When Sakura Blossoms Bloom

Chapter 3: Friends…

HI! Sorry I've taken a while to update... But here! I hope that you enjoy! Also! This chapter will most likely be edited later on sometime soon. Please leave comments!

A lone messenger ran down the hallway. He came to a halt outside of a room. Carefully he kneeled onto the wooden floor, head touching the floor. "Lady Kagome, Inu no Taisho-sama wishes to speak with you."

Kagome's head whipped around as she heard this. Inu no Taisho, Sesshomaru's father, was calling for her, but why? "Please tell him that I will be there shortly."

The messenger stood up and bowed. Then scampered off to deliver the message. A light breeze blew in through the window, blowing her bangs from her eyes as she gazed at the setting sun. "How long has it been?" She sighed and leaned against the wall. "Since we've looked at the sunset together?" Her eyes focused on a figure standing in the shadows.

"Your senses have sharpened." Sesshomaru walked out of his hiding place.

"Arigato Sessho-kun." She smiled at him and began to walk towards the hallway. "Perhaps…" She said, her hand resting on the frame of the door, "Perhaps we could walk to the groove tonight?" She turned hopeful eyes to him.

Sesshomaru sighed and averted his eyes away from hers. He hated to see those hopeful eyes fill with want and regret whenever he refused her offer. "I'm sorry Kag-" He was unable to finish his sentence for Kagome had slammed the door shut. The smell of salt lingered in the air. 'She's crying?' He shook his head and walked out of the room and in the other direction that Kagome had went in.

'Why? Why does he always refuse to do anything with me now?' She wiped furiously at her eyes and continued to run down the hallway. She halted when she came in front of two huge double doors.

The doors were of a dark mahogany. Carvings of the Inutashio's family line were engraved into the doors. They illustrated the gory battles that their ancestors had won. Sesshomaru had told her that whenever an Inutashio had gone to war and had killed with honor, they were then able to have their selves carved into the massive doors. The entire hallway depicted scenes of great battles that their family had fought. Some of the pictures seemed so detailed that they could've jumped out of the pictures. By now her tears had receded and she deemed herself acceptable to proceed. She lifted one of the immense doorknockers and let gravity do the rest.

BOOM!

"EEEP!" She jumped a foot in the air. 'I didn't think that it would be that loud!' She hung her head down with embarrassment and jumped yet again as the doors opened in front of her with a loud creaking sound.

"Enter." Stated a cold voice.

Kagome gasped at how cold the room was and continued into the dimly lit room while pondering over the thought of how he kept his room so cold. Black and red tapestries lined the room. Portraits of the royal family loomed overhead, their eyes seemed to follow her every movement. Kagome shivered at the thought as she stared at them while walking through the grand room.

Near the end of the room was a fireplace. An angular figure was gazing intently at the roaring fire. He seemed so deep in concentration. Brow wrinkled and eyes closed, as he continued to ignore her presence and continued to think. Some how she found the courage to bring him out of his thoughts. "Inu no Taisho-sama I have come as requested." She bowed low to the back of the powerful inu youkai that stood before her.

"Please sit Lady Kagome." He said as he kneeled down on one of the many tatami mats that lined the floor. "I believe that you know of the war that is beginning between the four lands?" Kagome nodded her head. "Good. Then you will understand why your mother has asked me to assign you a bodyguard. Your bodyguard will not only protect you, but they will also teach you how to defend yourself." He sighed and pressed his fingers to his temples and began to move them in a slow clockwise motion. "And if necessary… To kill your attacker." He stopped his ministrations and raised his head, holding her questioning gaze. "Your mother has also requested that you become more educated about your past and various subjects. So I have taken the liberty of giving you a tutor."

Kagome, once again, nodded in understanding. She studied his face to see how he felt about this war between the lands, but she could see no emotions. 'Just like Sesshomaru…' She thought. He and his father were very similar. Both had the long silver hair, entrancing golden eyes, high aristocratic check bones, magenta stripes across their checks and the blue crescent moon that stated Inu no Taisho's authority as Taiyoukai of the West. But the biggest and most important similarity was the cold mask that they wore in the presence of those they did not trust. 'Those they can not trust… Does Sesshomaru not trust me now that the war has come? Is that the reason why he does not act like his old self around me?' She bowed down to Inu no Tashio "Arigotou gozai-masu Inu no Tashio-sama."

"Dou-itashimashite Kagome" His lips formed into a smile as he stood up. "You truly have grown up my daughter."

Kagome's mood brightened considerably, she smiled as she too stood up. "Arigato Inu no Tashio." She always felt warmth spreading through her body every time that he called her his daughter. Some how she felt whole… Almost like this was her real family. But she knew that was impossible.

Her real family was currently preparing for the war. Her mother had asked the Inutashio's family to watch after her and her sister during the war. Kagome didn't understand why their mother wasn't with them. But she knew that her mother needed to make sure that all of the paper work was taken care of at home while their father was fighting during the war.

He smiled again, this time showing his gleaming fangs. He clapped his hands together and made a summoning gesture. He turned Kagome to face a girl that looked only a few years older than her. She wore a black cat suit with armor covering her shoulders, elbows and her shins. A mask covered her mouth and nose from view while her eyes were of a chocolate brown and where accompanied with a dark lavender eye shadow. Her dark auburn hair was held in a high ponytail and she held herself up proudly. Kagome noticed her choice of weapon. Around her waist was a red obi that held her katana while she was also holding an enormous boomerang. "Kagome, this is Sango. She is a taijiya and has agreed to train you. Unfortunately, the Northern Lord had recently attacked her village causing her entire village was destroyed. Only her and her brother survived." Sango bowed to Kagome, and Kagome returned the bow.

A man dressed in a black and dark purple monk's robe emerged from the darkness and bowed before Kagome. His black hair was held in a low ponytail. As he bowed the staff that the carried clinked as the many golden loops knocked together, creating the light clinking noise. Around his right hand he wore a glove that wrapped with a rosary bead necklace. Kagome wondered about this. 'Why would he need that?' His deep purple eyes spoke of wisdom and… Mischief? Kagome shook her head at this. Perhaps she was judging him to quickly. She bowed in return to his gesture. "This is Miroku. He is a houshi that has agreed to teach you to become more knowledgeable in many subjects. I must go and attend to other matters. You are dismissed." They all bowed in respect and slowly left the room.

Once they had stepped out of the room Miroku had kneeled down in front of Kagome. He smiled as her and said. "Kagome will you do me the honor of bearing my child?" Kagome was shocked to hear this and blushed a deep red color.

Sango took her boomerang and whacked Miroku in the head. "Hentai!" She screamed and stepped on his unconscious form and dragged Kagome away from him. Once out of sight she sighed and blushed when she looked at Kagome. Instantly she bowed on one knee. "Please forgive me my Lady. I acted out of place. I-"

Kagome burst out laughing. "I can't believe you did that!" She smiled at Sango and held her hand out to her. "Please do not call me 'My Lady' or anything like that." Sango looked shocked as she heard this. None of the lords or ladies that she had met was as friendly and kind as Kagome was acting right now. "So what do you say? Friends?" Sango took Kagome's hand.

"Friends."

In the dojo

"So what will you teach me first?" She tilted her head to the side in a questioning gesture.

"Hmmm… First I must see what kind of weapons you already know how to fight with." She turned around and gazed at the long row of weapons. Kagome scanned over all of the weapons until her eyes landed on a katana.

"I'm sorry Sango-chan…" She shook her head, " But I've never fought with anything… There's never been a reason for it, and it's pointless to take the lives of others."

Sango nodded her head in understanding. Kagome was a girl with a pure heart; she did not understand the true meaning of war. Not yet at least… The war was spreading and soon it would be here. When it came Kagome would see the true meaning of war. The destruction it brought, and the grief of losing the ones you held dear to your heart. Sango sighed and placed her hand on Kagome's shoulder and smiled. "I understand how you feel… But…" Her eyes began to fill with tears. "But sooner or later you might have to kill to protect the ones you love."

Kagome stared at her friend and smiled while placing her hand over Sango's. "Thank you for understanding… I can only hope that I will not be forced to kill another, but I know that sacrifices must be made to protect the ones you love…" Her eyes scanned over the wall again. She picked up a katana and showed it to Sango. "I think that I would like to learn how to wield this first." She smiled and walked away to change into the training hakamas that she had recently purchased. After she had finished dressing she came out and smiled at Sango. 'I can do this… All I need to do is concentrate!'

A few weeks later…

Sweat dripped from her brow and slid down her cheek. Her eyes scanned the room for her attacker as she moved into a defensive stance. She closed her eyes in concentration to focus on locating their aura. Her mind cleared and she began to see everything in a white haze. She searched quickly and found a red haze in the rafters of the dojo to her right. Opening her eyes she gathered her feet beneath her and jumped while landing in front of the black clad figure. She smirked as she saw her enemy's expression and launched herself at her. "HYAA!" Her opponent dodged and struck with a counter attack kick that struck her square in the chest and pinching her in the shoulder. "Oomph!" Her legs buckled beneath her before giving way as she lost her footing, and began her descent to the floor.

"Kagome-chan!" Sango launched herself to catch Kagome before she fell to the floor.

"AAAAAH! Sango do something! I can't move my legs!" Kagome failed her arms around while trying to get her legs beneath her.

Sango finally caught up to Kagome and held her in her arms. "Sorry about that…" She landed with grace and carefully laid Kagome's body on the ground while hitting her in her shoulder in various places.

"Oww! What was that for! And what did you do to me!" She yelled while glaring at Sango with accusing eyes as she rubbed her shoulders.

Sango sweat dropped and apologized profusely. "I'm sorry Kagome-chan. I completely forgot to teach about the nerves in the human body and how to manipulate them." She scratched her head and sighed. Kagome had gotten stronger and the two of them had become sisters to each other. She shook her head and gave her hand to Kagome to help her up. Kagome smiled and allowed Sango to pull her up. "Shall we go outside and take a break Kagome?" Kagome smiled and nodded her head enthusiastically.

"Hai! Why don't we go down to the sparing fields?"

Sango smiled mischievously and jabbed Kagome in the ribs. "You like Inuyasha don't you?"

Kagome blushed a deep red and gave Sango a look of utter disbelief and betrayal. "Sango! How could you say something like that!" She shook her head and refused to look at Sango.

Sango laughed and patted her on the shoulder. "Its ok Kagome. I can tell that you like him by the way that you look at him."

"Oh yeah?" Kagome smiled evil and Sango started to back away from her. "You wanna know what I think?"

"That's ok Kagome-chan… Ummm... Why don't we talk about something else? Hehehehe" Sango smiled nervously.

"I think that you like Miroku!" Sango blushed and opened her mouth to defend herself but was unable to as a tree went careening over them.

Kagome screamed and looked at what threw the tree towards them. Her eyes landed on Inuyasha. There he stood, eyes searching the woods for his rival while his ears turned from side to side listening for the sound of his enemy's feet running towards him. He wasn't wearing the top part of his fire rat haroi or the shirt underneath that, giving Kagome a good view of his hard toned muscles. Kagome blushed and shook her head. "INUYASHA! What were you thinking!"

Inuyasha turned his head to Kagome and glared at her. "Baka! Can't you see that I'm fighting!"

"You could of killed us!"

"Keh." Inuyasha glared at Kagome. His eyes widened when he felt the steel of Sesshomaru's blade press itself against his throat.

Sesshomaru smirked. "You lose." He released Inuyasha and kicked him into a tree. Inuyasha flew forward and crashed into the tree with a thud.

"Hmph! Serves you right!" She smiled and ran over to hug Sesshomaru. He accepted the hug and rested his chin on her head.

WHACK!

They turned their head in the direction of the noise. Sango stood over an unconscious Miroku with her boomerang high above her head as she continued to pummel the perverted monk.

"Hentai!"

"Please forgive this monk's wondering hands my beautiful Sango." Miroku had regained consciousness and was blocking the blows with his staff. Sango glared at him one more time and sighed.

"Aah! Inuyasha! I forgot all about him!" Kagome ran over to Inuyasha's fallen form. "Are you ok? Any broken bones? Scratches? Are you bleeding anywhere?" She continued to bombard him with questions and poke his body in search of wounds. Inuyasha shoved Kagome away and glared at her. He gasped as he felt a wound opening up on his back. Blood began to seep from the wound and began to flow and drip onto the ground. Kagome gave a small squeak when she saw the wound.

"What took you so long!" He grunted in pain as he attempted to stand up.

"Baka! Don't move!" She looked over the wound and carefully placed her hands on it. "Just relax." He took a sharp intake of breath as her hands pressed on his wound. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the wound. 'Just do what Kaede said and concentrate. Picture the wound healing, the muscles regenerating and coming together again.' A pinkish glow covered her hands and the wound as it slowly healed itself. She opened one eye and peeked at the wound, after seeing that it had healed completely she let out a shriek of excitement and began to clap her hands in delight. "Yes! I did!"

"Kikyou could've done it faster…" Mumbled Inuyasha.

Kagome stopped prancing around and stared at Inuyasha. "What did you say?"

"Keh. I said that Kikyou could've healed me faster than that!" He huffed and began to walk away.

Kagome stared at the ground and felt the tears pricking at her eyes. "I know… But," She looked up and smiled, "I did my best." After saying that she turned around and walked away from the clearing. Sango stared after her friend and sighed. Miroku stared at Sango to Kagome to Inuyasha and understood what was going on. He placed his hand on Sango's shoulder and together they walked away from the clearing.

Sesshomaru gave a bored glance at the two that were now engaged in a heated argument about how Kagome could do things, and how Inuyasha countered by saying that Kikyou could do better than her before he disappeared into the shadows. But stayed in case Kagome stormed off in god knows what direction with no one to protect her from all of the rouge youkai that roamed around in the forests. Inwardly he sighed felt his the sorrow of his past squeezing his heart of how he longed to show Kagome how he truly felt. 'But I cannot allow her into my life any more than she is now. If I do… She might be seen as my weak point. That I cannot allow… I will not be responsible for her death.'

Flashback

"Sesshomaru."

"Yes father?" A teenage Sesshomaru turned to stare at his father.

"I know of your feelings toward Kagome."

"I do not know of what you speak of father." He glared at his father. 'How dare he pry into my life like this. Is it not enough that he has ruined our line of blood by mating that ningen, and by allowing that abomination of a brother to live!'

"I know you love her. Even if you have not seen it as love, yet." He turned around to face his son with loving eyes, but was only greeted with Sesshomaru's cold and hatred driven eyes glaring back at him. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "You must understand Sesshomaru. As my heir you must not have any weaknesses." He gestured to the landscape with his hand. "Someday all of this shall be yours. But I know that Lord Naraku shall start a war. You have already seen the destruction of a war, and you know what it brings."

"What does this have to do with Kagome." His eyes narrowed, but his curious to know why his father was speaking to him in this manner.

"Never asking? Just demanding now huh?" He chuckled and shook his head. "Kagome has everything to do with this. If you love her, and then your enemies find out, then you have put her in danger. Your enemies know what your weaknesses is and they will do everything in their power to take what you love most and take it away from you." His eyes turned cold, as did his voice. "You must stay away from her. It would be best for both of you."

"I refuse to."

"Refuse? Who every said that you had a choice in this matter?"

"What do you mean?" He took a step towards his father. His fists were clenched and drew blood from his palms as his claws dug into his palm.

"I refuse to accept any son of mine to become heir to my throne if they go against my wishes. Or if they break in arrangements or agreements I have with them." He placed his hands on Sesshomaru's shoulders and leaned his head down and whispered into his ear. "Do not make me regret choosing you to become my heir." With that he brushed past his son and made his way to the door. "Oh and one more thing." He turned around and stared at his son. "You may see her occasionally for I know what good friends you are, but I refuse to allow you to love her, or to have her love you. You mustn't let her fall in love with you either."

"Yes father… It shall be done…" He continuously clenched his fists, the blood from his wounds dripped onto the ground.

"Good." His cloaked swished as he turned around and went to greet his wife and his new second son, Inuyasha, outside in the courtyard.

"I understand perfectly." His eyes were full of tears. His blood continued to drip onto the ground, as did a clear salty liquid that dripped from his chin. 'Kagome… Please forgive me… But I promise you… I promise you! I will protect you with my life!"

End Flashback

Vocabulary:

Dou-itashimashite- Thanks a lot (This is a very polite way to say it)

Arigato- Thank you

Arigotou gozai-masu- Thank you (This is a very polite way to say it)

Hai- Yes

Hentai- Pervert

Baka- Idiot

Houshi- Monk

Taijiya- A demon slayer

Sooooooooooooooooo! What did you think? Any questions? Comments? Ideas? I am willing to accpet all! But please no flames. Thanks! I hope that I'll be able to update soon, but if not plz don't be angry! Thxs! Oh yeah! I will reveal more of Kagome's past most likely in the coming chapter so if you have any questions you can ask them now, or after I have writen the fourth chapter. I hope that the fourth chapter will answer most of your questions... But if not, then plz ask me!