Yo minna, how are you? lolol, anyways, sorry for the wait, but I kind of do have a life other than writing and I've been studying profoundly (lying) anyways. I've actually been addicted to two Japanese Dramas: Hana yori Dango (Boys over flowers) and Hanazakari no kimitachi e -Hana Kimi shortened- (You in full blossom -or something along those lines-) They're both really good and was written in a manga before hand xD... Oh and I've also been drawing my own manga. -sigh- Lolol.

Kagome followed Haru through the main estate with wide eyes. It looked like a small village in here! … But she frowned. She could feel a dark aura surrounding the place, like it was close to death of some sort, like a dark curse was roaming around in there. She unconsciously shivered, but followed Haru nonetheless.

The entered one of the houses and Haru looked at her. "He lives here, but he's not in at the moment." He explained as he led her to a small couch. He sighed, "I'll wait with you."

Kagome looked at him gratefully. "Thanks Haru-kun. I'm sorry for all the trouble, but I was bored," she said, "And I wanted to talk to Hatori…"

He shrugged. "It's no problem," he said, but was worried if the only reason Hatori was not in at the moment was because he was visiting Akito. I really shouldn't have let her come, he thought to himself as he waited for Hatori.

Suddenly the door opened and Kagome scrunched up her nose. You can't be serious, she thought, as the scent of blood was strong to her nose. Haru stood up to turn to look at Hatori as he staggered into the room with an obvious pain-filled face. What the hell happened?

"Hatori," Haru said as he moved forward o help Hatori on to a chair. Hatori had not noticed her yet, for that she was a bit glad because she knew that he definitely didn't want her, a stranger 'til yesterday, to see his weakened state.

"Haru," he said, voice a bit weak, "What are you doing here? You should be at school."

Haru sighed. "Skipped. And followed Kagome out of school. She said she wanted to see you." He explained as Hatori's eyes snapped towards her worried form. Kagome briefly wondered if this was what happened all the time since Haru's voice seemed calm and undeterred by Hatori's present state.

He looked at Haru with a forceful glare. "She's not allowed here. What if Akito finds out? Not only would he hurt me, but he'd hurt her too."

So that's it. She thought to herself darkly, This Akito… She looked at him with crossed arms and said rather darkly, "This Akito…" she said pausing for effect as they looked at her, "…Won't hurt me nor you. I've been through too much shit to be hurt by a lowly human such as… him or her. Either way, I just don't care if this person is male or female. If he's the one that hurt you," she said, her demonic instincts taking over for one reason or another, "Take me to him now and I'll make sure—"

"It's alright Kagome-san," Hatori interrupted, shaking his head slightly, "There's only one thing you could do that would cause no one any harm and it would be to leave before anyone saw you. It's bad enough that you may be hurt, but also it's just…"

"We don't blame Akito-sama," Haru said finishing it off for Hatori, making Kagome look at them incredulously, "Look, it isn't his fault, nor it is ours." He shook his head, "Come, let's go and we could visit Yuki."

Kagome blinked. "What?" she said at the abrupt change of subject. She briefly forgot who was Yuki. "Oh, Yuki-kun," she said with a snap as she suddenly remembered. She sighed and realised they weren't going to tell more about their situation. "Fine, but after we pay attention to your wounds Hatori-san. It'd do no good if you did them yourself. Doctor or not."

-U-

Inuyasha hands tightened around the cap on his head. Where was Kagome? Sure, she said she wasn't visiting for a while, but this was important. He reared back as an attack came out of nowhere and he turned to see a human-like demon grinning like a madman his fangs showing.

They stood on the empty compound of the Higurashi shrine, the wind blowing dust around here and there. Inuyasha frowned as he leaped a distance away from the attacker. "What do you want?" he growled, though he had a pretty good idea why he was there.

The demon laughed darkly, his waist-length red hair bellowing in the wind. "Are you really that dense Hanyou." He said, making Inuyasha glare suspiciously at him. "Do you think that no demon has sensed the power radiating from you?" he smirked viciously, "Don't worry, I'm not here to fight… yet. But I do warn you, the miko will be in trouble." And with that he disappeared with Inuyasha shock still as he stared at the spot where the demon disappeared in a blink of an eye.

With a new resolve and unanswered questions, he made a run for it, holding the cap on his head, trying to find Kagome's scent in hopes that she is safe. He stopped in his tracks when he recognised some of Kagome's friends every time he had come to this era and stopped right in front of them, causing them to bump into his figure unexpectedly.

"Oh, sorry," said one of them as she dusted off invisible dust on he skirt.

"You're Kagome's friends, right?" Inuyasha said, cutting to the chase, "Do you know where she moved to?"

"Huh?" she replied with a blank look, "Yeah… she moved to Kyoto or Saitama. Why?"

But as soon as she said that, the figure in front of her and her friends was gone. She blinked. Where did the odd boy go?

Said odd boy was running as fast as he could before he realised that he didn't exactly know where Kagome was. Kagome's scent was gone by now so he couldn't follow her. Finding her through this polluted air was going to be tough… He didn't even know where this 'Kyoto' or 'Saitama' was. He cursed under his breath.

He was never going to find her at this rate. He looked around, buildings and humans were everywhere. He stopped at the park, unable to really go any further without any indication to where she might be. Suddenly everything froze and everything became blue. He looked about him, children pausing in mid-step, a dog in the air catching a Frisbee and a ball frozen in mid-bounce with kids, frozen, silent, hovering over it.

Inuyasha wondered why on Earth was he the only one moving, why was he not frozen like the rest. His questions were short lived as he heard echoing footsteps coming his way and he turned abruptly towards the sound and saw a cloaked figure, its hood covering its face.

Inuyasha jumped back away from the cloaked figure on instinct and put some distance between the two of them. He narrowed his eyes at the moving figure. "What do you want?" He demanded and although he could not very much of his face, he could tell that the figure was smirking.

"You're looking for Lady Kagome, no?" The voice said, identifying itself as a male. His voice was melodious and silky, but at the same time sounding sly.

Inuyasha glared at the person, holding the Shikon no Tama closer to himself in his pocket. "What do you want?" he growled out.

He laughed, a sound that didn't sound so evil. Inuyasha looked at the figure curiously. "Don't worry young Hanyou," he said, "I'm not after the Shikon Jewel." Suddenly his voice turned serious, "But I'm running out of time. Look for the Sohma's and I guarantee that you'll find the girl."

"What?" Inuyasha stared at the figure blankly, "What do you mean?"

The figure's smile could be seen. "Farewell Inuyasha… For now." And like that colour was brought back to life and the figure disappeared before Inuyasha could say a thing. Inuyasha looked about him and everything was back to normal as if nothing had happened. And for them, it hadn't.

-U-

Kagome sighed as she finished dressing his wounds and put some ointments on his bruises that she had with her. She had the ointments with her on force of habit due to the injuries sustained during her time in the feudal era. You could never be too careful and now she brought bandages, antidotes for poison and ointments just in case. She, being a miko and the protector of the now-should-be gone jewel, one could never be too careful.

"There all done," she said smiling up at Hatori as she stood up and patted off invisible dirt off herself.

Hatori looked at her curiously. "Why do you carry around all those ointments with you?" he asked as Kagome was packing her stuff.

She smiled and said very lightly. "Well, you never know when you need them. I carry them around just in case."

Hatori raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything. A girl can be cautious if she wanted to. "Well then," she said, "Let's go to Yuki's… Do you want to come with us Hatori-san?" Her back turned to him, as he still didn't have a shirt on from the time she finished looking over the bruises and wounds. She felt slightly embarrassed even though she's seen men's chest all the time in the feudal era, considering how much trouble Inuyasha always seemed to get into.

Hatori nodded, not that she could see. "Sure, it would do good to check up on Yuki anyway," he said putting on a shirt and a jacket as she heard a jingle of keys and turned back to Hatori and smiled at Haru.

"Okay then," she said, "School must be over now, so they have to be home." Suddenly she froze at the door, unable to move as a dark feeling came over her. Hatori and Haru looked at her curiously. She shivered unconsciously as she looked at what seemed to be a random direction. "The Shikon Jewel…" The words came out of her mouth before she could even think about it and in a rush, she ran out.

Hatori and Haru were confused, but when they saw her suddenly run and feeling there might be trouble brewing they followed her. She ran amazingly fast for a girl and both men had trouble catching up to her.

Kagome raced through the streets, her heart pounding in her ears. This wasn't right. It granted one wish and would leave. It would leave them alone. Why on Earth was it back? Why on Earth could she feel its presence?

"Kagome!" The usually composed Hatori said, but was blatantly ignored. She seemed in frenzy, panicked over something that neither Hatori nor Haru knew about. His legs were about to give out. He was still out of shape due to recent beatings from Akito and was about to give up when Kagome stopped abruptly causing both the males to almost bump into her back, but that would do no good… they'd turn into animals.

Haru opened his mouth about to say something when he looked at what she was staring at and saw a teenager looking about his age wearing the oddest clothes and shaking a poor child demanding to know… where the Sohma's lived. Haru was about to act when Kagome beat him to it.

"Inuyasha!" she said in a tone full of warnings, "Put the boy down now!"

The mystery boy, now deemed 'Inuyasha' stopped what he was doing and looked at Kagome in shock before dropping the poor kid. And then ran to Kagome surprising them all when he gave her a hug. "Thank God you're okay!" he said before he realised what he was doing and abruptly let go.

Inuyasha sighed as he saw all questioning stares, his hat still in place covering his dog-like ears. "Inuyasha," Kagome said, "Is what I sense that is here, that shouldn't be here, here?" She asked, confusing the males behind her, but Inuyasha understood.

"Yeah," he answered dejectedly, "At least you're safe. They said that they'd be after you. It's in my pocket…" he looked at the two men behind her then back at Kagome, "And who are they? Are these the Sohma's I've heard about?"

"Heard about?" Kagome repeated incredulously, "And where on Earth did you hear about them?"

Inuyasha sighed and grabbed her arm. "I need to talk to you in private. I'll tell you then, everything." He said as Kagome nodded in understanding.

She turned to Hatori and Haru. "Hey, this is my old friend I haven't seen in a while," she said while taking steps back, "I'll be talking to him for a bit, but it might be a while so I suggest you go to Shigure-kun's house before me." And with that she quickly grabbed Inuyasha's wrist and they both ran a safe distance away from the confused Sohma's.

When they were a safe distance away, Kagome stopped walking and abruptly turned to Inuyasha, arms crossed. "Explain now."

Inuyasha sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "It's a long story, so it's best that we sit down somewhere." Inuyasha said as he pulled her down to nearby benches.

Hatori, on the other hand, stared after Kagome and Inuyasha as they left and hadn't left the spot since then. Hatsuharu was standing silently next to him as Hatori stared after them and Hatori couldn't help, but feel a slight sting to his chest as she left with her friend. In reality, he didn't know why he was feeling this and this had confused him, for he had only met her once before.

"Hatori," Hatsuharu said bringing him out of his reverie as Hatori looked at him questioningly, "Are we going to wait for Kagome-san, or are we going to go to Yuki's like she said to?"

Hatori sighed lightly and looked back to where Kagome ran. "Yeah, let's go to Shigure's home," he said looking away from the spot and walked away, with Hatsuharu in tow. He took one more glance back before walking again, slightly nerved in how he, himself, was acting.

-U-

"Okay, Inuyasha," she said with arms crossed leaning back and stared at the sky, "Explain why I can sense the Shikon no Tama because really, it's annoying, it disappears and comes back when it pleases."

Inuyasha nodded silently, staring at his feet as he thought of how to start. "Yeah," he said quietly, still unsure with what to say or where to start. He sighed and took the slightly tainted pink jewel out of his pocket and Kagome's eyes widened at the sight of it. Slowly she reached for it and as soon as she touched it, it returned to its bright pinkish colour, despite herself being a demon.

"So, it's really back," she said cradling the jewel she thought she'd never see again as if it were a fragile item, and it was.

"Yeah," Inuyasha said and then looked down with a sigh, "It's weird. When we thought we could finally just live peacefully… It just had to come back."

Kagome smiled softly at him. "But you living quietly doesn't suit you," she said and sighed, "I can only imagine you making brash decisions and doing something stupid." She said smiling fondly as she remembered the memories and then something crossed her mind and she looked at Inuyasha. "The jewel didn't effect you." She stated obviously looking at his not supposed to be sane form after holding the jewel, "It didn't make you go blood thirsty."

Inuyasha nodded ignoring what she said about him being stupid. "We all think its because I had already used my wish to ask for you to live," he said, "Maybe it didn't effect me because I had already used up a full wish. And before you could ask how it isn't affecting you because you're a demon now is probably because…" he seemed to think, "You're still the protector of the jewel. You're the only miko that could really protect it and you weren't born a demon, but originally a human."

She smiled at how mature he sounded, but she bet he probably discussed this with Sango, Miroku and Kaede before he came here looking for their last hope in someone to protect the jewel. "So you're saying that the jewel isn't affecting me because it knows of my origins."

Inuyasha nodded. "It changed you after all." He said, "It must've recognised you if it changed you itself."

Kagome smiled. "You're quite knowledgeable today," then she smiled sadly, "The Shikon no Tama…" she muttered as she stared at the jewel in hand, "How… how are the other's doing?" she asked in a soft voice.

Inuyasha sighed. "They're doing okay. Shippou misses you, you know. Not only him, but everyone else too. This took us off guard, but somehow, to us it meant you'd be back faster and we could all see you again, but it proved us wrong, as you didn't seem to come. We had gotten worried and the demons aren't dead to that fact that the Shikon no Tama was back, so they sent me here to give you that jewel, because you're the only one that can mask its presence."

Kagome looked at the jewel in her hand. "Will you be going back, or are you going to stay here…?" Truth be told there was many times where she wanted to go back to the feudal era, but she dreaded returning to the Higurashi shine. She could not get the images of their dead bodies out of her mind.

Inuyasha sighed and got up. "I… don't have an answer to that yet," he said and looked at her, "But there are still some dangers that lie here. And anyway, weren't you going to meet back with your half animal friends?"

Kagome blinked and then jumped up in surprise. "Oh, crap, I forgot about them!" she exclaimed, then smiled innocently at Inuyasha, "You're coming along though."

He blinked and sighed. "I'm not entering the household though."

She smiled. "It's okay, there are a lot of tree around there anyway. You can just sit in there 'til I come out again."

He shrugged. "Fine with me, just don't stay in there for too long."

-U-

Hatori was annoyed. Very, very annoyed and he did not hide his displeasure from his face. What happened to Kagome anyway? The others, but Shigure, hadn't noticed his displeasure though. Yuki and Kyou, as usual, argued and Tohru watched with much hesitation, with Haru by Yuki's side.

"Na, Ha-san," Shigure said while the others were occupied, "What's up? You're unusually moody… well, more so than usual."

Hatori sent him an annoyed look. "I'm fine," he said, than sighed, knowing it would usually be useless to lie, "Actually, I felt uneasy leaving Kagome with the strange boy, and feeling more annoyed with myself for actually caring." He looked at Shigure and instantly regretted what he had said, for Shigure's eyes looked like they had hit gold.

"Na, na, Ha-kun?" he said with a voice that sounded illegally innocent, "Do you like Kagome?"

With that he received a large bump on the head. And as soon as he had done that, there was knocking on the door as Tohru happily went to get it. "Ah, Kagome-chan!" was heard from the door and a laugh was heard.

"Sorry about the wait," Kagome's voice rang merrily as she came closer to the room that everyone currently resided in, "An old friend of mine had found me and wanted to talk to me. After all, I hadn't seen him in a while."

"Yo." She said coming into the room and seated her next to Hatori, who in turn just looked away, "How's everyone? I'm afraid I cannot stay long though."

"How come?" Kyou said leaning back onto his hands, blatantly ignoring Haru who was clutched onto Yuki's arm.

Kagome smiled. "Inuyasha, my friend is still waiting for him. I intended to have him meet you guys, but he didn't want to come in."

"Kagome-san," Shigure said catching her attention and she noticed Hatori's back was facing her… like he wanted to ignore her (but in fact he just felt nervous sitting right next to her for some… odd reason).

"Yeah?" she said eyeing Hatori before looking at Shigure.

He grinned. "Does that mean he's waiting outside?"

She nodded. "Yep, probably on a high branch of a tree."

Silence covered the room for a while before the message sunk in and Hatori looked at her. "What?"

Yo, sorry if that was crap. I've been finding time to write all my stories in between work, school, homework and watching/drawing manga/JDramas. Lolz. Hopefully I'll finish this earlier next time. Review review!

SxT