"Inuyasha come out!" Kagome ordered, banging on door of the of the changing room in the tailor's hut.
"No!" Came Inuyasha's feminine voice.
"Stop being such a big baby." Kagome sighed. "She was just measuring you for your kimono." Smiling in amusement at the memory of Inuyasha's sudden surprise at that tailor's sudden examinations of his body. He hadn't taken to it very well and had scrambled away, knocking the poor woman over then locked himself inside the changing room.
"There's no way I'm letting you people paw at my like that!"
Kagome sighed. "Well she's done now anyway." Kagome shifted the altered, cream and pink hued kimono in her hands impatiently. "You might as well let me in so I can help you get dressed." Silence followed her words and Kagome knocked again. "Inuyasha?"
"I can dress myself."
Her frustration got the better of her and she growled. "Inuyasha…sit!" She heard a crash on the other side of the door, along with the sound of splintering wood.
She gasped and rushed out of the hut, around to the side. The bottom part of the hut, from a small window down had been crushed in, Inuyasha draped over the crumbled ledge of the window. Kagome huffed and set her hands on her hips.
"You were trying to climb out the window."
Inuyasha shook his head and sat up quickly then glared. "I was not! I was just sittin on it."
'Yea right. You liar..' Kagome fixed him with a dark look. She turned her head then at the soft murmurs she heard from around her, and glanced back to see they'd drawn attention, a small crowd watching them/. "Uh… Inuyasha. We should probably go home now."
"Feh. I've been saying I wanted to go home since I got here."
"Hey." A young peasent girl stepped up from a small group to their right, her eyes alight with curiosity. "You're the girl who beat up those bandits near the forest, aren't you?"
Inuyasha stood, pretty face set in a surly expression. "Yea. What of it?"
"Inuyasha." Kagome hissed, jabbing her elbow in Inuyasha's gut then looked towards the village girls and smiled sheepishly. "Well, they kind of just surprised us on the road."
"Wow. Weren't you afraid?" Another girl questioned with open admiration.
"Not half as afraid as I am of Kagome." Inuyasha muttered. Kagome shot him a glare of embarrassed annoyance.
"Look how pretty she is." One of the other girls whispered loudly.
The one that had spoken first had circled around Inuyasha and was lifting his long, pale locks. "Look how fine her hair is."
Inuyasha blinked in surprise as they crowded in around him, another lifting his hands. "Look how delicate her hands are! I can't believe she beat a whole gang of bandits."
"And without breaking a nail either." Another commented. "Unreal."
The girl toying with Inuyasha's hair giggled dreamily. "I could make a wig."
"So what are you?" One of the girl's questioned. "Married to a samurai lord or something?"
Inuyasha's eye twitched and Kagome saw danger. "M…married. To a samurai lord? Why the hell would you think that?"
The girl blinked in surprise. "You mean you're not married?"
"She must have suitors like crazy then." Another whispered.
"I don't have any suitors! BECAUSE I'M NOT A G-"
"Sit boy!" Kagome screamed, sighing in the face of the village girl's curious shock as he hit the ground. "I think we should get back to Kaede's hut now."
Miroku turned his head as he spotted something glimmer in the trees below them. He leaned down and frowned faintly then glanced at Sango.
"Sango. Down there. I think I see something."
She nodded. "Right. Let's go Kirara." Turning her head to search in the direction Miroku's gaze was fixed to try and pick out what ever it was he saw.
They both slid from Kirara's back once they had touched ground again among the tangle of trees below them. Miroku moved forward towards a huge Oak tree not to far into the thick matt of forest. His eyes searched the tree from the glimmer he saw, face twisting with surprise when he saw it.
"There." Lifting a hand and freed something from where it tangled on a tree branch and hold it out for Sango to see.
She blinked in surprise. "It looks like…hair." Staring at the glistening silver blue strands that gleamed in Miroku's palm.
He nodded. "Yes. And if my suspicions are correct it belongs to whoever it is that cast that spell on Inuyasha."
It certainly doesn't look like Sesshomaru's hair." Sango commented.
"I agree. Which leads me to wonder exactly where the demon lord went." Miroku's voice was curious.
"If he wasn't the one who cast the spell that means that he was caught up in the blast as well." And expression flickered across Sango's face. "You don't think that the spell affected Sesshomaru as well do you?"
"It might have. Or he might have escaped before it hit. At any rate I think we should got back to Kaede's hut."
"We're not going to continue searching?"
Miroku shook his head. "It's getting late. We won't be able to find anything in the dark. Besides, hopefully Inuyasha can use the hair to get the culprit's scent. That we can track him down in the morning."
And he tucked the silvery strands into the pocket of his robes.
"That monk is too smart for his own good." Leather growled gruffly.
Lace smiled with amusement. "Well it wouldn't be any fun, without someone figuring something out. How dull it would be if we got away with anything."
"This isn't just a game Lace." He eyed his serene companion. "Always have to have your hair floating out everywhere. Dramatic."
"Of course it's a game. We have out prize and everything." Lace smiled peacefully. "But if you're worried about the monk" He produced a small scrap of black cloth, a symbol written on it in blazing gold. "I'll take care of him."
The cloth curst into flame, dark fire consuming the cloth slowly turning it to black ash which was caught by the wind and swirled away.