... i've got some explaining to do...

Chapter 6: Runaway

That night, none of the guys could sleep. This whole thing was getting to them… a lot.

"OK, who had the most romantic walk?" Kouga asked, hoping that he could brag about his night. Everyone was silent. "Well? Did anyone feel they made a 'connection'?" Kouga said in a mocking tone.

Again the room was silent. Bankotsu thought about speaking up. He did have a better relationship with Sango than before, but he decided it would be best not to speak up.

"I don't know why you guys are even bothering. She knows me the best, so she'll probably pick me!" InuYasha said proudly.

"Yeah right! Why would she pick you when she so obviously likes me?" asked Hiten as he lay on his bed with his hands behind his head.

"You hardly even know her!" Kuronosuke snapped. "Sango and I were meant to be!" he said dreamily.

"I never lose a battle. This competition shall be no different," Sesshoumaru stated simply.

"I thought you hated humans?" InuYasha snapped.

"I do, but I never turn down a challenge."

"No one even challenged you!" InuYasha retorted.

Sesshoumaru fell silent.

"Don't tell me you've actually taken a liking to Sango!" InuYasha exclaimed.

"Of course not. I despised humans!" Sesshoumaru spat.

"So what will you do if you win?" Bankotsu asked dryly. It had been the first thing he said all night. This conversation was a little entertaining, and he decided to take part in it.

Sesshoumaru had no response to this; probably because he didn't have an answer.

"That's what I thought!" Bankotsu snickered. "You do like her, don't you?"

"Pssht! You're one to talk!" InuYasha snorted

"What do you mean?" Bankotsu asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Ha! You've been playing the 'oh-look-at-me-Sango-I'm-a-sensitive-guy!' trick"

"I'm not being sensitive!" Bankotsu spat.

Sango sighed happily as she walked down to her room with the much needed water bottle Kagome gave her. Why was Kagome ruining her life? First she completely embarrassed and humiliated her when she had to give a bunch of men, most of which she barely new, hugs and go for "romantic walks" with them. Then the bitch had to go and tell her that the man she thought she loved was cheating on her.

"Do you even care if Sango chooses you, Bankotsu?"

Sango froze. That was InuYasha's voice… are they talking about me?

"Not really. I don't even know why I'm here This is pointless and a complete waste of time!" She heard Bankotsu reply carelessly.

Sango felt her heart shatter. Did he really just say that? That this whole thing wasn't worth his time? That I'm not worth his time?

"I… I thought that maybe we had something…" she murmured to herself. Her knees felt shaking and she leaned against the wall, half listening to them argue, and the other half in her own world. She thought back…

She emerged from the hot spring when she couldn't hold her breath any longer. She opened her eyes and saw a pair of feet. Looking up, she screamed when she saw him peering down at her. He fell back ad took off with unnatural speed into the forest.

Looking back, it was kind of funny. She almost laughed. Then she remembered the "date", as Kagome called it, that they had went on. He hadn't complained when she decided to rest, or when she almost fell asleep, like he knew that she needed it or something. And that was the night she had realized she was getting feelings for him, and she was almost sure he had them back.

The rest of this stupid show would had gone by so smoothly. She would eliminate everyone and then maybe they could be together in the end, but now…

Now he was saying things like this was pointless and a waste of time…

She felt tears burning in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away. Great now she was going to cry! The tears wouldn't stop coming, no matter how hard she tried to wipe them away.

"Sango?"

Sango winced but didn't look up, she already knew who it was.

"What is it, Kuronosuke?" she asked, trying to hold in her tears.

"You… you're crying!"

Good observation, oh great lord! "Yeah, I think I knew that…" she said quietly, looking at her feet.

"Tell me, what's troubling you? We could talk over tea…"

Ugh! Kagome was ruining her life and these men were just making it worse! "Especially him…" she whispered coldly, 'him' being Bankotsu.

"You know Sango, I care about you…"

Here we go… Sango thought.

"Those other men are just here to beat the others in a competition, I'm sorry but none of them are interested in you in that way. But my feelings for you are true…"

Sango couldn't believe he'd just said that to her. She felt worse than ever. What if he was right? What if she picked someone that she'd grown to like, only to find out that they were just trying to beat someone else and didn't even like her?!

She could already feel the humiliation, and it was almost preventing her from breathing. Panic overthrew her and she bolted.

"Sango! Sango!"

She could here him calling out to her, and then she could have sworn she heard some of the other men calling out to her. They must have come out when they heard Kuronosuke shouting her name.

She gasped suddenly when she slammed into a chest. A… bright pink chest? It was Jakotsu.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" he asked.

Sango started to sob into his… disturbingly pink kimono. "I hate this…" she whispered between sobs. "I… I hate this so much!"

Jakotsu felt a little sorry for the poor thing. No one had even taken her feelings on this whole thing into consideration when they started this show. And on top of that, they were throwing these ridiculous things into her face.

"Jakotsu? If I leave for a walk, will you promise you won't tell anyone where I went?" she asked, finally letting go of the now disturbing pink kimono with wet spots on it from her tears.

Jakotsu sighed dramatically. "Fine! But don't think of it as a favor! I don't go out of my way for you women!"

Sango half smiled, as she walked off in a random direction He may have been gay, but he still had the stubbornness of a man.

She walked until she stopped into a strange valley, and sighed. The walls of the valley were about 50 times her height, and they enclosed at the end, so she had nowhere else to go.

She was about to turn and head back, thinking she had gone far enough, but her feet stayed planted on the ground. "I smell a rat…" she murmured.

A loud and strange shriek echoed in the valley and Sango narrowed her eyes as millions of demon rats emerged from the top of the valley.

Sango swallowed. "Or many rats…" she whispered and ran for her dear life, only to have the exit blocked by Kagura the wind sorceress and even more of the rodents.

"There's no escape for you demon slayer…" Kagura chuckled.

"What did you say to her, Kuronosuke?!" Kouga demanded.

"What are you talking about?" came a voice from behind. To everyone's surprise, Kuronosuke was standing at the very back of the group with a fish tail sticking out of his mouth and a bowl of stew in his hands.

"Wait…" Nobunaga gulped. "If you're back there… then do we want to know who that is?" he pointed to the other Kuronosuke at the front with his back facing them.

He started to laugh evilly. Everyone sweat dropped. "Naraku…" someone mumbled. "Quit being a loser…"

"Kuronosuke" turned into his true form, with was Naraku.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Hiten demanded. "You got kicked off the show!"

Naraku chuckled and disappeared into his miasma.

That was when they realized that Sango was probably in danger…

OK... now I know everyone is going to kill me for not updating in like... a year... hehe. And after I gave MapleDuck a hard time with updating, here I am after a year... T-T I'm really sorry everyone! I had writer's block with this story, and so I put it on hold... then... I kinda forgot about it... and then I started getting messeges from people teling me to update it, and so I said to myself, "you know what? its time to update this story!" so I sat at my computer for a looong time and finally came up with an idea! Yay me!

And another thing, I looked back at my other chapters! O.O i hadn't even realized they were that short! Wow, i'm ashamed of myself!! T-T Don't look at me! LOL! So anyhoo, i made this one... not my longest ever but definately longer.

So again i'm so sorry for the wait everybody! FLAME ME! PUNISH ME! DO WHAT YOU MUST! I'll probably here from a lot of you guys in the reviews, and I might die a few times... but thats OK... i think...

I'm kinda scared to say this because I don't know what will happen but... R&R... now i'm going to go hide!

P.S. This is probably my longest A.N. ever:P:P