Kagome made her way back to Inuyasha and the tree without noticing Sesshomaru burning a hole into the back of her head with his eyes but Inuyasha sure did crossed the final set of bushes making it to the Sacred tree. He had the feeling that something was going on between the two and he had no interest in getting in the middle of it. Well, that wasn't completely true, he couldn't deny the fact that the human interested him and it wasn't even just because she looked like Kikyo, he could almost see the good and purity radiating off of her and it drew him in. The problem was that even though he didn't think his older brother would admit it, he clearly claimed the girl as his own.

"Hm, okay. Let's see here." Kagome said, trying to sound confident even though she had no idea how to go about getting him down.

Part of her was still wondering if it was even smart to free him, from what everyone said in the village, this man was a murderer. She inwardly shook her head, no this was Sesshomaru's brother and even though he most likely wouldn't admit it, he had to care about his brother and probably didn't like seeing him like this. She didn't like the thought of Sesshomaru hurting, he was more to her than just the person who was going to protect her while she retrieved all the pieces of the jewel. Something inside her told her that he was going to become one of, if not the most important person in her life. Every molecule in her body was pulling her to him and although she was fighting that pull, she wasn't quite sure what this pull was or why she was fighting it so hard.

"Are you just going to stand there all day staring at the stupid arrow, or are you actually going to do something about it?" Inuyasha asked gruffily.

Kagome looked at him with anger in her eyes. "Hey, I'd be nicer to me if I were you. I'm the only thing in between you getting down and being stuck up there for the rest of your life."

"Keh, you don't look like you have any idea what you're doing. I'd be surprised if you could actually pull it off."

"Why you.." Kagome said and started to jump at Inuyasha when Sesshomaru wrapped his arm around her waist and stopped her.

"Calm yourself, miko. I know he is not easy to be around but you are better than the uncouth behavior he is trying to pull out of you." He whispered in her ear and she shivered at the contact. She felt a little better when she could swear she felt him shiver too.

She took a deep breath. "You're right, Sesshomaru. Let's get this over with so we can go. The quicker we're away from this jerk, the better." She said in a tone loud enough that Inuyasha could hear and his ears went flat against his head in response.

"Keh, whatever," Inuyasha said, trying to sound unaffected but he was hurt. He didn't know why he was upset, he didn't know the girl or care about her but her words hurt him nonetheless.

Finally, with nothing else coming to her mind as a good idea, she just grabbed the arrow and tried to rip it out. It disintegrated in her hand and Inuyasha slid down to the ground. Kagome looked at her hand, in shock that she actually did it. Sesshomaru's jealousy had been growing since they walked back to the tree. He did not like that she was showing so much attention to the whelp, she was his. He mentally shook his head, she was only his in the sense that she was his to protect. He held no claim on her and he didn't want to. His beast gave an enthusiastic disagreeing slam against his cage at that thought.

He knew his beast had never responded this way to someone before but that was not that strange. Normally, his beast didn't take an interest in anyone. What was strange was that he'd never heard of anyone's beast reacting thusly to someone they'd just met. It made no sense. Unless… no, they're just fairytales and even if they weren't, he wouldn't allow his soul bonded to be a human.

Now that she got the whelp down Sesshomaru decided that they'd been around him long enough. He was going to take his miko— the miko far away from Inuyasha and never consider why her being away from the half-breed is so important to him. "Come, miko. It is time we leave. We have much work to do and you still want to visit the miko of the village, do you not? I want to get far away from this village before we set up camp for the night."

"Huh? Yeah, you're right, I do. Okay, let's go!" Kagome said with a smile and followed Sesshomaru out of the clearing.

"Hey, wait! Where are you guys going? You still haven't told me what 'the great human-hating Lord of the West' is doing with a human" Inuyasha said as he followed after them, clearly making fun of Sesshomaru's title. Normally, he'd want to get as far away from Sesshomaru as possible but he'd just been asleep for an unknown amount of time so he doesn't really have any plans anymore. He figured he mine as well annoy Sesshomaru until he found out what happened to the sacred jewel so he could get it back.

"That is none of your concern, half-breed."

Kagome laughed awkwardly and put her hand behind her head. "Well, it's a long story actually." Again, Sesshomaru felt the urge to chuckle, this time at the miko's expense. She continued. "I might have accidentally broken this thing that was apparently not supposed to be broken."

"Oh yeah? And what'd you break, human?" Inuyasha asked condescendingly, making the word human sound disgusting. Sesshomaru felt the urge to teach the whelp some manners but stopped himself because just yesterday, he would have reacted the same way. He did not like how he was being affected by this girl.

"Oh, you know, nothing special, just the Shikon jewel."

"What!?" He yelled so loud that Sesshomaru saw some birds fly away that were resting on the tops of the nearby trees.

"What? It was an accident!" Kagome said defensively.

"How could you, it was supposed to be mine!"

"Uh, no. it's mine, I was literally born with it inside me."

"Keh, whatever wench, when we collect all the pieces, I'm taking it and finally getting my wish."

Sesshomaru could see Kagome's panic at the thought so he quickly stepped in. It was his job to protect her in more ways than just the physical after all, her mental and emotional wellbeing were under his care as well. "You were not even invited to travel with us, Inuyasha. The jewel will be staying with Kagome, you'll have to go through me to get it."

"Ha, like that will be a problem," Inuyasha said, trying to sound confident but Sesshomaru heard the shake in his voice.

"We shall see about that," Sesshomaru replied simply.

He did not want the whelp traveling with them. Though he did not hate the boy, he found his personality distasteful and uncouth. He spent as little time around him as possible since he reached adulthood. After his father died Sesshomaru tried to get him and his mother to live with him even though he hated everything that his father's mistress stood for. Even though he had a strong dislike for his half-brother's mother, Inuyasha was still of Taisho blood so he couldn't leave him in the lurch. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Sesshomaru thought, depending on the day, she didn't want to live with Youkai, so she declined. Sesshomaru found out as Inuyasha got older that his mom told him that Sesshomaru did not want them and left them with nothing. Of course, Inuyasha believed his mother so when she died and Sesshomaru offered to take him in again, Inuyasha vehemently declined while calling him a lot of crass names. Sesshomaru thought about explaining his side of things but decided against it, it's not like the grieving boy would believe a virtual stranger over his loving mother. He never figured out why she lied about Sesshomaru but her lies affected the brother's relationship greatly.

They were almost at the village when Kagome stopped everyone. "What's this?"

Neither Inuyasha nor Sesshomaru saw what she was looking at. "Of what do you speak, miko?"

She reached out and touched something that neither could see, it only became visible to the demon and half-demon's eyes when the miko made contact with it. "Is it… hair?"

"Oh my oh me, you can see it then, my little hairs I mean. Pitty because seeing is not enough." They heard a woman's voice, they all looked at where the voice was coming from and saw a woman with black hair in scantily clad clothing seemingly floating. Only Kagome could see that she was standing on long strings of hair that were somehow strong enough to hold her weight.

"Who are you?" Kagome asked.

"How do you do? I'm Yura of the hair, though you needn't bother to remember because you'll be dead soon!" Yura moved her hand which must have been connected to the hair and sent it to attack Kagome. Sesshomaru wasted no time and slashed the hair, what he could see anyway. Unfortunately, a strand he didn't see must have made its way to Kagome and took the little string bag she had around her neck that held the jewel shards she carried in it. She used the hair to bring the bag to her then opened it and gasped. "You naughty naughty girl, you shattered the jewel. Where's the rest? Give it to me or I shall be cross!"

"You give that back!" Kagome demanded.

"Answer the question. Where is the rest of it?"

Sesshomaru grew bored with the exchange and jumped up to attack her. Unfortunately, Inuyasha grew excited at seeing even a part of the jewel and jumped up to try to take it for himself. Since he jumped at the same time as Sesshomaru, he had to stop his attack or he would have poisoned Inuyasha. He almost did it anyway so the whelp could learn a lesson. Because Sesshomaru's attack was interrupted Yara had time to jump back out of the way. Instead of speaking more, she continued to jump backward on her hair until she was out of sight. She got what she came for, well, some of it anyway.

"We have to go get her, she took the jewel shard!" Kagome said as she ran up to Sesshomaru and grabbed her hands onto his sleeve, trying to make sure he understood how important it was to her. He didn't respond at first, he just looked at where her hands were resting on his person like they had the right to be there. She didn't take the hint and kept looking up at him with her big eyes begging for understanding. He wanted to sigh, it was not as if he would not collect the shard, he already agreed to help her on her quest.

He was about to reply when Inuyasha cut in. "Keh, you're barking up the wrong tree, stupid. He doesn't care about anyone but himself, he won't help you. Here, take this for some protection and hop on, we'll go get the shards."

He handed her his fire rat robe which she took and absently put on but was still looking at Sesshomaru, she didn't think he seemed like the type to give his word and then take it back. Sesshomaru, for his part, was working hard to fight his beast from taking over because the miko was wearing another man's clothing.

"Sesshomaru? Are you okay?" Kagome asked because his eyes kept flashing red and she didn't know why. It was making her a little nervous.

"Come on already, she's getting away, and you're the only one that can see the hair. Hurry up, will ya? He's obviously not coming" Inuyasha said, annoyed.

Sesshomaru stayed quiet for a few more seconds before his eyes turned and stayed gold. "Hn. Come."

He wrapped his arm around her and lifted off into the sky. Kagome was getting a little more used to flying on his weird cloud thing but it still freaked her out so she wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could and held on tight. He must have been able to feel her unease because the arm that was holding her tightened around her, which made her feel more secure so she was able to relax a little. They were flying over the village and Kagome saw that the villagers looked strange, Sesshomaru must have seen it too but she realized he had no intention of stopping for them.

"Sesshomaru, wait, there's something wrong with them!"

He kept flying for a few more seconds before he decided to indulge her and stop. When he landed Kagome was able to get a better look at them and see that they were all being held up by the hair and were being controlled by it. She saw Kaede and another villager hiding in the corner with the controlled people closing in on them.

"Kaede, are you okay?" She wasn't really sure how to help and she realized that Inuyasha was getting ready to help in his own way, by slashing the villagers down. He couldn't see that they were being controlled. "Inuyasha, no! There's hair all around them, they're not doing this by choice, we can't hurt them!"

Kagome made a quick decision because she remembered that Sesshomaru was able to see the hair while she was touching it. She ran over to the thickest clump of hair she could and wrapped her arms around it. She opened her mouth to say something but she didn't have to, Sesshomaru was already using his claws to cut the hair he could now see. Inuyasha caught on fast and started cutting the hair too.

Once the villagers were back on the ground, albiet unconscious, the three were back on the move looking at Yara. It wasn't hard to find her, there was hair everywhere and all they had to do was follow it. The only problem was, that it was difficult to move fast because they were constantly dodging the hair that seemed to be attacking them. When they came upon something that Kagome could only describe as a giant hairball, Inuyasha was caught by the hair wrapping around his wrist. He was pulled away from them and other groups of hair wrapped around his other wrist and his ankles so he was stuck a few feet up in the air.

Kagome wanted to help Inuyasha but she didn't know how, she looked at the giant clump of hair and figured that it was Yura's hiding place. She was about to tell Sesshomaru that when Yura came out of nowhere and landed on hair not far from Inuyasha. Sesshomaru was having a difficult time dodging the hair while holding onto Kagome and was almost captured a few times himself.

"Sesshomaru, maybe you should let me down, I'll stay out of the way, you can't do much fighting when you're holding me."

He stared at her a long time, thinking things over, she was right, he'd be able to be rid of the demon much faster if he was not hampered by holding onto Kagome while flying and attacking but she would be unprotected if he were to put her down. Eventually, he agreed because he felt the demon's eyes on his back and knew she was going to attack him next and figured the miko would be safer out of the line of fire. So he landed on the ground and once she was stable he let her go.

"Go wait over there in safety, I'll be done with this quickly."

She just nodded her head but she was already looking for ways she could help in this fight from the ground. Unfortunately, he must have been paying too much attention to the miko making sure she got far enough away because hair wrapped around both his wrists at the same time and pulled him up in the air next to Inuyasha.

When Kagome saw what happened she couldn't help but gasp then yell, "Sesshomaru!"

This time when Sesshomaru's eyebrow twitched it was because the woman was bringing attention to herself when he was clearly not able to properly protect her. He had a feeling she wasn't going to make his job as her protector easy. Yura jumped from one strand of hair to another until she was in front of Sesshomaru.

"Oh my, look at the cute doggie." She said condescendingly. "You must be Sesshomaru." Sesshomaru did not bother to respond to her, which clearly annoyed Yura. "I bet you're wondering how I knew who you are. Let's just say a little birdie told me. Everyone is saying the demon lord Sesshomaru is playing fetch with some reincarnated shrine maiden.

Again Sesshomaru didn't respond but he did think about the implications of what she was saying. How do people already know that he's collecting the shards with the miko? And there are rumors of them being lovers? That is not good news. It's not if one such as he paid attention to such things but his mother sure did and he was hoping to keep her as far away from Kagome as possible. When she heard such rumors she'd be sure to pay him a visit. It matters not, he supposed. It's not as if anything untoward was really happening between them, no matter what his beast says on the matter. And it's not as if he'd stop doing what he wants just because his mother objected to his course of action.

Yura must have been getting annoyed because he was lost in thought and not worrying about her. She jumped up and flipped over him so she was standing right behind him. "Such pretty hair you have, and it's so well cared for, unlike his over there, he has a lot of split ends. It doesn't matter though, once it's part of my collection I'll be able to take care of it like it's supposed to be." She said, pointing at Inuyasha.

Sesshomaru adjusted his hands so he was able to use his position to drip onto the hair and disintegrate it. Once he had his hands free he quickly sliced the hair that was holding his legs. He moved faster than Kagome's eyes could see but the next thing she knew, Yura was all bloody, she looked like if she were human, she'd be dead and Sesshomaru was looking as pristine as always. He might not show a lot of facial expressions but Kagome could tell he was confused. Maybe a normal demon would be dead from those wounds too? His few moments of confusion were all she needed to get him wrapped in her hair again. This whole time Inuyasha was trying to get free too but wasn't having any luck.

Yura decided that play and talking time was over so she took out her sword and ran at Sesshomaru. Kagome couldn't let her attack him while he couldn't defend himself so she aimed an arrow as quickly and as accurately as she could before she let go. It would have hit Yura if she hadn't seen it coming and stopped in time. Kagome was upset that she didn't hit Yura but at least she stopped her from attacking Sesshomaru.

Yura looked at Sesshomaru. "Oh, I think the priestess wants you back Sesshomaru. What a sweet little doggie woggie you must be to be wanted so badly.

Kagome gave Sesshomaru a sheepish smile because the look he was giving her clearly said 'I told you to hide, we'll be talking about this later.'

"Her hair is nowhere near as pretty as yours but waste not want not, or so I've been told."

"Hair not as pretty as yours, huh? That's funny coming from someone who lives in a time that doesn't even have shampoo!" Kagome yells before letting go of another arrow.

She still obviously needs work on her aim because the arrow was nowhere near Yura and was in fact heading straight for Inuyasha. He moved his body wildly around, well, as much as he could considering he was still tied up, trying to avoid the arrow. Thankfully, he was able to move his head just enough that the arrow passed without hitting him. Instead, it kept going until it hit the big hairball Yura made. When it did, her purifying energy made a lot of the hair disintegrate and what was left was skulls with what was left of the hair attached to them.

Yura gasped and looked distressed, "Oh no, what have you done?!"

"Are those the guys we saw from the village?" Inuyasha asked, sounding disgusted.

"I'll be putting you in there too, once I separate that hair from your head. It shouldn't be wasted on you anyway. One thing first, that woman over there has to die!"

Yura used her comb and swung it at Kagome making fire shoot down her hair and attack her. Kagome felt the heat from the flames surround her and all she could think to do was go to the ground and curl up in a ball. She heard a roar that would have scared her if she wasn't already terrified for her life.

When Sesshomaru saw Kagome get covered in flames the last of his tenuous control he'd been holding over his beast disappeared. A roar so primal that it scared Inuyasha came from deep inside of him and he felt himself transforming. Changing into his beast made it easy to break free from the hair. Yura's eyes opened wide, she didn't expect a reaction like that. She had no choice but to retreat back so she could try to figure out how to take down this mighty dog. She worried she might have bit off more than she could chew.

When Sesshomaru transformed and ripped free of the hair, Inuyasha was able to get free as well. Instead of getting in the fight, he jumped down and hopped over to where Kagome was burned. He was hoping she was still alive. When he landed in front of her, the fire was just going out and she lifted her head up looking around worriedly. She had no idea what happened while she was under Inuyasha's robe but it sounded bad.

Inuyasha breathed an unexpected sigh of relief at seeing the wench okay. He held his hand out for her to take and she grabbed onto it shakily. He asked gruffly, "You alright?"

"Yeah, I think so. Where's Sesshomaru and Yura?"

Inuyasha pointed over his shoulder where you could see the huge dog in the distance chasing something.

"Oh my god, we have to help him, that dog is huge I'm sure it could hurt even him!"

"Stupid, that is Sesshomaru, do you even know who you're traveling with?"

"Wow, he's beautiful." She said in a faraway voice after she was able to get a better look at him because they were coming back their way. She realized then that he looked familiar to her but that didn't make sense, obviously, she'd never seen a dog like that before in her time. Then she remembered the carving on top of the wellhouse. It looked just like Sesshomaru, she used to spend a lot of time imagining different stories for that magnificent dog that protected their shrine but she never imagined she'd actually meet it and it be her protector in real life too. Though if she were being honest, she'd admit she was a little worried too, he looked crazed right now, like he was running completely on instincts and those instincts were telling him to kill.

'I have to find a way to finish this so Sesshomaru can go back to normal.' Kagome thought and looked around. As she was looking she noticed that one of the skulls that the arrow relieved was red. She thought that was strange, why was it different than the rest? When Sesshomaru who was chasing Yura came closer, she couldn't help but cringe, she looked even more messed up than before, Kagome didn't know how she could still be alive. Kagome looked back at the red skull and then back at Yura, 'are they connected somehow? Is that part of her life force? Maybe I have to break the skull in order to kill her' She shrugged. 'It's worth a shot."

"Inuyasha, I need your help to end this!"

"Whaddya need, wench?"

"I need you to get me up there." She said pointing to the red skull. He looked at her dubiously but shrugged and bent down so she could climb up on his back. When he lifted up in the air Kagome quickly decided she enjoyed riding with Sesshomaru a lot more. It was a smoother ride and she felt a lot more safe but she'd just have to deal with it for now.

Sesshomaru, for his part, wasn't thinking at all. He was lost to his beast and his instincts were running the show. The only things going through his mind that he could comprehend were 'kill' 'revenge' and 'mate'. When his more civilized side was in control again, he'd have to consider what that meant, for now, he just kept following his instincts. He let out a howl that other inu would know as a mourning sound.

The sound made Inuyasha trip because he was so surprised to hear it, he quickly fixed his steps and kept going. When they finally made it to the red skull Kagome followed her gut and took out one of her arrows. With all her might and all her concentration, she tried to summon her reiki into the arrow. Once she accomplished that, she stabbed the arrow, it took a few tries but she was able to stab into the skull shattering it. As soon as the arrow impaled the skull Yura and all her hair froze, pink reiki exploded from the skull and Yura disintagrated. All that was left of her were her clothes.

Kagome was panting from the adrenaline calming down and she didn't even notice when Inuyasha brought her back to the ground and put her down. She couldn't believe she actually did it, she saved the day. She looked around to find Sesshomaru and saw him still in his inu form panting heavily and looking straight at her. She knew in a situation like this she should be scared because he still looked feral but she wasn't, somehow she knew that he'd never hurt her. Inuyasha obviously didn't feel the same way because he stepped in front of her, trying to protect her from Sesshomaru.

"Hey, bastard, I don't know what's going on with you but I won't let you hurt her!" He yelled with his hand and claws ready for attack.

Sesshomaru growled menacingly then with his monster-sized paw swatted Inuyasha away. He used his teeth to pick Kagome up by the back of her school uniform and flew away. She didn't want to freak out because they were high up in the air and if she moved too much he could easily drop her to her death but she was sure out of all the ways she had traveled over the last few days, this was her least favorite. She stayed absolutely as still as possible and did the only thing she could, waited for it to be over. She knew they were only in the air for a minute or two but she also knew they had to fly far because they were on a secluded hill when they landed.

Sesshomaru opened his jaw to let her free but he didn't let her go far. He wrapped his big body around her in what she could only think of as a big comfy cocoon. She felt safe like nothing could get to her. Which was a good feeling to have while being in this scary, foreign, and dangerous time. Today must have worn her out because once she realized Sesshomaru wasn't planning on moving any time soon she sat down to get comfortable and fell asleep not even five minutes later.

Sesshomaru laid down wrapped around her and was finally able to think a little clearer. He heard the miko's breathing and heartbeat even out and knew she was asleep. He had never had his beast take him over like that before. At least, not since he hit puberty and mastered his control. He didn't know what happened and why he reacted like that. He internally scoffed, he was better than that, he was above lying to himself. He'd heard stories of Youkai having this reaction before but he didn't believe them to be true. Why would he, the great Sesshomaru be given a soulbond to a human? He was not one to usually go against the Camis, they were one of the only beings that Sesshomaru knew he'd not be able to defeat, yet anyway but he thought maybe something went wrong. He knew from the stories that once someone met their soulbound it was almost impossible to ignore the pull to complete it and become mates. He wasn't one to let someone else dictate his life though, he'd be the one to choose who he forever bound himself to. He couldn't deny the urge to be close to her though, the draw he had to be around her, the contentment he felt inhaling her scent. One thing he didn't know was if she felt the same pull as him or was this just a one-way need? He had many questions and he was going to get the answers. Though he knew that the miko needed to find the jewel, she would just have to deal with the change in plans, they could search along the way because they were going to see Bokusenō.