AN: Ah yes, once again it is time for a long overdue apology: Gomen for not updating sooner! PoF and I apparently, shocking I know –to both of us in fact- have real lives that happened to get in the way. We'll try however to update on a regular basis more often though.

Thank you for the reviews! Their really sweet, please keep on reviewing and letting us know what you think about our story, it means a lot!

drake220 thank you! You hit the nail on the head with your review… So, just for gossip's sake, who are you routing for?

Aewi sure we remember you! Hi! Glad you are enjoying to the story so far, wait and see what else we have in store!

Saiyou The Lover thank you for reviewing! Basically, we can't tell you the pairing that is the whole point of this story. Inuyasha is torn (for very different reasons) to both women, who will he chose and why? But I think you should give this story a go. You may very well like it

Once again, thank you for reviewing! It means a lot, please continue to do so! We really appreciate your reviews and love knowing what you think! And so we continue onwards, with a thickening plot – extra long to make up for lack of updating, amazing characters (whom we do not own, yet try to do them justice in our own crazy lil' way).

Hope you enjoy the next chapter! Don't forget to review :)

Sango relaxed in the large bath, letting the warmth seep into her tired body. She sighed contentedly, sinking up to her neck in the warm water. Strands of her hair fanned out upon the water. It would weigh a ton when she sat up, but Sango didn't care. All she cared about right now was the warm water and the fact that she could finally be clean again. After riding from the front lines to the command center so many times a day she lost count by mid-afternoon, Sango was starting to think that she would have to go through the whole war smelly and covered in dust.

The water rippled as Kagome stepped into the tub. Sango opened her eyes, smiling at her old friend. "How is it training the dog-boy to become accustomed to human society?"

"Fun and frustrating," Kagome answered tiredly. Her eyelids felt as though they weighed a ton, she couldn't muster enough strength to even wonder how lashes could feel so heavy. Slipping into the tub, she allowed the warmth and over all comforting feeling lift her away and sustain her bodyweight as she lay her head back over the edge of the bath. "He's a good learner—when he wants to be, but most of the time he chooses to annoy me and start up. He reminds me of those sex obsessed adolescents in the village, who always talk about it, but don't do," Kagome muttered and peered one eye open at Sango. "Yeah, unholy of me to say... I know. Sue me."

"I'm not going to say anything. Maybe if I was Kaede I'd have a problem with me hearing one of my pupils talking that way, but I couldn't give a damn. If you think that's being bad and disrespectful, you should hear what the soldiers say! I don't think my language is ever going to be the same. It's just going to be: 'fuck this', 'fuck that'…." Sango sighed, frowning. "I always said you can't teach a young dog new tricks. But at least you're having fun."

"Yeah, I'm trying to get him to allow me to pet his ears," Kagome confessed and sucked in a deep breath. Ducking her head underwater, she rushed back letting out the breath and gasping for another fresh one. "Oh, god, that feels good," Kagome purred brushing her soaking hair away from her face. "He seems comfortable enough now around humans, I just feel bad for Kikyo when the table turns and she has to learn demon ways. He's been telling me about them..." Kagome emphasized it with a shudder.

For once, Sango played devil's advocate—for the demons, that is. She frowned. "Just because the demon ways are vile and crude, it doesn't mean that Inuyasha will be. Even now, he's not all that bad. He was well-behaved at the treaty process. Besides, if he did live like, say, Naraku and his demons, it would be living by cannibalism. So maybe they'll be able to find some kind of a half way point." She frowned harder. "My optimism about this is killing me."

"You're not the only one its killing..." Kagome muttered and sunk into the tub. The water level at her lower lip, she arched a brow quizzically at Sango, mischief playing her in eyes. "Anything new to report oh-optimistic-one-of-love?"

"Just the usual, about how I wish that you and Kikyo would move further away from battle," she sighed, though she smiled at Kagome. "It is nice to have you here though, for companionship. Other than that, Miroku is supposed to be returning, so when he does, please stay far away from him. I'm trying to keep him isolated from all the girls. If I keep sending him back to Naraku looking all black and blue and covered in hand prints, he might start suspecting something. Besides that, all I need is for one girl to get captured and recognize him and start saying that he asked her to bear his child…" she sighed. "But you know how Miroku is. He can't help but seek out the ladies."

"I know a cross dressing geisha if that helps. It could turn him off of this habit of his..." Kagome offered innocently, a devilish look caressing her lips.

Sango giggled. "I don't want to send him back to Naraku mentally damaged, Kagome. I need his mind intact."

They burst into giggles and fell into girly chatter until the water stopped steaming and started cooling off. "What would you do if you had to marry Inuyasha?" Kagome asked sleepily. "Not that Miroku isn't man enough of course, but I mean, in bounds of a contract."

"With the way that those contracts were arranged... I'd come to the shrine everyday to purify myself. I'd try to keep an open mind. But I would hate myself for it, because I wouldn't ever be really happy," Sango said simply.

Kagome shrugged. "I don't know, I suppose I would look on the best side possible." Kagome commented and raised her hand thoughtfully and began counting down the points. "He has to be loyal to me, we are doing something for the greater good which is more important then personal gain, I wasn't destined to marry anyway, he's good looking, and I get along with him. If nothing else, one could gain a life long friend."

"True, but what would happen if you already cared for someone else?"

Kagome arched her brow and watched Sango quizically. "I knew you had something for that monk!"

"I'm not saying that," Sango retorted, shaking her head. "We have a professional courtesy for one another, that's all. But you asked me what I thought if it, and that's how I feel. Yes, I might make a friend, but I wouldn't ever be really happy. If I do ever wed, I want it to be for love. That's the only thing that would make me get married. I'm too busy for anything right now, anyway." She glanced up at the sky. "And with that being said, I guess I should get out before I turn into a prune and head back to camp."

Kagome smiled faintly and offered Sango the towel. "Quickly, before your horse turns into a pumpkin," Kagome joked, her eyes dancing around as she looked at Sango.

"Professional courtesy... I might be a Priestess, but it doesn't mean I am blind to what goes on around me," Kagome winked and wrapped herself in a towel. "I should head back to the shrine anyway, a lot of kids in the village came down with the fever. I should go about making some herb teas."

"Don't get sick yourself," Sango warned. She stood up, wrapping the towel around her wet body, before she looked back down at Sango. Muscles lined the willowy frame of her body, but as she stood there working out the tangle in her long hair with her fingers, it was easy to see her as just another girl, rather than the ruthless general she could be. "Kagome… is it really that obvious?" she asked absentmindedly.

"No, not really," Kagome said after a minutes thought. She began dressing with her back to Sango, her eyes looking at the opposite wall and slightly distant. "I just notice a lot of things. I don't think other people pay as much attention to the details, and besides, if it makes you feel any better…" Kagome paused to tie up her pants. "I think he has a thing for you too."

Sango nodded. "Thank you Kagome," she said respectfully. But really, it didn't help her at all.

Inuyasha walked beside Kagome. He still wore his red outfit, his sword still at his side… he had been in the human side of the camp for two weeks, and if hanging around two priestesses for that time had changed him at all, it wasn't possible to see those changes. He still looked exactly the same, he was still a brat at heart, and he still opened his mouth and inserted his foot a lot. Suddenly he heard crying. A young girl with a small child sat in the first house of the village, and suddenly Inuyasha understood why he had been ordered by her to help carry the bags of clean clothes, reserves, and food. He looked at her. "Refugees?"

"Victims," Kagome said mournfully. Looking at a few kids running around a tree, with the barest nod of her head she indicated them to Inuyasha. "Orphans. They are the ones that pull my ears," she whispered and then looked towards another hut, where a woman sat and simply stared off into the distance, unmoving.

"I..." Kagome swallowed and picked up the bags higher on her chest. "No one was left unscarred," she finally said and walked abruptly towards the well, which was conveniently located in the town camp center.

Together, they handed out food and clothes. Kagome gave out medicine sachets for the children who were ill, and Inuyasha bandaged some wounds. At one point, as he sat on the edge of the well and wrapped a young man's wound in a fresh bandage, he asked Kagome, "Where did you learn all of this from?"

"I don't know," Kagome commented, looking at the boy she was tending too. He was found the only survivor of his town, and he didn't speak. He was covered with cuts and mosquito bites. "When I was young, Kikyo and I attended, well, I suppose you could call it a school for priestess, where we learned our trade. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and over the years... We learned a few additional skills that neither one of us thought would ever be needed," Kagome said and braced the child's broken fingers, wrapping them firmly to a flat piece of wood to keep them straight.

"I've spent my share of time on battle fields, some of it comes naturally," Kagome told Inuyasha, but didn't look at him, her eyes fully intent on the little boy as her fingers gently closed over his hand, and a faint aura emerged from under it, helping heal his bones and purify the wounds. "Other parts of it are learned," she said and handed the boy ointment. "Tell Mr. Yamaguchi to apply this once a day. Alright?" she asked with a warm smile, her hand ruffling his hair.

The boy actually smiled back at her, he looked close to happy before he ran off.

Inuyasha smiled, and the next person stepped up in line. It was a little girl. His smile turned warm, and he slid off the well, trying to make himself seem less ferocious. He held out his hand and he patiently waited as the girl came to him. She didn't look him in the eye, but a lot of the people he had seen didn't. Scooping up the girl, he placed her on his lap. She didn't try to get away, and she suddenly looked up at him defiantly. Inuyasha lifted her skirt enough to see the wound in her leg. He recognized the handy work of poisonous claws anywhere.

"Does it hurt?" he asked the girl. She shook her head, and he patted down her hair. "Good. It means that it's getting better, then." He picked up the salve and he began to gently rub it into the girl's leg. He glanced at Kagome from the corner of his eye.

"I can understand that. Most of what I learned I learned from patching myself up. After you've learned how to put a tourniquet on your own arm, you can do almost anything."

Kagome snorted what could be construed as laughter. "That should be... Interesting," Kagome giggled and looked at Inuyasha. How come he had gotten so pale whenever someone mentioned that his marriage would create heirs? He looked to be so good with children. "Hey, Yuki..." Kagome crooned, her finger lifting the girls chin so she'll look at her. "Cheer up..." Kagome pet the girl's cheek. Her brown eyes noticed the way Yuki's chocolate ones flickered up to Inuyasha's ears as they twitched a fly away.

"Um, Inuyasha? Are you a bargaining man?"

Whenever Kagome got that tone with him, he always began to feel a little nervous. He picked up the bandage roll, starting to cover up the wound again so that it wouldn't get infected. He looked up at Kagome, which normally made the worry go away, because he kept on thinking that she looked too sweet to be planning anything, but this time it didn't go away. "It depends what you're planning on bargaining."

"Well, let Yuki play with your ears... and I owe you, whatever you want," Kagome said simply and innocently.

"I don't," he began. Then he sniffed. He could smell them coming. The stupid demons were attacking from upwind. Inuyasha picked up Yuki and placed her on his shoulder. "You can go ahead and play with them, Yuki," he told her. "I don't think that this will be considered cheating on my contracts at all. You're a little bit too young for me, I think. Come on, Kagome. Let's get somewhere inside."

"Um... Okay?" Kagome said and collected her things.

He waited patiently as Kagome collected her things, looking around at the houses around them. Which one would be the sturdiest, the most protective? Yuki pointed at the orphanage, as if picking up on his thoughts. Together, they moved to the orphanage, Inuyasha speeding them along. He didn't know how far away the demons were, all he knew was their direction. He set Yuki down in front of her home, and then he looked at Kagome.

"I'd tell you to stay here, but you wouldn't do that, would you? You're a fighter, too aren't you? That's why you always carry that around with you," he said, pointing at the quiver and bow she carried.

Kagome looked at her bow and arrows and then at Inuyasha. "No, I carry it around cause I think it makes me look fetching and sexy," she snapped and walked around the house, putting ofudas on the walls and blessing them. Slowly but surely she managed to move around the entire structure putting up charms. "As long as I live, no demons are going to get in here," Kagome swore and began chanting under her breath. Her fingers tightly knit together, Kagome poured her powers into the defenses of the house.

"Inuyasha, quickly gather everyone in here," Kagome asked, before met his eyes directly. Cool and calm, Kagome decided to work on his strategic logic. "They aren't fighters. They'll just get in the way."

"I'm well aware of that," he barked, already marching off to find everybody. He rolled his eyes. 'The audacity of that girl, sometimes! She's going to be the death of me. Sometimes, I want to strangle her! Why does she always have to talk back?'

He was, eventually, able to get everybody to go to the orphanage, and stay there where they would be protected. Inuyasha, more than once, had to yell at them and threaten them, baring his fangs and making his ears stand on end, as all animals did when they were frightening away people. He doubted that Kagome would have liked to see them treated that way, but there were only so many times in one day that Inuyasha could put up with hearing: 'Why should I listen to you? Up until a few weeks ago, you were the enemy!'

Frankly, he had gotten tired of it the first time he had heard it. He met Kagome in the center of the village, the orphanage to their backs. Inuyasha leaned the pack of quivers he had taken from one of the villagers against the wooden well, stretching the bow and trying to get a feel for it. He didn't care much for a bow and arrow, but he was a descent shot. Besides, it would mean that he could take down the demons as they came in, and then when they got close, he could pull out his hands and feet.

He looked down at the sword at his side. The Tetsusaiga, as his father had called the sword, was meant to keep his demon blood from destroying him from the inside out. It was rusty, and old looking, but his father assured him that it was only a year or two older than Inuyasha himself. He had always told Inuyasha that when the time was right, he would surely know how to use it, but thus far, it hadn't even been able to cut grass.

"Do you know how to use a hunting knife?" he asked, holding one out to her. "The bow and arrow aren't going to do you much good if you get into close combat."

Kagome glared at him. "Give me some credit! And get that blood stained knife away from me!" she yelled angrily and let her arrow sing through the air as the evil aura came closer approaching through the trees, spreading around like a purple cloud that stank of death.

The demons were still too far to be seen, but her arrow made contact because the following minute there was a giant blast and bright silver and pink lights shot off, purifying the whole first rows of trees closest to them, pushing back the evil aura and throwing demon remains all over the place before they disintegrated into thin air.

"You watch your own back, I can handle myself! They're coming!" Kagome shouted, stringing another arrow.

Inuyasha threw the knife into the ground, reaching over and drawing an arrow. He notched it with shaking fingers. He cursed his father with every oath he knew. 'Fuck that old sack of bones! He married me off to the best priestess in the fucking realm and the second greatest priestess can fire blindly and kill a shit load of demons? She can purify the fucking trees? Fuck him! Fuck him right in his ear!'

Her arrow kept them out, but not for long. The head of a lizard-demon broke through the canopy. Whatever birds had not fled did so now. Inuyasha took careful aim, aiming for the eyes of the dragon-like creature.

He hit a bird.

"Um…." His ears flattened and he hoped that Kagome hadn't noticed his mistake.

"Get a knife and be ready, they are charging," Kagome ordered sounding more like Kikyo then she imagined. "Or try with the arrow again, aim for their nose, that way it's harder for you to miss—ah!" Kagome yelped and fell back, her arrow falling out of her hand.

Clenching her arm, Kagome looked down and saw a fang on the floor. They had a demon who could shoot fangs? Shit! Grabbing the arrow, she quickly shot. "It's only a scratch. Dammit, I should've noticed it coming," she muttered and looked at Inuyasha before jumping to the side and firing up in the air, which did an impressive firework like display. "Backup."

He did so, notching another arrow. He released the arrow, and this time, he did manage to hit his target. The lizard demon roared in pain, and Inuyasha notched another arrow. "Don't tire yourself out, Kagome," he counseled. "The fang is from a snake demon. It's poisonous. Get somewhere safe as soon as you can."

"Don't go babying me!" Kagome yelled. She knew it was poisonous, she could feel the venom working its way into her system. But she was also using her own powers against it. If she weren't devoting so much of her powers to the orphanage, keeping it cloaked from the demons sight she would've been able to fight it off better. But for now, it would do.

"Does that sword of yours do anything!"

"Not that I know of." He threw down the bow. The demons were charging now, and Inuyasha was stepping out to meet them. He crackled his knuckles, sinking the balls of his feet into the soft ground. "But I do."

The demons met him. They had to crowd themselves through the village, and so Inuyasha met only three of them at a time. His claws raked across their chests, and he dodged fangs and claws alike. He was oblivious to almost everything as he threw demons into the ground, striking and punching. He could feel hot blood run down his face, but it wasn't his. Inuyasha broke a demon's arm, wondering if he would ever be able to forget the sound of it, as his hand came up, and he killed the demon in one swift stroke.

He didn't need the sword. He had learned to fight since he had been old enough to stand. Inuyasha was fighting, literally, tooth and claw. Blood had drenched his right arm, the one dominant in his blows. Heads lay on the ground, or bodies with gaping holes in them where he had been able to punch threw.

Sweat mingled with his blood-soaked body. He was starting to feel tired, but he kept on fighting. Never once did he think of what he was doing, or what it would look like to Kagome. All he cared about was survival.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed when a centipede demon grabbed her and threw her up in the air. She lost her bow, which had fallen down to the ground and broken in half. Her quivers went flying as well, scattering about like birds. Kagome grabbed her hair pin and used it to plunge purifying energy into the demon.

It screamed and released her. The demon's arms shattered, but Kagome hadn't thought the act through. She was above the trees when she began to fall to the ground. Instinctively she rolled into a ball, hoping to soften her fall.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha dodged a bladed arm of a demon and ran to catch her. He caught her in the air, cradling her against his chest. He landed on his feet, kicking up a cloud of dust as he skidded on the ground. His feet left a trail marking where he had landed, and where he had stopped. He looked down at the woman he held. "Are you okay?"

Kagome's face was buried deeply into his soft shirt. She breathed in his scent, not minding the slight sweaty twinge. Her hands were curled into his hair, holding on tightly. Shivering, Kagome looked up at him, her eyes wide and startled. "Uh, yeah... yes... thank you for saving me..." Kagome swallowed and lowered herself from his arms. "There're less of them..." Kagome looked towards the demons who were now charging them. "I don't sense backup... But without my arrows, I can't stop them." Kagome hated this. She hated being without her weapons, being vulnerable.

She was right. They were less. There were only ten of them left, but it didn't help that one of them was the size of a house, and the other one of a tree. Inuyasha sniffed the air quickly. He didn't smell anything either. He set Kagome down on the ground carefully, cautious of the wound. He stood in front of her, his blood-red hand gripping the battered hilt of his sword.

"Okay, old man," he said to no-one in particular. "You better not have kidded me when you said that I'd know how to use this." He drew his sword…

And it was still a rusted sword.

Swearing, Inuyasha used his other hand to coat his nails in his own blood, from an open gash on his arm. He flung it at the demons. One of the smaller ones was cut into pieces, and long, deep marks appeared on the two big ones. He looked down at the sword again. "What the hell is the matter with you! You won't cut anything! What am I supposed to do with you?"

Kagome looked around for her bow, she found an arrow now if she could only find the bow... Looking back at Inuyasha, Kagome didn't understand what he was doing cursing at thin air instead of fighting the demons. "Just swing at them! Maybe it'll scare them! Anything instead of standing there!"

"I AM doing something! I'm trying to protect you and your village! Now just shut up for once and let me…" He stopped yelling at her. The sword… had pulsed. Inuyasha went through his mind. What caused it to pulse? Not anger. He was already mad. It wasn't yelling… protection? Had it hummed because he was trying to protect? Inuyasha smiled as the sword began humming without end. He looked at the demons, and one of the smaller ones paused.

It had a very bad feeling about this…

Inuyasha smirked. "I think he meant this to protect Kikyo, but…" Inuyasha stepped up and swung the sword. The demon that had paused had been cut in half. Inuyasha smiled approvingly. He looked back at the sword, which had become large and fang-looking, but it weighed little. He could have wielded it in one hand if had wanted. "This will work nicely."

In the end, he left none alive. He left no demons alive to be able to go back to their commanding officer and tell them what had happened. He sheathed the sword, and when he drew it again, it had once again turned to a rusty pile of crap. Inuyasha's smirk grew. He forgot that he had been mad at his dad for sending him to someone powerful enough to kill his whole family with a single arrow, and thanked him.

"How's the arm?" Inuyasha asked, walking back to Kagome.

Kagome stared at him in awe. "You... you..." Her mouth dropped wide open and she stared at him in gaping awe. Her hair was messy, she had dirt marring her features and blood clinging to her skin. "How did you...?" Her voice trailed off again, lost in amazement. "Wow..." And then she fainted.

Inuyasha sighed, but he was smiling. He scooped her up and he carried her to the orphanage. He felt a slight burning pain as he crossed the threshold, but he was able to cross it. The children gasped—as did some of the villagers—when they saw his condition. He shut the doors behind him so that they wouldn't see what the village looked like. No child needed to see that carnage. One of the babies he had tended to was crying already, and a young child joined in, crying for his mother.

Looking at one of the village elders, he asked for warm water. They brought some up from the kitchen, and he laid Kagome down on a long bench in the kitchen. Using some of the things she had brought with her for the villagers, Inuyasha cleansed her wounds and washed the dirt off of her face for her. One of the villagers offered Inuyasha a cloth for his own face, but he shook his head. He sat there, half asleep, with her head in his lap for two hours, until she finally began to stir once again. Inuyasha's eyes snapped open, and he grabbed for his sword, but then Kagome's scent washed over him, and he relaxed.

"You're awake."

'Astute observation, Inuyasha.'

"I am?" she asked dazed, her pupils slowly adjusting to the light, and even though the room was dark it felt too bright. Forcing her eyes open, Kagome tried to sit up and felt bandages wrapped all around her- and then everything came back. "The demons!"

"Ow," Inuyasha said, when she suddenly sat up and hit his head in the process. Inuyasha reached out and grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back down. He brushed her hair soothingly. "Just relax, will you? They're all gone. God, with a head that hard, I should have been using you as a weapon."

"You... oh Goddess... Your sword! How did you turn it into a giant fang! WHY didn't you use it before hand and-" Kagome stopped mid-rant to take in his disheveled appearance. "You're hurt! While I'm all tended to, you... didn't anyone want to take care of you? Those look nasty-" Kagome stopped again mid-sentence and smiled at him, before throwing herself at his probably aching self. "Thank you! For your help and oh-! You saved me! I owe you... You really are like a brother-in-law!" Kagome hugged him then jumped back quickly, her cheeks blushing furiously.

"Um. Maybe we better get you to Kikyo, she's a marvelous healer..."

He stared at her crazy, letting her rant. Inuyasha arched a dark eyebrow. "You're crazy, you know that, right?"

Kagome considered it then stuck her tongue out as reply. "I'm crazy and you're an idiot. What a pair we make."