not matter that he had pledge his heart to him when he was a girl, it didn't matter that he had just begun to realize that Kouga was like him. A teenager who claimed to love every pretty girl he set his eyes on. It suddenly began to occur to him that this was exactly how Inuyasha acted whenever Kouga was near her vicinity. And suddenly he understood that he was as much in fault as Inuyasha for ever letting Kouga treat her as his woman. Though he understood this jealous rage that consumed him, it did not assuage it.

"Puppy-san has not told me that she wants me gone, therefore I am able to court her in any way I wish to do so." – this brought both Kagome and Inuyasha from their current introspection to gawk at the wolf in front of them. However, their reaction was much more similar than either wanted to acknowledge it to be…

"Court her!" – Kagome shouted whilst Inuyasha's tone whispered "Court me!" and it brought Kagome out of his stupor to look down at her. She was blushing. It was endearing and yet annoyingly frustrating so.

"Uh-huh. Puppy-san is available and therefore I will not loose to a human such as yourself. Doesn't matter if you used to be female Kagome-san or that Inuyasha is female now instead of being male. Her scent calls out to me. Something I'm pretty sure that you don't know anything about?" – he looked so smug Kagome wanted to rip the teeth out of his wicked smile.

"I believe Inuyasha-sama has not said anything about mating. In fact, I daresay she's appalled by the idea, don't you believe it so Kagome-san?" – said a voice behind them.

Inuyasha hid her eyes behind her bangs and felt herself quiver again. These new feelings that raged inside of her made her feel so vulnerable. She shook her head trying to clear the haze that seemed to overwhelm her senses into making her want to cry and looked up into Miroku's warm violet eyes. She felt a profound sentiment of gratitude towards him and for the first time in the course of the three days they had been staying at Sesshoumaru's lands, she felt safe with Miroku; even if he was a pervert most of the time.

Her movement took both the ookami prince and Kagome by surprise as well as the perverted monk, when she jumped into his arms and hugged him fiercely while whispering softly…

"Arigatou gozaimasu Miroku-san!" – and even before he had a chance to say anything she let him go and sprinted out of the garden like the seven hounds of hell were trying to bite her in the ass. Miroku found himself with two angry males glaring at him, and yet he could not stop the blush that bloomed from out of nowhere on his face after Inuyasha had hugged him.

°°°°

At night, after finally reaching some kind of truce between them, Kouga and Kagome enlisted Shippou for the next few hours. They told him to spy on Inuyasha whilst she were taking a bath with Sango and Rin at the hot springs inside the castle's grounds.

At first, the kit refused outright. He said that he wouldn't do it. That it might bring him more harm than good and that were it the other way around Kagome-sama wouldn't like to be spied either. However, Shippou's candy weakness overpowered his good intentions and soon he found himself listening to the women chat away while they bath themselves. At first, Shippou found himself looking at Inuyasha's back. Then, whilst it took every bit of his own willpower to stop doing so, he realized two things: 1) Inuyasha wasn't talking at all and 2) she was not even looking at the two other females bathing next to her. It was as if she were embarrassed. Which for a minute or two – it seemed to Shippou that it was inconsequential as she were a woman herself – but then he realized that while Inuyasha's form was female perhaps she was still male inside. It made sense to him and suddenly he felt embarrassed. He was spying on Inuyasha. How rude it was of him to interrupt Inuyasha's private time! And before he could even let himself out, he was plucked from his hiding space by an angry inu-youkai.

Sesshoumaru growled at the teenager. He was invading his mate's and his sister's space and he did not like it one bit. He was about to kill him when Rin – having caught bits and pieces of his raging emotions – grabbed his hand and stopped him from killing the poor kitsune.

"I'll kill him!" – he snarled and was just preparing his poison claws to do so, but he was stopped by his sister.

"No, you will not." – Inuyasha said as she wrapped a fluffy towel around herself while coming closer to them both.

"He was spying on you both!" – Sesshoumaru ground out. His eyes were normal now, but Inuyasha could see that he was still trying to keep a tight rein on his anger instead.

"I'm sure he'll refrain from ever doing it again." – she reasoned with her brother and found to her relief that he believed her.

He sent the kit crashing into the wall and took his leave with Rin at his back. She smiled gratefully to Inuyasha and left quietly behind her mate. Inuyasha – once she felt that the crisis was averted – turned to Shippou and glared. By this time, Sango came into the scene wearing her clothes and she looked angry as hell. She looked at the kit and then nodded towards Inuyasha. The hanyou nodded and left to find her clothes so she'd go back to her room. Needless to say, Shippou wailed out the whole story and both Kagome and Kouga found themselves with two black eyes and a couple of bruises full courtesy of Sango's giant boomerang.