A/N: First, I'd like to apologize to anyone who asked me questions (not spoiler type questions, but clarification questions) who might not have gotten a reply. I do try to respond to those questions which won't be addressed in the story itself, but I had a problem with my hotmail account. Hopefully it's all better now.

On the brighter side, most of you are asking precisely the questions I hoped you would be. Don't worry, answers to questions like, Why does Sesshomaru seem so contradictory? What is Kikyo up to? and Will Kagome get to jump Inuyasha in the shower? will all be answered eventually. Also, for those of you who have been waiting so patiently for Nakamura's blood. . . Soon, people.

Thanks for all the reviews.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Not even a little piece of Inuyasha. . .

Synthetic Emotions

"What the hell did you think you were doing?!" Inuyasha shouted, louder than he'd intended, but he didn't pay attention to his volume. Fear, anger and relief were pulling together in a volatile alchemy inside him. "You could have been killed? Are you out of your mind?"

Kagome looked down, her eyes hiding behind her bangs, but he could smell the sharp, briny scent of tears, and he saw her fists clench in her lap as she pulled away from him. That smell almost made him apologize, but his heart, clockwork or no, had almost stopped when he thought Kagome was going to take the blow instead of him.

Then she looked up, face flushed red, dark brown eyes narrow with fury despite the fact she was crying freely. "I didn't want you to get hurt!" she snapped back at him. "Do you think I could just 'watch' while some strange youkai tore you to pieces?"

Any thought of ending the argument vanished from Inuyasha's mind. "You would have died," he pointed out.

"But I didn't!" She stood, and the hanyou stood after her. There was no way he was going to lose the advantage of being able to look down at her.

"You had not way of knowing Sesshomaru was going to pull that attack! Dumb luck isn't an excuse. What if it happens again? Hope your fucking fairy godmother shows up to save you?" He shook his head forcefully.

"I don't think I want to do that again if you're going to yell at me for saving you!" the girl screamed, putting her hands on her hips and leaning forward aggressively.

"Good! I don't want you doing anything like that again! That's the point."

"Why are you yelling at me? I was only worried about you."

"But I'm supposed to protect you, not the other way around," Inuyasha gritted out, no longer shouting. "And I'm yelling because you scared me shitless, you idiot."

"And I'm not supposed to be scared? I should just sit on the sidelines like a good little girl and watch? What kind of person do you think I am?" Kagome asked shrilly. "You can't expect me not to worry about you! And you can't tell me what to do!"

"I can when you start doing stupid, dangerous things like that. That bastard might have killed you, Kagome. Don't you understand that?" Inuyasha was shaking now, the force of so many conflicting emotions too much to contain. They hadn't been this strong before Kikyo turned him off. He'd always felt, but not like this. This might break him.

"So it's okay for you to risk your life, but I can't do the same?" Kagome asked him archly.

"Yes!"

Kagome's knuckles turned white, and she opened her mouth to retort, then apparently thought better off it, deliberately unclenching her balled fists and biting her lip. It was wasn't the distracted way she sometimes chewed her lower lip, either. Inuyasha thought she might almost be drawing blood the way her teeth were clamping down on the pink skin.

Then, without warning, she turned away from him, walked over to where Shippo waited with wide, frightened eyes, and started marching off in the direction of her apartment, leaving Inuyasha behind without another word.

*~*~*

Inside her head, Kagome was fuming. How dare he tell her that? Not that she should have expected someone as arrogant and insensitive as Inuyasha to understand that she couldn't just watch. How could she have forgotten what he could be like? Even this morning, the first thing he had done after fighting that youkai was reprimand her for not running away.

And because she hadn't his shoulder had been damaged, she remembered with a twinge of guilt.

'Oh gods, was that only this morning?'

So much had happened in one day, and so much seemed to have changed in her relationship with the hanyou. He had started to open up to her, and she had found out about the gross miscommunication which she had caused with the word 'fake.' Inuyasha had been in not one, but two fights. He had yelled at her, kissed her without any real explanation, and then he had yelled at her again.

The fight with Sesshomaru hadn't been at all like the one with the industrial youkai. He hadn't even seemed interested in Kagome. The white haired youkai's attention had been entirely for Inuyasha.

'Wait a second, how did Inuyasha know that other youkai's name?' Kagome asked herself. She couldn't remember him ever saying it. Which meant he already knew the other youkai.

"Don't worry, Kagome," Shippo said comfortingly. The girl looked down at the little fox-child in her arms and nearly blushed. She'd forgotten she was carrying him. Shippo continued, "He's just a moron. You should get rid of him."

"I don't want to get rid of him," Kagome told him, sighing. She knew it was the truth. She hadn't even thought of it until Shippo mentioned it. She was mad at Inuyasha, but that didn't mean she was going to kick him out. "I just wish. . ."

"Wish what?" Shippo prompted when she didn't finished her sentence.

"I guess I wish I knew what went on in his head," she finished. That wasn't what she had been about to say. She didn't even know what she'd meant to say, really. Maybe that she wished he wouldn't act like he was so much less important than she was?

Shippo made a face. "Why would you want to understand that? I doubt there's too much up there."

The girls shook her head. "I'll talk to him later, after he calms down a bit more."

The fox youkai gave her a confused look, then shrugged.

*~*~*

In a small, almost forgotten corner of Naraku's complex, a strange youkai bent over what looked like a mirror cradled in her lap. Her reflection stared back at her, blank faced and colorless, with eyes that were nothing but empty orbs.

Kanna was nothing. Or rather, she was almost nothing. A ghost in a machine, her makers had called her, the result of a failed attempt to advance youkai personality engines. She had been deemed nonsentient and scrapped, until Naraku found her and imposed his will on her. Once she had been lent a purpose, her abilities became indispensable.

Kanna could tap into databases, hack networks, monitor Internet activities all without leaving a trace of herself behind. No other youkai could do that, even those made specifically for it. The best they could do was cover their tracks, but as their consciousnesses moved through those infinite, abstract masses of data, they left trails, like moles digging through the dirt. They all left holes behind them.

All but Kanna. Kanna passed through it all without upsetting a single thing.

She had become invaluable to Naraku, and, in the odd way she registered everything, she knew her value.

For years her master had set her to watch any and everything she could find concerning Inutaiyoukai. So it was, sitting and staring blankly at her own lifeless face, that Kanna noticed someone burrowing avidly though Inutaiyoukai's databases and public announcements, scouring through the files Kanna sat sentinel over.

The disturbance was not great, and obviously made by a youkai meant to search for information, but it hit again and again at subjects Naraku was very protective of.

Without batting an eyelash, Kanna contacted her master and showed him what she'd found.

'Good, Kanna,' she almost heard Naraku's voice through their connection. 'Follow it. Find out what it is and where it comes from.'

Kanna nodded her head and did what she did best. She watched, unnoticed.

*~*~*

Inuyasha had said the wrong thing, and he knew it. The problem was, he didn't have a clue what it had been. He went over the argument again in his head, and couldn't find a point where his reasoning had been flawed.

"So it's okay for you to risk your life, but I can't do the same?" Kagome had asked him, and in his memory he heard the hurt in her voice that he hadn't paid attention to when he was angry before.

"Yes!" he had told her, which was true. After a fashion. Damn it, isn't that the way it was supposed to be?

So maybe he had an idea where he'd made a mistake, but he still didn't see what was wrong with it aside from the fact it had upset Kagome.

"And I'm yelling because you scared me shitless, you idiot." He winced inwardly. That could have been worded better, but that didn't make it less true. When Kagome had thrown herself in front of Sesshomaru's whip, she had terrified him. He had never, ever been scared like that before.

And then he had told her that she didn't have the right to be scared to.

But why should she be? He was a hanyou. He was the one supposed to get hurt if someone had to be. It was one of the things he was made for. She was human. That made her more important. And she was Kagome, which made her even more important than just being human. It made her. . . her. She was not supposed to get hurt for him. Every part of him was sure of that.

He watched her back as she opened the door to her apartment. She hadn't said a word to him since she ended the argument. Enough time for the cut on his chin to close. Soon there wouldn't even be a scar, but she still wasn't talking to him.

Yes, he had definitely said the wrong thing, and he was beginning to think he knew what that had been, but why still eluded him. Was he that important to her?

Shippo leapt out of Kagome's arms and began running around the apartment, making it perfectly clear just how happy he was to be home. Inuyasha saw Kagome smile at the little youkai's display, which had the effect of cheering him up a slightly at the same time it made him jealous. He wasn't the one who had made her smile like that.

Perhaps he should say he was sorry. He still didn't understand what he had said that was so terribly wrong, but he was sorry that he had made her cry. He hadn't meant to do that.

If she had stayed out of the way like she should have, he wouldn't have yelled at her. He would have found a way to beat Sesshomaru.

"Inuyasha," Kagome said, interrupting his thoughts. "Listen, I'm sorry I scared you. I didn't want to do that, but you were going to get hurt, and I just did what came naturally. I didn't think about the consequences."

"But you're not sorry you did it?" Inuyasha asked wryly.

"No, I'm not."

The hanyou turned toward her, looking into her deep brown eyes. How could she fix things that easily?

"Will you promise not to do it again?"

Kagome shook her head negative. "But I'll try not to."

"I guess that's fair," he told her, sighing. "I'll try not to make you cry."

She did smile for him at that, then surprised him by stepping forward and hugging him. After a moment, he put his arms around her shoulders.

"Thank you Inuyasha," she whispered into his chest so he almost couldn't hear her. "But I'd rather you didn't scare me again either."

*~*~*

A/N: eh. . . maybe not my best. Oh well. That's it for this chapter. Hope everyone liked it!

Until next time.