The group returned with a dead deer hauled between Inuyasha and Kurama on a stick between them. Inuyasha's energy practically glowed as he walked tall and smirked. Kilala had bloody teeth and paws from catching the kill.

"Look what we got Kagome!" Inuyasha called to her nearly dancing over as he helped Kurama carry the deer.

Kurama smiled and watched the male as he laid out the deer on the dirt and made a knife from the grass cutting it open to prepare it. "That's all fine and good Inuyasha, but come help me prepare it."

Kurama proceeded to teach Inuyasha about the different organs, and uses for them. He taught the dog what to take out, how to check for illness in the creature, and then what the best parts of it were. Kagome sat back and watched in wonder as she boiled up some rice for them to have with their meat. When Kurama finally got the deer cut down far enough to cook as shish-kabobs they had been in the clearing nearly an hour and were well rested, but no one really cared that it was taking so long. Inuyasha was absolutely glowing with accomplishment.

As they ate their lunch Inuyasha told Kagome exactly what happened in livid detail. "So when we reached Kilala she was in her little cat form and all Kurama had to do was look at her before he knew what she was doing. She snuck up so quiet on the deer they didn't even hear her coming. Kurama told me to go around the left and he went around the right. When Kilala transformed and attacked the deer they ran so fast that she couldn't keep up, but Kurama scared them off from escaping on his side, and then they were running at me and I stopped them from my side when Kilala made the kill!" He told her as he ripped into one of them. "Man you should have seen it Kagome. I never knew hunting could be like that."

"What were you eating before you met Kikyo?" Kagome asked quietly.

"Ah, typically rats, birds, or fish." Inuyasha replied looking down at the fire. He sighed. "And I've never really been around people who knew how to hunt like that, I guess aside from Kilala, and she doesn't talk to me."

"She can't. She can only talk to those who can transform into animal-like forms." Kurama replied as he sat beside the monk and Kagome.

Sango gave Kurama a weary look. "What are we going to do with the rest of this meat?"

"Well the crows can have the rest of the carcass, but the stuff we've cooked we can make into jerky, especially since Kagome probably has some sort of salt with her?" he asked looking at the girl.

Kagome gave him a half-hearted glare. "I don't."

"That's alright, I brought some." Kurama reached for his bag and pulled it over shuffling through it until he found the salt, he had at least one gallon Ziploc baggie of it. He took the leftover meat that had been mainly out of the fire and patted salt into it before putting it back on the fire. "This will give us something to eat on the way so we don't have to stop and hunt every time we want food."

"That sounds like a lot of work," Sango remarked. "I mean if you didn't have salt with you, then you would have to go get some from somewhere." She turned her food over a few times before taking a small bite. She kept her boomerang laying across the ground in front of her.

"It can be eaten without the treatment; it's just a bit harder to stomach." Kurama replied. "You don't like me very much do you?"

Sango chewed and swallowed before answering, still watching him. "You're strange. You come back to the past to help Kagome gather the shards. Kilala hated you until you suggested to go hunting. You already have Inuyasha on your side completely, and Kagome seems to be alright with you but I don't understand why. You're a demon but you say you cared deeply for Midoriko. You won't tell us why, and you look like a girl." Sango pointed out.

"Yeah, I've glanced past you a few times and thought you were a girl, but every time you talk I'm stunned at how deep your voice is. You look like Sesshomaru too."

Kurama sighed. "Well I can't say I didn't expect this." He began to clean himself up as best he could without becoming dirtier in the process. "I'm not here to help Kagome recover the shards. I'm here because I lost someone dear to me, and I wish to see her resting peacefully." He glanced around, his tail flipping out. "I wish to release Midoriko from the jewel all together, but until its whole again, I cannot do that."

"How would you do that?" Shippo asked curiously from his spot in Kagome's lap.

"I would wish would be for her to be free." Kurama carefully packed away the salt.

"So why are you doing this with Inuyasha?" Miroku asked. "I can't see why a demon would be so nice to a half breed." That earned him a glare from Inuyasha before the kid looked somewhat uneasy. He turned towards Kurama.

Kurama glanced over at Inuyasha and gave the kid a smile. "I miss his brother." He blushed, and dropped his head, zipping up his bag.

Inuyasha stared at him in shock. "What? What the hell is that supposed to mean!" Inuyasha yelled angrily.

"Look, I know I'm a selfish prick but I'm not going to hurt you at all!" Kurama explained setting his bag aside. "Hell, I'm enjoying your company! You knew. I'm making up the difference of your loss and in the meantime enjoying being close to his scent again." Kurama shook his head. "Don't blame me for that. It's not like I'm going to kill you for him. I can't run off and talk to the bastard. He doesn't even know me yet." Kurama crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the ground. "He won't know me for another three hundred years, so what's the harm in being close to you."

"What about Kagome?"

"I don't trust him." She replied. "It's just I know Inuyasha trusts him and that's good enough for me. Plus, my mom said something that made a lot of sense. Kurama grew up as a human, even if he was a demon, so he's going to have some of the same morals as we do. He's going to feel the same emotions that we can."

Inuyasha dropped his twig by the fire and walked off.

"Inuyasha! It's not like I was lying to you!" Kurama called out as the young demon stomped off into the woods. Kurama sighed and stared after him. "It's not like he can change it either." He sat back down. He shook his head. "Poor kid."

"So why is it you look like a girl?" Miroku asked finally.

Kurama looked over at Miroku and shrugged. "I'm a silver fox. Do you expect me to look like a man? Fox demons originally fed off of the affection and love of humans, in particular, the men. My whole species is rather effeminate." Kurama watched Miroku carefully before putting his cheek against his shoulder and smiling over it at Miroku. "See something you like with all that glancing?" he asked in a higher voice, more feminine.

Miroku choked and hacked out half his lung blushing furiously.

"Serves you right Letcher." Sango scoffed.

Kagome giggled and shook her head. "I think you'll get used to him. I didn't like Kurama that much when we first met, but he's started to grow on me, and what's the harm with him being brotherly to Inuyasha? It makes me happy to see Inuyasha like this. He never really got a chance to be a kid, and now that Kurama's here, he can have a chance to learn things like hunting, and other things his dad might have taught him."

"But Kagome, he's a fox. He's not a dog. He should be teaching me instead." The little fox that hadn't spoken that much since their journey began piped up.

"I will teach you little one. You're just so little that I have to make sure I have games fast enough for you." Kurama replied. "But I can teach you what I know."

"You just think I'm weak."

"What's weak about not needing to fight?" Kurama rebuked. "I don't fight if I can get out of it too. That's what our illusions are for. When you're older you'll learn the arts of other demons, but right now it's your job to perfect being a fox."

Shippo sighed but nodded. "Fine. Then let's play hide and seek some time."

"Deal." Kurama replied.

"And don't try to steal Kagome from Inuyasha! Kagome is Inuyasha's to take care of, not yours."

"Don't worry kit, your mother's not leaving Inuyasha for me, if I get a say." He assured the child with a chuckle. "I thought that's what it was. How long have they been flirting?"

"We do not flirt!" Kagome took a swing at the fox, but the fox moved out of the way acting as if he was just going to gather up the empty sticks to avoid her attack instead of the fact that he was avoiding her attack.

"Two years? Three?"

"Since they met."

"Shippo!" Kagome admonished.

Kurama smirked over his shoulder at her. "It's obvious Kagome, you love him and he loves you, so shut up, give way to your whims of the body, and stop all this-" he wiggled a finger around her sexual areas, "stress you have built up over him."

"You're one to talk! What about you and…" Kagome frowned and tried to come up with someone she knew of his friends. "Kuwabara!"

Kurama laughed again and shook his head. "My, my, you would have been closer with Sesshomaru. At least he's taken me to bed once." Kurama scoffed. "Kuwabara is a straight as your dog."

"I did not need to hear that!" Inuyasha yelled as he entered the clearing.

"Oh don't worry Inuyasha, it's not for another…" he sat there a minute calculating the time change, "Three hundred sixty two years, two months, one week, and three days."

"How do you remember that exactly?" Miroku asked.

Kurama looked at the monk with a smirk. "Best night of my life. I'm sure you remember your best." He subsequently sidestepped a boomerang going to Inuyasha and grabbing his hands. "Are you feeling better now?" he asked carefully.

Inuyasha swatted at him, but Kurama didn't avoid it and was struck across the shoulder. "You idiot! Why the hell are you so attracted to my brother anyway? Huh? He's a big jack ass who wants to kill me. If you loved him you'd help him instead of me."

"Love him?" Kurama asked as he rubbed his shoulder. "I don't love him Inuyasha, I just miss him. You can miss someone and not love them."

Kagome flopped down and glared at the fox. Sango caught her boomerang and set it down beside her as she finished off her lunch.

"I don't understand you, Fox. You say that you miss him, and that you had the best time with him. You admitted you were partners, but you don't love him?"

"Sesshomaru caught me while I was trying to steal from him and kept me around. We fought. I wouldn't let him have a moment's peace, but eventually, he put me to work and I became used to him." Kurama wrapped his arms around his chest. He turned away from the lot of them, staring at the edge of the clearing. "One day he found me huddled over in a ball crying my eyes out and he scooped me up, took me to my room, and let me have the contact I needed, from him." He sighed and dropped his arms. "After that he helped me keep my craving down and I kept working for him until he brought me out of the castle and made me his partner. I kept an eye on the east of his territory, he kept an eye on the west, and we worked together in unison for nearly ten years before I bolted." Kurama turned back to Inuyasha again. "Hit me all you like, but that is not going to change the fact that whenever I'm around you I feel comforted by your scent because it is familiar."

"So what's all this talk about your best night then if you were just business partners?" Inuyasha cautiously took another step forward.

"Well the night he did take me to bed was a month before I bolted. We did play- once, just once." Kurama replied as he sat down on his own spot again having avoided all necessary evils.

"I'm not asking you all to trust me. I'm not asking any of you to even like me, but I'm here to help you, and you should accept it since you asked for it in the first place." Kurama explained.

Inuyasha sighed and shook his head. "Fine, but if we run into Sesshomaru, you'd better side with us and not him."

"If we run into him, I will make myself scarce so you need not worry."

Inuyasha nodded and watched him carefully before giving him another nod. "Fine."

Kurama looked towards Sango, who was still watching him rather skeptically. "What's your call?"

Sango watched him unsure and bit her lip looking him over. She shook her head. "I can't trust you, but I'm not going to stab you in the back if I don't have to. I just can't trust you."

"I am a reformed thief, I'm not surprised."

Miroku chuckled. "You're just too open to be a thief."

Kurama's eyes gleamed with a little bit of mischief. "I said reformed. If you'd like me to prove it to you, I'd gladly take something of yours." His eyes trailed down Mukuro's robes.

Miroku shook his head. "Oh no, you don't need to do that."

Kurama nodded, "Alright. Shall we get moving before dark?" Kurama offered as he got up packing everything away that he needed to and slinging his bag over his shoulder.

Everyone gathered up their things and followed after Kagome and Inuyasha.