Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

A/N: Hey all, just got home...quarter to three in morning...saw reviews...very happy...updating...then bed...hope you like it...

CHAPTER 7 – Annoyance and Aggravation

Annoyance. Aggravation. Had it only been four days ago that his life had been so blissfully peaceful? Well, in actuality his life had not been peaceful since the days of his adolescence, but it had indeed taken an unexpected and unwanted turn since that girl showed up. Said turn seemed to lead endlessly down a road of aggravation and annoyance. The girl's actions and attitudes seemed to be a proverbial poking to his person, each strange manifestation feeling like a small jab to himself. It was the kind of thing where you wouldn't notice it after one or two encounters, but bloody hell! If someone keeps poking the same spot over and over again it gets to be painful.

That morning he had arrived to find the test reports for Hando sitting on his desk. Upon looking briefly at the topmost page which summarized the results he saw that once again her scores had consistent and identical implications across the board. (Poke.) Growling he dove through the file, wanting to read her answers to each question. What he found was that the girl had not only answered the questions, but the pages in the test booklets were covered with handwritten notes as well. (Poke.) All throughout the test she had made comments critiquing the language and phrasing of the questions, argued for the relevance of a certain idea to the over all test, criticized the patterning and placement order of the questions, and cited recent research which contradicted the theory behind the assumptions questions would be graded on. At the end of each test would be anywhere from three to ten paragraphs, written in APA format no less, further detailing the shortcomings of that particular test's scoring, question ratios, cultural influences, and the problems with standardized testing in general. (Poke poke.) The part of her dossier which detailed her education came to mind, and Sesshoumaru recalled how she had majored psychology. 'No wonder then, she must have spent time studying these kinds of things. I wonder if she was this much trouble at school as well.'

As he looked over each test he could feel his jaw muscles tightening a little more. The one reprieve from the girl's flagrant audacity was the inkblot test, it seemed that here alone she had been completely straight forward in her answers. The typed summary of her evaluation said she was loyal, had strong connections to the idea of home yet still sought a high degree of adventure, was 'in tune with' and 'found great strength from' nature. The report further said she was guided by a sense of equivalency, and was extremely imaginative. This last statement was flagged with a note which corresponded to a subscript where the evaluator recommended that Sesshoumaru listen to the tape of the session at some point, a copy of which had been provided. Yet another subscript pointed out the subject's apparent delight for having pictures she had never come across before. "So that's why she didn't have any smart-ass commentary, it was new to her. Hmph, no doubt she'd have plenty to say on it if she ever has to take it again."

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Over the next two weeks Sesshoumaru watched Hando closely. He began to fully appreciate what Peters said about the girl's inquisitive nature as he noticed how she made a habit of getting her fingers into everyone else's pie. She'd come in early, and sometimes stay late so that she would have time enough to not only complete her own work, but also speak with others about theirs. She helped the receptionists make improvements on their filing systems, she learned not only every single security procedure but the names of each guard on the premises, she talked the elevator repair guy into showing her how the code system worked and how to manually control it from inside the shaft, she ate lunch with different people and tried hard to get to know everyone and what their responsibilities were, and by her first Friday she had even taken apart one of the many broken fax machines, figured out how to repair it, and then showed Inuyasha so that "If anyone else makes a mistake with whiteout then he'd be able to take care of it for them."

After the first week he'd allowed her to begin training in the dojo, and after a couple of days it became clear that only Watanabe, Ikeda, Higuashi, his brother or himself were anything but a waste of her time if she were to improve her skill set and not merely exercise it. He had been hopeful that at the very least Bankotsu would have been able to defeat her, but she'd sent him high-tailing from the room when she'd nearly purified his precious halberd out of existence. In fact she had gone so far as to instruct those she was paired with, pointing out their weaknesses and making suggestions for improvements. Peters had again shown his knowledge of his former student by recommending her being paired with a cocky guy. While she would put up amazingly strong defenses against Ikeda and Higurashi, she would hesitate before taking a strong offense. Sesshoumaru had mentioned this to Watanabe who most happily took it upon himself to rile her up a bit more to see what she'd do.

"Make her angry, I want to see how she will react," the demon had commanded.

"Hai, Sesshoumaru-sama, I have just the thing," replied the grinning Miroku. He walked over to where Sango and Kagome were in the middle of sparring and announced the change in partners. Kagome looked puzzled at first, but became annoyed when Miroku said in condescending tones, "Fear not, little Kagome, I shall go easy since you are tired."

"Little! Easy! Miroku who do you think you're talking to?" she laughed as she began fighting him. Slowly she backed him towards a wall, kicked him in the chest with both feet so that he was slammed into it, and then before he could recoup she took out several stars from a hidden pocket and threw them at him, pinning his clothes in various places to the wall. "Now Miroku, see what happens when you don't give things you're all?" She walked up to him and had reached for a star to take it back when he spoke.

"Ah Kagome, I had no idea you took such pleasure in bondage," he smirked.

Sesshoumaru had expected her to explode at this but oddly enough she played along, bringing herself close up against the man she had pinned. "It's just another one of my little tricks I keep in my repertoire, Mi-ro-ku," she breathed sensually, as Sesshoumaru wondered what it would take to rattle the girl if she could so easily banter with the monk. It only took another ten seconds for him to find out.

"And this is one of mine," he purred as the only free hand he had came up to grope her backside.

"HENTAI!" she screeched as she suddenly began to glow. The mint smell of her miko powers thickened dramatically as she grabbed him by the shoulders, ripped him away from the wall and threw him across the room.

"Oh ho ho, is he going to get it now," Sesshoumaru heard Sango mutter from the post she'd taken up next to him. "Kagome does not appreciate uninvited touching…"

Out on the floor Miroku was throwing sutras as fast as he could at the miko energy bursts she was hurling at him. She paused briefly then sent two at once, one large and the other almost pencil thin. He blocked the large on but the other hit him right in the face, giving him a black eye and searing his eyebrow off as well. 'So that's what Peters meant,' thought the taiyoukai.

Miroku gingerly felt his face, and when he noticed the absence of the eyebrow he in turn became angry. "Hey! No fair! You'd better be planning on putting that back!"

"You started it!" Kagome shot back. "And I'm not going to put it back, so quit your whining and show me what you've got monk!" They both abandoned their weapons and were running full tilt at each other, intent on finishing this with hand-to-hand combat. It turned out that it wasn't so much hand as it was body-to-body combat. Kagome had tried to dive tackle Miroku and the two were currently wrestling. She had him in a choke hold and he was beginning to turn purple. "Give up?" she teased.

A moment later Miroku had managed to get a good hold on her and threw her small form over his head. She grabbed a hold, talking him with her and the two tumbled over each other for a few moments before they stopped with him on top of her, holding her shoulders to the ground. "Give up?" he asked chuckling. A second later the only thing he could get out was "Oomph!" as he had let her draw her legs up and used both feet in his stomach to propel him off of her.

'She uses that move too much,' Sesshoumaru thought. 'If anyone took the time to study her fighting style they'd be able to see how much she relies on it. No the best strategy, even if she uses it effectively most of the time.'

The two combatants both dove for staffs and faced off again. "Oh Kags, not the staff, it's his best weapon!" Sango sighed. She was right. Miroku handled a staff with more elegance and grace than anyone except Sesshoumaru. In another ten minutes Kagome had several lumps, bruises, and even a few broken fingers and toes while her opponent had yet to even feel the blow of her staff. Relying on her strength to get her out of the situation Kagome dove straight for Miroku holding the staff horizontally in front of her, but Miroku grabbed it in addition to his own, whirled her around and slammed her down hard onto the ground.

"Kagome, you cannot beat me with a staff," he teased, and then to add insult to injury he began tickling her. "Say you give up, Kagome, I want to hear you say it!"

"Never!" the girl choked as she writhed and gasped beneath him. Miroku let go of his staff all together so he could have both hands to continue the humiliating scene of tickling her, but in doing so he made a mistake. Kagome, who now held both staffs in her hands, suddenly surrounded them with a green light and fused them together as one. The scent of something other than the already present mint, trees perhaps, shot through the air as a dumbfounded Miroku was whacked savagely across the head, falling to the side of Kagome unconscious. "I may not be able to beat you with a staff Miroku, but hand me a second one and I'll make you regret it." She walked to the wall where her stars were still imbedded, making sure to step on Miroku on her way.

Once again Sesshoumaru heard Sango's soft commentary. "She doesn't appreciate being tickled either."

"Hando," Sesshoumaru's voice rang out.

"Hai, Taisho-sama?" she asked, immediately taking the stance of one who was addressing a superior. When she looked over to him he saw that her eyes were once again silver in color, though not as light as they had been the first day he saw her.

"Bring me that staff." He wanted to see it, and he wanted to get a closer look at her eyes. She picked the staff back up from where she had placed it and carried it to over to him. Bowing slightly she placed it in his hands. Looking the staff over he noticed that not only had she joined the two, doubling the girth of the weapon, but where the staffs had originally been smooth and polished it now looked rougher, practically like a branch. "How did you accomplish this?" he asked, suddenly sounding angry. "Magic?" He'd never seen Kikyou do this type of thing before, it wasn't a skill typically listed among a miko's natural ability.

Sango looked worried at his anger, but Kagome merely replied in a respectful tone, "I did not use sorcery, Taisho-sama. The staff changed because at the right moment I found a way to make it do what I wanted. I am sorry but I cannot explain it beyond that, nor am I capable of duplicating the action."

"You are avoiding giving me a straight answer, Hando," he accused, even though he could tell from her aura that she was not lying, and her heart rate remained steady as well. She wasn't even agitated. It annoyed him. (Poke poke.)

"Respectfully sir I must beg to differ. I do not know exactly how it happens, and that is the truth." He could see the aggravation in her eyes at being called a liar, but her body remained otherwise unperturbed.

"Ikeda," Sesshoumaru said, not taking his eyes off of the girl in front of him, "Take Watanabe to the infirmary." Sango walked over to Miroku's prone figure and then unceremoniously dragged him out of the room. "Even you must be capable of understanding why I cannot accept such a limited response, Hando," Sesshoumaru began once they were alone. "I must know what powers you possess if you are to remain under my command." He wondered how she would handle the threat of expulsion, but once again it was only in her eyes that he could see a flicker of annoyance. 'Her eyes always give her away.'

"I would explain the process in detail if I could, but I have no knowledge on the subject. I only know that some times when I am in need I am capable of drawing on a power besides my own," she explained. "Well, either that or I feel that my power is able to manipulate this other. Before I have used it when my strength was not enough, or when what I needed was not something among my own limited skill set."

"What is this power you draw on?" he asked, and looking into her eyes he could see that even now they were darkening in color.

"I do not know, Taisho-sama, but I can tell you it is not evil, and it is always present." She was very close to sighing and slumping her shoulders in fatigue but she wouldn't give in to the impulse. "For the most part I am only aware of its presence, but every now and then I can feel how to access it. I know it is strange, but it has saved not only my life but the lives of others as well."

'So she really is unaware of the potential implications of this?' he mused. 'She does not even know who or what she might be?' He did not want to believe it himself, but the possibility of the girl's being more than a powerful miko could not be overlooked. Poke. "Why have your eyes changed color?"

Kagome did not appreciate all these questions, or the abrasive manner in which they had been delivered. Neither did she appreciate how he rarely called her by name. Micah (A/N: Micah is a nickname for Michael Peters) had been a much more personable commander, but at least he'd warned her about Taisho before she left. She knew she'd be coming to a place different from what her natural tastes would have preferred, but Micah had insisted she go, and the topic at hand was one of the main reasons. "Once again I am not wholly sure, but Commander Peters and I believe that when my power level rises, it is visible in my eyes, such as how a demon's eyes bleed red when they are angry or close to transforming. The more power I use, the longer my eyes take to fade back. I did not use much for the staff, so my eyes will most likely return to normal in less than five minutes."

"Peter's knew of this?" Sesshoumaru asked, seething inwardly. Kagome nodded in response. "Why was it not in your dossier?"

"I have no control over what goes into my dossier sir, and I cannot imagine why Commander Peters would leave such a matter out of the report." At this point Kagome's aura did give off the faintest hint of her being slightly untruthful.

Sesshoumaru considered pressing further, but then he thought that it would be better to discuss the matter with Peters. It was true that a person had no control over the contents of their dossier, but he didn't believe that Hando had no idea as to what motivated Peters. "Very well, you are dismissed, but make sure you retrieve those stars from the wall, and also check to make sure that you haven't done any permanent damage to Watanabe before leaving this floor. I would also ask that you refrain from hitting humans in the heads with large heavy objects in the future, your race is too delicate for constant treatment of that kind." He left the dojo but immediately sensed her powers increasing. Curious to know what she was up to he slipped into the observation room, a separate area with two-way mirrors on the northern wall of the dojo where one could watch what was happening inside. Luckily Kagome happened to be facing him, and he looked on in fascination at the intense concentration on her face while wisps of pink light seemed to fly through and around her fingers, healing them with a precision beyond that of a surgeon. When she was finished she took several minutes to test the flexibility and range of motion of each joint from her wrist down. She did not bother to heal anything else, just her hands…(POKE!)

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A/N: For all my humorous, honorable, and most importantly helpful and habitual reviews, I thank you for your time and (not so) humbly submit this latest installment for your consideration.