A/N-Woo hoo! It is officially the weekend and here is the next chapter for all you patient people!

Disclaimer-I do not own the Inu-Yasha characters. I really don't. You don't have to believe me if you don't want to. I don't mind ^_^

I don't feel motivated to do individual review responses today. I just want to get this chapter up in a hurry. Oh, but I have one response I want to make:

Paul Powell: Wow! Thank you! Your review seriously just made my day. Hell, it made my week. ^_^ And thanks for putting two of my stories on your faves list!

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When Did Things Get Complicated

Chapter VIII

He sat on a fallen log in shock. Was that Kagome? Somehow, he didn't believe it could be her, but then again, he knew her scent and it was definitely her. But why? Why did she hate him? He didn't do anything as far as he knew.

Much to his shame, tears began to roll down his cheeks. He was a sixteen-year old demon. He wasn't supposed to cry, especially not over a mortal girl. But it wasn't just any mortal girl; it was Kagome. Kagome whom he had known since he was eight years old. Kagome: she had been his friend when no one else would even look at him because he was a half-breed. She had been the very first person to see just him and not scorn him because he was a hanyou.  And she was a human girl. She had tossed aside everything she had been taught and told about demons to be his friend.

He slowly made his way back towards the castle. He was so confused. He needed to talk to her but he couldn't exactly walk over to the mortal kingdom and ask to speak with her. They'd probably set the guards on him. He could only pray that she would be there in the clearing tomorrow after lessons, waiting for him.

Inu-Yasha stopped as he reached the castle gates and saw a man-a mortal man-leaving the castle.

Inu-Yasha stepped directly in his path. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I don't think I have to answer that," the man said haughtily. "Now do excuse me for I have to be getting home."

Inu-Yasha hesitated and his father called from the doors, "Inu-Yasha, it's all right. Let him pass." So Inu-Yasha reluctantly moved aside to let the man pass. He didn't like that man.

"Who was that?" Inu-Yasha asked his father after the man was out of sight.

"Just one of the lords from the mortal realm," his father answered.

"Why was he here?" Inu-Yasha asked.

"Too many questions," his father said, teasingly tapping Inu-Yasha on the nose like he was six years old. "Sesshoumaru. We'll start rallying the support of all the nobles immediately!"

"Support? Why?" Inu-Yasha asked his father.

"We expect war will be called upon us soon."

"War?" Inu-Yasha repeated.

"Yes. The king of the mortal kingdom is now dead. I saw to it myself."

Dead…Kagome's father…His own father had killed him…Kagome must have thought that he had something to do with this for some reason. But why? How could she think he had anything to do with this? Well, he didn't show up at the clearing but she must have realized he wasn't off helping his father murder hers!

The next day, he hurried off to the clearing, fervently hoping she'd be there so he could explain himself to her, but she didn't come that day nor the next day. After two weeks of coming to the clearing and waiting for her, he gave up and, after looking at the clearing once more, went home. 

Kagome's mother and everyone else, for that matter, noticed a great change in Kagome. Instead of hurrying outside after lessons and coming back humming and skipping, she rarely left the castle at all. She didn't even leave the castle to visit Sango; Sango came to the castle to visit her. She didn't skip or hum and she obediently did as she was told, always. Even the servants remarked upon this among themselves.

"Kagome-hime is so changed," one of them commented.

"Who would've thought that losing her father could affect her so?" another one of them asked.

"I didn't think even the sky falling could keep her indoors."

The truth was, Kagome didn't only lose her father. She lost her father and her very best friend in one painful blow. It felt even worse to know that while Inu-Yasha had been partially responsible for her father's death and she knew it, she also knew that it was, in part, her fault too. Her brother had always told her that she was too trusting. Did Kagome listen to him? Of course not, Kagome thought bitterly, and, in the end, he had been right. She should have listened to him. If she had…And it wasn't like they'd even gladly let her go outside if she wanted to, not with the war going on anyway.

Even though she knew it, she still couldn't believe it. She kept expecting to walk into her father's office and see him in there, talking to her brother but whenever she looked in there, it was wasn't her father sitting behind the desk; it was her brother, who took the throne when her father died. Kagome kept finding herself rushing out of the castle gates after lessons were over, skipping happily and then, remembering all that had happened, she would bow her head sadly and walk slowly back inside.

Her father, one of the only people who didn't care that she was abnormal for a princess, and Inu-Yasha, another one of those people, were gone. Now, nothing stopped the nobles from whispering about her as she passed them in the halls. Sometimes she caught the whispers and other times she could only guess what they were saying.

"She always wears such simple dresses and she is the most supercilious person I have ever had the misfortune to meet," she had heard one of the ladies whisper to another.

They all thought Kagome haughty because she didn't want to talk to them. Why anyone would ever want to waste their time talking about nonsense like sewing and fashion and marriage was beyond her. They just thought that she thought herself to be too good to talk to them. Kagome had never felt more alone.

There were times when Kagome wondered if Inu-Yasha would be in the clearing if she went there. She doubted he would be since she had not been to the clearing for so long. He must have given up waiting for her by then. Truth was, even if he did lie to her and betray, she couldn't help but miss him and wish to see him again, if even for a short time. She wouldn't even mind if he was angry with her, as long as she could see him again. Thinking these thoughts to herself, she'd walk out the gates, only to pause for a moment and then walk back inside.

"How's the war going brother?" Kagome asked one day, when visiting his study.

Shidosha looked up from a map he was studying and smiled. "Come now sister. A lady such as yourself shouldn't be worrying about a war. Let the men handle the war."

Kagome let out an unladylike snort. "No one believes me to be a lady here besides you and mother. Everyone else thinks I must have been switched at birth or I'm some kind of fox demon in disguise, and not a very good disguise at that."

"Well, I don't think it's going well for either side. Both are suffering great losses and supplies are running low. It's funny…It always seems like the demons know exactly where our troops are and where we'll attack next…It seems they're always one step ahead of us," Shidosha said, examining the map. Then he muttered. "The oddest thing…Lord Zennin's troops aren't moving very quickly. Something must be wrong…They must be running low on supplies and weapons…I must remember to check up on that…"

Then there came a knock at the door and a man entered, bowing to Shidosha. "May I come in your majesty?"

"Ahh, general, of course," Shidosha said, standing up to greet him. "Kagome, would you excuse us please?"

Kagome reluctantly stood and left after curtsying.

"Kagome, you don't know that he even had anything to do with it," Sango sensibly told Kagome as Kagome looked out the window, watching her brother riding out with the army. Villagers were standing on the side of the road, bidding the warriors good luck in battle and a safe return but they all knew that many would not return, causing mothers, wives, and children to grieve.

They were sitting in Kagome's bedchambers in the castle-well, Kagome standing and Sango sitting anyway.

"How else could the demons have known exactly where to go to avoid most of the guards? I only told you and him and you certainly didn't tell."

"Anyone could have seen you Kagome," Sango pointed out.

"Yes, mortals could have seen me but how would the demons know about it? No one would talk to demons."

"You talked to a half demon," Sango again pointed out. "And besides, a demon could have captured the mortal and tortured him until he told them all of the secrets to the palace," Sango said. Kagome smiled slightly. Her friend had always been one for dramatics.

Kagome sighed and looked out the window and out over the forest.

"Kagome and a hanyou sittin' in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes lov-" Sango began to chant quietly, but cut off when Kagome threw a pillow at her head.

"You haven't used that chant since we were eight years old," Kagome said, shaking her head as if to say 'When will you grow up?'

"I thought it was about time to bring it back," Sango said. "And when you were eight you threw something at me too but I think it was a fish, not a pillow…"

Kagome sighed again.

"Hah! I knew it!" Sango triumphantly exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Kagome. "You do love him! Admit it, you do!"

"I never said that!" Kagome protested.

"Yeah, but if you didn't, you would have argued with me over that 'sittin' in a tree' thing, but you didn't! You sighed, clearly admitting defeat!" Sango declared.

"He deceived me…He tricked me…" Kagome said, her voice emotionless. "I can't love him."

Then Sango tactfully changed the subject. "I wish this war were over. I don't like living every day, thinking that any time, while I'm working in the garden or helping my mother clean the house, men might come to our house, only to bear the news that my father has died…" she said, tears springing to her eyes.

"I know. I feel the same way about my brother. War is not the way to sort out our differences…"

"But there are no differences, remember? Years ago, I followed you into the forest and thought that he was attacking you and you proved to me that there were no differences," Sango said, remembering that day well. That was the day her whole way of thinking changed. 

"All demons are wicked and I hate them," Kagome said vehemently.

Sango gasped. "You can't mean that. You said so yourself: some are good; others are bad."

"I do mean it. The only reason I ever said that because he proved that to me but I was young and naïve and childish, but now I take it all back," Kagome said, avoiding saying his name-he being Inu-Yasha of course.

Sango sighed in resignation. Her friend was too stubborn to convince otherwise. She'd just have to realize it herself then. Sango said nothing more, leaving her friend to her thoughts.

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A/N-There! I updated! Hah! I'm so proud. I have been updating at least once a week since I started this fic. I think that's pretty good ^_^. Anywho, review! Wow, that rhymes! Oh yeah, everyone! Look out for my new Inu-Yasha fic soon! I think I'll post the first chapter on Sunday maybe. It's about an American bounty hunter named Inuyasha who gets an assignment to find and bring down Kouga, one of the leaders of the American underworld. To do that, he needs to find Kouga first so he tries to find out from someone who'd know: Kagome Higurashi, Kouga's girlfriend. Sounds interesting huh? Well, read it when I post it. I'm very proud of it ^_^ Now review!