Disclaimer - I do not own any of the Inuyasha characters, damn!

"Speech" 'thought' flashback/dream 'other thought'

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Chapter 4: Unexpected Rivalry

Sesshomaru ran through the woods in a blur with thoughts of how to get Kagome away from Kouga. (A/N: bet you didn't see that coming, well someone did. Please review and tell me how many of you thought it was Inuyasha and who suspected Sesshomaru.) He had used his brother a year ago to turn Kagome into a demon, but it would seem Inuyasha failed to lure Kagome out to him.

The past year he had been searching for her. Even though she had just acquired her demon powers she had already been able to mask almost all traces of her presence from even him.

It seemed so long ago now that Sesshomaru had excepted that he had fallen for a ningen miko, but he was damned if it would stay that way. After a while he noticed his 'infatuation' for the girl hadn't faded so he would have to do something else rather than ignore it.

She and her friends had sought him out to help them in destroying Naraku and getting the sacred jewel shards he possessed. That's when the plan formed in his mind to use his younger brother in his plans. He knew that if the girl lost her ningen soul that she would become a youkai or more specifically she would be possessed by a youkai spirit that would sustain her life. With little difficulty he convinced his halfwit, half-bother of his that she would be perfectly fine if he wished his ningen lover back to life. Everything had gone as planed except that he was unable to arrive until she had already fled the field.

He had watched the wolf's movements very carefully seeing as he seemed to know better than he where Kagome was. He had not liked the fact but had accepted it as a means to find Kagome. Now it was just a matter of how to pry her away from the wolf and he already had a plan to get close enough to her to do it.

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Kagome was back in Kouga's room trying to recover from her close encounter. "Are sure you're going to be alright, Kagome?" Kouga asked, hoping she wasn't to badly upset.

"Yeah, Kouga, I'll be fine," she replied rather unconvincingly. Her voice was shaky her eyes downcast. She lay her head down on the bed of furs and closed her eyes, feigning sleep until she fell into a dreamless darkness.

Kouga sighed even though everything seemed settled down he couldn't fight off the feeling of uneasiness. Seeing Kagome so sound asleep he only hoped she would stay that way until he returned. He desperately needed to get some fresh air and stretch his legs, but he didn't want her to wake alone.

Sighing, Kouga called Hakkaku and Ginta to watch over her while he was out and they posted themselves outside the door. With that taken care of he darted out the entrance with a promise to return quickly. Kouga made a dash through the trees; he just wanted a quick run and then he would get back to Kagome.

He got the feeling it might take a little longer than expected when he caught the sent of inu. Though he knew it wasn't Inuyasha he had a bad feeling about whomever or whatever it was. Suddenly a flash of white caught his attention and blurred past him. Kouga spun around quickly to try and see who or what it was and he didn't exactly like what he saw.

"Sesshomaru, what are you doing here?" he asked none to kindly. Quite frankly he didn't like inu breath over there much more than he liked the mutt-face.

"I heard you have found the miko," he said, his voice like the dead of winter.

"I see word travels fast then," Kouga replied and began to slowly walk away never dropping his guard.

"I have come to see her, I owe her a service for the way my half-bother has treated her," he said, neither his voice nor face ever changing or showing a hint of emotion, or of his underlying scheme.

Kouga stopped and turned to eye the inu warily. "What do you mean?" Kouga asked, clearly suspicious. It didn't faze Sesshomaru though.

"Weather I like it or not Inuyasha is unfortunately family and because of that his actions have consequences on our family name. So the miko is owed a favor by me as retribution," Sesshomaru explain, and in all honesty, if it weren't for all the underlying motives that he would never admit to, it would be the truth.

Kouga narrowed his eyes at the tall youkai. "Fine, but don't think for a moment that I won't be watching you," Kouga warned as he led the way back to the waterfall and as promised he never took his eyes off Sesshomaru.

When they arrived all the other ookami youkai gapped at Sesshomaru and stiffened at the same time prepared for any attack that may come from the strange youkai. Kouga walked over the door that was guarded by Ginta and Hakkaku. "Is she awake yet?"

"No," Ginta answered stiffly.

"Not yet," Hakkaku added.

"You stay here," Kouga said indicating Sesshomaru. "You two keep an eye on him," he then whispered to Ginta and Hakkaku, though there was no doubt that Sesshomaru had heard it as well. Kouga entered the room to see that Kagome was indeed still asleep. He sat down next to the bed with a sigh and brushed the hair from in front of her face.

She began to stir and mumbled something incoherent. Finally she opened her eyes.

"Kouga," she mumbled with a half smile on her face.

"It's nice to see you too, love," Kouga said smugly. Kagome snapped out of her half sleeping daze, sat up, and gave Kouga a look somewhere between a pout and a glare.

"Who asked you?" she said almost playfully. She was starting to go back to her old self and that's why it killed him to bring up the issue of Sesshomaru standing right outside the door.

"Um, Kagome . . ." Kouga trailed off, not really sure how to put it.

Kagome furrowed her brow. "Kouga, what is it?" she sounded worried. That wasn't good; he didn't want her to worry.

"Well it's just that," he paused briefly again, "Sesshomaru's here." He waited for any response and she seemed to be waiting for more information. Kouga sighed and continued, "He said something about owing you a favor for what the mutt did." He once again waited and she didn't really seem as upset as he had thought she would be.

"Is that all?" she asked, making it sound like he was blowing things way out of proportion. Kouga nodded and she looked as if she was debating weather or not to laugh. Thankfully for Kouga's pride, she didn't. "It's no big deal really," Kagome reassured him and stood up and walked out the door.

"Miko, you have changed much since our last meeting," Sesshomaru said, secretly smirking to himself.

"I have," Kagome replied formally. "I was told you wish to speak with me."

"Yes, if there is anything I can do to make up for my half-brother's foolish behavior I would be honored to," Sesshomaru spoke straining more than usual to keep the normal frozen calm in Kagome's presence.

Kagome appeared to be thinking on this matter as if solving a great mystery. Finally she spoke, "If you wouldn't mind, would you check on my other friends for me, I haven't seen them for about a year?"

Well it wasn't exactly what Sesshomaru had planed, but it meant he would be back, and he would be back.

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InuyashaForever1989: And that folks is where our story ends today. I hope you all enjoyed it and I prey to write again soon, but I'm not really sure. Well Read and Review and please no flames.