A/N: *slumps down, exhausted* Sorry about the wait, everyone. I was working on my other joint project story and neglected to update my poor Inuyasha fic -_-;; Anyway, this chapter would've been the conclusion of the two-part story except that when I went to upload this, it was 15 pages long @_@ So yep, I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to break "Jeopardy in the Sengoku Jidai" into not two, but three parts. Which means that the conclusion of this mini-saga will come next chapter…*ducks frying pans and tomatoes* But I promise to be good and update within a week. Until then, Merry Christmas and God Bless!

Jeopardy in the Sengoku Jidai (Part II)

(As told by Kagome)

The day was coming to an end as I strode casually through the forest, scanning for the hanyou. He was here somewhere, I knew. As I stepped through the fallen leaves and twigs, I made sure to make as much noise as possible. Soon enough, Inuyasha suddenly appeared and blocked my path to his study area.

"What're you doing here?" he asked, folding his arms together and appearing to be calm. I noticed one nervous backward flick of his golden eyes toward the place where the notes were probably stashed. I could sense his extreme discomfort.

"I was just checking up on you of course," I said sweetly. "I decided that the rules don't really matter. Since you got to see how I was doing, can't I check up on your progress?"

He shuffled nervously. "Well, I'm not stopping you, am I?" he said. He probably would've been more convincing if he had actually moved out of the way, but as it was, we were left staring at each other in the middle of the path. There was an awkward silence, at least on his behalf. Finally, I smiled innocently and shrugged. "Yeah, well, I guess I'd better go now. I wouldn't want to waste any more of my time anyhow. Good luck."

And with that I turned away and began to leave. Several fresh pages of notes from my textbook slipped from under my arm. I pretended not to notice and kept walking. After a few paces through the dense thicket, I glanced back. Inuyasha had disappeared, and so had the notes that would've fallen to the ground. I grinned evilly. By the time he figured out my plot, it would be too late.

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The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, and night found all of us gathered around the fire for dinner. Miroku-sama had gone off to a village not far away earlier but he hadn't returned with anything to eat. I stared glumly down at my cup of ramen. It was the third night we've had ramen in a row because all of us had been too lazy to find some real food. By now, ramen had as much appeal to me as a cup of soggy worms. Inuyasha, of course, dug in gratefully. It was funny- his lack of etiquette had never bothered me, but tonight...

Sssssshhhhhhhrrrruppppppp! I cringed as Inuyasha loudly slurped up his ramen.

I sighed again for the umpteenth time. Was he purposely trying to annoy me? His ears pricked up suddenly. He glared at me with an irritated expression.

"What are you sighing for, wench? You're getting on my nerves," he stated frankly.

I gritted my teeth. "I'm sighing because you won't stop slurping," I shot back.

"What's wrong with slurping? Isn't it considered a compliment in your time?"

"Don't play innocent with me. You're doing it just to vex me, aren't you?"

"Feh!" he exclaimed indignantly, tilting his chin up slightly, "And what do you call your 'woe to me' Thespian act? I think YOU'RE the one who's trying to annoy ME. It must be what you humans call PMS."

"OSU-"

"Kagome-chandon'tyoufeeltiredlet'sgotobedrightnow," said Sango-chan, dragging me away by the arm and not giving me a chance to answer. I glared back towards the campfire, where Inuyasha sat explaining to Miroku-sama about the psychological nature of females.

Once we had settled down in our respective sleeping bags and layers of blankets, Sango-chan peered over at me and sighed. "You know, Kagome-chan, I have to warn you that the way things are going right now, you're going to kill each other on the actual day of the competition…"

I slipped down under my covers, letting out my breath slowly. "Well, it's just that he makes me so angry sometimes. It's like he doesn't know or care how I feel... and it's really irritating sometimes. I've tried to be patient with him because he's Inuyasha, but..."

I suddenly sprang back up. "I AM NOT GOING TO LOSE TO HIM THIS TIME!!!" I screamed out into the night. An owl suddenly grew silent. 

Sango-chan cringed, and groaned. "Yeah, yeah, say whatever you want- you're going down!!!" came the reply.

"Why you-!"

And so it went for the rest of the night.

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"The last emperor of China was finally taken from the throne in 1912, the same year that the revolution began..." I read.

It was late afternoon, Day Three. Tensions were at an all-time high, as evidenced by me looking up every five minutes, suspicious that Inuyasha might suddenly pop up and spy on me again. Earlier in the day, we had had another big verbal duel, but lately it had been a bit quiet. I hadn't seen or heard from Inuyasha for a few hours now.

I sighed in relief. Good. Now I could finally get some work done. I opened up my health book and continued to study. "Left ventricle, right ventricle, here's an artery, and the blood flows in this direction..."

"Kagome!!"

I glanced up immediately.

"Kagome!!" A high-pitched voice cried out to me, and Shippo soon bounded over to where I was sitting. The miniature kitsune hurtled onto my lap and clung to me tightly.

"What's wrong, Shippo-chan?" I said, surprised.

The kitsune looked up at me with large teary eyes. "Waaahhh!! Kagome, it's my backpack- I was playing by the river and I decided to go away for a while, and when I came back it was gone! I looked everywhere but I couldn't find it!!"

I glanced down at him with a mixture of sympathy and worry. Shippo's backpack had been a present from me. I had decided that with all of Shippo's odd toys and knickknacks, he needed something to store it all away in. He had been delighted when I gave him the tiny backpack, proud to own something from my world. I hadn't seen him without it ever since I gave it to him, and no wonder, since it contained all of his treasures.

I sighed. I gazed wistfully at my textbooks, but I assured Shippo that I would come along and help him find his backpack. The little kitsune danced gleefully alongside me as we headed towards the river. The riverside was barren and full of rocks, and we had to watch our step as we made our way down to the bank.

Once we had reached the edge of the water, I gazed around me. Perhaps a wild animal or some creature had moved it somehow. Just a few days ago, Sango had left her Hiraikotsu by another river after polishing it. When she came back, she found that it was gone. We had searched everywhere for it, but in the end, Miroku-sama discovered that the giant boomerang had somehow gotten around a deer's neck. Goodness knows where the backpack was by now if a deer had had the strength to carry off Sango's ungodly-sized weapon. I was busy looking for signs and track marks when suddenly Shippo gave a cry, pointing at something in the distance. 

"Kagome! It's over there! Look!"

I followed Shippo's gaze further down the river. The current was violent, but in the middle of the river's path, laid a miniature island of rocks. The backpack was just visible and lay helpless like a damsel in distress, trapped on the stone fortress. 

I was puzzled. "How did it get there?" I muttered to myself.

I then noticed that a large wide tree had toppled from the side of the bank where we were standing to the island, forming a bridge. It was very convenient for me... perhaps a little too convenient...

"Can you go get it?" Shippo squeaked suddenly, bringing me out of my trance. "That water's really scary and loud."

I hesitated at first. To be honest, the river was a little too rough for my liking. But finally, I gave in. "All right, Shippo-chan," I told him. "I'll go get it for you."

"Yay!" he exclaimed. "You're the best, Kagome!"

I smiled, and headed down the bank. I didn't have to walk far. There, the water was even more turbulent, but I steadied my nerve and tested the tree, making sure that it wouldn't rock. I stepped onto the wide trunk and cautiously made my way across. The tree held firm and didn't budge, and I made it onto the island without incident.

No sooner had I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard a sudden loud shifting noise behind me. My mouth dropped open as I turned in time to see the tree being swept away by the current. The little island was surrounded by water on all sides, and to swim across was suicide. I was trapped.

As my brain was processing this fact, I caught a glimpse of red out of the corner of my eye. It was there for only a second, and at first I thought it was my imagination, but then it all made sense to me. It made so much sense that I felt angry at myself for being so stupid. But I was also unbelievably angry at someone else...

I could still get him. "OSUWARI!!" I shouted.

I was immediately rewarded by a loud thump in the forest on the side of the river I had crossed from. "OSUWARI!!" I repeated, and another thump was heard, a little further away than before.

The same pattern repeated itself again with me sitting Inuyasha, him landing flat into the ground, and him trying to run away again after each attempt. Finally, I could no longer hear the echoing thumps. I looked around me and sighed, sinking down. I was still trapped.

"Inuyasha..." I hissed through my teeth. "You're going to get it this time- just you wait..."

"Kagome!!" Shippo called from the bank. I glanced up. "Don't worry, Kagome! I'll help you!" I grew ecstatic as I realized that Shippo could transform and get me off this thing.

"Shippo-chan!" I shouted happily. "You're the best! You can get me across the water, right?"

All of a sudden, the little kitsune fidgeted awkwardly. He could barely bring himself to put a toe into the water before he backed up a long ways up the bank.

"Umm... Shippo-chan?"

"I...er...I'm sorry, Kagome, but I'm scared!" he wailed, looking at me with tear-filled eyes, and stomped his foot on the good 'ole solid ground for effect.

It was times like these that I really thought twice about one day having kids.

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"...I don't like this. I'm going to go look for Kagome-sama right now..." Miroku-sama was saying as I arrived.

I cleared my throat loudly as I stepped into the campsite. The others were gathered around the fire, about to eat dinner. Sango-chan was in the middle of putting on her taijiya gear, probably ready to go look for me when I arrived on the scene. Shippo also appeared next to me with his head hung low in fright and exhaustion. Everyone with the exception of Inuyasha stared at me, and Kirara let out something like a hiss. 

Sango-chan's jaw dropped open at the sight of me. "Kagome-chan! What on earth happened to you?"

Besides being humiliated to the last degree, I was completely soaked.  My hair had become something like a nest; I had bits of dead leaves and even small fish stuck in my hair. My school uniform was clinging to my body tightly and anyone could see the finer details of my body, but right now I was beyond care. I was ready to kill Inuyasha, who was propped up comfortably against a rock with his head turned away from me.

I bristled, remembering the ordeal. After several hours of pleading and bribing, I had finally convinced Shippo to help me back across. I couldn't send him to get Sango-chan or Miroku-sama because they had left the campsite sometime before and he didn't know where they were. He made it across onto the island safely by transforming into that pink balloon of his, but as we were heading back across the river, Shippo suddenly looked down at the raging water below and panicked. The rest was history.

"You!" I breathed dangerously. I moved towards the expressionless hanyou. "You insidious little Machiavellian scum! You're the one who stole the backpack and sent me on this little adventure to the river, isn't it?"

He made no reply and made no move to look at me.

Sango-chan gasped, and stood up.  "Inuyasha! You led Kagome there?? How could you do such a dangerous thing? Don't you know that that river is powerful enough to pull Kagome under??"

The hanyou flinched at this, and seemed to shrink away into himself. There was a long silence, and then he turned to me. I growled. Why was he looking at me in the eye now? I was so infuriated at this point that I didn't notice his regretful and shameful eyes. "Kagome, I'm-"

"OSUWARI!!"

I glared down at my feet where Inuyasha had landed. I turned and strode away at a brisk pace away from the campsite. Finally, I sank down, exhausted, onto the ground. I turned my head up towards the starry night, and sighed. Tomorrow...if only...

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The day of the competition had arrived. I had expected the weather to be stormy to compliment the mood I was in, but instead, as if to provoke me further, it turned out to be a gorgeous sunny day complete with birds chirping and flowers blooming. 

As I woke up and ate a hearty breakfast of, yet again, ramen (which didn't exactly help either), I was near a nervous breakdown. But finally, when everyone had gotten ready, Miroku-sama signaled for us to leave and led us along a new road. I traveled near the back of the group to avoid Inuyasha.

"Hey, Miroku," Inuyasha said, "Where're you taking us? I thought we were having the competition."

The monk turned around and smiled. "Well, the campsite isn't exactly the best place for it, so I decided to give us a more workable setting. There's a quaint little village not far down this road."

Sango-chan, standing by my side, nudged me. "I don't like this. He's up to no good," she whispered. I sighed mentally, wondering what was in store now.

I found out soon enough. The quaint little village turned out to be a well-sized town. As we neared the area, we saw what seemed to be millions of signs and posters all over the buildings and streets. I slowed down my pace and read one of them. I gasped.

"Come and see two competitors, a hanyou and a girl from a place far away, duel in a fierce event: only one can be called the most knowledgeable and the wisest! Tickets are on sale right now! Don't miss this event!"

I turned slowly to Miroku-sama, ready to demand an explanation. But Sango-chan had already beaten me to it.

"Houshi-sama!!" she threatened. "What is the meaning of this?"

He closed his eyes slightly and smiled innocently. "Well, when I saw all the drama that was happening, I couldn't resist. Many of these people here would love to see a competition between two such passionate-"

BANG.

Miroku-sama rubbed his head in a daze, where Sango-chan had bludgeoned him with Hiraikotsu. I was eternally grateful that she had not permitted him to finish that sentence. "I knew we couldn't trust you," she sighed.

He smiled sheepishly, but then brightened. "Well, now that the news is over and done with, why don't we proceed to the stage, where I believe everyone is already waiting..."

He extended his arm to show us the way, and Inuyasha and I glared at him as we passed him. "What a bouzo..." Inuyasha muttered.

"Yeah..." I murmured.

Both of us stopped suddenly because this was the first time we had spoken to each other since last night. It lasted for only a second, and then we turned away from each other with a "hmph" and a "feh!" as we continued onwards down the street. Soon we were arriving at a field. I could hear a loud noise of chatter and shouts as we neared the huge stage which I had a strong feeling was constructed just for this event.

As we stepped onto the stage, my stomach churned. There were close to a hundred people standing in the crowd- and all of them were going to watch me. Many stared at us curiously as we came into view. Some gazed at Inuyasha with nervous expressions while others pointed at my clothes as we took our place in front of two podiums. Bells were laid out on both. I could feel myself blushing as I was suddenly reminded of the time Shippo had shown his pictures of Inuyasha and me arguing about Kouga to the entire village. That had been nothing compared to what I was currently facing.

Miroku-sama was selling last-minute tickets by the entryway. "Half-price to all you lovely young ladies!" he said, smiling brightly at the group of women who had gathered.

Sango-chan glared at him. "Er...of course, this is only a limited time offer!" he amended, exchanging tickets for the money.

Finally, the time had come. The crowd cheered as Miroku-sama, Sango-chan, and Shippo all took their places in the judge's booth. They had a pile of questions ready, and Miroku-sama stood up to announce the rules.

Miroku-sama cleared his throat and waved for silence. "We have here two competitors: Kagome and Inuyasha." He paused as the crowd burst into ovation. "The game in which these contenders will compete is something called Jeopardy!".

I gave a start as I heard the name, and I felt myself starting to smile. This was something I was familiar with. "The game comes from Kagome's land, where contestants have to answer questions, all worth a certain amount of points. The contestant with the most number of points is then declared the winner."

As he continued to explain the rules, my heart pounded within me so intensely that I felt that it was going to jump out at any moment. Finally, Miroku-sama finished, and Sango-chan stood up and unveiled a painted wooden board in the back of the stage. Many pieces of paper were pinned to the board, each reading a certain number of points. She began to read the categories. "Kagome," she said, pointing at me, "You will go first."

I nodded, and chose "science" for 400. "This is the net movement of water from an area of relative high concentration to an area of relative low concentration," she read.

The sound of bells twinkling rang almost simultaneously, but I was faster. Sango-chan had heard the split second difference as well, and she pointed at me. "Kagome," she said, nodding for me to answer.

"What is osmosis?"

She smiled and nodded. "That is correct, Kagome. You have received 400 points."

The crowd cheered loudly for me while I beamed. Out of the corner of my eye I caught Inuyasha looking cross. I grinned. "Geography for 200," I said.

The next question came: "The North and South American continents were named after this Italian explorer."

The bell rang...

It was Inuyasha who answered the question. "Who is Amerigo Vespucci?" he drawled out casually. The crowd cheered, this time with more buzzing as they took bets on who would win.

The game had begun.

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A/N: And…to be continued yet again. Sheesh, I really need to work on limiting my words. It's like the ending of the LOTR Return of the King (which I just saw today ^ - ^) - it just drags on and on and on…anyway, ahem, thanks for reviewing everyone!

Yuna141: I'm really glad you liked my story! There's so many Inuyasha fics out there that this one's pretty easy to miss, but I'm happy that you managed to find it and enjoy it as much as you did. Thanks!

Snippets: Thanks again for being my most loyal reader and supporter *wipes away tear* Yep, don't worry- the next chapter will be out soon, promise!

Aethernyx: Yay! Thanks for reviewing, and yes, I agree- Shippo plus chocolates don't mix. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Kuikkick: *cheers* So you finally reviewed, huh? Well, yay! Thanks! And oh yes…well Inuyasha's smarter than he looks, so he probably learned how to read during the time he's spent with Kagome. But yeah- more to come soon!

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Next Time on Attack of the Filler Arc: The competition really starts to heat up, and Kagome's evil plan finally comes into play. What will happen, and who will win? Find out soon!