-1Kaede walked back to the hut and walked in slowly so as not to wake anyone who had fallen asleep. When she walked in everyone was sleeping soundly. She walked over to where she was to sleep and she sat down with her back against the wall.

"Where have you been?" The quiet growl of InuYasha nearly surprised the girl.

"I went to the river to get some water and wash my face... Did I forget to ask you permission your highness?" Kaede growled back.

"The next time you go out alone, you should at least take Shippo with you." InuYasha suggested harshly.

"I didn't die when I went out this time did I? Besides, Shippo is still a small child, he has more of a chance of being attacked and harmed than I do..."

"Shippo's not carrying a jewel shard, and he's at least a full blooded demon. Most demons that can smell the blood of a full blooded demon, whether or not he's a child, would probably think twice before attacking him. Only the more powerful demons will attempt to attack him." InuYasha lectured.

"Fine... I don't want to argue about it..." Kaede sat Indian style and put her hands through either sleeves of her kimono and stared at the small fire in the middle of the room.

"So... You're a demon then?" InuYasha asked.

Kaede's heart began to beat a little faster and InuYasha caught on to it.

"I told you, I'm human... I don't know where you people got the idea that I was a demon..." Kaede tried to play it off easily.

"Miroku seems to think that you have a powerful demon aura about you. And your human smell doesn't seem to be completely covering your demon side. I've been keeping track of your human smell and sometimes it doesn't always smell like human."

"Damn uncle, your arm band isn't doing it's job..." Kaede thought.

"I don't know what you're talking about... And I don't know how long it's going to take to make you believe otherwise..."

"That's not all though," InuYasha started again, "Your arm, it's healing."

"Well that's what's supposed to happen isn't it?" Kaede defended herself.

"No, I mean, it's healing faster than a human's arm would heal. I can hear the bones mending. I'd say that it would be fully healed in the next week or so. Human's normally take several weeks in order to heal broken bones."

Kaede sarcastically played it off, "Oh good, that means I don't have to stick around longer than I wanted to then doesn't it?"

InuYasha sighed and looked over at the sleeping Kagome.

"Kagome mentioned that your hair is also a style that she would normally see in her era... And I've never seen anything like it myself."

"What's an era?" Kaede tried to act unknowingly.

"...Never mind..." InuYasha bowed his head and closed his eyes.

"He seems to have caught onto my demon scent, but he doesn't know what kind of demon I am yet, or who I smell like. So the arm band must be doing most of it's job otherwise he'd ask me why it is that I smell like a mixture of him and Kagome. Although I'm glad I got here in this era when I did. If I had gotten here just a few days earlier, I might have stopped them from conceiving me..."

Kaede looked to InuYasha and Kagome and smiled a little. Then she looked to the others who were sleeping soundly. Her demon side could hear their deep and slow breaths, so she knew that they were asleep.

"So this is the whole group huh? Mom was right... I can see how she enjoyed staying with all of them. They're so friendly... For some reason I feel safe with them without a second thought..."

Kaede closed her tired eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

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Naraku arrived back at his castle, when he walked by Kagura she stood still in shock for a moment.

"He...He's shaking!! He's trying to walk firmly to show otherwise but I can clearly see him shaking!"

"Kagura!" Naraku shouted as he half turned to look at her, "I have a mission for you... Follow me..."

Kagura had no choice but to do as she was told, so she followed Naraku until he sat down and Kanna walked into the room as well.

"It seems as though there is another powerful priestess. This one seems even more powerful than Kikyou or Kagome with her Sacred arrows. She may even be following and protecting InuYasha and his friends. So start looking for her there."

"Another priestess? Even more powerful than Kikyou?! Where did such a woman come from? Whoever she is, she's got Naraku scared..."

"Kagura! Do I have tell you again?! Go now!"

"Of course..." Kagura bowed to him and then walked out of the castle and threw one of the feathers from her hair into the air to ride upon it.

"I wonder why Naraku seems so tense about this new woman? He said that she has more power than Kikyou... Maybe... This woman broke through Naraku's barrier! Someone that powerful would definitely have Naraku a little on the worried side..."

Kagura picked up speed as her feather sliced through the sky winds and rode off towards the lead of where this new priestess was.

It was finally morning. Kaede awoke to find that everyone was still asleep. It was still very early, the sun hadn't even halfway risen from the horizon yet, but it was light outside and that's all Kaede needed to wake her up. She stretched a little as she stood up slowly so as not to wake anyone, and walked out. She could hear that InuYasha was asleep so she didn't worry about him following her as she stepped out of the hut and breathed in the fresh, forest air.

"Well, I may as well go back down to the water and wash up."

The girl walked down a long hill which was covered with trees. The morning dew was falling off of the tree's leaves and onto the girl's head. She decided to take her shoes off in order to feel the dew from the grass between her toes, and it felt wonderful for such a warm, humid morning. Finally, the girl was at the large stream which raced at such a fast pace that even she would have trouble swimming against flow if she had to.

"My arm is already starting to feel better, which doesn't surprise me, " Kaede said as she unwrapped her broken arm and stretched it out from shoulder to the tips of her fingers, which felt so good to her.

"Well hello there..."

Kaede jumped at the sound of a woman's voice.

"Kagura!" Kaede jumped to her feet with her back facing the river.

"Well you know you I am, but I have no idea who you are... Who the hell are you anyway? And why do you have Naraku so worried?"

"I'm no one of concern for anyone, and if this "Naraku" is worried about me, then why hasn't he come to face me himself?!" Kaede knew she was in trouble. Her arm was mending but it still wasn't strong enough for a battle with the wind demon.

"Why do you smell like a human? I sense demon..." Kagura demanded.

"I don't know what you're talking about!!"

Kagura sighed and said, "I'll ask you once more, and then it's no more miss nice Kagura... Who are you?"

"I'm no one!" Kaede defended again.

"Fine, if you won't answer my questions the easy way, then it's the hard way for you!" Kagura said as she brought her fan up"

"DANCE OF BLADES!" Kagura shouted as her fan shot out crescent shaped wind blades which tore through Kaede before she managed to jump out of the way.

The blast threw the girl to the ground. She had cuts all over her body and her clothes were torn to shreds. It didn't take her long to stand back up and flex her demon claws.

"So you are a demon. Are you ready to fight? Or are you ready to answer some questions?"

"I beat you once before, I'll beat you again!" Kaede said as she ran towards the woman.

"IRON REAVER SOUL STEALER!" The girl shouted as she swung her claws at Kagura.

"What the hell is this?! She's faster than I thought she was!"

Kagura nearly didn't make it out of the way and her right arm was nearly torn to shreds.

"Damn you! Who the hell are you?!"

Kaede was catching her breath as she cradled her left arm and didn't say a word.

"Fine, once more of my blades should take care of you! DANCE OF BLA-!"

"I don't think so!" InuYasha brought his sword down upon Kagura but the woman managed to move out of the way before she was cut down to size.

InuYasha landed right in front of the bleeding Kaede and pointed his sword at Kagura.

"Picking on humans now are we, Kagura?!" InuYasha snarled.

"She's no human! You should know that InuYasha!" Kagura demanded.

Kagome and Sango flew down on Kirara and grabbed Kaede and took off towards the foot of the hill where Miroku and Shippo were waiting. They landed and put Kaede sitting on the ground.

"Are you all right?" Shippo asked.

Kaede didn't answer, she was busy paying attention to Kagura, who was looking to her as well.

"That girl has Naraku wanting to know what she's all about. I don't know how, but she's got him worried. So you better keep a close eye on her..."

Kagura said as she threw her feather into the air and rode away.

"She's gone.." InuYasha said as he put his sword away and turned to Kaede.

"Naraku must have an interest in you because you broke his barrier. This isn't good. He'll probably keep a close eye on you as well..." Miroku stated as he looked over the girl's wounds.

"I thought I told you not to come out here alone!" InuYasha yelled as he approached the group.

Kaede was still catching her breath, but stood up on her bleeding legs and faced the dog demon.

"I'm fine... She caught me by surprise, that's all..."

"Were you expecting her to send you a letter to let you know when she'd be coming?!" InuYasha scolded again.

"Stop it InuYasha, these wounds are going to heal with you yelling!" Kagome scorned at the boy.

Kaede moved away from them and said, "I told you that I'm fine! I've had worse wounds than this..." Kaede then passed out and fell to the ground.

"Dumb girl..." InuYasha said.

The group was back at the hut and they had Kaede inside asleep, all bandaged up, while the rest of them stood outside and talked away from the quiet atmosphere of the hut. They were all sitting on the ground eating breakfast as they spoke.

"Naraku is going to be after her like white on rice. We can't let just let that go." Kagome said.

"I agree, her spiritual powers seemed to have attracted quite a bit of attention to her from Naraku. But something else worries me. I have sensed that she was more than just a human, and so has InuYasha. And after just a few minutes of battling with Kagura, she picked up on her demon aura as well. Either Kaede knows that she's a demon and she's trying very hard to cover it up, or for some reason or another, she really doesn't know that she's a demon. Either way, I've never heard of a demon with natural priestess powers like hers. She's very much so, one of a kind, and that makes her a danger to herself." Miroku stated.

"Wait a second! InuYasha, the only reason we knew where she was, was because you could smell her blood! Did you notice any demon scents from it?" Sango asked

"...No... She smelled like a human like she always has..." InuYasha said solemnly.

"Well we're definitely not going to get any answers by just asking her. So we're just going to have to see if she decides to trust us and tells us on her own." Miroku added.

Kagome looked to Miroku and said, "You know, it's weird. I haven't, yet, seen you do anything lecherous to Kaede…"

"Now that you mention it, he really hasn't done anything like that to her," Sango commented.

Miroku wasn't taken back at this and said calmly, "I still believe that this girl has some sort of demonic powers, and being that she's a demon, I prefer to not to, as they say, walk the waters, on this one."

"I always thought that as long as it was a woman Miroku wouldn't care?" Shippo asked with his little arms crossed.

Miroku's eyes widened and he put his hands up in defense, "Come on now! Give me a little more credit than that!"

InuYasha looked up and said, "Well you know what they say Miroku? Give them an inch and they'll take a mile…."

Kaede woke up slowly, her vision blurred into perspective as she began to realize where she was. When she realized that she was back in the hut, she sat up slowly feeling the pain of all of the cuts on her body. She looked at herself and noticed that she was bandaged and had been given healing herbs.

She began to hear people talking outside and peeked outside the blanket that covered the hut entrance to listen