A/N: Sorry about that last short chapter you guys! I didn't know it was really that short when I was writing it, because I think I got really caught up in the blood sucking thing.

LucretiaDecoy: Thanks for reviewing! That's a good idea, I'll have to watch those first few eps again— I've been focusing on the last ones in the series, like where Rin says "Sesshoumaru-sama?" and he actually responds with a "Nanda?"

kari konoko: Yeah.. well, it was dark, so she really couldn't see much until she got a good look in the mirror. Y'know, like if someone has food stuck in their teeth, they'll never know unless either someone tells 'em, or they take a peek in the reflecting glass..

.. and thanks for checking in, Yami Pandora! Anyway, on with the story!

I hope you guys like this chapter, because it's a LOT longer than the last one! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own it, won't flaunt it.

CHAPTER 6: the mark

It was finally morning. Inu Yasha, having passed out during the day from Shippou's rough tricks, couldn't sleep through the night. He had been waiting for everyone to wake up so that they could resume the search.

"What do you plan to find at the castle?" Miroku asked Inu Yasha over breakfast.

"Some information on the territories of the Western Lands, maybe something that will lead us in the right direction of where Kagome might be." Inu Yasha let out a sigh. "I know it's not much, but it's all I can think of to do." Miroku, Sango, Shippou, and Kohaku looked at Inu Yasha sadly. It was really tearing him apart inside, not being able to do anything for the woman he cared so much about.

"Master Inu Yasha," Myouga said, hopping onto the hanyou's shoulder, "you may be able to find a locator spell in the castle," Everyone turned to look at the tiny flea.

"Really?" Inu Yasha asked hopefully. Myouga nodded his head.

"Yes, providing that it hasn't been ransacked by wandering youkai or humans,"

"Then, let's get a move on!" he yelled, and in a flash of red and white, he was gone. They all scrambled to leave, packing their belongings, and mounting Kirara. Shippou decided to carry Kagome's yellow bag for the time being. Slinging it over his shoulder, he left top-speed to catch up with Inu Yasha.

"Ugh, my head," Kagome moaned, as she woke up. She looked around from her position on the ground. She pulled herself to her feet, using the counter in the bathroom as a crutch. "Owowowow," she said, putting a hand to her head. Kagome looked into the mirror. Gasping from surprise, she came to a cruel recollection of the moments before she passed out. She stroked her hair, which appeared as though she had gone to the hairdresser and asked for silver chunk highlights. But that wasn't the most shocking aspect of her appearance. Kagome leaned in closer to the mirror. Her eyes were a beautiful amber color, just like Inu Yasha's and … Sesshoumaru's. ' she asked herself. Suddenly, she felt more aware of everything in her vicinity. She could smell herself clearly, and the smells of Rin lingered near her vanity set. She ran quickly over to the seat in which Sesshoumaru had placed himself the morning before. Yes, it still smelled of him. Kagome stood up straight, contemplating her new abilities, when something struck her.

She smelled oddly like Sesshoumaru.

It wasn't very much, but his scent was there, like the smell of barbecue from a mile away. 'No way… It can't be… I've…' she sniffed herself again. 'I've been… marked by SesshouMARU!' "THAT JERK!" She yelled out of anger and frustration. She dressed quickly, and stormed out of the bedroom. She tracked Sesshoumaru's freshest scent and found him outside, watching Rin eat breakfast from further away in the grass. In a flash, Kagome was by his side. "What did you do to me?" she demanded, a small growl emanating from deep within her throat. Sesshoumaru watched in mild (although concealed) amusement as her face changed expressions from complete anger to surprise, and bewilderment. Kagome raised a hand to her throat. She calmed herself down a little in order to stop growling, and re-asked her question. "What did you do to me, Sesshoumaru?"

"Don't you remember?" He asked her, semi-playfully. She hadn't remembered what happened just before her blackout last night.

"Don't play games with me. What did you do?" 'Is it my imagination, or is Sesshoumaru less threatening?' she asked herself, in the middle of her inquisition with the youkai.

"Don't worry, Kagome. It is only temporary," he told her, staring forward at Rin.

"Hiiii, Sesshoumaru-sama! Hi Kagome!" she called from her place at the table.

"It is time for her lessons," he reminded the miko hanyou. Kagome was distracted from her anger by his attention toward the human girl.

"Oh.. right…" she complied without a fight, not realizing that just yesterday she would have been annoyed at his commanding her around. Leaving Sesshoumaru's company, she walked toward Rin.

'This could be a problem,' Sesshoumaru thought to himself. 'My scent isn't dissipating at all.' The taiyoukai watched Kagome head toward Rin. 'If this keeps up…' He trailed off. He didn't even want to think about what the side effects could be should Kagome retain her hanyou state for more than a few days. He was already feeling a pull toward her, and mentally hitting himself for pushing her to accept his blood. 'Just because that annoyance Inu Yasha hadn't marked her yet.' "Tch," he let out, suddenly, "what a hassle." He walked away from the girls in order to meditate.

Why had he been so eager for Kagome to learn the technique of flying? Of course it was imperative for her to learn the incantations in order to teach them to Rin, but… Rin wasn't even finished learning how to read and write basic Japanese. He was tempted to bring Kagome to Inu Yasha in her hanyou form, as a way of teaching his brother the importance of marking his territory-- and his woman. But Kagome's resiliency to holding his youkai blood was definitely posing a problem. Most women who mate with youkai are not thoroughly marked. This basically meant that in order to mate a human woman, the youkai only needs to offer his blood for her to drink in order to temporarily seal the compatibility between the two species. Most species of youkai do not mate for life, but the inu-youkai and yourozoku (wolf) tribes are among the few who do. Within those two tribes, thorough marking was used on both youkai-youkai and youkai-human matches alike.

Sesshoumaru sat on the grass and laid his head back against the boulder behind him. Inu Yasha's mother had been temporarily marked. Their father had marked Sesshoumaru's mother thoroughly, but she died not long after Sesshoumaru's birth. Having moved on, Sesshoumaru's father chose princess Izayoi to father his next child, Inu Yasha. Although the great lord of the Western lands had found another one to love, and was loyal to the human woman, he could not bring himself to thoroughly mark her as a mate. Izayoi had been only temporarily marked, as a tacit tribute to Sesshoumaru's mother.

What Sesshoumaru had done was by no means an effort to ruin what he considered to be Inu Yasha's. His scent would completely disappear from Kagome within mere days, and Kagome would return to normal. This is also what protects the women from enemies of their youkai mates. However, Kagome was not reverting to her human form. It had already been 14 hours. By now, any normal woman would already be reverted, but Kagome had not yet even started showing the signs of returning to her human form. He expected her hanyou attributes to last for perhaps a day, but his scent should have already started to dissipate- which wasn't happening.

The possible hurt that he could cause Inu Yasha- should Kagome fail to revert- was not his concern. The problem lied in Kagome's altered scent. Just by smelling her, Sesshoumaru felt more protective toward the woman; an instinct concerning the protection of his blood. He didn't want to admit it, but the smell of Kagome was beginning to make him want to treat her as his mate. He had already caught himself treating her much more civilly than he had intended. In fact, his tender actions toward her last night surprised him more than it had surprised Kagome.

"Wow, Rin-chan," Kagome praised her student. "You really learn fast when you put your mind to it,"

"Thanks. Uh, Kagome?" Kagome looked at Rin, waiting for her question. "Why do you look different today?" Kagome blushed at the personal question. She couldn't tell Rin that she just drank Sesshoumaru's blood, and turned out that way.

"I--I'm not sure, Rin-chan," she fibbed, "I think I'll be back to normal tomorrow, though," she said, hopefully. Quickly changing the subject, Kagome found something else to teach Rin. "Now that I think about it, let's learn some grammar," she said with a brilliant flash of a fake smile, trying to make it sound exciting. Kagome sweatdropped. Never in a million years did she think she'd be teaching anybody anything. After this lesson, Kagome would take Rin outside to play.

Kagome decided to play catch with Rin in order to build up her arm strength and prepare her for possibly learning archery- if she could convince Sesshoumaru to allow it. Surprisingly, getting close to the barrier and running off to Inu Yasha didn't even cross her mind during the entire morning. She was really beginning to attach herself to Rin, even though it had only been a full day since her arrival. Sesshoumaru, she sensed, was nearby. She could smell him upwind. Only seconds later did she spot his figure, standing further away, watching the two girls.

Yes, he was watching them. Or, rather, he was watching what they were doing. Although at first glance, it appeared they were merely playing catch, Sesshoumaru sensed a small amount of spiritual powers emanating from the ball. He had expected as much from Kagome's throws, but… they were coming from Rin's passes as well. Turning around, Sesshoumaru removed himself from their presence by entering the castle.

"We're almost there," Inu Yasha said impatiently, tapping his foot and index finger in unison while staring at the rest of his group. They were tired; they had all been moving since the early morning, and it was now well into the afternoon.

"Then count this as our last break," Shippou told the hanyou, smartly.

"Take this!" Inu Yasha replied before he quickly swatted Shippou a few times in the head.

"Ow, hey!" Shippou covered his head and looked over at Inu Yasha, who had resumed his place in the circle. He seemed preoccupied ever since he woke up from Shippou's hits yesterday. "What's wrong, Inu Yasha?"

"Nothing." A few seconds later, he stood up. "I'm going for a walk," he stated, and headed away from camp.

Something had been bothering the hanyou since last night. He had needed the sleep, which was why he allowed Shippou to think that he succeeded in knocking him out. But when he woke up, he felt a new urgency to find Kagome. Something seemed out of place, but he couldn't put his finger on the feeling. It reminded him of when he saw visions of Kikyou at Mt. Hakurei. Now, he kept seeing visions of Kagome, hearing her voice, and then watching her disappear into thin air. He really needed to vent his frustrations. Once he was out of sight, Inu Yasha ran along the treetops, hoping to find a youkai to vanquish- hoping that somehow, his mind would clear. Something was definitely wrong with his Kagome, and he was frustrated to no end that he could do nothing about it.

"What am I going to do with this?" Kagome said in frustration as she combed through her hair. Although it was almost time for dinner, she was still in that hanyou form. 'Didn't Sesshoumaru say that I should be back to normal within a day? Then… what's going on?' she thought, panicking. Her heart rate increased, and she could smell the fear on her. 'Is this what Sesshoumaru smelled when he kidnapped me?' She changed into a light blue silk kimono, and wrapped a pastel yellow obi around herself. 'That's right… I was kidnapped…' Although it had only been two complete days, it seemed so long ago. Where was Inu Yasha? Hadn't he been able to locate her yet? 'Although.. I'm not sure I want Inu Yasha to see me like this..' She sighed, and decided on braids for her hair, pinned into place on the sides of her head.. Something like 'Princess Leah buns,' but not as huge. Two pairs of knocks came from her door. "Come," she called.

"Kagome-sama," the toady-looking minion greeted her.

"Kagome!" Rin waved at her teacher from the doorway. Jaken cleared his throat, preparing to continue his announcement, which had been interrupted by Rin.

"Dinner has been prepared for your company."

"Hai, Jaken," Kagome said plainly. Somehow, she was becoming used to the characters in this castle as much as she was used to Miroku, Sango, and the others. Dinner was in the same place this evening. Rin and Kagome walked up the stairs of the pagoda and sat down in the same seats as before. Again, Jaken cleared his throat to announce Sesshoumaru's arrival. In much the same fashion as before, Sesshoumaru entered the pagoda- looking very royal, but also very unimposing.

"Sesshoumaru-sama looks handsome, ne, Kagome?" Rin whispered to her tutor.

"Eh… Mm…"she replied, nervously. She didn't want to insult him, of course, but she also… ever so slightly… agreed with Rin. Sesshoumaru heard every word, and fought down a blush. No one would have been able to tell that the girls' dialogue had affected him. He sat down opposite Rin and Kagome.

"Itadakemasu!" Kagome chanted, and prepared to load her plate with food. She had forgotten to eat lunch, and was pretty hungry. Sesshoumaru eyed the miko hanyou. He nodded to Rin, allowing her to help herself to some food, as well.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, I learned many things today," Rin told Sesshoumaru. He looked at her, surprised that she was no longer using third-person speech.

"Is that so, Rin?" he asked, disdainfully picking some food for himself.

"Mm, I learned to read the alphabet, and I learned …" she looked at Kagome for the right word.

"Grammar," she whispered to her student.

"Grammar!" Rin exclaimed.

"Excellent. You've made progress," he told Rin, who beamed proudly. He looked at Kagome in a way that told her his statement was meant for her, as well.

"Ne, Sesshoumaru-sama," Rin began a few minutes later, casting a look at Kagome and then back at the taiyoukai, "Why did Kagome change looks?" This question, asked so plainly, caused Sesshoumaru to stiffen slightly. He had been trying to avoid thinking about her having his attributes, and here it was brought before him so blatantly. Without answering, Sesshoumaru stood to his feet. "ah.. Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin questioned him.

"She shouldn't be that way for much longer, Rin. Do not mention this again," he ordered.

"H-hai, Sesshoumaru-sama," she said, confusedly. Sesshoumaru began to walk down the stairs of the pagoda. Before his feet touched the dirt pathway, however, he stopped and said something under his breath; something that he knew only Kagome and Jaken would have the ability to hear.

"I will be there tonight, as well," were his final words after dinner. Kagome looked down at her plate, knowing what he meant. Something was wrong. She should definitely have changed back by now.

"This food is really good, isn't it, Kagome?" Rin asked, tearing Kagome's attention from her troubles.

"Yeah," she smiled, and began to eat the remaining food on her plate. However, Kagome's smile didn't last long. She was going to have to meet with Sesshoumaru later.

A/N:I'm SOOO looking forward to the anime expo in Anaheim, CA this weekend! yay! Anyway, please review! Aba-yo!