Jaken was laying on the emerald green grass resting, while nearby Rin was playing with a child that lived in the village. Sesshomaru was off questioning nearby villagers if they had seen "A hanyou mutt in red with a monk, a demon slayer, and a girl", with no luck so far. It was a quiet town, used as something of a trading post for demons and humans alike, so they didn't think much of Jaken or Rin's arrival, but they knew, just by looking at him, that Sesshomaru was a Lord. It's not like every demon that strolls into town has such an appearance, rarely any demons took on a human-like form, and the ones who did were amazingly powerful.

As he mumbled to himself about how he could have gotten a better profession than being a servant to such a selfish and cruel demon, Jaken paid little to no attention to Rin or her new friend. When he finally came out of his reverie of being freed from Sesshomaru, what he saw filled him with fear for his own life. Hastily looking left and right, he couldnt see any traces of either of the two children. He jumped up from his relaxed position and started searching the near area for Rin and her friend. With no luck of finding either, the scrubby toad demon raced off to find his master, hoping that the two will appear before he has to explain Rin's absence.

"My Lord!! Oh Lord Sesshomaru!" Jaken gasped as he ran into Sesshomarus leg. "It was so hard to find you, my lord.." Sesshomaru looked at him, with his regular hypnotic stare, sending chills down Jakens spine. Somehow, Jaken knew he wasn't going to be alive for much longer, so he decided to just come out and tell Sesshomaru the problem. "Its Rin, my lord! She has been stolen!" Slightly irritated that his interrogation was interrupted, Sesshomaru nodded, letting Jaken finish his story, "She was playing off with that child and then they must have ran away or something, because they are nowhere to be seen! I searched everywhere and I could not find any signs that they were near!" The second he finished that sentence, the demon lord showed full concern, knowing that there was no way on earth that Jaken would kid about something like this. Or rather, not if he still wanted to see the light of day, anyway.

"Are you positive? Was she not with that little village boy?" He said, while the villager he was questioning walked away. It would be a newsworthy sight, if anyone other than Jaken had seen Sesshomarus expression. He didn't have his usual calm, uncaring stare, the smirk he sometimes gave opponents before he landed the finishing blow to end the battle, and the adversaries life, he didn't even have the annoyed grimace that he sometimes got when Inuyasha was winning a fight, no, he had an emotion plastered on his face that would change everyones opinion of him if they had seen it. Sesshomaru was showing true care for someone other than himself.

"Yes, my lord, I am positive. They were just running around through a field, and when I turned around, both of them had just vanished! Like Naraku does, almost!" The servant could barely talk, he was stuttering so badly. As amazing as it seemed, Jaken didn't really care about Sesshoumarus change in character, since Jaken knew that nothing lasts forever, meaning that in a few moments, Sesshomaru would be ready to punish him.

Jaken cowered in fear and covered his head with his staff, expecting to get hit. But instead of taking his frustration out on the shaking Jaken like usual, Sesshomaru was looking straight ahead past Jaken, deep in thought. "You were suppose to take care of Rin, Jaken. What were you doing at the time? Did I NOT instruct you to keep Rin SAFE from danger?" Before Jaken even had time to reply, Sesshomaru blinked and regained his posture, "I will kill whoever kidnapped Rin."

"OSUWARI!" Yet again, Inuyasha was having it out with Kouga, and Kagome had to play peace-keeper. Peeling himself up from the newly formed hole, Inuyasha shot death glares at both Kagome and her wolf demon friend Kouga. Just like old times, the battle ends with a cry from Kagome, then the real fun begins, afterwards. Inuyasha and Kagome always made up from their little quarrels, of course. Since they both knew that they're key aspects to gathering the shards of the Shikon no Tama. Sometimes, however, it took longer for them to make up...

"Kagome you MORON, why are you always helping Kouga?!" Inuyasha barked at Kagome, using every ounce of self control to keep from attacking Kagome.

"Because its not fair that you two are always fighting! Dont you ever think about anyone else but yourself, Inuyasha?!" She snapped back.

"Keh. Would you rather me NOT rescue you from that dumb wolf and let him take you away?" Kagome waited a moment, trying to think of a reply to Inuyasha's reply. She mumbled "No.." then glared at Inuyasha. The now standing half-demon laughed at Kagome then said, "See? What did I tell you. Kouga is just a stupid wolf, you should just let me finish him off so we can all continue with our lives. Then we can gather the jewel shards, kill Naraku, and he will never bother us again."

Twitching with irritation at Inuyasha's smugness, Kagome yelled at him, "I'm going HOME! And dont even THINK of coming to look for me!"

"Keh, try to get to the well, or Kaede's village at that, wench. We're too far away. Youll DIE before you get even close." Giving Kagome a conceited grin was one of the stupidest mistakes Inuyasha made that day. He thought that he had won this, but he is often blind to the obvious, which in this case was that Kagome wasn't going down without a fight.

Kagomes chanting of that satanic curse seemed to last for hours in Inuyasha's point of view, when it had only been a few minutes, seconds maybe. Once she was 100 positive that Inuyasha was going to be plastered to the ground for at least a good 10 minutes, Kagome grabbed Sango by the wrist and dragged her into the forest. This happened often enough, Kagome gets upset with Inuyasha or Sango gets mad at Miroku, then the two girls talk it out during a bath in a relaxing hot spring, or whatever else they could find nearby. Luckily for them, Kouga and Inuyasha fought near a hotspring.

As soon as they had searched the near area for Miroku or anyone else who would be spying on them, Kagome started to whine and complain to no end. Sango took a deep breath and prepared herself for the long night they were going to have.. when Kagome and Inuyasha aren't talking, everyone has to deal with it. "Why are they always fighting, Sango?! Don't they want to be friends? Whats wrong with them?! Don't they know that fighting only wastes time we could be using to hunt down Naraku?!" By the time she finished saying that, Kagome was almost squeaking with her lack of breath. There was an awkward moment between the girls, when Sango was gathering thoughts for a reply, and Kagome was just thinking.

"They don't want to share you, Kagome. Its their animal instincts, and theres not much they or you can do about it until you let one of them kill the other." Sango was amazed at how she knew that. Of course she had a little knowledge on dog and wolf youkai, but she didnt think she knew THAT much. Leaning back on the rocks, Kagome thought about the choices she had. She could let Inuyasha kill Kouga, but that was out of the question, she couldnt hurt Kougas pack or herself that much. So that left her with two choises, that she could see. She could just avoid Kouga altogether, or just be satisfied with her current solution until Inuyasha and Kouga made a truce.

A/N: oo Long one, lol. I decided to at least post chapter 1 before I decide to continue or not. 99 I hopes you like it. nn I enjoyed writing it. Just a re-cap, for those of you who dont understand whats going on.

Rin gets kidnapped, Sesshomaru is being out-of character.

Inuyasha and Kouga fight, Kagome stops it.

Next chapter: Sesshomaru and Inuyasha meet up, not intentionally, of course. What kind of rivalry would that be?