Okay, I've made it to the second chapter and we get to introduce a few more characters into the story! I actually didn't think the story would really get anywhere, but I'm having fun writing it, so I'm sure it will continue!

I'm sorry for such a late update, believe it or not this should have been up last Wednesday, but I was feeling a bit lazy when it came to typing, lol. Plus I didn't get a lot of reviews so I felt I didn't need to work too fast hint hint

Thank you so much for reviewing! Means a lot sniff and you've motivated me to write this chapter! huggles

Disclaimer: pwsh, sure I do .

A Samurai's Story

Chapter 2: Sex Problems (gender not the action! Haha)

Kagome continued to ride on through the zig-zagging paths of the mountains. So far she hadn't encountered anyone who had any doubt of her being an imperial soldier, and it was a bonus that she didn't have to deal with any of the real soldiers, that definitely wouldn't have been pretty.

But she managed and she was quite proud of herself that she had managed to pull it off.

As the horse continued a steady trot, Kagome was able to scrutinize her surroundings for the first time. There were an abundance of trees, all very tall and intimidating, but also very beautiful.

While her thoughts wandered off, she narrowed her eyes, why had the samurai takes her brother? Surely they couldn't have known he was to be a soldier, it wasn't even an obvious fact that he was to become one! And even if they did know he was to be in the imperial army, why take him rather than kill him? It would be pointless to take him for ransom, the emperor wouldn't pay to get back an unofficial soldier.

This was like a huge puzzle to Kagome...she hated puzzles, she was never any good at them. But she wasn't about to compare such a serious situation to a mere puzzle.

She sighed as she rethought all her previous questions in her head again.

Kagome noticed a small pond up ahead to the right of the path, she decided she would let the horse take a small rest, plus she was a little parched and really needed to drink something.

When she halted the horse to a stop by the shore of the pond, she tried with incredible ease to get herself of the beast. Of course with her luck, when she brought her leg over the horse, the other foot decided to get hooked in the saddle and Kagome was sent sprawling down the ground, making an impressive face-plant in a mud puddle.

Kagome groaned as she lifted her body over halfway with her hand and let herself fall on her back, then stared up at the horse looking down at her, as if to be laughing at her misfortunes, at least that's what she figured.

"What are you looking at?" she huffed and then tried to get herself back up. It was hard to get up due to the disadvantage of her armor still being very heavy and damp from the rain. But it had ceased raining thankfully, so it was slowly drying off. She heaved herself up into a sitting position with great effort, "ugh, why did I decide to do this again?" she was talking to the horse of course, 'Kagome, your talking to a horse of all things!', "Well, it was a rhetorical question anyway so don't worry about answering any time soon", she glared at the innocent animal as it begun to drink the pond water.

Just as she managed to gather enough strength to pick herself fully off the ground, she was confronted by a small weight on her chest and a huge pair of emerald eyes.

"AAH!" she screamed falling backwards on her back once again.

"Mr. Soldier, sir! You have to help me please!" a tiny voice squealed, jumping up and down on her chest.

When she looked up to see where the voice was coming from, she saw a very tiny boy with big worried eyes, then...she saw the tail.

"Demon!" with speed like lightning, Kagome paced back on her hands, and the small demon tumbled backwards between her legs and then landing on the ground. She managed to get up on her feet and draw her sword.

The small youkai rubbed his little head better from his brief assault, "what'd you do that for-", he looked up to a blade's point to his nose, "gah! What are you doing, aren't you a soldier? Your supposed to protect me!"

Kagome's glare at the little demon softened, 'I forgot that I was dressed in soldier armor', which was a pretty big miss since she had just been complaining about it. Kagome didn't normally associate with demons, she had always been afraid of them, of course, she had never gotten to know one either, ' well, he is kind of cute'. She lowered her weapon and sheathed it once more, "sorry, you just frightened me", Kagome made a small mistake when she said this...she forgot to disguise her voice. After realizing what she had done, she had a small coughing fit.

The small child gave Kagome a very curious look, raising one of his little eyebrows, "hey, your not a soldier are you?"

Kagome's eyes widened a bit, "of course I am, I'm wearing the imperial armor!", she said this a bit quickly, she couldn't be found out about now, and by a child no less, 'come on Kagome, get a hold of yourself, he's a child, he shouldn't have the power to make you nervous'

'Yeah right,' Shippou thought to himself. He watched as the 'soldier' bent down over the water to watch the mud out of his hair, then her saw a bug out of the corner of his eye, and a sly smirk appeared across his normally innocent features.

Grabbing another handful of water to wipe in her hair, Kagome's face scrunched up when she saw her other hand full of the filth her hair had fallen into, 'gross'. Without any notice, Kagome looked up and was greeted with the ugliest insect she had ever seen, "Waah!" she extracted a rather high pitched womanly scream, while jumping backwards.

"Ha, I knew it! Your a woman!" the little boy had a wide grin plastered on his face and was pointing his finger right between her eyes.

'This can't be happening,' Kagome gave his accusing finger a deadpan look, before running a hand through her loosened, filthy hair, 'found out by a child'

"Don't worry, I don't have anything against cross-dressers," the tiny demon shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm not a cross-dresser!" Kagome retorted.

Shippou raised a suspicious eyebrow at the strange woman, "I see now. So your mate joined the army and since you couldn't bare the thought of living without him, you're dressed as a man so you can be together," he folded his hands up to his chest in mock romanticism, "how romantic"

Kagome gave the demon child an odd look from his actions, "not exactly, no"

The red headed child's eyes went wide, "are you one of those crazy women my mother told me about once th-"

"NO!" Kagome's left eyebrow was now making a small ticking motion, here she was trying to rescue Souta, while this little beast pestered her with abnormal questions, "I'm not a cross-dresser, or a woman trying to find her...mate, or a crazt lady! I'm just trying to get my brother back," her last sentence was a bit crestfallen.

Shippou's face fell, "oh," and being the very nosey kit that he was, "where is he?"

"He was taken by a group of Samurai," Kagome was staring at her reflection in the smooth surface of the pond.

"You mean the Samurai that live up in the mountains?!" the small kit jumped in the air to emphasize the question. He was answered when Kagome gave a small nod, "have you found him yet?"

Kagome let out a depressed sigh, the last thing she wanted to talk about was her possibly murdered brother, "shouldn't you be with your parents or something?" When she looked down at him for an answer, the little boy had his head hanging so that his bangs fell in his eyes, "what's wrong?"

"My parents are dead, they were killed by a really mean demon, I managed to get away, that's why I came to you for help," his normally perky voice had turned morbid.

Kagome felt tears beginning to sting at her eyes, 'the poor thing,' she would never have guessed it, but it seemed like they both had similar problems, "well, you can come with me if you'd like, but I can't really garantee your safety. Once I get my brother, I can tell the guards about your parents when we get home and see what they can do"

A huge smile replaced the frown on the boy's face, "Really!? I can?" When she nodded, he made a big leap, landing on her shoulder, "Thank you, Okaasan!"

"Okaasan?" Kagome sweat-dropped.

"Yeah, you can be my new mother! My name's Shippou!"

'I guess being so young, the thought of a replacement mother doesn't bother him, I suppose I could take care of him until I find him some suitable parents,' she blew a stray hair from her face, "I'm Kagome," 'at least I'll have some company'

They had been travelling for about an hour together now. It was around midday, so the sun was far up in the sky and beaming down on them, but at least they knew where they were going.

Shippou said that he had known the hidden village that Kagome was talking about and could show her the way. Seemed Shippou had lived in these mountains all his little life and knew his way around quite well.

They were quite far into the forest now and the sun was beginning to get blocked out by all the tall trees, "are you positive you know where we're going Shippou?" Kagome asked a bit nervously, being in such a secluded area, she felt like she was being watched.

"Of course I do," he said reassuringly, "are you afraid Okaasan, don't be scared I'll protect you!" then he puffed out his chest.

Kagome giggled a little, "Oka-"

She found herself flying off the horse and hitting the ground within the next second. Shaking her head out of her stupor, she looked towards her shoulder where she felt the push and saw a huge arrow sticking out of her armor. She gasp at the shear size of it, luckily her armor was too thick for the arrow to penetrate to make skin contact.

When Shippou got his little body back on his hind legs and saw that Kagome was also down, a faint scent reached his nose, "whose there!? I'll come and get cha if you don't show yourself!" although Shippou didn't have the most intimidating voice in existence at least he tried.

"Well, well, look what we have here. An imperial guard travelling trough the mountains...alone," a rather husky voice stated.

Kagome pulled the arrow out of her armor and scrambled to her feet to the best of her ability (the armor was heavy), she was looking down and noticed that she was practically toe to toe with someone, she took an unconscious step back.

Now she got a good look at the man, he had long black hair pulled back into a braid, falling over his shoulder and seemed to bare some cross-like symbol on his forehead.

'Is he a Samurai?' was Kagome's first thought, she figured for a second that she could probably take him, but that figuration soon flew out the window when she looked pass him for a second to break the eye contact and saw three other men standing further behind.

The man looked at her thoroughly for a quick second, then at Shippou, who was glaring up at him, "so you plan on taking on the militia alone do you?" he said finally after figuring out it was just the two of them, them he gave her a smirk at such stupidity to do so.

Kagome thought hard for a moment and realized that they must be samurai scouting the mountains, just her luck that they managed to find her...

'There's no way I can take on all four of them' she'd be lucky if she could handle one, she narrowed her eyes a bit, his smirk was really getting to her, ' but maybe they could lead me to Souta!' her eyes widened at the thought.

The man's eyebrows narrowed again, "are you just going to stand there and gape at me, or do you even speak"

"I've come to join the Samurai of these mountains," she said quickly, making her voice deeper.

He raised an eyebrow, "yeah? You look like it," he scoffed, and a few laughs could be heard behind him.

"I'm leaving the army! This was the only armor I had to protect myself!" Kagome protested, in hopes that he would believe her and not slice her through.

"Take out your sword," he said simply.

"B- but I just said-"

"You'd better be prepared to defend yourself!" he drew his sword quickly.

Kagome grabbed her sword and managed to block his first offense, shutting her eyes at the loud clash. She was unfortunate enough to not block the second and his blade was at her neck, 'damn'.

He gave one quick laugh, "good thing you've come to join us, if you'd stayed in the army you probably would've been the first to die!" he put his sword away and began to walk away, laughing and shaking his head, "none of those imperial bastards know how to use a sword," two of the others laughed.

She was just about to protest against his insult, but instead someone's face popped up in front of her own. She jumped at the sudden surprise. The man had deep violet eyes and short black hair tied back at the nape of his neck. He was quite handsome to say the least, then Kagome took at his...robes? 'A monk?' she raised her eyebrow.

"Hello, I'm Miroku," he made a small bow, then gave her a very charming smile, "It's always nice to know there are more who want to help us"

Kagome continued to stare, he was after all one of the most handsome men she'd ever seen.

When she failed to answer him, Miroku stared back, 'what's wrong with this guy?' he then smiled again, "don't mind Bankotsu, he's a bit deranged today," he made a friendly gesture to said samurai, "what's your name?"

Kagome come back to earth when she realized she was being asked a question, "Oh...Kag- er- Kyo!", 'great Kagome, you almost blew it'

"Kyo?" Miroku repeated for verification.

"Akimine Kyo," well she officially had her fake name, now she just had to remember to use it. She made a small bow to be friendly.

"Come on Miroku, stop being a woman and making small talk!" Bankotsu shouted to them from a ways further in the woods, "and I heard what you said about me!"

"Coming!" then a realization dawned on him, "I'm not a woman, I'm quite manly!" he shouted back, "Do I seem womanish to you?"

Kagome quickly shook her head no.

"Good," he gave a small nod then glared back at the retreating Bankotsu, within the next second he was giving Kagome a charming smile again, "well then, let's get going"

Kagome went to get her horse, but soon found out it was missing, "hey, where'd my horse go?"

"Bankotsu took it, don't worry you'll get it back...hopefully"

"What do you mean 'hopefully'?" she asked when she ran up to walk beside him, with Shippou riding on her shoulder.

"Well, first we have to take you to Sesshoumaru, then if he likes you and trusts you, you'll be one of us...then you can get your horse back"

'Sesshoumaru', "and if I'm not acceptive?" she edged on, afraid of what the answer would be.

"Well that's an east one, we kill you!" he laughed.

Kagome gasped as her eyes widened, "why can't they just let me go!?" she almost lost her command on her voice.

Miroku looked at her with a thoughtful expression on his face, "well, if we let people we didn't accept go, that could earn us an enemy, and they could tell the emperor where we reside and we can't have that now can we?"

She just gaped at him, "do you have any compassion for life?"

He raised a delicate eyebrow at her, "you just left the army, did you not kill when you were ordered?" Kagome thought a second, remembering she was suppose to be leaving the army, "besides, we're samurai, not priests"

Kagome took a look at his robes again.

"I'm a monk, not a priest," he answered her un-verbalized question with a knowing finger in the air.

'That still doesn't mean you go around killing people,' she thought, "But-"

"Soooo, whose the little guy?" he cut her off before she could finish what she was saying in attempt to change the subject.

"He's my..."

"I'm he- his guardian!" Shippou quipped, almost slipping with his words.

"Guardian?" once again he raised an eyebrow at Kagome, expecting an answer. Making sure he heard right.

"Yeah..." Kagome replied, but Miroku was still giving her a funny look, "I have to wait for him to grow up an get bigger"

"Oh," Miroku said in comprehension, 'we really have picked up a nutcase'

After a couple more hours of walking, they finally made it to the village, unfortunately, Kagome didn't have much time to look around since the one they called Bankotsu pushed down heavily on her shoulders until she was on her knees, 'ow', she tried he best to keep in any painful cries.

Miroku came down by her face, "don't worry, they put you in this position so that if your not welcomed here, it's easier to kill you, unless they deem you worthy of defending yourself," he smiled at her bewildered expression, "well, it's quick! Would you rather suffer? I'll be back in a second"

Kagome just stayed were she was, she could hear Shippou's muffled protests behind her, what would happen to him? She was afraid to look up, she could just feel their eyes burrowing into her and whispers travelling around.

Several minutes later, she heard two pairs of footsteps coming towards her, 'must be Miroku and that man...Sesshoumaru was it?'

When they stopped in front of her she looked up. Well, Miroku wasn't there. Both of them had long silver hair and amber eyes The one on the right was glaring down at her, she noticed that he had dog ears placed on top of his head and she recognized him as the demon that led the samurai into her village the day before.

The other, who was a bit taller than the dog-eared demon was wearing a very stoic expression. If Kagome could describe him in one word it would definitely be 'beautiful'.

"So you plan to leave the army to join us?" the tall man asked, his voice was deep and smooth.

Kagome wasn't positive on which one of them was this Sesshoumaru, so she just nodded her head yes.

The shorted of the two scoffed, "we already have one of them, plus this one doesn't even have the decency to talk, just kill 'em. We don't need him"

Well, Kagome knew off the bat that she wasn't liking this guy, and she prayed to Kami that he wasn't Sesshoumaru, but with her luck he probably was, with a hesitation she finally spoke, "yes, yes I would"

The one with the dog ears laughed, "now it speaks! Pathetic!"

Kagome looked to the other one, waiting for an answer, 'I can't get this far and fail'

The taller of the two drew his sword, "I suppose your right, little brother"

Kagome closed her eyes in instinct, 'kami-sama, kami-sama....'

Souta came out into the crowded field to see what was happening, 'they're killing someone?', when he got closer he saw the armor and recognized it immediately, 'father?'

Then he got a better look at the person's features, "Kagome," it was an almost inaudible whisper. He saw Sesshoumaru raise his sword up into the air, "No!"

Meh, there you go chapter 2. Not much of a cliffhanger...or is it? Did you like it? Hate it? Do you think I portrayed Miroku fairly good? He may have been a bit OOC.

Please review if you'd like to read the next chapter! The more reviews the faster the update!