Inuyasha tried to be patent, he really did. He even went so far as to count to ten. Yeah, Kagome had once told him counting to ten would calm him down. That, of course, was fucking ridiculous. He count count to 100,000,000 and he would still be pissed as hell.

Slap! "Pervert!"

"Waaaaa! Kagome, I'm hungry!"
"Lovely Sango, you know I meant no-"
"Don't even come close to me, monk!"

"Shippo, I'm sorry, but I don't have anymore ninja food in my bag."

"Waaaaaa! I'm so hungry, though! Waaaaa! Kagome!"

"Shippo, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to wait."

"Waaaaaaaaaaa!"

Slap! "I said don't touch me!"

"Dearest Sango, you misunderstand my intentions."

"INTENTIONS?!"

"WAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Shippo, please calm down."

"Sango, I, uh-"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAA!"

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. "ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!" He roared, turning back to the group. They all froze in various positions, staring at him. Miroku looked up at him from under Sango's foot, Sango looked up at him from underneath the Hirikotsu she held above her head, Kagome looked at him from where she was stooped over her bag, and Shippo looked up at him through his tears where he sat on Kagome's shoulder.

Kagome was the first to un-freaze and react. "Sorry, Inuysha. We must have been hard on your ears." She said, looking genuinely sorry. She reached out a hand and grabbed his own, reading into his emotions without realizing it and putting forth her own feelings of calm.
He took in a deep breath, and ignoring the now surprised stares of their other friends, nodded. "It's okay, I guess. We shoulda stopped by now anyway."

Now everyone was really staring.

Inuyasha turned his head and sniffed, happy to find that there was a small stream with fresh water not too far away. He pointed a clawed finger in the general direction. "We'll set up camp over there." He turned to the rest of the group, still frozen, and said; "You guys go and set up camp near the river up ahead.. I'll be back in a minute or two with diner."

"Wait," Miroku said, standing. "You are not going to make us keep going? The sun is still barely up."

He sent a glare at Miroku. "Don't push it, Monk."

Miroku smiled. "Well, I'm not going to complain." He said happily, putting an arm around each girl's shoulders.

Sango rolled her eyes upon contact, but as soon as Miroku put on arm on Kagome's neck the girl let out a little noise of pain and crumbled to the ground.

"Kagome!" Four worried voices said, coming around Kagome in a circle.

"Lady Kagome, are you alright?" Miroku asked, putting a hand on the base of her neck.

Kagome let out a shriek, and Inuyasha turned and let out a feral snarl in Miroku's face. The hoishi, startled, back off. As soon as his contact with Kagome ceased Inuyasha stopped growling and scooped Kagome up in his arms.

Instantly the two felt better.

Everyone was staring in distress. "Wha... what just happened?" Sango asked.

"I am truly sorry if I harmed you, Kagome. I had no idea that you were injured..." Miroku said, alarmed.

"It's okay, Miroku." Kagome said from her place in Inuyasha's arms.

Inuyasha said nothing, but Kagome could feel his own anger and guilt swirling around in the air around them. For the time being she said nothing, planning on counseling him in private later on.

"I think I'm going to take Kagome with me." Inuyasha finally said, his eyes hidden by his bangs.

Shippo looked like he was going to protest, by Sango sent him a look that told him to hold his tongue. She stepped forward, taking Kagome's bag off the ground. "Alright, Inuyasha. We'll head back and set up camp. Shippo and I will go look for fish in the stream."

He nodded, and then moved Kagome to his back. Kagome was already feeling fine once again. "See you all in a couple minutes." She said happily.

Everyone nodded. "Bye Kagome!" Shippo said, the last couple minutes already out of mind.

"Bye Shippo." She said, giving him a little wave.

Inuyasha hooked his hands under Kagome's thighs and jumped up in the air after she said goodbye to her kit. He ran for a while, in the opposite direction of their friends. He actually forgot all about what he was doing, and simply ran. Kagome didn't say anything, not even commenting when they were almost a mile and a half away from the rest of the group.

Suddenly, though, she spoke up. Rather loudly. Right in his ear.

"INUYASHA!"

"Gaaah!" He screatched to a halt, and turned to glare at her over his shoulder. "What the hell was that for, wench?!"

"Don't yell at me! I was just trying to tell you-"

"Don't yell at you?! You're the one who just screamed right in my ear!"

"Well sorry! I was only trying to say-"

"Sorry?! Sorry isn't going to make me less def now that you've-"

"Inuyasha! Just-"

"And now you're screaming again!"

"If you would just listen to me, I'm-"

"How can I not listen when you're screeching like a monkey demon?!"

"Did you just compare me to a monkey demon?"

"It was the only thing close to the scream you make."

"Well excuse me. I was trying to tell you-"

"You know what, Kagome? Maybe next time-"

"Inuyasha, just Shut UP!" She yelled again. "I'm trying to tell you that I sense a jewel shard!"

His ears perked up. "Jewel shards?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you! Two of them, up ahead."

"Well then why didn't you say so?!"

"Just go already."

With a slight growl he pushed up off of the ground and ran in the direction she had pointed. It didn't take long for the two of them to find the demon who possessed the shards. It was, ironically, a monkey demon. A ten foot tall monkey youkai who's mother might have been an ape.

Instantly Inuyasha set Kagome down behind him and pulled out the tetsiga. "Stay behind me."

She nodded, touching his hand to let him know through their link she was obeying. Knowing she was a good distance away from where the inevitable battle was to take place, Inuyasha asked her one last thing before charging head in.

"Where is the shard?"

"He had two," She answered. "One in it's forehead and the other in the tip of the tail."

He nodded, and then took a step forward to face the youkai whom had yet to take notice of the hanyou and the miko.

"Hey, ugly!" Inuyasha yelled.

The thing turned it's grotesquely large head to glare at Inuyasha.

"Time to die!" Inuyasha jumped forward, his sword held high above his head. This would be an easy battle- over in seconds. He swung down his blad to his the thing's head, but it jumped out of the way suddenly. "Nani?"

Inuyasha looked over his shoulder just in time to get a full-fledged blast of monkey scream right in the fare.

He winced, lowering his ears and stepping back a step. Yeah, Kagome had nothing on this thing.

Just as he took a step back the youkai's tail shot out, where there should have been the soft tip of it's tail there was actually several spikes, and tore right through Inuyasha's stomach.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed. She started to run to him, but he stopped her.

"Stay back!" He growled, trembling as he used his sword to help him stand. He spit blood out on the ground, and glared up at the demon that was baring it's ugly yellow fangs at him. "Bastard." He growled. He stood, and swinging his sword down in an arch released a deadly attack. "Wind scar!"

The youkai disintegrated with one final howl, leaving only two shards in his wake.

The foul beast gone, Kagome ran over to Inuyasha. "Inuyasha!" He was barely standing, pissed as hell, and in a lot of pain.

"Get the shards." He grunted.

She stopped, nodded firmly, and quickly collected the two pink fragments. She purified them and added them to the bottle around her neck, then hurried back over to where her hanyou stood.

"Inuyasha... we need to get you treated. Sango has my bag-"

"Keh, these are nothing but scratches, I'm fine."

"Lair." She snapped. "We have to find somewhere to spend the night so you can heal. I know we can't get back to the others with you in this condition."

"Feh, damn monkey. I can't believe it managed to wound me. Pathetic."

"It was pretty fast... I didn't even see it move before it was behind you."

"Keh."

"Well, come on." she pulled one of his arms up and over on to her neck, supporting some of his weight. He pulled his sword from the ground and put it back at its place by his hip, and then started walking. They walked for a good ten minutes before Inuyasha started sniffing. Suddenly he spoke. "I've been here before." He said. "There's a cave up ahead."

She nodded, picking up the pace, and trying not to show how worried about Inuyasha she was. He was soaked in blood, and she could actually see behind him through the hole in his abdomen. His face was pale, and she could tell if he didn't get to sit down soon he was going to pass out cold.

Finally they came to the cave he had spoke of, which remarkably had a small hot spring inside. Along with the spring their was a pile of dust-covered furs in a corner, and before it a small fire pit. Their were a couple bones beside that, but otherwise the place looked pretty comfortable.

"I left this stuff here back before..." Back before I was pinned to a tree.

She nodded, getting his silent message somehow. She helped him over to the pile of pelts, which she quickly dusted off. By the time she was done and had turned around she found he had already lay down on the floor.

Seeing her questioning look he said, "I don't wanna get those all bloody."

She nodded. She turned to him and pushed aside his fire rat robes, looking at his bare torso grimly. "I wish I had my medical supplies." She said.

"It's fine, I'll heal on my own."

She glared at him. "Baka, you need to be treated!" She grabbed his haori off the ground and looked at it, saw it was in fine condition except for a bit of blood, and then looked back at him. "Don't look."

"Huh?"

She threw his white under shirt over his head, and at the same time yanked her top off and put his own on herself. By the time he had the cloth off of his head she had already re-clothed herself. "You know, you could have just told me you were changing."
she shrugged and got to work ripping her uniform into shreds. Gee, I have been going through these things like crazy. The school is probably wondering how I manage to ruin my uniform so easily... in fact, why do I even wear these things here? I should start wearing clothes more suited to hiking around Feudal Japan...

She quickly cleaned Inuyasha up and bound his wounds, having become an expert at it by this point in time. When she was done she helped him over to the bed of animal pelts and then used some left over wood and flint to start a fire.

Once she had it going, she turned to Inuyasha.

She saw him picking at the makeshift bandages, and growled. Yet another bad habit she had picked up from him.

He raised an eyebrow. "Wow, I never knew you could speak Inuyoukai. Or that you could cuss."

.

Sorry, had to stop there. :) I'll probably update by tomorrow. That is... *switches to mafia voice*If you manage to persuade me. lol, just kidding. Really though, a couple reviews would be nice... pretty please?