Okay, I have gotten access to more episodes of InuYasha, so I can now see that I got a whole bunch of things wrong, chronologically. So, I will specify what has happened, and what hasn't, so as to avoid confusion.

            Warning: Spoilers through roughly episode 45 ahead

            Okay, this is sort of like the InuYasha movie, the time sequence is all messed up. Okay, for starters, Kikyo has stolen Kagome's jewel shards, and they haven't gotten any back, so Kagome can't go home. Also, they already know that InuYasha transforms when he loses Tetsusaiga, however, the Tetsusaiga has not been broken, or forged, yet. Lastly, they have not met Kagura or Kanna yet, nor has Sesshoumaru seen the full youkai InuYasha yet. Okay, I hope that clears some stuff up, so here ya go!

**

Sesshoumaru looked calmly at the scared battlefield, his face displaying no emotion whatsoever. His sensitive nose shifted rapidly through the scents of the barren, charred ground. There was InuYasha here, certainly, and the girl that he always had with him. But… the hanyou's smell was different; it wasn't the dirty blood that the hangout actually had. It was regal, like his own, or maybe that of their father, InuTaisho.

The young girl, Rin, poked around the burnt ruins a little, then ran back to the noble youkai, hiding from nothing behind him.

The aristocrat paid the girl no mind, but continued to sift through the variety of smells of the battlefield. Finally he came to the one he wanted, like finding the appropriate resume in a filing cabinet. "Hmmm." He said. "Interesting." The ancient wyrm Atma had seen fit to attack InuYasha and his party, yet let them live. And the battle had taken place recently. The scents couldn't be more than a day old.

A slight, insistent tugging at his side drew his thoughts away. He looked down to see Rin pulling on his silken garb.

"We should leave." The girl said slowly, her voice terribly sore and scratchy. The girl had obviously not spoken in a long while. "This is bad place. We shouldn't be here." 

Sesshoumaru turned to regard the girl for the fifth time that day. She looked to be about fifteen, and was just starting to come into adulthood. She was bruised all over, and had many cuts on her face. Her dirty black hair hung loosely, except for a singly unruly shank tied up in a topknot. With a dim realization, he saw that her brightly colored kimono was also torn and ripped. I shall have to get her a new one. The noble youkai thought, and began to walk out of the clearing… only to pause. Had he really just thought that?

He should not be thinking of the girl's well being. IT would just be easier to kill her and be rid of the nuisance. Yet something kept him from doing so. Some unseen power held him in its thrall. Yet no matter how he struggled, he couldn't escape it… and worse. Something inside him didn't want to.

He turned to the human girl, and motioned for her to follow, walking out of the clearing, in the opposite direction that InuYasha and the others had left just a day before. 

~~

            InuYasha looked up into the starry night sky. It had been wonderfully clear every night that the group had gotten back. He reclined in his favorite spot in the sacred tree, a wonderful flat spot where several branches met up towards the top. The beauty of the sky and moon was lost on the brooding hanyou.

            He had come to this spot a week earlier, after Kaede had started to treat the other wounded. He preferred to recover on his own.

            Kagome had awoken several times since they had arrived, but had gone back to sleep quickly- not going outside, certainly. So, there was no reason to go back yet.

            He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and turned on his side. The young miko had changed his life. His life was so uncomplicated before she had come. He was to find the Shikon Jewel, and become a full youkai. But now, it seemed almost arbitrary. He had been full youkai when the great dragon had attacked, and it hadn't done a single ounce of good. Nothing had done any good!

            In frustration, he jumped to his feet, and leapt high in the air, whipping out Tetsusaiga, and flailing it at the specters of the dragon that haunted him. "What good did it do?!" He demanded, screaming up at the waning moon. "The wind scar? My demon blood?" He fell back into his tree, collapsing to his knees. "What does my strength even matter any more?"

            He breathed a deep, inward breath, calming himself, and sheathed Tetsusaiga. This was silly! He would wait till Kagome got better, and continue their search for the shikon shards, get stronger, and then go kill that wench Atma. Then, on to Naraku.

            His plotting was interrupted as a slight familiar scent wafted into his nose. It was a nice scent- spicy and sweet at the same time, and one he knew very well.

            "Kagome…" He murmured, and dashed off towards the village.

~~

            "Come, Rin." Sesshoumaru commanded softly.

            "Yes, Sesshoumaru." A small voice said from behind the noble youkai. The young girl, Rin, dressed in a brightly colored new kimono, and with much less in the ways of scars and such, followed the aristocrat obediently. She followed him unwaveringly, with no doubt. "Where are we going?" She asked innocently, skipping cheerily behind him.

            Sesshoumaru looked at the happy girl, and for the first time in years, smiled back. It wasn't a big grin, or even a picture smile. Simply a slight upturn of the lips. "We are going home."

            "Home?" She said, curious.

            The noble once again began to stride, his face no longer betraying any emotion. "Only for a short while, then we will be leaving again. There is something I wish to know about, first."

            "What?" She asked, yet another one word question.

            "I must ask a sword smith a question." He said, but Rin was no longer listening. She ran ahead of him, chasing a butterfly.