AN: Okay, as it stands, I've worked some on chapter 7, and the end is in sight (not of the fic, of course, just the chapter... trust me, I am NOWHERE near the end.... heh). Anyway, I did promise that if I took too long, I'd go ahead and post chapter 4, so here it is. Again, homework is stacking up again, but I've still got the chapters in my head. I have to say, this is the best I've been at actually writing in a very long time. A seventy-five page long inspiration streak and still going! I just hope I don't run out of steam anytime soon!

Well, anyway, enjoy!

Disclaimer: Dude, if I owned Inuyasha, you think I'd be writing this here instead of making this into some movie? Yeah, I think not!

Protect Me

Chapter 4

Protected meets Protector

Kagome took another gulp of water and set the glass down rather forcefully on the table, the icy drink doing little to calm her racing nerves. She had spent the last twenty-four hours within the confines of a small, barely accommodating room stationed in the very back of the department, imagining every noise and sound as Naraku, coming to finish what he had started. The poor girl had practically jumped out of her skin when Sango opened the door, summoning her to the interrogation room where she was to be told what her new identity would be.

She glanced at her reflection in the mirror, laughing at herself. "Wow, I even look as freaked out as I feel," she muttered.

"You don't look that bad to me."

Kagome jumped out of her seat, spinning around fearfully. Her hand clutched for her heart when she saw it was only Miroku, but glared daggers at him nonetheless. Miroku smiled nervously. Wow, you'd think she and Sango were twins or something.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kagome snapped. "Doing Naraku a favor?"

"Of course not," Miroku replied cheerfully. "I'm on your side, remember?"

Kagome's hand was not moved from her chest, nor did her expression lighten.

Miroku noticed and rubbed his bottom lip with his thumb, smiling as another approach came to mind. "Come on, now, Kagome," he said softly, closing the distance between them. He looked down at her, noticing her nervousness returning, and smiled, leaning forward. "After risking my life to save yours, don't you trust me?"

SMACK

He shouldn't have been surprised, yet Miroku failed to dodge the flying stapler anyway. Cradling the back of his head, he turned to find Sango fuming in the doorway, Sesshoumaru behind her. At first, he tried to smile sheepishly, but Sango's glare quickly demolished that idea, so he gave up and slowly made his way out of the room, sulking.

Sango's glare did not lift until he was out of her sight before she sighed, shaking her head. "Kagome, trust me, if you want to stay alive, Naraku's not the only one you should be protecting yourself from."

"Thanks for the advice," Kagome muttered, collapsing back into her chair.

"Anyway," Sango continued, eager to change the subject, "Kagome Higurashi, this is Sesshoumaru Taisho, our FBI chief and my boss."

Sesshoumaru barely nodded in acknowledgement, brushing past Sango to take a seat across the table from Kagome. Sango huffed loudly, but sat next to Kagome anyway, whose nerves were, for the third time that morning, returning with a vengeance.

"Miss Higurashi," Sesshoumaru began in his business-like tone, "I'm sure Sango and Miroku have made it clear the gravity and unique weight of the situation you're in."

Kagome glanced at Sango who gave her a smile of reassurance. She nodded. "Y-yes, Mr. Taisho."

"And you are aware, of course, of what must happen next, correct?"

"I have to be p-put into the witness p-protection program," Kagome recited like a well-versed schoolgirl. "I have to... throw away my old life for a new one."

Sesshoumaru shook his head. "Miss Higurashi, the witness protection program is for individuals who have observed a crime taking place and are put under the protection of our department until that specific criminal is put behind bars and the witness is no longer in jeopardy. Needless to say, however, Naraku is no ordinary criminal."

Kagome's heartbeat quickened. "So are you saying I don't qualify?" she squeaked.

"Quite the contrary, you are very much over qualified," Sesshoumaru replied calmly. "However, due to the magnitude of the circumstances with which you were brought here, exceptional actions must be taken to counteract with this... unprecedented condition."

Sango watched Kagome's unease grow and rolled her eyes. Miroku isn't the only one who needs to buy a dictionary. Key word- discretion.

"What... kind of... actions?" Kagome asked guardedly.

Sesshoumaru looked up and made a gesture with his hand, signaling Miroku to come in. As he did, he looked at Kagome critically. "Look, I'll be frank with you. Our department has never dealt with a felon that possessed complete authority to such a degree as Naraku, so I'm not lying when I say this whole ordeal is unprecedented. So, under the circumstances, what we're going to propose is something never really done before."

"What?" Kagome asked, her breath caught in her throat.

"We've arranged for you to have a bodyguard," he said bluntly.

"A babysitter, more like it."

Kagome whirled around to face the speaker. Miroku quietly sat down across from Sango while the stranger plopped onto a seat next to Sesshoumaru, eyes closed. Sitting so near to the chief, Kagome was instantly struck by how similar they looked. Both owned luxuriously long, snowy white hair, unmatted and well kept, though Sesshoumaru's looked much glossier and pampered. Their faces were both chiseled and defined, and yet the newcomer's wasn't quite as elegant and matured, but a little more round and boyish. And though his eyes were closed, Kagome was willing to bet they would have been a deep golden color like his counterpart's. As her eyes wandered shamelessly over his figure, they were quickly drawn to the twin fuzzy triangles set on top of his head, twitching back and forth in either boredom, irritation, or both. Despite the severity of the atmosphere, Kagome resisted the urge to reach out and stroke them. They looked like little puppy dog-ears, so soft and cute and fuzzy! Mentally, she had to scold herself for thinking such things, and tried to, once again, pay attention to whatever it was that Sesshoumaru was saying.

"Kagome Higurashi, meet my... half-brother..." Kagome noted how he said it rather sourly as if not wanting to admit it, "Inuyasha Taisho. Inuyasha, this is Kagome Higurashi, the girl you'll be attending to for the next-"

"You make it sound as if I'm gonna be her butler or something," Inuyasha put in crossly.

Sesshoumaru's eyes flicked dangerously to Inuyasha who merely yawned, showing off his polished set of fangs to the unimpressed demon and humans in the room. Kagome frowned. This was the guy she was supposed to entrust her life with?

"Inuyasha, will you at least pretend to care about someone other than yourself? For once?" Sesshoumaru hissed under his breath.

Inuyasha shrugged. "Can't. The bible says it's bad to lie."

"It also says not to kill," Sesshoumaru replied hotly. "Glad neither of us goes to church, though."

Inuyasha opened one eye to study his brother. "Are you sure you're allowed to be making threats like that, Chief? Especially since I'm doing you such a big favor?"

Kagome gasped, stunned. "You call protecting my life a favor? What kind of person are you?"

Inuyasha sighed, deliberately taking his time in turning his head. "Look, Miss Higurashi," he said, sarcasm dripping from his tongue, "don't bother to try and make me feel bad or anything, cause I don't have a conscience, so it won't work. And while I'm at it, why don't you-"

Inuyasha words were forgotten as he finally looked at Kagome for the first time, both eyes open now, taking in her appearance fully. Why had he not noticed her before? She looks exactly like... but she isn't, Inuyasha reminded himself, scolding himself for getting so worked up, yet not quite capable of taking his eyes off her.

Kagome either didn't notice or didn't care, because she was too busy glaring at him to mind. Who the hell does this guy think he is? Too good to waste his time protecting little, worthless me? How dare he!

Sango and Miroku exchanged rather confused glances before turning their attention to Sesshoumaru, their eyes pleading for an explanation. Sesshoumaru ignored them both, but watched Inuyasha. He had predicted this reaction from the first time he was shown a picture of the witness he was to be protecting. He narrowed his eyes, thoughts wandering through his mind, before his gaze flicked to his agents. "Sango."

"Got it," she replied though still confused but deciding to leave the questions for later, quietly revealing two manila folders she had kept hidden from view and slid them across the table in front of Inuyasha and Kagome. "Alright, these are going to be your new identities. You get to take a look at them, study as much as you can, then return them to me. We'll be giving you all your identification documents later, but for now, just review over it all."

Inuyasha blinked, suddenly aware of the fact that he had been staring, and quickly tore himself away from the girl, not forgetting to throw a meaningful glare at his brother. Sesshoumaru merely looked back at him, expressionless. Inuyasha sneered and looked down at his file, all the while thinking to himself, I'm gonna kill him. These thoughts, however, briefly escaped him as he began to scan through his information.

"Charles Lupine? My name is Charles Lupine! What the hell is up with that?"

Sesshoumaru shrugged, not bothering to conceal his smirk of amusement. "Hey, I didn't come up with it."

Inuyasha snorted. "There's a surprise," he growled.

"Personally, I suggested Yasha, the circus performing whining lapdog," Sesshoumaru said honestly. "It'd be a rather fitting title, don't you think?"

Inuyasha was out of his seat, ready to rip his brother's eyes out when, out of nowhere, he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder jerking him back to his seat. The hanyou's weren't the only pair of eyes that suddenly stared at Kagome incredulously. Sango and Miroku's jaws were dropped while Sesshoumaru studied the girl curiously, silently reevaluating his previous judgment of her.

Inuyasha whipped her hand off, glaring venomously. "What the hell do you think you are-"

"Why don't you just shut up?" Kagome snapped, surprising not only everyone in the room but herself as well. But she had been through way too much in the last twenty-four hours. Within one day, she felt she experienced more than a whole season of soap operas could offer- her boyfriend dying before her eyes, almost dying herself, finding out someone was still after her life, being forced to leave her family for who knows how long, and to top it off, she was starving, needed a shower, and hardly slept a minute all night. Kagome was seriously not in the mood to deal with this self-centered little punk now.

Inuyasha, fuming now, narrowed his eyes, exposing one claw as he leaned forward toward the insolent girl. "Look, girl, I'd watch what you say, otherwise you might find yourself with more enemies than Naraku to deal with."

Kagome, her rage lending her more courage than she would have thought, leaned right back in his face, bolding pushing his clawed hand out of the way. "Do I look like I care? Don't even bother trying to bully me with you're whole demon-strength thing, cause it's obvious you think I, being the defenseless little human weakling, will fall for it, but I won't! You're nothing but an arrogant, stuck-up, self-centered, full of yourself little puppy, so just shut up and sit, boy!"

All of this she said in one breath, so when she was finished, she sat back, face flushed, gasping for air, yet still looking impressive despite herself. All eyes fell on Inuyasha, now, as they waited for his reaction.

The hanyou in question merely stared at her, mouth wide open, in shock. Who the hell was this little human girl that had the audacity to talk to him like that? Was she really that stupid to not understand that with minimal effort, he could rip her body to shreds a hell of a lot easier than Naraku? What, did she think that because he was supposed to be protecting her that he would bend over backwards for her?

Not waiting for his response, Sango promptly leaned over and clapped Kagome on the back, smiling broadly. "Wow, Kagome, I didn't know you had it in ya! I'm afraid to say you're a lot stronger than I gave you credit for!"

"He had it coming," Kagome muttered scornfully, brushing her hair out of her face indifferently.

Sango chuckled. "Guess you won't need me to protect you from Miroku, anymore."

"Hey," Miroku spoke up defensively, "I find that statement rather offending, thank you."

"You're welcome," Sango said firmly. "Anytime."

Miroku opened his mouth to speak, but Sesshoumaru spoke first, silencing everyone else. "I have to admit, Miss Higurashi, I underestimated you, myself," he said calmly, his eyes still sparkling with amusement over his brother's crushing defeat by a mere human girl. 'A little puppy,' huh? I like it. "However, now that I'm sure you can handle yourself against my brother, I guess I'll go ahead and say my goodbyes."

"Wait a minute!" Kagome exclaimed. "I thought you said this was just a proposal! I don't want him to protect me! Don't I get a say in the matter?"

"Frankly, no," Sesshoumaru replied bluntly. "And about the whole proposal thing, I lied. This meeting was purely to evaluate how well you and Inuyasha would get along. You never had much of a choice. Personally, I think it all went remarkably well, so there's no further need for me to stay. Good luck, Miss Higurashi." With no further words, Sesshoumaru promptly got to his feet and made his way to the door.

"Sesshoumaru, wait one fucking minute!" Inuyasha roared, finally snapping out of his daze, racing after him. Sesshoumaru was already outside, and waited patiently for him, holding the door open. Inuyasha ignored this and stormed out, allowing Sesshoumaru to close the door before beginning his rant. "What the hell do you think you're doing, pairing me up with a power-trip maniac like that?"

Sesshoumaru smirked devilishly. "What, don't you like her? I really think she's rather charming, quite a spunky little character if nothing else. And don't tell me you don't think she isn't the slightest bit attractive."

Inuyasha clenched his fists at his sides, his body trembling with his suppressed rage. "Don't think I hadn't noticed that little tidbit, either," he hissed through clenched teeth. "But I'm letting you know right now that you can go ahead and find yourself another babysitter, because I refuse to spend one minute, let alone a few months, with that little... wench!"

Sesshoumaru quirked an eyebrow. "Not only that, but she has a much more sophisticated vocabulary than you do," he pointed out, turning and walking back to his office. "And by the way, as far as protecting Kagome Higurashi goes, you don't have a choice in the matter."

Inuyasha snorted. "What makes you think I give a damn whether or not you give me a choice?"

"This," Sesshoumaru replied nonchalantly, waving a piece of paper in the air above his head as he continued walking. "It's a warrant from the head of security himself giving me permission to pull you out of jail eight years early in order to protect Kagome Higurashi. Should you fail to comply, however, you can either be penalized with a lifetime sentence here or be shipped to a behavior correctional facility in Mongolia. I thought you might like that since you seemed so eager to visit the last time we spoke."

"Sesshoumaru, you're a bastard," Inuyasha yelled after him.

"I love you, too, little brother," he called back unsympathetically, disappearing around the corner.

Inuyasha screamed a rather colorful selection of words out at the empty hallway before finally slamming his fists against the door, growling viciously. His ears twitched when he heard voices, and he looked up and through the window at the three humans inside. Sango and Miroku were flipping through the files, explaining everything in great detail while Kagome nodded attentively.

"Kagome," Inuyasha muttered, turning his nose up in distaste, eyes narrowing. "It's gonna be a long few months- for the both of us."

AN: Yeah, well, about the Charles Lupine thing... don't pay it any mind, really. It's not like Kagome's ever really gonna use it... and trust me, Inuyasha won't be up to using Kagome's security name, either!

Review Response:

kyoko-the-lonely-demon626: I'm glad you like it! Let me know if there's anything I can fix to make it better, kay?

purityxstarz: Well, while I agree with you on the review thing (not that I think I should get fifty, but I wish I could get fifty...), yes, eventually you will find out why Inuyasha was in jail... in fact, that's the chapter I'm writing right now, so it shouldn't be too far away...

Keyo-Red Angel of Hope: Of course, what Inuyasha fic is complete without the hanyou himself falling off of his ego tower every once in a while. And I'm curious to know what you think about Inuyasha in prison. Please email me or something, cuz I always like to see if the way I write is too predictable or not.... and I've never seen "The Defender"... maybe I should go rent it and see if I accidentally copied them or something...

spice of Inu-Yasha: Trust me, I wish I could get more reviews. But I hope to catch them all in time. As they say, flattery will get you everywhere... otherwise, I'm happy you find this enjoyable!

Larnom: Of course, Bonnie-san. All your questions were answered, and yes, Inuyasha is internally ticked about his brother controlling the knobs, so to speak, but, as usual, he'd bark like a puppy before he'd ever admit it!

Next chapter: Kagome thinks about her family, Inuyasha gives her a hankie, they see their new living quarters, Inuyasha learns Kagome's new name and Sango takes her fury out on the males