With Miroku and Sango gone, their children started making a real ruckus. A little boy, noticing that his parents were gone began crying bitterly. "Moooommmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyy! Dadddddddddddyyy!! Where did you go?! Mommy?"

Keiko walked up to him and slapped him squarely in the face. That was an awful thing to do, especially since the boy couldn't have been more than three. "She hit me! Mommy!!! Wahhhhhhh!!" realizing that his parents still weren't there to help him, he began to just scream.

Kagome, noticing what was going on, picked up the little guy. "Shh. It's okay. They'll be back, they're just out of town on business." Kagome bounced him up and down, and managed to slow his crying slightly. She then turned around and glared at Keiko. "Keiko! That's very mean! Do not do that again!"

"You're not the boss of me! I'm the boss of you!" Keiko reminded her.

"Argh! I'm sure your parents didn't mean THAT!" Kagome exclaimed in frustration. "It's wrong to hit people! Didn't your mommy ever teach you that?!"

"Mommy hits people all the time." Keiko told her matter-of-factly.

"Sango..." Kagome groaned in frustration. She knew that Keiko wasn't lying, Miroku had the bumps and bruises to prove it.

A six-year-old girl named Ryuuichi approached Kagome who was still occupied with Keiko and the toddler. "New mommy, I'm hungry."

"I'm not your mom. I'm just babysitting." Kagome told the kid.

"Whatever, just get me some food." The kid told her non-caringly.

Kagome scowled, then she turned to Keiko. "Where do you keep your food around here?"

"Don't be stupid. If we kept food around, it would rot. You have to go hunt something."

Kagome groaned. "You can't be serious."

"Yes, but don't go unless a lot of people are hungry. Otherwise it's a waste of time." Keiko told her.

"Okay then, we'll take a vote... How many of you are hungry, raise your hands." Kagome shouted to everyone in the hut.

Eight kids raised their hands. Kagome set the toddler down, and she once again turned to Keiko. "Tell me you have bows and arrows."

"Yeah, here." Keiko said as she handed Kagome a bow and a quiver of arrows. "But wouldn't you rather use a knife?"

"No." Kagome stated with disguist. "Can I trust you to keep your siblings from killing each other while I'm gone?"

"Sure."

"I don't want you to kill any of them either."

"fiddlesticks..." Keiko tried to curse.

Taking the bow and arrows, Kagome headed out of the hut, dreading the task at hand. She saw a bunny hopping out of a bush near her. Aww. It was too cute to kill. "It's too small to eat." Kagome justified to herself.

She walked further into the brush. Kagome saw a deer. Kagome shot it in face. Kagome was quite mortified with what she had done, but she was also surprised that she could still shoot.

"Hey! That was mine!" A male voice shouted.

"Oh, sorry. Do you want it? You can have it." Kagome shouted back, walking towards the voice.

"No, that's alright. I'll find another one." He said as he walked into view.

"Inuyasha!" She yelped in surprised.

"Kagome?"

"Yeah..." she confirmed his suspiscion.

"What are you doing back?" He asked her.

"My mother lost what little sense she had and threw me into the well. Then Sango got me out... and somehow I ended up babysitting."

"Oh that sucks!" He told her empathetically.

"How come?"

"'cause they've got twelve kids and their all monsters!" He declared.

"You've been suckered into babysitting them before?" She asked him with surprise.

"Yes... do want help?"

"Definetly! I'm so glad you asked!" She exclaimed. The reason Inuyasha and Kagome could speak so plainly after all of this time is that they were no longer holding out hope for some kind of future together, just as a divorced couple who have quarreled all through marriage can sit together and causually have lunch.

Inuyasha picked up the dead deer by the scruff of its neck. He pulled the arrow out of its face and handed it back to Kagome.

"Thanks..." She said as she hesitantly took back the arrow. She wiped it on the ground and then returned it to the quiver.

As they stepped into the hut, Inuyasha began to yell at the children. "Alright you little monsters! You better sit down and shut up, 'cause now I'm here to watch you!"

Instantly, the hut plunged deeper into chaos. Out of the voices Kagome could definetly pick out a "Oh crap! It's Inuyasha!" and a "run, he's evil!" Yep, Inuyasha had definetly babysat here before.

"I said shut up!" The room went dead silent. "Thank you!" He said, rather sarcastically.

"Hand me the knife, Keiko, and if you try anything you're dead." Inuyasha commanded.

Keiko gave him the knife that she had offered Kagome earlier.

"Inuyasha, you don't have to be that mean to them." Kagome scolded him.

"don't I?" He asked her, knowing he was right.

"Arg." Kagome gave up and buried her face in her hands.

As he cut up the poor beast, he began to converse with Kagome. "So, why did your mother throw you in, anyway?"

"She wants grandchildren. She told me to make up with you and give her grandchildren. I can't believe how obnoxious she is!" Kagome confessed to him.

"Oh..." He let the information seep in. "So you don't have kids yet, huh?"

"Nope. I told her that I don't want kids, she won't listen to me."

"Well, not all kids are as bad as these ones." He told her as he threw a boy, about the age of eight across the room. The boy had been pulling on Inuyasha's hair and was now holding a big clump of it.

"Are you saying that you actually agree with her?"

"............................................................................................................ why aren't those bastard kids of theirs noisy when I need them to be?" He questioned why he was fated to have such an awkward situation.