"I don't completely remember you though." He replied honestly.

"Well right now that doesn't really matter. You'll remember sooner or later." I told him. He looked at me dumbly then looked away. We didn't speak for awhile and after awhile I fell asleep, only to be awakened by Kagome later on for dinner. I got up slowly now feeling the pain I had caused myself from walking around earlier. When I walked outside everyone was sitting around a fire eating fish and rice. I walked over and sat down next to Inuyasha and Shippo.

"So how long do you think it'll take your wounds to heal?" Inuyasha asked as I began to eat some of my rice. Kagome gave him an angered look. I guess she didn't like him being so bluntly rude.

"It'll probably just take another day maybe two, but no longer than that." I assured him.

"Wow, you can really heal that fast then?" Miroku asked.

"Most demons can." I confirmed.

"So where in the Mountains are you from?" Shippo asked. The others didn't know I had already told him where I was from and looked at him strangely.

"Well, I lived with my father on Mt. Ookami." I told him.

"Wow, isn't there a bunch of really powerful demons there?" He asked.

"Yes, my father being one of them." I laughed.

"How did you end up with Naraku?" Miroku asked.

"Oh," I was hoping no one would ask, "Well, I had been sleeping, or hibernating would be a better term. I was hiding there from someone. It's not really something I want to talk about." I explained. "Basically Naraku found me and strangled me until I was unconscious. I woke up in a castle bound by chains with a jewel shard in my neck. He told me to kill all of you and when I said no he used the jewel shard to make me." No one spoke for a few moments when I finished. "Why is Naraku hunting you anyway, and how was the jewel shattered? I haven't been around for many years so I don't know much of what is going on."

"For several reasons, mostly because of the Shikon Jewel." Miroku began. Everyone seemed to get very serious and depressed as he began to tell the story. "Many years ago he tried to steal the jewel from a priestess named Kikyo, by using Inuyasha." Inuyasha flinched at this and I looked over at him curiously. "He transformed into Inuyasha in front of Kikyo and Kikyo in front of Inuyasha to make them each think the other had betrayed them. Kikyo eventually sealed the real Inuyasha to a tree and Kikyo died of the wounds inflicted on her by Naraku as Inuyasha, but Kikyo had the jewel burned with her body when she died. Naraku waited for the jewel to one day return. In the meantime he caused havoc. Eventually being hunted down by my grandfather, who he then cursed with a wind tunnel. The wind tunnel has passed through the generations to me." He paused for a moment and stared at his right hand. "One day the wind tunnel will completely consume me. The only way to lift the curse is for Naraku to die that is why I have been seeking out Naraku." He paused again and looked back at me again. "Then Kagome appeared with the jewel not long ago and released Inuyasha from the seal. Unfortunately when she was attacked by a crow demon she shattered the jewel with an arrow. Naraku has been collecting the shards to become more powerful. He doesn't like getting his hands dirty however so he uses people and incarnations of himself to hunt us down. He even used Sango and her brother to try and stop us." Sango became very upset at this, but Miroku continued. "Basically we hunt Naraku for these reasons and to stop him from collecting the jewel shards. Since we are a threat he has been trying to kill us before we can strike him down." Everyone became silent now.

"Well, that explains why he tried to use me to kill all of you." I replied. "So you've banded together to stop him then?" I asked.

"Yes, and were not the only ones either." Kagome explained.

"That's good. He has a large shard of the jewel. Soon he may even have it all, and when that day comes you will need all the help you can get it seems." I said and took the last bite of my dinner. No one spoke for awhile and eventually I decided to get up and go into the house. The others followed me in after a little while after that. I heard them talk quietly amongst themselves for a long time while I began to fall asleep.

In my dream I remembered my father, the strong wolf demon, courageous and smart. Then my mother and the kind sweet woman that she was. She too was very powerful. Not as strong as my father and I but still very powerful. Then I remembered the Inutaisho the great demon that he was. He was powerful, cunning, and very wise. It wasn't much of a surprise of how close of friends he and my father were. Then I remembered Izayoi the beauty that she was, she was so caring too. She loved Inuyasha more than anything in the world. I thought of young Inuyasha brave but a very confused child, he didn't know much of the world other than not many liked him, for he was a half demon. I promised Izayoi I'd look after him always. I never had to intervene much except for one particular time, but my mind faded from these memories to the memories of the person whose face has haunted me constantly. How I loved him and yet how I hated him. His cruelty and coldness had consumed him. He no longer was the man I once knew. I remembered the last time I saw him, he was angry, not with me, but at the Inutaisho for what, at that time I didn't know. I remember the anger and the coldness in his voice and eyes. He walked away leaving behind the man I loved forever and me as well.

I awoke panting I felt a horrible pain in my stomach, for I had sat up to quickly; luckily I hadn't reopened the wounds. I looked to my left to see Inuyasha, once again staring at me. I glared back at him for a minute then looked away at my hands on my lap thinking to myself, or rather trying to. All that came to me was that horrible image that would forever be in my mind, the reason I had gone into that slumber in the first place.

"What's wrong?" I heard Inuyasha whisper. I looked over to him again.

"Nothing, just a nightmare." I told him.

"What was it about?" He asked curious.

"Someone I'll probably never see again. Even if I do they're not the same person anymore." I replied. He looked at me with empathy, I wondered why. I didn't want to ask him but I did anyway giving in to my own curiosity. "Is there someone like that for you? That you feel you'll never see again, not the same person they once were?" I asked.

"Yea," He replied, "Kikyo."

"The priestess that sealed you to a tree?" I asked very confused as of why he would miss someone who had wronged him in such a way. He looked away from me thinking. He closed his eyes, sighed, and looked back at me.

"I loved Kikyo." He said. "The day she died she was going to use the jewel on me to turn me human. That way we could be together and the jewel would cease to exist." I was probably looking very pitiful now, for a demon anyway; it was such a horrible thing that had happened to him. I felt so bad for him. "She died because of Naraku, but she died thinking it was me." He paused for a moment. "Now I don't know what she thinks of me. The only reason she lives is apparently due to her hatred for me."

"Wait she's alive now?" I asked.

"She was resurrected by the demon Urasue. She walks the earth as one of the walking dead now." He said pitifully. There was so much regret in his eyes now. Then he got angry with me. "Not that it's any of your business anyway!" He said. I guess he was mad at himself for opening up to me so easily. "Go back to sleep." He said as he lay down on his side. I gave a slight chuckle and lay back down to sleep as well.

When I awoke I had once again been left alone in the house. My wounds had almost completely healed, as I had guessed I probably needed another day before they would be completely healed. I got up and, more easily than yesterday, walked outside. I saw Shippo again, but no one else. I walked toward him enough to see that he was training. I watched him from a distance for awhile as he used his magic. After awhile of studying his technique I walked over to him, which scared him because he hadn't noticed me.

"Want any help Shippo?" I asked.

"With my training?" He asked. "Sure but isn't there a chance you could reopen your wounds?"

"Yea, but not if I'm careful." I assured him.

"Well, okay." He decided.

"Your defense is really open. You've been focusing on your attack more than your defense and speed." I stood prepared to fight him. "I want you to attack me and watch how I can keep up my defense." He looked at me fearfully.

"Are you sure?" He asked. I could hear the fear in his voice.

"I'll be fine and so will you. I won't hurt you. I'm only defending remember?" I told him. He still looked at me strangely. Although I hated the thought of it the only example I could give him was when I was fighting Inuyasha. Even though I was under Naraku's control I was being really defensive as far as I remembered. "Remember when I was fighting Inuyasha. At the beginning, Inuyasha couldn't hit me. I used my speed to keep him away from me. At one point I was even able to get on top of his sword due to my speed. Do you remember?"

"Yes." He said.

"So you know nothing will go wrong." I smiled at him as he readied to fight. "Now come at me with everything you've got." Behind Shippo Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, and Sango walked toward us watching curiously. Shippo must have seen my distraction, so he attacked trying to kick me in the head. He did have some speed I must admit but nowhere close to me. I stepped aside and he landed behind me. He hesitated and then attacked again but at my legs to trip me up I suppose. I jumped up as high as I could, back flipped, and landed a few feet away. "Now if this were a real fight I probably could have struck you in that moment of hesitation Shippo." He looked at me disappointed in himself. "What I see is that you only focus on attack but when you attack you must be able to defend yourself in case something goes wrong with the attack. Not only that but you need to be able to change the direction of attack without hesitation. It helps when you watch your opponents' movements."

"That's a lot to have to do all at once." He replied.

"She's right though Shippo." Miroku told him.

"Everything she said I had to learn when I trained when I was younger too." Sango confirmed. Kagome smiled at him. Shippo focused for a minute and decided to try again. He looked at me with fire in his eyes. Taking in everything we had all told him.

"Ready?" He said. I nodded in agreement. This time I actually prepared myself sliding my right foot back a bit standing on the ball of my foot putting all my weight on it. I raised my left hand to my face claws extended, with the right one at my side ready for attack. I wouldn't normally stand this way to fight but this was the best way to defend against him I felt. He jumped at me the same as before but his arms were tucked in ready to guard himself. I slid my hand down slightly and got ready to side step him again when he spun and kicked my with his other leg instead of charging like before. He had used the kick to push himself back too, so he was falling back. This left him a bit open so I swung at him with me right hand. He used his arms to block me and he hit the ground a little harder than he wanted but safely. I looked over to the others who looked very proud of Shippo, Inuyasha looked amused. Then I looked at him he was really happy. "See Shippo that was really good. I wasn't thinking you would do that." I said trying to sound nonchalant even though I truthfully didn't think he'd be able to hit me. "You did better than Inuyasha did." I told him. This pissed Inuyasha off a bit but made Shippo even prouder.

That night at dinner all Shippo could talk about was the training he'd been doing all day even though we'd all been watching. It was cute, but it was during his chatter I realized how I was letting myself get to close to him, and Inuyasha for that matter. That kind of bothered me because as a demon I shouldn't be giving in so easily to my emotions. Maybe it was because I'd been asleep so long, or the entire situation I'd woken up to. I think it was due to Inuyasha more than anything, because I'd almost broken my promise to Izayoi and the fact that his brother was...

"Shiori, is something wrong?" Kagome asked interrupting my thoughts; she was hovering and looking curiously at me.

"No, I was just thinking." I told her. Why was I making excuses? I shouldn't have even answered her.

"Oh, okay." She replied and sat back down between Sango and Inuyasha. This made me feel more comfortable, until I saw Inuyasha staring at me again. He looked mad again. What was he bipolar?

"Can you cut it out!" I yelled suddenly. I had let my emotions get to me again, crap. He stared at me appalled.

"Cut what out!" He yelled back. I just looked away from him trying to get control over myself. "I'm talking to you!" He said jumping to his feet.

"Kagome, Sango, after dinner would you two want to go for a bath with me?" I asked completely ignoring him, which pissed him off even more.

"Hey!" He exclaimed.

"Sure." Sango replied.

"Yeah, it'd be nice to get cleaned up." Kagome said. Inuyasha sighed angrily and sat down taking a big bite out of his food. This was getting annoying, if I kept hanging around all of them I was going to give in to my emotions time after time again. I had nowhere else to go though. So staying here with them for awhile is better than running around aimlessly, or trying to find a certain person. Still, it'd be best not to talk to them if I wanted to let go of my emotions and now I'd set myself up for a bath with Sango and Kagome to ignore Inuyasha, great.