Well I shall begin my most humblest of apologies and to make it up I shall attempt to post each monday as long as I keep a head. I'll give you a warning before I stop being a head with this story. I am so sorry I didn't mean to be this late in posting this story.

Enough of my grovelling for now though. On to the thank yous! So i'll begin with thanking everyone who added me to alerts and favorites, and to all those who have been patiently waiting for me to post. A special thank you goes to the people who reviewed:

Sakemori: Thanks for the review and the vote of confidence . . . I guess it could be called that right? Anyway I'm sorry for taking so long for the update and I hope you forgive me and read on until her badass-ness can come out fully.

xXAngel AlliXx: You sounded so much like my best friend with that comment.

princess of the western lands: I can't remember if I answered all your questions if not send me a message and I will. I apologize if I didn't along with not updating sooner.

Anyway I am really sorry for this, but it says one thing about me . . .

(DISCLAIMER:) I am to scatter brained to own the characters from the show!

Enjoy chapter 10.

Chapter 10:

"Good now attack," Sesshomaru administrated stepping away from the young fox demon waiting for him to move. He smirked slightly as he watched the younger demon calculate each move and the outcomes; he was getting better as they went in everything that he was being trained in. It had been only a few months and the Kit had adapted to his new life, he was polite and very as liked as any demon got in a demon court.

Shippo attacked and Sesshomaru easily parried, he understood that the kid was testing him. It was a light hit, which could be easily blocked by even someone untrained, however it gave the attacker some idea to what spot is weak and when it would be best to attack. Sesshomaru was almost flawless and would be very much impressed if the kit could actually spot the one spot he left open constantly. There were a few more light hits and Sesshomaru could see the kit's eyes moving as he attacked studying Sesshomaru's form.

Finally Shippo added some of his magic into the fight barely any, once again testing the demon lord. It continued like this for a little bit until Shippo attacked his right side, which Sesshomaru blocked and noticed just soon enough that it was a trick and turned to block the real Shippo that was attacking his back. Sesshomaru smirked down at the small demon, the only kind of acknowledgement that he had done well.

"Lessons," Sesshomaru calmly and Shippo smiled happily before bounding towards the palace. Once he was gone Sesshomaru quickly dashed to his own chambers changing out of his training gi into his more traditional and regal clothing. He had an agenda to keep to and training Shippo so early in the morning allowed him to keep to that schedule.

Next he would spend an hour on paper work before having lunch with his three wards, once again they would go off to their studies and Sesshomaru would start out on his patrol. This included the immediate area to his borders and he often spent a lot of time investigating the village that his brother had been pinned by. The well still lay in ruins since Inuyasha destroyed it, and there was no recent scent from his half-brother. Indicating that he had been nowhere near this village since Shippo's death, however the two humans that were now officially part of his pack had been by recently spending a lot of time near the well. There was a faint scent of tears from the demon slayer and well as some sadness from the monk.

He followed their scent trails and found that in the matter of two days they had travelled quite far and made it to the borders that separated his land from Kouga's. Night had fallen and the two humans had succumbed to their exhaustion. He growled softly as he noticed a demon approaching the two and quickly moved to kill it, once again scowling internally at his instincts. The demon had a jewel shard, which he dispensed into the little pouch that the monk carried around with him. He also slipped in a few more coins into the other pouch hidden in his robes, after that he touched everything that belonged to them. Scent marking wasn't as strong as power marking but it worked just as well to divert demons away from them, he sent out a wave of his power and felt all demons vacate the immediate forest understanding the consequences of attacking these two worthless creatures.

He wasn't sure why he did it, but every few days he would track the humans down and mark everything again if his scent had started to fade. If he was doing his patrols and they were being attacked the demon would be dead in a matter of minutes and there would be no trace of him. He hated it when his body moved on its own accord, and his beast's constant nagging drove him insane until eventually he gave in and made sure nothing was amiss.

The worst times for this was when they were in a different territory and he couldn't check on them without informing the ruling lord that he would be in their lands, this would mean telling them that he has recently become attached to two more humans. He had refused to admit his instincts to himself, there was no way he was revealing them to other demons this left him weak and he despised weakness. So he would wait anxiously by his borders until he felt their presence enter his territory, and then he would re-mark everything and drive any demons that wished harm away. They were safest in the west and if he had a choice he would force them to remain there.

However he didn't have a choice and it would look bad on his part, they had a quest to finish and as it was what caused him to have such respect for them he wasn't about to tell them they couldn't continue. That would once again involve admitting his weakness for them, and he couldn't let those weaker than him have some kind of strength over him. He would never allow someone to have leverage over him, not even his own pack whom by instinct would not betray him.

He wasn't use to pack and he hated his instincts that have been driving him to do uncharacteristic things. In only a short few months his once meticulous and planned out life has been torn to shreds and made into a chaotic mess, and that was never good. He hated chaos, he hated weakness, he hated pack, and he hated instincts. He hated everything his life had become.

He was never one to wish for a different life, especially when it concerned trials. However at that very moment he wished that he could go back to the time where he had killed everything that reminded him of his family's weakness. That couldn't happen because his family's weakness had become his own and it was well integrated into his life. His own anger at himself left him little time to contemplate how the other lords, except for Kouga, would react to his little hobby of stray collecting.

Unfortunately if he actually thought of them as nothing but strays that he is taking care of for no other reason than amusement he would be struggling with his instincts. He almost wished he had a hobby like that, he was sure it would be less complicated. He growled as he forced himself to stop thinking along those lines, there was no point and Sesshomaru never did pointless things.

Everything he did there was a reason for, even if he himself didn't know what that reason was. He always seemed to be planning when there wasn't anything to plan and he was sure that his pack would come in handy someday, he was sure of it.

Once everything was seen to he returned to his `castle, most of the time in time for dinner where he would act like nothing was out of the normal. They never noticed and the few demons who did notice knew better then to question their lord, and they would continue on like they didn't notice a thing.

Now that his 'pack' was pretty much seen to he had no reason to put off any of his lordly duties, which unfortunately meant he had to attend the mating celebration of Lord Yoriko's daughter to one of the lower noble demons. It wasn't the match the Lord had wanted but they would all go there and pretend to be happy for the princess who had found love. Now that this thought had decided to come up Sesshomaru searched every part of his brain to find a reason to avoid, love was not a topic he liked.

Love lead to mating, mating led to gossip, gossip led to the other lords inquiring if he had found anyone suitable and that was a conversation he did not want to have.

0.0..0.0000.0.00..0

Kagome groaned as she opened her eyes recalling momentarily the first time she had woken up after a training session. She had sworn that she had seen a flash of silver before her eyes could completely focus, and she never bothered to find out what it was. She soon forgot about it, but she had sworn she saw it again.

It was just her mind playing tricks on her, there could be nothing else that would cause a silver flash. It wasn't important anyway, what was important was her training which had intensified officially yesterday. Thus why she was once again waking up feeling like she had been hit by a train, a few more months and not only would she be done her training officially but she'd be a free woman.

A smile streaked across her face at that thought, she never wanted to have a job like this ever again. The servants had become kinder, in a way, towards her they no longer went out of their way to torture her but they didn't go out of their way to be friendly either. Which was good, Kagome preferred to be alone recently the physical part of her training wasn't that taxing anymore so she had no problem being around other servant in that manner.

What she couldn't deal with is all the noise which gave her a much larger headache then the one she woke up with every day. The headache was a result on trying to puzzle out why Itoe-sama was training her in fighting as well as demon behavior and customs; she was never going to have a chance to try out these new skills not until she found the location of the second well.

Finding that was a little hard considering that she didn't leave the house often and when she did it wasn't for a well hunt around the city. It was for things like more toilet cleaner, or new bed sheets since she had used them to put out a fire. She didn't even have time to search online for such things, she was constantly busy and if she wasn't busy she was to exhausted to do anything else but collapse on to her small bed and fall into a dreamless sleep that was over too soon.

This was her life and she wouldn't go back and change it there was nothing in the world that would make her regret this decision. Not even if Sesshomaru had appeared and demanded my life for coming to one of his allies for help. If it meant her mother lived then there was nothing she wouldn't give up, the only thing left really was her life in the terms of her breathing and walking.

She had given up the past, which had been a big part of who she was it had been her life more than the future and she couldn't really find anything about that to make her upset. Next she had given up whatever life she could have had in the future to become servant in a demon's home. It was here that she often doubted her intentions, did she do it because it was the only way she could save her mother or was it because it was the only thing she could hold on to from the past. It was difficult to say and she hated that, she wanted to know that she had the purest of intentions going into this but she couldn't.

Only a few more months and then she could find some way to connect to the past again, and it was only a few more months until she could go home and see her family. That thought lightened the heaviness in her chest, she would be able to go home and hug her mother and watch the most important person in her life continue on with her life.

With a smile on her face she walked out the door and headed down to the dojo where Itoe-sama was already waiting Susuki by his side. They stopped their conversation as soon as they noticed her presence, she smile slowly faded as she saw the look on their faces.

The warmness and lightness she had just felt disappeared instantly and was replaced with the clenching feelings of dread and anxiety. The feelings only grew worse and seconds passed without a word, she glanced from one to the other but neither of them looked to each other. Had she been the type to allow nervousness and uncertainty stop her she would have started sweating and headed back to her room in an attempt to re-start everything.

She wasn't like that so she attempted to force the smile back, which failed, and asked the question burning on the tip of her tongue, "what's going on?"

"Your training with me is complete, considering we had a full battle to the best of my current abilities and you survived with no injuries, but I ended up with a considerable amount. Susuki will continue to train you considering she is much stronger than I."

Kagome nodded her head in understanding even though she really didn't understand at all, how could Susuki be so much stronger than a demon so much older than her. It didn't make sense but Kagome didn't question it as she prepared to take on her friend, who looked like she didn't want to be doing this at all. Then they actually started to fight.

Within the first few blows exchanged Kagome could tell she was going to end up just as bad as the first time she had fought, but she wasn't going to give in before she had to. Even if that meant being as injured as that. It still made her laugh every time she remembered the apologetic look Itoe-sama sent her after she woke up, it was then that he started to teach her the old and forgotten language of demons. It was still used five hundred years in the past, but she would be very hard pressed to find a demon that spoke it well enough in the present time.

After her first few lessons when she finally got the hang of the language everyone in the household would speak to her in nothing else, and soon it was as instinctual as Japanese. It came to her easier than English or any other language she had been forced to take as a child, and it was a beautiful language. It was feral and majestic and everything that a demon was and in an odd way she was ecstatic to know something as amazing.

Itoe-sama had also trained her in speed and endurance as well as developing every sense she had, she was now as close to a demon a human could get without the added benefit of her powers to enhance everything. With her powers everything could become a lot better than any demon ability, and she had no idea why he had bothered training her in such things. There would be no application of these abilities, unless of course demons decided to go on a rampage and start killing all the humans. That was unlikely to happen considering it has yet to happen.

They exchanged some more blows testing each other's range and capabilities; every offhanded blow was spent studying each other's movements for signs of weakness or a crack in their defense. It was only hand to hand combat since it was the easiest and safest to train at first, swords and powers got out of hand to easily.

Kagome could do little harm hand to hand especially considering that she didn't really want to hurt the demon, and she dreaded having to use her powers against the other woman. She hated using her powers around her demon friends, which is why in battle she often refrained from shooting off too much power. Even if it's not meant to harm them it does have some effects on them especially if Inuyasha got to close, his hair would start to turn black and he'd turn and give Kagome a quick glare before moving out of the vicinity of the arrow. She didn't have much control then and couldn't warn anyone if her arrow was going to be too weak or too strong, and guessing was an element of failure in battles as she had more recently learned.

Once or twice she had caught herself restlessly examining objects in the area determining their value and threat. It was then that she was forced to think about Inuyasha's battles, especially against his older brother. Sesshomaru was constantly thinking and planning his next move or what he could use to his advantage, but Inuyasha let his emotions get involved and never bothers to actually think of a plan or any of those handy tools.

It was a reason why Inuyasha constantly lost to his brother and it was something Kagome was determined not to do. She had rather be like Sesshomaru rather than let her emotions kill her 'however it is my distractions that get me injured' Kagome thought as she went sailing through the air.

She twisted her body and landed on the ground effortlessly, she could see the regret flash through Susuki before she counter attacked. In her own way letting the demoness know that it was alright, she was tough by human standards. Still she was only human and like all humans she wasn't built to last as long as most demons, but she could give them a run for their money. Kagome noted that and the young miko refused to let it be done unless of course she was being carried out unconscious.

With that in mind she hurled herself towards the other demon knowing very well that along exchange of blows would come before she was sent sprawling on to her back not to wake up for a few hours. However before she could get close to Susuki she was stopped by something very hard and very warm. It took her a while to realize that she was being held against someone's body, a male body, a demon male body, a strong demon male body.

She glanced up and was about to ask Itoe-sama why he was interfering, until of course she realized that she wasn't being held by Itoe-sama but another silver haired dog demon. 'Sesshomaru'

"You have two arms!" Kagome exclaimed happily before she could stop herself to think on the situation. Had she been able to she would have smacked herself in the head, she just demonstrated how well she did not handle shock.

End.

I hope this update was at least worth the wait, but if not I shall continue to grovel. Review if you wish!

Thanks for reading.