To Outwit a Fox        By: Jineka

Disclaimers: I don't own Inuyasha, its characters or storylines.

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Chapter 6      Sleep With Me          (wonder what that means  ^_~)

Kikyou looked around for a second for that annoying fox before finally relaxing into the hot spring. It had been several weeks since the start of her training and though she would never admit this to anyone, actually enjoyed being with that fox every day.

Well, not every day…she still needed some time to think alone, bathe…and this bath was needed badly. Kikyou closed her eyes and sank deeper into the water. It was grueling, the training was, but she wasn't the type to be complaining about that. In fact, she felt that they were going a bit too slowly.

Kikyou's physical endurance had improved so much under the fox, more than Kikyou will ever admit to. Her spiritual powers had improved too, and she found it so easy to kill demons that would've slaughtered her in a heartbeat before.

Kikyou was proud of herself, she was happy that she was this strong. It did feel good after all. Kikyou was going to be in her first battle tomorrow. It was a bit unnerving, but also insanely exciting. It was her chance to prove that she was good, prove it to herself and that fox.

That girl, Keiko was her name? She came back yesterday with another woman. Yusuke was so relieved to see her and hugged Keiko so tightly. She blushed a pretty pink at that. And that other woman turned out to be a human that Sesshoumaru had once taken care of. Sesshoumaru taking care of a human, a girl no less. It was defiantly a strange thought.

Turns out that the North isn't with the East at all. The East arranged for Northern Lady's kidnapping and took her during rounds, when she was checking on the demonic tribes of the area.

The East and South had made a pact years ago in secret and the East had already declared war on the North. Also, yesterday a messenger from the North was asking the West for aid in war and after careful thought, Sesshoumaru agreed.

Keiko and Yusuke had left again already, battling southward with half of the royal army, quite a feat for two humans. Kikyou and Youko were supposed to take the rest of the army up to the West-East border.

Kikyou's eyes opened fast when she heard any small noise. She sighed and closed them again. She was tired and being paranoid was not helping at all.

^_^

Yusuke and Keiko led the troops southward. Not a single of the demons liked or respected the human commanders, but they knew when to keep quiet. Yusuke and Keiko had one of the worst reputations ever, for the people who crossed them anyway. They had been traveling for the last week with only two nights of sleep.

The demons were awed by the humans' endurance and would feel weak if they needed sleep before the humans so they kept quiet and continued marching. This was Keiko's strategy and it worked fairly well, though she and Yusuke did need rest now and then.

"Pull out and set up camp in the forest," Yusuke turned his horse to face the troops, pointing at the clump of trees near them. There was quite a noise now. Mostly demons, who were nearing their limit, thanking the lord.

Keiko nudged the mare from the back and it trotted so that it was beside Yusuke stallion. "Stopping already," Keiko frowned, "We need to make fast time to the South. I have a bad feeling about this area anyway."

Yusuke sighed, "I know your feelings are usually right and stuff, but I'm wiped, dead tired here. If we don't rest soon, I'll probably die of exhaustion. And how would the troops react to that? You know they love me."

Keiko giggled, "Most probably would be happy, and another thing, they hate you, they only love me."

"Yeah right," Yusuke said in mock annoyance. Keiko giggled.

"Ok, we'll stay, lets get our tent up."

"Right."

The horses moved toward the troops. Most of them were already snoring, completely exhausted from the grueling journey. The rest of them were eating. At this rate, their supplies would be gone by the next week.

Keiko watched as one particularly stupid demon tried to stuff a whole leg of meat down his throat. The bone caught and he started gagging and motioning the others to help him. Keiko snorted in a very unladylike manner.

Yusuke pitched the tent in a small clearing around the other tents. He yawned as he pointed to a group of warriors still awake, "You got night duty, you can sleep during the day."

The demons were quite happy with the arrangements. After all, it meant even more sleep for them. They saluted Yusuke and got up, picking up a weapon of some sort each.

^_^

"Lord Yusuke! Lady Keiko!" It was one of the night guards running toward the clearing where the troops lie asleep. "Lord Yusuke!" Yusuke heard the cry and awakened himself. He sat up, blinked, and got up to see what was going on.

"Lord Yu-" Yusuke saw the demon running at him and also saw a sharp object cut through him. His words were cut off and blood seeped out staining both halves of his now mangled body.

Yusuke narrowed his eyes; that was a fast attack, only trained soldiers or assassins could manage that. He squinted into the dark and listened for the smallest noise. His eyes widened as he felt pain jump up his right side. A sword had cut through his skin near his waistline. Blood was already flowing, but Yusuke stood fast and raised his finger, pointing it straight ahead into the night, "Spirit Gun!"

A ball of energy flew fast and collided with something only twenty-five feet away. The demon had turned back just in time to see his own death.

"Yusuke!" Keiko was awake now and panicking. She could smell blood, human blood. It had to be Yusuke, "Yusuke!" She couldn't see anything it was too dark. What happened?

"Keiko." It was a faint sound, but Keiko caught it and ran toward the voice. "It s'ok now. I took care of it." Keiko reached Yusuke and caught his falling body only to fall herself with some hundred pounds landing on top of her.

"Ow…" Keiko picked herself up and checked for injuries. Finding herself perfectly fine, she went to inspect Yusuke. There was a deep gash along his right side, but other than that, he was fine. "Oi! Someone help me here!"

Two demons nearest them stumbled through the dark to the plea for help. "Take him back to the tent." The demons nodded at the lady and carried Yusuke back toward the clearing, one of them crashing into a tree and the other cursing at him. Keiko shook her head, "Idiots…"

^_^

Kikyou groaned, out of the forest, now they were traveling on sun baked earth with the sun baking down on them…if that's a word. It wasn't fair, why should that stupid fox have a horse if she couldn't. Her legs were sore and every step was pained. The troops were ugly and the only thing worth looking at was the way Youko's hair seemed to wave back and forth and back and forth and…

But that was stupid. Kikyou sighed and tied her hair up. It was rare she did that, but desperate times call for desperate measures, right? After that, she strung her bow.

She released an arrow; it went straight at the fox's head and only missed by a half of an inch. Stupid fox, he did that on purpose, brushing off her arrow with a simple release of energy timed with precision. Kikyou released another arrow that also missed.

The demon troops were watching her with amazement and pity. The "Great" Silver Kitsune was sure to kill her after this, but surprisingly enough he did nothing but deflect the arrows. Maybe it was for practice…

But it was the only source of entertainment for Kikyou and she kept shooting the arrows at his head, maybe he'll mess up once and it'll hit. Kikyou smiled and laughed to herself at this. This was a good thing. Finding amusement in the simplest things makes for a fun person, or so they say. Don't even ask who 'they' are.

Eventually it did become boring, especially when Youko starting yelling at her when her arrow accidentally hit his horse in the rump and caused it to rear up which caused Youko to fall with a very unrefined 'thump'. Though that was kinda funny and it wasn't like Youko's face was that scary anyway.

Kikyou sighed. The fox was ignoring her now, still pissed off. He could hold a grudge and this was so boring. The troops continued to trudge on and the sun was setting. Now it wasn't hot and that was a good thing. Bad thing, it was freezing now.

Youko spun the horse around to face the troops, "Stop here for the night. Anchor down and set up." The troops began to set up their tents.

Kikyou reached for her backpack, but it wasn't there. Shit, she had left it by that stream because it was too heavy. Her blanket was with that. Great, she was going to freeze!

Youko saw her and immediately felt concerned though he brushed it off as pack mentality. "Get in," he called out to the woman. Kikyou faced him and quirked an eyebrow, but walked over anyway.

"What?"

"Get in. Its too cold without a tent, especially for humans," Youko said pointedly.

Kikyou's eyes widened, "No way! You've got to be kidding me."

"I'm not." Youko motioned for her to get in and Kikyou did so shooting a wary glance at the fox. Youko crawled in after her.

It was a small tent and only one blanket, but it was rather warm and cozy and it was better than outside, maybe. Oh, and there was only one pillow. "Give it to me," Kikyou tried to pull the pillow out from underneath his head. She tugged a bit and pulled and fell back when she finally got it. She took it and smacked Youko's face with it, giggling a bit.

Youko snatched it out of her hands and lay back down. "You're no fun…and I need a pillow," Kikyou sighed when the fox didn't reply. Thinking fast and weighing the pros and cons, she pulled the blanket unto herself and lay down on Youko's chest.

Kikyou heard Youko groan, she giggled, "You don't expect me not to have a pillow, do you?"

Youko snorted, "Some excuse for wanting to touch my bare skin don't you think?"

Kikyou blushed and was glad Youko couldn't see it, "Stuff it."

Youko laughed, "Just go to sleep and don't drool on me, ok?"

Kikyou mumbled a 'yes' and found it very comfortable and warm and cozy and all that other good stuff. She fell asleep soon and Youko did too.

^_^

A.N.: Hehe hope you enjoyed it! On to the next section and sorry for the wait!

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Chapter 6      Ayame's Story

Ayame clung onto to Kouga for the rest of the day for reasons unknown. What the group could decipher was that they knew each other from before and that Ayame really liked Kouga, a lot.

Miroku and Sango were at the mall looking for new outfits for the dance. Inuyasha was off doing something. Kagome, Kouga, and Ayame were at the gym on the treadmills running at a steady pace.

Kagome watched Ayame; she kept looking at Kouga with such a…weird kind of look. "How do you know Kouga anyway?" Kagome asked.

Ayame turned to face the girl, "We grew up together as pups."

"Really?"

"Yea, our packs were in alliance; we were in different packs so we didn't get to hang out much. I was out one day and was attacked. I don't really remember what happened, but I remember Kouga was there. He saved me."

Kouga looked up at the mention of his name, "What are you whispering about."

Ayame smiled, "I'm telling Kagome our story."

Kouga paled, "You know that promise wasn't a real one. It was a brink of the moment thing," then to Kagome, "I didn't promise, really."

Kagome glanced quizzically between the two, "What? What are you talking about Kouga?"

Ayame answered, "So anyway, after he saved me, we were walking back and he asked me to marry him!"

"What?!" Kagome stopped the treadmill.

"Kouga asked me to marry him," Ayame said simply. Kagome started laughing and was pointing at Kouga.

"Kagome," Kouga said clenching his fist, "Stop it!"

Ayame sighed, "Guys! I haven't finished the story yet!"

Kagome tried to stop laughing, "Sorry go on." She burst out laughing again, Kouga asking someone to marry him! This was so rich!

"Anyways, we went back to the den and the elders of both the packs were arguing. Soon the den was completely split into two and Kouga and me were split too. We couldn't do anything because of which pack we were in. My pack left the den the very next day, but as I was leaving I heard Kouga, he howled a message to me and I could understand. He promised to marry me one day."

Ayame sighed happily, "So I was really happy and I left. I asked my uncle why we were leaving and it was because of something, I can't really remember, but it was really sad and I remember crying myself to sleep for a long time each night, but I would always remember Kouga and I could smile during the day because of that."

Kagome stopped laughing and 'aww'-ed, "Kouga! I never knew you were such a sweetheart!"

Ayame laughed, "I'm just glad he's my 'sweetheart'. Any who, Kouga? I heard 'bout that dance at school today and if you're not going with anyone, wanna go with me?"

Kouga smiled back and answered keeping his eyes on Kagome, "Of course. Pick you up at six?"

"Sure!"

^_^

Miroku watched Sango go into the dressing room again. It was already getting late, but Sango still hadn't found something she liked. She has tried jeans, hip-huggers, skirts, and everything from the whole damn mall.

Miroku sighed. He was hungry too. Sango came out with a pair of dark denim jeans and a white sweater top. "What do you think?" Miroku stared. The sweater was a bit skin tight and revealing…

"Miroku! Stop it!" Sango warned. Miroku nodded obediently and looked away. "I think I'll get this, too." She pulled out a red scarf from the bag and put it on. "What do you think?"

Miroku nodded dumbly. "Ok good its decided." Sango headed back into the dressing room. Whoa…Sango looked hot…

Miroku quickly shook it off. "Hey, Miro? Want to grab a bite to eat before we leave?"

"Yes, please," thank the lord.

"Miroku!" Miroku turned to face the new voice. It was Suuichi, that guy from school.

"Suuichi?" Miroku asked uncertainly.

"You are good friends with Kagome, right?" Suuichi asked.

"Yea…"

"Which do you think she'll like better?" Suuichi showed him two necklaces. One with a cute little puppy dog and matching bone earrings and one with a curled up fox.

"Whoa. Are you getting that for Kagome?" Miroku frowned, "She'll feel so bad if she didn't get you anything."

"Miroku, let's go," Sango came out, "Oh, Suuichi, hi. Buying necklaces for yourself." She raised an eyebrow.

"It's for Kagome. Which do you think she'll like," Suuichi showed her the jewelry.

"She's not really into jewelry and makeup and she's not materialistic neither. You can't buy her affection."

Suuichi looked stunned for a moment, he then left mumbling something along the lines of 'get both'.

Miroku faced Sango, "What was that about?"

Sango sighed, "I guess I'm just feeling a bit protective over Kag, that's all. Let's go."

Miroku smiled, "Can we get some ice cream?"

"Yea sure."

"If you get some on your face, I'll help lick it off."

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I know that that was extremely short, but I don't know what to do. See, I was reading this ficcy and Inuyasha was such a sweetie and another one where Kurama is such a jerk so now I feel like doing Inu/Kag instead of Kur/Kag but… HELP ME! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. But on a lighter note, I am pretty happy with the Yusuke/Keiko, Kikyou/Youko, Kouga/Ayame, and Miroku/Sango. Its just like me to make my ficcys so complicated. I feel like starting a new one too, but that's just me and since I have no ideas I doubt it will happen soon.

I don't know what to do so whoever's got a suggestion please email it to me or review or something. THX

R&R