(A/N): I am so sorry for not updating this for so long. I promise I'm working on it in my writing journal. I'm already on chapter 6 I just haven't been able to find the time to type them up, life got in the way -ugh- =.=. Once again I apologize to anybody that was waiting for this, please forgive me. Any way back to business; heads up I'll be changing the summary. The life debt will still be involved but I've come up with a slightly different plot line so the summary no longer fits. I might change the title when I can come up with one.

Disclaimer: Ido not own Inuyasha or its characters they belong to Rumiko Takahashi. I will specify the characters that are minein later chapters.

Now on with the fic!

Chapter two: Adjusting

Kagome woke up to a bright light coming through a rather pathetic excuse for a window. She had a feeling that she knew where she was, but her mind was too fuzzy for her place her surroundings correctly.

She let her mind wander for a moment, trying to figure out where she was exactly. She was still in the feudal era, that much was certain. She could tell that she was in a hut by the patchy ceiling that she was looking up at. She could also tell she was lying on some sort of futon.

She tried to put all of the information she had gathered together.

Let's see, she thought slowly. Bad ceiling, plus terribly uncomfortable futon, plus bright sunlight coming through a shabby window equals…Well it equals something.

Kagome was doing her best to figure out where she was, but before she could think herself into a black hole, old lady Kaede walked in.

So that's where I am, Kagome thought sadly. She didn't get time to dwell on her sadness though. Before Kagome could begin to really feel upset, lady Kaede began to speak.

"Good morn' to ye young Kagome," she said in an absolutely cheerful manner. It made Kagome sick to her stomach. Here she was in lying on the cold unforgiving ground-sort of, because the futon didn't really do much to keep her off of the ground-, in pain, and this old hag had the nerve to say that it was a good morning.

"Yeah right," Kagome responded in a dejected tone, her voice cracking a bit due her sore throat. As previously established, it was not a good morning for her.

Kaede was silent for a moment. She was trying to understand why Kagome would be in such a sour mood. Then it hit her like the house that fell on the Wicked Witch of the East.

"Kagome, ye should not dwell on the current state of things. Ye may be in pain as of right now, but the pain will eventually fade. Ye should rejoice in the fact that ye are alive. Please do not act like this, young Kagome, for it is unhealthy."

Kagome decided that it would be better for her not to respond to lady Kaede's mini pep talk. The respectful part of her brain was inoperative at that moment in time. She was certain that if she gave a response, it would be rather rude and unnecessary. Instead she settled for turning her face away from lady Kaede and looking out of the ugly hole in the hut's wall known as the window.

The two women remained in silence for a long while. It was Kaede who finally decide to break the proverbial ice.

"Kagome ye must know something, it is somewhat interesting and important…" Kaede began to trail off at the end of her sentence. She was unable to phrase what she wanted to say in a manner that would not aggravate Kagome any further.

Kagome waited patiently for the old woman to finish what she was saying. However, she was not known for her patience. In the end her impatience and curiosity got the better of her.

"Well," she said, "Go on. If it's important, then go ahead and tell me." Kagome said her last statement as nicely as possible. Even though she was upset about numerous things, she still respected lady Kaede enough to be kind to her.

Still, even after Kagome's words of encouragement, Kaede did not know how to deliver her message accurately. This left Kagome hanging on a horrible cliff.

Once again the two women sat in an uncomfortable silence. Kaede was still having trouble phrasing her words correctly, and Kagome's patience was wearing thin.

Finally Kagome had had enough. She tried to sit up so she walk could out of the hut. This was an awful idea. Not only did she undo the neatly tucked in covers on her futon, she also managed to send a ripple of immense pain throughout her entire body.

"Ahhh," she screamed as her ribs repositioned themselves. Her sides began to throb painfully, and she began to sob which only exacerbated the situation. Kagome tried to lie down, but once again she only made her situation worse. She looked lady Kaede for help.

Lady Kaede immediately assisted Kagome back down to the futon.

"Child, ye need to be more careful!" the old woman exclaimed. "Your body is still mending. Truly ye are still lucky to be alive. Had Sesshomaru not brought ye here when he did ye would most likely be a decomposing corpse at the bottom of the Bone Eater's Well."

Kagome blinked a couple of times.

Did she just say that Sesshomaru brought me here? But that can't be possible. Sesshomaru would never do anything to help anyone else…EVER!

Kagome blinked again.

…

Sesshomaru awoke to a loud and shrill sound, almost like a bird, but not quite.

He was curious as to what it was.

The dog demon prince of the west waited for the sound to go off again, when it didn't he did his best to replay it in his mind.

A shrill feminine "What," was all his mind supplied him.

Sesshomaru tried to place the voice, but after about twenty seconds of failure he gave up. He wasn't too desperate to know who the voice had belonged to anyway. At that moment he was more inclined to wonder about the whereabouts of Rin and his ever loyal servant Jaken.

Sesshomaru rose from his resting place quite casually, on the look out for Rin. He wasn't truly worried about her, but after all the casualties that had happened to her in result of his absence, he decided that it was better to know where she was ninety percent of the time. Sesshomaru also decided that if Jaken was left in charge of her, he himself would have to be a maximum of five feet away.

These were the matters that Sesshomaru needed to focus on, not voice recognition. But the sound that he had heard earlier truly intrigued him.

As he walked into the nearby brush, he began to think.

Most women in this area are rather quiet, so it doesn't make sense that one of them should all of a sudden become obnoxious unless…

Sesshomaru's thoughts began to wander further into the matter as he walked into a clearing in which he found Jaken, Rin, and Ah-Un. Rin was gathering flowers and gleefully dropping them all over Jaken, Jaken was becoming upset over the fact that he was being used as a flower pot and Ah-Un was chewing on some nearby grass contentedly.

Having now made sure that Rin was safe, Sesshomaru began to slip out of the clearing. Unfortunately he did not get very far; Rin had seen him and decided that he should join her in aggravating Jaken.

"Lord Sesshomaru," she said in her childish manner. "Come play with master Jaken and me," She asked.

"I have little time for such frivolous tasks," he responded in his ever so popular emotionless way. It was not that he did not want to play with Rin; in fact it was quite the opposite. It was more that he didn't know how. Playing had been something that he found to be pointless, even as a child. So whenever he was asked by Rin to join in her childish antics, Sesshomaru always declined.

Besides at that specific point in time he was more interested in finding out which woman had caused such a disturbance in his day. It was something that was situated at the front of his over occupied mind.

He tried to concentrate on the task at but Rin's constant pestering was getting in the way of that.

It was true that Sesshomaru never played as a child. This caused his inability to play with Rin like she had wanted. He had never played games like hopscotch or jump rope or anything of that nature. In all honesty he never did anything that could be considered remotely close to fun…unless training day in and day out could be counted. His main focus at that point in his life had been learning how to fight so that he could succeed his father's title flawlessly. He had wanted to surpass his father's skill level, showing that he would be an honorable and skillful ruler of the western land.

As Sesshomaru lamented upon his childhood, the voice that he had been trying to identify earlier popped back into his mind. Rin had long since walked off so now he was able to concentrate on his earlier task.

Apparently, there is a reason why I keep hearing this pathetic sound…I just need to find this reason, he thought sardonically. He was getting rather annoyed at hearing the rude wench's cry over and over.

He contemplated the sound for a moment thinking that if he waited, he might be able to recognize it. The only reason why continued with this ridiculous endeavor was because he was convinced he had heard the sound before, or at least the voice that had created the sound.

Sesshomaru closed his eyes, pissed off at his current situation. He had never experienced the sensation of something nagging continuously at the back of his mind. Being the demon that he was, usually he was able to analyze and remedy any problem that he was forced to face. In this case all he could do was sit back and do nothing.

Much to Sesshomaru's dismay he could not just rip the sound apart like any other adversary that he had faced. This happened to be his favorite modus operandi, so sitting and waiting for something to happen was aggravating him to no end.

"This is ridiculous," Sesshomaru grumbled aloud. Unfortunately Rin had heard him and so she bounded back to him with a concerned look plastered upon her all too innocent face.

Sesshomaru saw Rin coming and for saw one of her unrelenting question and answer periods. He was not looking forward to this in the slightest. Every time she asked a question it usually concerned his health or his state of mental being.

Considering his current situation she would be lucky if he did not simply growl at her in response.

As Rin got closer Sesshomaru began to clench his fist, and the closer she got the harder he clenched. By the time she was within two feet of him he had clenched his fist so hard that he began to draw blood. He watched her advance doing his best not to get up off of the rock he was positioned on.

"Lord Sesshomaru," Rin said as she made it to his spot in the field.

Here it comes, he thought and winced ever so slightly.

"Yes?" he replied as nonchalantly as possible.

"Why do you look so upset?" she continued.

It was an honest question Sesshomaru knew that, but somehow he couldn't help but grumble to himself about human creatures being to nosy for their own good.

"Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin questioned still wondering why her lord looked so conflicted.

Sesshomaru stared at her. As previously established, he did not feel like telling the girl his situation. He couldn't very well look her in the eye and say, "Oh…nothing is wrong per say, I just keep hearing a women's voice screaming in my head, but it's not a real big problem because I'm taking all the steps necessary to identify this voice." No he could not tell her that. Sesshomaru had a hard enough time trying to justify that response any way. So instead he went for a generic reply.

"I am just thinking of something that is agitating me, that is all." He was proud of himself for coming up with such a simple answer.

Sesshomaru was too busy congratulating himself to realize that Rin still looked a bit puzzled.

"But lord Sesshomaru, if it's making you mad why are you still thinking about it?"

Damn.

"It is something that I am required to think about for it is very important," Sesshomaru lied, hoping to whichever gods who were laughing at him, that the child would drop the issue.

"Oh…okay then…so can you come and play with me and Ah-Un now? Master Jaken got mad that he kept losing and stormed off in a huffy."

Damn it all, Sesshomaru thought, if it's not one thing with this child it's another.

And you love it, something in the back of his mind told him. Sesshomaru decided to ignore this occurrence and respond to Rin before she could ask him any more questions.

"No. I cannot play with you and Ah-Un as of right now," his said his heart nearly breaking at the sight of her disappointed face.

Déjà vu anyone?, he thought.

"Well okay then," she responded and skipped off to continue playing with
Ah-Un.

Sesshomaru gave a mental sigh of relief. He was finally able to get back to the task of identifying the voice that had been plaguing him.

Around about an hour of mind racking later Sesshomaru's mind supplied him with what he had been looking for.

Kagome, that voice belongs to that Kagome girl, Inuyasha's former wench.

And with that amazing revelation, Sesshomaru got up from his rock and sat closer to Rin and Ah-Un. He had contemplated checking in on Kagome for all of two seconds. He quickly rejected that idea and went on with his former action.

Maybe if I happen across her again I will inquire about her health…maybe.

(A/N) : Thank you for reading this, please tell me what you think. Constructive critisism is welcomed. Also if you feel so inclined please review. Reviews motivate me to type the next chapters. I will try to update every 2 weeks, but don't quote me on that. Review and I will see you in the next chapter.

~shastar27