Disclaimer-I do not own the Inuyasha characters. Do I have to keep putting these? You all know I don't own them. These are so annoying -_-;;;; And I've been really good about remembering to put them all the time too! So can't I get a break or something? *Creepy lawyers shake their heads* Damn…

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When Did Things Get Complicated?

Chapter XV

"Kagome, you've barely touched your food," Hachimitsu told her.

Kagome jumped and shook her head slightly, dropping her chopsticks. "W-what? Oh…I'm not very hungry." She returned to watching Naraku's every move out of the corner of her eye.

The family, what was left of it at any rate, was seated around the dining table with Naraku. Kagome insisted upon never taking her eyes off Naraku. Whether he noticed or not, she didn't know. As far as Kagome knew, she was being very inconspicuous about it.

"Princess, did I drop soup on my shirt or something? You seem intent upon watching me eat," Lord Naraku commented good-naturedly.

Kagome sighed inwardly. So much for being furtive about it… That plan was sort of out the window now. Kagome scowled into her soup. She didn't buy his act for one second. He may have had everyone else fooled, but she had him all figured out. The traitor…

She forced a smile upon her face. "No, lord, but I've noticed you seem to be tense this evening," she said kindly. She narrowed her eyes and said teasingly, "You wouldn't be hiding anything, now would you Lord Naraku?"

He glanced at her briefly, sending cold shivers done her spine. There was something about him that set her nerves on edge. He smiled kindly. "I can hide nothing from one as intelligent as you princess," he said respectively.

"Lord Naraku, your son is growing up to be a fine young man I hear," Shidosha commented pointedly.

Kagome rolled her eyes slightly, making sure her brother didn't notice.

"Why yes he is," Naraku answered politely.

Kagome concentrated on the vegetables floating around in her soup. They suddenly seemed very interesting. So what if his son's a 'fine young man?' No matter how fine he gets, he's not Inu-Yasha and he never will be either.

"The demons, are they good fighters?" Kagome asked conversationally. Maybe he would prove to be suspiciously knowledgeable about demons. Her brother would have to get suspicious then. He wasn't stupid even if he had been being a very good example of stupidity thus far.

"They are very quick and are very hard to kill. Most times, you only manage to wound the demons severely but even that won't do. You have to kill them or they'll eventually recover. They have a great sense of smell and hearing so an ambush is out of the question," Naraku explained.

"What kinds of weapons do they prefer?" Kagome asked.

"Interested in demons, are we?" Naraku asked, looking pointedly at her, something unreadable flashing through his eyes. Did no one notice these things except her?

"Well, I believe it would be useful to be knowledgeable in an area that concerns us all," Kagome said, smiling, though it was cold.

"I don't think the demons concern you too much," Naraku said, his smile frozen on his face.

"I think the demons concern everyone. Some," Kagome replied, emphasizing the word 'some,' "more than others. I believe it is important to know about them, as they will eventually concern us all more and more. I thought you, sir, were the perfect person to ask. You would know about the demons, wouldn't you?"

If Shidosha or Hachimitsu noticed the hostility, hidden beneath the polite remarks, they said nothing. They just listened interestedly to Kagome and Naraku as if they spoke of the weather.

"All of us know something or another of the demons, princess," he answered, speaking the word 'princess' through clenched teeth. 

"Some of us more than others as I've already said," Kagome replied, smiling. "Have you ever met a demon?"

Naraku was silent for a moment as his eyes gazed piercingly at her and then answered, "No, I can't say that I have."

Kagome angrily stomped through the forest. Naraku was lying. He had met demons and she knew it. He was a traitor, working with the demons. It had something to do with the Shikon no Tama. She found Inu-Yasha standing in the middle of the clearing. When she entered it, he walked over and placed what looked like a blood red glass ball in her hand.

She glanced up at him questioningly.

"That's the Shikon no Tama. My brother had it. The idiot left it in his office. He didn't even guard it. He probably didn't expect anyone to even know about it and it would make some people suspicious if there were guards in his office," Inu-Yasha explained to her.

She grinned. "You took it?" So that was why he wasn't more angry and wasn't willing to do anything earlier. He had already been planning something.

Inu-Yasha shrugged, smiling. "From what I've heard, it rightfully belongs to your kingdom anyway."

"This is-" Kagome began happily but gasped as the jewel glowed, sending out white light that got brighter and brighter. Then it started to dull again but when the light finally died, the jewel wasn't blood red anymore. It was clear.

"What was that?" Inu-Yasha asked, taken aback.

"I don't know…One minute it was blood red and the next…" Kagome said, her eyes on the jewel. "So what does it do?"

Inu-Yasha shrugged. "I still don't know. I didn't want to ask my brother or he'd get suspicious."

"Well, I can't ask my brother. He would never tell me," Kagome said, scowling, the jewel still in her outstretched hands. "If my mother were still here, I could ask her but…"

"I have to go now. I should be back before my brother realizes it's gone or he might figure out that I took it," Inu-Yasha said.

Kagome nodded. "Thank you." She kissed him and then he left, hurrying back to the demon realm. Kagome fervently hoped his brother didn't notice that both the jewel and Inu-Yasha were gone before Inu-Yasha got back. Then Kagome looked down at the jewel. How was she supposed to hide this? If it was as powerful and as dangerous as her parents had said, wouldn't someone be able to sense it? Kagome sighed and decided that she'd just have to take her chances with that. She couldn't entrust it to someone else's care, not even Sango's. It wasn't that she didn't trust Sango, it was just that she would be in danger if Kagome gave it to her to hide. She couldn't do that so she slipped it into a fold of her kimono and headed home.

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A/N-*Sighs* I've still got nothing to say…I'm still pissed about my chapters being deleted off my computer…And I don't even remember all I wrote. *Sighs again* I'm not going to do individual review responses this time because I really don't feel like it. I've caught a cold and I don't feel so good. I'll bet I caught it when I was running around in the hail. It was really fun though…