Hi there! I got a few reviews and thank you guys so much! You all are awesome! Here is another chapter because the other one was so short and I kind of felt bad. So enjoy!

Oh and I forgot to add the disclaimer on the last chapter so I will just add it on this one with the one for this chapter? Okay? Cool!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or any of the other characters mentioned! (Times 2)

Chapter 4 Protection

Inuyasha knew the minute that Kagome left that he was dead, almost as dead as Kikyo.

He felt stares, no let me rephrase that, death glares on the back of his head. And then it began…

"You idiot!!! How in the world could you be so mean! She was only doing what you asked her to and then you let her down again and again and again, I can't believe…" Sango continued ranting as Miroku now started, feeling as though he should add a comment as well. This was not something that one could just be quiet over, the hanyou had indeed been quite rude after all.

"I am extremely disappointed in you Inuyasha, you of all people should know that Kagome hasn't been herself these past couple of days and you continued to just yell at her constantly all day, in my honest opinion I find that…" And then Shippo start his little yelling spree as well never being the one to be left out.

"Inuyasha No Baka! Kagome has done nothing but be nice to you and you always make her leave. Just because we like her around and you don't doesn't mean you can…" And then Kirara started growling at him.

This was getting out of control, did they know what kind of stress he has been under for the past couple of days! The whole Kikyo not leaving him alone, Kagome was now acting more like her, not being herself... Did they not know he already despised himself for everything he has done to the poor girl; Why did they have to continually rub it in his face when he already knew it? And for the love of Kami…didn't they know when to be quiet?! His head was hurting, his ears were aching, his poor mind had no idea what to think anymore and they just wouldn't shut up!

"SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!" The whole forest boomed with his outburst, I mean it was so bad that birds flew out of the trees. After the outburst, it had been quiet for a few seconds…on of those awkward silences where no one knows what to say…his voice was still echoing in the distance.

At the hot springs, Kagome saw the water ripple a little bit and then birds start to fly… 'hmmm…that's weird' Her eyes quickly glazed over however, and she was once again lost in thought

Back at camp, Inuyasha was breathing heavily his eyes held flames in them, now was not a good time to mess with him.

"NO!! You listen here buddy and you listen good!" Sango broke that uncomfortable silence. Besides, it had long since been recognized that Sango would always take the lead when Inuyasha needed a good "lecture". She grabbed a piece of his hair tugging him down. "I am not gonna just stand by and watch you chew out Kagome all the time. I'm sick of it and I sure know that she is. You may not think much of her, but we do! I am sick and tired of seeing my friend treated that way. She deserves so much better. She may only be a Shard detector to you but…" Sango was cut of by Inuyasha's very dark growling. His eyes flashed red for a second. If Sango would have blinked then she surely would have missed it 'How dare she…' The demon slayer had no idea what he felt and it was not her place to say. He was the alpha male of this pack and he was not going to let some stupid pack-female talk down to him. His eyes flashed red again at that thought. But Sango didn't notice this, she may have been going a little too far but now that she was started, she was not going to stop.

"Since I was so rudely interrupted I will start again…you may only care about Kikyo but you are not the one who is sitting by Kagome the whole time you are gone fawning over that… that…clay pot! Kagome has been by your side through thick and thin Inuyasha and Kikyo has tried to do nothing but destroy it! Doesn't it even bother you a little that while Kagome suffers, you are with someone who is enjoying making her suffer, not to mention making you suffer as well!" Sango threw her hands up in the air. "I give up! You are just too thick headed to know a good thing when it is right in front of your nose. Have you even realized Inuyasha that Kagome has been acting strange ever since you came back from your last little visit with Kikyo or are you just to dense to realize that?!" Sango stomped away, probably to go throw her boomerang at something. 'Oh the nerve! What an insensitive, conniving, inconsiderate…'

Inuyasha was just standing there trying to calm his raging blood within him. What was with everyone these days? Thinking they could just boss him around! Not to mention two wenches at that! They had the gull to actually tell him, command him to do something! He sighed; this was getting him no where. Anger would not help anything at this point. He remembered Kagome's words when he had "accidentally" thrown Shippo into a stream because he had let loose some of those damn squealing mushrooms. He still thought that it wasn't his fault to this day…

"Inuyasha! Bullying doesn't solve everything you know! If you get angry at a situation and then react on that anger it only makes the circumstances worse! Then you are even angrier than you started out to be. " She sighed and looked at him trying to see if he had actually understood. He was giving her a look that plainly asked if she had lost her mind. She just smiled at him, "You're a lost cause ya know?"

He smiled inwardly remembering that occasion. Sure, anger wasn't the way to solve everything; that he already knew. It was just easier…and more fun. Especially when it had to do with a certain kit that could get on his last nerve. He sat down waiting for the next round to begin…In truth, he had remembered all of that, he wasn't as dense as everyone thought he was. In fact, they were the ones being dense. Hadn't he proven himself numerous times about how he felt about Kagome? Hadn't he shown just how much he cares for her, always saving her, protecting her, keeping her safe, things that the male would always do for their female mate? He knew that he didn't always voice how he felt, but he wasn't good with words; they should all have known that by now! He knew the good thing that was right in front of him, he knew Kagome was like a god-send to him, he just couldn't do anything direct about it yet. They still had things to do; they had to kill Naraku, get the whole Jewel, put certain people to rest, and with that still having to be completed he couldn't be going and making Kagome his mate! That would put her as a target, and he was not willing to risk her life in any circumstances. Things were just too complicated right now, adding another thing to it would surely make him go insane. Now was just not the right time, and he was about to voice his opinion about where they all could shove their own opinions until he heard Kagome scream. Inuyasha didn't even know when he had started running, but he wasn't about to stop. He thought Kirara was with her! What happened? He was becoming more nervous and anxious the closer he got. 'Kagome, please be alright.'

When he finally got to his destination, which seemed to have taken forever in his opinion, she was there on the ground lying soaking wet her in clothes, (which need I remind you she was wearing a white shirt, which was almost see through as of now) looking up at this huge demon. Rage immediately took hold of him, and his protective demon instincts were starting to kick in. 'What is he doing with my mate?' The demon was large, oddly shaped because its body was about 10 times bigger than its head, which was oddly deformed, making it have a very interesting shape to it. It was a sort of tan/brown color, not the prettiest color in the world. Not to mention it had no ears, making Inuyasha wonder if it would hear his cunning taunts…well, at least he thought they were cunning, anyways.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled putting his hand on the hilt of his sword. However, when he noticed the proximity of Kagome to the Demon, he realized that this was a time to use his claws not Tetsusaiga. If he made just one wrong move he could hurt Kagome and that was absolutely not an option.

As for Kagome, she had just finished getting her clothes, thinking and dreading about how badly she did not want to go back to the camp. It was getting harder and harder everyday to not just break down. But no, she would be strong. 'Kikyo is always strong.' Then all of a sudden Kirara had started growling and jumped off in an opposite direction. She had wondered what it was all about because Kirara usually never acted like that unless…then, interrupting her thoughts as well as proving the assumption she was about to have, this huge demon seemingly appeared out of nowhere, it had really startled her, so she did what any normal person would do, she screamed. After doing this she un-gracefully fell back into the hot spring, clothes and all. She was struggling around in the water, basically just flailing because the only thought was 'I'm gonna drown! I'm gonna drown! I'm gonna drown!' and if there was one thing that Kagome Higurashi hated more than being claustrophobic (fear of being in small, confined spaces) it was drowning under water. Not having the ability to breathe or to see very well. Your vision blurry and your eyes aching from having the water rush into them. Only seeing millions upon millions of bubbles and not being able to hear much; your lungs burning from lack of oxygen, not even having time to wonder if this is how you are going to die. Her arms were flailing and her legs were flying, she was splashing around like a fish out of water, except to the fact that she was actually in the water. She finally got to the surface which seemed like a hundred years to her, in reality it was only 2 seconds, and climbed out. Now she was staring strait up at his huge demon waiting for it strike, the only thought that was occurring in her mind at the time was 'I failed him' she was pathetic, not even being able to protect herself. No wonder he could never love her. She was so undeniably weak.

"Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" The demon was startled, but it was very quick to move out of the way, which came as a shock considering its large size, and it got away just in time, instead only getting, a large scrape along it's chest. The demon was indeed lucky since if he would have been even a tiny bit hesitant in his movements, then he surely would have been killed.

"Kagome! Are you okay?!" Worry evident in Inuyasha's voice, his eyes roaming over her to see if she was injured. All that he could see was that she had only suffered being drenched in water. His eye focused yet again on hers, holding guilt and concern. Kagome had to take a second look. 'Is he worried about me…?' She had dared to hope, but then realization came crashing back down on her once again, she had hoped for far too long and look where it got her, 'no, he's only worried about his precious shard detector…' Kagome looked away from him and nodded. This was however, not before Inuyasha had noticed the look she had given him. It kind of befuddled him because he didn't know what the problem was; she should be scared not sad! She was just almost killed by a demon and yet she wasn't screaming or crying like she normally does! What was the matter with her?! Abruptly he was flung away from Kagome, his thoughts wandering too far without consequences. The demon had left a long gash in his back, complete with poison. Inuyasha could already feel it coursing through his veins. Needless to say it hurt like a bitch, but that just got him all the angrier. The poison would not harm him in the way the demon would have liked, but now the wound would heal a lot slower and his back was literally a mess. He looked up to see the demon still glaring down at Kagome…She had stood up by now and was directly in front of Inuyasha blocking him from view and was watching the demon with brave eyes. So different from the eyes she had just held before. These were strong, aged eyes not that of a sad school girl? When had she matured so much?

Inuyasha looked on, a bit proud that she was not showing any fear and wasn't like he had first met her. When even a worm would scare her, 'or centipede' Inuyasha thought. However Inuyasha's feelings right now were a mix of proud and then anger. He was infuriated that she was just standing there letting the demon look at her, stupid girl needs to get out of the way! And then he noticed the way the demon was looking at her, with crazed eyes, thinking that it would be to his amusement to have fun with the little girl who stood up to him. 'How dare he look at my mate! She is mine!' His thoughts slowed to a crawl and his brain froze up. Wait a second, hold up! 'Am I that possessive of her? Do I really want her that badly?' He looked up to see Kagome again, the fierceness in her gaze, that showed that the demon had been very wrong in harming Inuyasha. The way she stood ready to protect Inuyasha with her life and he felt a tug at his heart again. 'Aw…shit' He knew he was toast now, she had completely brought him over to the "dark side". He couldn't be feeling this strongly about her now though! That just put her in even more danger than she had already been in. What if one of his enemies found out? What would he do then? He started to panic, he loved loving her this much, but just not right now! He still had things to do before he even thought about taking her as his mate! Hadn't he already been through this one time today? He quickly snapped out of his reverie however, when the demon launched an attack, he had not been prepared. But Kagome stood out in front of him, going to take the attack her self with her arms held out on each side of her and fierceness in her gaze that would scare anyone. She turned a bright pink; it encircling her and outlining her body's shape. A barrier appeared suddenly around her and Inuyasha. The demon's attack soon bounced off and was flying backwards, totally unprepared for this current change of events. The demon hadn't been expecting this. So he took the attack. In fact, Kagome was not expecting this either. She had no idea where that had come from, it just sort of happened. She had never succeeded in grasping this much of her power before; she still even had a little bit of trouble with her arrows. She had gotten much better since she had first fallen through the well, but this was just crazy, she hadn't gotten that muchbetter. But you know what they say, love makes you do crazy things (a/n: I have waited a long time to put that in there!)

When the smoke had finally cleared and the demon was gone…it was noted that he had been killed by his own attack. It turned out that he had had no shikon shard; Kagome would have sensed it already if he had. And Inuyasha…he just couldn't be described as among the living anymore. His mouth had gone dry, his eyes open wide and no coherent thoughts were running through his head, not that that was unusual however when it concerned Kagome. But instead of just his normal doings, he for once had nothing to say to that, had nothing to yell at her about. What had just happened? He had yelled her name at least 5 different times and she still wouldn't answer him as the attack had grown closer and closer. All he could do was watch and wait as his love was ready to take the attack for him. He had wanted her to get out of the way so she could save herself. He had grown furious with worry and rage at the same time! She was disobeying his commands and it could very well mean her life. But she didn't and, had yet again surprised him, instead forming a barrier around the two and in turn killing the demon. He was shocked beyond words; that is until he finally caught sight of the white, black, and gray heap that was Kagome lying before him not moving.

"Kagome! Kagome! Get up wench! Kagome!" Inuyasha looked over just in time to see Sango and Miroku coming with Kirara. Perfect timing of course… 'Yeah right!' "What took you guys so long!? Kagome's hurt!"

"Oh my goodness!" Sango yelled panting and running over to Kagome, checking her for wounds, worry written all over her features. "We had found Kirara on our way here fighting with another demon, we had to take a stop and kill it, it was a poisonous demon and we didn't want Kirara to have to fight it alone; we knew Kagome was with you so we just suspected that she would be ok with you until we got here! What happened to her? She won't wake up!" Her fear was evident in her voice. She started to panic, Kagome was so still, she wasn't moving, but nothing seemed to be wrong with her except for her wet clothing a few scrapes. Not to mention her previous bruised eye from the other demon. But other than that, no signs as to what had happened.

"And what about you?! Are you okay Inuyasha?" Miroku finally seemed to adjust to the scene he had come upon. Kagome lying unconscious in front of a bloody Inuyasha, this was not the situation one would want to see their friends in. They had left Shippo back at camp because he would have just gotten in the way and they didn't want him getting hurt, it wasn't an easy task though, because he was very scared for Kagome.

Inuyasha finally broke his gaze away from Kagome and remembered Miroku's question about his injury but shrugged it off, it wasn't that bad, it looked worse than it was, the poison would go away in about a day or so and he would start healing properly then. Another side effect of the poison was however, he had only minimal use of all of his appendages, which is the reason he hadn't gotten up in order to protect her, it is kind of hard to do that when you basically can't move. He started crawling to the maiden in question. This was a very hard task, his bones and muscles felt like mush. He hadn't thought that the poison would have affected him this much, but apparently he was wrong. Him being the almighty Inuyasha, it wouldn't hurt him that bad, would it? 'I have got to stop jumping to conclusions'. As he was mentally berating himself, he picked up Kagome. He almost dropped her but caught himself.

"Here take her to Kaede! We need to go there, now!" Everyone could see he was worried about the little miko and they didn't waste anytime. Miroku and Sango would take Shippo and walk there while Kagome and Inuyasha would ride Kirara which would take them to Kaede's. Kagome was placed on Kirara and Inuyasha pitifully took a place behind her, and then they were off.