Disclaimer: Do you honestly think I own the characters from Inuyasha? If by some twisted chance you think I do, I really don't. I think you need some help if you do. Really.

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Kagome shrieked. A yokai was coming right towards her and there was nothing that she could do. Suddenly, Inuyasha ran in front of her with his arms outspread.

"Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" he shouted as his claws slashed across the face of the yokai. It fell to the ground in a bloody mess.

"Are you alright?" Inuyasha asked.

"I…I think so..thanks…" Kagome responded with a shudder in her voice.

Inuyasha was glad she was alright "That's great….But why did you just stand there? Huh? Are you stupid?"

Kagome didn't respond. She was too ashamed of herself to respond. She wished that she were stronger, like Sango. She knew that women of this time weren't expected to be strong, but Sango put all of her heart into it. She wanted to be like her.

Later that night

Kagome walked over to Sango after all of the others had gone to sleep around the campfire. "The air tonight is so fresh and clean. I love this kind of weather." She gazed into the distance, spacing out for a moment.

Sango picked up that there was something wrong and wanted to ask, but she figured that if Kagome ever wanted to talk about something with her, she would. As Sango was contemplating whether or not to ask Kagome what was bothering her, she was interrupted by the sound of Kagome's voice.

"Hey Sango…" she said in a quiet voice. "How…how did you learn to fight so well?"

Sango had known for a while that this conversation might come up. "Well, you know that my village was a village of demon hunters…I learned from my father. He was a great teacher. He taught me everything that I know. Well, almost everything. It took a lot of practice, but I was able to get better and better…why do you ask?"

"Well…" she responded. "I've been feeling really helpless lately. Even Shippo can use his fox fire to defend himself…I'm just…there. I'm just someone in need of protection. I want to be able to protect myself…so…do you think you could teach me?"

Sango didn't expect this. She was taken back by the request, but the logic was sound. Kagome did tend to slow the group down when it came to fighting.

"Well Kagome…if you really want me too. We can practice at night after those men over there go to sleep. But the first thing is first…if you really want to do this, I'm going to teach you how to fight with a sword, not the bow and arrow."

Kagome had never used a sword in her life. "Alright…" she said with a little smirk. "Thank you Sango! You're the best!"

Sango gave her a smirk back. "No problem. We'll start tomorrow night."