Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha.

Update Dates: Sundays and Thursdays

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The War Between Races
Chapter 10 - Caring for Humans

By: Scaevola
Published 9/16/05
Updated 10/16/05

The soft crunch of the snow beneath the soft set of boots were all that could be heard for miles around. No animal stirred, no wind rustled the trees, the area had become submerged in silence. The snow had finally stopped falling from the sky, coating the area in a two foot deep blanket of snow.

Sesshomaru had ordered the army to march this morning, away from the mountain camp. He knew many others did not agree with this decision, but he did not care. He made the decisions, not them.

As he watched the army set up and prepare to leave, Sesshomaru had left Kaito and Ishimaru in charge. The kitsune and mountain oni seemed to be the most clear thinking of the other commanders in the camp, and weren't quick to anger. Sesshomaru was also confident that they wouldn't betray his orders.

And so Sesshomaru had left the camp area, for time to think. From high up in the mountains he could see the village that they would attack tomorrow. Further beyond that he could just see the beginnings of the forest that InuYasha was currently in.

Sesshomaru had received no word from InuYasha. Not that he had truly expected it. How would InuYasha have sent anyone if he wanted to? He had nobody to send the messages with.

Yet something seemed wrong to Sesshomaru. He had no idea what exactly gave him this feeling, but something told him that InuYasha was having difficulties. Call it a bond between brothers, or a sixth sense, all Sesshomaru knew was that bad was happening, and that he, in the mountains, could do nothing about it.

Sesshomaru continued down the mountains, deciding that he should probably catch up to where the army was. As he was going down however, he changed his mind. He didn't feel like listening to Koga's constant complaining, or Taiki and Koori's bickering over whether fire demons or Yuka-onna were better.

Instead, Sesshomaru set an easy pace down the mountain, deciding that at this pace he would come upon the army's camp in several hours.

His trip down the mountain passed in silence, save for his own footsteps and heartbeat. Yet when Sesshomaru neared the bottom of the mountain, close to where the demon camps would be, he heard singing.

Curious, Sesshomaru stopped, listening. The words were barely audible, and Sesshomaru had a hard time hearing them. When he found that he couldn't hear them at all anymore, Sesshomaru convinced himself that he had been hearing things.

He looked up at the sky, it was almost evening, and plans would have to be made for tomorrow's attack. As Sesshomaru took a step away, heading back towards where the demon camp would be, he heard laughter.

He stopped mid step, straining his ears. Again, he heard laughter. He turned quickly towards the source of the noise. He quietly approached it, wanting to find out who, or what, was there.

As he got closer, the laughter got louder, ensuring him that he was getting closer to the source of the noise. leapt over a tree, only to land behind a small girl, no more than eight.

She had dark hair, and was wearing an orange kimono. She hummed and laughed as she played n the snow, packing it together and rolling it into large balls. Unaware of his presence, she continued to play.

Sesshomaru watched in silence as she tried to lift the balls up and place them on top of each other. She struggled for awhile with one of them, panting with the effort it took her. Then, finding that she wasn't strong enough, she sat down on the ground to try and find a different way to do it.

That was when she noticed him. Her eyes widened at the sight of him, just standing behind her, silent and observant. She jumped up and back away at first, studying him. When he made no move to go after her, she stopped.

Her head tilted to the side as she looked at him curiously. Sesshomaru still made no movement. He did not know why, but he had no desire to harm this girl. Even though she was human, a traitor, the same race as the people who killed his father, he had no ill will towards the girl.

The girl smiled suddenly and walked over to him, grabbing his hand. He looked at her in shock. The human dared to touch him? She gave his hand a small squeeze, and Sesshomaru found himself allowing the girl to pull him towards the balls of snow.

She pulled his hand and pointed at the snow blocks. No words were needed. Sesshomaru, feeling what could perhaps be called compassion for a human for once, bent down and picked up the snow ball, placing it on top of the other. Then, he picked up the third, and smallest ball of snow, and placed that on top of the other two.

The small girl laughed in delight and quickly picked up some small stones. She made what Sesshomaru thought was supposed to be a face, and then stuck two sticks into the side of the middle ball of snow.

The girl smiled, after she was done. Her work of art, her snowman, was finished. Sesshomaru watched as the smile quickly faded on the girl's face. She looked up at him then, studying him. Then she nodded to herself and turned back to the snowman.

Sesshomaru watched, shocked again by this humans actions, as she clearly drew streaks in the side of the snowman's face, inexactly the same fashion that Sesshomaru's markings appeared on his own face.

The girl smiled then, happy that she had made a snowman Sesshomaru. She pointed to her snowman, and said "Youkai-san!"

Sesshomaru looked down at the girl. The human was obviously not afraid of him, he could not smell it. Even though she clearly knew what he was, she was not afraid. A had never known a human to not be fearful of a demon.

The girl pulled on his hand once more, and he looked down at the girl. She seemed to be offering him something her small hand. As he looked at it closely, he found that she was in fact offering him food.

"I do not need your food." he said, looking away.

The girl frowned for a moment, before she said. "It's a gift."

Sesshomaru looked down at her when she addressed him. Why he was so amazed with this girl he could not explain, but there was something about her, something about this human that astounded him.

"I do not need a gift from you, human. Keep it for yourself." he ordered.

The girl frowned again, withdrawing the offer of food. Sesshomaru nodded to himself as the girl obeyed. But then, again to his amazement, the girl put the food down in front of him before skipping away.

"Bye Youkai-san!" she shouted over her shoulder.

Sesshomaru couldn't help it, for once emotion showed on his face. His mouth hung open and his eyes were wide. The human had purposely disobeyed him, and he still didn't smell fear from her.

He watched as the girl disappeared among the trees, heading back to her home, he figured. Collecting himself, he again put on his stoic expression and headed back towards where the demon camp would be, his thoughts centered on this strange human girl.

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InuYasha stared at the princess in her horse next to him. He was still in a bit of shock over what had happened in the camp yesterday when he had announced himself.

When he'd seen the demon slayers and the older miko walking over to him after they found out his identity, he had immediately expected the worse. And why shouldn't he? He was one of the leaders of the demon army, the very army that was bent on destroying the Eastern Kingdom.

Yet the humans had done the exact opposite of what he'd expected. After the princess had nearly shouted his identity in shock, the humans slowly rose and walked over to him. The demon slayers were silent, clutching their weapons tightly, ready for any sudden movement from the hanyou.

The older miko however, was calm, and studying the hanyou with interest. InuYasha quickly sniffed the air, trying to sort through all the scents to the old miko. Oddly enough, no fear was coming from her.

"You are InuYasha Taisho?" asked the miko.

InuYasha, knowing there was no point in trying to lie at this point, nodded his head, preparing himself for the torture he'd receive through the slave necklace.

The miko was silent for awhile, clearly thinking hard. InuYasha pretended to be uninterested, but he watched the miko out of the corner of his eye.

"And you believe us when we say that our emissaries were not sent to kill your father?"

Again, InuYasha nodded, wondering what the miko was trying to get at. "I didn't smell any lies coming from the Princess when she said it."

The miko nodded. "I suppose that would explain your sudden trust." she looked at the hanyou. "And you say that you would help us fight if the other demons can not be convinced of the truth?" she asked.

InuYasha nodded. "Keh. All I have to do is tell my brother the truth. He'll call back the army once he knows."

The miko nodded again before turning away. The demon slayers stared at InuYasha for a few moments before they too turned away.

InuYasha was still lost in his thoughts about the encounter last night when the Princess screamed.

InuYasha turned to see an arrow protruding from one of the demon slayers chests, a steady flow of blood down his chest. The horses began rearing at the sudden smell of fresh blood.

InuYasha scanned the trees in the forest to see several humans coming closer, all wearing rusty battered armor and carrying various weapons. One word crossed his mind: Bandits.

He noticed that they had surrounded their group, and were slowly edging closer. The Princess horse had become very uncontrollable, and soon shot off towards one of the bandits, trampling him in the process. It kept running though, with the Princess hanging on shouting for help.

The demon slayers and the older miko began to move after the Princess, but as soon as one tried to move out of the circle, he was shot with an arrow.

The miko quietly spoke to the hanyou. "InuYasha, go and get the Princess! We will handle these men.

InuYasha nodded, and quickly took off at a run, swiping two of the bandits down in the process. He ignored the blood on his claws for the moment, instead sniffing carefully to try and follow the Princess's trail.

As he left the clearing he could clearly hear one of the bandits tell some of his comrades to follow him.

InuYasha smirked at the thought of the pitiful humans believing that they could harm him. He knew it would help the miko and demon slayers however. He had killed two, the princess's horse had trampled one, and now possibly two or three of them were following him. That left about equal numbers between the demon slayers and bandits.

He stopped and turned around to draw the Tetsusaiga. The bandits that were following him caught up, two of them panting from the run. The third looked like he was breathing easier, but his eyes widened at the sight of InuYasha's sword.

"What's the matter?" asked InuYasha, feigning concern. "I thought you were following me to fight me?" He shrugged to show he didn't care about their answer. "Oh well. I'll tell you what. I'll give you 10 seconds to run before I kill you."

The humans all dropped their weapons and quickly began to run. InuYasha laughed to himself at how pathetic they were. Counting to two, InuYasha quickly raised his Tetsusaiga above his head.

"Wind Scar!" he shouted, watching as the attack quickly caught up to the humans, who screamed in pain before dieing.

InuYasha smirked as he sheathed the Tetsusaiga again. Then he remembered just why he had gone out into the forest before. 'Kagome' he thought, quickly racing off to follow her. He leapt from tree to tree, he went the snow began to get a bit deeper, which he was thankful for because it gave him clear tracks for him to follow. No longer relying on scent, he was able to move even quicker through the forest to find the Princess.

He continued following the path, occasionally changing directions. It took awhile, longer than would be expected, but he finally caught up to the horse. Unfortunately, that was all he caught up to.

He stopped to see the horse had fallen, his leg was clearly broken. He looked around for a sign of the Princess, but found none. Her supplies were still with the horse, her bow and arrow that she had practiced with, as well as clothes and some food, but the Princess wasn't anywhere nearby.

He sniffed around, trying to find any sign of the princess. To his disappointment, he found none. He silently cursed himself for fighting with those humans and not catching up sooner. He had actually began to think of the girl less as a disgusting human and more as someone he could bear with being with, or maybe even enjoy being with.

'If she's hurt I'll...' He stopped himself from thinking of what he'd do. He didn't want to know himself. Had the girl grown that much on him so quickly? She was a human!

"Keh! Like I care about her!" He tried to convince himself that he didn't care what happened to her, but he couldn't help but feel worried. Constant 'What if?' questions ran through his mind.

"I only care because if she gets hurt I won't be freed!" he tried to convince himself as he searched for her. Unfortunately, he knew the truth - no matter how hard he tried to convince himself otherwise, he really had begun to care about the Princess.

Eventually, InuYasha found himself retracing the tracks of the horse, sniffing it to find where Kagome's scent separated from the horses.

It wasn't very far, from where the horse had fallen, but it was quite awhile from where they had started by the bandits. When he finally smelled her again, he quickly followed the scent through some shrubs, only to find that the Princess had fallen unconscious in the snow.

He picked her up, and feeling how cold she was, quickly started a fire. He cleared some of the snow from the ground, and taking off his own Haori, he would have to do without it in the snow, and placed it around her as a blanket while she lay by the fire.

Abruptly InuYasha realized that today was the night of the new moon, and Kagome was using his Haori.

"You better wake up soon, girl." he growled. "I'm going to need that back."

The princess however, remained unconscious. InuYasha sighed. "Damn it. I'm probably going to freeze to death tonight." he muttered.

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Miroku quickly caught up to the Emperor. "My Lord! You must reconsider! I'm telling you right now that it is not a wise decision!"

The emperor turned around quickly, his face inches from Miroku's. "And what would you have me do? That village is clearly in danger! I must send troops to it's aid! Not only that, but my daughter is somewhere out there! With the Shikon No Tama no less!"

Miroku blanched at the Emperor's tone. "N-No sire! I am just saying that you must take what you can and not try to do more than you can! The village will already be taken by the time your troops reach there, and they will be tired. Easy prey for the demons' army!"

Next to him, Sango and Kohaku remained silent, neither wanting to incur the Emperor's wrath.

The Emperor spoke then. "Perhaps there is no hope in sending troops to aid the village. Perhaps the demons will take it before we get there. But if we do not send troops I would be abandoning my people Miroku! I will not have it!"

Sango tried to speak in Miroku's defense. "My Lord I agree with Miroku, while you may be abandoning your people in the village, you'd be saving more people by keeping your troops ready to defend where you can! You should not throw your armies away!"

Emperor Higurashi, normally a very thoroughly thought out man, was now beside himself with anger. He didn't care what Sango or Miroku thought. He would not abandon his people.

"Sango, I did not ask your opinion in this matter!" he shouted. He turned towards her brother, Kohaku.

"Kohaku, I want you to take a small army and attack the Western Lands. Perhaps if we attack them on their home they will have no choice to return. They will be undefended and unprepared, just as we were."

Kohaku nodded before bowing. "Yes, my Lord."

The Emperor nodded before turning on his heel and stalking off, carefully avoiding Miroku's and Sango's pleading gazes.

Sango watched as her brother walked off to prepare himself and any troops he would need. her brother was going off to war alone again. It was not their first time being separated in war, they had both been apart in the first war with the Western Lands, but it didn't matter, she still felt a sense of loss as she watched her brother walk away.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Miroku looking at her with concern, nod a shred of lechery in his eyes. "I'm sure he will be fine Sango. Kohaku has managed by himself in the past."

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Woohoo! Another chapter done! So, once again, tell me what you think!

Oh and also, I addressed this in my other Fan Fiction, Undeniable Love, but I think I should mention it in here too, incase any readers don't look at both. (You know you're out there!) The FanFiction "A New Leader", will be put back online in the middle of November, when the plot lines of both The War Between Races and Undeniable Love are bit more settled out.