AN: I'm sorry it's been over a month, but I hope you like the chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and never will.

Bankotsu had been in this weird, crazy world for a week now. They had waited until Kagome was completely recovered and Bankotsu trained a bit (the first part much to his annoyance.) It was now time to start their official journey to the mountains where they could hopefully find the priestess. Of course that was assuming that she actually existed, considering that the woman who had told them about her couldn't be described as 'sane.'

"Should we really be going on something that crazy wench said?" Bankotsu asked, wondering why they were listening to her in the first place.

Kagome paused for a second to think about it, then resumed her walking pace, attempting, but failing to match Bankotsu's quick one.

She finally answered after some time, "What other choice do we have? It's the only hint we have at this point."

Bankotsu sped up more, seeing as Kagome was actually beginning to catch up.

"You have a point, I guess."

Kagome smiled triumphantly. She was right, and Bankotsu agreed, that just made her so happy for some reason.

Bankotsu noticed her grin. "Why are you smiling?" He questioned, observing her with slight suspicion. He didn't think he had it in her to plan anything, but you never know.

"No reason," Kagome answered, continuing to smile.

"Well, quit it." Bankotsu muttered disdainfully.

"Nope, I don't feel like it." Kagome chirped and continued smiling, brighter than before. Bankotsu was sure this was just to annoy him further.

Kagome sped up her pace to match Bankotsu's once more. Bankotsu noticed and increased pace. By now Kagome was jogging, and she had no clue as to why he insisted on walking ahead.

Bankotsu looked at the girl beside him; couldn't she just let him walk in front?

Kagome was breathing heavily now. 'How is he able to do this without breaking a sweat? I've had enough of this.' Kagome tugged Bankotsu's braid, causing him to come to a halt.

"What did you just do?" Bankotsu managed ask while glaring daggers at Kagome.

Kagome finally frowned, although Bankotsu wasn't as pleased about this as he should be.

Kagome simply answered, "I pulled your braid."

"Well don't do it again," Bankotsu said while starting to walk again, this time at a slower pace.

Kagome merely huffed resentfully, before finally adding in, "Quit walking so fast."

Bankotsu regarded her for a second, before completely ignoring her and race walking ahead of her.

Kagome slowly simmered. He had some nerve to just totally pay no mind to her, like she didn't exist. Kagome couldn't stand that.

So Kagome made a rather arbitrary decision, without bothering to give it a second thought, she just turned the other way and started walking, anything to get away from Bankotsu.

It was roughly an hour later when Kagome realized the full effect of what she had done. It was a stupid and brash mistake, and she honestly wasn't sure what she was going to do. She could keep walking and possibly find the well, that didn't work, mind you, or she could turn around and go find Bankotsu and apologize. Neither objects sounded favorable, but if she went back to the well, she could probably find that lady who told her about the miko. It might take a little persuasion, but she could probably get her to tell a little bit more about just what was going on.

Not quite sure what to do, Kagome sat on the itchy ground and thought over her choices carefully. Normally, her first choice would be to do pick the one she was better off with, except in this case, Bankotsu would without a doubt be furious. She honestly wasn't sure she wanted to go back to an irate Bankotsu.

Kagome sighed heavily and took her backpack off of her shoulders and filtered through the contents for a bag of chips. It was her last bag, but junk food is proven to make people feel better.

After munching on chips for nearly half and hour, and yelling at herself for eating an entire bag, she decided to set off in search of Bankotsu. Getting yelled at was probably better than getting lost and killed by a youkai. Took her long enough to figure that out.

Kagome had been walking for roughly ten minutes and was thinking about all that happened. Would she be able to get back? That is if they were somewhere else, but from what Kagome had seen, that was the case. It was so similar, yet so different, an imperfect replica.

For example, the Bone Eater's Well, it was filled with water. If it was correct, it should be dry and at the least be able to transport Kagome to her time. Of course, she didn't think Naraku actually knew of this little detail, so it was a plain well. Although she doubted that even he would be able to cause a well to link with another time.

She quickened her pace, wanting to tell Bankotsu of her theory. Plus, she wanted to go back near the well.

"I wonder if there is a mark where Inuyasha was sealed to the tree. Naraku would know about that, I'm sure…" Kagome trailed off, too lost in thought to bother voicing her opinions to the trees.

Kagome froze dead in her tracks; she thought she just saw a glimpse of red fly by. She slowly shook her head, willing the panic to disperse. It was probably a bird, nothing more, she repeated in the mantra over and over again in her head. Was this Naraku's goal? To make her so terrified of the simplest things she was borderline insane?

Kagome smiled cheerfully while focusing her thoughts elsewhere. The sun was shinning, there wasn't even a light breeze, the birds were chirping, the weather was perfect… And she had Bankotsu for company…

Kagome frowned, hearing the loud crack of a twig snapping. Inuyasha jumped in front of her, causing Kagome to scream and step back. Inuyasha caught her before she could fall.

"Are you okay Kagome?"

"Kagome's been missing for a long time." Bankotsu lazily remarked to himself.

It wasn't like he was stupid; he noticed when Kagome decided to leave him. He just didn't care. It was bad enough that he was in charge of babysitting her when she was with him, do to his damn conscious, when she wasn't there, it wouldn't be his fault.

Stupid women, she was causing him to grow a conscious. It would definitely be for the better if she was killed by some demon. Yeah, it would probably be helpful to have the girl that got them into this mess with them when he confronted Naraku -good shield- but he could take care of Naraku by himself.

Bankotsu didn't see why Kagome figured they should go to this miko. The answer was simple really, confront Naraku and kill him. Then… well he hadn't got that far yet.

The point was, he refused to be the bigger person and go find Kagome. She could go get herself killed for all he cared.

About five minutes later, Bankotsu was backtracking. Yes, he was looking for Kagome. It would be in his best interest to find her because he really could use a shield, he figured. Besides, then he'd have something to hold against her.

He really wasn't in the mood to walk. Bankotsu was in one of those moods were you don't even want to talk, just lay there. He silently cursed Kagome for making him completely backtrack the ground he covered from a large part of the day. Never mind that part of that was his fault for not getting her in the first place.

Bankotsu hummed in boredom, drumming his fingers on Banryuu, life really sucked sometimes.

While Bankotsu was walking, he noticed something. There were a lot of trees in a forest. At the same time, that's not all of what a forest was. There were always other things there, usually a mundane brown. Occasionally, there would be a nice color here and there, maybe a blue bird, or some red flowers. But for the most part, forests were incredibly boring.

Bankotsu scoffed at himself, he couldn't believe he was bothering to think about something as useless as trees. His thoughts wondered to Kagome.

Kagome was a strange girl, to say the least. She surprised him with the things she did, once he thought he would get a predictable response from her, she'd behave in an entirely new way. And she thought he was weird.

The mercenary breathed silently, he had finally located his annoying priestess.

"Kagome, where have you been?" Inuyasha asked angrily. It wasn't like Kagome to just leave.

"Inuyasha, sit."

Inuyasha was then forced to the ground by a pair of enchanted beads around his neck. He grumbled and finally got up after laying there and cursing.

"What the hell was that for?" The half demon asked, glaring fiercely at Kagome.

Kagome smiled and hugged the unsuspecting Inuyasha. "Inuyasha, it really is you!"

Inuyasha sneered, "Who else would it be?"

"Never mind," Kagome said while shaking her head, it was useless to bring that up right now.

"Now Kagome, I need you to come with me someplace, alright. It's extremely important that you do."

Kagome looked at the half demon in puzzlement. "Go where?"

"That's not important right now." Inuyasha muttered while gently coaxing her into his arms.

"B-but…" Kagome tried to get a few words in amongst her stuttering, but was quickly cut off by Inuyasha who had wrapped his arms around her in a death grip.

"Inuyasha, let go! Not so tight…" Kagome muttered, struggling in his grasp. At this rate Inuyasha was going to kill her.

After thrashing about for a couple of seconds, Kagome finally shouted, "Inuyasha, SIT!"

Magically, Inuyasha plowed into the ground. It was truly a wondrous sight, the kind you'd see in a love story… To bad Inuyasha ruined it by all of his growling.

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief, she was incredibly grateful Inuyasha let go before he fell, or else she would have been taken down with him. And she really didn't want to think about that.

Inuyasha finally returned from his hole. "That was really stupid…" He snarled through clenched teeth. Kagome recoiled when she saw his eyes. They were a wild and fiery color, the only emotion evident was pure hatred. Those sent shivers down Kagome's spine.

"Inuyasha, sit…" Kagome whispered hastily under her breath.

Once again Inuyasha plowed into the ground.

"Damn it all! I told Naraku it was a stupid idea to get those beads." Inuyasha furiously hollered. Now she had the upper hand.

The demonic Inuyasha sighed; maybe he should try a different approach.

"I won't hurt you; I just need to take you to Naraku is all." Inuyasha said slowly, in some sort of futile attempt to control his anger.

This scared Kagome even further. She quickly tried to dash away, but Inuyasha's reflexes were far more superior to Kagome's.

Just as Kagome was about to say sit, Inuyasha clamped a clawed hand over her mouth, preventing her from saying the dreaded word.

"I told Naraku that the beads were a stupid idea. I think the only reason he did it was because he wanted to see if he could." Inuyasha remarked coldly, while fingering the pesky things on his neck with his free hand.

Bankotsu watched the scene from his convenient perch on a tree. He was certain Inuyasha had sensed his presence, but he hadn't made any moves yet. This caused Bankotsu to narrow his eyes at the demon.

'What, does he think I'm not strong enough to fight him? I'll show him.' Bankotsu thought, making a fist. He was going to knock Inuyasha out into tomorrow.

Inuyasha looked at the miko, pondering how he should go about her impending death. Naraku said he wanted the miko, dead or alive. Ever since he had been created, Inuyasha had been itching to kill someone who would actually put up a fight. He was grateful to have been entrusted with the task of tracking down the wench.

Bankotsu walked up lazily to Inuyasha, carrying a look of indifference on his face.

"I need you to let the damn wench go." He said, the polite tone of his voice hiding the hidden malice behind it.

"And why would I do that?" Inuyasha questioned, grabbing the girl by her hair while still keeping one hand over her mouth.

"Because she's my annoying wench and it's my job to protect her!" Bankotsu took out Banryuu and cut Inuyasha's arm off in one swift motion.

Inuyasha examined what was left of his arm and tried to stop the blood that was gushing out of it to no avail. "You'll pay for this!"

Inuyasha could only curse and hold his arm in agony. There was an excruciating pain in his shoulder. How could he have not seen it coming?

Inuyasha ran up to Bankotsu lightning fast and swung his sharp claws at him, leaving Kagome sitting on the ground, her eyes resembled saucers. Bankotsu saw the attack coming and already had his halberd up by the time Inuyasha came near him.

"Nice try Inuyasha. Maybe one of these times you'll actually hit me!" Bankotsu taunted, while flinging his sword in the air with much skill.

Inuyasha kept swinging at Bankotsu, careful to dodge his attacks. "Blades of Blood!" He called out, sending the attack straight for Bankotsu.

"Damn it." Bankotsu grumbled, while holding his right arm for a moment. That attack was stronger than what he felt the last time they fought.

"What's wrong, can't take it?" Inuyasha mocked from behind, sending a punch to the mercenary.

Bankotsu tried desperately to breathe again, seeing as Inuyasha had knocked all the wind out of him. Bankotsu flung his sword at Inuyasha, but it missed, landing in a nearby tree.

"Hah, now you're all open." Inuyasha said while smirking, casually walking over to the large tree that had the halberd lodged into it.

Right when the demon Inuyasha touched the weapon, it glowed a bright red aura and the tree exploded. Splinters of wood scattered, all around and a good deal of them ended up hitting the unsuspecting demon.

"Shit…" Inuyasha muttered, he really hadn't seen that coming.

Inuyasha growled, nothing was working out. He was badly injured. He had his fucking arm lobbed off. It still hurt like hell, even with Inuyasha's higher tolerance for pain, and it probably would hurt until he had it fixed.

Kagome looked on in horror as she saw a tree explode… in what appeared to be a giant red electric shock. 'I've never seen Bankotsu do that attack before…' Kagome thought while wincing, imagining how that would have hurt if it was actually in someone.

"What's wrong Inuyasha; you're arm finally catching up to you?" Bankotsu questioned while smirking broadly. He had the upper hand now and he knew it.

Causally, he walked up to Inuyasha after retrieving Banryuu. He pointed the large sword right at Inuyasha's neck.

"So, how do you want to die?"

Inuyasha looked down at Bankotsu, his eyes holding unimaginable amounts of anger in them. There was no way he was going to lose to this petty human.

In the blink of an eye, Inuyasha had tackled Bankotsu on the ground and had managed to pry Bankotsu's sword out of his hands.

"How do you want to die?"

Slap!

Bankotsu and Inuyasha simultaneously blinked. Inuyasha removed the annoying girl's hand off of his face, gripping it tightly.

"You seriously want to die, don't you?" He growled, if he held Kagome's hand any harder, it would snap.

Bankotsu punched Inuyasha square in the jaw, sending him stumbling back a few paces. He grabbed Banryuu, who was lying on the ground and breathed a silent sigh of relief. Maybe he'd cut Kagome some slack later for that, maybe.

Inuyasha was busy trying to grab Kagome, who had squirmed out of his good hand. It was hard to catch the girl with only one arm available.

Bankotsu seized this opportunity and stabbed Inuyasha right in the chest. He dropped the girl who he had finally managed to wrap his arm around.

Bankotsu looked on in surprise. "How are you still alive?"

Inuyasha staggered, but managed to keep standing up. "Ha, no way I'm telling you how."

Inuyasha managed to put the pain aside and run at least a mile before finally collapsing.

Unknown to Kagome and Bankotsu, Kagura had been watching the whole fight with mild interest.

'Maybe he could set me free… He'd need work, but he could do it…'

Kagura sighed, and excited the area as silently as she did entering. She had a half dead demon to pick up.

Kagome shivered, she could have sworn she felt someone watching her, but she shrugged it aside. She sighed and rubbed her wrists, she would have large bruise marks there for some time.

"You okay?" Bankotsu asked, looking at her bruises with distaste.

Kagome nodded and said, "What about you, you're the one with cuts. We should clean those before they become infected."

After coming back with her backpack which had been discarded shortly after she found Inuyasha, she pulled out some bandages and rubbing alcohol.

"I just don't see why Inuyasha didn't use his sword at all. It's not Tetsusaiga, it was just modeled to look after it, but still, why didn't he use it?" Kagome asked suddenly while wiping Bankotsu's cuts with the alcohol.

Bankotsu winced, but refused to call out. "It's probably a pride thing. He feels that he shouldn't have to draw his sword on a lowly human. Typical demon thing."

"Really? How do you know?" Kagome wondered.

"Trust me, I fight demons like him all the time." Bankotsu answered, inspecting Kagome's handiwork.

"I though people hired you to kill humans." Kagome remarked, more to herself while picking up the contents of her bag.

"And demons."

Kagome nodded in understanding, she supposed sometimes he could be fighting in favor for a village instead of against it.

"Come on Shield, let's go."

Kagome looked around, what was Bankotsu talking about? "What do you mean shield?"

"That's your new name." Bankotsu answered in mock pride.

"I prefer Kagome."

"And I prefer Shield."

Kagome sighed. She wasn't sure what was better, girl or shield.

"I'm coming," She muttered while begrudgingly walking after him. At least Bankotsu wasn't being a complete jerk.