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DISCLAIMER: I do not own, nor am I even affiliated in the smallest way with Inuyasha and the gang. Unless dreams about a certain demon lord count….. ohhhh….. bad doggy….

BANG!

"Damn it!"

She swore quietly to herself as she inspected her poor toe. Little Miss Butterfingers had struck again, and her toe was now turning black and blue from the large pot that had just fallen upon its pitiful little self.

Kagome hobbled around the camp, trying to get enough things together to make a decent meal. Miroku was currently out scowering the forest for some firewood. As if they weren't practically surrounded by it.

Sango had also vacated the area, on the premise of fetching some water. She had also hinted at a bath, but Kagome wanted some time to herself. She needed to think – about the same thing that had been on her mind for the past three days. She knew what she had to do. And she almost knew how to go about it. It was just the 'how' that was going to be complicated… and possibly dangerous.

All she knew was she needed she needed to slip away somehow. Revenge wasn't something completed with a posse. She needed to get her 'how' out of the way, find Naraku, skin him alive, and skip triumphantly back to the village with the jewel. Simple, right?

Wrong. There was no way she could run from her friends – a trained monk, skilled in combat, and a taijiya no less – and get away. Especially not with the toe that she had possibly just broken.

It didn't help that the priestess felt bad about lying to her friends. Not lying to, she reminded herself, just… concealing from. This reasoning made her feel a little bit better about something she knew was wrong. Perhaps she was still completely aware of the fact that it was lying and no two ways about it. Maybe she also knew that if they found out she wanted nothing more than to leave them behind and have her revenge they would be hurt beyond belief.

It could have been that just knowing they would forgive her made it seem alright. As long as they still supported her in the end, things would be fine. And how could they hate her when she came flouncing back home with a sparkly, shiny Shikon Jewel? They couldn't.

As much as she knew she was idealizing about the situation, Kagome didn't care. Right now, her friends' feelings didn't matter. All that mattered was resolving the issue at hand. Nothing mattered more than killing that black-hearted bastard that called himself Naraku. Lying to herself once again, she reasoned that it wasn't for her that she was taking this duty upon herself. With Naraku gone, there would be happiness and prosperity again. The people wouldn't have to live in fear of a narcissistic hanyou and his demon brigade. It was only fitting that the Shikon Miko put the situation to rights.

And once again that damn 'how' question came to mind.

As she sat there, going through the motions of cooking, the 'how' she was contemplating was headed her way.

He raised a mental eyebrow hearing the miko's language. Surely she hadn't learned those words from anyone with any class.

As Sesshoumaru walked toward the racket the clumsy little miko was causing, he pondered his own motivations for being here. He already knew Inuyasha was dead. They were pack-family. His end of their grudging connection had suddenly flickered out and there was no explanation other than the termination of the half-breed's life. He told himself he needed details, but it seemed quite clear to him that Naraku was the hanyou's killer. As much as he hated that little bit of tarnish on the family's reputation, Sesshoumaru knew that the half-breed was quite capable of holding his own in a fight. He would not fall to just anyone's blade.

Then why was he here? There was a moment when he would have turned, but then her scent hit him. There was something different. There was still that sweet scent of rain and her purity that marked her as a miko. Only now there was something else. A darker note that had never been there before. He had to see this strange woman with his own eyes and hopefully discern what had caused her pure reiki to change.

As he stepped gracefully, silently into the clearing, she gasped.

What the hell.