Chapter 5: The Beginning

To say the least, they were extremely impressed.

Beyond impressed.

Kagome took charge without meaning to. She showed them which leaves were safe to use once the toilet paper ran out. She was glad the plants were the same as her world so far, in case something were to happen if one of them got sick or too injured. All those years with Kaede were paying off. She told them what berries to avoid and which ones were good to eat. She told them how to detect an animal tracks as well. There was a small creek that lead to a lake not too far from them, so she taught them how to get the water and boil it to make it drinkable.

Probably Inuyasha himself had no clue how much she had learned.

There were other things, but overall, they were impressed.

Since they had already walked five miles, Laxus decided to just have a relaxing night and start the training the following day. They all sat around the fire comfortably, each of them with their own squirrel. When Kagome had come back from getting some firewood, she also had in her shoulder a couple more squirrels for everyone.

"So Kagome," Evergreen said as she cleaned her fingers with a napkin, "Any love interests from your world?"

Kagome's eyes widened as a sudden blush appeared on her face as she heard Laxus coughing from across where she was at. Bickslow laughed loudly, but he also told her he wanted to know too. Freed was slightly curious.

"What you mean?" She asked the brunette as she took a bite of her squirrel. She was trying to avoid eye contact.

"You mean to tell me," Ever said with a glint in her eye, "No man has gone after you?"

Her eye twitched as memories of Koga and Hōjō came to mind.

Bickslow noticed her twitch, "Ohhhh there is! Do tell!"

"Never took you as the type to like gossip," Laxus commented with a raised eyebrow at him. The seith mage snorted, "We got nothing better to do. Training doesn't start until tomorrow. Might as well learn more from the newest member of the Thunder Legion."

It was Kagome's turn to raise her eyebrow, "I'm a member now?"

Freed smiled, "Well you did come with us to be here for the next three months."

She thought about it for a second and then shrugged her shoulders. He had a good point. Besides, they were the ones that initially helped her anyways, so she found it more fitting to go with them.

She sighed heavily as she turned to Ever. She was dreading this.

"Yeah… there were two," she stopped for a second to think how to proceed on describing them, "They uh… have been pushy even though I've told them no multiple times."

Evergreen looked intrigued as she got closer to the woman, "Oh!"

"The first guy, his name is Hojo. I was around him a lot 'cause of school in my time. Popular guy and what not. But… he was too boring. Sweet guy, but boring."

It was making her twitch just thinking of his sweet naive personality. Thanks to him she had found out that the overly sweet, sensitive, and clingy were not her type at all.

"The other one," she laughed nervously as she scratched the back of her head, "He's a wolf demon prince. We met him because he had two jewel shards on his legs, making him really fast. Once he found out I could detect them, for some strange reason he started to proclaim his love to me. It's funny but extremely annoying a lot of times. Specially during a battle."

In Laxus' head, his inner dragon was lashing out at the thought of two unknown males proclaiming their feelings to her. He was getting annoyed at himself for that. He had just met her. Having any sort of reaction to her supposed admirers was fucking ridiculous in his opinion. He blamed it that he had not gotten laid in a while. It was making him think incoherent.

Yeah, that's exactly what it was.

He must have been arguing with himself for a while because next thing he knew, Kagome and Evergreen were getting their stuff to go jump in the lake for a bit.

Once they left, Freed turned to look at him.

"She is completely something else. The experience she's had the years she's traveled it's like nothing I have seen before."

Bickslow laid down, propping his head on his hand, "Is that why you're having us be out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"Possibly," Laxus said as he finished his water, "Let's start setting up the tents. We are up early tomorrow morning."

Bickslow groaned loudly. He didn't want to set up anything and he definitely did not want to be up at the crack of dawn.

Probably for the tenth time that morning, Laxus pinched the tip of his nose. He didn't know how much his team had lacked on training for the last couple of months he was gone. Granted, Freed had been selected for the trials, but he couldn't believe how much the other two slacked. Evergreen and Bickslow equally hated anything to do with cardio. That morning, he had woken them up at four in the morning to follow him in a ten mile run. He also didn't want to kill them on day one. Not even halfway, Bickslow and Evergreen were all the way in the back. He had let them rest for a few minutes but eventually he told them they would have an all out spar between the four of them. They groaned, but they fought.

They did well, but there was still a lot to work on. However, he knew they could do it. He had picked them to be on his team for a reason. But to attend the Grand Magic Games and win, all of them needed to be on their best shape. The disadvantage of being seven years behind than everyone else was resting heavily on his shoulders. He hated it. He may be a bit less of an asshole, but the infamous Dreyar pride was still there. There was a reason why he had been at the top of the guild for so long. Now that the guild was at the bottom of the pyramid and everyone was apparently stronger, it was driving him nuts.

Kagome had done some meditating of her own while they had taken off on their training. She couldn't fall asleep after Laxus had woken up Evergreen. She was used to being up early anyways. Inuyasha would always be on her case about hurrying up and finding more of the jewel shards. It was rather annoying, especially when the previous day they had walked miles and miles and would come up empty.

It wasn't until she felt Laxus' dragon aura, that she decided to follow it and see what they were up to.

Her eyes widened when she saw them. Granted, she had seen Laxus fight against Natsu, if that could even be called a fight, but now seeing the rest of them in action was nothing like she had ever seen.

They moved in their own way and they had their won magic. Freed was quick with his blade, Ever soared through the air as she avoided Bickslow's small totems as they shot magic at her with his laugh echoing in the empty meadow. However she was more impressed with Laxus. He may be a foot taller than her and bulkier than Sesshomaru, but he knew how to move with stealth. His attacks were coordinated, nothing impulsive like she was used to seeing. He knew when to attack and how. It was raw power but she just knew that he was holding back because that was his team.

However, as she saw him giving Bickslow a painful right hook and sending him straight to a tree and snapping it in half, she had a feeling he may be even stronger than Inuyasha.

Her gaze went downwards at the thought of him. She could only wonder how he was. He would always be mad whenever she would go home. What would his reaction be knowing she never made it back?

She couldn't even picture the worry that her mother must be suffering, if she knew she was missing. She hadn't been home in so long and now this.

She could only pray that when Fairy Tail would win the games, that they could find an answer. Before going to sleep the previous night, Freed had given her a couple of books he got from the guild's library. She had finished one thanks to the glasses, but so far nothing.

She watched them for a while more but then retreated back to camp. She was able to kill a few bunnies and squirrels on her way back to the camp, but since Laxus was training, she had to skin them. She hated it. Specially squirrels. The fluffiness would remind her too much of Shippo.

She was making a mental note to really check the lake the following day to see if there were fishes to change up their food during their next few months there.

She noticed a bag filled with different types of vegetables and she took notice it was inside one of the ones Laxus brought. He really had thought of this through.

She made a simple stew and she was just about done when they finally came back. Her eyes widened by the battered forms of Bickslow and Freed. Evergreen looked pretty bad, but not as bad as them. She almost got up and offered to help, but she decided to hold back.

She had noticed that she could use certain amount of purification power to heal wounds. She had done it on Shippo and Sango after one of their encounters with Kagura. They had been in by a small creek, treating their wounds when she suddenly felt a huge urge to help. Her hand had glowed and she had closed the small gash on Sango's torso. She made them promise to not tell anyone until she talk to the old priestess. Which she did, and the old woman was beyond shocked to see such a lost form of purification being slightly controlled by her. However, the old woman advised her that the less people that knew of her abilities, the better.

Specially Naraku.

So she had to pull herself and not immediately try to use her powers to heal them. Instead, she just grabbed the emergency box and helped them patch them up. They were grateful to her, and Freed had insisted that it was not necessary but the young woman brushed him off.

And as they ate around the fire and talked, she missed her group even more.

Evergreen had fallen asleep soon after they had finished eating, and Kagome could only imagine how exhausted the other woman was. She gathered the now empty pot and decided to make way to the stream that was not too far from them to wash it.

For some reason, as she walked through the dark forest, she didn't feel as cautious as she usually would in the Feudal Era. Possibly because there wasn't a demon with a personal vendetta against her trying to kill her. She breathed in the air as she closed her eyes in pure bliss. It was so peaceful.

"You are way too relaxed. Someone could easily snatch you up and you wouldn't even notice."

She jumped up in the air, dropping the pot and the other dishes. She whirled around and she could see the outline of him, casually leaning against a tree. It was dark, but she could see the his blonde hair and his gray eyes.

She glared at him, "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

He snorted as he removed himself from the tree and went to help her gather the dishes that went flying. She reached for the pot that he had picked up, but he moved it out of her reach.

"I'll go with you. You can get snatched by something out here."

He started walking towards the stream while she stood motionless for a second as she gave him a look. She finally snapped out of it and rushed to him.

"Really? Out in these woods?"

She saw him rolling his eyes as she finally fell into step with him, "We may not have blood thirsty demons, but we have our share of creatures here. Also dark guilds and bandits."

She shrugged her shoulders, "I'm still not super convinced that they're worse from demons."

They reached the stream and right away she took the pot from him and started washing them without giving him any attention, that is, until he broke the silence.

"So, can you fight?"

She stopped what she was doing with the pot and slowly turned her head to look up at him, "I did punch you the other day didn't I?"

She sounded so cocky as she said it, that it even surprised herself the kind of attitude that she was putting into it. He took in the tone as well and mentally smirked.

"If you could even call that a punch."

He saw her inhale sharply and she hastily put the pot on the ground as she got up. Her dark blue eyes narrowed at him, "I think I saw your cheek turning a bit red. Maybe a little bruising."

"You almost drowned. Definitely hallucinating. However, that still doesn't answer my question. You've talked about the stuff your other friends would do, but you've never gone into details about yourself."

She wanted to tell him about her purification energy, but not yet.

"Arrows as you saw. I started to practice more with my friend Sango," she sighed as she admitted the one thing she hated, "I got tired of always getting kidnapped and being helpless."

His gray eyes analyzed her for what it felt like an eternity, when suddenly, he reached and grabbed her wrist and started to pull her away from the stream to a more clear area where she would not fall in. He let her go and stepped back a few feet.

"Show me what you got."

Her eyes widened in shock, "What?!"

He rolled his eyes, "Show me what you got. You're gonna be part of my team and you're going to learn how to fight properly. There's no damsel in distress here."

He smirked at her and she felt her face flush with annoyance.

This stupid dragon, she angrily thought.

"Fine, but don't complain when this time I give you a black eye!"

His smirked widened as his gray eyes shone with a predatory glint and for the hell of it, he attacked first. He raised his fist and just as he was about to hit her, she rolled out of the way quickly. He threw a kick at her as she was behind him, but her reflexes were too good. He wasn't expecting it.

She caught the look of his face as she fully got up from rolling again on the ground, "I've traveled back and forth in time for three years and constantly going after demons. I was bound to get good at dodging at least."

He could feel his inner dragon purring at the challenge the small woman was doing but Laxus shoved it far away into his head. Not the time. He decided to get a bit more serious and increased his speed to match her. He threw a knee strike as he was close enough to her, but instead of avoiding it, his knee collided against her forearms as she had put them up in defense. She grunted but as he lowered his knee, she quickly swept her leg towards the one he had been keeping his balance with. She caught him right on his ankle and used all of her strength to make him lose balance, which it did happen.

However as he fell, he was able to catch her elbow and pulled her down with him. She let out a squeak as she fell and they rolled on the ground until he was right on top of her. Kagome grunted as she felt his full weight on her. There was not much she could do as her arms where trapped by his chest as he laid on her. He lifted himself up, and he found himself supporting his torso with either hand on each side of her face. He found himself not being able to breathe as the close proximity to her again was making his senses go nuts.

She smelled of strawberries, roses, and how a forest would smell after a rain. He felt his throat growing hot as he was just in a high with her scent.

However it wasn't just that. The way her dark raven hair was spread behind her like a sea with black waves. The way the light of the moon was giving her already creamy skin an angelic glow and her eyes were shining. Her face was flushed and he could see a trail of sweat going down her face, to her neck, to the curve of her breast that was peeking through the dark green v neck shirt she wore.

Holy fuck…

Yeah I know.

He didn't move at all as her small hands moved to his shoulders. He could feel his heartbeat increase as a small shiver went down his spine. However, she suddenly gripped his shirt on his shoulders and pulled him forward. His eyes widened but he then felt her shifting her legs so her feet were right on his stomach. With surprising strength, she flipped him over her head, making him harshly land on the ground.

He grunted, but as he got up, he saw the wild look in her eyes.

She was excited as she got up, "That's my first time trying that! I can't believe it worked!"

She was practically glowing with excitement that his smirk slightly turned into a smile. She hoped that her excitement could hide away the nervousness of being in such a position with him.

"Come at me. The night is young."

She could feel a strange sensation going through her veins, but she did nonetheless.

They did not realize that they had been out in the woods practicing the entire night until the first rays of sunrise started to glow from the top of the trees. Kagome was covered in sweat and a few scratches from the times he sent her flying to the ground. She knew he had been holding back, however he was still strong enough to throw around like a rag doll.

What she really appreciated it from him was that he didn't mock her. Yeah, he teased her a few times to make her more riled up and get up and continue practicing, but he never talked to her like if she was less. He told her proper forms, what she could do if someone was bigger than her, if someone was smaller. He was a sensational teacher and everything he told her in just that one night, she absorbed it like a sponge. The hours she spent training with him was something she would always remember.

Inuyasha, never in a million years, would have done what he did. He had in his mind that she was helpless and that he would always be the one to save her. All he needed from her was mastering the arrows with her purification powers, which she did have done. Other than that, he would have never wasted his time on training her. He would tell her she wasn't born to do that, that with Sango was different because she was born into the lifestyle of demon slaying. But not Kagome.

Too weak for that.

Sango only did it because Kagome had begged her to. And they did spar a few times, but not as much as Kagome had hoped. She taught her the basics but not further than that.

Laxus was giving her the opportunity to better herself and she was going to take full advantage.

As he noticed her stance, he could see the way her eyes were starting to drop. It surprised him that she had lasted all night. She kept getting up and saying again. And again. And again. With no effort, he made her drop to her behind on the ground and finally, she didn't get up.

The sweat in her forehead was making her bangs stick to her skin and she was panting heavily. She was covered in dirt and sweat. She lifted her arm and gave the okay sign with her thumb.

"I think I'm done for today," she said panting.

He couldn't help it but chucked as he walked up to her, "It only took you seven hours to be done."

He took a hold of her hand and helped her up, but instead of letting her being on her feet, he placed her on his back. Kagome couldn't even find herself to object, she was finally exhausted.

As he walked back to camp, he heard her snort from his back. He turned his head so he could look at her face that was leaning on his right shoulder.

"I told you I was going to give you a black eye…"

His eyes widened until he remember that she in fact had caught him on his eye once during their spar session.

Well, there was no way he could hide that from Bickslow.

He was going to say something to her, but the light snoring coming from her small form made him stop.

If this was how his training was going to be the next three months with her with them, then he could guess it would be alright. He was becoming attached a little too quickly, that he wasn't sure if he wanted to stop it.

He had never met anyone like her.