Mysterious Love by Janie

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or it's characters, but I do own this story.

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It was a quiet summer afternoon. The unusual group of shard hunters were walking through the dense forest. It was quite warm and humid; it got harder to breathe the longer they walked. The group was tired; they had been travelling for half of the day without rest. They stared ahead at the determined looking hanyou. Kagome was tired, hungry, and felt like she was being watched, she needed a break badly. She spoke for the exhausted group:

 “Inuyasha? Can we please stop? We have been travelling for most of the day and need rest.” the hanyou’s ears swiveled in her direction and away. He turned his head:

 “Don’t you wanna find Naraku? He’s our first priority! There's rumors sayin’ he’s in the east. Or are you too tired to fight him? Kikyo could have kept going!” he instantly regretted his words as soon as he saw the burning rage in her glare. If looks could kill he would have died five times by the sole intensity of her glare.

 “Inuyasha…SIT! Kikyo this, sit, Kikyo that, sit! How many times do I have to tell you I AM KAGOME, KA-GO-ME, not KIKYO?! INUYASHA YOU’RE SUCH A JERK!!!” with that she picked up her backpack, bow, arrows, and ran before picking her desired location, she told her group:

 “I'll return in a week or so, I’m going back to Edo and going home.” They nodded, minus one fuming hanyou who managed to drag himself out of his crater just in time to see her tense to leave.

 “Hey wench, you can’t just leave! We have shards to find and Naraku to kill!” she looked back once then kept going, but not before saying,

 “Sit.” Bam! There was another Inuyasha crater. She heard his muffled curses. She was happy. She didn’t even need Inuyasha’s protection anymore, but of course he didn’t know that when she went home she studied how to channel her powers and practiced her talent in hand to hand combat. She mastered and extended her powers to where they exceeded the Great Midoriko; beat all her sensei’s in hand to hand combat and became a black belt. She came out of her thoughts, covered her scent and aura, as well as her presence. She learned that even if you cover your scent and aura your presence is still there so she learned to shield all three. She continued walking westward until she felt an aura she felt once before. It felt immensely powerful and very familiar… then it clicked. There was only one aura she knew that was THIS powerful…Inuyasha’s elder half-brother― Sesshoumaru. She continued to walk in his direction all the while unmasking her presence. Kagome found herself peeking from behind a tree and spotted Sesshoumaru’s fallen form. There lay Sesshoumaru leaning against a tree, breathing irregularly. She looked at him and couldn’t help but want to aid him. Sure he was Inuyasha’s bitter enemy, but he hadn’t really done any thing to harm her. She reached a decision. She was about to step out of the shadows until she heard an icy voice:

 “Who’s there?” she shivered slightly, but conquered her fear and stepped out of the shadows.

 “Are you alright?” she asked; concern colored her voice. He opened his eyes and slowly tilted his head toward her. He studied her coldly then realization struck him like a lightning bolt. Inuyasha’s wench! That women-child who pulled out the Tetsusaiga, dared to shoot an arrow at him, and distransformed the powerful sword.

 “Inuyasha's miko...” He was a little confused. Why wasn’t the mutt with her? He constantly followed her around like a lost puppy and she stuck by his side in a show of unfaltering loyalty.

 “Yes it’s me. Now are you alright?” he stared at her coldly.