Alright, here's another Chapter! Many thanks again to those who reviewed! I didn't expect to see so many reviews considering this is a new story from a new author. Thanks for making my day, everyone! I appreciate the comments, suggestions and encouragement! In answer to some of the questions asked, yes, this will be a Kagome/Inuyasha fic. As for how long it usually takes me to get chapters out, I'm not quite sure since this is my first attempt at any kind of story in a long time. I'm hoping to do more-or-less a chapter a week, though.

Disclaimer: Inuyasha no pertenece a mí.!


Chapter 3: An Unusual Offer

Kagome hummed to herself as she traveled through the woods. She felt particularly happy today. It had been awhile since Kaede had let her leave the secluded little forest hut they shared to visit the nearby village. Generally Kagome's training schedule was far too intense to allow for visiting the village merely for pleasure. By and large Kagome felt content with the life she led. Still, it was nice to get out and see people every once in awhile, so Kagome made the most of the few opportunities she had to do so.

Perhaps if Kagome's nature was a little less forgiving, or Kaede's personality a little less kind, Kagome would have ended up resenting her guardian. No ill will existed between them, however, and Kagome truly wanted to fulfill Kaede's expectations.

Wanting and doing seemed to be two different things in Kagome's case, however. Certainly she could purify things, and she was even decent with a bow and arrow. But that was about it. She couldn't heal people, couldn't form a barrier at will, couldn't even repulse an evil spell most of the time. In short, she demonstrated little of the great potential Kaede always said she had.

Why Kaede continued teaching her was something of a mystery to Kagome. As the years past, Kagome advanced little in her destined profession. However, Kaede only seemed to grow more determined to teach her. Their training schedule grew more and more rigorous, demanding more and more of Kagome's time and efforts. In her more cynical moments, Kagome half thought that Kaede only persisted because it kept Kagome away from the village. In her better moments, Kagome remembered that Kaede had taken her in as an orphan child, and was grateful to her guardian for the love that made her persist in trying to teach Kagome a useful trade. Little though she had seen the outside world, Kagome still understood what would happen to her if she couldn't keep herself after Kaede was gone.

She remembered very well the day that Kaede had decided to start training her. She had been about six years old at the time, and that particular day she had shirked her chores to sneak into the village. She wasn't trying to make Kaede worry, she just wanted to play with the other children. She snuck into the village often enough then that some of the kids had started to recognize her and remember her name. They played with her and she enjoyed it, but they also teased her about her strange lifestyle. One little boy (Hojo, she thought his name was?) had even came up with the idea that maybe she was the lost princess Kikyo, in hiding from the evil demon Naraku. Kagome just laughed about it now, but somehow when she was six, she had taken that as a terrible insult. What a scene that must have been for Kaede to walk into-her little foster daughter, standing on top of a hill, surrounded by taunting children, screaming at the top of her voice that she was NOT Kikyo. Kaede had been unusually silent and worried on their walk home, and before the day was out she had announced that Kagome was to learn the skills of a priestess.

"Ah well," Kagome shook herself out of her reflections. "Just thinking about training isn't going to make me a Priestess!" She quickened her steps.

ooooooooooooooo

Inuyasha was not having a good day. He hadn't even been looking for jewel shards this trip, but one seemed to have found him, just the same. He could tell from long experience that this centipede demon had one. The things just weren't normally this aggressive, or this hard to kill. Inuyasha lunged sideways as the centipede swung it's ugly head, pincered mouth gaping wide, towards where he had been standing. He took a swipe at it with his claws as it narrowly missed him, but he only grazed the thing's skin. Definitely not a good day.

Inuyasha jumped back, out of striking range, and decided that now was as good a time as any to try out his new weapon. With a flourish he pulled Tetsusaiga out of it's sheath, and shifted his body into an attack stance. Both the sword and the centipede seemed to have other ideas, however. Tetsusaiga spectacularly failed to transform when Inuyasha unsheathed it, and while he was busy shaking it and otherwise trying to coerce it into transformation, the centipede took off.

"Grrrr...what's the matter with this stupid thing?" Inuyasha snarled. Then, "Hey, where do you think you're going!" He took after the centipede, determined not to let it get away now that it had ruined his day.

The centipede moved incredibly fast for something so bulky. It nimbly darted between trees as it raced away from him. Inuyasha followed it, just as fast. He gained on it quickly, but caught up to it quicker than he had expected to, as it abruptly stopped. "Aahhhh!" a feminine scream rang out.

"Oh just great," Inuyasha rolled his eyes and complained to himself. "This is just what I need." He put on a burst of speed, and got himself ahead of the centipede just in time to rescue the girl from a grizzly death. He set her down nearby and took a quick look at her, immediately noticing her clothing. "Hey, you're a priestess, right? So help me out here!"

The girl looked surprised and began stammering, but Inuyasha didn't have time to stay and listen to her. The centipede was already headed in their direction. "Awe, never mind. Just stay put, I'll take care of this," he growled out to her.

He drew Tetsusaiga again, not because he thought he could do anything useful with the rusty piece of junk, but because it had seemed to scare the centipede before. Which is why he stared in shock when it suddenly pulsed in his hands, and then transformed. Two seconds he stared, and on the third the centipede slammed into him. As he was thrown to the side, he saw the girl behind him get hit as well. She hit the ground hard, and rolled to a stop. The centipede turned itself to attack her again. Angry now, Inuyasha leapt up and lunged at the centipede, Tetsusaiga in full swing. A quick slice and a neat landing latter, and the centipede lay dead behind him.

Slowly he straitened. He turned to the girl, who was now standing and dusting herself off. "Hey, you okay?" he asked?

The girl seemed to have forgotten his presence, as she gave a small start when he spoke. "Oh, heh. Yeah, I'm fine." Finishing her self inspection, she moved towards him. "Wow, you really took care of that demon." She peered around him at the mess that had been the centipede. Suddenly she yelped, a high shrill sound, and Inuyasha winced. "It, it's still moving!" she shuddered, pointing.

Inuyasha casually turned and looked. "Of course it is. Demons with shikon jewel shards will always regenerate." He strolled over to the twitching body and began poking at it. "The trick is to find and remove the shard while they're down."

"Oh," the girl said, suddenly businesslike. "I can probably help with that. Let's see here..."

Inuyasha snorted in disbelief. "What do you think you're doing? It takes an incredibly high level priestess to sense jewel shards. You're obviously not powerful enough."

The girl ignored him, continuing to peer around at the centipede corpse like she really expected to see something. After an irritatingly short moment, she exclaimed. "Ah! There it is!" She pointed towards an unremarkable middle area of the centipede. Inuyasha crossed his arms and shoved his hands into his sleeves, waiting for her to realize her mistake. Instead, the girl walked over to the portion of centipede she'd indicated, and extracted a shikon jewel shard. Inuyasha immediately huffed and turned his back to her, not wanting to let her see how his jaw was trying to drop.

"Well, if you're that great, then why did you act so stupid in the battle just now. A priestess of your caliber shouldn't have had a problem taking out a low level demon like that!"

A moment passed. Inuyasha heard a sniff. Then a way-too-cheerful voice spoke. "Yeah, you're right. I'm just a silly girl and not really a priestess at all! I mean, I've been training practically my whole life, and still about all I can do is purify things. I can't even control that, it just happens on it's own. Pretty pathetic, huh."

Inuyasha turned and saw the wide fake grin plastered on her face, saw the way the eyebrows twitched like they wanted to pull together into a frown, and took a step back. "Uh, uh...look, I didn't mean anything by what I said, okay. So just forget about it."

The girl blinked, the smile slipping off her face. She still held back the tears, but Inuyasha could sense them trying to get out. Nearly in a panic, he continued babbling. "Trust me, the skills you have are great. I hunt jewel shards for a living, and it's a real pain trying to figure out where each demon hid it's shard. I could really use someone with skills like yours. In fact, why don't you join me?"

The threat of tears receded, and Inuyasha breathed a sigh of relief. Then he realized what he'd just said, and nearly choked. Why in the world had he said that?!? He didn't want along some stupid girl who didn't even know how to handle herself in a fight!

Internally quaking in fear, Inuyasha looked at the girl. Maybe he'd get lucky and she'd say no. But, with the kind of luck he'd been having lately...

ooooooooooooooooo

Kagome was thoroughly surprised at the strange boy's offer. He'd sounded sincere about it. Could anyone really value her measly skills that much? If she really could be of help to him, then maybe she should go. It'd be a way to finally use something of what she'd been learning. And besides, what occupation could be more fitting for a priestess than hunting shikon jewel shards? It was certainly getting to be time that Kagome find her calling in life.

Still, Kagome hesitated. Kaede was sure to object. For one thing, she hadn't finished her training yet. For another, Kaede didn't even like Kagome talking to strangers. She'd never approve of Kagome running off with one.

But how could Kagome turn down someone who said he needed her, and who'd just saved her life? Kagome looked at him, standing there waiting for his answer. He was practically trembling, obviously worried that she might turn him down. Kagome knew she couldn't tell him no. Sighing a little to herself, she looked down, and carefully told her shoes "Okay, I'll go with you."

The boy let out a breath that sounded suspiciously like a heavy sigh. Kagome looked up at him, surprised. He didn't seem nearly as happy as she'd thought he'd be. In fact, for a moment, he seemed almost upset. But Kagome blinked, and the next second he was all indifference. "Fine. Great. Go home and pack, you can meet me back here in an hour."

"Oh, okay," Kagome stammered. "Sure." She turned to go, but then glanced down at her hand. She was still holding the shard she'd taken out of that centipede. She noted with satisfaction the tell-tell white color of purification. "Here," she handed it to him.

"Hey," the boy looked down at it. "You really can purify. So maybe that wasn't a lucky guess when you found that shard." He sounded amazed.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Kagome asked, outraged. "Weren't you just telling me how you needed me and all? If you didn't believe I could see the shard, then why did you invite me along?"

Instead of answering her, the boy jumped up into a nearby tree, where he settled himself on a branch. "You'd better get going," he told her, voice full of cocky attitude. "You've only got an hour to get ready."

Kagome huffed in anger. She returned back to the path she'd been forced to abandon earlier and proceeded to stomp her way home. Who did that guy think he was, anyway? Ha! He'd just see how well his little stunt had convinced her to come back! If she was lucky, he'd spend the whole night waiting for her. Stupid stuck up jerk!


I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! If you liked it, or if you didn't, I hope you'll leave me a line. I'd love to know what you think! Thanks all!