a/n: Hey yall! Aren't you proad of me?! I stayed up till 2:18am so that I could write this chapter since the last chappie was such a dudd. This one is by far my longest chapter and shows the begining of Sesshomaru's feelings towards Sango. Doesn't tell everything but that's what chappie 18 is for isn't it? ^.^ Well I hope yall like this chappie better than 17 cuz I personally think it's much better...Oh! Just incase you missed it last chappie THIS IS SESSHOMARU DREAMING ABOUT WHEN HE FIRST MET SANGO!!! Just thought I'd get that point across so that no one is confused! ON TO THE STORY!!!

DISCLAIMER: I don't on Inuyasha... yet! Muahahahah! Ok so probly never but nah! .

Chapter 17- Battle of Eight Years Past

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Eight years ago~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sesshomaru was engaging a powerful demon in battle in the middle of a forest somewhere on the farthest edges of his territory. As usual he was winning but this demon had proved to be far stronger than most demons that Sesshomaru had encountered.

It was a very ugly demon. A black, luminescent beetle's body, a spider's head, and eight skinny, hair covered legs that moved at an amazing speed. The demon's body reeked of poison and decaying flesh and Sesshomaru had thought it would be fairly easily taken care of. He had thought wrong. He had been forced to dodge attacks coming from each of its' eight legs as well as its' poisonous spit and webs that it could throw like a slimy, poisonous rock.

Leaping from tree to tree Sesshomaru had managed to avoid everything the creature had thrown at him without sustaining even a scratch.

"You are becoming a nuisance demon. Why is it that you are attacking me on my own land for no apparent reason?" Sesshomaru questioned as the demon paused its' attacks.

"You killed my comrades Lord of the West! I am merely returning the favor," the disgusting creature replied in a voice similar to nails grating against a chalkboard.

With ears ringing simply from the horrid sound of the creatures voice Sesshomaru frowned in displeasure. He had not memory of destroying anything that looked even remotely similar to this thing and especially not more than one, and there was no forgetting something that looked like THAT.

"You are mistaken demon. I have not killed anything like you before nor have I encountered a being as genetically fucked up as you, much less a number of them," Sesshomaru said as his annoyance with the thing grew, "I would, however, be happy to put you out of you misery." No one attacked him for no reason and got away with it.

"Hahaha. No Lord Sesshomaru, you have not killed my companions, yet. I am from the future and I plan to kill you before you ever get a chance to kill me and mine," the demon laughed, as he seemed to take pleasure in knowing something that Sesshomaru did not.

"If it is as you said then I shall kill you now and spare myself the trouble later on," Sesshomaru said as he drew Tokijin from his side.

Launching himself off of the branch he'd been standing on without another word Sesshomaru sliced his sword at the creature. It blocked with one of it's hardened legs and the two began the true battle. Both exchanged blows with neither receiving any major wounds. This continued on for a while until Sesshomaru was distracted by the scent of his brother's wench and the demon slayer approaching. The demon took advantage of this and elongated his neck to bite the demon lord squarely in the left shoulder and, in doing so, injecting a deadly cocktail of beetle, spider, and snake demon venom specially concocted to seek out a demon's poison and make it toxic for it's user.

Sesshomaru roared in pain and sliced at the demon with Tokijin as his vision blurred and he fell from his position in the forest canopy. He hit the ground hard and felt a few ribs crack as he blurrily watched the demon land on the ground and walk towards him, intent on finishing him off.

"Shit…" Sesshomaru thought before the venom dragged him into unconsciousness.

Sango and Kagome had been on their way to the slayer's village to check up on things and had taken a shortcut through the outer edge of the western lands.

"Do you think Sesshomaru will know we came this way Sango?" Kagome asked, worried they'd be caught and punished for trespassing on his lands without permission.

"I doubt it Kagome. We're on the very edge of the western lands and the slayer village itself sits halfway on the border between the west and the east so I think we'll be fine."

The two had not been in the western lands long before they'd sensed Sesshomaru's demonic aura. They'd both been extremely worried until they sensed another demonic aura and realized that he must be fighting. Curious, they'd changed directions to see just whom the great Lord of the West was fighting that could possibly make his aura flare so wildly.

They hid behind a bush and watched as the battle between Sesshomaru and the ugly motley demon took place. Sango had never seen such an odd combination of demons before in a single being and it truly was an ugly sight to behold. In the middle of the battle though, Sesshomaru seemed to sense their presence and looked towards their direction; a bad move on his part seeing as the demon immediately ceased the chance and bit down on his left shoulder and injected what looked to be some kind of poison.

The two women watched in shock as Sesshomaru fell to the ground with a load crash and the demon jumped down to finish off what he'd started. Without thinking Sango ran forward and threw Hiraikotsu at the demon, catching it off guard and killing it instantly. Catching her weapon with a spin Sango ran to Sesshomaru's side to asses the damage. Kagome joined her momentarily and both girls looked at the bloody wound that was turning a sickly black and green color around the edges.

"Kagome I need you to get me some medicinal herbs that the slayers used to use for countering demonic poisons," Sango told Kagome quickly, "We can't just let him die."

Kagome had nodded and went to retrieve the herbs that Sango had told her. They were only minutes away from her old village and Kagome used her augmented speed to get her there and back faster. Upon returning she promptly handed the herbs over to Sango in a bowl so that she could mix them.

"I've heard of this kind of poison Kagome. It targets the victim's own demonic poison and turns it against them. So basically their body starts eating them from the inside out," Sango stated somberly as she mixed one group of herbs before opening Sesshomaru's mouth and forcing him to swallow, "What I'm doing is mixing two separate herbal remedies so that each one will negate one poison each and stop both poisons from working. Sesshomaru's body will be able to make new poison later but only after the herbal remedy is flushed from his system."

Kagome watched carefully in awe of Sango's knowledge. She had just begun her priestess training with Kaede and thought that her knowledge of herbal remedies was fairly vast considering her limited training. At seeing Sango's skill and knowledge, however, her boastful thoughts deflated greatly.

Finishing mixing the second set of herbs Sango leaned forward and once again forced Sesshomaru to swallow by emptying the contents down the back of his throat. Leaning back, she pulled a small roll of bandages out of her armor and requested a bottle of water from Kagome. Pouring the cleansing water onto the wound Sango quickly whipped away the excess blood and poison and neatly wrapped the wound.

"Now, all we have to do is wait for the herbs to take affect," Sango said as she whipped some of the blood onto the grass beside her.

"Wow Sango. You were amazing. I can't believe that you could tell what it was so quickly and remember all of the herbs for the remedy after so long," Kagome said in astonishment.

"It's really nothing Kagome. I was trained to know everything there is to know about demons and it's not really something you easily forget," Sango said, slightly blushing at her friends compliment.

"No way Sango. You're incredible at what you do! I don't think I could ever remember everything like that, especially under pressure," Kagome said as she tried to convince her friend for the hundredth time that she was an amazing person.

"Sure you will Kagome. Your just a little inexperienced. I bet that by the time Kaede's done with you you'll be the one that's the master of herbs and remedies; and who knows, maybe one day you'll be the one saving my life," Sango said as she tried to cover her blush.

Their conversation was interrupted, however, by an angry growl from in front of them. Turning, both women saw a very pissed off looking Sesshomaru that was currently glaring daggers at them with his frosty golden eyes.

"What's the meaning of this wench?!" Sesshomaru spat harshly; the last thing he remembered was his body being on fire and the creature coming towards him to finish him off.

"Sango saved your life that's what!" Kagome said indignantly.

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes and shifted his gaze over to the demon slayer who seemed to be pointedly looking everywhere but at him.

"An explanation, demon slayer," Sesshomaru said coldly.

Sango reluctantly looked into his cold golden eyes and informed him what she had done to save his life, ending with, "Don't worry Sesshomaru. As soon as the herbs have been flushed from your system your body will make its own poison again like nothing ever happened."

Sesshomaru simply stared at her for a moment as if trying to tell whether or not she was lying but he could not sense any deceit from the demon slayer but what motive would she have for helping him?

"Why?"

At that question Sango became very sullen and her own brown eyes became slightly sad and cold.

"Because you spared my brother's life once and now I'm returning the favor. I know you didn't have to but you did, and for that I owed you. Now my debt has been repaid," Sango said as she moved to stand.

That had not been an answer he'd been expecting. He had thought that surely the slayer would have wanted something from him. She knew of his sword's power yet she had not even requested that he use it to revive her brother as payment for his life. Very few people held honor so highly in recent times and this slayer seemed to be one of true honor.

'Intriguing,' Sesshomaru thought as he watched her stand and retrieve her discarded weapon, 'this woman would think to repay a service that has long since been past. Most would forget and decide they no longer owed the person after no payment being asked for after such a long time. Honorable…'

"Sesshomaru we must continue to my village. Would you like us to assist you there so that you can rest and recover from you injury?" Sango asked as she strapped Hiraikotsu to her back.

He was about to refuse when Rin's voice echoed through the forest and quickly made it to his sensitive ears.

"Lord Sesshomaru!"

The cry had been so desperate and scared that Sesshomaru was on his feet in an instant and wobbled as his brain sent a wave of vertigo throughout his body.

'Damn!' he cursed inwardly.

He would not be able to get to her quickly enough in this state. What has he going to do?

"Kagome! Stay here with Sesshomaru. I'm going to go save Rin," Sango yelled as she ran towards the direction of the scream.

Sesshomaru watched in complete shock as the demon slayer disappeared into the forest to save his ward. His mind spun as he tried to think of the reasoning for her to do such. He had never truly encountered the slayer before, seeing her only a few times when he attacked his brother and then at Naraku's last stand. What possible reason would she have for saving his Rin?

Coming up with nothing he decided that he should go make sure that Rin was ok and that the slayer did not have some elaborate scheme to kill him and his charge up her sleeve. He nearly fell as he took his first step but was caught by the demon slayer's neko who'd been quietly observing in the background and had transformed just in time to keep him from hitting the ground painfully.

"Here Sesshomaru, let me help you on to Kirara so that we can go find Sango," the priestess said from beside him

He had begrudgingly allowed her to help him onto the two-tailed cat and they set off in the direction Sango had gone. When they arrived they found three more of the ugly mixed up demons dead on the ground in pieces and Rin sitting beside Sango's prone form that seemed to be greatly injured.

"Sango!" Kagome yelled from her position behind Sesshomaru on Kirara.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin cried out to her master as the fire cat landed and he painfully stepped off.

"Sango! Please Sango, please be ok!" Kagome cried as she collapsed next to her blood-covered friend.

Sesshomaru could tell that the slayer was on the brink of death and called for Rin so that they could leave.

"Please Lord Sesshomaru! Lady Sango saved Rin from those demons. If she hadn't then Rin would be dead right now!" Rin pleaded with her lord.

He was about to scold the child for her disobedience when Tenseiga began pulsing at his side.

'So you want me to save this human woman, eh Tenseiga?' Sesshomaru thought as he put one hand on the sword's hilt.

This human woman had not only just saved his life but also the life of his ward, she had requested no payment and had simply brushed it off as payment for sparing her brother so long ago, and now Tenseiga was telling him to spare her life.

'What harm could it possibly do to spare the woman who has saved Rin's life?' Sesshomaru though as he unsheathed Tenseiga and told the crying priestess to move aside.

Quickly swiping the sword through the underworld's gathering demons he sheathed his blade and turned to leave.

"The slayer will live Rin. Let us take our leave," Sesshomaru stated as he walked away.

"Yes Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin chirped happily, "See you later Lady Kagome! Tell Lady Sango that I'll come to make sure she's ok soon!"

With that, the demon Lord of the West and his young word walked away into the forest with a single aloof thought to the demon slayer whose life he'd just saved.

'She's just another pathetic human. Not worth my time. I have repaid my debt and that is the end of it,' Sesshomaru thought as he entered the shade of the forests' trees.

Oh how wrong he was…

a/n: OOOOOOOO!!!! Exciting chappie and Sango saves Sesshomaru and then Sesshomaru saves Sango! Ironic much? Oh well... That's just the begining of their relationship so don't freak out anyone that isn't why they fell in love it just plays a big part in it. ^.^ This chappie was 6 pages long compared to my usual 3 or 4 so I'm very proad of myself... hehehe....

PLZ READ AND REVIEW SINCE THIS TIME'S MUCH BETTER THAN LAST TIME!!!