I don't own Inuyasha.

Chapter 10

Kagome walked down the road. It was getting close to the end of the second day and she was approaching her family's village. She glanced out of the corner of her eye to see a flash of white and red. Inuyasha had been following her ever since he caught up with her last night.

Flashback

"You're going where?" Inuyasha cried.

"I'm going home. To see my family." Kagome explained.

Inuyasha glanced sideways and placed his hands in the opposite sleeves. He turned his head slightly and watched as Kagome set her bow and quiver down and laid down.

"You going to sleep?" Inuyasha asked, "You know I could steal the Jewel while you're asleep and just take off."

Kagome's eyes were closed and she sighed out, "No you couldn't. The barrier I've set up keeps beings out but it also keeps stuff in. You could take the Jewel but you wouldn't be able to leave."

Inuyasha growled angrily. Damn it! He thought to himself. He looked over to see that Kagome still had her eyes closed and was attempting to go to sleep.

"Why do you want to go home anyway?" Inuyasha asked, giving in to his curiosity.

"That's none of your business."

Though Inuyasha bugged Kagome to tell him she never said another word about it. Finally she sat up obviously giving up on getting to sleep.

"Listen, Inuyasha," Kagome began, "can we call a truce for the three days that I'm visiting my family?"

"Why?"

"Because," Kagome said while gathering her patience, "I'll be fighting demons while there. I know that. But to not have you bother me about the Jewel would really help me out."

"What if you're just trying to lure me into a false sense of security?" Inuyasha accused.

"If that's how you feel you could leave." Kagome challenged.

"No way!" Inuyasha snapped.

He watched as Kagome laid down with her back to him. Inuyasha watched her for a couple of minutes then yelled at her, "Fine! We'll have a truce. But as soon as you leave your home village I'll try and take the Jewel!"

End

So far Inuyasha had kept his word. He'd followed her but he hadn't tried to take or demand the Jewel yet. Kagome came to a hill that overlooked her family's village. When she reached the top she was slightly surprised.

On the far outskirts of the village were a bunch of carts decorated in bright, cheerful colours. It was a traveling market. Kagome smiled. She'd always loved the markets. There were so many interesting things to see and discover. She would have to go with her friends one of the days she was going to be here.

Kagome glanced over her shoulder, looking for the familiar red and white and didn't see anything. What? Where was Inuyasha? Kagome looked around quickly. He was nowhere in sight. Kagome shrugged to herself. Maybe he'd gone back to Kaede's village. It would be preferable if he had. But to Kagome's surprise she found herself disappointed that Inuyasha was gone.

What? Kagome thought while mentally shaking herself. Why would I be disappointed that Inuyasha isn't here? That's ridiculous. But despite her mind's attempt to ease the disappointment Kagome still felt a little sad about Inuyasha's departure.

Kagome strode forward into the village she grew up in. She pushed her thoughts about Inuyasha to the back of her mind and focused, instead, on seeing her family. As she entered the village many people called out greetings of, "Hello, Lady Priestess!" and "Welcome to our humble village, Priestess!" Kagome smiled and inclined her head for each comment.

"Kagome!" a familiar voice called out.

Kagome turned and saw the familiar form of her mother. Kagome smiled and felt tears in her eyes. It hit her all at once. These next couple of days would be the last time she would ever see her mother, grandfather and little brother.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Kagome greeted her mother, "Hello, Mom. I've come to visit you and everyone else."

OOO

Inuyasha hopped from tree to tree observing the village from the height. He'd taken off as soon as Kagome had been able to see the village. What was the point of going in with her? Or following her? The villagers would see him and attack him. He sighed. Same story, different village.

Inuyasha hadn't realized it but he'd come to a clearing with a view to the village. He could see the entire village. It was a lot bigger than the village Kagome had come from. Out of the corner of his eye he caught some movement. Inuyasha braced himself then noticed that it was only a couple of kids. They wouldn't notice him in the tree so he relaxed and decided to watch them.

"Wait up!" one of the boys cried, "I can't keep up!"

The pack of children stopped and waited until the stragglers had caught up.

"We should be going back," a second boy noted, "our parents will want us to come home before some demon attacks us or something."

"You're such a scaredy-cat, Sota!" a third boy laughed, "We haven't had a demon attack here in about a year. The demons have no reason to attack us."

"Demons are unpredictable," the one identified as Sota stated, "my sister says to always be on guard. If there aren't any demons then some bandits might attack the village."

"Don't be such a downer, Sota." one of the girls said calmly, "Just because bad stuff happens in this world doesn't mean we have to take it so seriously all the time."

The children all gave cries of agreement. Sota shrugged sheepishly.

"Sorry, everyone," he apologized, "but you all know what happened to my dad. And now my sister is following after him. I'm just more aware of the bad stuff that happens."

"It's fine, Sota," the calm girl said while patting Sota on his shoulder, "we all understand."

"We have time for one more game!" the third boy called out, "Lets have some fun before we have to go in."

Sota sighed and nodded, "Okay, Mako. You win."

As the children played tag, Inuyasha watched. He wondered what the kid's – Sota was his name? – story was. He was a lot more serious than the other kids. Something made him that way.

Suddenly, Inuyasha's triangular, dog-ears twitched. He could hear something coming. He sniffed and caught the whiff of a demon. It's been lured in by the Jewel! Inuyasha thought desperately. He glanced down at the kids once more. They hadn't noticed anything yet. But the demon was close and the kids were in the way. The demon wouldn't hesitate to kill them.

Inuyasha took a deep breath and, cupping his hands around his mouth, bellowed "A demon's coming! Get out of here!"

The children gave cries of surprise and fear. They looked around trying to find the source of the voice and the location of the on-coming demon.

"Get back to the village!" Sota cried taking on the role as leader, "Hurry! Get the village men they can take care of it!"

The children listened and turned and ran toward the village. Sota made sure everyone was in front of him before he took off after them. Suddenly he gave a cry and tumbled forward onto his stomach. The others stopped and looked behind them.

"Keep going!" Sota shouted, while struggling to get to his feet, "I'll catch up!"

There was a rumble as the demon was now close enough to see the village. It was an ogre demon. It let out a laugh when it saw Sota in the clearing, trying to get away.

"Puny human," the ogre snarled, "where is the Shikon Jewel?"

Sota shaking slightly and stuttering answered, "I-I-I don't k-k-know what y-y-you're talking a-a-about!" He tried to be brave as he said this and cursed himself when his voice shook.

"Don't lie, puny human," the ogre stated, "I can sense it even now. Where is it?"

Sota, scared now that the ogre had advanced and was standing over him, shook his head wordlessly.

"If you can't tell me then you're useless to me."

The ogre raised his fist as he said this and prepared to bring it down on Sota's skull. Sota stumbled backwards in an attempt to get away. He ended up tripping over his own feet and fell on his behind. Staring up at the ogre demon Sota felt tears in his eyes. He was scared. Was he going to die like this?

As those thoughts entered his mind the ogre brought his fist down towards Sota's head.

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