Author's note: Back although my confidence in writing has dropped. –sigh- I really am trying my hardest to make it interesting. I just am a pretty boring person myself. What made me so mad was when I had already finished writing this entire chapter with over 3000 words to let my sister use the computer. She chose that one fateful day, before I had uploaded the chapter, to receive a virus from her friend and delete all my files! I was so mad, I didn't look at this story for five months. :)

Disclaimer: I shall not own inuyasha nor do I now.

XXX Mending wounds and Gratitude XXX

He appeared to be half dead with an unhumorous hole the size of a cantaloupe through his stomach although it seemed to be healing itself quite well. His breathing was slow and always seemed to stop for a few minutes, giving Kagome a good scare, before struggling forward again. Figuring that he was in a coma of some sort and yet not knowing what to do, she assessed the youkai and figured that he could probably take a bumpy trip without looking more dead than he already looked. She heft herself up and took one of the lord's feet in her arms. Kagome towed, and by towed she means towed, the demon one twelfth of a sun cycle till a cave was found.

'Thank kami he hasn't woke up yet or he might make me to be an extravagant dish for his pigs to munch.' Kagome grimaced and yet smiled when she thought of what she had just done. She had just dragged a lord halfway across the Western lands and not taking in mind the fact that all sorts of things were on the ground and ready to embrace the lord's unconscious body. By such, she meant rocks and demon snails.

By now, his stomach wound was already completely healed and yet he was still in deep sleep.

'Maybe I'll try to wake him up now.' And so with that last thought, many thoughts followed on what she should try first.

'Perhaps tickling?'

'No, that's so immature.'

'Jumping on him?'

'I'd rather not face his wrath.'

'Yanking his eyelids open?'

'To meet a death glare?'

'Dumping water on him?'

'Don't be cruel Kagome, you might have to pay for it with your life.'

By now, Kagome was shivering but certainly the weather was still hot. She wanted to take a nap, to forget what she was doing and just sleep, but before she could, a small voice rang out.

"Who are you?"

Spinning around, Kagome answered with enlarged eyes, "I am Kagome."

Silence was shared for a very long time before Sesshoumaru hopped up and hugged Kagome. "I'm Sesshoumaru and when I grow up, I'm going to be lord of the western lands!" He then gave an arrogant toothy grin and what he said next even made Kagome smile. "Oh no! I wasn't supposed to tell you that. Now father will glare at me for two days and tell me to 'cease this immaturity'."

As Sesshoumaru was looking forlorn and trying to pound his head in, Kagome began to think. 'I wonder what's wrong with him. He doesn't seem like an adult let along a lord right now.'

Flipping around in her head, Kagome came up with a conclusion and without another thought, she grabbed Sesshoumaru's hand and began running in the direction of the southern mountain border of the western lands.

"Where are we going, Kagome?"

It was said in such a cute tone that it seemed so unlikely to have been Sesshoumaru who initiated it.

"You'll see, Sesshou!"

Although the lord was clueless, he ran along anyway and soon began to laugh whole-heartedly. 'What a weird person,' Kagome thought. 'How can anybody laugh when a strange lady, that you don't have a clue about, attempts to bring you to a strange place?'

Shrugging the thought away, they soon reached Kagome's destination: A little village where her aunt had moved to nine years ago in an attempt to further aid people with her miko skills. Kaede had always thought that there were too many mikos in the village Kagome had lived in, so she had moved to a far away village that suffered the lack of a miko.

Coming to her hut now, Kagome hardly thought to knock as she barged in on a cooking Kaede.

"Welcome Kagome. Care for some stew?"

"No thank you. I came for your help." Outside Kagome was smiling but inside she was wondering how the heck Kaede always made it seem like nothing has ever happened between them. The nerves of her! Asking her if she wanted stew when she should have been shocked beyond words upon seeing her favorite niece.

"What may I do for ye Lady Kagome?"

Then they sat down and the younger miko began explaining everything from their first meeting to how bizarre Sesshoumaru was acting now. The older miko then waved the lord to come and let her inspect him. Half an hour of close inspection later, Kaede gasped and fainted.

"Kaede-sama!"

"Kaede-chan?"

Sesshoumaru started to poke the unconscious old lady but stopped when Kagome came running over.

'If Kaede fainted, it must have been because she found something. I wonder what though…'

"Sesshou? May I ask where she last inspected you?" Kagome breathed out, half not wanting to know.

"My left leg?" He pointed to his left leg, just a little lower than the kneecap.

Right there was a black monkey.

A few seconds passed before…..

"HAHAHAHAHAHA…." Kagome started laughing her head off. 'A monkey imprint. It was that which scared Kaede-sama to faint?'

"I never noticed that there before." Sesshoumaru was saying with a confused look on his face. "Father never lets me draw on myself because he thinks it is only for the undisciplined. He also says that if I feel engaged to draw on myself, I may as well call myself paper."

This only served to fuel Kagome's laughter some more. "I don't remember the last time I laughed at all."

Turning her attention back to Sesshoumaru, she asked, "What do you last remember doing before you met me in the cave?"

"I was having lessons on etiquette and I just got back my first failing test!" He was grinning from ear to ear with proudness written on his forehead. "Come to think of it, how did I end up here?"

"I wouldn't know, but I think it has something to do with that black monkey down there. What I do know is that you were not having a lesson on etiquette a few hours ago. More probably one hundred years ago." Kagome gave a little smile before going into deep thoughts about her future.

Sesshoumaru decided to go back to poking Kaede and all was silent for the next couple of minutes.

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"Kagome"

Kagome was snapped out of her thoughts when Kaede called her. Dashing to her side immediately, Kagome asked, "Are you alright, Kaede-sama?"

"Yes, I am quite alright Kagome dear. But I can hardly say the same for that man over there. He has been cursed with the black monkey seal."

Kagome was confused and she wasn't the kind that liked being confused. She asked quite impatiently, "What does this black monkey seal do Kaede-sama? Does it have anything to with his sudden lack of memory?"

It was seldom that Kaede come out of her calm, understanding self. Most of the time, it seemed to Kagome that she had lived life too long to become nervous anymore. But now, it seemed she was wrong.

Kaede was shaking a little, obviously disturbed by something. A long while passed before she answered.

"Yes, and no dear. If I am not wrong, our lord seems to have reverted back to the way he was before his last tragic event. It is true that he has lost his memory but it is far worst than that. He has also lost his abilities and skills that he has learned after the event."

Kaede's voice was spoken in such a soft tone that even Sesshoumaru and all his good hearing had to strain to hear it.

Sesshoumaru was about to speak but Kagome beat him to it. "What should we do then? He obviously cannot rule in this current state. Is there anyway to reverse the black monkey seal? Perhaps it is washable?"

Everybody in the room except Kagome fell down anime-style. Meanwhile, Kagome only stood there with a finger still pointed up.

X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X

Later during the day, as Kagome was practicing her archery and Sesshoumaru was taking a nap, Kaede came out to speak with Kagome.

"Kagome dear, the effects of the curse can be reversed though I'm not certain how. I didn't want to worry our lord too much earlier so I switched the topic to lunch, incase ye are wondering what inspired me to rush the subject to chickens."

"I wonder if taking him back to his home would stimulate his memory. Do you think it will Kaede-sama?"

"I think it might, though can ye imagine how his family would react upon seeing Sesshoumaru like this? Do ye think those strict youkai of the western palace would actually thank ye for returning the lord in this state?"

"No, they would take Sesshoumaru back and then lock me in a dungeon for all eternity."

"Right ye are. I am sorry to say this to ye but as a fellow miko, ye shouldn't take this risk young one."

"But Kaede! We can't simply keep him here and hope everything passes and that the present lord would simply forget about him! Lord Inutaisho would order his men to search far and wide for him. We would die anyway and in a so much more gruesome way!"

A few seconds passed as future death possibilities passed through both miko's heads. (Dismembering, dicing, eaten…….)

"Perhaps we should figure out when last his memory ceased. We might get an insight to how to aid him through and through without meeting death."

"Alright. First of all, he mentioned that the last thing he remembered doing was failing his etiquette test. One might guess that he was still a young child without manners."

Kaede didn't reply, so Kagome continued her report.

"He also talked amiably about his father so one might assume that the second son of Lord Inutaisho had yet to exist. That in turn suggests that Inutaisho has not remarried and Sesshoumaru's mother is still alive. But I don't see what that…"

She was cut off as Kaede suddenly began talking in a slow and thoughtful pace. "Rumors spread when Sesshoumaru's mother died that the heir changed drastically. I would say we've found ourselves the tragic event with which changed our lord-to-be."

"Alright, so what now, Kaede-sama?" 'Boy am I going to be glad when we've returned this nuisance to his castle.'

"Talk to him, teach him about himself, and convey to him that his mother died a long time ago. We can only hope that will do the trick."

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A month passed within the Western Providence without a word of the first son of Lord Inutaisho. Many within the villages were beginning to grow uneasy for they thought he would never be seen again. They were shocked that their lord did not request to search for him but dared not breathe a word.

"My lord, what if he did indeed run away?"

"Do not fret Maishu, I know him well enough. He would choose to die rather than see my other son as Lord."

"If you say so my lord, I will leave you to your chamber now."

'My son, is mating truly so miserable for you that you would rather leave the throne?' Shaking his head and giving a sigh, the lord shut his eyes and fell fast asleep.

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(a month has passed since last we've spoken of Kagome and Sesshoumaru)

"Kagome! Come on! I want to show you something."

"Argh. Are you out of your mind Sesshou! What do you think you're doing?" Was the reply he got as he ran through the center of a flower patch, trampling all the flowers that were in his way.

"Come." Suddenly he stopped and spun around to see a breathless Kagome heading up.

Laughing at the site of her with various flowers protruding from her hair, he reached up and patted away the pestering things off of her before he continued his expedition through the flower patch.

Ten minutes and twenty flowers-inhabiting-midnight-blue-hair later, they arrived at a lake.

Kagome gawked. It was amazing with its lavender color and the squirrels that scurried around it. It could almost fit into a fairytale book. The next thing she knew, she felt herself being pushed head first into the lake.

"SESSHOUMARU!" could be heard within a two mile radius.

Although she was incensed at having been pushed, she soon forgot about that as the dog demon himself cannonballed in.

Giggling to herself when he shook his head as a dog would, she splashed him and in turn got splashed twice fold. This when on for a while with light conversation before Kagome popped a disturbing question.

"Sesshou, do you ever wish to go back to your home?" Kagome asked, unaware that the simple question could drop the lord-tobe's mood six levels.

"Not really. By how you've described my cold character and surroundings now, I don't think I'd be happy if I go back. What's the point if my mother is gone and my father doesn't care for me?" He said bitterly as if the words themselves stung.

"But Sesshou. It's your home and your family. You're to be a lord for goodness sake!"

Kagome had spent close to a month teaching him about himself and yet he still couldn't remember at all. He still behaved as a twelve year old would.

"Forget about it. I want to stay here, with you." His eyes were twinkling, a clear sign that mischief would soon take place.

He pounced on her and began mercilessly tickling her.

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They made their way back to Kaede's home. They hadn't wanted to leave the beautiful lake, but what could they do? They were tired, soaking, and hungry. A youkai is never meant to be hungry or consequences must be faced. It was said that a couple years ago, a youkai's wife forgot to make dinner because she was out hacking wood. The youkai returned from business and was hungry so in turn, he chose to dine on his wife. It was a scary thought and most avoided it, hence back to the story.

"Kaede-sama. We're back and ready to eat a couple whole rhinoceros'!"

"Haha. Oh dear Kagome, you're shivering. Go change and dinner will be served. You too Sesshoumaru."

Over the month, both mikos had grown accustomed to the lord and it seemed as though he didn't mind them treating him commonly, therefore even Kaede had stopped calling him –sama.

They ate dinner in companionable silence and went to bed even before the sun had set.

Little did they know that in the morning, their peace and happiness would end…..with Naraku's return.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

A.N. Whew. Like I said, quite long neh? I tried to make it long, but I suck at doing that.

The Squabbit: No, Kikyo has to come after Inuyasha.

VampressKiss: I agree with you one hundred percent. I just don't know how to spice things up. gloom

Takiko Okuda: Naraku will be back. MUAHAHHAHA.. 0

Much thanks to all the reviewers!Happy tears!

Most people seem to enjoy Kikyo being her "bitchy, soul-stealing, helpfully wise self". I wonder why. I mean she was wronged by Naraku and all. She never got to figure out that Inuyasha didn't betray her and she died miserably. Who could blame her? But then again, she did shoot Inuyasha and that was pretty mean, but she didn't kill him. Then, she's brought to life again and for what! She needs to drink dead lady's souls to survive? If I was her, I'd be quite bitter too. Maybe more. Anyways, see you guys soon!

Next Chapter: The return of Naraku

Dun..dun dun!