"Lord Sesshomaru!"

"It's Lord Sesshomaru!"

"What could he want here?"

"My lord!" One brave human came out away from his fellows as Sesshomaru entered into the village that Lord Akinori claimed had been stealing horses from his land. Sesshomaru's attention moved to the human that approached him, the scent of fear crowding around him. The scent was nearly completely overwhelming.

"This Sesshomaru has received word that this village was stealing horses from the south lands. Take me to the stables," he ordered sharply. After all, it was common knowledge that every village in the south, by order of the ever paranoid Lord Akinori, placed a brand on all livestock.

"My lord," The human male cast a glance back to his comrades before bowing his head, staring intently at the ground. "Our village is a poor one and we have no stables for livestock. The only horse the village possesses belongs to that of the Priest, who lives atop the hill there in the shrine," he stated rather nervously, pointing in the correct direction. "He is the head of our village."

Sesshomaru turned his attention towards the top of the hill. Interesting, why would Lord Akinori stage something like this? He turned back towards Ah-Un and frowned as he noticed that Kagome was warily looking down at one of the human men who seemed to be attempting to inspect Ah-Un closer, yet his hand was brushing Kagome's leg. Eyes flashing red for a brief moment, he strode forward, grabbing hold of the human wrist attached to the hand that dared offend the little miko. The human cried out and Sesshomaru vaguely heard the sound of a cracking bone. "Do not touch that which does not belong to you," he growled viciously, thrusting the human back away from the group. "Ah-Un, to the shrine." With that, he turned and moved towards the stairs which moved up the hillside and made his way towards the shrine.

"Sesshomaru!" The inuyoukai turned to face the shouting girl as Kagome slid off of Ah-Un's back once he reached the top. "How dare you do that to that man, you are as bad as InuYasha!"

Sesshomaru slowly turned to face him, his eyes hard as he watched the female. "So you wanted me to continue to let him taint you with his touch? I beg your pardon, little miko, next time I shall allow you to be ravished by strange human men. I was unaware that you were in to that sort of thing." He stepped up in front of her, mere inches from her person and towering over the smaller female. "Also, I don't ever want to hear you compare me to that filthy hanyou."

Kagome placed her hands on her hips angrily, leaning up to push herself up into Sesshomaru's face just a bit more, not allowing herself to show that she was rather afraid of Sesshomaru. Of course, she'd always been taught that you should never let a dog know that you're afraid. It's all about intimidation, after all.

"That is not what I mean and you damn well know it!"

"Um… Kagome… maybe you should just let it go?" Rin's meek voice barely made it to Kagome's ears as the girl watched Sesshomaru's reaction to Kagome's fury.

"No, I most certainly will not let it go! You didn't have to break his arm to make him stop touching me, Sesshomaru, and you know it! All those people down there are completely terrified of you! You didn't have to go and physically hurt someone to make your point!" Kagome insisted, crossing her arms over her chest.

Sesshomaru was glaring down at Kagome, though as she leaned up towards him, he found himself momentarily distracted by her scent. It was… intoxicating. It was also different somehow at this moment than it had been previously. Her anger on behalf of the human was irritating. However her anger brought forward some benefits. Her heartbeat was elevated; her blood pumping harder and her scent was filled now with something that wasn't there before. He stared down at the little miko, a part of him rather dumbfounded though he showed no outward sign of it. He'd never had anyone, let alone a tiny human girl, stand up to him in such a way. Finally, he managed to regain control over himself, suppressing the desire to lean forward and inhale the scent of her hair.

"If I don't hurt one of them every now and then, they begin to doubt my commitment to being a heartless bastard." It was a simple response, his eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly as he glared down at the female. Thereafter ensued what some would think of as a staring contest. Neither seemed to want to be the first to back down and look away. It ended up coming to a draw when a noise was heard off to the side and they both looked to see the village priest exiting his small hut.

Sesshomaru straightened himself and moved towards the human male. "Show me your horse," he commanded regally, making a good show of glaring down his nose at the priest.

"I-Yes, Lord Sesshomaru," the elderly man stated, slowly moving around his hut to where a horse was located, tied to a tree with a long lead so that it was able to graze on the grass. "She's not much to look at, but she's sturdy sir. But… I… surely you don't need a horse, your Lordship. You have that fine dragon that you could ride upon, do you not?"

Sesshomaru moved towards the beast, only to have the horse whinny and back away from him. He wrinkled his nose slightly. "Contain that beast, and no, this Sesshomaru has no need of a smelly animal like that. But there has been an accusation made that your village is stealing horses from the south."

The priest's eyes widened slightly. "Lord Sesshomaru, we would never! You must believe me. No one in the village is capable of such treachery!"

"Contain that animal so that I might inspect it. I will not repeat myself again."

It wasn't the priest that moved forward to grasp the animal though. To the surprise of the priest, it was Kagome that strode forward, stroking her hand over the horse's muzzle gently and issuing soft cooing noises to the horse, allowing Sesshomaru to get close enough to see that there was no brand on the horse. Well wasn't that odd, why would Lord Akinori make untrue accusations? Sesshomaru was puzzled. Pulling away from the beast, he turned to walk away.

"Hn… Kagome, we are leaving." Sesshomaru returned to the side of Ah-Un to see that Rin had remained with the dragon.

Kagome looked after Sesshomaru in surprise. Had he just… called her by her name? That was the first time that he had not referred to her as 'miko' or 'girl'. Did that mean that he was starting to… accept her as a part of his usual travelling group? She smiled brightly and moved after Sesshomaru quickly, waving farewell to a rather confused looking priest.

Climbing on the back of Ah-Un, Kagome was still smiling, causing Rin to look at her curiously. "What are you so happy about, Kagome-sama?" Rin asked as Ah-Un took to the air after Sesshomaru who had already taken flight.

"Oh, nothing, don't you worry about it, Rin," Kagome said, still smiling as she looked past the girl to Sesshomaru, watching as the wind blew threw his hair while they flew through the skies. He really was rather beautiful when he wasn't trying to kill her. There was an aura of mystery around him, and a hint of something else, and it occurred to her that Sesshomaru could have easily struck her down during their argument earlier. So why had he withheld himself?

Her thoughts were cut short, however, as they saw smoke rising in the distance. Kagome frowned slightly, looking to Sesshomaru who seemed intent on the horizon as well. He seemed alarmed if one could say that Sesshomaru had any expression to show. She saw him turn to them and slow until he was even with Ah-Un.

"Stay back with Ah-Un and Rin. This Sesshomaru goes forward to see what is going on." With that, he shot forward so quickly that it was almost like he had disappeared. Yeah right! Like she was going to hang back when there could be some kind of fight going on up ahead, so what if she was without her bow and arrow? She couldn't just stand by and watch. Gripping the reins of Ah-Un tightly, she urged them forward faster. What could be going on up ahead?

"Adamant barrage!" Shards of crystals shot forward into the ranks of the guards who stood between InuYasha and the remainder of the palace, most of which had been destroyed by other attacks. It wouldn't be long though, the soldiers were wearing thin, though since InuYasha was reluctant to kill any of the humans, the fight had lasted longer than he would have preferred. However, soon enough, he was presented with a proper target to direct his anger.

"Lord Sesshomaru! Lord Sesshomaru has returned!"

InuYasha's attention was diverted to the form of his demon half-brother as he strode calmly up the road towards their group.

"Heh, 'bout time you got here, Sesshomaru. Now, where is Kagome?" InuYasha demanded, turning the Tetsusaiga towards his brother who continued to walk forward as if InuYasha had not spoken at all.

"Why do you attack the home of my forefathers, half-breed? Are you angry because Father left it and the Lordship of the West to this Sesshomaru instead of you? Is the Tetsusaiga not enough for you, little brother?" Sesshomaru's voice was void of any emotion as he paused several feet away from InuYasha, watching him passively.

"Sesshomaru! Where have you hidden Kagome?" Sango shouted as Kirara landed just behind InuYasha, allowing Miroku, Shippo, and Sango to leap to the ground and stand behind InuYasha.

"Hidden? You must be mistaken. I have not hidden the miko anywhere." Sesshomaru reached down, retrieving the Bakusaiga from its sheath and facing down InuYasha.

"Wait! Stop! Don't do this!" Sesshomaru let out a rather feral growl that caused the human soldiers nearby to step away from their Lord. Sesshomaru's attention turned to the sky, along with those of InuYasha and his comrades.

"Kagome!" Shippo's shout was heard loud and clear as he launched himself from Sango's shoulder and leapt towards Kagome as Ah-Un landed on the ground behind Sesshomaru. "You're okay!"

Kagome wrapped her arms around Shippo gently, smiling as she nuzzled down against him. "Of course I'm okay. I just had to get away for a little while. Sesshomaru was nice enough to let me tag along with him for a little while." She moved up to stand beside of Sesshomaru for a moment, looking over along the ruins of the eastern gate and eastern entrance of the palace. She winced, looking up at Sesshomaru. "I'm sorry about your palace," she said softly. "But please don't hurt them." She raised a hand slowly, resting it over his right hand which held his sword. "They were only worried for me."

"So you expect me to forgive that they have destroyed half of my palace, attacked my guards, and brought insult not only to myself but to the memory of my forefathers?" Sesshomaru demanded with a faint hint of disbelief in his voice. "Why should I do that?" Though he had to admit, the heat emanating from her hand was rather nice…

Kagome just offered a small smile. "Because now they owe you," she stated, looking back towards her friends. "I think it only fair that since they made the mess, then they should clean it up, don't you agree, InuYasha?"

"What? No way am I cleaning this up! I was trying to rescue you! You should be thanking me on bended knee!" InuYasha was outraged and stormed forward towards Kagome only to have his advance be blocked by Sesshomaru. "You're in the way again, Sesshomaru."

"InuYasha, sit!" Kagome shouted, forcing InuYasha to smash into the ground. Kagome strode forward, glaring down at the half-demon. "It's your own fault that I came here you self-centered jerk! And either you will clean up this mess, or I'll let Sesshomaru take it out of your hide!" she exclaimed before turning away from the group. She reached out, grabbing hold of Rin's hand while Shippo was perched on her shoulder once more, and wove her way through the debris and wreckage to see what damage had been done inside.

Sesshomaru watched as Kagome stormed away from InuYasha while taking the two young ones along with her. He looked towards InuYasha who was picking himself up from the ground to the group of humans behind him. "Repairs will start tomorrow… I expect all of you to participate if you wish to keep your lives." With that, he sheathed his sword and followed after Kagome.

Sango and Miroku exchanged a glance with one another.

"Well that was odd. Who is that, and what has he done with Sesshomaru?"