TRI: Since I don't have a good excuse for why this is late, I don't have much to say before the chapter begins. I mean, seriously? It's been like 11 months since this was last updated. What the hell is wrong with me? Plus Inner-Demon is locked up for another week for biting me, so let's get on with it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu or his series.

TRI: Hey you, get away from there!

?: What's your problem?

TRI: You're my problem! That's my story you're writing on, not yours! No way I'd ever call him Inu! Hey wait a minute…You're that person from before! Stop bothering me!

?: Seesh…Fine! I'll leave you alone on two conditions. One, you will make me an account on this site.

TRI: Okay…

?: And two…Become my slave!

TRI: No fucking way.

?: …Fine. We have a deal.

TRI: Okay. I'll make your account once this is finished.

?: I'll wait over there then.

TRI: Geez…Become my slave? Maybe if I was an "M"…Alright, let's do this!

CHAPTER START

Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippo had just left the village when Kagome stopped them.

"Before we start walking, shouldn't we figure out were we're going?"

"Yeah, Inuyasha. We don't want to walk one way for the rest of the day just to find out we've been going the wrong way." Shippo said.

"You're not even going to walk at all. You'll probably just sit on my head for the rest of the day. Shippo used to do that all the time back…back then." Inuyasha looked sad as he said that.

"Back then? You mean when his parents…?"

Kagome stopped when she saw that Shippo was on the verge of crying.

"Anyway," Inuyasha said, trying to quickly change the subject, "you have a point Kagome. Now let's see…My mom said that my dad left me a clue on where to go in my fire rat haori."

Inuyasha took his haori off and started looking for…something, anything that didn't belong. After about 10 minutes he was about ready to give up, when he spotted the corner of what looked like a small piece of parchment.

"Kagome, come over here and look at this!" Kagome got up from where she had sat down with Shippo and stood next to Inuyasha. "Doesn't that look suspicious to you?"

"It does. Hopefully it hasn't been woven into the fabric."

"I doubt that my dad would've wanted me to tear apart my fire rat haori just to read a piece of parchment."

After another minute of searching, they found that the parchment was actually folded and fitted into a very small hole where somebody had torn a hole into his haori. It was so small that there was no way that he would've found it if he wasn't looking for some kind of imperfection in his precious clothing. When they pulled out the parchment, however, the hole disappeared.

"I supposed I should have mentioned that it could repair itself, huh?"

"Well, it makes things a little easier that's for sure."

As Inuyasha unfolded the parchment, he saw one word, written in big, neat letters.

"Totosai"

"Inuyasha," Kagome and Shippo both asked." who's Totosai?"

"I should've known. Totosai's an old friend of my dad. Totosai made his swords. I bet that my dad had a sword made for me. That must be why I'm going there."

"So where is Totosai's place, Inuyasha?"

"Well, Totosai always came over to our home, but dad once told me that he lives near a volcano, or it might've been in a volcano. I don't remember which, but the volcano's over in…" He started mumbling to himself." Let's see…We lived over there, so Totosai's volcano should be in that direction." Inuyasha pointed to the west, slightly to the north.

"Well then, let's go see him then."

And with their destination set, the three friends set off for Totosai's volcano.

Later

It was nearing sunset, and the only things that had happened was when Shippo had fallen off Inuyasha's head, but Inuyasha had caught him before he had hit the ground, and the couple of times that they had to fight a demon in their way. One demon in particular, Yura was her name, had put up a good fight. The hair demon had tied Inuyasha up and managed to wound him before Kagome destroyed a red skull that exuded a demonic energy. The moment she destroyed the skull, Yura turned into what looked like dust or something and died.

That had happened only a little while ago, and it looked like Inuyasha was really feeling the pain. At one point he even staggered a bit and started slowing down.

Kagome, being who she is, immediately rushed over and started asking him if he was alright,

"I'm fi-" Inuyasha started to say, but a wave of pain hit him just then and left him unable to talk.

"You're obviously not fine, Inuyasha. We've got to find you a place to rest." Kagome looked worried. What could possibly explain why Inuyasha was in so much pain. The fight with Yura had left him with a wound that would bring a ningen to their knees, but he was a hanyou. He shouldn't be suffering so much from that.

Shippo, on the other hand, didn't look too worried at first. But then he seemed to remember something, and then he began to look terrified.

"Inuyasha!" He yelled. "I just realized. Tonight's the night of the full moon!"

"Damn it! I should've known."

"Don't worry Inuyasha. We just have to find some place safe to stay tonight. Worst comes to worst, I'll just stay awake all night and erect a barrier."

"You would do that for me?"

"Sure. I've done it before on nights when the demons around the village started getting a little…"feisty". It's no problem."

The sun set completely at that moment, and Inuyasha transformed then.

The changes were instantaneous, Inuyasha's claws dulled to regular human fingernails, his eyes changed from gold to violet, his hair changed from silver to black, and his fluffy, white dog ears disappeared to be replaced my a set of human ears. Truth be told, Kagome liked Inuyasha in his hanyou form better. But she wasn't going to tell him that.

Acting like nothing had happened, the group started walking in search of a safe place to sleep. This was interrupted every so often by Inuyasha seizing up from a new wave of pain. One time, he even coughed up a little blood.

After walking for about another mile, Shippo smelled a strange scent coming towards them. As they hid behind a nearby tree, the source of the scent walked past them.

"Hey you! I know you're there, you don't have to hide. Listen, I'm not going to hurt you." He, for the voice was undoubtedly male, said.

Knowing that hiding was useless, the group came out from behind the tree and Inuyasha heard Kagome gasp.

The man in front of them was tall, about 6'3', and had on what looked like Inuyasha's fire rat haori, except that it was blue. But that was all Kagome really noticed, because the man also had dog ears.

He noticed her staring and smiled. "Yes, I'm an inu hanyou. My name is Simon, and you guys look like you need a place to sleep."

Kagome spoke up first. "That would be very nice. You see, my friend is…weakened tonight and he-"

Simon interrupted her. "I know. It's his human night tonight, isn't it?"

"How-?"

"Easy, I sensed a very…distinct youki disappear a short while ago from around the direction that you guys came from."

"What did you mean distinct, sir?"

"Now, none of that "sir" crap. My name is Simon, and that's what I'd like to be called. And when I say distinct, I mean that his youki reminded me of the time when I met the Inu no Taisho when I was…I think I was about 8 or so."

"You met my dad?" Inuyasha asked.

"Wait…that must mean that you're Inuyasha! It's a pleasure to meet you!" Simon shook Inuyasha's hand and started walking back the way he came. "C'mon…You need some shelter, don't you?"

"We do. Inuyasha! Shippo! Let's go; he seems nice."

"Anybody can seem nice, Kagome. But we don't have anywhere else to sleep, so we might as well give him a chance."

They followed him into a cave and the first thing that they noticed, other than the fire that Simon had just started, was that there was another person lying down near the back of the cave.

Simon saw where they were staring and laughed. "I'd like you all to meet my mate, Houseki. She'd get up and greet you herself, but she's about to give birth to our pups, twins, so I told her to take a nap while I was gone. It was pretty lucky that we met. You see, she's also an inu hanyou. (Kagome went over to take a look. And sure enough, she had dog ears as well.) There are probably only five other inu hanyou alive right now, and I know that two of them are so old that they're likely to die within the year. Of course, two more are going to be born very soon."

Simon went over to wake her up, but she just waved him away and mumbled something about, "eating in the morning".

"I guess it's just us tonight. Come over here and warm up. The soup'll be ready in a little while."

Inuyasha, Kagome, and Simon sat around the fire talking for the next couple of hours. Shippo feel asleep right after he had eaten his dinner. Eventually, Inuyasha and Kagome fell asleep as well.

"Well," Simon said." I might as well turn in then."

In the morning

"Good morning everyone. Did you sleep well?" Simon asked.

"I'm glad you helped somebody honey, but you need to stop inviting people over."

"Oh! Good morning to you too, my love. How are our pups?"

"I guess we'll be going then. Thank you for the hospitality." Kagome said.

"No problem. Good luck on your journey."

Kagome and Inuyasha picked up the still sleeping Shippo and left as the happy couple started making out.

Inuyasha looked up in the distance and exclaimed, "Kagome, look! That must be Totosai's volcano."

"It's worth checking out."

Inuyasha pulled Kagome onto his back and started running towards the nearby volcano.

"You know Inuyasha, we probably should've done this from the start."

"Maybe, but we met a pretty nice guy. Besides, Totosai would have been asleep by the time we got there."

With Kagome on his back and Shippo on his head, (He made sure that Shippo wouldn't fall off,) Inuyasha wondered if Totosai was taking care of himself.

CHAPTER END

And…done! Now I can watch Family Guy without any distractions.

My lame attempt at a bonus point:

What does "M" mean?

Special thanks to Candiandi97 for favoriting this story.

R&R