A/N-HAHA! This chapter is longer! Yay! Now, I won't be able to update again until next weekend or maybe on Wednesday. Tuesday is that large group competition where we have to be at school at 5:20 since we play at 8:00 in Ellensburg which is like, a two hour drive. I have a concertino part at that competition and I really need to practice. I also have a festival on Saturday where I'm playing a duet and I've probably looked at the music maybe four times, maybe even five. My English teacher also thinks I have no life outside the English classroom so he's made sure that he piled the homework on as much as possible without me dying from stress.

A review response-Alright, I'd just like to say that contrary to popular belief, I do have a life outside of writing fanfiction. I have a lot of other stuff to do that are much more important than writing fanfiction like my homework for school. My grades are much more important right now and orchestra competitions and studying for math tests are more important too. My math grade is dropping so if I fail this test I'm going to be in huge trouble. Right now, those are my first priorities so I apologize that I don't update regularly but I have a lot to do and not enough time to do it in. I just don't appreciate someone saying they hate me just because I don't update regularly. I try. I really do. Sorry if this response sounded angry. I know you were kidding, or at least I hope you were kidding, and I am angry but at my teachers, not you ^_^ That was just my mad-at-my-teachers rant. I'm just really stressed out right now and I'm loopee and delirious on medicine because I'm really sick and I feel horrible.

LOL, I just saw the episode where Inu-Yasha sneezes and says, "Damn, someone's talking shit about me." I love that episode. It's hilarious. I've been sneezing all day. People must be talking lots of shit about me. I feel so loved…^_^

Disclaimer-I do not own the Inu-Yasha characters. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi and if you didn't know that already…Well then your brain needs new batteries.

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When Did Things Get Complicated?

Chapter VII

You know how they say, "all good things must come to an end?" Well, this good thing came to an end not long before Kagome turned fifteen. Up until this time, they had kept their promise. Their friendship was one of those kinds that kept growing and growing and growing until it doesn't seem like it can grow any more, but still manages to grow anyway. They could tell each other everything and anything. They had one of those things where you didn't have to see the other person to know that they were there. You didn't even have to know how you knew, you just did. Kagome knew everything there was to know about Inu-Yasha (except for his "time of the month") and even everything there wasn't to know. He didn't have to tell her for her to know what he was thinking and what he was feeling. And Inu-Yasha, likewise, knew everything there was to know about Kagome. Right before this good thing came to an end, Kagome was beginning to wonder if maybe her feelings for Inu-Yasha were developing into something more than friendship. She kept asking herself if she maybe felt something more and soon, she decided that she was. She couldn't say that it was love because she had never been in it before so she wouldn't know what it was, but she knew that she was definitely feeling something more. She had even resolved to tell him sometime soon.

Even Sango noticed that most times, Kagome's mind was in the forest. When she and Kagome would be talking in her room or something, Kagome would sometimes walk over to the window to look out at the forest. Sango knew that Inu-Yasha was constantly on Kagome's mind and she was happy for her friend.

But shortly before she turned fifteen, she walked into the clearing and Inu-Yasha wasn't there. She waited as long as she could but she soon had to head back to the castle, seeing as it was getting dark. As soon as she stepped out of the forest, she knew something was wrong. She could just tell that something wasn't right. She could tell that that something was something very bad too. When she came to the gates of the castle, she saw many villagers standing in front of the gates, talking in panicked and frightened voices and her father's guards were hurrying about everywhere, shouting orders and running into the forest.

"What's going on? What happened?" Kagome shouted as she tried to make her way through the crowd. She was beginning to feel afraid. "What's everyone doing?" She pushed through the crowd and then ran into the castle, the guards stopping her before she could enter.

"What are you doing? I'm Princess Kagome! Why are you stopping me? This is my home!" she demanded.

"How are we to know you are not one of those fox demons in disguise?" one of the guards asked.

"Fox demon?!" Kagome cried. "Oh honestly! I'm Kagome! Mama! What's going on? Tell them who I am!" she shouted when she saw her mother walk out of the doors. Then she stopped shouting and trying to push past the guards when she really looked at her. Her mother's face was pale and her eyes were red from crying. Her hair was a mess, something she never usually let happen, and somehow she looked years older and frailer than she had been when Kagome had seen her just that morning.

"Mama? What happened?" Kagome asked, growing cold inside and fearing her answer.

Kikyo motioned for the guards to let Kagome pass. Kagome hurried over to her mother.

"Mama? What happened?" It felt like Kagome had asked that a dozen times already.

"Kagome!" her mother said, crying again and pulling her into an embrace. "It was horrible…Climbed over the wall…They were in so quickly…They were gone just as quickly…Before we could do anything…We couldn't stop them…We tried…"

"Mama?" Kagome asked, pulling back and gently shaking her by the shoulders. "Mama? What are you talking about? Who?" Kagome asked frantically. Already a feeling of dread was coming over her. Something horrible had happened while she was gone and she just wanted to know what it was but no one would tell her!

"Your father…demons…" her mother whispered.

"No…" Kagome whispered, shaking her head slowly, and then louder, "No!"

Kagome ran through the double doors, pushing past some guards that tried to block her and then dashed up some stairs and down the hall, coming to her father's study. He'd be in there. He was always in there. For as long as Kagome could remember, whenever she needed to talk to her father, she had always been able to find him in there. He wasn't gone. She'd open the door and he'd be at his desk, writing or talking to a lord. He'd smile as she entered and then he would greet her warmly, just as he always had.

She opened the door and looked inside. He wasn't in there. He wasn't at the desk writing of talking to a lord. He didn't smile and greet her. He wasn't there.

Then she ran up another set of stairs, still searching for her father, but her insides froze when she saw a crowd of lords and ladies gathered outside of a door. They were gathered in the doorway of the room where all of the royals' bodies were kept to be prepared for the funeral ceremonies.

Kagome tried to shove through the lords and ladies to make sure it was really her father and not someone else who was dead, but they stopped her and wouldn't let her in the room. She knew why too. They didn't want to see her father's body, mangled by the claws of demons. But no, her father wasn't in that room because he wasn't dead. He was alive and they just had to wrong person. The person in that room, lying lifeless upon the bed wasn't her father. It was someone else, someone else's father, not hers because hers couldn't die.

Her mother came and took her away from the hall outside the room.

"What happened?" Kagome asked finally after many moments of silence in which Kagome could not find her voice.

"The demons came…They climbed over the wall and entered through the kitchens," her mother said, trembling slightly.

"Hachimitsu? Shidosha?" Kagome asked, almost dreading the answer.

"They're fine. Hachimitsu was in the other end of the castle in the nursery and Shidosha went to the East village earlier today and still hasn't returned yet," her mother said.

"They did nothing else? Took nothing?" Kagome asked.

"Nothing else. I fear that means they'll be back though."

"How'd they get into the kitchens?" Kagome asked. They could very easily walk through the gates and they couldn't scale the wall without being seen either. Most demons could jump really high or fly, but they couldn't do that either for someone would surely have seen them.

"They climbed over the wall towards the back of the castle. Then they went through the kitchens. It seemed like they knew exactly where to go…" her mother murmured.

"They couldn't know exactly where to go!" Kagome cried. "That's impossible!"

Kagome was the only one who climbed over the wall using the ivy and no one knew that she did that! And no one knew where the kitchens were either unless you lived in the castle. She had certainly never told anyone! Why would she ha…Kagome gasped. She remembered one of her and Inu-Yasha's very first meetings…She had told him that she had snuck out of the castle…She had told him about the ivy…She had told him about the kitchens and the guards and the front gates!

She paled and started trembling. Her father…He was gone…And it was her fault…She killed him…Kagome turned and ran back out of the castle, running straight into the forest.

Her footsteps pounded and her heart was beating loudly. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. She had killed him…No matter what anyone said, she did it…And Inu-Yasha…She couldn't believe it. She trusted him…She told him everything! She thought that they were really friends…Her mother and everyone else had been right then. All demons were evil and wicked. They were the deceivers, not humans. She had thought that Inu-Yasha was different but he was just like all of the other nasty, disgusting demons.

She was sobbing uncontrollably by the time she broke out of the forest and into the clearing. She looked around as best she could through teary eyes. She couldn't see him but she could tell he was there.

"I HATE YOU INU-YASHA!" Kagome shouted as loud as she could, her voice racked with sobs. "I don't care if I never see you again! In fact, I never ever want to see you or any other demon for as long as I live! I HATE DEMONS!" With one last choked sob, she turned and ran as fast as she could back towards home, tripping often over roots and branches since her vision was blurred by tears.

 Inu-Yasha hurried out of the castle and into the forest. He couldn't believe his father had scheduled extra lessons for that day. Inu-Yasha didn't even know why he did that. He never did that before. He sighed. He hoped Kagome wouldn't be too angry with him for coming so late. He doubted if she was even still there because she probably got tired of waiting and went home. He wouldn't blame her since he was very, very late after all.
            Kagome…He liked being with her. She was so much better than all of the twittering, giggling noble's daughters his father presented to him. His father was still convinced he could find someone for Inu-Yasha to marry. All of the nobles' daughters reminded him of a crowd of chickens…Or maybe a bunch of mice…Well, Kagome would be able to come up with something perfect to compare them to. He'd ask her.

Inu-Yasha sighed. Why did his father decide to try to get him married instead of Sesshoumaru? Sesshoumaru was older and he'd be inheriting the throne someday. His father was also convinced that when Inu-Yasha left the castle everyday, he was meeting a lover. Maybe introducing him to the nobles' daughters was a way for him to try and figure out who the girl was. Inu-Yasha had blushed deep scarlet whenever his father brought up the subject, only giving his father more reason to believe he was meeting some noble's daughter in the forest…Well, in a way, he was meeting some nobles' daughter, but she wasn't a demon…And she wasn't his lover either. They were just best friends, although Inu-Yasha sometimes found himself wondering if he didn't think of her as more than a best friend, but he didn't ask himself that often, since, to her, he would always be just a friend. If she didn't think about it, he figured he shouldn't either. She wouldn't ever love a half demon anyway.

But she was so different than any other girl he had ever met before. She had this way to make you think about things you had never thought about before. She made every moment interesting and never took one day for granted. She was never dull or boring. She surprised him every day even though he knew everything about her that was possible to ever know.

Why weren't any of the demon nobles' daughters like her? If even one of them were like her, he'd marry her gladly. He remembered talking to the ladies before and he would have fallen asleep on his feet if it hadn't been for their high pitched squeals and giggles, waking him up but also bringing a ringing pain to his sensitive ears. He couldn't marry Kagome though, as much as he wanted to (though he was never quite able to bring himself to come out and admit it). His father would never allow it. He'd probably be furious that Inu-Yasha even ever considered the idea. His brother would laugh and taunt him for life.

Well, he certainly wasn't going to marry one of the noble ladies that his father wanted him to marry or his ears would be constantly ringing and he'd die of sheer boredom.

Inu-Yasha's thoughts came to a halt as he neared the clearing and slowed down. Then he heard Kagome run into the clearing, sobbing. He was just about to dash into the clearing to find out what was wrong when she began to shout.

"I HATE YOU INU-YASHA!" Kagome shouted as loud as she could, her voice racked with sobs. "I don't care if I never see you again! In fact, I never ever want to see you or any other demon for as long as I live! I HATE DEMONS!"

Inu-Yasha recoiled, hurt. Why was she saying this? He walked tentatively towards the clearing and, upon entering it, saw Kagome hurrying back the way she came, not even looking back…Not even once…

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A/N- No worries people! This is far from the end! Some peeks into the future of this fic: Naraku plays a big part soon and the Shikon no Tama makes many appearances in here also. I'm not going to tell you how though. Alright, that chapter was longer and I'm very proud. Now, review!