Inuhime and Inuyasha were sparring for awhile before Sesshomaru, their father, and her mate showed up. By the time they arrived, she had him pinned on the ground.

"Oh, little brother. You have to do better than that. Don't take it easy on me; just because I am a female."

Inuyasha growled at her. "I wasn't. You forget that I am hanyou, not full youkai like you."

"Don't make excuses! Fight me!"

She stood up and backed away before Inuyasha could hoisted himself up. Yes, Inuyasha, at first, was hesitant to fight with his sister, even though, he knew that he couldn't do much damage to her. They were hand-to-hand sparing. He hadn't hit a female with his fists before. Yeah, he fought women before, but he used the fable sword, Tessaiga, to fight with; not his bare fists. He took in a deep breath and hoisted himself off the ground.

"Are you going to take our sparing seriously, now, little brother? Or do I have to make..."

Inuyasha interrupted by quickly punched her into her face. She laughed, "Now we are getting somewhere!"

Kagome, with the children/pups, came in a little afterwards, because Natsume had to go bathroom. The children/pups could had gone with their parents, InuTaisho, Inukimi, Sesshomaru, or even Hikaru, but they wanted to stay close to Kagome. Not that Kagome minded really. They would help with Natsume, especially, Rin and/or Shippo. Shippo would entertain Natsume and the others with his fox magic. Rin and the girls would usually took Natsume outside to gather flowers and make flower crowns. That little thought brought a memory back to Kagome, a few days after they returned from their mini vacation at the Sky Palace. Rin was teaching or try to teach Natsume how to make a flower crown. Natsume was a quick learner. She watched Rin intently. Then she would mimic Rin. Whenever she finished, she showed Rin her finished work. Rin was proud of her. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough. Rin told her to show Kagome, Inuhime, and Inukimi. They praised her for her finished crown. They also praised Rin for teaching abilities. Rin had said that she learned it from the best, which made Kagome glowed with joy...

Then she was brought back into reality by Inuyasha being thrown across the grounds and hit a nearby tree. Kagome being Kagome was going to see if her friend was alright, but Sesshomaru put a hand on his mate's arm and shook his head. She sat back down, then he whispered to her, "Inuyasha is fine. Inuki wasn't using all her energy on him."

"In other words, she's playing with him."

"Exactly, omae. Sparing isn't anything like fighting, you know."

"Hmph, I know that, Sesshomaru. Just because I am human; doesn't mean I'm stupid."

Sesshomaru quirked his eye brow at her and wonder why she would say that. "Omae, you are far from stupid. You are the smartest woman I know. What made you say that?"

Kagome put her hands up to her face and said, "I don't know. I think I am just stress about everything. I mean, I am worried about that stupid monk in Edo and Zokushi hasn't return from wherever she went. What if..."

"Kagome,' Sesshomaru picked her up and put her down on his lap. Kagome put her head on his broad shoulder as he started to run his fingers through her hair. 'Zokushi is fine. She knows how to take care of herself. As for that 'stupid' monk, as you put it, is no danger to me, to us, or to our whole land. We'll be fine. I promise."

Kagome smiled at his reassurance, but deep down she wondered if the monk was still a great danger to them. Not just to Sesshomaru, to her family, or to her extended family; but to all youkai. She couldn't help, but to remember what Inuyasha revealed to her all those years ago, that he couldn't sense any other youkai around in her birth era.

Ichiko was performing her usual spells, when a man walked into her lair.
"What do you want, brother?"

"Ah, I could never sneak up on you."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Ah, sister, you're never any fun."

"Don't make me repeat myself."

He sighed. "I want to speak with your mistress."

She growled, "She isn't my mistress! If it wasn't for me, she would be dead by now."

"Ah, yes. She was your mate's other mate."

"Why do you to speak with her for?"

"I wanted to annihilate all youkai. Who better to take out youkai other than their own kind? No other than a youkai."

Ichiko looked at her brother, then. She noticed that he was wearing something like a monk's garb. "She wouldn't help you annihilate her own kind, brother. You are crazy to even think that."

"Oh, I am aware of that. That's why I came to you first, Ichiko. I want you to disguise me as a youkai. I could gain her trust better than being me dressing as a monk."

Ichiko narrowed her eyes at him. "Why should I do that? Why should I help you? Why are do you want to kill all youkai?"

"Well, for your first two questions; I am your brother. For your last question: Have you forgotten? They killed our parents. They all deserve to die."

"Brother, not all youkai are evil. You can't kill them all just because a couple of them killed our parents. Besides, a Lord Daiyoukai had them killed for murdering them. Don't you remember that?"

He stayed silent for only a moment. "No."

"Liar!"

"Whatever! Are you going to help me or not?"

Ichiko doesn't want to help him, but at the same time, she does owe him. "Fine, but I need to find a perfect spell to fit your agenda."

He smiled darkly, which made her at the chills. "Thank you, sister, dear. I'll return within a week for my spell."
Ichiko nodded in understanding. She knew that her brother wouldn't accept any excuses, like she couldn't find any. They both knew that wasn't true. The only person that could perform such a spell is Inuhime. However, Ichiko knew that she wouldn't help her unless... she gave her own dark smile as a light bulb glowed on in her mind's eye.

Inuhime had Inuyasha pinned to a tree. She noticed that his breathing was laboring.

"That's all for today."

"Oh, hell no, Inuki! We are finishing this now!"

Sesshomaru and Inuhime looked at each other as if they were thinking the same thing which was...

"What a fool!"

"Inuyasha, it's time to stop. You are exhausted. You need to heal and rest for the rest of the day then we'll continue this tomorrow."

Inuyasha growled. He charged after her, but just before he reached her Kagome said her famous two words that made him slammed into the ground making an Inuyasha-shaped hole.

Shippo ran over there and shook his head. "You'll never learn, you will, Inuyasha?"

Natsume ran over there, too, to see how her favorite uncle was doing. "Uncle Yasha, are you alwight?"

Inuyasha moaned which Natsume squealed and jumped into the hole on her uncle, which made him grunted. "Hey, Tsume, not too hard," he whined as she giggled. Inuyasha stood up and dusted himself, then he climbed out the his shaped crater. "Man, I forgot how that hurts."

"What hurts, Uncle Yasha," Natsume asked with her big blue eyes looking up at him.

He sighed as he looked at her mother. "Go ask your mother."

"Ok!" Then she yelled, "Mama, why is Uncle Yasha is hurting?"

Kagome gave him a cold stare that would make Sesshomaru proud as Inuyasha smirked at her like he was saying, 'good luck with that'. He knew how much Natsume adored him and that drove Sesshomaru crazy knowing that he can't disembowel his half-brother in front of her, plus he would be severely punished by Kagome, if he did. Yeah, the big bad Lord of the West was wrapped around two little pinkies.

Hikaru went up to his mate and was attempting to hug her, but...

"Don't you even think about it, Hikaru."

"I can't hug you, now. Inuki, this is ridiculous. I'd apologized to the...' He stopped as he sensed that the Lord Father was looking at him giving him that warning stare. '... to your brother, but he'd tell you that I am only doing that to get back into your bed."

"Well, is he right?"

"What?! No!"

"Don't lie to me, mate!" Her beast was starting to make an appearance, which he noticed. His beast demanded that he dominant mate.

InuTaisho coughed and said, "Who's hungry?" He knew that they need to battle it out because they hadn't established who's dominant in their relationship. Usually, that would happen while they were courting, but they hadn't had a normal courting or even courted for that matter.

Everyone, except Hikaru and Inuhime, left the battlegrounds to eat lunch.

Hikaru's eyes were turning red just as Inuhime's were. Both of their beasts wanted to dominant.

Hikaru's beast said, "Mate, submit now!"

She growled ferociously, "Never!"

Inuyasha (c) Rumiko Takahashi

Fanfiction & OCs (c) ladytari