Golden Fire
Chapter 7: The Tomb Opens

I woke to stare into Shippou's eyes. "Morning, Kagome-chan!" he chirped. "Guess what? Yuki said she'd help me develop my youkai powers!"

"Not at six in the morning, I won't," came a grumble from the opposite side of the fire.

I raised my eyebrow at Yuki's change in speech. She clearly wasn't a morning person. She was showing actual emotion again. What was next? Sesshoumaru happily playing checkers with Inuyasha? My heart gave a twist at the thought of the hanyou. He was still ignoring me.

Groaning, I rolled over and stood up. I would never get back to sleep now that Shippou was awake. Now that I had plagued my mind with thoughts of Inuyasha. Besides the kitsune and myself, the camp was quiet with sleep. I picked up my bag and began to walk to the stream nearby.

"Alright, alright!" growled Yuki behind me. Shippou let out a small cry of joy. I giggled, grateful that someone else would be entertaining Shippou for a few moments.

To my surprise, Sango was already in the stream. She grinned at me as I flinched at the cold water. "It's not so bad after it's numbed you beyond caring," she offered.

I settled in and began to wash. "Sango? What do you think about Yuki now?"

She shrugged. "I'm disappointed that our new friend felt she had to hide her true self from us, but I also understand why she did it."

"That's what I thought. We will, however, have an adult female youkai around two male youkai. And that doesn't count Kouga's pack."

"Oh, I don't think it'll change anything. Sesshoumaru isn't interested and Kouga is head over heels in love with you. Any of the pack wouldn't be up to Yuki's standards. I think she was being modest about her lineage. Snow demons are powerful in China, or so I've heard." She dunked underwater to rinse her hair.

I waited for her to reappear. "Actually, I was kinda hoping it would affect things. Kouga should just forget me and go for Yuki. Then we wouldn't have as much tension around here."

She looked at me knowingly. "Allow me to translate. You want Inuyasha to stop being a jealous asshole."

"Sango!"

She shrugged. "It's true. He's being insufferable. And not just to you, everyone has been getting the cold shoulder or worse from him."

We stepped out of the stream and began to dress. "It's not just the normal jealousy," I began. "He saw Kouga hug me and say, well, very protective and rather intimate things to me."

Sango lifted her eyebrow. "Really now? Well, maybe that will just make him realize how intent Kouga is, and how much he needs to claim you faster."

I blushed and decided to turn the tables. "What about you and Miroku? Has he made any 'claims' to you yet?"

She held her head high. "If the pervert really wanted me, he'd stop chasing every woman that crossed his path. And he'd stop groping me and tell me how he feels. Not how he lusts."

"I wish I had your conviction, Sango."

The demon exterminator smiled sadly at me. "I don't have any more conviction than you do, Kagome. If he came up to me right now, groped me and told me about the dozens of women he's asked to bear his child, and then said he loved me," she paused, "I would still fall into his arms willingly. No matter what I say."

We walked back to camp in silence.

///*///*///*///*///*///*///*///*///*///*///*///*///*///*///*///*///*///

"Can we get this over with?" complained Inuyasha.

Sesshoumaru growled. "Fine, little brother." We all watched as his claw flicked into Inuyasha's golden eye. He didn't even whimper as a small sphere came out and opened into a portal.

"Who's going in?" I asked. Immediately, Sesshoumaru and Jaken jumped through the portal into Inutaisho's tomb, followed by Inuyasha and Kouga. "Well, I guess that answers my question."

We waited in silence for the men to emerge. "This is taking way too long," Shippou pointed out. "They can't be fighting again, can they?" I paled at the thought.

Yuki took Shippou's hand. "Come on, kitsune. Let's practice masking our youkai scents again, okay? You're getting much better." She led him away.

Sango put a hand on my shoulder to reassure me and used the other to smack Miroku.

Twenty minutes later, just as I was about to follow them, Inuyasha came out. The rest were close behind. They all looked annoyed, but no one had a scratch on them. The portal closed and drifted back into Inuyasha's eye.

"What took you so long?" Shippou called from where he was training with Yuki.

Sesshoumaru extended his newly restored left arm and I gasped. "But it's only bone! Where's your skin?"

A skeleton hand flexed and spread, but the Lord of the Western Lands didn't look concerned. "It's been in there for a few years. Of course the flesh has decayed. It will return soon, now that it has been reattached."

"Real bitch to find," muttered Inuyasha, "Searching for a bone among thousands of bones. Thank the gods it had transformed into his human arm again, and hadn't remained as a huge dog leg or we would have had a big problem putting it back on."

Kouga suddenly leapt away from Sesshoumaru. I could see why. Poison was beginning to drip from his skeleton claws. Inuyasha growled and the poison disappeared.

"Calm yourself, little brother. I was just testing it to see that everything was in working order." He curled his hand into a fist and stared at it.

"Well, now that we've got one thing taken care of, I guess we should head to your castle, Sesshoumaru," I said.

"Why would we do that?" he questioned.

I stared at him for a second. "I thought you and Yuki wanted to be released from this contract of marriage thing."

He gave me a harsh glance. "I would like nothing more, but we do not have the two weeks to spare for the trip. We must move in the opposite direction. Towards the village to pick up the rest of the wolf pack and then to the Demon City." He turned from me and walked to his part of camp. However, I noticed the brief look he and Yuki shared. Neither of them looked very happy.

Soon, we were packed and walking back to Kaede's village. It was a nightmare before the first hour had passed. Besides the usual bickering between Sango and Miroku, and Inuyasha and Kouga, there was more to stress about. Sesshoumaru kept flexing his newly restored claws and Jaken's groveling voice gave even Yuki a migraine. Yuki herself kept trying to scout ahead, but constantly returned to deposit a determined kitsune on the ground.

"Shippou, you have got to stop following me. I know you're interested in my kitsune powers, but believe me, I'm not using them while scouting."

"You are too. You're using them right now to hide your scent and real appearance. Why don't you use your real appearance now anyway?" He hopped onto her shoulder and tugged her hair. "You have white hair, right? Not black. You still are trying to look human."

"You'll see my demon appearance soon enough, Shippou. Stay here and practice masking your own scent, okay? I need to scout ahead." She gently placed him on the ground. I could tell she liked the kit, but really was not used to children. What did I expect though? That assassins ran day cares in their time off?

"But you don't need to. We could smell anything from miles away." He puffed out his chest, taking his place among the youkai present.

"For once, I agree with the kitsune," intoned Sesshoumaru from up ahead. "We hardly need you slipping around in the shadows every few moments. You're probably attracting more attention than evading it. So stop acting like a human fool."

Yuki snarled and my eyes widened. She was really annoyed. She tossed her hair and fell to the back of the group. When I looked behind me, she was gone.

Looking ahead I could see familiar hills. It would take the rest of the day and tomorrow to get there, but it still felt like I was coming home again.

I shivered. The air had become icy. True, it was November, but it didn't normally drop ten degrees in two seconds did it?

Suddenly, a black blur passed into my vision and Sango shrieked. Arms wrapped around me in protection. All I could think was that Black Death had attacked. But then, I opened my eyes, which had somehow closed in the last millisecond.

Sesshoumaru was picking himself up off the ground and brushing away grass. He never removed his eyes from the figure in black ten feet away. I was shocked to see that it was Yuki. She was still in her usual leather and her normal human appearance, except that her eyes glowed blue. She was snarling at Sesshoumaru.

"Yuki!" I called. I was confused as to why my friend attacked the Lord of the Western Lands. Surely that meant death?

"Don't," said a voice behind me. It was the voice of the one wrapping me in his arms. It was Kouga. "It's a youkai thing," he continued. "He insulted her abilities and her value to the group and now she must prove that she is a worthy travelling companion." He paused and I noticed he hadn't removed his arms from around my waist and shoulders. "I can just say that she's impressed me already. She tackled him without him even suspecting. I'll bet he's never been more surprised."

But Sesshoumaru didn't look surprised. He looked pissed. They studied each other, crouched and positioned to attack. Slowly, Yuki drew her sword and Sesshoumaru did the same. His eyes were now glowing red.

They moved so fast, I couldn't tell what happened. I heard metal screaming against metal several times in a second. They landed and I examined the damage of the first round. Sesshoumaru's sleeve was torn and his cheek was slightly cut. Yuki had a small gash on her left thigh.

He brought his hand up to the wound and felt blood. He snarled, "You'll pay for that."

Yuki answered with another attack. For ten minutes they fought and neither one seemed to gain much on the other. They were nicked and scratched all over, but they had hardly broken a sweat. I wiggled free of Kouga and started to focus on the fight and found that I slowly was able to discern individual movements. Yuki was the graceful fighter I had originally thought her to be, but Sesshoumaru held more skill. Only Yuki's quick dodges and artful counter blows kept her alive.

They met once again, and it seemed that I didn't need to focus to see what was happening. Everything moved so slowly. They locked weapons, but Sesshoumaru managed to propel her right arm away so that she had to let go of her sword to save her arm from breaking. She spun and reached into her jacket. Before Sesshoumaru could regain his balance, she held her gun to his temple.

"Cheating, are we?" murmured Sesshoumaru. He remained slightly bent, with Tokijin in his right hand. His face was partially turned from us, but I could see that the red glow was gone from his eyes. I realized that he didn't know what Yuki was holding, but instinctively felt that it was dangerous.

"Just using the weapons at my disposal. If it had been a knife, it still would be pointed at your head, Sesshoumaru," she replied.

In a flash, Sesshoumaru wrapped his arm around hers and flipped her onto her back. The gun now pointed harmlessly away from his body.

She growled at him, but the youkai lord just scoffed in return. "Calm yourself, woman. You have proven your worth." He pulled her to her feet. She stepped back and replaced her gun back into her holster.

Sesshoumaru walked to where Yuki's sword lay. He picked it up and carried it back to her. His face didn't betray any emotion. As she put it back in its sheath, the air turned to its normal temperature again. She turned to us, the audience. "Let's go. We've wasted enough time."

A/N: Cool, huh? Haha. Anyway, I'm starting to get some really great reviews. Keep them coming! Praise, suggestions, flames - I don't care!