000

Chapter One: An Endless Struggle

She remembered it as if it were just yesterday; the bloodshed, the screams and the ethereal pink glow that signified the end. Naraku, the menace of the feudal era, had finally, finally, fallen. Although she wished she could have taken credit for the final death she could not, that honor laid with the lord of the west; her shaky ally Sesshomaru. But she had played her part, just like others, only her part was not one she had wished to play.

"Kill him! Kill him!" Naraku screamed at his wind witch, Kagura, as she stood over the crouched body of the bloody InuYasha. But she could not, how could she kill the man that she had fallen in love with?

"Useless!" Naraku raged as he searched for her heart amongst the battle, ready to end her life once and for all. His back was turned and Sesshomaru took that time to launch his final attack. At that very same moment Kagome had knocked an arrow into her bow and gave it all the power she had left.

Naraku saw the double attack and screamed, clawing for his chunk of the sacred jewel shards, which laid only inches away. Toukijin hit Naraku in the chest, moving him slightly to the left, as Kagome's arrow hit the jewel and shattered his source of power.

The battlefield was washed over with a ethereal glow of pink, healing the fighters who had triumphed over the long standing darkness. But it was a short lived victory; a very short lived victory.

"Idiot! You idiot! You broke the jewel! AGAIN!" InuYasha screamed at Kagome, who was standing on shaky legs due to the power of her last arrow.

"Leave her alone InuYasha." Sango, Kagome's best friend and hailing taijiya of the group, told him as he clenched his fists, shaking.

"Shut up Sango! I've worked to long to be denied my prize!" InuYasha screamed as he turned his attention, and fury, to the unyielding Sango.

"Calm yourself." Miroku, the haling perverted monk of the group, cautioned.

InuYasha was about to say something when a rock, the size of a baseball, hit him in the temple and knocked him unconscious at their feet. Striding towards the group was Sesshomaru, covered in blood and looking stoic as usual.

"He doesn't want to fight now, he can't." Sango whispered to Miroku, her hand ready on her hiraikotsu.

"I mean you no harm." Sesshomaru announced in his monotone voice. He stretched his hand to Kagome, a single pink jewel shard in his hand. "I believe this belongs to you." He said without looking at her.

Kagome could barely believe her eyes, if she hadn't been there she wouldn't have believed it. She stood with her back straight and took a step forward, letting her fingers take the jewel shard from Sesshomaru's pale, soft palm.

And that was that. Life had returned to 'normal'. Kagome, Sango, Miroku, InuYasha and Shippou continued to hunt for jewel shards. There had been a few changes, of course, InuYasha resented Kagome to no avail and vowed never to take her as a mate which, in turn, had broken the young girls heart and forced her to move on. Sango and Miroku finally confessed their love for each other and were 'just dating', although talk of marriage had floated through the air more than once. As for InuYasha's love life, he currently sat in a new situation that made the rest of his shard hunting group laugh. He still loved Kikyo, who still wandered the earth, stealing souls and plotting against Kagome, but he also had feelings for Naraku's previous wind witch Kagura. He would sneak off to see Kikyo one night and Kagura the next. Eventually, the tables would turn and InuYasha would feel the wrath of two very scorn women. What a treat that would be for the group.

Now the group was faced with a new dilemma. The shards had been scattered once again and the demons had gone into hiding, without a dark master to tell them what to do they were scared. It was hard enough getting jewel shards before the defeat and now it was near impossible to find a demon who held more than one shard. It would take a long time for them to collect all the pieces. Now, the group travels randomly, hoping to find a hint of a jewel shard to lead them in their quest.

000

The midday sun was hot on their backs as they walked casually along the dirt path. InuYasha, who now favored the back of the group rather than the front, trailed a good three feet behind the others; Sango and Miroku walked holding hands and smiling, speaking quietly so the rest of the group could not hear them; where Kagome and Shippou manned the front, with Shippou skipping along in front of Kagome, who smiled happily in the sun.

They had just reached a small hill and started to climb. At the top they stopped in their place. A large, larger than they had ever encountered, worm demon was in the clearing. It had three jewel shards shining from it's head and was extra powerful.

"Hey idiot, why didn't you sense this thing before?" InuYasha snapped.

Kagome was as perplexed as InuYasha but, upon further inspection, found the light traces of a strong demonic barrier that masked its aura.

"It has a barrier around itself so no one, not even you, could have sensed it or the jewel shards, seeing as you didn't warn us about the demonic aura." Kagome snapped back.

She put her hand on the barrier and it broke. Instantly a wave of power engulfed her, as well as the aura of three others.

"Sesshomaru, Rin and Jaken are on the other side." Kagome warned.

"Oh yay, Rin!" Shippou squealed and started to barrel down the hill.

"Shippou no!" Kagome screamed, watching her surrogate son run headfirst into a very dangerous zone.

On the other side, Jaken chased Rin, who had also barreled into the danger zone to see her friend Shippou and Kagome upon hearing the announcement of their presence from Sesshomaru.

Kagome ran and tried to catch up to Shippou as Sango, Miroku and InuYasha prepared to fight. Sesshomaru, who had entrusted Jaken with the care of Rin, also prepared. Kagome saw Rin and Shippou meet a few feet ahead and she also saw the sharp, poisonous tail of the worm start coming down towards them.

"Rin! Shippou! Move!" She screamed, alerting them to the danger.

Shippou and Rin huddled together as the saw the worms deadly tail with Kagome running as fast as she could to get their in time. Sesshomaru heard the screams and, with his demonic quickness, raced over there. He was there a split second after Kagome, who had pushed the children out of the line of danger and prepared herself for the blow, which would most likely kill her. Sesshomaru dived, catching the sharp, poisonous tail through the chest, protecting her.

Kagome was thrown back a few feet and looked at the site in front of her. Sesshomaru, the never quitting fighter, used his drawn sword to cut the tail off of the worm, watching it flail in horror before he dropped to his knee's, gasping for breath. He had saved her. Sesshomaru, the Sesshomaru had saved her.

"Shit!" She screamed and ran over to him, snapping back to reality by the cried of the children.

She needed to get him off the battlefield.

"Sesshomaru, you need to move about 10 feet forward, okay?" She asked in a shaky voice, trying to help him.

Sesshomaru, who had started to bleed from the left side of his mouth, refused her help and walked towards a large tree away from the battlefield in the area she had chosen. He slumped down with his back to the tree, his legs spread out in front of him, and that was the end.

Kagome grabbed Rin and Shippou and pulled them off to the side as Sango made her way over to them.

"Kagome, are you and the children alright?" She asked breathlessly.

"We are but Sesshomaru isn't, I fear it's life threatening." Kagome told her quietly, as Rin and Shippou huddled behind her. "There are three shards in the demons' stomach, finish him quickly if you can so no one else gets hurt."

Sango nodded and stole a glance at the fallen western lord, letting a look of pity fall on her face for a second before she was gone.

Kagome moved the children over near the tree and instructed them not to move unless she said so. Rin was crying, wanting Sesshomaru to tell her everything was alright just as Shippou wanted to hear it from Kagome.

Kagome walked over to where Sesshomaru was sitting. She tried to approach him but a relatively strong barrier prevented her from doing so. She touched it with her hand to try and break it but she couldn't. Only he could let her in. She could hear the ending cries of battle and felt the earth shake as the worm went down in a heap. The children would be fine without her now, worried and scared, but fine.

"Sesshomaru." Kagome said sternly, breaching the mind of Sesshomaru.

"Leave me be miko." Sesshomaru's subconscious growled angrily.

"You'll die right here, in front of Rin, if you don't let me help you. Your wound is too deep and you've lost too much blood plus you are poisoned. Even you can not handle it all." She growled back.

A few seconds later the barrier was down. Kagome looked towards the children and smiled.

"Shippou, Rin, I need you two to be really strong now. Everything is going to be fine, I'm going to heal Sesshomaru. I need you to tell the group not to try and move us or disturb us. Okay?" Kagome asked them.

Shippou sniveled and nodded.

"Okay mama, I can do that." Shippou said, holding Rin's hand in a cute way obviously scared and upset.

Kagome walked forward towards Sesshomaru's body, his demonic barrier as well as a powerful healing barrier of her own went up around them. Kagome surveyed the damage with a frown, it was worst than she had expected. The way Sesshomaru had positioned himself was going to make it tricky to heal him. Well, not so much tricky as embarrassingly awkward.

She looked back as Sango approached, listening to her instructions from Shippou, and sighed. Kagome threw a leg over Sesshomaru's lower half and settled into a position where she was straddling his hips, blushing furiously as she moved his clothing out of the way to get at his chest. She gripped his shoulder's and released all the healing energy she could. At the same time, Sesshomaru's subconscious fought back and pulled Kagome into a state of unconsciousness with him, so she would have to heal him in a state that he controlled. She collapsed on top of him, her arms around his shoulder's in, what would have looked like, a loving embrace.

Sango and Miroku looked at each other with dropped jaws as InuYasha handed Sango the three jewel shards. He growled and turned away, obviously disgusted.

"They're not going to be happy when they wake up like that." Sango said, trying not to laugh.

"No, defiantly not." Miroku confirmed, smiling away.

"We should probably set up camp. Due to his wound's they're going to be out for a long time." Sango sighed, giggling to herself.

Miroku nodded and pointed towards the two children, who were looking at Kagome and Sesshomaru with perplexed faces.

"Shippou." Sango called. "Why don't you and Rin come over here and color while we set up camp and cook some dinner."

Shippou and Rin tore themselves away from the sight of their unconscious surrogate parents and bounced over to Sango, who was a few feet away. As they started to color, Sango and Miroku set up camp, InuYasha jumped in a tree and set with his arms crossed and Jaken, who had hidden from the battle, watched from a small distance away, weary of the situation.