Disclaimer: No, I'm not Rumiko Takahashi and I do not own the InuYasha series. For if I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

Okay, I have a riddle! Riddles are fun! Yay!

They belong to me
They belong to you
They can make you feel happy
They can make you feel blue
They never ever end until you do

What are these? (Answer at the end of the chapter)

The walk to the village was silent, Kagome wanted to start a conversation, but couldn't think of anything to say. And naturally, Sesshomaru didn't say anything as always. But it didn't matter much, normally Kagome went to the village alone with a bow and arrows. She learned some archery, and practiced when she was bored, but she wasn't a master at it like Kikyo was.

Kagome sighed, kicking a small pebble in her path. Time and time again throughout this whole trip, she wondered why Naraku would ever want to marry her instead of Kikyo. Maybe it was the fact that Kikyo was a boring and kind of cold person? No, that wouldn't make sense since Naraku had never met either of them. Maybe her father told Naraku. But then again, Lord Higurashi wasn't the kind of person to say that Kikyo was boring. Maybe Lord Higurashi had told Naraku of his daughters and Naraku ended up liking Kagome more than Kikyo? That was probably the most believable one.

...And now, Kagome didn't know whether to still feel angry or flattered. So she stuck with both.

Naraku usually attacked at any random time, without even warning with a letter or something. It wasn't right, and they could never request help from their allies. They couldn't just go and attack Naraku either, seeing as his castle was always hidden in who knows where? True, Naraku was the Lord of the Northern Lands, but no one knew where his castle lied. He had a small fortress for meetings which is how Lord Higurashi had been able to meet him in the north, but he was just another mystery.

And again for probably the 100th time today, Kagome found herself letting go of every hope of Naraku being a nice man, considering he was just too strange.

"So..." Kagome began, trying to strike up a one-sided conversation "What do think of Naraku so far, Sesshomaru?" she looked at his face to see his reaction, but his expression was completely emotionless, and he didn't look at her. With a light shrug and a small sigh, Kagome turned her gaze back to the road "No comment, huh?" she sighed again, missing the way his fist suddenly clenched tightly.

There was a silence for a few moments.

"Do you want to play a game?" Kagome suggested. She was just a little bored, even though she never had any company whenever she went to the village alone, she had company now and why would she want to just act like she didn't? Well she wasn't, but she wanted to do something with the company she had for now, mute or not.

"Hmm..." The way it sounded was like 'Sure, why not?' and that was how Kagome took it.

"Okay!" Kagome smiled brightly "Let's play...Onigokko!" it was a kids game, but she always played it with Rin and Souta, and even Kikyo when they were younger. Besides, it was the only game she could think of that didn't need more than two people, and it didn't require anything, save for the people who were playing it.

"Huh?" He looked over at her blankly and blinked a couple times.

"You don't know Onigokko?" She asked in shock, it was such a popular game! Who didn't know Onigokko?

As expected, no reply, but rather a blank face that was silently questioning her.

"Alright then..." Kagome began to explain "Onigokko is a game where...uh, let's just say I have to chase you, if I catch you, you're tagged, then you have to chase me and tag me, and it just goes on and on...So, you get it?"

He nodded his head.

Kagome beamed and then tapped his shoulder "You're it!" she then took off running as fast as she could, laughing all the way. This should get her mind of her troubles for now...It also might get her to the village faster since she was running at top speed.

Finally, running out of breath, she paused to catch her breath, then did a quick look around. She didn't see her companion.

"Hello?" Kagome called "Sesshomaru? Where-" she suddenly felt a hand clamp over her mouth, she almost screamed, thinking that some bandit may have appeared along the road that was empty only moments ago.

Though, when she glanced over her shoulder and looked at the person she was being 'attacked' by, it turned out to only be no other than her companion. He was smirking at her, she glared.

"You don't need to scare me like that" Kagome muttered "So...I guess I'm tagged now..."

She smiled innocently and closed her eyes for a second to take a breath. When they were opened, she widened them as she noticed how far Sesshomaru had run, he was fast! He was like fifty or sixty feet away, though he had stopped running, and seemed to be waiting for her patiently by where the road went into the woods again at a very tall tree.

Kagome ran first, then she got tired, and started walking until she finally caught up with him, she unconsciously ran her hand over the rim of an old well as she passed.

"You're...good...at this..." She complimented weakly, taking deep breaths since she was out of air. The comment was pretty...lame? Stupid? Obvious? Oh well, it didn't matter, she didn't know what else to say anyway.

At last, Kagome finished with her breathing.

"Let's stop now..." She suggested breathlessly.

"Hn" That sounded like an agreement.

Kagome smiled faintly, she hadn't at all been thinking about her marriage arrangement, so this smile was real.

"Well, we're almost there" She cheerfully said, placing her hand on the bark of the tall tree, it was leafless like all the rest of them "This is the Tree of Ages, by the way. It's five hundred years old...This tree usually helps me find my way to the village, come on!" she grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him through the grove of trees.

When they broke through the all the trees, there was a small hill that led down into a rather large village-town.

"Okay, I like this one!"

Kagome handed another kimono to her companion after holding it up in front of him to see if it could fit.

They had already bought...well, a lot, though the one that she just took was all white except a red hexagon pattern that had small sakura blossoms in each hexagon on the the haori sleeve ends and shoulder part, and also the blue and yellow obi. She loved the sakura and hexagon design and immediately picked it out, she thought it would look good on him.

"Do you think this is enough?" Kagome asked softly, glancing back at Sesshomaru who was holding several different kimono's "I guess it's enough for now"

He nodded.

"Kagome-chan!" A voice called suddenly.

Kagome turned around and was suddenly pulled into a strong embrace of her friend, who was wearing her usually pink and green kimono. Sango wasn't nervous anymore about hugging the daughter of the king of the land she was standing on, they met when Kagome was fifteen, Sango was sixteen at the time, and now they were best friends.

"Sango-chan!" Kagome exclaimed, hugging Sango back. Sesshomaru stared curiously, but said nothing like always.

"How are you doing?" Sango asked.

"Great!" She replied quickly, without even thinking of what she just said, as she rethought Sango's question and her answer, her face fell with sadness "Well...no, no not really"

"We can talk about it at home, if you want?" Her friend suggested.

"Maybe..."

"Hey, who's this?" Sango asked, motioning toward Sesshomaru.

"This is Sesshomaru" Kagome replied "Sango, Sesshomaru, Sesshomaru, Sango" she quickly introduced them.

"Uh...nice to meet you?" Sango said, slightly uneasy, the young woman had some bad experiences with demons. She was also practicing the 'art' of demon-slaying, like her father had done even as a blacksmith, so was her little brother.

No reply.

"Nice to meet you?" Sango repeated with a slight frown.

"He doesn't speak" Kagome said.

"Oh...oh, my apologies" She apologized half-heartily and bowed her head.

"So, where's Miroku?" The princess casually asked.

Sango's face darkened "Where do you think...?" she questioned slowly, then started mumbling things under her breath, though Kagome cannot understand most of it, she did hear "...womanizing monk lechers..."

"I see..."

"You see what?" Sango demanded, she seemed slightly angry.

"Oh, nothing!" Was the princess' nervous reply "Nothing at all...Hey, how's Kohaku, Shippo, and Ryo?"

Kohaku was Sango's first brother, he's eleven years old, and as mentioned earlier, he is the brother who is also training to become a demon slayer.

Shippo was an orphaned kitsune, though Sango's mother made the exception to adopt a demon, and he was now Sango's adopted brother.

Ryo was Sango's baby brother. He's only about nine months old, not even a year, but he had recently been having a terrible disease. They were trying to get him better, though, according to the healers, Ryo had a 70% chance of dying, a 30% chance of living.

"Oh, they're ummm...good...Why don't you drop by and check up on them? You know how much Shippo loves you."

"Alright, come on, Sesshomaru"

"How nice of you to drop by, Lady Kagome" Sango's mother, Rika, greeted as they entered, she was sitting down on a wooden rocking chair with a blue bundle in her arms. Ryo, no doubt.

"Thank you" Kagome politely replied.

"Oh..." Rika looked past her and saw Sesshomaru "Who is your friend?"

"Sesshomaru, a demon, I think...But don't worry, I don't believe he'll harm anyone, he doesn't talk apparently" Kagome answered "Sesshomaru, this is Rika, Sango's mother"

"Where is Shippo?" Sango asked "I was sure he would've been jumping over the walls when he saw Kagome again"

"Playing somewhere with Kohaku, they should be back soon" Rika replied.

"I'll wait then" Kagome said "I didn't bring him anything, I suppose I forgot"

"How can you forget Shippo?" Sango asked curiously.

"Well, I have recently been engaged to someone, so a lot has been on my mind" She replied slowly.

"Oh really?" Sango asked, smirking "Who? Koga? Hojo? Or Inuyasha?" it was no big secret for Sango or her mother, they all knew Kagome was in love with Inuyasha and they kept it a personal secret. And Sesshomaru was here, but she knew that he wouldn't go off and blab it to someone, he's apparently mute for goodness sake.

"No" Kagome answered.

"Then who? Not your mute companion, is it?"

"His name is Sesshomaru, not my mute companion" Kagome corrected "And no, he isn't."

"Then who? Lord Naraku?"

"Actually...yes"

Silence for a few seconds.

"B-But I thought the northern lands were enemies with the eastern lands" Sango said.

"Perhaps the marriage is for a truce" Rika stated "Is that correct, Lady Kagome?"

"What? Oh yes, that's correct" Kagome answered "I didn't get a say in the matter, by the way."

"You poor thing...You know what?" Sango begun "You and Inuyasha should just run away together. Oh, I think it would be so romantic!"

'That sounded slightly out of character for Sango' Thought Kagome "And then the northern lands can attack the eastern lands while I selfishly run off the one I love, right?"

Sango sighed "Well now that you put it that way..ugh, I'm just trying to cheer you up"

"You have" Kagome replied, and forced a fake smile "See? I'm happy again"

"That was fake" Sango said with boredom "You've done better before"

"And you usually do better when Miroku is helping you"

The mention of the monk made Sango blush, and her blush made Kagome laugh.

Rika smiled at the two girls.

"We're home!" A high-pitched voice yelled. All heads turned back to see Kohaku and Shippo run into the room.

Shippo froze and stared up at Kagome "...KAGOMEEEEEEE!" he squealed, jumping towards Kagome.

Kagome caught him in her arms and spinned him around.

"Did you bring me anything?" Shippo asked when Kagome finally stopped spinning.

"I'm really sorry, Shippo. Not this time" She apologized.

Shippo looked a little disappointed, but just covered it with a smile "I'm glad you're here. Who's he?" he pointed towards Sesshomaru who was wordlessly watching everything that had happened in the last few minutes.

"That's Sesshomaru." She replied "He doesn't speak, but I came here to buy him some clothing, and come see you, of course" she hugged him to her chest tightly "Oh, I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too, Kagome"

Kohaku smiled a little and ran over to his mother.

"How's Ryo doing?" He asked.

"...Better"

"Are you sure?"

Rika looked up at her oldest son "I am" she mumbled, then looked back down at her youngest son.

"Well, I think we need to get going" Kagome announced "We spent alot of time here. It's already sunset. We'll need to get back home before it's too dark"

"Oh, but why?" Sango asked "Why don't you both spend the night?"

Kagome looked at Rika "Ummm...well...maybe..."

"If you want to, you may, my lady" Rika said.

"Yes!" Shippo exclaimed "Please, Kagome?"

"Well I guess it couldn't hurt"

AND I AM STOPPING THERE! I would have had this done earlier, but I came up with three endings and wrote them all down. They all seemed very stupid, so I re-wrote it until I got this ending. It is now 1:00 A.M.

Onigokko: The Japanese way of saying the the name of the game of Tag.

And the answer to the riddle is "Thoughts"

By the way, before I close this, will someone please answer me the following question? What happens when the 60 day lifespan run of my documents runs out on this site? I'm really really curious about that. Thanks!

-Katherine.

(Also I didn't re-read this chapter, I'm too tired and I want it posted now)