All the little markers that separate things won't show up, or haven't shown up, I did something I little different with this chapter, maybe they'll show up and you'll be able to tell when the scene changes. Enjoy

Chapter 4

"I'm bored." Shippo complained. That's all he had been doing for the past hour or so. The day had been long as they leisurely made their way across the land. They weren't heading anywhere in particular, their destination would reveal itself later, they just needed to get away from Kaede's village.

The sun had hid itself behind the mountains and the night sky now overlooked the world. The gang sat around the small fire, the smell of cooking meat lifting into the air. Everyone had been quiet, enjoying the peaceful night; that was until Shippo broke it with his complaining.

"I don't care if you're bored, runt. Now shut up." Inuyasha replied.

"You don't have to been so rude Inuyasha!"

"I wasn't being rude. I was telling the truth." The half demon justified himself. "I don't care."

"You shouldn't say things like that though, Inuyasha. He's just a kid." Miroku spoke calmly.

"That's right Inuyasha! OW! Kagome Inuyasha hit me!" Shippo whined.

"Inuyasha! Sit!"

As Inuyasha pulled himself from the ground, spitting out the dirt that had filled his mouth, all of them heard laughter. Their heads filled with it, and it pushed out any other thoughts. They glanced over at the supposedly sleeping fox. Her gold eyes glittered with mirth, and her long muzzle shook.

"And what are you laughing at?" Inuyasha growled.

'You.' Her voiced filled their heads, 'You're who want to destroy Naraku? You're all pathetic!'

"Look who's talking. You can't even transform. You said yourself you can't control your power."

'Mine powers will return in time. You, half-breed, are hopeless. I had more power than you when I was five.'

"And now you're stuck as a fox." Sango reasoned. "Without any weapons or demonic abilities."

'As I said, my powers will return soon enough. They're already coming around.' Yuki stood and stretched, walking over to a nearby tree. Inuyasha growled, thinking she would try to run, but Yuki just glared back at him. 'Relax, mutt, I'm demonstrating.'

With that the black fox lifted its marked paw to the tree. Staring intently at her paw, flames sparked in her gold eyes, and a thin line of smoke emerged from under her paw. After several seconds she took her paw away and a paw-shaped scorch mark was in its place. Yuki looked as smug as she could in her animal form, and glanced back at the group. 'See?'

Naraku looked away from Kanna's mirror, a small smile on his face. Her powers were returning and soon they would be his. The energy locked up inside the young fox demon was more than anyone could imagine; something he had been looking for years. Searching for all the elements when they didn't know what they were.

The four elementals were born into four demons every thousand years, and only by chance does someone find one. Their abilities match those of their element but never match their family powers. Yuki was no exception; born into a family of earth manipulating foxes.

Now all he had to do was recapture her. Her escape was a mistake by Kagura; trusting a fox, even if they're trapped in a human body, was dangerous. Fox demons were cagey creatures from the start, and Yuki had outsmarted the wind witch. The small castle he had been manipulating into thinking he was their lord had, without much persuasion, gone after her, but she had managed to escape anyway. Hunting her down was easy with the collar she had been wearing, and now that she was with Inuyasha and his little group she would be even easier to follow.

He laughed, the deep sound filling the room; the castle. Soon all her power, the power of an elemental, would be his.

"Very interesting." Miroku said, examining the four-toed paw mark. "I thought a fox couldn't do such a thing."

"My fox fire can't even do that!"

"So you can control fire." Inuyasha scoffed. "So what? You're still just a demon, and lots of demons can control different elements."

'I can't control fire, you imbecile! Fire can't be controlled, just created and directed into a wide perimeter.'

"Isn't that the same as control?" Kagome asked shoving her elbow into Inuyasha's gut to keep his own comment quiet.

'Of course it isn't. Once a conjured flame is released it has a mind of its own.'

"So you create fire, but you can't control it? Isn't that dangerous for you?" Sango questioned.

'You have to think of fire as animal. Fire is living and I'm one the demons that bring it to life. Call it a friend and I can make do certain things I want it to do, but I can never control it.'

"All right then." Inuyasha stood up from his spot, and pointed to the fire, "Demonstrate to us the mind of a fire."

The fox growled, turning away from the fire. Incoherent grumbling was heard in their heads. For a moment they thought she was just ignoring them, but the glow of the fire brightened and the heat it made intensified but the flame never grew. They all stepped away to escape the wave that seemed to pass through them, and making their bodies feel like they were on fire. They heard Yuki sigh loudly, and all the heat disappeared; the fire went cold.

Miroku was the first to move, reaching his hand out toward the cold flame.

'Do not touch it.' Yuki shouted into his mind. 'It's cold enough to burn the skin from your hand.'

The monk instantly recoiled back before he touched the darkening flame.

Completely exhausted the fox slumped to the ground, and the heat of the fire returned to normal. "Wow." Kagome breathed, breaking the silence that had descended. "That was really cool. Do you believe her now Inuyasha?"

"Feh," was all he said as he leaped up the nearest tree branch.

"Don't mind Inuyasha. He's just being a grump. How long until your powers completely return and you can change back?"

'It just depends. Hopefully soon.'

Early morning fog rose to cloud the earth; hazing anyone's vision to only several feet in front of them. A small fire cleared the wet air, but was quickly dying. Four figures huddled close together to keep warm on the cool spring morning, a fifth spread out on a branch. Morning dew surrounded them all, covering the ground like a thin blanket except for one spot. The grass was flattened and it remained dry but nothing was in its spot.

A small creature emerged from its burrow, scenting the air and twitching its ears in all directions listening for any sounds. Sensing no immediate danger it moved further from the safety of its home, unaware of its stalker.

Camouflaged by the dark leaves, the predator crept forward careful not to alert its prey. Vicious gold eyes focused on the small mammal crawling slowly away from its safe haven and further into the angry world ahead of it. The floppy creature's nose twitched once more before it started chewing away at a leaf, its little teeth working fast. Its eyes moved to see if anything came into sight, but saw nothing but leaves and trees.

The lip of the long muzzle lifted, exposing sharp fangs of a hunter. A soft inaudible growl escaped its throat, and it crept ever closer. The predator stopped only feet away from its prey; its ears pinned back it prepared to leap, but something snapped off to the left of the two and the small animal froze. Its black eyes widened in its fear, and in a matter of seconds it took off. Growling in frustration the predator chased after it.

The small mammal twisted and turned in every direction, fully aware of the larger animal following it. The hunter kept in a straight line, limiting its movements and saving energy and anticipating its prey's own movements.

Suddenly the smaller animal lost its footing, too panicked to notice the small root hidden beneath the leaves. Its feet struggled to get it back up before it got caught, but it wasn't quick enough. The predator saw it trip and the adrenaline racing through its blood intensified as it went in for the kill. With the struggling creature in its jaws, kicking up dirt and leaves, the predator bit down and waited to hear the snap of its neck. Satisfied, the hunter started back.

"Great, I knew we couldn't trust her. She took off!" Inuyasha yelled at no one in particular.

"Relax Inuyasha." Sango yawned having been woken up by the half demon. "You didn't want her to come along in the first place its no big deal. At least she's not anywhere near Kaede's village."

"Besides, she is a demon after all, I'm sure she can take of herself." Miroku added.

"That's not the point! Naraku is supposedly following her and if she's with us then that bastard will have to come to us."

"Well if you're so worried Inuyasha, go look for her." Kagome said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"I'm not worried."

"You sure sound worried to me." Shippo smiled impishly.

"Well I'm not!" Inuyasha huffed. "I'm going to go find her before she has a chance to get any further. Who knows how long she's been gone!" before he was even finished he had already taken off, trying to follow Yuki's scent.

Inuyasha was gone for only a little bit when the missing fox herself skipped out of the forest, a smug look in her eyes and a dead rabbit in her teeth. If she could she would have smiled. Noticing the looks they were giving her, like she had just killed some leader or something, she put down the rabbit. 'What?'

"Where have you been? Inuyasha woke up and said you were gone."

'I was gone. I went to catch breakfast. Only one day and I've already eaten too many fish.'

"Inuyasha went to go look for you." Shippo said. "He's really upset."

"You had the chance. Why didn't you run away?" Sango asked cautiously.

For a moment the fox looked deep in thought, glancing around at nothing in particular, before it gaze landed back on the group. In an instant, Yuki wanted to smack herself, but settled for flopping to the ground and burying her nose in her front paws.

'Oh, God damn it!'

"It never crossed your mind did it?" Miroku asked with chuckle.

'No.' Yuki answered pathetically.

Just then Inuyasha returned. "I don't understand it. The scent trail just comes…" he spotted the fox. "How long has she been here?"

"Just a couple minutes. She went out to catch breakfast." Kagome said cheerfully. Patting Inuyasha on the back she added, "Running away never crossed her mind."

'You don't have to rub it in!' the fox whimpered.

"Do you sense any jewel shards, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked as they strolled into the small village.

"Nope."

"And I don't sense any evil presences. Nothing. It's like demons have never been here."

'If you had just asked I could have told whether or not Naraku had been here.' Yuki blurted out annoyed.

"We didn't ask you, now did we! We can find Naraku ourselves." Inuyasha snorted.

'Yeah, that's why I'm here right? So you can find Naraku?'

"Just shut up. We were doing fine hunting him down before you came in, and we'll be fine without you intervening."

"Sure you will.'

"Hello."

They all glanced down at the little girl, not much older than ten, standing in front of them. She looked over the group, her eyes landing on Yuki; she smiled. "Can I pet her?" She asked out of the blue.

Before she got an answer she was already heading over to the oversized fox, and placing her small hand on top of Yuki's head. Not knowing exactly what she would do, the others started to protest, but stopped when all Yuki did was lean into the touch. "What's her name?" the little girl asked.

"Yuki."

"Well hello Yuki. I'm Suki. It's really close to your name." Suki laughed at herself.

"Suki! Suki!" The young mother of said child came running up to them. "What did I tell you? Leave travelers alone. I'm so sorry she bothered you."

"It's no big deal really." Kagome smiled as Suki's mother pulled her away.

"No, no. She's just a bit out going. It's my fault really. I'm sorry."

"That's quite alright."

"Well, again I'm sorry. Have a nice day."

Before the woman got too far, Kagome spoke up again. "Um, excuse me, could you tell me if there's like an inn or somewhere we could stay for the night?"

"It's not even dark yet and you're asking for a place to sleep?" Inuyasha asked shocked. He knew he shouldn't have been, she'd done this before. "We could cover a lot of ground if we didn't stop."

"But then we'd have to sleep on the ground again. My back has already taken too much. We're staying and that's final, we'll start again tomorrow."

Knowing he had lost this battle before it had even started, he crossed his arms and said grumpily, "Fine, but we're leaving at dawn," just to have some say in it. Kagome smiled up at him, and his bad mood simply disappeared; she could always do that to him, make him forget why he was mad in the first place.

Shino, Suki's mother, had offered them two conjoining rooms. Sango, Kagome and Shippo would take one room and Inuyasha and Miroku would take the next one over. Yuki had declined when Kagome said she should stay in their room and decided to stay outside. At the moment though they all sat outside, eating the dinner Shino had prepared, watching as the sun set.

"This place is beautiful." Kagome commented, breaking the peaceful silence.

"You say that about every place we stop. It all looks the same to me." Inuyasha said through a mouthful of food.

"But you've been for all your life. Technically I'm only here," she paused to think a moment, "on vacation."

"You're here more than you are back home, so you should be saying you're 'on vacation' when you return to your own time."

"Eat you're food Inuyasha." Kagome said while roughly shoving a dumpling in his mouth.

'Those two act like children.'

"We know. Sango and Miroku say it all the time, but really they're no better."

Shippo and Yuki sat next to each other, both on the ground in front of the others. Kilala (or Kirara which ever you prefer) sat on one side of the larger fox, and Shippo sat on the other side. They sat quietly as Inuyasha continued to fight with Kagome.

'They aren't even fighting over anything.'

Kilala (Kirara) mewed and Shippo nodded. "We know. And Inuyasha always gets-"

"Inuyasha, SIT!"

"-punished for it. You'd think he'd learn."

'You know for a kit you act pretty mature. Why are you traveling with these idiots anyway?'

"My mother and father were killed. Kagome is like a mother to me."

'Kits should stick with their own kind.'

With that said, Yuki stood up, not bothering to stretch like she always did, and walked away from the group. Inuyasha and Kagome's fighting had quieted since Kagome had commanded Inuyasha to sit, but she wanted to be alone.

Tbc.

Idiscovered the edit/preview button. I've been blind this entire time! This should make things a little easier.

" " people talking ' ' Yuki talking (also her words should be italic)

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review