Three

Civilians stopped, stared, and then, most blushing, went back to their business as if they had not suddenly been caught pondering over the two beautiful shinobi that went walking down the street.

"This is a beautiful disguise," Shippo sighed wistfully. His voice was low enough that he knew the human ear was incapable of capturing the words, but his lovely companion sent him a glance from the corner of her eye to indicate she was listening. "Though," he reached up and tapped his fingers against the metal around his neck, "was this collar really necessary?"

"It is not a collar." She tilted her lips, watching as a man nearby stumbled over his own feet and into a cart when she did so. Humanity was so simple minded; so easily controlled by the instinct that they believed was buried beneath their so-called intelligence. "It is an emblem. A way to show others where you are from without having to say so."

"Keh," he scoffed. "It is a collar if I ever saw one."

"Be glad, Shippo, that I have collared you." She did not need to say anything more for there was no doubt that the fire fox understood her meaning.

And, indeed, the fire fox did understand her meaning. He knew of her original plan. She was a fox demon, after all, and a shadow one at that. The tricky little bitch. While she now wished to keep him tethered at all times, originally she had planned to keep him, help him rise in power and gain more tails, and finally, when the time was right, eliminate him.

She, like any true fox, had planned to use him. To make him strong and then steal that power for herself. To drink from him the essence of seven or eight tails, thus gaining the final tail that she, herself, had sought for so long.

But now, knowing that there were so few demons left in the world, and having drank from the very land itself for so long, she did not need to do such. She had gained her final tail without so much as sleeping for what seemed like eternity, and sucking upon the planet's natural power like a newborn babe while she did so.

Wrapping his arm around her waist, Shippo licked his lip and said, "Oh, come on, babe, don't be that way."

She practically glared at him in a sideways glance. Then, softly, she replied, "You have been listening to these humans far too much since we woke. You are already beginning to pick up the way they speak."

"I do aim to please." That said, Shippo leaned into her and took her ear between his teeth. He knew that the humans around them had stopped with the action, even more curious than before, as he sensed the change in the weak aura that they each cast.

Many, he noted, became aroused by the simple gesture.

Continuing forward, Kagome easily played the coy little female that would entice the humans even more. She pushed at Shippo's face, keeping him at a distance, and sent him a heated stare from beneath her lashes. "Don't do that here, silly," she told him. "I told you that you could have your wicked way with me once we reached the hotel, remember?"

Pulling her in close, Shippo returned her heated stare. It seemed she, too, had picked up a few key words from the humans around them. "What use is a bed when I could take you right here, right now, in the middle of this street?"

The scent in the air spiked.

The thought was actually appealing, and she may have allowed him to do so if an annoying little twit had not suddenly fallen from the sky and crashed the party.

"Hey!" Haruno Sakura, an excelling medic-nin and chuunin, was rather disgusted by the way the kunoichi before her was nearly straddling her companion's waist. In private, yes, but in public! The very idea was absurd, and Sakura could not help but glare at the unknown shinobi. "Indecent conduct like that is not allowed in this village, you two!"

"Oh—?"

The man flashed a stunning smile, and Sakura felt her breath catch in her throat. It was not so much his smile that sucked her in, but his eyes. Those emerald orbs pierced into her very soul, and Sakura almost believed for a moment that emerald was her favorite color.

"—I do apologize." He did not bother to release his lovely little female from his grasp. Who would when they had a handful of her ass in each palm? "You see, we have been traveling for quite some time, and my lovely companion and I were just a little excited when we realized we had finally reached our destination."

Shaking away the sudden fluttering of her heart, Sakura said, "While I'm sure it's a very touching story, I'm still going to have to see your passports."