Author's Note:
I am really sorry for the delay... At first I had managed to lead myself into a wall (yes, writer's block strikes back!), then I couldn't get online, and I still have my college exams, which means I cannot work on this story as much as I want! After an awful week, with no Internet what so ever to top that, I figured how I could go on with the story. I want to apologise for being late. It is January the 23rd now that I began to write this chapter, and I hope you will read this soon. I am looking forward to posting this and hope you understand. At the end of this chapter you will find some notes. ^_^

Chapter 16
A life of teachings and the teachings of life...

A small breeze touched the heated flesh of the monk's face. He had been trying to find some shadow for so long, yet he had just had to be in the middle of a large grass covered area, only a few bushes scattered all over it.

"Buddha was lucky enough to find enlightenment under a tree... I am all bathed in light and without a tree!"

Miroku had left the village two days ago. Remembering the dark clouds that loomed over it he felt regret for leaving his friends back. Both for what they might have felt and this present torture of sweltering heat. A curse escaped the houshi's lips, scaring a couple of sparrows away. Looking at them he could feel nothing but hurt.

'Even they can be together... Stop this, fool, you can not help yourself in this way!' And so he once again began walking, biting his lip until it bled, his pace synchronised with the rythmic, to-and-fro motion of his staff.

A single drop streaked down his cheek, leaving its own glistening path on the monk's face; amongst many others...

"Why, oh why, should that stupid monk leave now? We don't have all the time in the world to find out what that thing was!"

Kaede winced as she recalled Inuyasha's old, foul mood that seemed to be surfacing once more. "Control thy temper, Inuyasha-sama... Thou should hafth thought that Miroku-sama cannot be that far away! He had left no longer than two days ago." Finishing her words, she run the left sleeve of her hokama over her brow; it really was hot!

Inuyasha calmed down a little. Suddenly he knelt, whispering to her. "I know, but we have to find him soon. I really didn't like what happened back then... He could be in danger, you know." As he spoke his fear out to her, Kaede noticed he was honestly worried.

Kagome had just caught up to them, just having cast a sad glance behind her. "Poor Sango... She is so down she can't even catch up." Looking over at Inuyasha, she spoke once more. "She hasn't even thought of asking of Kirara to transform!"

The hanyou sighed loudly. Shippo run back to them, jumping on Inuyasha's shoulder in one swift, fluid motion. "Why don't the three of us go find him? We can do this a lot faster on our own!" Shippo looked expectantly at his figure, Inuyasha's eyes closed for a moment as he contemplated the young youkai's suggestion.

The red-clad man he has made his foster father finally spoke. The stern look he gave him made Shippo realise Inuyasha had reached a conclusion. "I agree we should go on by ourselves. But you must stay behind with Sango. She should have more than Kirara to protect her, and I must go with Kagome."

Inuyasha smiled at the startled expression the kid he had gotten to care so much for had. "You 've grown, Shippo." Suddenly he raised his eyes to the sky. "Do you think I always was the fierce man I now am? Were they always calling me Shirosenshi? Far from it..." At these words he lowered his head, sad at the memories of the mockery of men and youkai alike. "Isn't it such a great irony, human abhorrence for hanyou? And youkai pay humans no heed, yet they despise hanyou even more... I felt lonely all the years after my parents died. I became arrogant and proud, two of the few things that helped me survive."

Kagome was looking at the two for some time. Hearing him say all of this to Shippo, she came nearer and knelt, hugging him softly, yet firmly. Inuyasha looked down at her sweet, beautiful form at his left and smiled as he turned to face Shippo, his left arm wrapping around Kagome's shoulders. "Now, I have no reason to be arrogant or whatever. You too, Shippo, have grown up, even if it was in a very different way from the one I did. You can take care not only of yourself now, but of Sango as well, helping her fight anything off. If anything too strong for the two of you and Kirara comes up, call out for us."

"All right!" Rushing off Inuyasha's shoulder, he stood before the couple. "Please hurry... We all know none of the two can really stand being apart. Not very well, that is." Pouting, he said: "You know what I mean, ne? I don't have to describe it." Kaede, who stood silent all the time, chose to speak up then. "Go now... He can't have gone too far. You will find him soon, but I suggest we make Sango wait behind, while you take care of the houshi's condition, ne?"

The young miko nodded her agreement at Kaede's words. "We'll do that." Her husband took her on his back, instictively and empathically knowing that should he hold her in his arms he would make Sango even more depressed. "Off we go!"

Miroku had his back against a tree at last, its cool shadow reviving his almost heat striken body. His face had a solemn expression. And it would seem a lot more solemn if you could even catch a glimpse of the debate that took place in his heart.

Inhaling deeply, he meditated harder, trying to shield anything out of his intented trail of thought out of his mind. 'Desire leads to pain. And pain is what holds us in our present state of karma.' Frustrated at what all of this led to, he huffed, bowing his head in defeat and finally opening his eyes. 'But I want to be with her; I long for the sight of her more than... than anything!'

"So there you are!" Before he had even raised his head he was slammed against the tree he had just been leaning against. "Nani? Inuyasha?! Kagome-sama? What are you doing here?"

Kagome jumped to the ground. "Taking care of the two of you..." Miroku didn't have a chance to answer as Inuyasha glared at him, giving him a piece of his mind almost in an instant. "Wrong move, Miroku; wrong move..."

"But you have to understand! I follow my ideals and Buddha's teachings. Desire can only bring us all pain should it have no basis. What would I..."

Inuyasha shouted at him for his foolishness. "She loves you, damn it! Don't you understand?! She adores you! And you make the same mistake for which all of you, especially you, blamed me: hurting the one we love and loves us back!"

Kagome hussed him, wanting him to control his temper. When she was finished she looked into the eyes of her friend. "You say it is only needless desire that you try to avoid. Tell me, though, have you ever thought this might be no desire but a need the two of you share?" Kagome raised her brow, challenging Miroku to take a look of the situation from her point of view.

The houshi was lost. A few moments ago he would be thinking that he was a fool to love someone he thought would not return his love, scolding himself for being so weak. Now he was told how much that same woman loved him and felt like smacking himself upside the head; literally.

Instead, he exhaled deeply, then grabbed Kagome's two hands and brought his forehead down on them in one hasty bow. Repeating the same with Inuyasha, he looked at he two and bowed in front of them once more. "Dõmo arigato gosaimasu, Shirosenshi-sama." Lifting himself off the ground, picking up his bo at the same time, he asked them: "Will you take me back to her? If you don't mind, I would also like to speak with her alone. Is there any way we could accomplish this?"

Moisture had covered his eyes once again.

A contented one...

Ouch. That was short, was it not? Oh well, this time it won't take me that long to update.

If you want to, I will try posting a sketch every so often. I will be giving you a URL that you can enter in your address bar or click on it, should FanFiction.Net allow a connection tag on my HTML files to work. But only if you want to, so you should say so in an email or a review.

Considering that some users have asked of me to email them whenever I update, I would like to apologise to these people for not doing so earlier. If any of you are still interested, I will do so from now on if you provide me with an email address. I would appreciate it if you didn't just provide me with your profile; it tends to be quite a fuss, putting all the addresses together.

Last thing: it has been told that you are really popular only if receive both good and bad criticism. I realise that some of you would disagree with how or what I write. That's fine by me, but I don't understand: why the anonymity? I cannot do anything against you and don't really care that much to do so; telling me what's wrong with my writing is only good! Except if I do have a good reason to be writing something one way or another. I do not want to make people login before they can review, so please write at least a nick name. Signing as "you don't need to know" or stuff only degrades your opinion. I believe you should do the same with every story you review, not only mine.