Okay peoples. This is what is called chapter Five. And for those of you who can't count that's one more than chapter four and one less than chapter six. Just thought I would make that clear to you people for no reason.

I would like to give a thanks to my beta reader kawaiichibishun and those who were kind enough to review. I would also like to thank those who had enough guts to vote at my polls that are still open. Read bottom to know more.

For those who are to cheap to review I hope that you get over your fear of typing someday. I mean how hard is it to type wither you liked something or not? I'll tell you right now, IT'S NOT THAT HARD. You people stopped reviewing six away from my goal of forty. It's like you're trying to taunt me.

Disclaimer: Do I own Inuyasha or Naruto? The incorrect answer is yes.

Chapter Five: Challenging

Kagome awoke with the sun, feeling worn out. Still half-asleep, she lazily dug through her bag until she pulled out some instant breakfast food that she had packed. Walking over to the river, she filled the bottles with water. Coming back to camp, she prepared breakfast with her eyes half-closed and a dazed look on her face.

Kisame had known the minute she had awoken. He was surprised that she awoke this early without any help. The sun wasn't going to rise for another hour yet. He watched as she went to the river, and came back with the water bottles. She prepared breakfast without any problems, and left the plate on the ground by the fire.

"Here, Inu-(yawn)-yasha. Breakfast. Eat." With that said, she walked back over to her sleeping bag. She hadn't even finished pulling the top of the sleeping bag over herself completely when her hand fell, and she was asleep once more. The steady rhythm of her chest rising and falling was testament to the fact she was out like a light.

Kisame blinked. What the crap was that all about? She made breakfast for a dog demon in her sleep? She must have been sleepwalking, Kisame decided. But who was Inuyasha? Was he a friend of hers? Was it even a he? Question after question kept popping up into his mind about Kagome's strange behavior.

Kisame looked over at Itachi's sleeping form. Itachi was a deep sleeper. Okay, he was a selectively deep sleeper. He could hear an attacker coming a mile away. But waking him up to actually get up, that was impossible. He could sleep through a tornado and not even twitch.

Not wanting the food to go to waste, Kisame picked it up and ate it. After a couple of hours, Itachi woke up. His eyes were beady, and his hair was a mess, sticking out in all directions. Still half-asleep, he walked/wobbled over to the nearby river to wash his face and wake up fully.

Itachi came back wide awake, and his hair was in his smooth pony tail. He walked over to the fire and stopped. Something was different. Looking around camp, he tried to see what was wrong. Kisame, fire, dirt, girl, trees, more dirt, a rock…

Why was there a girl in their camp? Itachi thought it over. Suddenly, everything came back to him from the night before. Kagome. The girl was Kagome. And Kagome was still asleep. Looking at the sun, Itachi saw that it was about a half-hour until they needed to get back to the road.

Walking over to the sleeping girl, he thought over what would be the best way to wake her. He decided to first try and wake her up by calling her name.

"Kagome," he said, not loudly but firmly.

"I already made you breakfast, Inuyasha. Now let me sleep," Kagome mumbled.

Who was this 'dog demon'? One of the friends she was talking about while they traveled yesterday? Trying again, he said her name more loudly. "Kagome."

"Shut up, Inuyasha! I'm trying to sleep!" she said, raising her head before letting it plop back down, and going back to sleep.

Itachi paused. Well, nobody could say he hadn't tried to do it the polite way first. Walking over to the water bottles, he grabbed one. Coming back to Kagome, he opened it, and poured a small amount into her ear.

The result was immediately noticed. Kagome shot out of her sleeping bag like it was on fire. "Sit, Boy!" Kagome yelled at the top of her lungs while pointing at the ground.

Itachi and Kisame blinked. 'Sit, Boy'? Was Inuyasha really a dog?

Kagome looked at Itachi and Kisame. "You're not Inuyasha," Kagome said, sounding confused and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "I must be kidnapped again. Give me a minute; it'll come back to me." As Kagome said this, she waved for Itachi to go sit down. Sitting down herself, she grabbed the same bottle that Itachi used to wake her with, and poured some into her hands. Rubbing the water into her face and a little bit more into her eyes, she looked up at them.

Everything from last night came back to her, and she fell to her butt, realizing that the Jewel really wouldn't let her go back home. Home…they wouldn't even notice she was gone. She had told her mother that she was going to the feudal era for the summer, and would be coming back to visit every other month. Wanting to surprise her friends, she had told them the opposite. No one would even think anything was wrong until two months time. By then, if the well did let Inuyasha through to check on her, it might just take him to her time. No one was going to be coming for her this time. Even the Jewel, which she had given so much for, was against her. She was stuck in a world not even her own this time, and the people she was with were going to kill her if she wasn't useful. She was going to die alone, and none of her loved ones would even know.

Pulling her knees to her chest for comfort, she let silent tears run down her cheeks without making a sound. The sudden realization had completely hit home. She had realized it last night, but she had gone to bed hoping and praying it was a bad dream she would wake up from to find Inuyasha demanding his breakfast.

Kisame and Itachi became uncomfortable when she started to cry. Nether of them had any real experience with comforting someone. Kisame had never lost anyone, because he was always an orphan, and no one ever got close to him because how he looked. Itachi, well Itachi was the one who murdered his family, tortured his little brother, and then left with a few choice words. Some of it was even with a smirk.

Kisame awkwardly placed an arm around Kagome's shoulders. She tightly clung to him, and cried harder. "Hey, come on now, don't cry," he begged. "You can come and live with me and Itachi back at base." Kisame tried to make her feel better. Remembering that he told her that they would kill her if she wasn't of any use, he decided it might be a good time to take that back. "And if anyone gives you any problems, I'll kill them for you. And if one of them even looks at you the wrong way, I'll gouge his eyes out for ya. How about that?" Kisame said it a light tone to cheer her up.

Kagome sniffed a little, and nodded. The Jewel said that it wouldn't remove the barrier, so she was stuck here. At least now she had someplace to stay. And Kisame wasn't that bad of a person, from what she's seen so far, that is.

"Stop crying," a slightly cold voice ordered. "Your family and friends wouldn't have wanted it. And if you're crying because you're scared being here…. don't be. I won't let any harm come to you," Itachi said in a firm voice that left no room for argument. He didn't know what to do to make her stop crying, so he did the only thing that he knew might give her some sense of comfort: he told her his silent declaration.

Out of the corner of his eye, Itachi could see Kisame look slightly shocked about this, before he simply accepted it, and smirked at Itachi while pulling Kagome closer to him.

Kagome looked up, shocked. 'Did he just say that he wouldn't let any harm come to me?' Kagome looked down, blushed, and nodded. He was right about her family and friends. They would smack her upside the head for crying like this. They would tell her to try and make the best of it, since she is stuck here. But she would miss them. Perhaps she could manage to convince the Jewel to let her go back home when she was done with what she needed to do here.

Kagome smiled slightly at them both. She wiped her tears away, and nodded. "Thanks. I'm sorry I'm such a mess," she apologized.

Kisame gave her a cocky smirk. "You better be. I don't give comfort out too much, and you just took up a year's supply. So don't be expecting this too often," Kisame joked with her. Kagome gave out a short laugh, and Kisame helped her to her feet.

"Get ready. We're leaving soon," Itachi told her in an indifferent voice as he put out the fire.

Kagome nodded, took out a change of clothes, and went to change behind the trees. Coming back, she was wearing tan cargo pants and a black shirt that said 'Death is Life's Way of Saying You've Been Fired' in red lettering.

Rolling up her sleeping bag and gathering her things together, she turned to them. "We can eat while we're walking." Itachi nodded, and started walking.

-

At Orochimaru's base

Orochimaru was talking with Sasuke in the throne room when one of his captains barged in. Orochimaru looked at the man in distaste.

"Orochimaru-sama, I have important information on Itachi Uchiha!" the man said as he bowed at the waist.

This caught both Orochimaru and Sasuke's attention. Sasuke glared at the man.

"Go on," Orochimaru commanded.

The man nodded. "My team and I were…" The man hesitated. "…collecting some money that some people owed us," he continued.

"You mean you were robbing travelers," Orochimaru said. Orochimaru truly didn't care if his underlings robbed people, as long as it was on back-roads and they got rid of the bodies when they were done. He couldn't have spies from different villages following his men back to one of his bases, after all.

The man nodded, unsure if he would be punished. Seeing no punishment forthcoming, he continued. "Yes, we ambushed a young woman who claimed that she was insane. When we attacked her, she was able to form a barrier. But the barrier was made of a pink power that I have never seen before. It certainly wasn't chakra. The best way to describe it would to be to say it was…" The man seemed to be searching for the right word. "…pure. But the second time we attacked her, the barrier fell. The moment it fell, she re-formed the strange power and shot it at half of us. The second that her power touched the clones, the jutsu was dispelled. She killed two of my team members before the others were able to shoot a fire jutsu at her. She jumped out of the way without jutsu, and looked shocked. The edge of her skirt caught on fire, and she dropped the fight to put it out. Taking advantage of the distraction, the two were going in for the kill when two kunai lodged into their throats. I looked to where the kunai had come from… and it was Itachi Uchiha who had protected the girl." At this point the man shivered a little. "And he looked extremely mad that we had attacked her. She greeted him in a friendly manner, and I took the opportunity to run back and tell you the news." The man finished the report looking extremely pleased with himself.

"Are you sure that it was Itachi Uchiha that you saw?" Orochimaru demanded.

"Yes, there is no doubt. He wearing an Akatsuki cloak, and he had the Sharingan activated at the moment. Not only that, but his partner Kisame Hoshigaki was with him. Kisame also seemed to be very upset that we were attacking the girl," the captain told them.

"You have done well to bring this information to me, but I can't have this getting out. If Itachi knew we know about the girl, it would eliminate the element of surprise. And you seem the type to have a loose, bragging tongue at the bar." Orochimaru smirked as one of his snakes came up behind the captain and slithered up the man's leg.

"No sir! I won't let a word out! I don't even like going to the bar!" the man lied through his teeth with a pleading tone. When he saw there was no point in pleading with Orochimaru, he tried in vain to get the thing off. The snake continued up the man, and coming to his neck. The man started screaming when the snake began hissing in his face, then launched itself into his throat. The man fell over, dead, almost immediately, and the snake slithered up to Orochimaru. He started to pet the snake fondly.

Orochimaru smirked. So Itachi wasn't gay after all. Who would have thought? "It seems that your brother has taken an interest in a young woman. What are you going to do about it, Sasuke?"

Sasuke thought it over. There were two things he could do. One: he could kill the girl or use her to get to Itachi. Two: he could take the girl from his brother, and have her stand by his side when he killed him. That would probable hurt Itachi the most. First, he would have to see the girl before he chose. He couldn't picture a weak girl traveling with his brother, so there was the possibility that she would be worth looking into.

"I need to look into this girl some more before I can do anything," Sasuke said.

"Would you like for me to send spies to follow her?" Orochimaru asked.

"No, if she's traveling with Itachi, he would notice and kill them before they could bring back whatever information they learned. We will probably need to go ourselves," Sasuke said.

Orochimaru's smirk deepened. "Perhaps it would be a good idea to see this girl that has this purepower personally," Orochimaru said. He wanted to see this power for himself. The man had been so sure that her power wasn't chakra, so that all but eliminated the chance of it being a kekkai genkai. No, what she had was surely something new, and he wanted to see it with his own eyes.

Sasuke nodded. Yes, he would see this girl personally. He had been under Orochimaru's training for a little over a year and a half now, and this was the first major news of Itachi they had heard.

With Itachi, Kagome, and Kisame

It was noon, and they hadn't stopped all day. Kagome had left them both in wonder as to why she wasn't tired with how heavy her bag was. She didn't show the slightest weakness or slowing down.

As they traveled, Kagome had been explaining about her world to them, to fill the silence. While Kisame openly showed interest, Itachi looked right on ahead and kept walking. But you could tell he was listening intently to what she was saying, because he would ask her questions about her world from time to time.

After a while, Kagome started asking questions about their world and how jutsus worked. Kisame or Itachi would explain, and started to tell her about the world she was now in. Kisame was surprisingly very intelligent when it came to how chakra works and different things that most ninjas know.

"It sounds like this place has the best of both of my times. Technology to help get by day-to-day, and more forests and cleaner air and water," Kagome told them after a while of them explaining to her about their world. "But it seems that, even here, they still have a lot of bloodshed," she said, somewhat depressed.

"Hn. Bloodshed will exist wherever you go. Too many people have different ideas for there not to be war," Itachi commented.

Kagome sighed, and nodded. "True."

After a while of silence, Kagome pulled out her I-pod. Sticking the earphones in her ears, she turned it on. Kagome started to bob to the music as she walked.

Itachi and Kisame watched in interest as she started to mouth the words while bobbing her head, hair flying in all directions. What was she doing? And what was that little box with the earphones?

Kisame, curious by nature walked up to Kagome, and grabbed the small box from her hand while she had her eyes closed. Looking it over, he saw the screen was on. There was a line that was slowly growing and some different names.

"Hey! Give that back!" Kagome made a grab for it, but Kisame just lifted it out of her reach, pulling the earphones out of her ears with it. Hearing a different type of music come from it, he pulled the earphones up and placed them in his own ears.

Kisame's ears were flooded with Linkin Park. "What is this?" Kisame peered at it.

"It's a I-pod. My mother gave it to me for Christmas."

"What is an I-pod, and what is Christmas?" Itachi tried to keep his curiosity out of his voice.

"An I-pod stores hundreds of songs on it so you can listen to them whenever you want. You have to charge them when they run out of power with an attachment to a computer, but I found a way to use my miko power to charge it. It lasts longer, and I only have to use a drop of my power for it. As for Christmas, it's a holiday back in my world that brings friends and family closer together. You also exchange gifts," Kagome explained to Itachi. "Now give me back my I-pod, Kisame!" she demanded, and tried to grab it again.

Kisame effortlessly lifted the I-pod a little higher when she jumped, and continued to listen to the music. It was different than he was used to, but good. He liked it.

Getting mad, Kagome charged her finger with a small amount of miko energy. She poked Kisame in the side, he yelped, and the I-pod went flying from his grip. Kagome's eyes widened as the I-pod headed straight for the back of Itachi's head.

Without even looking back, Itachi caught the I-pod with amazing speed and brought it in front of him. Eyeing the small box, Itachi put the earphones in while Kisame was sulking and examining the small burn that Kagome had given him. Every time he poked it, he would hiss with pain, until Kagome quickly healed it.

For a second nothing happened, and Itachi began wondering what was wrong with it. After another moment, a new song came on. The title on the screen read Paralyzer, by Finger Eleven. Accepting the music, Itachi placed the I-pod into one of the inside pockets of his cloak, and continued to listen. Kisame could warn them if there was anyone following them.

Kagome ran up in front of him, and stopped. Putting her hand out in demand of her music player, she did her best to intimidate him into handing it over. She didn't look that terribly intimidating, more like a mother demanding for her child to give her something they weren't supposed to have.

Ignoring Kagome, he walked around her. Feeling her temper rising, he almost smiled. He enjoyed getting a rise out of her. It was easy, and amusing to see her reactions.

Kagome rubbed her hands together, and placing a little miko energy into them, she walked up behind Itachi. Looking behind her to see Kisame waving 'no' to her wildly, she smiled a wicked smile that you wouldn't have thought someone with such pure energy could muster. Still looking at Kisame with a smile, she reached out to touch Itachi on the back.

Kagome was completely taken off guard when her hands were snatched and held together by a vise-like grip. Looking up, she saw Itachi glaring at, her his eyes doing that weird spinning red pin-wheel thing that had prompted the nickname she'd given him. Gulping, she smiled sheepishly at him.

"Um, you had a bug on your back?" she tried.

Itachi narrowed his eyes. He had felt the moment that she had raised her power. Knowing what she was going to do, he had caught her off guard.

"You will not try that again," Itachi said coldly.

Kagome glared at him. "Give me my I-pod," she demanded.

"No. I will hang on to it for you. It could prove to be a dangerous weapon that you are planning to use against us, and it could prove useful for gaining information of what abilities you may posses." Itachi said, like it was the end of discussion. He walked around her before he was even finished with what he was saying.

"You just want to listen to my music!!" Kagome yelled at him in rage while stomping her foot.

Itachi wasn't going to deny it, so he just ignored her, and walked on like she didn't matter, or perhaps like he couldn't hear her at all. The music was quite loud.

You could almost see the steam rise from Kagome. What was with this guy? He acted like he was King of the Freakin' World! Though she didn't know much about thisworld, she did know that he wasn't its king. (She had made sure to ask Kisame.)

Kagome ran up in front of Itachi again, and started to walk ahead of him. If she knew anything about guys like him, it was that they have to be the one in charge. And that includes leading the group.

Itachi saw her start walking ahead of him by at least ten feet. He narrowed his eyes slightly. Was this girl challenging him? It seemed like anything he told her to do, she would try to do her best to avoid. Walking faster, he caught up to and passed her. When he was three feet in front of her, he started to slow down to the normal pace. He felt back in control for a moment, before she walked past him again, slowing down five feet in front of him.

That simply wouldn't do.

He knew that she was challenging his authority over her. He needed some way to show her that she was under him, and he wouldn't tolerate her challenging him every second. But he also didn't want to hurt her. It was a lot easier to bring her back to base without having to carry her, or be on guard of her running away. She had already proven that she could easily get away when the opportunity presented itself. And he didn't know what else she could do with her miko power. If he hurt her, then she was sure to try to escape. Right now, there was a thin line of trust between them that could easily be snapped.

"Sounds like you need some help," Bob said, laughing in his head.

'Hn, why would you be willing to help me? Is she not your guardian?' Itachi questioned the Jewel.

"She is," Bob confirmed.

'Then why have you sent her away from her world? Was she not safer there?' Itachi question without sounding interested. It was a skill that almost every Uchiha was born with, the ability to always sound like you couldn't care less.

"Kagome needed to get away from our world. While she was safe and protected, she was getting into a depression. She could no longer have a life in her time, because she let go of all ties except for school and her family there. If she tried to make a life there, then she would be too bored with everything, because she was used to action and the adrenaline rush, and no one would understand her powers. But she also couldn't make a life in the feudal era, because she was so used to women having rights and being on a more-or-less equal level to men. She could never live somewhere women were looked down upon. So I took her here. Women aren't looked down on, people can just write her strange power off as a Bloodline. She gets the best of the two worlds put together. And after she gets used to this world, she won't be depressed any longer, and will no longer be a threat to herself," the Jewel said seriously.

'I see. But wouldn't sending her to a different world without her family and friends make her more depressed?'

"Yes, but once she has something that will make her continue to come here, I'll let the well open again, so she can visit her friends and family. But first she needs something to tie her to this world," Bob explained.

'Hn. What does this have to do with you helping me?' Itachi asked sternly.

"It has everything to do with you. You want her to work for your organization thing. If I give you a way for her to have no choice but submit to your demands on this, then she would have to come back to you when her visit with her family and friends was over. I get what I need. And she wouldn't be able to challenge your authority, so you would get what you want. You merely have to escort her to the well every so often. I can even open the well for you to be able to use it when you want to, too," the Jewel said with a sly voice."Besides, I like it here. No demons around every turn trying to devour me for my power, Kagome seems happier then she has in two months with no pregnant women in sight, and she isn't in any danger with you around protecting her now. This place is great for me," Bob said in a happy lazy voice.

Itachi thought it over. 'What do you propose?' Itachi could almost feel the Jewel give off an evil smile.

While Itachi and the Jewel were apparently plotting her demise, Kagome was growing more than a little nervous that Itachi hadn't passed her up yet in leading. Something bad was going to happen to her, she just knew it. There was no way that a man as proud and arrogant as Itachi would let a girl lead like this, without at least a fight of some sort.

Kisame grew worried when he suddenly saw Itachi break into the most evil smile he had ever seen. The only smile he had ever seen Itachi have was when he was plotting something against someone, or torturing a certain handful of people. Himself included. He just knew that, somewhere, at least two bunnies just died. He only hoped that Itachi wasn't smiling like that because of something he was going to do to him. Kisame got the feeling that it was for Kagome, though. Itachi looked at her back every five minutes or so, and Kisame could just feel the ill intent in the air grow.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet for the most part, the group passing a couple of travelers every once in a while until they set up camp. Itachi still had a ghost of a smirk almost the whole time, though. Even though the smirk was no longer in plain sight, you could tell it was still there. It was really starting to creep out Kagome and Kisame. Kagome especially, because he would look at her every once in a while with a glint in his eye, and she knew that it couldn't be good for her heath that he was doing that.

Kisame gathered firewood, Itachi made the fire, and Kagome cooked dinner and gathered the water. After dinner, everyone just did their part and went to bed, Kagome and Kisame still uneasy as Itachi said he would take first watch.

Kisame and Kagome kept glancing at Itachi every couple of minutes and shivering. He was still ghost smirking in a way that would have sent the devil behind his mother's skirt crying. It wasn't the easiest to get to sleep knowing that a killer is smiling less than ten feet away.

Kagome couldn't help but compare Itachi and Sesshomaru, as she helped get camp ready and prepared for bed.

They both had the same demeanor and facial expressions.

They both had little brothers, and something in the way Itachi said he had a little brother made her believe that the two weren't on good terms.

They both were deadly.

And, most importantly, they both would make HOTT-looking women. The type that made you jealous that they could look that good without even trying. But somehow, they still both looked male. If it weren't for Sesshomaru already seeing someone and looking at her as a little sister, she might have tried a relationship with him.

Besides, Sesshomaru wouldn't ever consider starting a relationship with a human. Even if he had wanted to, he had to keep the House of the Moon's bloodline pure. If there wasn't a pure heir to the throne, then his cousin would take over. That would not be good. She had briefly met the man, and didn't have any respect for the demon. The guy was a freakin' MORON! He looked weaker than a twig, and was so dumb that he didn't even get rocks in his box. Within the first week with him in charge, the Western Lands would fall. No, she and Sesshomaru could never be more than friends. At first, they felt something for each other, but they'd forced the feeling to a sibling bond. Like she had had to do for her and Inuyasha.

Kagome let out a heavy sigh. She would never get a guy she liked, it seemed. The guys that did like her tended to be morons, and the ones who weren't morons and looked really hot, she could never have a relationship with. Even on the rare occasion that the said hot-and-sometimes-smart male liked her back, there were always problems. Why did her love-life have to suck so badly?

Shrugging off her thoughts, Kagome said goodnight to her companions… to which she received in reply only a grunt and a deeper smirk that kind of creeped her out. She pushed the uneasy feeling to the side of her mind, and went to sleep.

Itachi's smirk showed as she said "Good night." Tomorrow, tomorrow he would make her know her place. Looking over at Kisame, he saw his partner staring at him. Losing the smirk, he glared at Kisame.

"Is there a problem, Kisame?"

Kisame quickly shook his head 'no'. Wrapping the blanket Kagome had given him to use around himself, he turned the other way, and went to sleep up against a tree.

End Chapter.

Okay, there is another chappie. And It seems that Bob is quite the Fav so far. :) I'm glad you all love him so much. Personally he my Fav in this story. But becareful. He has a mean streak in him too. B)

Please be kind enough to leave a review. Even if it's just to say that you like it or think it's funny, it is still wecomed. You can even leave a review saying you hate my guts. I don't really care. You might -coughWillcough- get a mean reply but hey, at least I replied. B)

And my polls are on if I should start another story or not. And if so which one. I will still update this one ever week so you don't need to worry about that.

-Probs