Disclaimer: I own everything and I'm a fish...But I'm not a fish, so I guess I don't own everything after all *sigh*.

Oh yeah, and I wanted to thank you, BMalone93 for answering all my questions! Thank You! I was going to thank you last chapter but it slipped my mind since I was so exhausted.

Well, I would have had this chapter updated soon, but my entire neighborhood's internet shut down for two days.

So anyway, here's chapter 10 of Junsuina Ai.

"I thank you for the meal" Naraku said, all politely, fooling everybody.

"You are welcome" Lord Higurashi replied "It was a pleasure having you visit us."

"The pleasure was all mine..."

Fake! Fake, fake, fake, FAKE! Sesshomaru rolled his eyes. Why couldn't Lord Higurashi tell that Naraku was totally faking this kindness? It was so obvious! Even Kagome looked like she wasn't buying this.

Kagome could tell that Naraku had something up his sleeve.

'Stop it! Stop being so paranoid, Kagome!' she yelled at herself 'It's probably nothing. No! It has to be SOMETHING! What would Naraku have planned with this? It doesn't make sense to me! He probably has absolutely NOTHING planned, and this feeling is just my dislike for him talking.' Still, she could not shake off the feeling that Naraku DID, indeed, have something planned. Agh. But WHAT? Or maybe she was using this as an excuse to give to her father to not marry Naraku. She didn't know right now...

At the moment, they were by the entrance area. Naraku was about to leave, and Kagome only came along to say a goodbye to Sesshomaru. She still found it hard to believe he was a servant...It sounded odd...But he must have gotten attacked by some monster. But what was he doing way out here when Naraku was up north? Was he running away? Or was he supposed to complete an errand here?

The feeling that Naraku had something up his sleeve again went through Kagome's head, she frowned, but didn't disagree with those particular thoughts. Yes...Naraku had something up. Yep, definitely...But...what could she do? She was a princess, and Naraku was a Lord. She was a girl, he was a man. Sadly, she couldn't do anything about it...

"I shall take my leave now" Naraku announced.

"Oh..." Kagome looked at Sesshomaru "Goodbye Sesshomaru, for now..." the sudden urge to pull him into a bone-crushing hug passed through her, but she held herself back. Besides, there was no need to miss him too much. When she married Naraku, she was going to see him again, wasn't she? There was no need for the sadness she was currently feeling, was there?

Her father and Naraku had suddenly started up a friendly conversation. Friendly, gee...they were huge enemies not long ago. Kagome swallowed and looked over at Sesshomaru again.

The way he was looking at her was like he was trying to give her a message, he kept glancing at her father and looking back at her like he was trying to tell her something, it seemed urgent...But sadly, Kagome did not get it at all, and it made her feel a little frustrated.

But she didn't miss the hostile look of hatred that Sesshomaru directed towards Naraku every now and then. That look did not make her suspicious of Sesshomaru, but rather suspicious of Naraku instead. Why would Sesshomaru be looking at Naraku like that?

After a while of listening to the rather boring conversation that Lord Higurashi and Naraku were having for long enough, Kagome exited the exiting hallway.

Kagome went back to her room with a sigh. Already, she was missing Sesshomaru's presence. Well, at least she had something to look forward to when she married Naraku. At least, right?

She was finally out of all those layers, and now only dressed in a simple white and pale green kimono that was hidden underneath her pastry clothing. Her hair was freed from the buns and chopsticks, and it sure felt SO nice to have it down again.

An odd gut feeling was suddenly screaming at her to go outside. Her eyes darted to her bow and arrows which she always kept by her bed...

She didn't know what exactly, but she knew something was wrong.

And she was going to figure this out...

The long boring conversation about how their lands were doing and blah, blah, blah had finally ended the moment Kagome had disappeared up the stairs, it seemed eerie how it had stopped all of a sudden when Kagome had left.

Though, throughout the conversation, Sesshomaru watched Lord Higurashi. There was something definitely wrong with that man. He seemed almost...lifeless...so Sesshomaru was tuned out of the conversation because of his observations. He really did not trust this Lord who was Kagome's father.

Sesshomaru had tried to turn Kagome's attention to her father by gesturing with his eyes to somehow get her to observe her father closely as a warning of whatever was wrong. She had looked at him curiously, then frowned thoughtfully, then she even looked a bit frustrated, so he had the hint that she wasn't getting this and eventually gave up.

Soon after the conversation had ended, like it was said above, Naraku left through the front doors of the palace. Many of the servants had seemed to retire so there was not a single one in sight currently. Naraku had grabbed Sesshomaru's arm in a tight grip, and strangely, though Lord Higurashi was still there, he wasn't seeing a thing. Or at least, acting like he wasn't, he watched them but acted like this was normal.

They stepped out of the palace doors, and as they were passing the snow-covered gardens that glistened blue in the moonlight, Sesshomaru suddenly yanked himself out of Naraku's grasp and lashed out with his claws. He had been created with some demonic characteristics like the claws, mainly for disguise, which is probably one of the reasons Kagome and her older sister had thought he was a demon. But at the moment, this was not important.

Naraku had apparently seen this coming and had moved out of the way swiftly to the side. Then, as quick as light, Naraku had a grip on Sesshomaru's arm again.

"You fool, don't be so vain" Naraku said, smirking as he looked into the hate-filled gold eyes that were glaring at him "Or have you forgotten so very soon?" the grip on Sesshomaru's arm tightened "Well let me remind you...I have already absorbed most of your powers. But you still have much more...I'll find that useful later. But for now, there's no way you can possibly defeat me, you are too weak at the moment, but I doubt you will ever be able to regain your strength."

With that, Naraku suddenly twisted his arm to the side. A crack was clearly heard.

Sesshomaru shut his eyes and clenched his teeth, forcing himself not to make a single sound. Of course, this hurt like hell, but he wasn't about to let Naraku have the pleasure of knowing just how much. Naturally, thanks to his healing abilities, his arm should heal in like a day, but it was still hurting terribly. And he absolutely hated this feeling of helplessness.

All of a sudden, so suddenly, that it even surprised Naraku; an arrow pierced its way through the air and almost struck Naraku's foot, though it missed.

"Hey! Let him go, you evil monster!" A really recognizable female voice shouted some fifteen feet away.

Sesshomaru's eyes opened to look up. A familiar girl in a white and green kimono was standing with a bow ready and another arrow notched, aimed at Naraku. She looked furious as the wind and snow blew her hair around her.

Though, he should have been relieved to see her, he just couldn't stop his mind from thinking a thought that was similar to: Oh wonderful, another person to witness my moment of weakness...

"I said, let him go!" Kagome shouted again, pulling the bow string back further "I don't give a damn if you are the Lord of the North or not! You're plain evil, you deceiving honorless liar!"

While Naraku was distracted by Kagome's bravery, Sesshomaru again lashed out with his claws and had managed to draw blood across Naraku's face. A battle suddenly formed between them, though it seemed that Sesshomaru was fighting even better than before, and he was not as slow as earlier, though Naraku hadn't seemed to be fighting as well as he could from Kagome's perspective. Maybe he was testing Sesshomaru's strength?

Kagome, meanwhile, tried to focus on where Naraku was so that she wouldn't hit Sesshomaru, but she was never an amazing archer and this was so difficult! She had come to this scene when Naraku had re-gripped Sesshomaru's arm and heard the words Naraku had spoken. They were all she needed to confirm many of her suspicions and they plainly told her that Sesshomaru was, in fact, not a servant. She had started trying to aim as well as she could, and was totally surprised that neither of them and sensed or smelt her nearby, but they must have been too busy to be able to sense her and the snow must've covered her scent, it was frozen water, after all. But when she had first shot the arrow, it almost hit Naraku's foot, though she was disappointed that she had missed. It was an easy shot too, since none of them were moving around, and it was wasted.

Anyway, back to the battle.

Finally, she had gotten a good angle for a shot. She was sure this would hit Naraku's heart maybe, and if it missed, she was sure that it would his Naraku's neck, but if it missed further, would it shoot Sesshomaru? That thought suddenly made herself hesitate, she did not trust herself enough to let go of the arrow, and continued to ponder what would she do? Release the arrow or continue aiming?

Okay, OKAY! She knew what she'd do, she watched the battle for a few more seconds, it was like Naraku kept dodging while Sesshomaru attacked. It reminded her a little of the battle between Sesshomaru and Inuyasha those weeks ago, but Sesshomaru hadn't allowed as many emotions of anger to appear on his face as Inuyasha had. And damn, Sesshomaru would have been doing SO much better if Naraku had not absorbed his powers...Speaking of which, how DID Naraku steal his powers?

But whatever, her attention again focused back on the battle, her heart was beating fast and she could practically hear it. Kagome felt useless at this very moment, but did not know what she should do, she was too scared to use her bow, it was pathetic really. She felt pathetic, and weak...Aggh, thoughts of how Kikyo would do so much better filled her mind, but she pushed them back. Sesshomaru was more important than those thoughts, so she needed to see what she could do to help him...but she came to nothing...

That was until Naraku had decided to go on the offensive a little and punch Sesshomaru across the face, thus knocking the younger man far back, but Sesshomaru just got up again. Kagome was surprised at Naraku's strength, but it only made her more disgusted at the evil man, knowing he stole most of it from Sesshomaru...

Naraku again went on the offensive and slashed his claws out. The first hit, Sesshomaru was able to dodge, but the second slash of claws cut over his chest.

"Sesshomaru!" Kagome gasped, frightened almost to death, throughout this whole battle, she was so scared for his life, she even ignored the ice cold wind and snow, it didn't seem to matter that she was shivering out here, and that she should have dressed warmer.

Sesshomaru, however, ignored the pain and kept fighting, that only scared Kagome more, this was weakening him so much more...but then, what else could he do except fight? If he backed down, he was dead...and so was she...

But she was kinda surprised on how he did not slow down at all, instead his strength seemed to increase a little the more he was hit...

Meanwhile, Sesshomaru would have probably at least been weakened, but he knew that if he would back down, he wouldn't be able to protect Kagome, and he needed to protect her, if he didn't and died or was knocked out, she wouldn't be protect and then would either die herself or fall into Naraku's hands and who knew what would happen to her then? The thought made him furious and caused him to fight with so much more strength. But he knew it still was not enough to defeat Naraku, it would take so much more strength than this...

Kagome lifted her bow again, coming up with another plan. Even if she could not release her arrow, maybe it was possible to distract Naraku again? Though before she could even notch an arrow on the string, she felt someone grab her from behind.

Kagome screamed and was so surprised that she dropped her bow. Her scream caught Sesshomaru attention and made him pause to see what was going on with the princess. Naraku had also stopped fighting, but not from surprise, the spider demon was smirking.

The young princess, slid her fear-filled eyes behind her at the person who had seized her, only to see...her father...

"Father...?" She whispered in fear, sadness, surprise, and disbelief.

She saw the corners of her father's mouth move up in a dark smile. Kagome gasped when she felt the cold metal of a knife's blade against her neck.

"Give yourself up, Sesshomaru" Lord Higurashi spoke "If not, then this girl dies"

'This girl?' Kagome thought in shock. That was not the way her father would refer to her as. Ever.

"Who are you?" She whispered, something dawning in her eyes, her eyes starting to shine with water from the flow of tears that she was holding back "You aren't my father"

'Lord Higurashi' smiled a wicked smile that was something her father wouldn't ever do.

The sound of another pair of footsteps was heard softly.

All eyes slid over to the dark outline of the forest which was so far away. Kagome could see the small form of a woman who was wearing a purple, white, and yellow kimono so far away...

Sesshomaru, however, could see her much clearer. The woman had dark hair tied up in a bun and her scarlet eyes sparkled when the moonlight reflected on them, she had a fan in her hand and was holding it up.

"Kagome, Sesshomaru..." Naraku began "I'd like you to meet one of my incarnations. Kagura, the wind sorceress."

I'm stopping there for now.

School is starting again so my updates may be a little slower on week days than on week ends...

Oh, and Sesshomaru will start talking either next chapter, or the chapter after that.

Well, that's all I can think to say for now. Bye-Bye!

-Peter Pan