Disclaimer and warning: I don't own anything from this story but the plotline. Inuyasha and Naruto characters belong to other people, not me. I write for the fun of it and if you don't like my work just remember that I'm not making you read this. Please keep flames to yourself. Compliments are welcome. Criticism is a little pointless because I'm not going to go back and edit anything in this.

Please enjoy the fruits of my labour.


Chapter 9

Babysitting

Kagome cuddled little Nishiko to her chest as she meandered through the now familiar streets that led from her apartment building to the Yamanaka flower shop. Many people, mostly women and girls, oohed and ahed over the newborn child, asking if it was hers. She had to admit that Nishiko was not hers, much as she wanted her to be.

"Then whose is she?" asked one inquisitive girl who had been walking with her mother.

"She belongs to some very good friends of mine. They had to go out of the village so they asked if I could look after her while they were gone," Kagome explained.

"Why'd they have to go? Are they ninjas? Did they have a mission?"

"They're not ninjas but they must have something very important to take care of or else they wouldn't have left little Nishiko with me," Kagome explained patiently.

"You don't know why they left?" the little girl frowned.

"They didn't tell me but I know that they'll come back," she smiled brightly and excused herself. The mother apologized for keeping her but Kagome just brushed it off. She really didn't mind at all.

Nishiko was sleeping again. It did not surprise Kagome. Newborn children rarely did anything more than eat and sleep.

A couple more turns and one more street and Kagome found herself climbing the few steps that led to the flower shop. A bell rang as she pushed open the door and she called out a greeting when she saw that Ino was working.

"Hey, Ino-chan," she smiled brightly, "No missions today?"

"None today, Kagome-chan." The kunoichi grinned, "That can't be your kid, even though the hair looks so much like Kakashi-san's," she teased. Kagome blushed.

"No, no. Nishiko belongs to some good friends of mine. They had to go out of the village for some reason and they asked me if I could baby-sit. But isn't she darling?" she tilted the little inuyoukai pup so that Ino could see her face. Ino cooed, her face lighting up.

"She's adorable!" she reached out to brush the tips of her fingers over the feathery silver fuzz that was growing on the baby's head, "but what is with the tattoos? And her ears are pointed--" Ino looked up at Kagome, confused.

"She's an inuyoukai child," Kagome whispered fondly, startling Ino. "But her parents, as I've said, are very good friends of mine. I trust them with my life and the lives of my family."

"If you say so," Ino said slowly, "But do the tattoos mean anything?

"They're not tattoos, they're birthmarks," the miko grinned now, pleased at being able to display her knowledge of the higher class of youkai, "They just mean that she takes after her father and when she gets older she'll be able to create and use a really nasty corrosive poison. So I guess you could call them her birthright. Sesshoumaru, her father, is the Taiyoukai – that's a ruling youkai – that protects and rules over these lands. He's a poison user and an awesome swordsman. His mate is a psychic, which is really rare and I don't know if any of their kids inherited that from her," she trailed off, suddenly thoughtful.

"How did you get to be friends with youkai?" Ino breathed, eyes wide.

Kagome smiled sadly, "It's a long story but I guess the gist of it is there was something I had to put back together but in order to do that me, along with a couple other people, one of whom was Sesshoumaru's half-brother, had to fight against an evil hanyou – that's a half human youkai. Sesshoumaru's half-brother was also a hanyou, just so you know, and the two of them really didn't get along. But, long story short, we ended up teaming up. after the bad guy was killed I became friends with Sesshoumaru," Kagome shrugged, "He's really a great guy once you get past his ice-cold, sadistic I'm-gonna-kill-you-with-a-glare-alone attitude,"

"Sounds like a keeper," Ino smiled wryly, "Tell me about the 'good guy' part,"

Kagome laughed quietly, grinning wide enough to split her face wide open, "He adopted a little human girl who had been orphaned by bandits and then killed by wolves. He said it was only because he wanted to see if his father's sword would really work and bring back the dead but honestly, I talked to the guy who made the sword and he said that the sword would only work if the wielder cared about the person that needed to be revived. Proves he's a softie,"

"Oi," Ino held he head, "it's too much. A youkai adopting a human girl?"

"Doesn't happen often," Kagome admitted, shifting Nishiko to her other arm. It was strange how something so small could weigh so much. "Then again, it's the same for the other way around. I adopted a little kitsune boy way back when,"

"You did? What's his name?"

"Shippou-kun. He's all grown up now and has a very successful business that he runs under a human alias. He's even in town, or he was. I have a feeling he left with Sesshoumaru," she sighed. "They didn't tell me what they were up to but I have a feeling that it's nothing good. At least, not for the people on the receiving end,"

Ino looked worried, "They're not going to… attack any Villages, are they?" she asked slowly. Kagome made a face.

"No way. Sesshoumaru guards the peace in his lands jealously. The only reason why Kyuubi was able to attack was because Sesshoumaru was out visiting another Taiyoukai, the Lady of the Northern Lands, I think," she said firmly, "Sesshoumaru may not love the fact that there are so many humans in the world but he's grown past hating us. It's taken him a while but he's figured out the balance between youkai and humans and now that he has he protects it."

"Balance?"

Kagome smiled and commandeered a stool that was hidden behind the counter, "Yup. Look at it this way: youkai are stronger than humans, so much so that normal humans can't even really scratch them. Miko and houshi, people like me and Lee-kun, can take down a youkai as easily as we can flick a finger, if either (a) we've been trained or, (b) barring that, we are in a life or death situation. But, miko and houshi are unusually weak against other humans. Now most of the time that's not a problem since other humans tend to make sure we stay okay since we're practically the only chance they have against youkai,"

"Why are you so weak against other humans?" Ino asked as she trimmed the stems of some roses that were standing in a bucket of water.

"Because most of our life and training goes into our holy powers. Most houshi and miko I have come across don't know much martial arts and when they do fight it is with a weapon, like my bow. Miroku-sama, a houshi I knew, fought with his shakujo but many use prayer beads and sutras. Lee-kun is the only houshi I know that was trained as a regular fighter before he was trained as a priest," she laughed a little and poked Nishiko's nose, earning her a grimace, "He's going to be quite the asset to this Village if he is meant to stay,"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well," she took a breath, "no matter what Lee does or had already planned, he will eventually either become a wanderer or find a temple. It's just the way we are,"

"Why?"

Kagome considered the timeless question carefully, watching as Ino trimmed the roses and moved on to other flowers Kagome was less familiar with. "I honestly don't know," she admitted at last.

"Huh," Ino shrugged, "Strange, isn't it?"

"Not really, if you think about it. If you wander the you can get to the problem before it gets to be too big to handle and if you stay at a shrine people know where to find you," Kagome reasoned.

Ino nodded, "That makes sense," she agreed.

"Of course it does. That's why we do it that way. What's the point in living a certain way if it makes no sense?"

"Point taken,"

"Where's Choji?"

"On a mission. He should be back by the end of the day. What about you? What happened to your job at the library?"

"Got fired. They said it was because I was missing for a week without any word," the miko sighed feeling no little bit dejected over the lose of her one source of earned income. Cheques from Shippou did not count. But now that she found out that Takemoto Hatuharu was Shippou she felt free to accept his support. Shameless, she knew. She also didn't care.

"That's not fair," Ino protested on her friend's behalf.

Kagome shrugged fluidly, "I'm not worrying about it just yet. Shippou-kun's decided to take care of me for now and I have enough saved up so that I can get by without too much trouble,"

"How'd you manage to save up that much? I thought you were just getting by," the blonde kunoichi frowned, confused. Kagome had been working at the library and even though they paid a decent, not wonderful but decent, wage it was not enough to be able to put enough aside to tide you over for even a month if you had only been working for the short time that Kagome had. So either Kagome had been living on less than Ino had thought or she had some other source of income.

"Shippou-kun has been slipping me cheques for the past couple of weeks," Kagome explained, confirming the latter conclusion, "I couldn't figure out who they were from until I woke up in the hospital and there he was. Hatake-san said that he'd been keeping an eye on me since I met up with Sesshoumaru-sama weeks ago," she smiled slightly, her eyes crinkling. "When I asked him about it Shippou-kun said that it was his turn to look out for me,"

"Sounds like a sweetie,"

"He always was,"

"Ino dear," Ino's mother called from upstairs where they lived, "Lunch is ready,"

"Coming mom," Ino called back, inadvertently startling Nishiko awake. The day-old baby wailed her protests at the top of her lungs, making quite the noise for someone so tiny. Ino apologized profusely at her slip up. Kagome hefted the child to her shoulder and patted her on the back, trying to lull her into a calmer state.

"I'm so sorry about that! I didn't mean to wake her up!"

"Don't worry. Feed me lunch and I'll forgive you," Kagome bargained with a good-humored grin.

"Mom would love to play with Nishiko-chan," Ino agreed. Kagome shook her head, following Ino up the stairs after she had turned the Open sign to read Closed.

"Not a good idea. Inuyoukai are very protective of their children. Sesshoumaru-sama would not be happy to come home and find out that I'd let a complete stranger handle his daughter," she said firmly.

"Toss that idea out the window," Ino shrugged, "Oh well. Hey mom, Kagome's here too,"

"Ah!" Ino's mother came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish towel, "Kagome-san, how are you… who's child… that's not Kakashi's is it?"

Kagome sighed and shook her head, "Why is everyone asking if she's Kakashi's?"

"Because the whole Village knows he's sweet on you, that's why. Then suddenly you start toting around the cutest little silver-haired girl in all of creation," Ino said matter-of-factly, slipping into the kitchen, "What are we supposed to think?"

"I'm babysitting Nishiko-chan for a friend of mine, Yamanaka-san," Kagome explained, ignoring Ino.

Ino's mother blushed and stammered and apology for her misconception. Kagome sighed. It seemed Ino was telling nothing but the truth. That would explain all the long looks she had gotten from some of the older women on the streets.

"Besides," Kagome continued, following Ino into the kitchen, "I haven't even known Hatake-san long enough to have his child," she said, her face turning a hundred fun shades of pink as she blushed.

"Ooo!" Ino teased playfully, "Kagome's blushing! Kagome likes Kakashi! I knew it!"

"Ino," her mother chided, trying to stifle a smile, "Manners,"

"But mom! You have no idea how big a breakthrough this is! She's not denying it!"

"It's times like this I was a kuromiko just so I could curse you," Kagome sighed, "Nothing big. Maybe I'd make all your hair all out or something,"

"Oh you're evil," Ino laughed.

"Nah," Kagome laughed, tickling Nishiko's ears, "I'm not allowed to be evil. It's against my job description," Nishiko giggled at the assault on her sensitive ears. She babbled something nonsensical and waved her hands, trying to catch Kagome's fingers.

"What do you mean?" Ino asked.

Kagome shrugged and changed the subject, "So, are you and Choji-san planning on having children?"

Ino blushed and her mother grinned, setting plates on the table. "Why would you ask?"

"Why not? You're married to the guy aren't you? It's the logical next step," Besides, Kagome thought to herself, Kakashi already let it slip that Shippou said you're pregnant! But of course, that was none of her business so Kagome said nothing to even hint.

"Well, I guess eventually…" Ino stammered.

"Oh? Why not now?" Kagome pressed, "If you're so gung-ho about me have Hatake-san's child then why not have one of your own?"

"But… you're a civilian!"

"Bad answer," Ino's mother laughed.

"I'm not a civilian," Kagome corrected. She had allowed Nishiko to capture his finger and was now watching in amusement as the child started chewing on it, "I'm a miko. The only loyalty we have is to the protection of the balance between the youkai and human races. Other people may think that they can command us but they really can't,"

"Why's that?" Ino's mother beat Ino to the question.

"Would you trust a miko or houshi who was taking orders from someone and not doing everything they could to protect people?" Kagome asked in return, "I know I sure wouldn't,"

"I don't think I would either," Mrs. Yamanaka agreed, "I hadn't thought of that,"

"Not many people do," Kagome shrugged and stuck her tongue out at Nishiko, "It's one of those things that a miko's gotta know about though. Kinda the opposite of a shinobi that way, right? You can't really trust a strange shinobi on a job who's not working under orders. At least, not usually,"

"That's true enough,"

The three women lapsed into a comfortable silence as they started in on the meal. Kagome almost moaned from sheer pleasure as she tackled the home cooked meal. Even though it was nothing much more fancy than stir-fried rice with some pickled vegetables it tasted like heaven and brought back many pleasant memories of her own home.

"This is wonderful," she said at last, "Thank you so much,"

"You're welcome," Mrs. Yamanaka smiled, reminding Kagome greatly of Ino. She could definitely see where Ino had gotten that crafty-looking grin. Idily she wondered just how long Sesshoumaru, Lady Taisho and Sesshoumaru were going to be and whether or not Kakashi had been able to convince them to allow him to follow.


AN: Mikos 101. sorry there's no action in this chapter. I was in a really passive mood writing this one. Chapter 9/17