AN: Sorry for the long wait, my computer had a huge virus. We took it in for over a month, and the person just ended up making it even worse... And then my MP3 player broke, and TV... I swear, everything I touch breaks. Anyways, I hope you like the chapter.

Disclaimer: Do I own Inuyasha? Of course not, I'm merely a humble fan.

Bankotsu huffed irritably. It was ridiculous; here he was a mercenary, a killer, taking care of some women. The women who bugged him to no end.

Of course don't get him wrong, she was pretty, beautiful even, but her tongue quickly made you forget all about that. Sure, he had annoyed her as well, but she owed him that much. It was revenge and funny as hell, too.

The women stirred in her sleep. Bankotsu watched for signs of awakening, and continued on when he received none.

'Probably exhausted.' Bankotsu thought while washing her leg with some water from the stream up ahead. He was grateful that the water was decently clean, or else he was afraid it would have done more harm than help.

'Trouble sure does follow her around.' It was true, in the short time he had really known her, so many bad things had already happened. She was so optimistic though, he was positive she would have just corrected him and called them, 'minor setbacks'.

Bankotsu couldn't blame her for being tired. He himself was almost falling asleep, taking pauses from cleansing Kagome's wounds to rest his eyes.

What startled him was that he was so tired. He was use to countless battles, sure not one after another, but he should have been able to handle two. Of course, he did miss a night of sleep, and traveling through books really could wear a person out.

Still, nonetheless Bankotsu felt he was losing his touch. As soon as he was finished with fixing the miko, he was going to go train.

The mercenary checked the bump on the girl's forehead and winced. It had definitely swelled since he last checked.

"Well, nothing I can do about that." Bankotsu muttered. "Had to go get into trouble, didn't ya?"

Bankotsu sighed, 'That's the best I can do.'

"I should go train now. Wait, what should I do with Inuyasha's wench?" Bankotsu glanced at the sleeping girl. "Screw it, I'll train later. Damn wench."

He was in no mood to train, although he really should. But then he would have to find a decent spot away from camp, wake up the women or lug her around and he was exhausted. It was not worth it no matter how badly he was in need of some training.

Bankotsu threw himself onto the ground with a thump. 'Oww… Why the hell didn't I just get down like a normal person?'

He situated himself about three feet away from Kagome. He then closed his eyes, immediately drifting into darkness.

Kagome awoke to birds chirping. She opened her eyes and immediately regretted it. The sun was high up in the sky and glaring down brightly at her.

After the brightness faded, she noticed a pair of strong arms wrapped around her. Strong muscular arms…

Kagome stared at Bankotsu, his arms tightly wrapped around her. His mouth was cocked open just a tad and if the situation had differed Kagome would have giggled. He was so cute when he was asleep! Although when he was awake he was just annoying.

She then noticed that she had his hands around him as well. Quickly she moved them away, waking him.

Bankotsu's cobalt eyes bore into hers, after a minute he smirked. "So, was I good?"

"Huh?"

"You know, last night…" He trailed off.

Kagome looked at him blankly.

Bankotsu laughed. "Was I really boring enough for you to forget all about it? You sure seemed to be having fun."

Suddenly realization hit Kagome like a bullet. Her eyes looked as if any minute they would pop out and her mouth hung wide open. Her face was also a brilliant shade of red.

"What?" She screeched. 'We didn't! I don't remember. But what if I for some reason forgot? I do have a concussion, maybe it- what?'

"No we didn't!" Kagome said, only somewhat certain.

Bankotsu laughed. "Sure did take you a minute to figure that out. Nope, sorry, only in your dreams."

"As if I would ever dream of that with you." Kagome responded, her face reddening once more.

Kagome had actually dreamt that she was falling, but then all of a sudden a pair of arms grabbed her and rescued her. She assumed they were Inuyasha's but she couldn't remember anything besides that. Nothing like... that.

"Sure," Bankotsu said doubtfully. "As if I'd lower my standards anyway."

Kagome glared at him and rolled her eyes, trying to calm her face down to its normal color. 'Standards? That jerk.'

"Can you make us something to eat?" Bankotsu asked, finally sitting up.

Kagome huffed and turned her head slightly to the left. "Nope," 'There is absolutely no way I'm going to do something for that idiot.'

"Is that any way to treat the person who saved your life?"

Kagome said nothing.

"Don't ignore me! If it wasn't for me, you'd be dead." Bankotsu shouted angrily.

'Note to self: Bankotsu hates being ignored.' Kagome thought to herself, Bankotsu was glaring daggers at her. She gave in, not really in the mood to have a mercenary pissed off at her.

"Fine." Well, at least he did ask. Unlike a certain Inuyasha.

Bankotsu tossed Kagome her bag. "Here,"

Her face lit up. "My bag! Did you go get it after…?" She trailed off.

Bankotsu nodded. He knew that the whole Inuyasha thing was going to be a touchy subject with her. He'd have to remember that in case she made him angry again.

"Wasn't worth all the trouble, either." He grumbled. Seriously, they would have been better off without it.

"Thanks," Kagome smiled, grateful that he could at least be somewhat considerate, occasionally.

Kagome got up shakily and tripped, scraping her already cut leg. "Oww," She muttered, tears forming at her eyes.

Bankotsu huffed. "Look at what you did. Your bandages are torn. How'd you manage to trip?"

It would have seemed like a mother scolding a child to a random passerby.

The young mercenary went over to Kagome and examined her leg.

"That's just great. I have to clean and bandage that again." Bankotsu muttered irritably.

Kagome sighed, "I'm sorry, I didn't really mean to trip."

"Well, obviously."

Kagome crossed her arms and huffed in annoyance. She said sorry, he didn't have to be rude. Kagome was sure anyone else would have understood. Jerk.

Bankotsu reached into Kagome's backpack and pulled out more gauze.

"Let me do it." Kagome said, and then he'd have nothing to complain about.

Bankotsu didn't answer, just threw the gauze at Kagome. Luckily, she caught it.

It didn't take Kagome too long to fix her leg. She had plenty of practice with herself and friends getting hurt all the time. She always volunteered, since she felt a little bad because she couldn't hold her own against any of the demons they fought.

"Now would you like me to try and make something?" Kagome asked after she finished.

Bankotsu looked up from the spot he was lying on. "Sure, you're not going to trip, are you?"

Kagome narrowed her eyes at him and answered testily, "Yes, I won't trip!"

'Easy now, Kagome. Don't rush it.' She chided herself.

She first got into a kneeling position and slowly steadied herself until she stood up straight. Her legs were seriously stiff and it hurt a little to put a ton of pressure on them.

"Ahh!" Kagome shouted, waving her hands around frantically in an act to balance her self. Thank goodness she didn't fall again.

The rest of the trip to her bag was smooth sailing, sort of. It took her a while, but she finally made her and Bankotsu their lunch.

"You know that was probably the most amusing thing I've seen in a while." Bankotsu remarked while Kagome was handing him his bowl of ramen, carefully, of course.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself." Kagome muttered sarcastically.

They ate in absolute silence. A rather awkward silence, at least to Kagome. She was currently staring at Bankotsu, her empty bowl beside her.

'Why won't he say something? It's better when he's insulting me. Creepy…' Kagome said to herself, watching Bankotsu scrutinize her.

Kagura cocked her head just slightly to the left, listening for any sounds. Once she was sure that there was no one watching her, she opened up the invisible door to Naraku's castle. Actually, Naraku's second castle, seeing as this was the one he had in the 'normal world.'

She rounded the large staircase and walked down a narrow hallway. Naraku had told her to meet Kanna here, and she was indeed standing behind the overly large door.

"The Double requests you go check up on things on the 'Other Side.' There appears to be some problems." Kanna monotonically said, gazing down at her mirror.

"What kind of problems?" Kagura asked suspiciously. With Naraku's ego, she hardly could believe he was asking for help.

"It appears that there is some trouble with the two that are in."

Kagura nodded in understanding. It was now her turn to have a whack at them.

"But won't Naraku get mad at me just popping in?" Kagura asked, not wanting to deal with that, again.

"I have already discussed it with him."

Of course, Kanna was always on step ahead of everyone else. She was actually the mastermind of quite a few of Naraku's plans.

Kagura sighed and opened up a portal, "Very well then."

_

Kagura wasn't stupid, she could be nearly, nearly, as tactful and intelligent as Kanna if she worked on it. Kagura could also understand the one thing that Kanna couldn't, they were being used. They were like toy soldiers, mindlessly following orders, not caring what would happen to them as long as their precious Naraku was perfectly fine. That was how incarnations were supposed to think. Blindly trusting their creator.

For some reason, Kagura wasn't like that. She had immediately seen the lie behind all of his honey-like words and accused him for what he was. It wasn't surprising that she had paid the price. Now Naraku had her heart in his hands, and there was nothing she could do about it. Nothing yet, of course.

'One act of betrayal and I'm dead.' Kagura thought to herself with a long sigh.

The portal closed around her, and she saw the Other Side. It looked like a carbon copy of the 'normal world' except with a few minor changes to suit Naraku's needs.

In the distance was Naraku's larger castle. Kagura could see it from here even though she was quite far away. The walls were a stony grey and there was one large door that she could see from here, although there were two others.

Kagura created her feather and sat on it, not in the mood to walk there.

When she arrived at the door she silently opened it, knowing all too well that Naraku knew she was here the minute she arrived. Creepy…

"Kagura."

Kagura resisted the urge to jump and scream, choosing instead to hold it in. Seriously, did Naraku find that amusing?

"Naraku, the Double had requested me to come here." Kagura said, trying to not let her hate for the half demon show.

Naraku gave a sinister smile and calmly replied, "Yes of course, I have already talked it over with Kanna. Please come in."

"And what if I refuse?" Kagura muttered coldly and stood in her tracks, not wanting to spend more time in the castle than she had to.

Naraku smiled at her, a callous one. He said nothing but simply pulled out her heart and gave it a squeeze.

Kagura fell to the floor in an instant, clutching her chest in pain.

"Please come in Kagura," He ordered once more, before walking through the dark maze of corridors.

Kagura soon got up and followed, all the while thinking about her plans of betrayal. 'Soon, the time will come. Naraku won't know what hit him.'

"Where the hell is Kagome?" Inuyasha asked while appearing before Suikotsu and Jakotsu's shocked faces.

"Wow, this is great Inuyasha! You finally came to me!" Jakotsu shouted happily, earning a groan from Inuyasha.

"Shut up!" Inuyasha glared at the mercenary, "Where is Kagome, when know you have her!"

Jakotsu look appalled. "Why would I be near something as awful as a woman?"

Miroku sighed, watching Inuyasha from the sidelines near Sango. This wasn't going to get them anywhere. Three days, Kagome had been missing for nearly three days now. Sango had ran up to him and started shouting about how Kagome and Bankotsu were gone and had disappeared.

Miroku had been honestly confused. It wasn't like anything he had ever seen before. A book trapping someone within its pages perhaps? That sounded too strange even after all the things he had been through. The Shichinintai had to have something to do with it.

Inuyasha growled at the two mercenaries. Here he was wasting time with these two idiots; Kagome could be dead for all he knew.

"Look! Last time we saw Bankotsu was when he told us to go find this Sesshomaru person!" Suikotsu shouted angrily, he was looking forward to fighting without anything getting in the way for once. He didn't need Inuyasha bugging them about something that they didn't do.

"Do you have any idea where Bankotsu might have gone?" Sango asked, waiting on the sidelines with Miroku.

"And why should we tell you?" Jakotsu spat out, not intending to give out information to a woman. Maybe to Inuyasha, but not to some witch.

"Because Bankotsu could be in as much danger as Kagome if something did happen." Mirkou reasoned. At this rate, they weren't going to get anywhere and it was just a waste of time. They had already wasted three days searching around the area for Kagome.

"Well, he did say something about going to fight Inuyasha…" Jakotsu said, but then stopped when he received a glare from Suikotsu.

"So, then he should have been around Inuyasha's forest when Kagome disappeared." Sango muttered, more to herself than anyone else. She sat on Kilala, figuring this conversation would be over with soon. Sango knew what she saw, Bankotsu and Kagome started glowing, and then they disappeared. So did that book Kagome was reading from…

"Look that's all we know, I'm sure big Brother is fine." Suikotsu bit out through clenched teeth. They had no clue about what happened to Bankotsu and Inuyasha's wench. Suikotsu was sure Bankotsu was fine wherever he was.

"By the way, you'll never stand a chance against Sesshomaru." Inuyasha said.

"What do you mean by that?" Jakotsu asked furiously. He could take care of himself. It wasn't like he needed Inuyasha to watch out for him, no matter how cute it was.

"If you don't stand a chance against us, there's no way you'll be able to kill Sesshomaru." Inuyasha answered, and Jakotsu could swear he saw him smirking.

Sango narrowed her eyes at Inuyasha. Just what did Inuyasha think he was doing? 'Is he trying to bait them? We don't need to fight.'

"Inuyasha." Mirkou stepped between him and Jakotsu. Things were getting out of hand.

"What are you trying to accomplish by fighting?"

Inuyasha glared at the two mercenaries. "If they won't tell me where Kagome is, I'll have to beat it out of them."

Mirkou sighed and tried to reason with him, "And what if they really are telling the truth?"

Inuyasha was at a loss for words. He couldn't argue with that.

"Fine then let's go." Inuyasha mumbled and took one last glance at Jakotsu, "And if I find out he's done anything to Kagome, you'll all die."

Jakotsu and Suikotsu scoffed at this. As if Inuyasha would be able to take out Bankotsu of all people. There was a reason why he was in charge. He was strong, strong enough to be at a half demon level even with out the Sacred Jewel shards.

"Yeah right, Bankotsu would never lose to you." Suikotsu snarled. "You have some nerve just walking up to us and insulting our leader."

"Come on. Let's go Inuyasha." Mirkou said, trying to avoid confrontation. 'That's the last thing we need.'

"Feh, whatever."

Jakotsu and Suikotsu watched as they all left. Inuyasha and Mirkou running and Sango flying along on that demon cat. How did that monk manage to run that quickly?

After they were out of hearing range, Jakotsu whispered, "Should we follow them?"

Suikotsu looked puzzled. "Why would we do that?" Wouldn't Bankotsu get upset if they strayed from their mission?

"Well, what if they're right and Bankotsu really is missing?"

Suikotsu didn't answer for a good five minutes. He had to think this through carefully, Bankotsu always said that Jakotsu was too rash for his own good. Maybe they should follow… But what of Sesshomaru? Inuyasha did say that they were too weak to fight him, but he hardly believed that. Finally Suikotsu said something he would probably regret later, they were bound to get noticed sooner or later.

"Fine," Suikotsu answered unhappily.

Jakotsu's eyes perked up. "This is wonderful! Now I get to watch my wonderful Inuyasha from afar!"

Suikotsu raised an eyebrow, wondering if this is the only reason Jakotsu wanted to follow them.

Jakotsu brightly smiled. Suikotsu was sure he was going to become blind from the happiness of it, if that was possible.

"What are you waiting for? We don't want them to become out of our eyesight, do we?" After saying that, Jakotsu took off running in the direction Inuyasha had run off in.

Suikotsu couldn't help but smile at his friend's antics.

They had just been sitting there for two hours. This was seriously getting out of hand.

'Is this going to be like this everyday?' Kagome thought to herself. If that was the case, she'd go insane.

The next thing Kagome knew, She was lifted up in the air and but over Bankotsu's shoulders.

"What are you doing?" Kagome screeched while hitting his should blade.

"Would you quit that?" Bankotsu ground out irritably.

Kagome did stop hitting his shoulder, but continued to yell, "Where are you taking me?"

"I'm going to train and I am not in the mood to have to go find you when something takes you."

Kagome glared at Bankotsu's back. "And just how do you know something will come after me?"

Bankotsu rolled his eyes and kept walking, bouncing Kagome around. "Trust me, you're a danger magnet."

"I am n-not!" Kagome shouted, offended by his claims. "And could you quit bouncing so much?"

Bankotsu pretending to ponder this for a moment. "Nah, I don't feel like it."

"Jerk," Kagome huffed. Here she was being carried like a sack of potatoes. She could walk on her own without tripping, contrary to Bankotsu's beliefs.

Kagome's eyes took in the scenery. They were still in the forest, a forest that looked just like Inuyasha's. Her eyes looked down at Bankotsu back. He really was muscular, you could tell even with his clothing on.

Kagome flipped out and blushed at the thought of Bankotsu shirtless. 'Kagome get a hold of yourself!'

She then looked at his sword, Banryuu. It was definitely the biggest sword she had ever seen. Kagome reached out her hand it touched the cloth around it. Her eyes lit up, it was the softest thing she had ever felt!

Just then Bankotsu sat her down.

"This looks like a good spot."

They were in a small clearing, surrounded by trees on either side.

"What am I suppose to do?" Kagome asked. It wasn't like she had her bow and arrows with her.

"I don't know… You could watch me and see how awesome I am." Bankotsu responded, smirking.

Kagome jeered, "As if I'd ever think you were awesome."

Bankotsu winked at her. "Trust me, after you've seen me train, you'll think I'm awesome."

Bankotsu began to train. As soon as he took the cloth off of Banryuu, Kagome had quickly grabbed it and started rubbing on it while he trained.

'Darn it, he's right. He is awesome.' Kagome admitted in her mind, although she would never tell him. Kagome had never seen anyone train before besides Sango, as Inuyasha did all of his in secrecy for some reason. It was amazing. Almost as if he was dancing. Kagome hated to state it, but it was probably the coolest thing she had ever seen.

For some reason Kagome started laughing for no reason. It was just so cool, she figured.

A pair of red eyes stared at Bankotsu as well. Kagura figured she could probably just kidnap the girl, but it would be better to first know what she was up against.

Nearly an hour later Bankotsu was done.

"So, how was I?" Bankotsu asked cockily. He breathed heavily and beads of sweat rolled down his face, he really pushed himself that time. Probably to impress Kagome, but Bankotsu would never verbally say that.

"Eh, you were okay." Kagome said snobbishly, still absentmindedly fiddling with Banryuu's cloth.

"Okay?" Bankotsu questioned, "I'm offended, wench."

"Yeah, will I'm offended that you keep calling me wench." Kagome muttered testily.

"Fine, how was I, Kagome?" Bankotsu was willing to go to any means to make her say how good he really thought she was. He was definitely better than okay.

Kagome smiled, pleased that he was using her name for once. "Not bad," She admitted.

"Not bad, wench?" Bankotsu asked Kagome while smirking.

Kagome sighed, knowing Bankotsu had won this round. "Fine, you were amazing."

Bankotsu smirked triumphantly. "Now that more like it, Kagome."