Chapter 22: The Great Taiyoukai, Sesshoumaru

"Lord Sesshoumaru! Lord Sesshoumaru!" said the croaky voice of the ugly, green toad-thing that traveled with the taiyoukai of the West, Sesshoumaru (who I'm sure needs no introduction). "This lowly, loyal servant has returned from his quest he was sent on by you, oh Great Lord!"

"Jaken," said the smooth voice of the beautifully male Sesshoumaru.

"Yes, oh Great One? This humble, insignificant"

"Shut up."

"Yes, my lord."

The taiyoukai looked down to his servant in disgust. He had never liked Jaken that much, but he was the only one of his servants who was completely loyal to him and didn't just fear him, though he did his fair share of that as well. And unfortunately, other than himself, the toad was the only one that wouldn't ask questions when sent to spy for him since he had responsibilities to take care of, like patrolling and taking care of his lands, not to mention paperwork. All in all, it had become time-consuming of late and as such, he had not had the opportunity to attack his brother, pretending to want his father's other fang. As such, he had opted for having Jaken spy on Inuyasha, the miko, and the rest of the motley crew he had picked up.

Of course, this had upset Rin somewhat, for she was rather fond of...playing...with Jaken. He rather enjoyed seeing the results himself. But at least the toad was out of his way during this time. And he had long ago found an alternative for Rin that she equally enjoyed.

"Now, tell this Sesshoumaru what you have to report." Jaken did so. "Ah, interesting. Very well. I will spare your life." Sesshoumaru then turned in a western direction. The sun was setting. He would have to act fast. With his face turned safely away from his ancient, ugly toad-thing servant, he allowed a glimmer of mischief to appear in his beautiful, golden orbs. "Take care of Rin. If any harm comes to her, it will be on your head."

As soon as those words left his lord's mouth, Jaken's heart stopped and his eyes bulged out even more than usual. His hands went numb and the staff of heads, which rivaled his ugliness. "No, please oh Great Lord Sesshoumaru, this lowly servant has been loyal to you since your birth, why do you punish him so?"

Sesshoumaru turned and allowed an eyebrow to raise, barely a millimeter, but it was enough to scare Jaken half to death. "Are you questioning this Sesshoumaru's judgment, Jaken."

"N-no, my lord. I will take care of the human." He then proceeded to mumble a few choice words about humans under his breath, which Sesshoumaru decided to ignore. For the time being.

But for now, he had better things to do.

Kurama opened the shoji door that revealed the room shared by the women to check on his miko, Kagome. He thought it was strange that he had fallen for her in such a short time, but didn't bother questioning it for too long. Kagome, the Youko in him summed up, is a very special woman. She is meant for us, and no one else. It was fate. Simple as that. Kurama couldn't help but agree with his other side.

He had been equally impressed that she had the power to unlock his Youko form, without the former (or maybe still in business) bandit being the one with complete control.

He wished they could have been together at night, but Kagome was still uncomfortable sleeping in trees and it was considered inappropriate for them to sleep together. Kurama sighed again and looked in on the girls, to make sure they were all asleep, and instantly noticed an empty space by the taijiya.

"Where's Kagome?!"

End of Chapter
AN: First of all, everyone...Please don't hate me for not updating! You see, what happened was, with the last couple months of school, I just kept getting more and more frustrated with everything, and as such I was feeling very frustrated (duh) and melancholy and I was thinking too much (and yes, this is a bad thing because I'm a pessimist and that only got me more depressed). Since I was feeling that way, I knew anything I wrote would be half-hearted and when I looked back on it, I would think "How could I have written this crap?!" And that'd probably be what you all thought, too, so I decided to have you guys wait and not disappoint you all. So I decided on the alternative and just calmed myself down by reading and not writing.

Another thing: Sorry if anything changed, or if I repeated myself or anything along those lines, but I skimmed over each of the chapters really fast so I could get the idea of where I was in the story. I promise the next chapter will be better, or at least a little funnier.

Oh yeah! No one guessed right on who was watching them. It was Jaken (yuck!) Sorry to all those people who thought it was Fluffy-sama.

REVIEWer Responses:

(I hope this is where they left off... .')

SilentDark: Thank you so much for pulling me out of my depression and reminding me that my wonderful reviewers were waiting for me to update! You're so awesome!!!

Cagalli: I just read the summary for your fic, and I think I'm gonna start reading it tonight cuz it sounds good. Thanks for reviewing!

Silverclaws: Thanks for all of the fics you recommended!

ObsidianFox13: Thanks. Yeah, Hojo and Kuwabara are a lot alike, I agree, only Hojo's not ugly.

Nishigirl: I like Miroku as a pervert, too. I'm not done messing with him yet though, soooo...

Lil' Angel: Not to sound rude or anything but...why did you bother reviewing if you don't like the pairing? Also, I'm curious as to whether or not I'm the only one you have reviewed without reading. And one more thing, I hate Yusuke/Kagome pairings. I prefer him with Keiko or Boton(as long as it's not a main pairing). So there! sticks out tongue while standing in front of a flag featuring Kurama (in both forms)

Wow, my AN/responses is almost as long as the chapter. Sorry bout that! Anyways, I'll try to update within the next 1-2 weeks. So..um...yeah...hey, why are you still reading this?! Shouldn't you be REVIEWing?!