General Author's Note: This story is written by Inu Kaiba and Roxyfoxy, a joint project. All reviews are for both, so you'll know. Please visit her profile and read her works also! The link is in my profile.

Inu Kaiba: I gotta stop forgetting this.

Kagome dropped her bowl for a moment, almost in some kind of surprise. She didn't realize it had gotten all over her but at that point she didn't care. She softly sighed looking at everyone pitifully, the girl who always full of cheer wasn't anymore.

"I know Inuyasha's gone..."

"But I didn't think...he wouldn't come back..."

Miroku sighed. "Kagome if he ran away... Alone... Who knows what could happen? He could die and we'd never know. We just have to hope while we find the rest of the Shikon shards that we'll chance upon him."

"Naraku has ¾ of it and we only have a few shards right?" Miroku sighed again. "There has to be a few shards left."

Kagome looked at Miroku almost like she was ready to cry. She just stood up and looked at everyone. "If you need me I'll be outside." With that Kagome rushed on placing her head against the hut, smothering herself with her hands.

Miroku sighed. "I knew it..."

He went outside. "Kagome, I've just come to tell you we're starting a quest for the rest of the Shikon shards tomorrow. And we're not coming back until we have the last of them."

Kagome tried wiping the visible tears on her face, trying to lie to herself and everyone else that she was happy. "Why should I come? All I am is a shard detector... Remember?"

Miroku didn't look happy at all. "NO YOU'RE NOT!" he snapped at her. Then he sighed and lowered his face in his hand. "We're doing this so that if InuYasha is around, not in the vicinity but farther out, we could find him. If not, we could at least find Sesshomaru and get him to help us defeat Naraku, when we have the rest of the shards. That is, if we can't find InuYasha."

Kagome looked up and softly sighed. "Well you guys are right. I just feel like some shard detector and I'm sick of it. Even if we find Inuyasha what makes you think he'll be overjoyed to see me?"

"You never know until you find out."

Kagome chuckled a little at Miroku, or the thought of what he said. She just looked at him placing a real smile on her face again. "Miroku can I ask you something...?"

"Yes?" Miroku asked, raising an eyebrow from curiousity

Kagome laughed and shook her head. "No, that would be stupid to ask you that..."

"What is it Kagome?" he asked again, leaning over a bit.

Kagome looked down. She was already feeling like a little school girl, and she was afraid she was setting herself up to let herself smash into pieces. She clearly wiped the smile off of her face, getting a little more serious. "Do you think… Inuyasha... Likes me?"

"Yes, I think he does. So don't worry about it."

Kagome sighed feeling her cheeks burn red, feeling stupid that she ever would ask a question like that.

"Well I feel bad… It's my fault he left… Hopefully everything will go alright..." Kagome leapt up from where she was sitting trying to wipe the remainder of tears that were still in the corner of her eyes.

"Your right, if we're all lucky, everything will go well."

Kagome placed a smile on her face and headed back in, with more confidence and happiness because of Miroku. She lightly hugged him, she had never felt this overjoyed before.

Sango just looked up at the two and smiled greatly at Miroku. He may be an ass, but she knew he was good at cheering up girls when they needed to be cheered up.

"Kagome, I think it's best if we sleep now. Tomorrow is a busy day if we're starting on our quest. However if you want to go quickly back and tell your mother you won' be back for a long while, that's okay."

Kagome gave a brief smile and nodded. "Yea I might as well. My mother worries enough as it is. I think I'll be sleeping in my era tonight. After all, I need time to myself. I promise I'll be leaving when it's morning. I need time to prepare and get some things for me and you guys. So I should be leaving now."

"Alright!" Miroku said smiling. "You take care now." Then he handed over her backpack making sure to get a quick rub of her ass before darting away laughing.

Kagome's eyes opened wide hearing him chuckling, while she could hear Sango screaming in his ear which was good enough. "I'm glad Sango has him handled. I think I should sleep better tonight. It's going to be different sleeping on my own bed, but it's better then nothing." Kagome thought staring into the well. With that, she jumped in.

Kagome slowly walked into the house, noticing the only person who was awake was Sota, getting himself a midnight snack. "Kagome you're home… I thought you were going to stay longer with Inuyasha?" Kagome laughed and shook her head. "Nah. I'm just sleeping here for tonight and leaving tomorrow." Sota nodded. "Well make sure you tell mom tomorrow, if I haven't left yet."

Sota nodded. "Good night sis." Kagome smiled and tiredly flew into the bed.

"Well hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'll bring something for them and Inuyasha just in case. Inuyasha you don't understand how much I care and worry about you, and how I much I hate it." With that, Kagome slowly shut her eyes falling asleep.

The next day-

InuYasha opened his eyes. He was about to say good morning Kagome. But all he got out was. "Good morning K.."

InuYasha stared at his brother. "Where the fuck am I?"

Sesshomaru sighed. "I have questions to ask you now." 'My lord, this will be frustrating...' he thought, and just the thought made him want to bang his head on the tree.

"InuYasha, where's your group of friends...?"

InuYasha ceased his incessant complaining and question asking and spoke quietly. "I ran away from them..."

"Why?" his brother asked. And InuYasha knew he was genuinely interested.

Before he knew it, he'd poured his heart out, and told his brother how he felt about the whole thing, explaining every little detail of his story.

Sesshomaru listened to the whole thing, then stated his own opinion. "You do realize you just told me everything you feel about Kagome and all."

InuYasha's eyes widened in realization that what his brother said was true. "Shit..."

He gulped and his movements became shaky and he stuttered quite a bit. "A...a.a..re you g...g..going to t..t..tell Ka..go..go..me?"

Sesshomaru sighed. "No, I have no plans to. And I want to propose something."

He leaned over a bit and rested his hands on his knees. "Would you like to join us? That is, Jakken and Rin and I. I wouldn't mind having you around, though we would have to swear not to kill one another in our sleep and..."

InuYasha had fallen over in faint shock. Sesshomaru groaned. "InuYasha, yes or no?"

"Y...yeah... Are you sure you're not going to kill me?" he asked. "I'm not going to have any need." His brother said smiling. "Without father around, we could do to act a bit more friendly anyway."

Kagome woke up early, stumbling placing everything in a bag and quickly heading out to the well. "Hopefully this time I'm not late."

Kagome felt something tug at her covers gently, pushing to wake her up thinking, it had been who she thought it was. "Kagome get up! It's noon already!" Kagome shook her head; her hair all over the place. Kagome swiftly grabbed a book beside her and hit whoever was shaking her, hard.

"Oh, so now you come for me! Figures. That's just like you… I worry about you all the time and now you come and get me after you left me there? Damn you Inuyasha!"

He flew to the ground, with an eyebrow raised moaning from the pain of the book against his hard head. "Kagome, I'm not Inuyasha!"

Kagome rubbed her eyes and clearly saw her brother laying against the ground with a huge bruise near his head, and his forehead.

Kagome just nervously laughed, feeling like the biggest idiot in the world and the fact, she said she cared for Inuyasha to her brother, and mistaken him for him. "I'm such an idiot! Sota… Don't you say a damn word..."

Kagome took one finger against her neck, making it look like she was going to slit her throat. "That's was is going to happen if you open your mouth understand? To anyone, and especially Inuyasha. Got that?"

Sota just swallowed and nodded. "Yea I got that..." Kagome stood up with a crazy smile. "Good...Now I'm going back..." Kagome said throwing more stuff in her bag to bring with her while she quickly sped off to the well.

Miroku tapped his staff against the well. "You know what would be cool, Sango? If we could go through this well! I wonder if they practice Buddhism in Kagome's time...?"

The little rings on his staff jingled as he shook it around excitedly, like a Buddhist crazy monk, ready to leap at the next change to hug a statue of Buddha.

Sango shook her head and rolled her eyes, looking at him like some dumb idiot. "Yea, and there's demon exterminators in Kagome's time too."

Miroku looked at her and grinned. "Really! Cool. Maybe you'll meet your descendants descendants descendants there!"

Sango sighed staring at him, as though she pitied him for being so stupid, so naïve that he actually didn't understand the term of "Sarcasm"

Sango shook her head, " Great... I'm in love with... AN IDIOT!" Sango placed her hands gently on his shoulder and gave a fake, annoyed grin. "Well why don't you go there and see what you can find Miroku..."

Miroku threw his staff at a tree and watched it stick there, and then he walked over and sat beneath the tree beside his staff, and began his monk mantra-thing. "You see Sango, we can't get through the well, and we don't have the same thing InuYasha and Kagome do. Now then, if Kagome is going to take this long I will begin my mantra."

Miroku began to speak in a low voice. "Sango is the best, Sango is the best..." Then he looked at Sango, thought better and chose something else. "I must find Shikon Jewel Shards, I must find Shikon Jewel Shards..."

Sango just gave an out of control laugh, like she was losing it. 'Look what you like Sango. A big blistering, dumb, annoying, stupid, slow, perverted ass monk...Who does nothing but grab you, touch you… Yet cares for you, pleases you…Would do anything for you...'

Sango shook her head. "What the hell am I thinking? He's a complete idiot!" Sango just smiled attempting to push him down the well.

Miroku snapped his eyes open. "I SAID LET ME MEDITATE GODDAMMIT SANGO!" Then he cleared his throat and continued, this time speaking calmly. "If you have any shred of respect for me at all, you'll let me meditate and speak to Buddha!" And with that he plunked back down in the grass beside his staff and began to meditate again this time choosing an evil mantra to spite Sango. "I will respect Buddhism. I will respect Buddhism and Miroku. I will respect Buddhism and Miroku. I will respe..."

Kagome finally popped out of the well, with her hands full of food lifting herself up and falling against the lush green grass.

"Finally." Kagome said to herself seeing Miroku down near the well and Sango beside him, throwing her bags over the ledge, scanning the beautiful violet sky and the birds that were chirping loudly in the distance.

Sango just shook her head, and saw Kagome calmly sighing on her side gathering free air. Sango nudged Miroku hard in the ribs while he had the most angered look planted on his face. "Miroku, Kagome's here! Will you stop that?"

Kagome blinked for a moment while she looked straight at Sango for moment for guidance, because she was completely lost. "Just don't ask..."

Kagome smiled for a moment, glad she was with her friends but still no sign of Inuyasha. "He was never so mean and an ass like that before. Well the attitude... But leaving me there?" Kagome began to get mad and she shook her head, worrying about everything.

Miroku finally stopped chanting after at least ten more minutes. "I feel much better!" he said and smiled. Then he looked over at Kagome and noticed the sad pained expression on her face. "Is something wrong?" he asked. He turned to Sango. "Did something happen?" When no answer was heard he spoke again. "Something happened, didn't it?"

Kagome just looked back at him. "Well it doesn't matter."

Kagome grabbed another bag and threw it to Miroku, "Here this is yours." Kagome held the remaining bag in her lap and softly sighed looking up at the sky, and back to them.

"Well..." Miroku said and sighed sadly. "Shall we start on our q..."

All of a sudden he jumped up and threw himself in front of Kagome. "GET BACK KAGOME!" he screamed.

Kagome blinked for a moment, feeling herself getting knocked off her feet.

"Lady Kagome, It's a demon. We'll have to fight it by ourselves, without InuYasha. Where is the jewel shard?"

Kagome blankly looked down, and cringed at the thought. "The jewel shards? Well umm..."

"Hurry Lady Kagome! We can kill it faster if we know where it is!"

Miroku ran at the demon throwing his staff into it's humongous stomach. It was a ghastly demon, orange red in colour, with gray-ish horns on it's head and a swaddle of cloth wrapped around it's waist. It's eyes were a yellow golden and it roared in anger as Miroku hit it with his staff, the bristles on the black beard on his chin standing on end, while he roared in pain and agony, covering its face with it's hands.

Kagome just screamed for a moment and looked at Miroku. "I don't have them! I forgot!"

"KAGOME NOT THE JEWEL SHARDS!" He smacked his head on a nearby tree a few times while the demon looked on in confusion. "Where are the Jewel Shards in the god forsaken demon!"

Kagome just looked hard trying to think hard, and trying to erase everything that was bothering her. "I'm trying! It's hard when you have a million things to think about!" Kagome screamed scanning the evil demon over finally targeting the single shard.

"It's in the back!" Kagome screamed with alarm with it almost swiping her, leaving her shaking now with fear. 'Inuyasha I need you here right now!' She thought trembling knowing at this point he'd grab her and place her to safety.

Miroku nodded and yelled at her once again. "KAGOME, GO GET YOUR BOW AND ARROWS, YOU'LL PROBABLY DEFEAT IT EASIER THAN WE CAN! I'LL HOLD HIM OFF UNTIL YOU COME BACK!"

Kagome nodded fleeing from the battle with her head in the clouds. "I will. Maybe if Inuyasha was here we wouldn't be in this mess!" Kagome thought distancing herself further and further from the noise and the craziness of the fight. "Wait… What am I thinking? I need to prove to myself I can do things on my own without him. Feh, who needs him. After all he chose to leave us. So when something happens he'll feel bad enough."

Meanwhile, Miroku was trying to fend off the monster while Sango looked around for her Hiraikotsu which she had conveniently misplaced.

"HOW COULD YOU LOSE YOUR WEAPON AT A TIME LIKE THIS!" he screamed at her while smacking the monster over the head with his staff.

Sango looked around frantically, knowing she always had that thing in her hands and never out of her sight. "I don't know! When I find it I'll put it to good use!" Sango glared at him giving him bad attitude.

Miroku threw one of his scrolls at the demon and nearly screamed in frustration. "I should be smacking you with this!"

Miroku was yelling his head off, and it was obvious the demon wasn't doing more damage than it could have because it was amused by their antics. "WHY AREN'T YOU TRYING TO FIND IT?"

Sango looked around, feeling like a complete idiot for misplacing such an important thing. "Damn it! Well I can't find it and I can only hold it off with some weapons until Kagome gets back!" Sango screamed back grabbing her sword out.

Miroku smacked the ogre-like demon over the head with his staff. "Dammit, why won't this demon die?"

Kagome just ran back through all the forest, heading back to the hut where she left her bow and arrows lying inside, awaiting for her to use them. "I feel like I'm running to get them for no reason!" Kagome cried to herself pacing herself a little bit more until she finally reached the doorway.

Kagome felt the bitter cold wind blowing against her, while she finally came into the dark hut that was lit by only a couple of candles; that were slowly dying.

"Damn I can't see a damn thing in here!" Kagome whined, seeing the shadowy outline of the bow and arrows reaching for them.

"So is this where they stay?" Sesshomaru asked curiously, tossing his hair over his shoulder.

"Y...yeah..." InuYasha replied. "Alright, I'll take care of this." Sesshomaru said pulling back the bamboo door cover.

"...You're not going to kill them are you?"

"No I'm going to give them flowers! Why shouldn't I kill them?"

"But they're my friends!"

"Fine, then what the hell are we doing here?" His brother said. "You deserve to be slapped. How can I have an idiot like you for a brother?"

Sesshomaru slapped his brother light enough, but considering the strength of Sesshomaru that slap had the power to permanently give a regular human spine damage. Needless to say, InuYasha was blown back and he slammed into a tree, losing consciousness quite fast.

Sesshomaru just grabbed him wordlessly and threw him on Ah and Un's back. "Jakken, let's go." "Right Master Sesshomaru-Sama." Five minutes later, they still hadn't taken off.

"... Jakken what the hell is taking you so long?" Sesshomaru asked.

Jakken was staring into space at something. Sesshomaru looked over at where Jakken was looking and finding nothing particularly interesting he kicked the servant, wanting nothing more than to get a move on.

That was when the arrow whizzed past Sesshomaru's head.

Kagome nervously heard the startling noise, and it wasn't some ordinary noise either. It was one that got her heart thumping, trying to escape from her chest. "What was that!" Kagome worriedly whispered to herself, knocking over one of the candles without realizing it.

She quickly grasped the bow and arrows in her hands. As nervous as she was, she slowly stepped outside into the bitter cold searching for the target, the threat that was making the noises.

"Ok Kagome. Your fine as long as you have these..." Kagome thought feeling the beads of sweat dripping down her forehead.

She swiftly felt her knees caving in, knowing shadows and the night made things worse than it was. She couldn't rely on taste or smell like Inuyasha had that was a true gift, she had to do it based on her instincts. And for humans in the feudal era, they were doomed to die.

"There it is..." Kagome muttered seeing the shadow that lay against the tree, moaning angrily seeing an outline of fur and ears that indicated it was for sure it was a demon. Kagome pulled back the string from the bow, feeling herself being pulled back a couple of feet from the power of the arrow unleashing itself from its original place.

Purplish lights lit up the sky, as the arrow left the bow, darting towards the demon hoping her aim was dead on.

"What on earth...?" Sesshomaru had a hunch that he and his brother had been overheard by InuYasha's little friends. "Jakken get on Ah and Un with InuYasha and Rin and go." His eyes narrowed. "Now."

"But Master Sesshomaru what about y..."

"I will be fine. Now go!"

Jakken gulped and hopped onto Ah and Un grabbing the reins. "Go!" he cried.

Right at that moment, Sesshomaru stepped out of the bushes right in front of Kagome's path. "Need something, wench?"

Kagome's full thoughts were shatted, by the sound of Sesshomaru's voice, noticing her arrow stabbed into the tree, just touching his cheek enough, that it showed a small scar. She hated the sight of him, and knew she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"How about you leave me alone!" Kagome screamed. But instead, she screamed out of fear than strength.

"You're scared wench. The tone says it all. And if you didn't want anything, what has dared you to shoot me out of the blue so boldly?"

Kagome felt her nerves and her inner fears rising inside of her, that was written all over her face. She had her bows and arrows, but what made her feel afraid, when she had everything she needed to defend herself…

Kagome just bit down on her lip, enough to draw blood to the surface. She didn't know how to reply to his damned comment, but she just swallowed taking another look at him and grabbing another arrow to show him she meant bussiness. "I'm not scared of you and I never will be... The only reason I shot my arrow was in case of any other demons... Too bad it didn't hit you..." Kagome tried throwing couragous attitude in her voice, but failed miserably. "At the least, you'll have a scar to remember me by." She added in, hoping to anger him even more.

Sesshomaru laughed. "It would never have hit me. And even though it will scar for now, it will heal. All demons have the power to heal, but you're simply too stupid to know that. I know you're upset since you lost the hanyou wench. And it's too bad you're intent on being such a bitch since I know where he is." Sesshomaru said, with a smirk that was all to visible.

Kagome felt his words hit her, leaving her wounded. Her eyes opened wider when she saw the expression on his face, and him knowing where his brother was made her feel sicker and weaker by the second. "He's a liar.. He doesn't know where he is… He's just trying to play head games.." Kagome told herself, trying not to make herself to believe it.

Kagome just pulled the string back on the bow, narrowing her eyes to make the perfect target. "You're a liar...!" Kagome screamed, while the arrow hurled towards him at a heart wrenching speed.

Sesshomaru just ducked easily dodging the arrow. "I may be your enemy but have I ever lied to you?"

Kagome just bit down harder, trying not to believe him, but deep down in her heart she could feel herself believing every word. Kagome just looked around weakly, ready to grab another arrow when she realized she had only one left, it alarmed her. "Why would he be with you! Answer me that, before I shoot you! I promise you this time I won't miss..." Kagome bluffed holding the arrow in the spot, using it as a simple threat.

"Because it's easier to trust your brother than a lying using bitch." Sesshomaru spat.

Sesshomaru laughed. "And I also doubt you would use that arrow. You can barely protect yourself as it is. Without my brother you're nothing. He still wishes Kikyou was alive. Not just for her beauty and power. But because she was loyal to him, and she wasn't a lying cheating using bitch."

Kagome's eyes widened, proving he could see right through all her attempts, and all her bluffs. She didn't expect him to see through her, and yet she dropped her bow down towards the ground glaring at him hatefully for his comment… especially the part about Kikyou. "You know nothing about Kikyou and him! I care for Inuyasha, and will always be there for him! So don't act like you know everything!"

"Did you think I really wanted to come here...by choice! So I could get hurt! Just show me Inuyasha now!" She demanded gathering her guts, stubbornly closing in on him with the bow and arrow still in hand.

"InuYasha's probably far away by now." he smirked. "Unless you run at 100 miles per hour, there's a slim to nothing chance you'll catch up to him. And I know a hell of a lot more than you think. Considering I got the story right from InuYasha himself. And I know exactly how he feels about you. And from his stories... Honestly, I believe you wouldn't do a very good job at being his wife."

"Because you use him. You lie to him. You cheat on him. You should lose him."

Kagome just felt all her surroundings, everything closing in on her. She felt at that moment useless, and weak but yet refrained herself to falling to her knees in defeat. "You're an asshole..." She muttering angrily underneath her breath ditching the bows and arrows, knowing they posed as anything but a threat. "I don't cheat on him… And I don't use him... I would never hurt him..."

While Kagome felt it hurt so much to even speak those words after what Inuyasha's brother had told her.

"Never hurt him? What. A. Lie. Every word that comes out of your dirty mouth hurts him."

Kagome looked down, almost believing him that she was like that. She had the look of shame on her face, and he made her feel that way. 'I'm true to Inuyasha. If anything he hurts me. But I let it happen...Why? 'Cause I love him so much… Enough to be foolish.' Kagome thought, choosing silence instead of fighting with her words. She knew it was utterly pointless. He'd find another way to hurt her and bring her down even harder. After all she was human, and he loved the fact that he could toy with her emotions.

"Nothing left to say because you know it's true. If I have anything to say about this, you'd be slaughtered. But my brother won't allow it. He should never have come near someone like you. In parting... Go fuck Kouga you cheating bitch."

Sesshomaru jumped into the air really high and then disappeared into the forest.

The minute he was out of sight, she dropped to her knees. Waiting for the hell and the pain to just stop and allow her to take the heat of it. She felt now it was safe to show her emotions, when nobody was watching. 'He knows nothing! I'm not like that!' Kagome got lost in thought, remembering Inuyasha's reactions to her and Kouga that she didn't consider. 'Am I...?' Kagome thought feeling tears lightly streaming down her cheeks feeling so weak, and foolish.

Inu Kaiba: I think this is the longest chapter I've ever written, even though it was joint written with RoxyFoxy. 12 word pages, 4,500+ words. Well I hope to reach the 20,000 word mark soon. And let's hope we can reach 30 reviews! Amnesiac seems to be more popular than Demon Mauvais. Ah well not much more to say.

RoxyFoxy: R+R

Inu Kaiba: It's funny, she never wants to say more than that XP

Inu Kaiba+RoxyFoxy