Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any characters involved in the anime.

GLADIATOR

Chapter 8

His fiancé has been stolen from him, a large piece of his castle lay in shambles, and not a trace of the culprit or the lovely Kagome has been found… he would find the one responsible, and they would pay….dearly…

The king sat in his throne, his fingers stroking his chin in that malicious, calculating sort of way. No longer was he aloof when it came to his surroundings, he was more than ready for anything, above alert, he was ready to pounce if given the chance….his deep and penetrating eyes had glazed over, leaving the cold feeling of hatred emanating from the very depths of his being.

His soldiers stood before him, most of which were quite nervous, the way the king had been acting the past few days was grating on their nerves, and making them anxious. Silence had filled the large hall, save for the occasional shuffling of feet against the stone floor when one of the soldiers shifted from one foot to the other.

That is until one of them stepped forward, and had to keep himself from cringing back when the king's gaze had come back to life and instead had focused on him. The poor soldier audibly gulped before clearing his throat to speak. "Your majesty…" he lowered himself onto one knee, showing his respect, "may I ask what you wish us to do next?"

He didn't dare to look up the entire time the conversation was held, for fear of the king's cruel stare. "Ah…right then…so, tell me first, have you found anything pertaining to the whereabouts of my fiancé?" his voice ricocheted off the hard stone walls, creating a sort of booming effect.

"N-No sir…I regret to announce that we haven't."

"And what of the demon Inuyasha? Or any of the demons for that matter? They all had something of great importance to me…"

"We….we haven't heard anything of them either your majesty…"

"I see…" he stroked his chin again thoughtfully, "I can also tell the state of the kingdom is slowly deteriorating…I want all of the troops to prepare for any rioting that may occur near the castle gates." Without any demons to put in the fighting ring, there were no longer any distractions from the poor state of the people, they would see their lives for what they were worth and become angry….that was no good for Naraku…

"Your majesty, but what about Lady Kagome? I thought you wished for every man to be searching for her?"

The king chuckled, the sound like dark, rich velvet, filling the empty void of the hall. "I think I have just the right person for the job, I only need one man, he shall be more than enough to bring her back to me….do not trouble yourselves with it, you are dismissed."

They all bowed and took their leave, their eagerness to run off was obvious by the way they filed out of the room. No matter….

The king's eyes took on that glazed look once again, as he started piecing things together.

He was pretty sure that his fiancé had something to do with the escape of his demon gladiators, the feisty little bitch… no matter, he would have her for himself, and he would take her in front of someone he was almost sure was behind all of this.

Inuyasha….

That filthy half-breed…

If he just cast the lady Kagome aside and found another woman, there would be no satisfaction in that, no….her body, he wanted her so badly….and once he captured her and that dirty hanyou, he would bed her, and make sure that Inuyasha was either watching or was nearby to hear all of her screams of pleasure fill the room while he was inside of her…let him hear what he could never attain…yes…the look in his eyes…priceless…

It became obvious that the half-demon had taken a liking to his fiancé, he could see it in his eyes, which is why he wished to dangle her on a string before his eyes, taunt him, like holding a wonderful toy in front of a child but never letting them have it.

It was pure delight, imagining all of the torture he planned to inflict upon that mutt…

Inuyasha…

He would pay.

"Oh Kagome, this kimono is so beautiful! I grew so tired of wearing all of those silly western style dresses…" Sango said as she spun about in one of the coral colored kimonos Kagome had given her.

Kagome just smiled in return, giving her friend an appreciative stare, "Well, it looks even more beautiful on you Sango, keep it, I have plenty of jewels left to purchase other kimonos. It might feel a bit awkward traveling around in it for a while, but you get used to it." She giggled.

"Ah, I could see why, but I'm sure I'll grow accustomed to it, thank you so much Kagome! I don't believe I have ever worn anything so fine…"Sango gushed.out happily, still high on happiness due to the fact that she had found her best friend, who could have very well have been dead or killed, yet she was well and alive, and now they were together again.

She took one more look at herself before slipping the kimono off, she was still pretty dirty from her travels and Kagome had told her that Inuyasha said there was a hot spring nearby. After asking Inuyasha which way to go in order to get there the two young women headed off towards the awaiting indulgence, chatting along the way.

In the small clearing that they had just left sat Inuyasha and Miroku, Inuyasha being perched upon a tree branch, and Miroku lounging against the very same tree trunk below.

Miroku's eyes searched the opening, eyes taking in his surroundings in case anything happened, before leaning his head back and closing his eyes. "Do you really think its ok to let them wander off by themselves like that?" he asked.

There came no answer for a while, so he opened his eyes and was about to look up at Inuyasha and repeat himself when the hanyou finally muttered a reply.

"I would rather them go off to bathe the way they are without you following them. From what I can tell they're in more danger if you were to follow than if they were to go alone but stay within hearing distance for me…..lecher…"

Miroku scoffed in return, "Don't you dare try to tell me that you have never wished to see what is under a woman's shield of clothing…and even though their innocence may be broken due to my presence, I am not solely intending on pursuing them, I am also looking out for their safety."

Growling, Inuyasha hopped down from his perch, landing mere inches from Miroku's lounging spot, effectively frightening the poor man. "Keh, as long as there is a female's body part exposed to you, you wouldn't be able to sense a goddamn knife to their back even if I strapped your eyes wide open you idiot…" he muttered, storming off into the woods.

Smirking at his back, he could hear some of the strings of curses coming from the other man's mouth. "I like you too Inuyasha!" he exalted, knowing full well the hanyou could hear him. A sigh escaped from his parted lips as he leaned his head back once more, closing his eyes to resume his state of relaxation.

He would just have to get a peek at the lovely ladies another time…Inuyasha was already having a go…he smiled to himself once more.

"So, how did you guys find us so quickly?"

Kagome was helping Sango wash her hair as she leaned back into the ministrations, closing her eyes in complete bliss before replying.

"Well, we had actually taken a horse from the royal stables since everyone was going this way and that due to the chaos Inuyasha caused, nobody had noticed us at all."

Kagome paused in her attentions and furrowed her brow in confusion. "But, I could have sworn I didn't see a horse in your company, is it tied up somewhere in the woods back there?"

Sango stood up abruptly, and began to brush imaginary dirt off of her shoulders before crossing her arms in frustration. "No, in fact, we have no idea where the horse went off to, we were riding along and Miroku had continuously groped my rear, so I finally got fed up with it the other day and I let him have it!" She fisted her hand into the air to exemplify just that, before letting her shoulders slump in defeat, "but because I did that the horse got frightened and began to buck, so we fell off, and the horse had run away…"

"Oh you poor thing, so you have been walking for the past day or so?" Kagome clucked her tongue in sympathy.

A sigh escaped her parted lips, "Yes, we've been on foot for a while, but it's a good thing you were coming our way when we just happened to going your way, so we met in the middle, otherwise I don't think we ever would have found you!"

"I had actually just convinced Inuyasha to help me find you the other day, so we were heading back towards the castle in hopes of spotting you somewhere…if worse came to worst I was going to go back into the castle itself to get you out of there…"

Sango's eyes widened at her friend's loyalty, "Oh Kagome! You have no need to put yourself in danger for me…well, enough of this morbid talk, let's just relax, and we'll figure out where to go from here later ok?" she offered a small smile to the raven haired woman.

"Of course Sango…"

Sango had just left the hot spring when he arrived, he made sure to be extra tactful when finding the perfect hiding spot above Kagome.

So what if that bastard had been right? Its not like he'd had the privilege of being able to talk to someone from the other sex in kami knows how long! Let alone, anyone as beautiful as Kagome….

He'd been practically chained up in that old cell back in the castle for a good while now...although he didn't know what fate had in store for him now, he wasn't going to pass up this chance to see his savior naked! How funny…

Here he was again, getting drunk with her scent….the smell of rose petals drifting from her very core, it was as if it were searching for him, reaching out to him….calling him to her…

The hot water glistened on her porcelain skin, the natural heat letting its presence be known via puffs of steam caressing her form, following her every move as she cleansed herself.

Looking as if he were under a spell, he licked his lips in anticipation when once again she reached down to clean her core. Last time he had shied away, but this time, he forced himself to stay, but kept his other head in check while those soft, delicate mews began cascading out of her elegant throat.

He could smell her arousal, and could tell she was every inch a virgin. With looks such as hers, she shouldn't be a virgin, and kami only knows how she had stayed one for this long, and to think that bastard Naraku would have had her to himself had he not sabotaged the wedding.

His lip curled back in a snarl at the thought of that insolent prick who deemed himself worthy to be king. Shaking those displeasing thoughts from his head he trained his attention once again on his beautiful redeemer…

Does she always touch herself when she bathes? Maybe that's how she has gone this long as a virgin…if it were up to him, she would never need to do such a thing for as long as he lived, he would give her ridiculously large shares of pleasure that would fulfill her to the very core of her being. No longer would she have to resort to this…although he had to admit that he liked watching her in the process of doing it….

She had reached the peak of her mounting gratification and threw her head back, letting out what sounded to him like a very primitive moan. As she looked ahead from behind heavy-lidded eyes, she let out a chain of short, exotic pants, tendrils of her inky black hair clung to her creamy skin, which was currently flushed a beautiful pink color, giving her an almost ethereal appearance…

This was his cue to leave, the show was over, and if he was still here when she came back to her senses he wouldn't live to see another day! He quietly made his way away from the scene just before she decided to lean back and look up into the canopy of trees. –phew-

That was really close…

She knew he was there…

She didn't see him, but she could feel his presence there. Kagome smirked to herself. So, Inuyasha likes to watch her bathe huh? She knew better than to question him about it; it would be better off if she didn't say anything and kept it to herself, not until the time was right. Whenever that would be….

At least she knew somebody found her attractive without blatantly feeling her up. Well….he might as well have, because that was what he was doing with his eyes instead of his hands, but for some strange reason, she didn't seem to care too much. Since when did her body become so aware of his presence nearby?

It was as if they were somehow connected by their auras….nah, that's rather silly. She shook her head of such thoughts, flinging water about as she did so, and began to make her way out of the spring to slip on her remaining kimono. This coral color really brought out the color of her hair…she had taken a liking to it, but decided it could never replace the color blue in her book.

Once she was fully clothed she made her way into the small clearing where they had settled down to rest at, the sun was starting to become lazy and droop its way down to the horizon above the trees, and speaking of which, in one of the nearby trees sat Inuyasha. There he was, looking indifferent, with his head propped up against his arms, leaning on the trunk and his eyes closed, as if he hadn't been spying on her just a few minutes ago.

He felt her staring at him and chose that moment to open his eyes and hold her stare for what seemed like eternity. A small blush crept its way onto his cheeks as he muttered something under his breath and turned the other way.

Carefully making her way over to where Sango was sitting on what seemed like a blanket, she noticed her friend was searching through a rather large yellow pack of some sort. Why hadn't she noticed it before? It was rather hideous actually…

Looking up at her arrival, Sango scooted over to allow her to sit down next to her. "What are you doing?"

She smiled a bit at her friend's curiosity, it would be the death of her one day, "I had brought some plain yukatas for you in case I ever found you, which, I did, thank kami, I was going through this bag to find any leftover food, but I have yet to find even a crumb…" her head sank a bit at the prospect of not having anything to eat.

As if on cue, Kagome's stomach growled rather obnoxiously, bringing forth a giggle from her friend and a blush on her own part.

Hearing the loud display of hunger, Inuyasha got down from his resting spot and motioned for Miroku to follow him into the woods.

"Um, what do you need Inuyasha?" he was a bit at a loss for words, he didn't know what the hanyou wanted.

He paused in his sauntering towards the forest and looked back at him out of the corner of his eye, "I need you to come with me so we can gather food, and I figure two are better than one. I can hunt for some meat and you can go look for something else that's edible out here, or you can just come with me."

After thinking for a moment, Miroku smiled, "I think I would rather go with you, I need to learn how to catch a good meal now and then, it wouldn't hurt, I think it would actually be kind of fun…"

The two men were walking back in the direction Inuyasha said the camp site was, Inuyasha lugging a large deer on his shoulder while Miroku carried a few rabbits and a large sprig of berries he had broken off of a bush.

The poor man was sorely embarrassed in his lack of wild game, and the awkward silence wasn't exactly making him feel any better.

Miroku cleared his throat and slowed his pace just a bit, forcing the hanyou to either walk slower or walk ahead alone. Inuyasha might not feel comfortable around people but that didn't mean he would take their company for granted when given the opportunity. "So Inuyasha…I was wondering, what happened with the king, as in, how you came to be enslaved in the first place…?"

Inuyasha had slowed his trudging to match that of Miroku's, but didn't answer.

"I apologize, it isn't my place to ask-"

"That asshole used the shikon no tama to depress my demon strength, as long as he holds it, the jewel is corrupted, and under his control." He interrupted, staring off into the distance ahead of him. When Miroku didn't say anything in return, he continued, "I was minding my own business one day, a long time ago, actually I was looking for a friend of my father's to ask him about the fang he left me, but I was ambushed by a bunch of blockheads."

Miroku studied the hanyou's facial expressions as he told his story, "So the king sent a group of men to capture you?"

"Yeah, they used a fragment of the shikon no tama to weaken me enough to where they could restrain me, and brought me to Naraku. That's when he gave me that goddamn collar with that big chunk of the jewel, I could barely move. He told me he had heard about me from across the lands, and wanted me to be his prized fighter…of course I didn't really have any damn choice in the matter, so they took me away and locked me up like an animal, I had tried to escape plenty of times at first, but because of the jewel I never got very far before they found me and restrained me again."

Despite the gloominess of the tale, Miroku offered him one of his trademark ear-to-ear smiles. "Well, then it is a good thing lady Kagome had entered the picture, otherwise you would still be in that cell…"

There only came a grunt as a response.

"I do believe you have taken a liking to the fair lady, am I right?" he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Inuyasha stopped in his tracks to gawk at him, a blush beginning to form on his cheeks as he began to stutter, "W-what makes you think that? I'm just grateful to her for getting me out of that dump, th-that's all, no feelings involved!!"

Miroku's countenance brightened at this, "Ah! So then it is ok for me to make my move and attempt to woo the lady Kagome!" His cheerfulness came to a halt as he heard a ferocious growl sounding from Inuyasha, drawing a loud gulp on his part in the process.

Inuyasha began to warn the young man through gritted teeth, "You will not lay one hand on her or so help me I will slit your throat….you have your woman, I can already tell you and the other girl are attracted to one another, so keep it that way. I will not allow Kagome to give herself to any man on my watch."

"Unless that man is you I presume?" Miroku's mouth was drawn into a grim line as he studied his companion.

Inuyasha let out a snarl as he turned around and resumed his trek towards the camp, Miroku lagging behind but attempting to keep up, even so he still heard the hanyou's mumbled words.

"If that's the case, then so be it…"

Inuyasha's temper had simmered down a while ago, he was actually feeling rather content while the group sat and ate around a hand made fire eating and chatting away. He learned more and more about each of his newly acquired companions as the meal drew on.

Sango had been an orphan before Kagome's family had taken her in as a servant girl, but the two women had hit it off from the start and she was treated as part of the family rather than a servant. Her family had been murdered by a wandering band of demons because they had found out that they were the village's local demon slayers. Despite all of this, she was quite happy and content with how her life was progressing, so long as Kagome was by her side.

Miroku on the other hand was born into a well off type of family, who unfortunately met the same fate as Sango's, and was murdered by demons. His father's good friend Munshin offered him work at the castle under the king, little did he know that work would be cleaning about and tending the stables...

And finally, Kagome…Inuyasha let out a soft sigh as he thought about the raven haired beauty.

Kagome had also come from a fairly rich family background, but tended to be the type of girl to play in the mud, or so she says. Her father had passed away when she was but a child, but the love of her mother and younger brother made up for it. She had an excellent education despite the fact that she was female, and her grandfather had told her she came from a long line of priestesses. That may explain why she was able to purify the jewel shards…

She was sitting across the fire from him, happily munching the food he prepared for them, and laughing as she talked up a storm. Her laughter was like the tinkling of bells, and very appealing to the ear. The darkening sky made the light of the fire clash with the intensity of her heavenly colored gaze as it crinkled here and there with bright smiles on her part.

The atmosphere surrounding the group was warm, in fact, so warm it had Inuyasha reeling and trying to keep up, and not look too suspicious. He'd never been accepted with such ease, with humans no less….and especially not by such a beautiful maiden like Kagome…

Would she ever give herself to him?

Would he accept? Should he offer? If so, when? How?

He mentally shook his head and began trying to focus on Kagome's story of how she pranked her childhood enemy, the cheerful smile on her face…the way her hair shined in the fading light…

Ugh, he couldn't keep his mind on the right track.

He looked down for a while before looking up at her once more.

She would never want to be with someone like him, a hanyou, a dirty half-breed…he has nothing to offer her…

But he would die before he let her give herself to anyone else...

A/N: I hope you guys liked this chapter, a little more info was given on the group, I believe I aced my finals, muahahaha, that is so awesome!

Until next time!

-Jinju-