Pages: 12

Words: 5,427

Chapter Three: Meeting

Kagome had to admit their new home was rather cozy once the holes in the walls were patched up (some of which were accidentally made by Kagome and her cast), the hideous peeling wallpaper was replaced, everywhere was cleaned-especially the bathroom and everything Mikoto had given them in boxes was unloaded and given a place. Just to name few of the items that was in the boxes: pans, towels, bed sheets, soap, apron, cups, utensils, pots, bowls, a toaster, socks, toilet paper, slippers, pillows, books, a kettle and clothes and-actually that was everything that was given to them.

It had taken them three entire days to clean the place up, but they could finally call it, home. During that time, after making holes in the wall, Kagome had removed the cast on her arm; she knew it was already fully healed, plus it had started to smell funny. She was sharing a room with Sango. Their room was bigger than Miroku's but he had a room all to himself.

"I'll see you guys later I'm going to go find the village's training area," Sango announced as she maneuvered Hiraikotsu out the small front door. Her family would have wanted her to be training if they were still alive. She promised herself that she would get stronger so she could protect Kagome and Miroku so she would never have to experience the loss of her loved ones….. again. "Come on Kirara let' go."

"Oh, I too will be going to the village today, I wish to talk to the villagers and introduce myself to them." Miroku decided with a silly grin on his face because by 'them,' he meant to every girl he could find in the village.

"I'm gunna go exploring." Kagome told the others as they all left the building together but once they had reached the village everyone went their own separate ways. Her fingers tangled themselves in the lose braid she wore her hair in.

She had visited the village once already, but she had been with Mikoto and they had gone grocery shopping. Looking around she spotted a familiar looking gravity defying silver head of hair. It took her a moment to recollect who it was. "Kakashi-san! Miroku, Sango, Kirara and I are all better now thanks to you!"

"Oh? That's good." Kakashi said looked at the bouncing girl who was now walking beside him from the corner of his eye. In a couple of years he was sure she could have a posy of boys trying to obtain her heart.

"So whatcha up to?"

"Up?" Kakashi looked up towards the clouds in the bright blue sky before letting out a wistful sigh. "I'm trying to get lost on the road of life."

"AH HA! If it isn't YOU my eternal rival, I see you have a most youthful companion with you today Kakashi-san!" A loud obnoxious shadow called from the rooftops. Then it propelled itself into the air and did a series of many complicated looking flips through the air before landing with feet together, head back and arms spread out. All in all, the stranger's landing position basically made him look like a capital 'Y'.

Meanwhile Kakashi and Kagome were already halfway down the street far, far away from the bright green clad form. Kakashi would look in the directions Kagome pointed to and give her a short response. Happy with the reply they both continued on their way leaving the heaving green form by himself still standing in the 'Y' position.

"Huh? KAKASHI-SAN! You really think, that I will let you get away from me do ya?" A green blur ran in front of Kakashi and Kagome who both stopped. Kakashi watched mildly interested when Kagome's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates at the sight that stood right before her innocent eyes. Thick bushy eyebrows…bowl cut hair…….tight green spandex….bright white teeth ……..and orange legwarmers.

"…..You're……so…." The young Kagome looked away before turning back with a big smile on her face. "STYLISH!"

"HA HA AHA, DID YOU HEAR THIS YOUTHFUL GIRL'S WORDS KAKASHI-SAN! This young child has called me 'stylish'. I am the beautiful green beast of Konoha Maito, Gai at your service but I am also Kakashi-san's eternal rival! So far I am in the lead with 9 to 8! What do you say to THAT Kakashi-san?!"

'How can she think this freak is cool?' Kakashi pondered to himself as Gai continued his spew out nonsense and doing weird poses, quickly doing some hand signs Kakashi disappeared from the street while thinking, 'I hope the Sandaime-sama has a mission for me.'

"If you think I will let you get away this time Kakashi-san you're WRONG! If I allow you to get away I'll do 100 laps around Kohana, on my hands," Gai turned back around only to find that Kakashi had alright disappeared. "ALRIGHT YOU WIN THIS ROUND KAKASHI-SAN BUT NEXT TIME I'LL BE SURE TO GET YOU I PROMISE OTHERWISE I'LL DO THREE HUNDRED LAPS CARRYING AN OLD WOMAN ON MY BACK!"

Then Kagome spoke the words that brought tears to the young Gai's eyes, "Do you think I could join you on your run?"

"OF COURSE YOU CAN CHILD WHO'S YOUTHFUL SHINE, WHICH SHINES ALMOST BRIGHTER THAN MY SMILE!" Gai said showing off his pearly whites as he slipped on some gloves before elegantly flipping over into a handstand position. He waited watching as Kagome flipped and flopped all over the place as she tried to get into a steady handstand position. The young girl probably did not have enough upper body strength yet to support herself he concluded with narrowed eyes.

"Ano [Um], I'll just use my feet." Kagome said as she ran after Gai who enthusiastically took off leaving a dirt cloud behind him. After her tenth lap Kagome slowed down leaning against a building as she tried to regain her breath. Gai had passed her about eighty seven times already and was still going strong.

Gai was just about to pass Kagome again when he noticed that she had stopped running, even if her youthful energy was burning brighter than before! He had just the thing that would inspire her to continue running. "Kagome-kun I have something for you," He flipped himself over back and dug his hand around in his brown sack before pulling out a small set of leg weights, and before she knew it they were already wrapped around her legs. "How do they feel?"

"Mou [Geeze]…heavy." Kagome answered as she tried to walk as she normally did.

"Good good!" Gai said nodding happily before going back into his handstand and running off to do more laps.

Kagome was able to do two more laps with the weights on her legs before she called it quits, it was way past lunchtime too and she was hungry from burning off so much energy. Gai who had finished all his laps had to have been deaf not to hear Kagome's stomach rumbling for food. Her eyes automatically lit up when Gai said he would treat her to lunch, he did not know what he was getting himself into. He probably thought Kagome would probably eat a handful of grapes but once Kagome was full he was almost out of cash. "Thanks for treating me to lunch Gai-san!"

"Now that we have replenished our youthful energies we should work on our upper body strength! 120 pinky pushups should do the trick." Gai had already done twenty of them by the time Kagome had gotten on the ground into a push up position. As he went up and down using just his pinky's Kagome strained to do four normal pushups before flopping to the ground in defeat.

"Gai-san do you want your weights back?" Kagome asked her entire body was sore, but she was happy that she had made a new friend despite his unique appearance and attitude.

"No youthful Kagome-kun you should wear them all the time, think of it as a gift from the most handsome green beast of Konoha!" Gai said stretching his limbs out, nothing felt better than a good workout than a good workout with a youthful person. The next four days, where like the previous ones Gai would bump into her and they would train together (only Kagome thought of them as playing a game) however today they would not be able to, it was the day he was being called away on his mission.

"Gai-san do you think can you show me one of your cool ninja moves?" Kagome inquired with an irresistible grin on her face. "My friend, Sango, said that she saw this shinobi split himself into three! Can you do that?"

"Your youthful story has indeed inspired me! It would be MY HONOR to show you!" Gai went through the hand signs Hitsuji, I, Ushi, Inu, Mi, Tora [Ram, Boar, Ox, Dog, Snake, Tiger]
"Bunshin no jutsu!" Two Gai's appeared in a puff of smoke, meanwhile the real Gai thought he had seen something flickered in Kagome's bright blue eyes. It was almost like they had briefly flashed a blood red color. Gai immediately brushed it off thinking that he had just imagined it.

"Sugoi! [Cool!]" Kagome exclaimed rubbing her eyes stopping so she could clap her hands together and applaud Gai.

"Well youthful Kagome-kun I have been assigned a mission and must leave Konoha I BID THEE FAREWELL!" Gai said as he danced around in what he thought was stylish and cool. To most onlookers they had to tear their eyes away from the sight thinking of it as disturbing as the image burned into their brains forever. Then Gai flashed the good guy pose, his right thumb up while his left one was on his waist while he bared a blinding white teeth, before running off.

"Okay bye bye Gai-sensei!" Kagome said waving cutely not noticing that she had accidentally called him teacher.

'G-G-Gai-SENSEI? NOW THAT HAS THE MOST YOUTHFUL RING I HAVE EVER HEARD, TO IT!' Gai thought to himself.

"I should go visit Sasuke-chan! I haven't seen him in days, maybe we can play together," With that in mind Kagome skipped her way over to the Uchiha compound and spotted Sasuke sitting by himself on his front steps. "Ohayo [Morning] Sasuke-chan do you want to play today?"

"Iie...MyChichi-ue [father] said he would come home early today so he could teach me something," Sasuke replied before a giant grin spread across his face. "Maybe he'll show me the clan's basic fire technique!"

"Un! Then you could show me how cool it is, well I'll see you another time then," Kagome said making her way out of the compound since she felt that Fugaku was on his way over. She wandered around the village until she felt something familiar; it was the feeling of utter loneliness. Wondering where it was coming from Kagome followed the trail until it led her to a big tree with a swing tied to one of the thick branches, where a boy about her age sat. Adults dragging their children behind them would whisper 'monster' and 'freak' under their breath as they passed the blonde boy who had his head down staring at his lap. "Hi do you wanna be friends?"

"Go away… your mommy and daddy will just grab you away and then yell at me……" Was his quiet response and then he brought one of hand up to wipe at his eyes.

"Etto…[Well…], I don't have any parents and even if I did I'd still want to be friends with you!" Kagome replied fiercely with a smile on her face. Something about the boy made her feel as if she should know him but she was a hundred percent sure she had never seen him before in her life.

The boy sniffled and rubbed his face some more before he brought his head up to look at the person who was talking to him. "I don't have any parents either, wait- you said that you'd be… my… friend?"

"Of course I will be! I'm Higurashi, Kagome anata no namae wa nan desu ka? [What is your name?]"

"Uzumaki, Naruto…. I've never had a friend before."

"Well Naruto-kun I promise I'll be your friend no matter what! What do you do for fun?"

"I like to play pranks." Naruto said his blue eyes lighting up.

"Pranks?" Kagome's eyes shone with mischievousness and excitement as she rocked from the ball of her foot to the heel with a grin on her face.

"Un! I've decided that I want to be the next Hokage of Konoha so that everyone will have to recognize UZUMAKI, NARUTO!" Naruto shouted jumping off the swing and pointed to a passerby who quickly scurried away.

"Naruto-chan sugoi desu [you're amazing] and ganbatte [you can do it/ try your hardest]." Kagome said her with a smile on her face while her eyes looked like an upside down 'u'. So she didn't get to see the pink that tinged Naruto's face as he laughed nervously before grabbing Kagome's hand and dragging her off to play some pranks.

By the end of the day Kagome and Naruto were rolling on the ground laughing so hard they had thrown buckets full of water off of buildings, camouflaged themselves on fences or as rocks before popping out and scaring people, Naruto had replaced someone's pie with a giant rock that he and Kagome had colored on with crayons to look like a pie, they had switched grocery bags that belonged to two different people around, thrown Naruto's realistic looking plastic rats into the women's bath house and listened as they jumped screamed in absolute terror. Naruto had pretended to steal his frog wallet from Kagome and ran away as villagers chased after him while Kagome fake cried and they had tied a string from one end of a pathway to the other side and watched as people tripped over it.

"YATTA! [HURRAY!] Kagome-kun this has been one of the best days ever!" Naruto announced pumping one of his fists into the air with the biggest grin on his pie-smeared face.

"You should come to my place for dinner I wanna introduce you to two people, Sango nee-san [older sister] and Miroku nii-san [older brother] they'll like you," Kagome told Naruto as she continued to lead him to where the rundown building was. "Ikuzou! [let's go!]"

"Ara? Chotto matte! [Huh? Wait a minute!] How did you know where I lived?" Naruto asked scratching his head as the old building he lived in came into view.

"What do you mean? You mean, you live here to?!" Kagome wondered aloud as they both walked through the front door.

"Uh huh! And we live on the same floor….. right beside each other?!" Naruto exclaimed as Kagome brought him to where she lived. He fumbled around in his pocket momentarily before pulling out a brass key that had his room number on it while Kagome pulled hers out from around her neck they compared numbers and they were one digit off from one another.

"Sugoi!" They both said at the same exact time their blue eyes wide in awe.

"Tadaima [I'm home] I brought a friend home with me." Kagome said removing her black sandals.

"Okaeri [Welcome back] Kagome, is this friend of yours a cute girl by chance?" Miroku asked emerging from his room with his eyes sparkling and his left cheek had a fading big red handprint on it.

"I, Uzumaki, Naruto am not a girl!"

"Oh," Miroku sighed dejectedly then he felt puzzled at the buzzing sensation of familiarity within the boy. "I'm Kushimitama, Miroku it's nice to meet you Naruto-chan. Oh Kagome, Mikoto-san dropped by while you were out she brought over two big boxes and filled our fridge with her leftovers I thanked her for them on behalf of everyone, she is just too kind."

"Sou desu ka? [Is that so?] Have you already eaten?" Kagome asked as she rummaging through the fridge. "Naruto-chan you can go sit at the table and talk to Miroku while I warm this food up."

"Iie. I haven't," Miroku shook his head as he sat down across from the rather short boy. He was determined to figure out what about this boy that was causing him to feel as if he should know him. He folded his hands together and rested his chin against his entwined fingers as he stared down into slightly nervous blue eyes Miroku made a mental note of the strange whiskers on Naruto's face. "So Naruto-chan what do you think of Kagome?"

By the time Sango had finished her rigorous work out the moon was already out shining brightly almost mocking her. There were never enough hours during the day to train. Standing up straight she wiped the sweat from her brow and hoisted Hiraikotsu onto her back. Kirara let out a small growl as she stretched out her muscles after a long day of sparing with her owner. Then in a burst of flames the neko was once more in her miniature form so she could jump onto Sango's shoulder giving a small purr of contentment.

"Tadaima, hey who is the new guy?" Sango asked while she drank a cup of ice cold tap water offering a bowl of it to Kirara only to find Kirara rubbing herself against Naruto's legs sounding like a motorboat (from all the purring)

"This neko has two tails and it is just so kawaii!" Naruto pointed out in a high pitched voice pointing to Kirara's wagging fluffy appendages before nuzzling his own face against Kirara's furry one while laughing.

"Her name's Kirara and I'm Sakimitama, Sango."

"I'm Uzumaki, Naruto."

"Hmm…"

"Don't worry about us. I'm just going to borrow Sango for just a quick moment you two carry on with your fun and games now." Miroku said as he dragged a struggling Sango into his room by her wrist.

"Miroku! You better have a good reason for this." Sango crossed her arms across her chest, clearly not amused.

"I wanted to know whether you felt it or not."

"Felt what?"

"A strange feeling when you're around that boy, Naruto, it's rather difficult to explain. It just feels like there is something familiar about him, but you can't put your finger on what it is," Miroku explained pacing around his humble abode. "Maybe it's just me then."

"Iie, I know what you're talking about I felt it too. It's not the youkai inside of him that's making me have these feelings either," Sango admitted sitting down on the edge of Miroku's bed. "Everything seems so strange. It seems like things shouldn't be this way, but I don't remember how it's supposed to be."

"Well Naruto certainly doesn't seem dangerous especially if Kirara warmed up to him that quickly, perhaps we should rejoin Kagome and Naruto and we might figure out what it is about the boy that is making us feel this way," Miroku paused noticing how tried and worn out Sango had been looking the past couple of day. "And Sango it's great that you're taking your training seriously but your body also needs to rest. Onegai [please] just keep that in mind."

"Alright." Sango mumbled before leaving Miroku's room her head hurt she just wanted to get some food into her body before going to bed. Taking Miroku's advice into consideration she decided that maybe tomorrow she would go explore the village instead of training.

Naruto reached his arms outward and let out a big yawn, tears appeared in the corner of his eyes and he sleepily rubbed them away before scratching his back. Looking at Kirara who had curled up into a small ball on his lap he felt all warm and fuzzy on the inside. He looked up and watched as Sango put the rest of the leftovers from the pot Kagome had heated up, into a bowl and sat at the table and dug into the food, with a turn of his head he watched as Miroku re-made his bed smoothing out the wrinkles from the cover. Naruto was just happy that these people were living their life the way they normally would, they weren't glaring at him from the corner of their eyes or whispering bad things about him.

Then Naruto's eyes turned toward the girl who made him feel….accepted. So this is what being happy truly felt like. He didn't want to move despite the numbness in his legs because maybe it would dispel everything and things would go back to the way they always had been. His eyelids suddenly felt very heavy so he decided that he would close them only for a moment.

He spent the next day bonding with everyone after sleeping over at their place. Naruto had told them his story how some of the villagers had always treated him throwing rocks at him and calling him names, while others pretended as if he didn't exist, even some of the other children had started doing the same copying their parents. In turn for Naruto's childhood story each of them in turn told him theirs (the pieces how they remembered it) and about a man who had killed all of their families his name was Naraku. The name alone sent involuntary goose bumps to his skin, sweat to his brow and unpleasant shivers down his spine. He had always known there were other people out there who also had hard lives until now he just never met any of them.

Like Naruto found out that Sango's entire clan was slaughtered by her younger brother, Kohaku who had been controlled by Naraku. Miroku's family was cursed by Naraku and he had something in his hand called the Kazaana, which Naruto learned was giant black hole that sucked everything in its path up and Miroku's father was killed by it and he was raised by his grandfather. Kagome couldn't remember much about her life she just remembered coming back from going camping with Sango and Miroku to find her Kaa-san, Otouto Souta and her Jii-chan dead, their bodies where so mutilated and mangled everyone's hearts had been removed from their chests.

Naruto could see the sadness in everyone's eyes that he had brought on by asking them about their lives. Picking up Kirara he started to dance around their living room singing 'ala la la la' bringing a smile to everyone's face.

Kagome and Naruto both shared a laugh as they came out of the public restrooms this had been a prank Kagome had come up with. Naruto had gone into the men's washroom while Kagome had gone into the women's and they had gone from one stall to the next locking the door then sliding out (since they were so small) and repeated until all the doors were locked. The next prank was Naruto's idea and the people below them screamed at them from below shaking their fists and muttering obscene words under their breaths before stomping off angrily.

They had climbed up a tree hid in the branches and dropped rotten eggs on the unsuspecting villagers. The best part came was when they had to run away from the shinobi [ninja] who chased after them trying to apprehend the kid who was causing all the trouble. They quickly split up and went separate ways to better their chances at not being caught by the angry shinobi. Kagome had been lucky; thanks to running and doing all those exercises with Gai she was a lot faster and had more stamina than the average six year old shinobi.

"OI! LEMME GO!" Naruto screamed failing his arms as he tried to get away from his capturer.

"I don't think so! I'm taking you straight to the Sandaime you trouble causing gaki [brat]." The man let out a laugh squeezing the squirming boy tighter as he held the troublemaker underneath his arm.

"Ano….Mister," Kagome started off with her act sniffling and cutely rubbing at her eyes with her hands. Mustering up the saddest voice that Naruto had taught her how to use, to achieve the ultimate effect she quietly sniffled again before saying, "I lost my neko somewhere do you think you could help me find him?"

The shinobi almost felt his heartbreaking into pieces at the adorable girl's sad story. "Gomen [Sorry] but I have to bring his gaki to the Hokage he has been causing a lot of trouble for all the nice villagers." Looking under his arm his eyes almost bulged out of his skull alarm bells going off in his head when he noticed he was carrying a sack of potatoes with Naruto's face sticking his tongue out at him while doing a peace sign. He quickly jumped around looking all over the place before sighing in defeat. He supposed he could help the girl find her cat instead but when he turned back around she had disappeared.

"I just saved your butt!" Kagome danced around in an empty alleyway while Naruto grumbled with his arms crossed as he pouted on the ground.

Naruto had to hand it to Kagome she had learned the ropes of being prankster in just half a day. "I would have eventually found my own way out," he grumbled pouting even more. "I know let's pop out and scare people again I'm going to use the rock disguise this time."

"Okay!" Kagome watched as Naruto hid under his rock while she sat in a tree, the fence disguise had been torn so she was trying to figure out how she could disguise herself Naruto's first victim came along. Her mouth formed a tiny 'o' as she realized it was the same guy who she had saved Naruto from capturing before, should she try and warn Naruto? Nah, he said he would have found a way out now was his chance to prove it.

Meanwhile Naruto snickered under his rock shaped box he quickly peeked out underneath to see feet approaching. 'A little closer…come on just a little more........just take a couple more steps……okay….. NOW!' He popped out from underneath the rock successfully scaring his victim, soon Naruto realized who it was once the guy started yelling at him.

"Hey I know you! You're the gaki from before! Don't think for a second that you're going to escape from me a second time." The Shinobi quickly dove for the boy using rope he had found on a pathway to tie up Naruto's arms and legs. He picked up the noisy hog tied kid and made a bee line straight for the Hokage office.

"AHHHH! I'M BEING KIDNAPPED SOMEONE SAVE ME FROM THIS STRANGE MAN!" Naruto's voice could be heard throughout the entire village. "HE'S TOUCHING ME!"

"Mou. [Geeze.]" Kagome whispered affectionately feeling slightly bored now that Naruto had been apprehended. "Maybe Sasuke-chan isn't busy today!"

"Kagome-chan! You got your cast off already?" Mikoto asked happy to see the girl's face again, it warmed her heart.

"Hai! [Yes!] My arms all better now. Can Sasuke-kun play today?" Kagome replied before asking about the person that she came to see in the first place. She didn't know how lucky she was to be able to walk in and out of the Uchiha compound at her own free will. Many people were envious of the small girl and her privileges.

"Oh, Sasuke-chan should be over at the Uchiha training area he's probably watching Itachi-chan."

"Arigato Mikoto-san!"

"Make sure to come back for lunch it will be ready in an hour or so," Mikoto happily called out to the girl's back as she ran in the direction of where the training area was. "I wonder what those things wrapped around Kagome-chan's legs are?"

Kagome was in awe at Itachi's amazing skills and how perfect everything he did was. She sat on the sidelines with Sasuke and they both felt as if they were not worthy of being in his divine presence as he trained. Sasuke had seen his father training many times before but it would never measure up to the way Itachi executed every one of his moves with deadly precision.

"It's time for lunch Sasuke-kun, tell Kaa-san that I'm busy training."

"Hai but nii-san you know she won't be happy, she doesn't like it when you skip meals," Sasuke reminded his brother who just turned his back to him, rolling his eyes Sasuke jumped off of the log. "Ikuzou [let's go] Kagome-kun I bet Kaa-san has made something really good."

"So are you guys excited to be starting at the academy two days from now?" Mikoto asked as she washed the dishes.

"Un! I want to prove myself to Chichi-ue by receiving top marks at the academy!" Sasuke announced his goal as he got up from the kitchen table. "Kaa-san we'll see you later."

When they returned to the training area where they had last seen Itachi. He was no longer there so Sasuke had decided he was going to try and copy some of the moves he had seen Itachi do. His face turned slightly pink from embarrassment when he heard Kagome giggle as he had slipped on the grass and fallen onto his back. "Why are you laughing?" He questioned rubbing his forehead feeling rather disgruntled at the thought of being laughed at.

"Because Sasuke-chan was just being kawaii [cute] ne?"

"Sou desu ka? [Is that so?]" Sasuke murmured feeling his face heat up from the compliment as he lay on his back he watched as Kagome spread her arms out and dropped on her back landing next to him.

"That cloud looks like a pile of skulls!" She said with a smile on her face as she pointed at one of the fluffy white clouds before letting out a sigh of relaxation. "This one looks like a sword."

"That one looks like a big inu [dog]." Sasuke joined in pointing towards the cloud that looked like a massive floating beast.

"Well this cloud looks like a severed arm!"

They continued pointing out certain clouds to each other and before they knew it the clouds had faded away into wisps and the sky was stained with purples, oranges, pinks and blues. Sasuke and Kagome both sat up once they heard Mikoto calling them in for dinner. Kagome bowed showing her respect to the Uchiha patriarch who was taken aback at the obvious growth that she had in her energy since the last time he had scrutinized her. As they all ate Mikoto's wonderful dinner Fugaku was already coming up with a training regime for his youngest son. Once dinner was over both Fugaku and Itachi excused themselves from the table and retreated to their rooms.

"It's getting late I don't want Sango nee-san [older sister] and Miroku nii-san [older brother] to worry about me. Arigato for dinner Mikoto-san." Kagome announced as she got up from the table with a smile on her face.

"Oh, well you should take these leftovers home with you to give to Sango-chan and Miroku-chan. Let me wrap them up and then you can be on your way," Mikoto said as she bustled around her kitchen retrieving a small black box out from one of the cabinets and pulled out a rather thick wad of cash from the box that had been labeled as 'emergency money'. She handed Kagome both the leftover food and money. "Here you go Kagome-chan!"

"Nani? [What?] Mikoto-san I can't take this money from you," Kagome said shaking her head looking to Sasuke for help. He just shrugged his shoulders at her, munching on a rice ball. 'Mou he's no help at all' she thought as she backed away waving her hands while holding the bag of leftovers. "You've already given us so much already, the leftovers are enough."

"Kagome-chan you will take this money right this instance and you will make no more complaints about it," Mikoto said in a way that reminded Kagome of her late Kaa-san. Once the cash was in Kagome's hands Mikoto gently pushed the girl outside. "Now that's a good girl say hello to Miroku-chan, Sango-chan and Kirara-kun for me."

"Un oyasuminasai [good night] Sasuke-chan and Mikoto-san Arigato!" Kagome quickly hugged Mikoto before receiving a 'oyasuminasai' from Sasuke and Mikoto. She grinned as she ran to her apartment feeling rather victorious, because at the last moment she had managed to give the money back to Mikoto by slipping it into the pocket of the Matriarch's apron when she hugged her.

What do you think of Gai-sensei?

Best review for the last chapter: LuLuCrazeD