---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 23
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kagome snuggled into the warmth, confused to what the source was. She wrinkled her brow and frowned, her eyes clenched shut, trying to remember what happened yesterday. Memories hit her like a brick wall and her eyes bugged out to see Inuyasha's face in her own, still peacefully asleep. At the site of the relaxed boy's face, it rubbed off on her and she relaxed too. Sighing, she snuggled into him again, wishing to stay there forever. But there were things to do. After a few moments she decided it was time to get up and moving. Sitting up in the bed she reached a hand out and gently shook his shoulder.

"Inuyasha.....it's time to wake up.....", she cooed to him.

Inuyasha began to stir, mumbling as he stretched out, "......naraku....you bastard........leave..........kagome.......hmmmm, Kagome?" he said as his eyes slowly rose open. He sat up scratching the back of his head to relieve the itch his ruffled hair gave. "Time to go?" he asked with a yawn.

Kagome smiled and nodded. She crawled off the bed and Inuyasha threw his legs over the side and got up too. After straightening their clothes and trying to untangle their hair with their fingers, they left the room and traveled down the long hallway. Once reaching the front counter, Inuyasha took out the purse of money the king had given them and paid the owner, the owner eying them warily.

' Wow they must have been at it last night, they look trashed...', the old man thought to himself.

After paying, they turned and made their way into the front street and the bright shining sunlight.

Everything was covered in yesterday's rain. Kagome smiled at the sight and walked into the the road. Scratching her arms out to the side, she twirled around in the warm sunlight. When she became dizzy she stopped and beamed at Inuyasha, who had been admiring her carefree personality. He walked out into the sunlight as well and took her hand, then they began to walk down the road to look for where the carriage was parked.

They found it at the edge of town and Kagome stopped dead in her tracks, staring at it. Inuyasha looked quizzically at her, "What?"

He turned back to look at the carriage. There was nothing wrong with it, the horses stood there dozing in the sunlight and the driver was tacking them up for the trip. Everything was fine, so what was up with Kagome?

She looked at the carriage and groaned, "Inuyasha...it's such a nice day. How about we walk?" There really was nothing wrong, Kagome was just thinking back to the day before and the long, uncomfortable ride. She dreaded doing it again. Inuyasha nodded and went over to tell the driver to just follow alongside them. Coming back to Kagome, he took her hand and they started walking down the dirt road, watching as the houses became less and less dense.

After walking a couple miles, out of pure exhaustion, Kagome gave in and they traveled to the next town in the carriage.

When they reached the next village, they were shocked at the size of it. It was four times as big as the last one with intertwining roads. Kagome became depressed and thought to herself, And I thought finding Rin would be hard...this is going to be impossible. So, off Inuyasha and Kagome went, store b store, in search of a perverted monk.

After two hours, Kagome and Inuyasha finally decided to eat. They went to a little restaurant on the corner and sat down at the table. After ordering a sandwich to split and two lemonades they turned to each other.

"What are we going to do? It could take us a week to find him in a place this big." whined Kagome.

"I know, let's just forget about the guy."

"No! We can't. I want to make Sango happy."

"Keh! Fine."

"So where do we look next?"

Inuyasha was about to answer when a bunch of crows took off in the distance followed by a loud scream, "HENTAI!!!!" A slap resounded through the streets and Inuyasha and Kagome glanced at each other, before forgetting the sandwich and taking off to the direction of the noise.

As they neared the place where the crows were seen flying from, they saw two figures in the distance. One appeared to be on the ground, looking up at the one towering over it. As they neared, they realized that the one on the ground was a man and the one towering over him was a woman.

"You pervert, stay away from my ass!" spat the girl as she stormed off. The man on the ground stood up and dusted off his robes, a red hand print on throbbing on his cheek. Wait robes? A priest!!

"Miroku?!?!" called out Kagome as she came running up to him.

The man put his hands out in front of him, in some form of protection. "Okay, listen, I apologize if I ever groped you. I swear I didn't mean too."

Yup, definitely Miroku. Kagome laughed, "No, you've never done anything to me--"

"And you better not" muttered Inuyasha

"Shh, Inuyasha! As I was saying, I'm actually here on behalf of my friend Sango."

"S-Sango? You know Sango? Can you take me to the love of my life?"

"Ummm.....yeah, I'd be happy to. Should we go now?"

"Oh yes, let's go." agreed Miroku as he went brushing past her. Kagome was shocked at his eagerness and rushed to catch up with him. He had no idea where he was going, in case you were wondering. Inuyasha just dragged behind them, muttering thins to himself.

All three of the party now occupied the carriage, sitting in silence until Kagome broke the silence, bluntly asking, "Why did you break Sango's heart?"

"Does she really care for me."

Kagome nodded, so Miroku continued speaking. " I see, did she tell you the story? Making me look like the bad guy right?"

"Well......yeah."

" OK then, you know that she found me with the household owners daughter on top of me right?"

At Kagome's nod he continued, " Now as hard this is going to be to believe, it was the girl that approached me. You see I ask every woman I meet the same question--which reminds me. Will you bear my child?"

A snarl from Inuyasha confirmed the fact that Kagome was taken. Miroku cleared his throat, " Well, you see I had asked the owner's daughter this and to my surprise she agreed and began to advance on me. Needless to say, I was in shock and this was when Sango walked in. I believe she mistook the situation and believed it was my fault."

"Well you did kind of lead that girl on when you asked her to bear your child."

"Hmmm....I suppose I did," said Miroku thoughtfully whil Inuyasha took this moment to snort, "I guess I must apologize to Sango for my wrong doings."

So they all sat in silence as they progressed back to the palace with Sango's surprise.

Next Chapter is up, read on......