The only scent I could pick up was Kagome's, so I followed it. I ran really fast while I had the scent. I wondered why I couldn't catch Inuyasha's scent… it was probably subtle that it couldn't be traced. I followed the scent until I smelled the scent of a fire going. I smelled nothing but humans and a couple of small demons. I couldn't think of anything else, but killing and smelling more blood on my hands. I saw them through the bushes. Kagome was handing a can to a guy with black hair. Suddenly, Keilala caught a whiff of something and Shippo followed suit. Miroku spoke next, "I sense a very powerful demonic energy here."

I heard them coming my way. The anger and rage was burning within me so much that I didn't think twice about running away. I pounced out of the bushes and landed on Miroku. I growled, staring at him. "Princess, what…" He saw my eyes, "your eyes are glowing… what's…"

"I need to… kill… humans killed my friends and family. They are to blame." I was ready to cut his throat when I sensed Sango's weapon coming my way. I jumped up, doing a back flip to avoid it. Of course, it was like a boomerang so I hit me from behind.

"Princess, what's going on? Why are you doing this?" Kagome approached me. I growled and hissed, "Stay back… I don't…" For some reason, I didn't want to hurt Kagome. Something about her just threw me off. I rubbed my head as it started to hurt. She pointed, "The jewel shards are in her forehead and they look like they've been contaminated." Miroku stroked his chin, "That would explain things…"

"I need to kill someone and I don't care who it is! This rage is burning within me and I need to do what needs to be done." I eyed Miroku, "And you'll be my first, you lecherous monk!"

"Humph, she even sounds like me." A voice called from behind a tree. My ears twitched. Kagome looked over, "Don't draw attention to yourself, get out of here! She'll come after you!"

I breathed heavily. I thought back to the way Inuyasha used me and didn't even try to stop me from leaving before my training. I was hurt inside and the rage wasn't subsiding. I growled when I finally caught his scent. I charged in the direction of it when I saw the unfamiliar boy come from his hiding place. The red kimono didn't lie. I looked into his eyes and saw a reflection of the campfire. I saw all of my tribe dying at the hands of humans. My rage and fear towards humans ignited in his eyes and mine.

I narrowed my eyes, got on all fours, let my rage and anger take over all of my senses and I gave chase. I shrieked when he held out the sheath of his sword. It reflected my blow. I heard the bend of a bow. "No Kagome, don't shoot! I need to settle this with her, one on one."

"But Inuyasha, you're mortal. She could kill you!"

"Look, just don't. I'll sort this all out! You want me, come and get me!"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome called. I came after him at full speed, but jumped in the air to knock the sword out of his hands. "No weapons… my strength against your own!"

"Yeah right, you expect me to fight as a human against you, a fully transformed demon! I bet you got those shards to make you all demon!"

"Well, I can see if you're… scared…"

"You really shouldn't have done that!" There was rage in his eyes, but it couldn't compare with the rage I had. I didn't know where it coming from; it's like it was inside just waiting to come out. I shrieked and pounced on him. He got me in locked hand-to-hand combat, trying to fight me off. He walked backwards, taking us away from the campsite and to an open field just behind the tree line. He gritted his teeth. "You've gotten stronger, I see…"

"Oh shut up, tell me something I don't know!" My eyes glowed with rage. I forced him back away from me. "Humans can't be trusted and that includes you!" I aimed to grab his throat, but he fought me off. I shrieked, "I know I have it takes to kill you, Inuyasha! After everything you put me through… you used me! I'm not Kikyo, I'm not meant to replace her, and I want to be taken seriously! I wanted to be your friend!" My eyes seared with my tears. He looked away, "Well, I guess I deserved that."

"Look at me head-on! If I'm going to kill, I want to see…" I shifted my eyebrows, "the lights leave your eyes…" I freed my right hand from his grip and slashed through his coat. He backed up, "Humph, luckily my coat protects me like a weak suit of armor."

"Oh… then consider yourself lucky…" I rushed for him, but then he bent backwards and swept my legs. In turn, I back-flipped to prevent any damage. I landed on all fours and charged in for a pounce. I finally got him on his back. In a last ditch effort to protect himself, he tried to kick me off of him. I just brought my claws out and slashed his legs at the knee. Rendering them useless, I made my way for his throat. He tried to hold me off with his hands.

"You fight hard… for a mortal."

"That does it…." He reached to his right and used the sheath of the Tetsusaiga to hold me off. The truth was at this point, I was getting tired, so I took the blow it dealt me. I was forced backwards and landed on my back. My rage was the only thing keeping me alive; I could feel it. Despite Inuyasha being mortal, he's done a considerable amount of damage.

He came walking, somewhat limping over to me. "You're such a fool…" I said while getting myself off the ground. I felt sick inside, but that wasn't going to stop me. When he got close enough, I scratched him across the face and a deep scratch at that. I sniffed the blood on my hand and cracked my knuckles.

I softly laughed, "Blood… just the way it smells, the way it feels between my fingers… it's perfect." I grabbed a hold of the collar of his kimono and threw him over my shoulder. He landed hard. I turned around and saw him struggling to get off the ground. It looks like he was hurt by the fall.

He reached for my head. I grabbed that hand, snapping it at the wrist. He cringed in pain, but kept a brave face throughout his heavy panting. "These jewel shards are mine, Inuyasha. You can't have them… I won't let you… you'll only abuse them."

"Abuse?…" his eyes flickered, "Kikyo said that."

"Forget Kikyo!" He tried to stop my hand with his broken wrist, but he only cringed in pain. "Well, look who's talking! You're using those… when you'd get more shards?"

"Found them… by a tree near my cave…"

"Those shards have been contaminated! You're being stupid, get rid of them, you don't need them! I'm trying to snap you back to normal!"

"Shut up!" I shouted so loud that everything went silent. "You didn't bother convincing me to stay, so I'm not gonna bother giving you a chance to apology if you won't use it!" My rage reached its climax as I grabbed a hold of his throat. I dug my claws in around the sides while focusing my grip to completely cut him off. He gasped, but kept a strong face. He grinned, "you don't have the guts."

"Don't test me!" He tried fighting me off with his free hand, but the fall had weakened him so much that he could barely move. I felt the pulse under my claws slowly diminishing. I looked at his face as I saw the expression start changing for the worst. I also looked at him all over, "Look at how much you're bleeding… aren't you the least bit dizzy or anything at all?" I let him go slightly to hear his answer, "Yeah… now that you mention it…"

Then I tightened my grip again. He gritted his teeth, but seemed to know he was losing the fight. He gasped, "Please… don't… I care… more about you… than I let on…" He coughed and gagged. I stared into his dark, human eyes as they started struggling with all kinds of things. I saw a spark in them and they all spoke at once. "I don't want to lose you to the dark place I barely escaped…" Inuyasha's voice echoed in my head. It came directly from his heart, but it could only have come from the human part of his heart that intensified during the new moon. The voice in my head went to directly to my heart. The pain in it was enough to make me let go.

I held my heart and started growing weak at the knees. I starting sweating. I looked at my heart and I felt a glowing presence. "The jewel shard in your heart." Inuyasha gasped as he slowly got off the ground and crawled towards me. I felt the rage going into all into the shard in my heart, slowly disappearing out of me. I slapped my forehead, drew out those two tainted jewel shards and threw them into the ground. I whispered, "Naraku can have those back… I should have killed him, but I could barely reach him. I wanted so bad to kill him for how he's wronged all of us…" My eyes broke into tears, "He lied to the humans who killed my family and friends, telling them that we're bent on destroying the village."

"So… you're back to normal…" He asked, crawling closer to me, holding his broken wrist.

All at once, there was a pain ripping at my stomach. I hissed, holding it as I fell over on my back. I struggled to get myself off the ground, but it felt like it was burning like acid. There was a dark glow. "That's what he did when he pasted his hand to my stomach. More tainted jewel shards!" I had to reach my own claws into my stomach just to get them out because they were deep in there.

I coughed, screaming in pain. I almost felt like I was going to vomit with the pain, but I stopped myself. I looked to the side and I thought I saw someone coming towards us. I narrowed my eyes, "Sesshomaru?" Inuyasha gasped and looked over, "I don't see nothin'."

"He's… coming to finish me off…" I struggled to get up, but slowly my hallucination disappeared and I lay down. I felt a hand on my shoulder and cried out in surprise. "Hey, it's okay, it's just me…" I lay on my side, almost waiting for my guts to come pouring out. I coughed and started crying. I was shaking like a leaf in a thunderstorm. The hand stayed on my shoulder and I cried, "Just go away, leave me!"

"I… I can't… not if I tried…"

"Must be your human heart talking… your more… forgiving side…" I coughed as my stomach started paining me. "It's almost like his touch was poison, but 10x worse than Sesshomaru." I gasped and groaned in pain.

"Let me see…" He rolled me over on my back. It looked like a knife cut through it and the poison was oozing. "It's almost like when I was cut by the blade of a moth demon… I'm sure we'll be able to treat it and you'll be just fine."

I started sweating all over and getting chills. A soft human hand was feeling the side of my face. "You're dripping in sweat…" I opened my eyes and saw a blur that was Kagome.

"Kagome…" I whispered before cringing with more pain. "The bleeding won't stop… like my guts are…" I felt some blood leak out of my mouth. Kagome wiped it away from a tissue.

"Stop hovering over me… I tried to… I wanted… I don't deserve this…" I wanted to cry more, but the poison was paralyzing me.

"You had the same demonic aura as Naraku, so you were really under his control the whole time. He must have provoked you and caused you to turn into a killing machine," Sango said. "It wasn't your fault…"

I looked up at Inuyasha and for a split second, I saw worry in his eyes. I moved my lips, "Inuyasha…" By this time, the sun was slowly rising and I saw him transform back into a half-demon.

He got up, slowly picking me up, preparing to carry me off on his back. "Inuyasha… just leave me…"

"Not a chance… I'm getting you medical help right away! You don't want to die, are you!" He shouted, like he was challenging me.

"I tried to kill you… I don't deserve to live…"

"Don't say that! I won't hear of it!" Kagome handed him back his sword. He tied the sheath around his waist and got me off the ground. He held onto both of my wrists with his left arm, whose wrist I didn't break. "Hang on tight!" He sprinted really fast and took off, hopping through all the trees at a fast speed. I felt myself fading fast, both from the poison and the dizzying height.

"Why bother?" I whined.

"I won't accept that tone! You're not going to die this, Chihiro! You're stronger than that!" I cried, cringing in pain. "Hang on, we're almost there!"

"I couldn't if I tried… your grip is slipping." He quickly grabbed my hands with both of his, ignoring the pain in his broken wrist. "No, I'm not letting you go!"

"I don't…" I cringed. I felt my eyes getting heavy and I just let them close.

When Inuyasha landed at Kaede's village, he quickly rushed to her cabin. "Kaede, I need help and fast!"

"Oh my, lay her down in this corner over here." She starting gathering some herbs in her drawers. "This should help stop the bleeding," she took out what looked like a serum. She let it dissolve into some bandages and she put them around the scar on my stomach.

I shrieked in pain. I felt a strong hand grab my own as I squeezed it to relieve the pain. I cringed as I slowly felt the poison evaporating into the bandages. I groaned as the sweat kept dripping from my face. Then a cold, wet rag was placed on it. I looked over and saw Inuyasha applying it.

"Inuyasha…" I looked away, "You don't have to do this because it's the right thing to do."

"I want to, though…" the rag came across my forehead and I felt my anxieties resurfacing. I cried a few tears of bitterness, "Inuyasha… I don't need your sympathy…"

"Would you stop being so damn proud! I mean, just for a moment, could you stop telling me to stop doing what I'm doing! That's what one friend does for another!" I cried a few more tears and starting sobbing, "Oh Inuyasha… why…" I cringed.

"Look, just calm down… you're going to be fine!"

"How can you be so sure?" I sniffed as my nose started running. I felt him stroke my cheek with his newly clawed hands; the way I felt at that moment made me shiver.

"Fighting me on this will only make you worse and you can't really get much worse than this without…"

"I didn't want to… it just happened… I couldn't control myself…" He continued to stroke my cheek, "Just forget what you did and focus on getting back to normal…"

"But that's just it… I'm not normal…"

"So? That never stopped you before…" I saw him smile and I just adjusted myself a little just to get the kinks out of my back. I sighed, "It's good to see you again… too bad things didn't go as well as I'd hoped."

"Yeah, same here…" He nodded, "Just work on getting some rest."

"Inuyasha…"

"Yeah?"

"Promise to… stay with me while I sleep?"

"Of course," he smiled, holding my hand with his broken wrist, while stroking my cheek with the other hand.