What was wrong with this picture? Kagome thought. She'd just been inside her apartment, getting ready to go dancing with Bankotsu, and now she was standing in a field. Not to mention that she was standing knee-deep in blood. Yeah, that was real lovely, and how the hell do you get knee-high amounts of blood in a field?

Kagome tried to think of what could have happened, but with no clues she had to rely upon her miko powers to give her an answer. Opening herself so that her small tendrils of power could ease out, she had her answers within seconds.

"Goddamn it! Naraku! Show your ugly face...NOW!" Kagome stewed. That bastard had brought her back to the Feudal Era, a place she had never had any intention of returning to. Three years, five months, and nine days ago Kagome had stood in this very field and fought Naraku. Between that time and now she had come to a truce with him; he agreed not to do anything particularly heinous (according to her definition not his) and she wouldn't purify him. As part of that deal Naraku had had to hand over what he had of the Shikon No Tama, which he had barely agreed to. It had taken all the persuasive powers of Bankotsu, Kagura, Kanna, and Suikotsu to get him to agree to this. Naraku really shouldn't have given it to her though. In her time, Naraku had become very weak very fast, for he lived off of demon energy and in her time there were no demons. Naraku had miscalculated on that fact and left Kagome, with her miko energy, in the upper hand.

"He's not here," a voice yelled from above.

"Bankotsu! You're here as well?" Kagome demanded as he alit upon the ground in front of her. Even in her state of agitation she admired the way he looked. He had cut his hair she noted, it was now only to his hips, whereas years before it had been a great deal longer. It still shone with a black, demon light, however, as demons' hair usually did.

"We are all here, in various places. Now what was that about dating I heard?"

"Bankotsu, now is not the time..." Bankotsu ignored her warning and drew her into his arms, then moving slowly began to dance. "I really need to find Naraku..." Bankotsu whispered in her ear, "...eww, that's not physically possible and you know I don't do demon."

Kagome pushed him away and he shrugged. "Worth a try."

"You try all the time, get over it."

"Don't want to, you're tops, kid."

"I'm also twenty, well past the age where I am a kid."

"In human years, yes, in demon years..."

Inuyasha and the people hiding in the trees could hardly believe their eyes and ears. Kagome, looking vastly different from the time they had last seen her, was standing there, calmly speaking with an enemy!

Kagome was having an argument with Bankotsu and either hadn't bother to scan for other presences or was ignoring them...maybe she really was the Kagome they knew and loved, for she had to sense them and she wasn't giving them away, Inuyasha thought, she was protecting them...

"I have put up a barrier Inuyasha, she cannot feel us," Kikyo whispered in his ear, seemingly reading his mind.

Inuyasha frowned and studied the woman in the field. Kagome had cut her hair, her beautiful hair! It was not even an inch long all around, it was shorn so close. It framed her face perfectly however and brought out her sharp cheekbones. It seemed she'd gotten taller as well, for she was as tall as, if not taller than, Bankotsu, who was inches taller than Inuyasha. Inuyasha could not help but notice that the really tight pants (leather!) that Kagome was wearing made her legs seem miles long. The male undershirt (Wife-beater) she wore also showcased the fact that she was no longer the curvy teen she used to be, she was now long and lean and totally hot. With this new look and deeper tan, Kagome no longer looked a thing like Kikyo. Inside Inuyasha, though he would never admit it, his attraction to Kagome weakened at the new image. It appeared that everyone had been right; his attraction with Kagome had been a product of her resemblance to Kikyo.

Sesshomaru and Koga had no problem with the new Kagome at all however. Both thought she looked mighty fine standing there in womanly glory. She looked hot, and smelled dangerous. Sesshomaru lifted his head an inch and smelled again. From the rising power from her, she was very dangerous. This excited Sesshomaru and he couldn't help but shift his body a little to hide what this attraction was doing to him. This did not escape Koga's attention however, and he felt a moment's rage at the sight of the tall, aristocratic demon staring at his Kagome with lust. She was his by rights and by territory. He'd claimed her a long time ago, and no one was going to interfere.

Kagome stopped arguing with Bankotsu long enough to feel a massive presence heading this way. From the scent it was Naraku, but his power was too heavy to be just him, unless...Kagome reached out with another tendril of power and knew her suspicions to be correct.In the few minutes of returning here,Naraku had binged on other demons and was almost at full power. Kagome bristled at that thought; their truce required him to not consume other demons into his miasma. Her power rose and fell with her irritation and she turned to Bankotsu.

"Were you in on this?"

"No. I had no idea. You must believe me." Bankotsu felt the same thing in the air she did.

Kagome did believe him. Bankotsu knew better than to lie to her, they were connected. She would be able to tell. "He is coming this way and he is in a bad mood. You are to protect any innocents who come this way. I'll take care of him." Just as she had for the past three years. She's policed Naraku and he'd grown restless in her care. She'd known and she'd still hadn't seen this coming. Of course he would want to return to this time, he had been powerful then, well, now. He was powerful now, she reminded herself. Be on your guard.

Naraku landed mere feet away from Kagome and took in her outfit. "Nice pants. Leather?"

"Yes. Nice coat; baboon?"

Naraku nodded and filled with the power of the seventeen demons he'd just consumed, released a wave of energy that slammed into Kagome. Instead of making her scream in agony however, she laughed.

"Did you think your pitiful attempt to hurt me would work? I am the Shikon No Tama. I do not hurt." Kagome raised her arm and with a wave of her hand had Naraku slammed into a tree, knocking the tree over and very nearly crushing Miroku and Sango (not that she knew that). "You can't beat me!" Kagome laughed at that thought. She had brought the shards of the Shikon into her a long time ago. They were now one and the same. Another reason why Naraku shouldn't have given them to her. He was never going to get them back now.

As Naraku forced his bruised body to rise from the ground, Kagura walked out of the forest nearby and pointed at Kagome. "Now be nice!"

"You don't like him. Why protect him?" Kagome asked.

"Oh no, kick his ass, but let me get my camera!" Kagura smiled. She, too, had changed in three years, becoming softer and, well, better. She was now on the side of good (somewhat) having been released from servitude to Naraku by Kagome. Another reason he disliked Kagome, she had relieved him of most of his minions. Now only Jakotsu and Kanna remained at his side.

Sure enough, Kagura pulled out a Polaroid camera and snapped a picture of the bleeding Naraku before running to where Bankotsu had faded into the background and did the same. Naraku, however, was not going to stand for this impertinence. He forced some of his miasma into a ball of energy and threw it at Kagome. She'd seen it coming and using her miko energy to catch it.

"Well, well, well. A piece of your soul, Baboon." Kagome smiled and Naraku realized his mistake. Kagome had learned quite a few new tricks and one of them required pieces of mind and body. A particularly painful trick that one.

Kagome forced her attention on the miasma in front of her so much that she failed to notice that Naraku had signaled Jakotsu behind her. So intent on the Polaroid were Bankotsu and Kagura that neither did they. Jakotsu pulled out his sword, his famous curving sword and swung. Just as Kagome realized what was happening, Sesshomaru appeared in front of the sword blow and blocked it with Tenseiga. Kagome glanced at him but a second before her concentration of before had paid off. The miasma had formed five, burgundy blades before her. They were called blood blades and would attack whomever they had been formed of until they were allowed to return to the body. What this meant in short was that they would hack and hack there way around the body until they found the place where the flesh they had been made from came from. With the miasma blood blades, it meant they would hack and hack until they were called off, for Naraku was all miasma and the miasma would not know where it came from. What this all meant in short was pain for Naraku, fun for Kagome.

"Return!" She commanded the blades before turning back to Sesshomaru. "And you are?"

Sesshomaru stood there surprised. Surely she had not forgotten who he was in three years? He was Sesshomaru, her companion's half-brother, and Lord of the Western Lands. He was not to be forgotten so quickly. "I am Sesshomaru, Lord of the Western Lands, Holder of the Great Sword Tokijin, Bearer of the..."

"Yeah, yeah. Got the point. Um, wait...Sesshomaru?" Kagome asked shocked. She had not even thought about the fact that she was going to have to interact with all her old friends. What would they say of her now? What would she think of them? Were they the same after all these years? Had Sango and Miroku ever gotten together? What Inuyasha? Was he still the irrepressible child she remembered? Had he ever gotten over himself and convinced Kikyo that they loved each other? Had Koga ever gotten over his fear of commitment and...

"Yes?"

"Wow. I used to think you were a lot taller," Kagome stated to cover up her absentmindedness, then realized it was true. Now she came to about his chin, whereas before she'd only come to like his waist, like she had with most full-blooded demons. His "lordship" was very tall. As she scrutinized Sesshomaru she unwittingly released a wave of power (probably in answer to the screams of Naraku behind her) and prodded his. As their powerful auras flared and mingled Kagome felt a surprising tingle of sexual awareness. They warily stared at each other, both feeling it and not doing anything about it.

"Kagome!" Naraku screamed. Kagome leisurely turned to him (deliberately turning her back to Sesshomaru which was extremely insulting to do).

"Yes?"

"You must...please!"

"Oh, alright!" Kagome waved her hand and the blood blades vanished, leaving a marked and upset Naraku behind. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Bankotsu had picked of his brother Jakotsu by the neck and was shaking him in the air. She turned to tell Bankotsu to leave the demon alone when Naraku threw out something most unexpected. A tendril of seeking energy invaded her mind and slammed into her defenses. As a miko they were strong but the attack was so sharp and concentrated that for a second Kagome wavered and falling to her knees she lost all sense of time and space.

Sesshomaru drew Tenseiga and used it to cut the link between the two. With the agony gone all Kagome felt was rage and that showed in her power. Her miko-ness had risen and Kagome turned back to Naraku with the air fragrant with energy. Using that energy Kagome formed a ball of purifying energy and threw it to where Naraku lay, completely drained. Suddenly Kanna formed before Naraku and caught the energy in her mirror. It was absorbed and Kanna allowed a small smile before touching Naraku and pulled him with her into the mirror, which then absorbed itself. Kanna had established that nice little ability not long ago. Through her mirror she could travel from mirror to mirror and take people with her.

Kagome subdued her rage with all the practice of the full-blooded demon standing close. Sesshomaru was impressed. It had taken him years to do that. "Well, I guess the hunt is on then."

Without a backwards glance and just a gesture, Bankotsu and Kagura followed her as they began to stalk out of the clearing. Behind them a voice rang out. "Just a minute. I would like to speak to you."