Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha and co.

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Chapter 16: Pain

Kagome pointed to the door in front of them. It looked newly washed and sparkling. "Open that door and you'll be outside in a shrine. That's all I know."

The nodded and Sango pulled the door open cautiously, Hiraikutsu in the ready position in her hand.

Miroku stood behind her and Inuyasha with Kagome stood to cover the back.

They looked out and almost screamed in pain. The noise of the outside was loud and very ear splitting compared to that of their time.

Kagome climbed off Inuyasha and limped out of the building with help from the wall. She looked up and narrowed her eyes at the tree in front of her.

"The Goshinboku is here. We made it." She muttered and slid down the wall in exhaustion.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha caught her as he put her on his back again and started out. "We gotta find someone who can heal her." He said as he picked up her kimono and walked off toward the house in the distance.

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"Geez, how's I get stuck on guard duty for these idiots?" Tastunai asked herself as she sat in a tree and twirled her katana in her hand. She was heavily covered in weapons; a hidden bone blade on her arm, armor all over, two katanas, her iron fan, daggers behind her ears and inside her arm armor, a heavy red bamboo umbrella hanging from her belt, and an assortment of small tweezers across her chest in a holder.

"The youkai is coming!" the soldiers around her yelled.

"Here's my cue." She muttered as she pulled the fan off her back and jumped in front of all the soldiers.

"A human? What do you want? Step aside." The youkai said.

"Shut up." She said shortly. She jumped out of the way of it's spitting mouth filled with venom and twirled around, opening her fan with one hand. She flung it outward and a burst of water flew around her as she pointed with her fan at the youkai. The water hit the youkai and froze instantly. She then took the bamboo umbrella off her belt and, one-handed mind you, she stabbed it on the top of the head and before it burst into pieces, killing her, she jumped to the side and landed on one knee.

The soldiers looked out with wide eyes. "She's the best taijiya I've ever met."

They all nodded in agree.

Tastunai panted lightly as she slapped her fan on her leg and put it back on her back. The bamboo umbrella went to her belt again and she bowed. "I'll take my reward now."

The man who had been so easily haggled with came and gave her a ag of rice, two bowls, and three bags of hot buns.

"Thank you." she said as she started walking. She whistled as her neko youkai, Suijiro, jumped on her shoulder and followed her. "Now to find Tsukai. Naraku-sama will be furious when he finds out I wasn't by her the whole time." She winked at the cat as she walked into the forest, on her way toward her sister's hiding place.

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"Excuse me?!" Sango called through the house.

"Who's there?" an old voice called back as an older man stepped out to see them.

He gasped and looked like he was about to faint.

"Inuyasha, your ears, he's frightened." Kagome muttered.

"That's his problem." Inuyasha said back as he stepped over the frightened man into another room.

The woman washing the dishes turned with a smile and when she looked she almost dropped her dishes. "Who are you people?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"We need you to help her." Sango said as she stepped up with Hiraikutsu still in her hand.

The woman backed away.

"Sango, your weapon." Miroku muttered to her.

Inuyasha set Kagome down in a chair and Kagome turned to the woman. "Listen, we came through the well. We wanted to know if you would know anything about Moshashi."

The woman turned happily to the most normal girl of the party. "He was…my son." She said slowly.

"Your son? So he died in our time without you getting to see him again?" Kagome said as she thought.

"C'mon, we gotta get you healed." Inuyasha said as he looked down at the tired girl.

"Is she injured?" the woman asked.

"No, just exhausted." Sango said.

"We need to rebandgage her wounds though, see, the blood's seeping through." Miroku said as he pulled back her white kimono to show the almost all red bandage.

"Of my!" the woman helped Kagome out of the chair as Kagome pulled her arms through the sleeves of her kimono.

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"This is boring…Tsukai shouldn't be cursing people at such a crucial time like this one." Tastunai muttered as she pet her cat and looked through the crack in the wall at her sister.

One of Naraku's bees came and swarm around her head.

She swatted at it then sighed. "Fine, I'll go with you." She whispered as she followed the bee out of the forest. Three youkai's were waiting. Tastunai looked at the quizzically then climbed on one of their backs. They then soared off toward Naraku's castle.

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"Um…can you help he take these weapon's off?" the woman asked.

"Uh…yes." Inuyasha said as he looked down at the unconscious Kagome. He took off the katana at her side and the bow over her shoulder as the woman pulled back her sleeve and started taking off the bandages.

Kagome winced in pain as the woman started applying some weird looking cream to her wounds. "How did she get the se?"

"Um…I'm to--." Sango started but Kagome interrupted her.

"A youkai attack." Was all she said.

Sango blinked at the girl. "Thanks." She whispered.

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That night they stayed at the ladies house. The older man kept his distance. The woman was very nice to all of them when she learned they were harmless.

Inuyasha stayed by Kagome the whole night, watching her face twist in pain then sadness, back to pain, then to sadness.

I hate seeing Kagome sad, he thought, she must be in pain.

Kagome rolled over on her side and fell off the side of the couch. She didn't wake up at all.

Inuyasha blinked at the girl then picked her up and placed her back on the couch.

"Mmmh…Inu…yasha." She muttered as he watched a tear fall to her cheek.

He lightly gasped as he watched more tears fall to her cheek.

"She's crying…for me?" he whispered. He reached over and looked over at her face. He wiped away her tears and looked seriously at her face.

Suddenly her hands reached up and grabbed two pieces of hair from if head and pulled him down.

"Owwowowowow." He whispered as he pulled harder so he was basically lying on top of her. He looked up to see her smiling again as more tears fell to her cheeks.

He raised an eyebrow. "Smiling and crying. That's new." He muttered.

When her grip on his hair slackened he looked at her face, then almost timidly he planted a light kiss on her cheek.

Then, reluctantly, he fell asleep on top of her.

Zzzzzzz…zzzzzz

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There we go! That was a fun chapter to write too! I can't wait till I write the next one.