AN: This chapter is shorter than the others have been, sorry, but I wanted to leave it where I did. I would love some feedback, by the way. I want to know what you guys think of this story.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Inuyasha. Never have, and most likely never will.

Kagome's shrill cries of help were pounding through Bankotsu's ears. 'That damn wench, she's more trouble then she's worth.' He though angrily while watching the trees pass by him in a blur.

His heart was pounding loudly in his chest, so he slowed his pace. If a demon had attacked like he suspected, it wouldn't do him good to use up all his energy getting there. It wasn't as if he had unlimited stamina.

'I could just leave her. Life would be a lot easier.' He dwelled on that while running. 'No, even though I would travel more ground and get more things done, I'm sure she has something to do with this. She might be my only way home, as much as I hate to admit it.'

Meanwhile Inuyasha had zoomed in on Kagome. She was his pray and there was no way she was going to get away.

"Inuyasha…?" Kagome asked uneasily, knowing he was in his demon form due to his wild stance.

"What of it?" Inuyasha asked sharply. His red eyes glared at Kagome.

"Sit boy," Kagome whispered softly. He was still too far away to see if his beads were on him. She could only pray that they were.

"And just what was that suppose to do?" Inuyasha growled while sprinting towards her.

Kagome gasped, he was going to kill her if she didn't act soon. She didn't have any arrows with her, or a bow for that matter. There had to be a way to snap him out of it. Beads of sweat trickled down her forehead.

"If you want, I can give you a five second head start." The demon grinned evilly, his voice laced with hatred and his eyes burned from an unspoken loathing.

Kagome's eyes fixed themselves on Inuyasha's feral ones. "Huh?"

"5"

Kagome figured now was not the time to ask questions. She ran as fast as her legs would allow. Her legs pumped while she stumbled across the forest floor.

"4"

'Inuyasha's going to kill me.' She thought while struggling to breath, the air burned in her lungs. 'No, he's not Inuyasha. I refuse to call him that, he's a monster.'

"3"

Kagome desperately tried to speed up, but her legs were running at full force.

"2"

'This is it; I'm going to die here.' Kagome cringed at the thought of dying by Inuyasha's hands.

"1"

In a blink of an eye, Inuyasha caught up to Kagome. "Too slow." He chuckled. Quickly, he punched Kagome in the gut, making her come to a halt as she doubled over in pain.

"Oh come on! I barely touched you."

Kagome tried to gain her footing, breathing deeply. She bit back a sob. That punch really hurt. He said he had gone easy on her, and Kagome was scared of what all of his strength would do to her.

He kicked her, sending her flying across the forest, causing her to hit her head on a large tree.

"Now for some real fun." Inuyasha growled while smirking, unsheathing Tetsusaiga.

Kagome cowered in fear. Her head was killing her; she would not be surprised if she had a concussion. 'How's he using his sword?' She questioned to herself, but didn't waste time dwelling on it.

He managed to create a huge gash on her leg, but Kagome didn't notice. She was already out cold.

'Where is she?' Bankotsu wondered, racing through the forest. Just how far into the small forest, were they? The forest was small yes, but it was still big enough that he could spend hours searching in it.

He then found Kagome lying against a tree, lumped in an awkward position. He then saw Inuyasha, who looked ready to cut Kagome into pieces with his sword.

Bankotsu lunged at Inuyasha, his sword pointed at his neck.

Inuyasha dodged it with relative ease. "Feh, that the best you got. You must be Bankotsu."

"At least you know the name of the person who's going to kill you. Dragon Thunder!"

Inuyasha dodged his string of attacks once again.

The demon spun around and swiped at him with his sword. There was not any skill behind the lunge, which made Bankotsu think he was just using his instincts to fight. He was able to mostly avoid the attack, although the end of the blade nicked at his arm.

Bankotsu hissed in pain.

'He's faster than usual. It is to be expected, he is a demon now. But he can actually out run my lightning.' Bankotsu's weapon crashed against Inuyasha's, sending sparks from the impact.

'I'll just have to catch him off guard.' He thought to himself. He threw his blade in the air, watching as the demon was transfixed by it. Bankotsu took this opportunity to land a bunch to Inuyasha's jaw, sending him backwards.

'Knew it, he is surviving on instincts alone.' "I would have figured you be smarter than that, Inuyasha," Bankotsu smirked; enjoying Inuyasha's pissed-off reaction.

"What did you just say?" Inuyasha shouted, feral-sounding.

"All brawns and no brain." Bankotsu remarked casually. He then twirled his sword into the air and fired lightning bolts all around him.

Inuyasha, blinded by rage, ran towards him, not expecting a jolt of lightning to run through him. His left arm went momentarily numb.

Knowing he could not wield his sword, he made a hasty retreat. "Dammit, I'll be back again soon. Just you wait."

Bankotsu sighed at watched the demon disappear through the trees. "He'll be back soon."

He then turned to Kagome, who was watching from the tree.

'Stupid women, I'm sure now she'll expect me to take care of her. If she has a concussion like I suspect, it could be three weeks before she gets better.' Bankotsu slowly walked over to her, tired out from the battle. Although he would never admit that.

"How do you feel?" He asked emotionlessly.

Kagome groaned and rubbed her temples, not getting up from her spot she was situated in. "Killer headache, I feel like I'm going to vomit."

Bankotsu sighed, having a headache and being nauseous, most likely a concussion.

'Great, this sets us back.' Bankotsu thought sourly. He then gently lifted Kagome up.

"What are you doing?" She asked, alarmed, and then held her head. "Ugh, too high too fast."

"What does it look like?" Bankotsu snapped, continuing to walk through the woods, trying not to bump her. "You have a concussion and need rest. I don't think you'll like waking up surrounded by your own blood, and you're in no shape to walk."

Kagome nodded her head in understanding. That would definitely freak her out in the morning while she was disoriented. She just didn't see why Bankotsu would care. Sighing in defeat, she rolled into Bankotsu's chest, too tired to care, and fell asleep.

Bankotsu got to a reasonable spot ten minutes later. The area wasn't too big, there were a few scattered trees around, and he could vaguely hear a stream trickling by. He laid the girl down with surprising gentleness on the soft grass. That was why he had chosen this area; it was the only place in the woods that was covered with grass and not just dirt. He didn't want to take the chance of getting the priestess's wounds infected. That would waste even more time.

He felt around for a bump on her head, and cringed when he felt how big it was. It was bound to get even bigger. Yep, she would definitely feel bad in the morning. He then surveyed the rest of her head to see if there was any bleeding. There didn't appear to be any, which was good.

Bankotsu's attention then moved to her leg. It was badly torn up and blood was steadily pouring out of the gash. He frowned; he would have to find something to wrap that up with, it would surely become infected if he didn't.

'Should probably clean it, too.' Bankotsu thought bitterly. There was no way he would do this for her on normal circumstances, but the situations called for it. Still, he was definitely tempted to leave and let some weaker demons devour her. It wasn't in his nature to help anyone except his brother.

He bit his lip in concentration, trying to see if there was any way he could wrap her wounds without destroying one of their outfits. He probably shouldn't use the girls; it needed all the cloth it could get. And he certainly wasn't wasting his garments on her wounds. His thoughts wandered to her bag, he could recall her blabbering on and on about how it held all sorts of stuff. Maybe it had bandages!

Bankotsu took off, not thinking about leaving Kagome defenseless.

Deep on the other side of the forest, Bankotsu reached the backpack lying lonely on the ground. He slid it onto his shoulders as he had seen the miko do.

'Wow, it's pretty heavy. I'm surprised that she can carry that. She looks weak enough.' Putting it onto his back made it seem a lot less heavy though, he discovered.

It then occurred to him that he had just left a sleeping, injured girl alone in the woods at dusk. Perfect for a hungry demon. Bankotsu hurried back, the weight of supplies not even bothering him.

When he got there, the site was in a mess, there were scattered branches and Kagome was nowhere to be found.

Realization hit Bankotsu, "Dammit!" He shouted angrily, punching one of the trees in a way to vent his anger. He then saw a trail of Kagome's blood, pointing west. Things just were not going his way as of late.

Bankotsu blanched and sped off towards the west, the yellow backpack bouncing behind him. The trail ended abruptly. 'It just stops, why is that?'

Bankotsu took a step farther and crashed through the ground.

'A whole in the ground? A trap. Damn. I walked straight into a trap! How stupid can I be? I should know better!' Bankotsu landed on the ground with a soft thud, still silently scolding himself for doing something so stupid.

He saw a tunnel underground. Figuring this must be where Kagome probably was, he walked through the damp tunnel.

"I should just turn back right now, except I can't because I'm ten feet underground." Bankotsu grumbled, trying to see in the dim lighting. If he had any means of leaving the hole that didn't involve him attempting to climb smooth, prone-to-collapsing dirt, he would have.

He stopped walking after he reached the end. His eyes tried to readjust to the darkness; it was even darker in there then in the tunnel.

Bankotsu then walked inside. He halted abruptly when his foot became stuck in something. 'What is that? Is that spider web?' Bankotsu bent down and pulled the sticky stuff off his foot. It was indeed a spider web, the mercenary made a face at the realization.

His eyes had now become accustomed to the dark and he could see a figure wrapped in spider webs.

Bankotsu stepped over to the web, trying to avoid the smaller spider webs hanging all around him. He took his hands and tried to pull it open, grunting in frustration when it wouldn't loosen up.

The mercenary then pulled out his Banryuu and sliced open the web with ease. Kagome fell to the ground with a thud. 'So she was in there. How the hell is she still asleep?'

Bankotsu lifted the injured unconscious girl carefully. "Let's get out of here. I hate spiders."

Walking to the end of the tunnel, Bankotsu was stumped about how he suppose to get out of there. 'It'd be hard enough by myself, but with Inuyasha's wench…'

He stuck his Banryuu into the wall, watching the dirt fall to the ground, making the opening wider. Searching for a part of the dirt wall that was stable, he finally found a patch and placed his sword into the side.

It was stable, so Bankotsu used his sword to lift himself up. He dangled there for a few seconds before pulling himself up, and in an act of major balance, managed to actually stand on the handle of his weapon. All with one free hand. Grabbing the ledge, he sat Kagome on the ground above and used his spare hand to retrieve his halberd. If anyone had been watching they would have been amazed.

He then spun around to come face to face with a giant spider.

"How dare you take my snack away from me! Give me the girl and I might spare you." The spider demon said eerily while making its way towards Kagome.

"Not so fast!" Bankotsu shouted while pointing his sword at the spider demon. He was tired, he didn't have any demon blood in him, so he couldn't fight battle after battle without needing a break, and climbing up the cave had taken a lot out of him. Plus, he hated spiders.

The demon shot a string of web towards Bankotsu, only hitting his hand, and feeling like a feather had touched him.

"You think some measly spider web will defeat me?" Bankotsu questioned cockily.

The demon laughed. Bankotsu tried to brush the thin spider web off, but it wouldn't budge.

"What kind of web is this?" He asked, demanding answers. Try as he might, he could not just shake the damn thing off.

The web was beginning to spread, making a case around his fingers, causing them to lose their mobility. He was grateful he already had his weapon in his hand. "I've had enough of you!"

In one swift movement, he chopped the spider's head clear off, landing near the body with a thud.

Bankotsu desperately tried to slice the web off with his Banryuu, grateful that after a few slices it had finally slid off. The spider web had been growing at a tremendous rate even after the demon dissolved into ashes. By the time he managed to get it off, it was already over more than half his arm.

'Stupid women…' Bankotsu glanced at the girl whole was lying on the ground, breathing softly. She had tendrils of web still stuck in her hair, giving her a surreal look. Her lips were frowning, pouting as if someone hadn't given her what she wanted.

"How are you still asleep?" Bankotsu asked the sleeping figure in amazement. Maybe her head had been hit worse than he thought…

Without another thought, he readjusted the backpack on his right shoulder and picked Kagome up bridal style, not noticing the soft smile that had appeared on her face.