"Ugh... What is wrong with me? Why am I so angry now?" Inuyasha whispered under his breath, as he quite honestly had no idea what the matter was.

'I haven't been in an argument with anyone lately, well, not a REAL argument...No one's really pissed me off at all...WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME!' He shouted in his mind, quite vexed.

He stood tall on a treetop near the tent, with his arms crossed and eyes closed. The cool night breeze caused his kimono and hair to flow east in the wind, and his senses were filled with those of the night.

Frogs leaping about, various insects shouting calls for a mate, the rustling of chicks beneath the warm feathers of their mothers...

It was a perfect time of solitude. No one was around to bother him, and the moon was a bright half circle, which beamed down upon the forest. Yet despite all this, he found it within himself to become angered.

'This might get ugly.' He thought to himself. 'If it gets out of too bad I'll just-'

He struggled to continue the thought, but his mind began to wander. There was a hole, somewhere in his soul and it cried out to be filled. But he didn't know what the shape of this hole was, so his youkaic blood began to give him ideas...

The images of frightened men and women filled his mind. It was as if all they were for was pleasure. The terrified looks they gave...they mean nothing. It's all just part of the fun.

And suddenly the horrifying stares they were giving him wasn't enough...there was something that needed to be done. The man knelt down, and laid his sword to the ground.

"Please, master. Please spare me." It said. Which meant nothing. Inuyasha brought his right hand to his face and laughed when he saw it stained with blood. He grinned to himself, as though all he knew was one thing. The knowledge of what he could do.

The knowledge of destruction.

He cracked his knuckles by quickly stretching out his fingers then returning them to a claw like fashion with an equal amount of speed. He then walked over to the man, and grasped his torso armor near the center of his stomach.

The man's eyes widened with fear as Inuyasha lifted him up off of the ground with his left hand, eyes red a glow, with the most devious grin the man had ever seen.

The youkai retracted his right arm, not letting loose his hold on the man. He cracked his knuckles once more, and held his arm just near his right ear, with the same open claw like fashion.

The creature made a noise once more. "Please! Please master, spare me my life! I beg of you!"

This noise was a joyful one. He had no idea what it meant, or that it even was a noise at all. Nothing mattered. Thinking did not exist. The sheer thought that something could happen was completely oblivious in Inuyasha's mind. But even at that moment, he was not Inuyasha. He was not anything. Nothing was anything.

Just kill. Just death. Remove that from this place! Make it go away!

Inuyasha thrust out his claws out at the man's face.

But then... the most peculiar thing happened. Something cried out to him. It wasn't no one, it was definitely someone. It was so...so familiar. He could see a figure off in the distance.

'Remove that from existence!' Screamed a voice

'No. That...that can't happen' Responded the figure.

'That's a lie...there is no such thing as death' said the voice 'All there is, is killing! Nothing else IS.'

'Something isn't as it should be here...' Responded the figure once more, sounding like a familiar hanyou.

"Inuyasha? Inuyasha! Are you ok?" cried Kagome, who had apparently exited the tent and had been calling Inuyasha for quite some time. "Hey! Answer me!" she called once more.

Inuyasha's ears twitched, and everything was as it was. There was no man. No 'voice.' No 'figure.'

He looked down at Kagome from the treetop. "Huh? You need somethin?" he asked sounding lost for words.

"Just wondering if you're ok...you were growling pretty loudly up there." She responded with a softer tone.

"I was?" he questioned, having no such memory. He looked around. It was morning. 'Crap...I've been asleep this whole time...' he said in his mind, as he began scolding himself.

"Why dontcha' come on down? Sango made breakfast for everyone." She suggested in a cheerful tone, while waiting for her hoped response from Inuyasha, who seemed a little out of it.

He smelled the food, and the offer would've been a difficult one to turn down. "Yeah sure I'll be right there. Gimme a sec." He responded.

"Kay, just hurry up so it doesn't get cold." Said Kagome in the same cheerful tone.

And with that, Inuyasha squatted down, with his arms still crossed, and leapt straight up from his spot on the tree. The force he put off quickly sent him vertically through the air. He kept his eyes closed, and tilted his head back to take in the morning scents.

And at the penicle of his height, his eyes quickly widened so he could survey the several miles around the camp. And it was at that moment, when something hit him. 'Hey, wait a minute! I was asleep! But ever since those last couple of transformations I don't NEED sleep!'

The thought perplexed him, as he honestly didn't believe he needed to slip into unconsciousness to regain his strength. True, he didn't really need to, as his body was powerful enough to regenerate its own energy at all times, even in the midst of combat. But he hadn't done anything truly extreme enough to make him feel tired the previous night, despite his fight with the Sesshomaru clone. That which he had recovered an ample amount of strength from after the happenings at the camp fire.

'If I wasn't tired...or asleep...then what could that 'dream' possible have been?' he wondered. But it was of no consequence at the time, for he feared the rage of a certain miko who was more than likely eagerly awaiting him to keep his word and come eat.

So he banished the thought from his mind for the time being, and continued his descent towards the ground.

He looked downward at the treetops and what little he could see of the underbrush of the forest, and observed it as it rapidly became much larger then it had seemed. His drop rate more than tripled at this point, and everything seemed to move at light speed, when suddenly, all was put to a halt, as his feet met the ground, and he retracted his legs to absorb the impact.

He waited for the dust to settle, then stood to his feet and walked over to the other side of the tent to meet Sango, Kagome and Shippo for breakfast.

The hanyou calmly walked over to the mat which his comrades were sitting upon, and took his seat next to Kagome, while Shippo sat across the mat from Inuyasha, and Sango next to the Kitsune. Inuyasha had noticed something peculiar about Sango and Kagome, but he couldn't put his finger on what. It was something he had never seen either of them do, or so he couldn't remember, but it was most odd indeed.

He observed the girls more closely than ever, as they sat and devoured their little entrees. Then it hit him. 'That's it!' he shouted in his mind. He noticed that Sango hadn't tied her kimono anywhere NEARLY as secure as she usually had, and Kagome was sitting crossed legged with her skirt on.

It became obvious that they had 'let their guard down' now that Miroku wasn't around for the time being, as small conversation and eating continued. He did his best to try and not notice it, but as things go, it was impossible to remove from his mind. And it soon became the center of his focus to not observe either Kagome or Sango for the time.

"Wow, this is really good, Sango." Kagome commented to the ninja-ish chef with a smile. "Thank you, Kagome. Did you notice the extra seasonings I put on the sushi?" replied Sango, with an equally cheerful look. 'Geeze.' Thought Inuyasha to himself. "I'd figure they'd be worried about Miroku, but I guess this must be nice for them to not have to worry about that creep every second of their lives.'

Various other small talk continued on through the remainder of the meal, and Inuyasha did his best to keep his eyes on his food, and not elsewhere. He ended up doing a pretty nice job of it, actually. But unfortunately, this had taken quite a bit of focus. Not that he was attracted to Sango or anything of that nature, he just didn't want to see any female's body other than his mate's, whoever that may be.

And it was most unfortunate at the time, because Sango had recently felt the need to loosen the top of her kimono, showing a 'tad' more than Inuyasha would have liked to see every time Sango reached over the mat to grab the rice.

The meal lingered on a little more than he had hoped for (considering the circumstances) but eventually came to a clothes. Err...close. It was just then when Inuyasha noticed someone in the bushes behind Kagome.

'Son of a...I totally let my guard down while trying to avoid what was in front of me...ah hell.' He sprung up from his spot on the ground, and quickly hopped backward while cracking his knuckles. "Kagome, get out of the way, now!" he shouted, as Kagome upon instinct obeyed this command and sprung to her feet as well (of course, not nearly the same speed) and ran behind Inuyasha for cover.

"All right, whoever you are, come on out and show yourself!" he shouted, yet again. His nose told him it was a female cat youkai of some sort. And, as this nose wasn't one to fail, the youkai who was true to what Inuyasha had figured, stepped forward from out of the bushes.

"Well well, what have we here." Said the feline with a purr type noise in her tone. "A wolf, a fox, and two women. This should be interesting."

"Just who the heck are you!" demanded Inuyasha with an angry tone. "I am Claire, a cat youkai sent here by Naraku to kill you. But don't take me for one of his wenches, I came here to test the rumors of your strength, Inuyasha. Naraku told me everything I needed to know in order to find you." she responded, with a grin.

She was around 5 foot 2, with black silky hair with bangs that would cover her eyes if they were in front of them. These bangs were evenly distributed about her face, and it seemed that a long time in the wind had made them stay a bit to the right, which partially covered her right eye. And towards the back of her head, she had placed a leather tie, much like that of a pony tail's, and had 'flamed' the hair beyond the tie up, like a pinwheel.(See Tenchu's Ayame for this particular hair style) She had a red mark on both cheeks that which seemed to have been made by the slash of a small katana, in a similar fashion to Inuyasha's, whos were purple and jagged.

Her eyes were a brilliant bright blue, with long black slits for pupils and shorter fangs in her mouth then that of a wolf. She also had claws, also not quite as long as a wolf's, which were at the ends of her slightly tanned hands. Hands of which were the same color as the rest of her skin. (Or so one would assume) And also along with these neko like features, two thin, pointy black cat ears on the sides of her head, each sticking diagonally backward and slightly tilted to the sides. And last but not least, a long black tail that extended just at the bottom of her lower back, and was covered in fur, about 3 ½ feet long.

She wore a skin-tight black shirt, which was cut off at the arms, and appeared to be made out of some type of fur. It seemed to be a little snug on her, even for being skin-tight; more then likely due to her rather large bust size. Her leggings were white, in a V shape at the hips, making her belly button quite visible. They hugged her hips, and became gradually more baggy until just below the knees, where they came to a close and hugged the skin. Her shoes were oddly enough like chinos, (Chinese shoes) and she wore no other accessories.

"I'll be more then happy to show you what I'm capable of, cat. But first I wanna know why you're here." Inuyasha said with a confident tone.

Claire grinned a little wider. "Hehehe...that's for me to know...and for you to find out."

Inuyasha smirked.

"Shall we begin?" she asked as she slanted her look at the hanyou.

"All right, but I'm not gonna hold back."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Claire said with a sudden pounce like attack. She bolted forward and slightly into the air from her straight-postured cross arm stance, and drew her arm back, readying it for a downward slash attack.

Inuyasha lashed out at her arm with his right hand, and seized it. He then used the force she had put into her attack against her, by taking it and spinning around; resulting with her face being smashed into the ground.

A loud and echoing "Yipe" was let out.

She quickly gathered herself from the ground, and hopped into the air for just enough room to spin around and land on all fours. She stared up at Inuyasha and hissed, while shuffling her weight to step sideways to the right, crossing her arms and legs over one another when necessary.

Inuyasha calmly started walking over to her, as if to shake her hand, or greet her. This confused the feline, and she pounced forward yet again in over anticipation from her current position.

She put her right hand palm facing her temple next to her left ear, and did the same with her left to her other ear, which caused her arms to form an X in front of her face. She then, while still in the air, quickly lashed out both hands from the sides and formed a horizontal line in front of her, which might have done some damage, had Inuyasha not leapt above her body and flipped backward, with his right foot being squarely implanted into the middle of her spine.

She yelped out in pain, and slammed into the ground.

Inuyasha landed swiftly and silently on the ground a few feet behind Claire, left foot first, and just as quietly, followed by the right.

The cat brought her upper body a few inches off the ground, and supported herself on her elbows. She coughed up a little blood into the grass, and breathed heavily.

"Well," she began through gasps of air "that's exactly what I was hoping for." She said, as cheerfully as she could.

Inuyasha stared at her. "Anything else I can do for ya? A broken rib, perhaps?" he said in cocky tone.

"Well, yes, there is one thing..." she began "Would I be asking too much if I plead to stay with you and your comrades?"

Sango gave Claire a perplexed look; as well as everyone else there, actually.

"Please, may I have the honor of traveling with you all? Inuyasha, you have lived up to your name, I wish to aid you in your quest." She said with a tone that suggested honoring Inuyasha.

"Oh is that so? And why should I trust you?" he asked questioningly.

"You don't have to, but I say to you, I know the location of Naraku, Kagura, and seven of the sacred jewel shards." She said with a smirk, still coughing up a little blood.

"Well, I guess that leaves me with a small amount of options, now doesn't it. All right, you can stay with us." He began. "But what do you want in return?"

"I'll repeat my previous response; that's for me to know, and for you to find out." She said with a grin as she did her best to rise to her feet.

She gazed at Inuyasha with a smile, and bowed courteously to him, on shaking knees. "Many thanks, friend. But May I ask of you something?"

"Shoot." He said smugly

"Why didn't you turn a hanyou like me away?" asked a confused feline.

Inuyasha gave Claire another perplexed look, and questioned her heritage. "Somethin' wrong with your nose? Can't you tell I'm half youkai too? ... Wait a minute...you're a hanyou!" he asked in quite the confused voice, smelling the air furiously.

"Oh, I get it." He said conclusioningly, as his nose detected the scents of several jewel shards about her body. "Naraku somehow disguised the scents and aura of the jewels, I guess. That's the only thing I can think of. And that's also probably why Kagome didn't tell me she sensed any jewels on you; because she didn't."

"By the way, that's Kagome, Sango, Shippo, and Kirara there." He said, indicating each person as he named them off.

"Nice to meet you, Claire." Said Kagome with a smile. Which was responded to by Claire with a nod.

Shippo gave a "Hello, miss." Sango bowed, and Kirara gave her traditional growl of affection.

"But wait a minute-" began the feline "You said you're a hanyou as well?"

"Yea, I am." Replied Inuyasha.

"I don't know how you figure that, but you smell like a youkai to me." Commented Claire.

"Hey, you do!" said a tiny Kitsune, in a rather surprised and exclamatory tone after getting a whiff of Inuyasha's apparently new scent.

"Woah..." said Inuyasha in correspondence to this as he himself realized that his half-human scent had totally diminished.

And during all this, Kagome wished more and more that she had to ability to detect such specific scents. 'Ugh...I hope I can do that someday...' she thought with a sigh.

"Well I'll worry about that later. Right now we gotta go help Miroku get away from Naraku." Inuyasha said firmly, and in sudden realization of how much time they had wasted.

"Oh? Naraku has a friend of yours?" asked a curious Claire, as she finally wiped the last bit of blood off her lips.

"Yea, and we gotta get to him fast. God knows what that bastard spider'll do to 'em." He said with a bit of urgency detected within his voice.

"I'm sorry, had I known I would've freed and brought him here with me." She said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it, there's a good chance Naraku knew what you'd do once you found us, and he's probably got something planned. Curse him." Growled an angry wolf.

Everyone rushed to the tent to gather their things and prepare for combat.

Claire gathered her strength, and did her best to follow.

"Hey...Inuyasha?" said the cat, in a weak sounding tone.

"Yea, what's wrong?"

Claire's reply was given by her body, which fell to the ground and slammed to a halt when it met the dirt, rendering her unconscious.

"Oh great." Inuyasha sighed. "I guess put a little too much into it when we fought" he concluded "but how was I to know things'd go this way?" he grunted, as he observed poor Claire's motionless body.

"Now what?" Kagome questioned, as she peered over poor Claire.

"Now we wait. She's the only one here who knows the current location of Naraku. No sense wandering around aimlessly when she can tell us exactly where to go."

"Okay, that's fine with me." Said the young miko. "How long do you think she'll be out?"

"I doubt it'll be too long, I didn't hit her all that hard." He said, with what sounded like enjoyment as he recalled the memory.

"Off topic," interrupted Sango. "so, Inuyasha, what do you think of Claire?" she continued

"I'm not sure what to think of her yet. I just met her a few minutes ago." He replied.

"Yes, I feel the same way." Commented the slayer. "How about you, Kagome? What do you think of her? Don't hold back anything, she's out cold over there, and won't hear a word of this." Sango said with a giggle.

"I don't really know what to think either," she began "I just know she better not betray Inuyasha in a critical moment out there."

"Don't worry about that happening." Inuyasha assured.

"Oh please, you mean to tell me that YOU of all people trust her all ready?" commented Kagome, as she turned her head towards Inuyasha, with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Of course not. But I know she meant what she said, because cat youkai give off a very particular scent when they lie, for some reason. And I haven't smelt it since I've seen her." He said reassuringly.

"Oh" said Kagome in correspondence to this. Which in turn surprised Sango as well.

"I didn't know that..." said the ninja-warrior, more surprised than one would think.

"Well anyway, while she recovers I'm gonna go get some training in. I wanna be at my best when I take 'em on." Said Inuyasha.

"Ok, I think I'll do the same." Said Sango.

"Mind if I join you, Inuyasha?" asked Kagome, in realization that she herself had never really done martial arts to an insane degree.

Inuyasha pondered for a moment. "Yea, I guess that's fine." 'Probably best if she's with me anyway.' He thought. "Well let's do this, meet back here in an hour. I'd like it to be longer, but time's not on our side. If Claire's not up by the time I get back, then we can just head out for Naraku's and have Kirara carry her until she wakes up. and I are fighting again. But it started it! Bastard wouldn't let me post. Thanks for reading, review please if ya got a moment Sayonara, til next time.