OMG I'M SO SORRY! It took me WAY too long to get this chapter out and I'm REALLY sorry! I have like no good excuse at all... all I can say for myself is that I've been swamped with homework lately so I have't been able to finish this chapter when I wanted to... man I feel bad... lol BLAME MY TEACHERS! Like seriously, I have Drama, Math, English, and Science ALL IN ONE SEMESTER! How unfair is THAT? Who planned this? Like SERIOUSLY! This is torture! hiccup ok, I hate hiccups so I'll let you guys read while I try to get over them...

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha and it smells….

"Oww. Oww. Oww." Kagome whispered softly as she pulled the twigs from her hair.

"Well that's what you get for hiding in a bush!" Inuyasha said with a laugh.

"Shut up Inuyasha…" Kagome said as she continued to pull the twigs out.

"If you hadn't tackled me then I might not have so many twigs in my hair!" Kagome accused

"I didn't tackle you! I … pounced! I found you and you were trying to escape and I had to stop you somehow!" Inuyasha defended himself feebly.

"But that gave you no right to jump on me!" Kagome said with a scowl

"Or me!" Sango agreed.

"Or me!" Miroku chimed in. Inuyasha blushed slightly as he realised that pouncing on each of his friends was really unnecessary. The rest of the group laughed at him as they walked ahead of him.

"Kagome!" A little voice suddenly shouted and a reddish orange fur ball pounced on the girl.

"Ahh!" Kagome screamed as the fur ball that was Shippo collided with her, with extreme force. She fell over from his combined weight and momentum, and landed on the ground with a thud.

"Oww." Kagome whispered, having had the wind knocked out of her.

"Oops…" Shippo said quietly as he sat up on Kagome's stomach. He quickly scrambled off of the girl as Inuyasha came up behind him, with a glare firmly in place.

"Shippo! How many times do I have to tell you that you're too big to do that anymore?" Inuyasha demanded as he held out a hand to help Kagome off of the ground. She gratefully took it and was easily pulled to her feet.

"Sorry Kagome…" Shippo said sheepishly, with his head hung.

"Oh Inuyasha! Look at that! You hurt his feelings!" Kagome scolded and she bent down to pick Shippo up, with a grunt of effort. Shippo smiled smugly at Inuyasha and gave Kagome a huge hug.

"What have you been up to Shippo?" Sango asked from behind Kagome. Shippo smiled at her and started ranting on and on about how much fun he and Kaede had had while they were gone.

"We made daisy chains, and we played tag with the other children of the village and we went to pick herbs but I got distracted by a little boy asking me to come play with him! I had so much fun!" Shippo exclaimed, not even noticing that they were walking back to the village.

"I hope you were good while we were gone Shippo." Miroku said absentmindedly, since he was being distracted by one of the women of the village. Sango saw him eyeing this poor young lady and slapped him.

"Miroku! What do you think you're doing?" Sango demanded, slowing to a stop and grabbing Miroku's arm to stop him as well. She waved the rest of her friends on and she could be heard throughout the entire village yelling at the womanizing monk.

"Ye have returned!" Kaede said happily as she approached Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippo –who was still being carried by Kagome- with a wide smile.

"Hi Kaede!" Kagome exclaimed and smiled.

"Kaede! I found them!" Shippo shouted, attempting to jump in the air in satisfaction, but soon realised that he was just hurting Kagome again.

"Ok Shippo, how about I put you down for a while huh?" Kagome asked with a hopeful smile. Shippo nodded and leapt out of her arms. Kagome started rubbing her arms, trying to will the feeling back into them.

"Shippo! You're back! Come play with us!" A little girl called from in front of one of the villager's huts. Shippo beamed and ran off to play with the children. Kaede smiled at Shippo's retreating form and beckoned the travellers into her hut to talk to them.

"So Kaede, has Shippo been as good as he says he has?" Kagome asked as she sat down next to Inuyasha.

"Indeed he has, ye need not worry about him while he is with me. He is always good." Kaede said happily with a warm smile.

"Ok, now that the friendly stuff is over with, lets get down to business!" Inuyasha exclaimed and he sat up straighter, preparing for a debate to ensue.

"Business?" Kaede asked, obviously confused.

"Ya, Naraku? Remember him? The guy who killed your sister?" Inuyasha mocked the old woman, earning himself a playful smack and a glare from Kagome.

"Yes I remember Naraku, Inuyasha. It may not seem so, but I do have a memory." Kaede retorted, happy that she had beaten Inuyasha in their mind game once more.

"Well… whatever! What I want to know is what we're going to do about him!" Inuyasha shouted.

"We wait for him to come for us." Miroku stated as if it were obvious.

"We WAIT?" Inuyasha shouted incredulously.

"Yes." Sango replied in the same obvious tone used by Miroku only moments before.

"Why? We could just go after him, kill him, take his jewel shards and move on with our lives!" Inuyasha said

"Well where do we find him?" Kagome asked

"I don't know!" Inuyasha shouted

"That answers your question then doesn't it? If we can't find him, there's no point in looking for him, only to find ourselves unprepared for the battle ahead." Miroku said calmly, thoroughly angering Inuyasha.

"Of course we'll be prepared!" Inuyasha defended against all the negative attention his plan was receiving.

"We'll be more prepared if we stay here, train for the upcoming battle, and wait for him to come for us, or until we have a dead on lead that will direct us right to him." Miroku explained with a sigh. Fighting with Inuyasha over everything was very annoying, the monk felt very sorry for Kagome at this particular moment since she endured the most fighting with Inuyasha out of all of them.

"Please Inuyasha, just let us win on this one?" Kagome pleaded with her husband… of sorts.

"No! I want to find him, so I can kill him, so I can stop worrying about him! Besides, if we just it here 'training' then we won't know when he's going to come, and we'll be even less prepared because he could come in the middle of the night, or he could come when we aren't here or something, how do you know that he wont just destroy the village and then leave it at that?" Inuyasha defended. He was very satisfied with this argument, because everyone seemed to be thinking it over very carefully.

"You know what? I think he's right…" Sango said after a long pause for thought.

"See! I'm not a complete moron!" Inuyasha said, with a big smile of thanks towards Sango for agreeing with him.

"Inuyasha, no one said ye were a moron." Kaede pointed out, allowing Miroku and Kagome to continue thinking about his previous statement.

"Inuyasha, you are right…" Kagome mumbled quietly, still contemplating his suggestion.

"HA! That's three against one Miroku! I win!" Inuyasha shouted, pointing at Miroku with a wide smile of satisfaction.

"Indeed you do, for I was just about to agree as well…" Miroku said with a chuckle. The whole group smiled and started making plans as to where they would go once they started their journey up again.

The next day, the two couples, Kirara, and Shippo set off on the long road towards… well none of them really knew where they were going, they just knew that they were in search of Naraku, and were going to follow both Inuyasha's nose, and any leads they could get a hold of.

"Inuyasha, could we take a rest?" Shippo asked after 2 hours of walking non-stop.

"Shut up Shippo." Inuyasha replied.

"Inuyasha! You need to stop yelling at him! You're going to make him need a psychologist!" Kagome complained.

"What's a psy—what's that?" the rest of the travellers asked. Kagome sighed and waved off their question by saying that it was too complicated to explain and kept walking. The rest of the group stopped walking and stared at her while she walked ahead of them until she stopped.

"Aren't you guys coming or do I have to fight Naraku all by myself?" She asked, and suddenly she heard her friends running to her sides, trampling each other in the process.

"OWW! Sango you stepped on my foot!" Miroku exclaimed

"AH! Miroku keep your hands to yourself!" She retorted with a slap.

"Shippo! Get off of my face!" Inuyasha bellowed as the little kitsune clung to his head, using his ears to keep him up.

"Inuyasha! Let go of my tail!" Shippo screamed back. Kagome screamed as the crowd of people came closer and closer to her, until she was beneath them all, having fallen to the ground under their combined weight.

"Ouch." She said simply. Everyone scrambled off of her and apologized. When they had all dusted the dirt off of themselves, Inuyasha reached down and pulled Kagome to her feet. She scowled at them all and dusted herself off.

"Well, that's not really what I had in mind, but at least you aren't just standing there looking stupid…" Kagome mumbled.

Days later, the group was walking, yet again; to a destination that none of them knew. This was the day of the new moon, and Inuyasha was going crazy with nerves.

"Inuyasha! Calm down, so you're going to be human tonight, it's not that big of a deal! The rest of us do it all our lives." Kagome reprimanded after Inuyasha refused another rest stop, saying that they needed to keep moving before nightfall. Inuyasha knew she was right, but he was worried that something would happen that night, and didn't want to deal with that in his human form. He stopped walking and sighed in defeat.

"Fine…" He said gruffly and he jumped into a near by tree to brood.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome called after him, but she found her voice falling upon deaf ears. She stuck her tongue out at him and turned to help Sango make something for lunch.

Inuyasha sat in his tree and watched the two girls cook some ramen while Miroku sat against a tree trunk, staring at his hand and talking to Shippo. Inuyasha smiled at the scene and realised that even if something bad did happen that night, the group would be able to face it even with him in his human form. Before long, the tantalizing scent of the ramen drew Inuyasha out of his tree and to the ground, where he ate most of the food. After everyone had finished, they all got their things together and set off again, this time at a slower pace.
"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked as she slowed down to walk behind the rest of her friends. Inuyasha slowed down too, knowing that she probably just wanted to talk to him alone.

"Yeah?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"What's wrong? Well, besides the whole human thing tonight, but you're allowing us to walk at a pretty slow pace, and that was the longest rest stop we've taken in a couple of days…" Kagome pondered and she pulled her bag up a little higher on her back.

"Well, I decided that I don't need to worry about being human anymore, like you said, you guys do it all your lives… so I quit being scared of it." Inuyasha admitted. Kagome smiled brightly and leaned forward to give him a kiss on the cheek. Inuyasha blushed because they were walking past a crowd of people who were giving them knowing looks.
Come along you love birds, we don't have all day!" Miroku called from ahead of them. Both the hanyou and the time travelling girl glared at him and quickened their steps to catch up with the rest of the group.

Soon it was nightfall, and Inuyasha's silver hair and dog-ears had disappeared, being replaced by black hair and human ears. He sighed and sat beside the fire that Miroku was building. Kagome sat beside him and asked him what he wanted for dinner. He had no clue what he wanted, nor did he care because his decision of not worrying, hadn't worked. He was now very tense and was jumping at every little sound that his ears picked up. Kagome noticed this and grabbed his arm to get him to his feet and dragged him into the forest. They walked in silence for a couple moments until Kagome was certain they wouldn't be overheard.

"Ok Inuyasha, what's wrong now?" She demanded, placing her hands on her hips and leaning her weight to one side. Inuyasha smiled weakly and explained about his failure in not worrying.

"Well… I figured that might happen…" Kagome mumbled, receiving a glare from Inuyasha.

"Thanks for having faith in me Kagome, really helps!" Inuyasha retorted causing Kagome to smile innocently.

"You know I have faith in you, just not with things like that because I know that you'll always worry about us. It's just who you are!" she defended herself.

"Well, make it stop." Inuyasha said childishly, crossing his arms.

"No! It's part of what makes you who you are and I don't want to change that at all because that isn't the man I fell in love with." Kagome insisted, playing with the necklace that Inuyasha had given her. Inuyasha sighed, not knowing what to say to that. He finally came up with the perfect response,

"Well. That was a sentimental moment!" He said happily, causing Kagome's mouth to fall open in shock. This was not the response she was expecting. Then after a moment of looking shocked, she burst out laughing. She fell onto him, pulling him into a hug, still laughing. Inuyasha chuckled at her reaction and hugged her back tightly, he had actually taken her words to heart whether she knew it or not. Which she did, because he had never dealt with compliments very well before. After Kagome got over her fit of giggles, the couple made their way back to the camp, only to find all their friends gone.

"Oh great. They were spying on us again… well we got here first so we can yell at them when they get here." Inuyasha decided, seating himself by the fire again. Kagome looked around the campsite, and found Sango's weapon (A/N: sorry I cant spell it!) lying flat on the ground, along with Miroku's staff. Last time she checked, they always leaned them against a tree or something. There was also a lot of trenches on the ground, as if someone were resisting being pulled away… Kagome gasped.

"Inuyasha! I think someone kidnapped them!" She said, worry evident in her voice. Inuyasha looked up from the fire and quirked an eyebrow at her. She explained all the signs that she had spotted, and Inuyasha agreed with her.

"Question is, who took them, and where they are now…" Inuyasha pondered.

"I'd say it was Naraku." Kagome suggested.

"Probably… but where is he?" Inuyasha asked rhetorically. The couple sat together on the ground, trying to come up with possibilities as to where their friends could be.

Eventually, when Kagome couldn't keep her eyes open anymore, the couple went to sleep, still worrying about their missing companions. Just after Inuyasha had closed his eyes, satisfied that Kagome was going to be all right, he heard her scream.

"What is it?" He demanded, leaping to his feet, preparing to defend her. She jumped at him and pointed at her sleeping bag. He looked at it in confusion and stuck his hand inside it. He felt around a bit inside the bag, and soon found the reason for Kagome's terror. There was a snake sitting in the bottom of her bag. He pulled it out and watched Kagome's eyes widen in fear again and threw it into the trees.

"There. No more snakes." He said simply and sat down against a tree again. Kagome inched over to her sleeping bag and kicked it, making sure nothing else was crawling in it.

"Kagome, if it's bothering you that much, don't sleep in it!" Inuyasha said, an edge of annoyance in his voice.

"But it's cold!" She whined, sounding like a two year old. Inuyasha sighed and told her to sit with him. She smiled and apology and sat beside him. She rested her head against his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her so his large sleeves covered her almost completely.

"Happy?" He asked. She nodded and snuggled closer into his arms. She was soon fast asleep and Inuyasha smiled at her sleeping form. He kissed her forehead and fell asleep with his head resting on top of hers.

The next morning, Kagome awoke to find that she was sitting on the ground all by herself, and she had Inuyasha's haori wrapped around her. She stretched and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, emitting a giant yawn. She opened her eyes fully and took in the hilarious sight of Inuyasha trying to make ramen. He had his hair tied up with one of her elastics, and he was holding the boiling water at arms length as if he was terrified that it was going to kill him if it was any closer and the instant soup cup was sitting on the ground beneath the pot. Kagome burst out laughing and got to her feet. She took the pot from Inuyasha, and discovered that it wasn't even boiled yet, and put it back over the fire, she then picked up the ramen cup and placed it on a flat rock that Inuyasha had found to use as some sort of table. She then started to giggle at Inuyasha's hair. He obviously didn't know what he was doing when he put it in because half of his hair wasn't even in the elastic and the parts that were, were wrapped around it in so many knots that Kagome was afraid she night have to cut it out.

"Inuyasha! What did you do?" She asked, trying to stop her giggles.

"I was hungry and you were asleep and so I decided to make food." Inuyasha explained grumpily.

"Well why didn't you wake me up?" She asked, trying to remove the elastic from Inuyasha's hair.

"Oww! You looked too OWW! Peaceful! OWW!" Inuyasha shouted as she pulled on the elastic. She scowled at it and decided that she would have to cut it out. She pulled her bag to her and pulled out a pair of scissors.

"What are you doing with those?" Inuyasha demanded.

"I'm going to cut the elastic, I wouldn't cut your hair! I love it too much." She admitted as she cut the elastic in half. She then had to pull it out of the hair that was still wrapped around it.

"Inuyasha, next time… can you just wake me up?" She said in exasperation. He nodded and sat down next to the fire he had built while Kagome was still asleep. Kagome made the ramen in a matter of minutes and soon they were both enjoying it while talking about where Sango, Miroku, Shippo and Kilala could have got to.

"Well, we've decided that it was Naraku who did it… now we just need to find him and we'll find them!" Kagome said brightly. Inuyasha rolled his eyes at her and informed her that they had been trying to do that throughout the entire journey and it hadn't gotten them anywhere.

"Oh yeah…" Kagome mumbled and she placed her empty ramen cup on the make-shift table. The pair sat in silence for a while, until Inuyasha gave a dramatic sigh of defeat.

"We're stuck wandering around with no destination aren't we?" He asked dejectedly. Kagome nodded with an expression that told him how mad she was about it.

"Come on, we've got to find them!" He exclaimed and he leapt to his feet, dragging Kagome up with him. They quickly gathered their things together and set off in the direction that they were originally headed. Kagome was on Inuyasha's back, searching for any sign of the Shikon Jewel, while Inuyasha was trying to catch the scent of either Naraku, or their friends. They travelled for most of the day, only stopping momentarily to eat something. Before they knew it, the day had ended and they still had found no trace of their friends or of Naraku. Kagome sighed as she leaned back against a tree.

"This isn't getting us anywhere…" She complained. Inuyasha agreed completely and he started pacing, trying to think of a more efficient way of finding their friends… sadly, none came to him.

I still have the hiccups... hiccup/sneeze that was horrible! I have a cold AND the hiccups! What the hell? T.T ok I'll be ok... really... this time I swear I won't take forever to post the next chapter! This story is starting to go no where fast and I'm not very happy about that... so I'll try my hardest not to write myself into a corner where I can't think of a way to end the stupid thing! I'm almost done I think... well I'm going to start writing the 14th chapter RIGHT NOW so I don't have to take forever... I actually think I have an idea! lol so I'm going to get to writing, and you can press the little blue button in the left corner there, you know the one! The one that gives me a lovely review to read hint hint nudge nudge HICCUP lol ok REVIEW! ttyl TTFN!