Sesshoumaru was still asleep, Kagome looked up at him, her eyes still sleepy.
She smiled at him. 'I'm happy that you came back Inuyasha,' she thought. She sighed and closed her eyes, leaning her head on his's shoulder. 'Thank you.'
Sesshoumaru mentally phewed. 'How much longer is this going to last?' The girl was getting way too close for him to be comfortable, or at the very least endure it.
He opened one eye to look down at the girl. Her head lay on the top of his shoulder. 'Way to close.'
He opened the other eye to scan the others, they all seemed to be asleep still. The sun wasn't even up. The sky near the eastern mountains were dark blue, he estimated that it would be about two or so hours until the sun rose.
Unfortunately, that was too long, if he had to stay with Inuyasha's friends much longer, he swore he would be sick, their smells weren't the best in the world.
Luckily the one beside him didn't smell too horrible, she almost smelt nice compared to the others, especially the little neko and kitsune, wretched things.
The man and woman who were sitting close to each other on another tree, their smell wasn't horrible either, but it wasn't as nice as the girls.
If he had his youkai nose, all their smells would be doubled and he would catch the horrible scents of everyone, but this hanyou nose softened the blow somewhat.
But, nevertheless, the stench in the air was nearly suffocating, he wasn't use to being around humans of this number for more than a couple hours, he had to spend his time with them for the entire night.
Now he could definitely tell that this whole thing wasn't going to be easy, he knew it from the beginning, but this was more than half of what he had previously expected from the group.
Worst of all! Inuyasha's scent would be around all the time, his brothers scent had never been that appetizing, and now he had to smell it 24/7!
He sighed, his lucky day.
"Something troubling you Inuyasha?" Sesshoumaru was startled, he quickly looked at the person who had addressed him. It was the houshi. He frowned somewhat.
The houshi still had his eyes closed. "Mind your own business, houshi." He said in a threatening voice. The man just sighed, "That attitude of yours will not be good for future references, Inuyasha."
He stayed silent, as did the monk. A long pause, he thought the houshi fell back to sleep, but then he heard him talk again, "Remember Inuyasha. Tomorrow night is going to be a new moon, so I suggest you be careful." Sesshoumaru was completely confused, he raised an eyebrow and said, "What does that have to do with anything?" He didn't know what went on with Inuyasha on a new moon, was it bad? The monks warning told him that it probably was unexpected and a problem.
"Don't be a fool Inuyasha, you well know that if you are seen on a new moon, your secret will spread which spells bad things. If Naraku found out..." Sesshoumaru was still confused. But, his best guess was that this hanyou body had more than just half-demon half-human qualities.
He ignored the houshi for now, he hadn't slept all night. So, he closed his eyes to get his two hours of sleep that he needed. The ordeal from yesterday and the whole not-sleeping-all-night thing was very tiring, he just wished he could sleep for the entire day.
Even if the forest was on fire, he probably wouldn't move. So he slept.
--
Inuyasha, on the other hand, slept like a baby. Even though he was leaning on the rough bark of a tree that dug into his back, even though he was sitting on the hard ground with nothing but dirt, even though his brothers stench was all around him, that was probably the best he had slept in quite a while.
Nothing to disturb him from his slumber at all. 'Sesshoumaru's really got it going for him,' Inuyasha thought. Usually his friends would wake him up really early, he didn't go to sleep that early, usually late, but now he could sleep in. Inuyasha loathed his brother for this luxury, too bad it wouldn't last, he would be back in his own body, back with his friends and on the search for Naraku again.
The least he could do was enjoy the peace and quite.
The kid and toad were still sleeping; the sun hadn't even risen yet. Actually, he was surprised he even slept, you know with Sesshoumaru being with his friends and all, Inuyasha wondered what Sesshoumaru was doing with Kagome.
'Oh crap! Would if they're--no, no way, Kagome would never do something like that with him, but, she doesn't know that its Sesshoumaru and not me! I have to do something! ...Wait, I'm just being paranoid.' However, the thought did not go away, he was worried, very worried.
'He. Had. Better. Not. He would never, he hates humans. But would about the kid he always has with him? She's probably an exception, he would never...I had better check just in case!' He quickly stood up, but nearly fell down because the new weight that his brother had was much heavier than what he wore. The armour and his two swords, the thick clothing, the pelt.
Inuyasha didn't know how he did it. Then he thought sullenly, 'Cause he's a full youkai.' Being a full youkai was pretty cool actually, Inuyasha could feel the power flowing though him, the smell of a full youkai's blood, each time he thought of it, the power flowed into his arms and legs, energizing him. It felt good.
"Ok, enough fooling around Inuyasha," he said to himself. He looked towards the direction that he and his friends have previously been traveling in, sniffed the air just to make sure. The coming wind brought and slight trace of their scents, and his own.
With the new information, he bolted away into the trees, following their scent.
--
Inuyasha was nearly there, the scent of...himself was close and so were the others. He jumped with less gracefulness then that of Sesshoumaru, but no one was watching and even if they were, he wouldn't care.
He made one big leap up above the trees to see better. While he glided, he watched for his friends. The trees were too thick to see anything below so he descended back down into them. He landed on a branch and continued on.
He watched closely and accurately. His nose told him that he was getting closer.
He slowed his fast pace down to silent jumps from tree to tree. The strong smell of his group was in the air so he followed it.
It soon brought him to a small clearing filled with his small group of five, and in the corner he saw him, laying with Kagome! He nearly blew his top, Sesshoumaru looked so calm and content! Kagome was leaning on his shoulder while he slept.
'Well at least that's not the worst thing that could be happening,' Inuyasha thought, none to assured.
He was desperate to get the two separated from each other. He had no idea how though. He looked around the area, the others were sleeping. Maybe he could just go in there unnoticed and silent, wake up Sesshoumaru and...he'd see.
He jumped down from his branch and crouched, waiting for the moment to quickly enter the clearing. He wanted to make certain that everyone was sleeping. He shifted his position to examine them, but, unfortunately he shifted too far and the side of his foot snapped a small twig. He winced at the noise which was very loud to his ears, he hoped the others didn't hear it.
He quickly looked back to make sure that they were asleep. Miroku, Sango, Kagome and the others were still sleeping. But, then he saw Sesshoumaru's dog ear twitch.
'Great, now I don't have to go in there.' Inuyasha was certain Sesshoumaru was close to awaking now. But just to make certain he was, Inuyasha put a hand to the side of his mouth and said in a barely heard whisper, "Pssst, Sesshoumaru! Wake up!" He was scared that he did it too loud and that the others heard it. His dog ears twitched again.
Inuyasha didn't think he was getting it. He looked to the ground frantically, searching for something to throw at him. After a few quick scans, he found a small pebble.
'A rock...should do it,' He looked back at Sesshoumaru, aiming right so he wouldn't miss or hit Kagome instead. He closed his left eye for better accuracy.
Finally, when he thought he had it, he tossed the pebble. It flew though the air, over the heads of Miroku and Sango and hit Sesshoumaru square in the head. He immediately woke up. His eyes shot open quickly and stood up with such speed that he nearly fell of balance and reached for his sword that wasn't where it usually was which also made him nearly fall over.
Kagome began to slowly tilt towards the empty space where he had previously occupied. Inuyasha gasped. "Sesshoumaru!" he said in a harsh whisper.
Sesshoumaru quickly looked in the direction Inuyasha had spoken. Inuyasha pointed at Kagome who was still tilting slowly over. Sesshoumaru soon realized that if the girl woke up, he wouldn't get to kill Inuyasha for waking him up.
He quickly kneeled down and let the girls shoulder fall into his hand, stabilizing her and preventing her from falling. He looked back to Inuyasha and nearly growled in a whisper, "What is it?!" Inuyasha replied from behind the small hole in a bush, "Get your ass over here!" and signalled him to come over.
Sesshoumaru glared at him, but complied after he placed the girl so that she leaned on the tree.
He quickly made a dash for Inuyasha, passed the houshi and taijia and landed for about half a second beside Inuyasha before grabbing his arm and began to jump away, towing a completely confused Inuyasha behind him.
They jumped about twenty or twenty-five trees until Sesshoumaru landed and dropped Inuyasha beside him with a hard thud on his back. He quickly turned around and kneeled down to face Inuyasha, "What is it?!" he still half-yelled half-whispered. Inuyasha tried to recover from what had just suddenly happened.
He sat up and said, "What are you doing with Kagome?!" Sesshoumaru was shocked, "...That's what you wanted?! It was the girl not me."
"Well...don't get too close!" Inuyasha bent over more to make it look like he was serious.
The two brothers glared at each other for a few moments before Inuyasha crossed his arms and said, "Got it!?"
Sesshoumaru snorted and retorted, "As if I would ever dream of it! Shes a human you realize!" Inuyasha growled.
Sesshoumaru looked down on his little brother and said, "Is that all?" Inuyasha mumbled, "Yeah, sure." He crossed his arms and looked away in his usual fashion, squinting eyes, down face, slightly glaring at nothing.
Sesshoumaru got up from his kneel and looked down at Inuyasha, "Good, and next time you try to wake someone, try to be more mature next time." Inuyasha seemed to slouch lower, "Whatever, just get out of my face already." Sesshoumaru looked one more moment at his little brother until he started the trek back to where he had left, jumping silently back.
When Inuyasha was sure that Sesshoumaru was out of hearing range he said, "Jackass."
He stood up and started his own journey back to where the kid and toad were.
--
Sesshoumaru soon arrived back at the small clearing where Inuyasha's group still lay asleep. The girl was still sleeping right where he had left her.
He had only gotten about thirty or so minutes of sleep no thanks to Inuyasha, and he didn't have long until the sun would rise. He might as well catch as much of it as he could.
He quietly walked back to the tree the girl was at, sat back down and closed his eyes, trying his best to fall into darkness once again.
Inuyasha was nearly back again, gliding through the dark blue sky. Their scents were strong and pungent as always. 'Damn that Sesshoumaru!'
He knew it! Sesshoumaru had absolutely no reason to even lay a finger on Kagome. But the fact that Kagome was getting too close for comfort with him made him just want to rip his hair out.
She had no idea on what was happening! Inuyasha sighed and continued on. 'God, when is this going to end...?
