A/N-Uhh…I've nothing to say…Oh except hoorah for spring break! Woo hoo! A week of doing nothing but writing and drawing Inuyasha and Naruto and Sasuke and Amaya and Miaka and woo hoo! Fun fun…

Disclaimer: Don't own none of it…Talk about grammatically correct, ne?

¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤

When Did Things Get Complicated?

Chapter XVI

"You did WHAT?!" Kagome shouted, appalled as they sat at the breakfast table the next morning.

"Sister, do not take that tone with me," her brother, Shidosha said sternly. "And it doesn't concern you." Then he turned to Naraku. "We didn't find it?"

Naraku shook his head. "I'm afraid not your highness."

"You…burned a village?!" Kagome shouted. "An entire village?! Are you insane?!"

"It was necessary to…" Shidosha said, trailing off uncertainly. He didn't realize Kagome already knew about the jewel and was trying to keep it secret apparently. "…find something very dear to me that I'm missing."

"You think the villagers took it?!" Kagome cried.

"No, not all of them obviously. But the one who did won't come forward and return it so we are trying to take it back by-"

"By killing them?! How do you expect them to return it if they're DEAD?! Brother, have you lost your mind?" Kagome asked. She couldn't believe it. He burnt a village to find a jewel? Such a small worthless thing?

"Princess," Naraku said, with a hint of a warning in his voice. "His highness has not lost his mind and if you know you're place, you will not talk to him like that."

"But really, sir, a village?" Hachimitsu asked gently, as was her way. She was always polite and kind and Kagome wished she would explode every once in awhile just to prove that Kagome wasn't the only strange one.

"It was necessary to retrieve something very valuable to your brother, hime," Naraku answered polity, quite unlike the tone he used with Kagome.

"More valuable than the lives of a village? There is nothing more valuable than people's lives!" Kagome insisted.

"Come Lord Naraku," Shidosha said, standing up. "We must find it."

Naraku obediently stood and followed Shidosha.

"Oh, so after burning a village, you still didn't find what you were looking for? Well, what was the point of that then?" Kagome shouted after them. Kagome huffed when she heard the dining hall door shut behind Naraku and Shidosha. Kagome patted the fold of her kimono where she had hid the jewel as if to make sure it was still there.

"What's happened to our brother Kagome?" Hachimitsu asked.

"Brother," Kagome spat, "is gone and never coming back." She felt sorry for speaking to her sister like that. After all, she had done nothing, but Kagome was too angry with her brother at the moment. She stood and left, determined to find out just what was so "valuable" about the jewel. If she knew that, she might find a way to undue all of the messes her brother had been making.

Kagome paced about her room, trying to figure out a way to find out about the jewel. She figured that the best way would be to ask someone but who? Not Shidosha and certainly not Inu-Yasha's brother. She couldn't ask her mother or her father. She would ask her grandparents if they were still alive, but they had died and few years ago. Kagome snapped her fingers. Why hadn't she thought of this before? Her mother's sister! Kaede! Kagome had always loved Kaede. She was wise and knew a lot about medicinal herbs. When she was old enough, Kaede had left the life of a noble woman and had decided to become a village priestess. Kagome had often visited her but she hadn't found the time to recently. Of course Kaede would know! She was Kikyo's sister after all and if this jewel was some sort of heirloom, Kaede would know about it.

Kagome grabbed her sword, her bow and her quiver of arrows after changing into riding breeches and a shirt, and hurried down the hall. She stopped as a thought hit her and she grabbed a huge backpack and filled it with bandages, food, blankets, and some old clothes. She lugged her extremely large bag out of the castle and down to the stables where she packed up her saddlebags, and placed them on her horse. She didn't bother telling her brother she was leaving. He wouldn't care anyway.

The guards opened the gates as she approached them. They were used to her leaving the castle by now and asked no questions, but they did glance at her saddlebags and her weapons that were tied to the top of the bags.

Kagome stopped in the village and asked Sango to tell Inu-Yasha that Kagome wouldn't be able to come to the clearing that night. Sango readily agreed but asked her why she wouldn't be able to make it.

"I need to visit my aunt," Kagome answered. "Tell him that I'm going to ask her about it. He'll know what you're talking about. I can't tell you more than that but I promise I'll tell you everything when this is all over."

Sango nodded. "I'll tell him."

On the way to the village where Kaede lived, Kagome spotted the village that had been burned. She rode to it and saw many people trying to rebuild their houses. Others were badly injured and starving. Dismounting, she opened her saddlebags. She gave the food to the hungry villagers, making sure that the children were fed first. Then she tended to the wounded villagers. Some were badly burned so she went into the forest, searching for herbs to cool and heal the burns. After hours of tending to the wounded and helping them rebuild some of their houses, she felt she had done all she could and gave them the blankets and the clothes.

As she was leaving, a small girl child came and tugged on Kagome's breeches. "Thank you Kagome-hime," she said, handing Kagome a wildflower she had picked from the forest.

"Yes, thank you princess. You have given us new hope," the village head said, leaning upon a stick for support. He had been one of the ones who had been badly burned.

"I'm sorry for my brother's actions. I had no idea he was going to do this," Kagome told them apologetically, though she didn't know why she should stick up for her idiot of a brother.

"We know you are doing all you possibly can and we thank you," the village head answered.

Then she left, heading for her aunt's village. Kagome looked up at the sky. She guessed it to be late afternoon, a few hours before dinnertime. If she hurried, she decided, she could reach Kaede's village at nightfall.

¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤§¤¤

A/N-Will Kagome find out the mystery behind the jewel? Will Kaede know its secrets? Find out next time in…*Dun dun dun!* When Did Things Get Complicated! I would make such a good TV announcer person guy thing. ^_^