InuyashaForever1989: Hey, I'm back with an all new chapter. Read and enjoy Oh and a big thanks to all my reviewers!

"Speech" 'thought' flashback/dream 'other thought'

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Chapter 7: The gang together again

"Where do you think you're going?" asked a cold, emotionless voice. Kagome turned around and found Sesshomaru standing right behind her. "Rin I'm very disappointed in you," he said looking pointedly at the child.

"You can't talk to her like that!" Kagome told Sesshomaru off. "I'm leaving and Rin is coming with me and I won't let you stop us!"

"We'll see about that." With lightning speed Sesshomaru seemed to disappear and then reappear behind Kagome and locked his arm around her. "You won't be going anywhere. I didn't go though all the trouble of tricking my half-wit brother and tracking you down this past year just to have you get away."

"What?" Kagome asked confused, but she didn't have time to think about when she saw Rin run towards her out of the corner of her eye. "Rin stay back!" Rin stopped but she looked panicked.

"Mommy!" Rin cried out as her eyes started to water.

"Silence, Rin," Sesshomaru told the young girl.

"I said -- don't talk -- to her -- like THAT!" Kagome broke Sesshomaru's grip and turned on him, swiping at him with her extended claws. Four thin lines appeared across Sesshomaru's face and he was not happy about it. "Leave us alone, you bastard!"

The next thing Kagome knew she was on the ground and she couldn't breathe. Sesshomaru had pinned her to the ground by her neck. "No one talks to me like that," Sesshomaru hissed, "But don't worry you're not going to die, I'll just have to punish you." He lifted her off the ground with the same hold and Kagome was clawing at his hand and gasped for air, but none of it seemed to make a difference to him.

"Stop it, stop hurting my mommy!" Rin yelled and started hitting his leg with her tiny fists.

"No Rin, don't," Kagome choked out but it was too late. Sesshomaru, with out a second thought, kicked the little girl and she flew a few feet away and landed in an awkward position, like a few things had been broken. That's when Kagome snapped.

A pulse of holy power knocked Sesshomaru back and Kagome stayed where she was hovering a couple feet off the ground. Instead of red eyes her eyes shined purple and she had no fangs or claws. "Sesshomaru," her voice echoed through the area, "You'll pay for that."

Purple light flowed from Kagome's hands to form the shape of a bow and an arrow and she aimed it at Sesshomaru. "Good bye." With that she released the arrow and it caused a loud thud as it hit Sesshomaru in the chest.

Sesshomaru stared wide-eyed at Kagome as the arrow slowly disintegrated into his chest and then he fell to the ground, life-less. Kagome then floated over to Rin and her feet touched to ground. She bent over the young girl and let her power flow though her.

"It'll be ok, honey," Kagome said softly as she stroked the girl's hair.

Rin slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She saw Sesshomaru lying on the grass and asked, "What happened to Lord Sesshomaru?"

"Don't worry about him, he won't bother us any more," Kagome said as her eyes faded back to normal and she regained her fangs and claws. "Come now, we have to get going. I need to visit my friends." Kagome stood up and took the girl's hand.

"And then we have to go to my new Daddy, right?" Rin asked and Kagome smiled and nodded. She just hoped that Kouga wouldn't worry too much after he found that Sesshomaru had been taken care of and that he trusted her to come back to him.

Kagome scooped up Rin in her arms and began to run off into the direction of the village she was looking for.

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A few hours later Kouga showed up and found nothing but Sesshomaru lying on the ground motionless. He walked over to him and found him dead. "You must have really pissed her off, inu-boy."

'Now which way was that village?' Kouga thought to himself as he tried to pick up Kagome's scent. He not only found Kagome's scent but someone else's as well. She was traveling with someone, but whom? He sped off after her, 'I guess I'll just have to find out.'

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It didn't take to long for Kagome to find the village, but by the time she did it was very late and Rin was very tired. As she approached the gates the guards started screaming youkai and the people inside started to scramble. Lucky for Kagome the first one out was Sango.

"Sango," Kagome said and gave her old friend a smile.

Sango gave her a funny look and asked, "Who are you? And how do you know my name?"

Kagome sighed. "I know I look different, I suppose I shouldn't have expected you to recognize me. I'm Kagome, remember?"

Sango took a long hard look at the youkai before her and indeed she did resemble Kagome. "If you don't mind, prove it."

"Sango--" Kagome started but was cut off by a vaguely familiar, but slightly larger, ball of fur.

"Kagome!" Shippo yelled as he jumped into her arms right next to Rin. "Kagome you look so different," he pointed out.

Suddenly Kagome felt arms circle her. "Kagome, it's really you, I can't believe it," Sango almost cried. She quickly turned around and gave a signal to the village that everything was all right and led Kagome inside. She brought Kagome to a rather large building and they went inside.

"Sango, what happened there was quite a bit of commotion just now?" Miroku asked and turned around. When he spotted Kagome he reached for his staff.

"Miroku, it's ok, it's Kagome," Sango stopped him.

Miroku took a second look. "Kagome, what happened?"

"I'm not really sure myself," she told them as she placed to two children down.

"The last we heard you were, well, dead," Sango told her.

"No thanks to Inuyasha," Kagome said and she had to suppress her anger.

"Kagome," Miroku started, "You haven't heard the whole story have you?"

"What whole story?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Well, you see, after he wished Kikyo back to life, Inuyasha came to us devastated and for some reason all beaten up." Sango began the explanation.

"He said that Sesshomaru had assured him that nothing would happen to you if he were to wish Kikyo back," Miroku finished.

"Yeah, he was really upset and we haven't seen him since," Shippo added.

"Why would Lord Sesshomaru do something like that?" Rin asked and everyone noticed her for the first time.

"Kagome, what is Rin doing here?" Sango asked and the others all waited quietly for the answer.

"Well, you see, - (Cut the explanation, you all know how it goes) - and that's what happened," Kagome finished.

"Sounds like Sesshomaru went nuts, to me," Shippo spoke up.

Kagome looked over at Shippo and smiled. "Yeah, I guess he did. Shippo come here," she told the young kitsune and indeed Shippo ran over to her. "You've gotten so big in the last year; you're almost as tall as Rin now."

"Yeah, I know, and I've learned some new tricks and gotten a lot stronger too," Shippo smiled up at her and started to laugh.

Kagome smiled again. "You'll have to show me sometime."

For the next few hours everyone just talked and got all caught up. Kagome found out that Sango and Miroku were expecting. She was only about a month or so in which was why she wasn't showing yet. "I'm so happy for you two!" Kagome exclaimed, wrapping her arms around Sango. Both girls laughed happily.

"So Kagome, is there anyone special in your life?" Miroku asked her. Kagome went quiet for a minute.

"Well, I guess you could say that," she said with a blush.

"Oh my Kami, who is he, is it someone we know?" Sango fired off the questions, eager to know who was in her best friend's life.

"You do know him," Kagome said blushing even more. Sango gave Kagome a face that said she was not satisfied with that answer. "Well, it's, well, Kouga," she finally got it out.

"Ahhhh!" Sango screamed at the top of her lungs and Kagome had to cover her ears. "I can't believe it, are you serious? I'm so happy for you! I always knew you deserved better than Inuyasha! Kouga is perfect for you," Sango just went on and on about how great it was.

"It's nice to know you approve," a deep voice said from the doorway. Everyone turned there heads to see Kouga leaning against the door frame. Sango blushed a little seeing as she had just been caught talking about him.

"Kouga, how did you find this place?" Kagome asked in shock.

Kouga gave one of his famous smirks. "I was only a few hours behind you, your scent was easy to track," Kouga said on the edge of bragging. "Although, there was another sent I didn't recognize. Who were you traveling with?" he asked the question that had been bothering him the whole trip.

Kagome motioned for Rin to come over to her. "Kouga, this is Rin, she's my . . . daughter," she explained.

Kouga looked at Kagome like she had just grown a second head. "I lose you for a couple days and you get a daughter?" he asked skeptically. Kagome nodded her head and placed her arms around Rin. Kouga sighed and shook his head. Suddenly he kneeled down and opened his arms. "Come here," he said to the young girl.

Rin looked up at Kagome and she smiled back down at the girl. "Go on," she urged the girl and Rin ran over to Kouga and he gave her a big hug.

"So are you my new Daddy?" Rin asked shyly.

Kouga looked passed the girl and at Kagome who blushed a looked away. "I'm working on it," he said and put her down and patted her on the head. "So," he looked around at the others, "Where to next?"

"I'm going to see Keade," Kagome stated. "Perhaps she can shed some light on what's happened to me, why I've become a youkai." Kouga nodded his head. "And also . . . ." Kagome paused; she didn't quite know how to break it to him. "Inuyasha should be there and I need to talk to him."

"WHAT?!" Kouga yelled; she had seen this coming. "What would you wanna go see mutt-face for?" he asked still quite upset.

"Like I said I need to talk to him. It would seem there was a misunderstanding, it's not really Inuyasha's fault--" Kagome tried to explain.

"What do you mean it's not his fault?! He made the wish! He tossed you aside!" Kouga said, raising his voice again.

"Look this is all Sesshomaru's fault. Although it was pretty stupid of Inuyasha to believe him, he was the one to tell Inuyasha that nothing would happen to me if he made that wish. It was all Sesshomaru, you see," Kagome tried to get through to Kouga and it looked like some of it was starting to sink in.

"I still don't like it," he grumbled but didn't say anything further on the matter.

"Well, now," Kagome started, looking over at the two children, "I think it's time a couple certain someone's went to bed."

"Awww, Kagome," Shippo pleaded also looking around for help from someone else but not really getting anywhere. Kouga looked like he might have said something for him that is if it hadn't been Kagome that had said so. Shippo gave a sigh and took Rin by the hand. "Come on, I'll show you where you can sleep." Rin nodded her head and the two ran off to the rooms.

The other four talked more into the night before heading off to bed themselves. Kouga insisted on sharing a room with Kagome so he could watch over her. Miroku tried to make a lewd comment about it, but Sango put a stop to that quick. Sango showed them to a room that thankfully had two beds and Kagome said her goodnights.

Kagome changed into some clothes Sango had given her. They fit pretty well, except that Sango was taller than Kagome so the sleeping kimono was a bit long. To long apparently, seeing as when she took a step she stepped on the edge and tripped. She prepared for impacted but instead of the ground she met with a pair of arms. She looked up into a pair of bright blue eyes and blushed.

"Thank you, K-Kouga," Kagome mumbled and she straitened herself but Kouga didn't let go. He looked into her eyes for a minute then gave her a quick peck on the cheek and let her go, secretly smirking to himself.

"Good night, Kagome," he said as he climbed into bed and lay down with his back toward Kagome.

Kagome stood and stared at his back for a second before she let a small smile grace her lips. "Good night, Kouga," she whispered and got into bed herself and fell asleep. Kouga on the other hand didn't fall asleep. He stayed up and watched over Kagome just to assure himself nothing would happen to her.

That morning Kagome woke up early to silence, not a bad silence, but a nice peaceful silence. She just laid there and enjoyed it. A few hours later, after having fallen back asleep from the sheer peace of the morning, she felt a hand on her shoulder and it lightly shook her. "Kagome, it's time to get up now," Kouga's voice came from behind her.

Sango made breakfast that morning and it was pretty good. "Sango, this is delicious. You've gotten really good at cooking," Kagome commented.

"Thank you very much, Kagome. It took me a lot of practice," Sango said, smiling at the compliment.

"Yes, a lot of practice," Miroku added.

"What's that supposed to mean exactly?" Sango asked and her eye twitched.

"Now Sango, I meant, I mean, I didn't . . . I love you," he fumbled around his words, but it didn't seem to work. The next thing anybody knew Miroku had a hand print, make that a very red hand print, across his face and Sango looked like she felt much better.

Kagome started to laugh and all heads turned to look at her. "You guys haven't changed at all," she told them and they all smiled as well.

After breakfast Sango, Miroku, and Shippo got their things together and everyone set out for the small village. The trip was relatively uneventful. No youkai or anything trying to kill them. It was strange, but nobody questioned their good fortune.

The only problem they had was when they arrived at the village. Sango, Miroku, Rin, and even Shippo didn't have a problem, but Kagome and Kouga didn't exactly get a warm welcome.

It took quite a bit of talking from Sango to get the villagers to let the two into the village. Even after that everyone was tense.

"You would think with Inuyasha here they'd be a little more used to youkai," Shippo pointed out, looking around at all the anxious looks.

"They don't trust us. It's understandable," Kagome told the young kit. Kagome herself was tense; she hadn't been around so many people since before she transformed. Afterwards she had stayed away from villages or any groups of people.

It wasn't long before they found the familiar hut that belonged to the elderly priestess. "Keade!" Sango called into the hut.

"My sister is not here right now, may I help you?" a light, calm voice said and from inside the hut emerged Kikyo. To say she looked shocked would have been an understatement. "Kagome you're here," she said in an awed whisper, like if she spook any louder she would scare the girl off.

"Where's Keade?" Kagome asked, acting as if it wasn't a big deal that she was there.

"She and Inuyasha went to collect herbs and such," Kikyo explained still in a bit of shock. "Kagome there's something you need to know--" she started but was cut off.

I know Kikyo, I heard the whole story and I've come here to talk," Kagome stated.

Kikyo looked relieved. "I'm so glad. Inuyasha has been so worried about you since we found out you were still alive," she said and threw her arms around Kagome in a tight hug.

Kagome felt awkward; she wasn't used to Kikyo acting this way. To be honest, it kind of freaked her out. Kagome cleared her throat and Kikyo let out an 'oh' and let go of her.

"Sorry, come on in," Kikyo said and motioned for them all to enter the hut. "They should be back soon."

With that said from outside the hut came a loud yell of, "I'm never helping you collect your things again? You here me?" Inuyasha then burst into the hut soaking wet. "Kikyo, you won't believe what your sister made me . . ." he trailed off as he came upon Kagome.

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InuyashaForever1989: Well, that's it for this update, Ja ne. And don't forget to review, I love to hear what you have to say, but no flames please laters.