"You thinking what I am?" Inuyasha asked as they got away from the hut.
"Yeah, Sesshomaru met Kurama," Kagome bit her nails, "What about the future? I mean, he is supposed to meet him in like, 300 years! How is that even going to play out?"
Inuyasha shrugged and glanced at Sango, "Any ideas?"
"I think demon memory is too exact to forget something like that. The only thing I can think is that you might want to go home and check on things, make sure they're still safe," Sango offered Kagome.
"They had already met in this time the last time I went." Kagome shook her head and grabbed her chin, "Maybe they were supposed to meet," she pointed out.
"There's another point you're missing though, Sesshomaru has Kurama. Kurama's The Ghost like you feared after seeing he was gone," Inuyasha pointed out. He frowned, "If what Rin says is true, we have to go after Sesshomaru and get Kurama back. He could be holding him hostage to clear the west causing all the demons to run on us."
"I think he's not doing it on purpose, giving us all this hassle. I mean, we've been hearing reports that anywhere The Ghost has been, the demons don't come back very quick. If Kurama is The Ghost, he's just got to convince all of the raging demons to go home and we're back to normal," Sango suggested. "If he's traveling with Sesshomaru, that might be what they're doing. We don't have to interfere. Plus, it's sort of nice that he has Sesshomaru back again. You saw how lonely he was."
"But it's not right! Sesshomaru doesn't know the first thing about Kurama, just that he doesn't want to be around him, and he's got the guy doing his dirty work."
"Fine, we'll go after them," Kagome agreed. "Plus, we need to check the north-west closer now that we know about the leather." Kagome sighed, "We need Kurama so we can track down Naraku and get this over with. I'm sick of fighting him for the shards and we can barely find any now-a-days!" she tossed out her hands with the yell, glaring up at the skies. "We need to finish this!"
"Calm down Kagome, you've been super tense since you came back," Sango put a gentle hand on Kagome's shoulder and pulled her back as they walked together.
"I'm sorry guys, I just, ugh. I really want to finish this, you know?"
"Sure we know. I want my revenge too, but we can't just blindly rush into an attack," Sango cautioned.
"Don't you see? This is the first time Naraku has been this close to death in a long time! He's weak. I keep feeling his shards flicker up. I just can't identify where they are, like he's moving constantly. If he's this weak, then we can take him out. We just need Kurama to help pinpoint where they are. We need him to help kill Naraku and he's been here all this time! Months, months of rebuilding and strengthening the town and he's been here for practically five months." She pointed towards the woods across the cold dark field. "He was right out there." She sighed and dropped her arm kicking a rock down the dug dirt path. "He was right under our noses and he didn't come tell us he was here."
"You don't know that. He could have left before we got back to the village," Inuyasha pressed.
"He saved Kohaku, he's still doing good," Sango touched Kagome's arm again, letting the group stop. Kagome shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, the nip of spring still in the air. She looked up at the expanse of stars and sighed. Sango put her hand on Kagome's shoulder and pointed towards the woods. "Anyone could be right out there Kagome. Naraku could be and we might not know. We can't beat ourselves up just because we didn't know he was so close. He didn't want to be found."
"There was a lot of blood in that clearing." Inuyasha added, "If he was bleeding that bad, he did not want to be brought into a village where the humans might try to kill him for being a demon."
"No use dwelling on it. Kaede will be back tomorrow and then we can go after Sesshomaru to get Kurama back." Kagome turned around to head back to the hut.
"Good thinking," Sango smiled. "We'll leave once we're sure Rin's safe."
"Tch, she's safe now with that toad."
Kagome smiled and walked backwards folding her hands behind her back, "But the village isn't. We can't just leave them. One more mystery solved!" She chirped. She turned back around and skipped towards the hut to go fill in Muroku.
When they came upon Sesshomaru again, he'd stopped to wait for them. Standing side by side, Kurama kept his ears back as Sesshomaru addressed Inuyasha. The fox looked them over slowly, and crossed his arms, jetting out a hip as he locked eyes with Kagome, looking as smug as a beast should.
Sesshomaru was clean, his long hair unmated and gentle. Kurama couldn't claim the same. He had blood up his arms and thick patches smeared across his torso and legs. His once white pants were nearly brown from caked on blood and mud. His shoes could almost be called black through the dull tree-light.
"Little Brother."
"That thing is your little brother?" Kurama huffed. He turned away from them glaring into the woods.
"Kurama?" Kagome frowned, "Kurama don't you recognize us?" She asked stepping forwards.
Sesshomaru smirked slightly, but quickly covered it.
Kurama turned around and growled at her, his teeth barred in threat. "Don't talk to me human wench."
"He knew you," Sesshomaru admitted sternly. He put his firm hand out in front of Kurama. The fox jerked back from the touch and crossed his arms turning back towards the side of the road again.
"I did not. These fools are new to me."
"You will hold your tongue as I speak, rat," Sesshomaru snapped at him.
Kurama stiffened and lifted his chin in silent defiance.
"Over the months he has developed memory loss. Do you know the cause?"
"We thought he was merging with his other self," Kagome muttered staring down.
"What do you mean," Sesshomaru demanded, stepping forward towards her.
Kurama jumped to attack Kagome. Inuyasha slipped between the two of them and grabbed the fox's arm as he reached out to grab Kagome. The two stood stiffly glaring at one another until some of the anger drained from the muscles around Kurama's eyes. Milliseconds of relaxation, and Inuyasha pulled him closer, wrapping an arm under the fox's arm and grabbing the back of his head.
Kurama whined and sunk into Inuyasha. He grabbed at the smaller man and let out a breathy moan as his breathing picked up.
Inuyasha pulled him up and rolled his eyes, "Damn it fox, what the hell is this?"
"Please, Inuyasha, don't let go, please," he gasped as Inuyasha readjusted him in his grasp, dumping him unceremoniously on the side of the street. "Damn it half-breed slime! How asinine can you be!" Kurama reached out for Inuyasha.
Inuyasha grabbed Kurama's hand and pushed it aside as he sat down on the side of the road against the embankment and pulled him closer. Kurama tossed his legs over Inuyasha's lap and curled against his chest, his head tucked down, his ears back, and his brown tail twitching.
Shippo hopped down from Kagome's bag and crawled up Kurama's leg until the fox pulled him into a hug.
"Don't you guys remember saying he needs touch?" Inuyasha asked as the whole group stared at him like he had grown another head. "He needs people touching him, or he goes crazy."
"Is that it?" Sesshomaru asked, his eyebrow lifting as he appraised the two of them. "How long does this reaction take place?"
Inuyasha shrugged. "Apparently every five months or so. You've been with him, why don't you take a look at how he's gotten here yourself?"
"Mmm, you preposterous fool, how dare such a measly half-breed refuse my tail," he thwacked his tail against Inuyasha's leg.
"Oie! I don't have to be doing this at all you insulting fox!" Inuyasha moved to push Kurama off his lap.
"No!" he clung tightly to Inuyasha, letting go of Shippo.
Inuyasha rolled his eyes and sat back again, but this time he gently ran his hand over Kurama's tail, which curled as best it could around his hand.
Kagome snapped out of her shock and pushed both Sango and Miroku. Kilala mewed and hopped over to the two of them and began to nuzzle up with Shippo in Kurama's lap.
"Is that why Shippo's always in our arms?" Sango whispered.
Kagome shrugged and looked back towards Sesshomaru. "Ah, sorry Sesshomaru. We need Kurama with us so we can kill Naraku and he's not really in his right mind."
Sesshomaru looked her over, eyeing the short skirt of her school uniform incredulously. "He is in a good mind for destroying those abominations he let through."
Kagome frowned and tipped her head. "How did Kurama let these demons through?" she asked cautiously.
Sesshomaru's eyes thinned again before he put his hand on his sword and leaned back some, ready to kill, but not wanting to quite yet. "That fox was seen removing one of your precious jewels from a tree in the far north. The tree became a portal and unleashed the demons on this land. They need to be killed or sent back and the portal re-sealed."
Kagome's eyebrows shot up. "Oh! Oh, I'm sorry! We didn't know about that. That's why they started showing up?" She frowned. "Hey! But how did the portal get formed through removing the jewel?"
"Don't be stupid woman. The other world was created by the jewel coming into existence. It tore reality apart creating an alter-verse where the most vicious demons were thrown as a purgatory. Their evil leaks through with every tainted jewel." Sesshomaru threw her a little leather pouch.
Kagome caught it and looked inside. Her face fell into near tears. She dumped out the shard into her hand, purifying it.
Kurama sighed with a quiet little whine of appreciation and lay heavily against Inuyasha like all the tension in his body left at once.
Kagome stared at him. Sesshomaru was too far to call out to by the time everyone noticed he was leaving. Kagome sniffed and gently ran her hand over Kurama's head as she looked between Miroku and Sango.