The young bride looked around her new home nervously. It was gorgeous and green, full of life. She saw many of the same plants that had caught her eye the night before, glowing and full of life, dulled by sunlight. It was clear that they were not plants of the world she knew growing up.

This was his.

She had let go of her new husband's arm and stepped away from him so she could look over the beautiful plant life that surrounded them. Her fingers seemed to reach out and touch every plant, studying it like she was trying to memorize what each one looked like.

Her prince hadn't been very forthcoming, not really talking as they walked. He wasn't showing her around so much as letting her have a look for herself around the forest while he simply existed beside her.

It wasn't like he wanted to be out here with her. There were a million places he would rather be. But he also knew it was his responsibility to make sure this foolish, naïve mortal didn't get herself hurt out in a forest that yokai, both his allies and foolish ones that trespassed to challenge him, passed through often.

Especially with that damn jewel around her neck.

"Have you lived here all your life?" Kagome asks, her hand reaching forward and touching a flowered branch that hung just above them. Inuyasha flicked an ear and shrugged his shoulders, leaning against a nearby tree as she dilly dallied.

"Most of it, I guess," He says.

"So you were born somewhere else?" She asks and he looks at his claws.

"Why would that matter?" He says and she glances at him, carefully picking one of the flower blossoms from the tree.

"It doesn't," She says, "I guess I just want to know a little more about you." glancing over her shoulder at him, she smiles. "Other than being the half mortal second son of Lord Toga, I really don't know a whole lot about someone I've been engaged to for three years. Who signed a paper and married me yesterday."

Inuyasha felt his cheeks grow hot and he looked away from her. Damn it, why did she have to look so similar yet insanely different all at the same time? Why did he keep thinking about this other woman and feel himself react to like he would the long dead priestess. Taking a deep breath, he shrugged and answered her.

"I was born here," He says, "Well, not here but close by. I grew up just outside Musashi with some of Mother's distant family. I had to wander for a while though, after she died." The young woman blinked at him a few moments and walked over to him.

"I'm sorry to hear that," She says, "When did she-"

"A long time ago, when I was still a kid," He huffs. " I don't want to talk about it."

"Why did you have to wander?" She asks and he glances at her, an ear flicking in irritation. "Didn't anyone in your family take care of you?" He rolls his eyes and scratches his nose. Why was she insisting on interrogating him on this?

"Because my father was already dead," he growls.

"But what about-" Kagome starts and Inuyasha snorts.

"Sesshomaru?" He says, "You're stupider than you look if you think he would have helped me as a child."

"But he's your brother," she says, and he looks at her pointedly.

"It wasn't until he met Rin that he even gave me a second thought," he growls. "And even now, he the only time thinks of me as any more than Father's mistake when me or the Tetsusaiga can be used for the benefit of his control over the West." Kagome looks down at the flower in her hand, her eyes suddenly turning very sad.

"Like marrying some frivolous princess to get mortal support over the largest Western Region," she says quietly, a hard, clawed feeling grabbing at her chest and making her flinch a little.

"Exactly," He says, not taking any notice of the crestfallen tone to her voice. "Half demons aren't worth anything to their mortal or demon brethren until they've proven they can survive on their own strengths. Even if they are related by blood. Until then, I was just Toga's bastard son to Sesshomaru. Didn't matter that he married my mother because to my brother and his mother, humans didn't count. They were nothing more than pets to be kept."

"No wonder you hate me so much," She says, a harsh, joyless laugh filling her voice, "If someone who treated you so poorly arranged for me to be your partner without your consent." She gently touches the flower petals. "Not to mention being a mortal descended from the ruling clans that turned you out as a child." He looked up at her and saw that she was kind of walking into the trees, away from him.

"Where are you going?" He asks and she glanced back at him.

"Just for a walk," She says. "I'm sorry for bothering you, for prying into things that aren't my business. Feel free to go about your business. I'll make my way back once I've gotten bored." She turns back and starts trying to trudge further into the trees.

"Wait, you don't need to run off," He says. "I ain't mad at you, Girl." He stands up to follow her, but she barely glances his way.

"Yet you despise me enough to never use my name," She says, making him frown and look away from her, "To not look me in the eye. If I'm such a bore and a bother, just go back to the castle. I'll be fine on my own."

"Like hell you'd be fine on your own," He says. "You've never even stepped outside a castle. And if you get yourself killed, I'll be the one to pay for it." He starts to walk after her and she just shoots him an angry look.

"Sit!" She orders and he's shoved into the forest floor, growling. "Don't follow me. I want to be left alone." By the time he was able to lift his head, she had already disappeared.

"Stupid fool," He growls, getting up. He sat on the ground, smelling the air. Her scent was still there, but growing fainter as the breeze carried it away from him.

"Don't think I'll come chasing after you if something happens, because I won't!" He yells in the direction she left in.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kirara hop out of a bush. "What, did you follow us?" She just blinks at him and he crosses his arms, looking away. "Don't look at me like that. She's the one who got mad over nothing and stormed off." He turned up his nose and huffed. "Let her get hurt. See if I care."

The small cat demon rolls her eyes and sits down next to him, carefully cleaning her paws while her master fidgeted next to her, anxiously waiting for when the stubborn hanyo inevitably did go after her fading scent.

*****

Meanwhile, Kagome walked through the trees, her fists balled at her side. How dare he keep insinuating that she couldn't take care of herself. She could do that just fine. It isn't like she was really that useless.

What did he take her for? She wasn't that helpless. She had reiki, spiritual power for crying out loud. That's the whole reason Sesshomaru had her sent here to be Inuyasha's wife. Did he really think that little of humans that he overlooked that?

"But you don't know how to use them properly. You've never even drawn a priestess' bow let alone shot a sacred arrow," Her thoughts seemed to chide her, but she brushed them off. She was stopped as she came to a dense patch of brush that tugged on her kimono, tearing a part of the embroidered hem. 

Grumbling in frustration, she sighed and crouched down next to the small thorn bush at her side. As she carefully disentangled herself and examined her robe, she realized how strange and unkempt the part of the forest she was in had become.

"Maybe, I should head back," she says aloud and as she turns around; she realized the trees suddenly all looked the same. "If I only knew which way back was for sure." The wind rustled her skirts, and she pushed her hair from her face as she tried to pinpoint where she had come from. She could feel a bit of dread trying to sink into her as a pale, yet violent aura brushed against her skin.

Even with her limited knowledge, she could sense she wasn't alone anymore.

"The jewel," a hissing, buzzing female voice echoed through the trees, making Kagome turn, trying to locate it. "I smell the scent of the Shikon Jewel!"

The young woman looked around, her heart racing. She couldn't see anything in the dark of the overgrown foliage, and it felt like she was completely surrounded. She quickly tucked the necklace inside her clothing, backing up against a tree.

"Princess," she heard the hissing voice start again, getting closer. "You have it, yes? You, wife of that half demon, Inuyasha, who once sought out it out for the same reason as I, aren't you? I shall devour you, jewel and all." She heard a rumbling as the creature stalking her drug it's body through the underbrush. "Do not hide, little girl. It will only make me more spiteful when I find you."

Kagome had her hand resting on her chest, trying to control her breathing. She looked around, trying to find some way to escape. Suddenly, she felt something brushing against her legs and attempting to wrap around them.

"Well, well," She heard reverberated close to her ear, making her flinch, "Found you." 

And as those words were spoken, She was yanked away from the tree and pulled further into the forest, screaming.

*****

Back where Inuyasha waited for her to come crawling back, Kirara suddenly growled and hopped up, her fur on end. He glanced at her as she continued to growl, leaping forward, and running into the forest.

"What is it?" He asks, grabbing at the sword on his side. Suddenly, he heard it, the noise his ears had been trying to locate ever since that stubborn girl stormed off.

A woman's scream.

"Damn it all! I told her not to go off by herself for a reason!" He growls, standing up. Kirara suddenly surrounded herself with flames, turning into a horse sized, saber-tooth cat, growling into the forest. Running up to the cat, he grabbed onto her fur and swung onto her back, drawing his sword.

It was on reflex. Most of the time, since that fateful day, the sword had refused to reveal its power, remaining a small, but sharp and effective katana with no demonic power to speak of.

But as he drew it this time, he felt it's energy, the pulsing of the demon heartbeat within it that had lay dormant and silent since the night the village he had once resided in burned. It grew to its full size for the first time in fifty years, turning into the steel fang of destruction left to him by the father he never met.

"So, you woke up, lazy bastard?" He scoffs before turning towards the sound of another scream. Frowning a little, he had a pretty good idea why his father's youki had returned so suddenly to the prized heirloom his brother had fought him over for a century. "You want me to make good on my promise to protect her, don't you? Well, I guess that means we go get her, right Kirara?"

Kirara let out a roar, racing forward, into the trees.

Kagome cried out again as she was flung against a tree, hitting her head. Her vision was kind of blurry, seeing three of everything as she tried to look up at the demon.

It was a long, segmented insect, like a centipede, snaking its body through the trees and blocking every possible exit she could have taken. The hard carapace of its body glinted in the sunlight that streamed through the trees as the unnaturally pale, six-armed woman's torso bent over her. Her eyes were beady, tiny with little more than black pupils and her mouth was a set of insect pincers, clashing together repeatedly as she leaned closer and closer to the young woman.

"The jewel," her buzzing voice hissed out, pincers opening and closing as she spoke. "I know you have it." Kagome blinked at her and quickly shook her head.

"I don't know what you're talking about," She lied. "You've got the wrong girl." The centipede woman grumbled leaning closer to her.

"Where do you hide it? Give it to me!" She screeched and Kagome just looked up at creature defiantly.

"Why should I?" The princess yells back. "You are exactly the kind of creature I swore to protect such a sacred object from! I will never hand it over to the likes of a malicious yokai!"

"A fierce one, aren't you?" the demon chuckles, "We'll see how eagerly you protect the jewel once your liver is in Mistress Centipede's belly!" Lunging forward, she dug her fangs into the young mortal woman, just below her ribs.

Kagome let out a strangled scream as the creature picked her up by the tender flesh and flung her again, leaving a torn wound in her gut. She grabbed onto the bleeding bite with her hand, wincing. It hurt to breathe, every breath moving the injury and grinding it together. She glanced up, seeing the creature with her blood dripping from its jaws, its body crawling forward to strike at her again.

"Oh, do keep screaming, Little Girl," Mistress Centipede buzzed. "It makes the hunt all the more enjoyable when my prey suffers!" She leaped forward for another strike and the young woman braced herself, closing her eyes.

Instead, a shriek escaped the monster above her and as she opened her eyes, she saw a red and golden blur crossing between her and the centipede woman. Part of her body fell to the ground, turning to bone and ash as it fell away from the main trunk.

Kirara snarled, her red eyes trained on the demon as it moved and repositioned itself on its diminished body. Her half demon master held his sword out as he leaped off her back and stood in front of the injured woman. She was looking up at him, scratched and bruised already from the attack, but with an intense relief glowing in her blue eyes.

"Inuyasha," She gasped out, and he glanced at her, his golden eyes furious.

"You Fool!" He growls, making her look down in shame, "You could have been killed!"

"So, it is true. Little Inuyasha truly is the Half-Demon Prince of Musashi?" The centipede chuckles. "How amusing you are, coming to protect your mistress, like a good, obedient dog. Just like last time. Such a loyal pet." He turns his head, looking up at the centipede demon, a snarl crossing his face.

"I'm not her pet!" He snaps back. "But I sure as hell ain't gonna let you get your hands on the Jewel."

"And what can you do, little half breed, against Mistress Centipede?" He pulls up his sword and feels his claws grip it tighter. He could smell the mortal girl's blood as she lay on the ground behind him, and it made his own boil.

"Let's find out, you nasty hag! " He growls, feeling the Wind Scar surrounding the drawn Tetsusaiga. Smirking, he gripped the sword tighter as he saw the fissure form between him and the enemy demon. "I have a lot more power than I did last time I turned you into mincemeat!"

Pulling the sword back, he swung it forward, aiming straight for the centipede's heart. She let out a wail as her body was shredded by the power of the ancient sword, forged of his father's left fang.

Kirara stepped forward, sniffing at the ashes that remained, her giant paws crushing the bones that littered the ground. She lifted her head, looking back as Inuyasha sheathed his sword, and turned to look at the young woman who sat against the tree. He sighed, crossing his arms as she held her belly.

"What the hell were you thinking, going this far into the damn forest!?" He growled at her and she looked down, a tear running down her cheek.

"I'm sorry," Kagome whispers, "I hadn't realized she was here until she grabbed me."

"That's because she was dead!" He yells. "I killed her fifty years ago. That damn stone around your neck revived her from bones in the soil!"

"I told you, I'm sorry, okay!" She cries out, wincing as her stomach was strained. "I just wanted some time to think. I didn't realize I had left the safe part of the forest." As he saw her huddled on the ground, Inuyasha sighs, crouching in front of her. 

He could see the blood trying to seep through her fingers as she held pressure against the demon's bite. Her teeth were gritted in pain and he carefully reached forward grabbing her wrist.

"Let me see," Inuyasha says, surprised by the softness in his own voice. He could feel her resisting him and he looked up at her, a slight growl in his throat. "Let me see the bite. I want to make sure she didn't poison you, Stupid!"

Reluctantly, Kagome let the clawed hand gently pull hers away from the gash in her gut. He let go of her and grabbed onto the sides of the tear to her kimono, ripping it and the thin white undergarment open further and looking at the jagged wound. The blood seeping from it was a deep red, which meant it probably wasn't life threatening. It also didn't bubble with her breaths, which was a relief.

Leaning closer, he sniffed at her belly. The scent of her blood was intoxicating, but he shook his head, trying to focus. After a few moments, he let out a sigh of relief. There wasn't any venom that his nose could find, and if he couldn't catch the scent, it was highly unlikely that there was any. The young woman shivered a little as she felt his breath on her skin, and he looked up at her.

"Well?" She says quietly. He moves away from her and she quickly presses her bloody hand against the dark wound again.

"You'll live," He says. "It ain't that deep and you got lucky enough to avoid her venom."

"Still, I need to get the bleeding to stop," Kagome says softly, looking down at her tattered kimono. "Can I borrow your sword?" He gives her a puzzled look.

"What the hell for?" He asks and she starts pulling at the tattered silk, tearing the skirt away from the rest of her clothing.

"I need to make a bandage from my kimono," she says. "It may not be ideal, dirty as it is, but a strong fiber like silk will bind the wound and help the blood clot until I can properly treat it back at the castle." She glances at him as she pulls the piece of fabric from beneath her and lays it across her lap.

Reaching forward, Inuyasha grabs the fabric from her and slashes it to ribbons with a flick of his wrist. The young princess looked up as he lay the rags that were once part of one of her nicest kimonos into her lap.

"Will that work?" He asks, watching as her hand carefully picks one of the pieces up. They were long, strait pieces, cut at a width that wouldn't wrinkle too much as she wrapped it around her belly.

"Yes," she says, "They'll be fine, thank you." Kagome glanced up at him and started untying the top of her kimono. She could feel a bit of a blush rising to her cheeks and she stopped, holding it across her chest in a fist. Sure, he was her husband, but at the same time, it was really uncomfortable for her to be undressing while he sat there, staring with those big golden, sun like eyes trained on her.

"What's the matter now?" Inuyasha  snapped and she just blinked at him, her blue eyes glimmering in embarrassment. Rolling his eyes, he turned his back to her, pointing his noise in the air at his own embarrassment, the insinuation that he was staring at her like that more laughable than anything, "Feh, It ain't like I was looking for kicks or nothing."

"Sure you weren't," the young woman thought to herself as shrugged off the rest of the ruined blue fabric off her shoulders so she could have better access to the wound. Was he always gonna act so immature about things like this? It wasn't that she was offended by him looking. 

Being married, that was kinda an expected thing. It just, really didn't seem like the time or the place, in broad daylight in a forest where any random yokai could wander upon them. Why did he have to act like it was some absurdity?

After he had turned around, Kagome carefully shrugged the blood stained nagajuban off as well and exposed her shallow, but fairly jagged wound. Wincing a little, she held a piece of the shredded silk to her belly and began tying it around herself, knotting on a fresh piece each time she reached the end of a scrap. The pressure on the wound hurt, but her breathing was getting easier and as she rested her hand against it, she could tell that the bleeding was stopped for now, no longer feeling the angry pulsing of an active bleed.

Inuyasha's ear flicked a little as he heard the rustling of fabric as she tied the stained white linen back around herself and clawed her fingernails into the trunk of the tree and pulled herself up, whimpering a little. He glanced back and heard a soft grunt out of Kirara as she walked around him and rested her large muzzle against the girl's back, helping her stand up. The young woman scratched the large cat's ear and chuckled.

"So, this is what the demon slayers meant by Midoriko's mount," She says, and he just blinks at her.

"What, did you think she was just a pet to cuddle up with at night?" Inuyasha asks, getting up and staring at her. She crosses her arms over her chest and frowns at him. "You really are stupid."

"Hey, it isn't like the castle I grew up in was exactly crawling with demons, okay?" She says. "In my world, a cat was more often than not, just a cat. I mean, I had my suspicions, but I'd never met anything like her before. Excuse me for not knowing everything there was to know about your world my first day here!"

She turns away and gently strokes the nekomata creature's nose. Her legs were trembling, and he could see from the pallor of her cheeks as well as the strong scent of her blood that she had bled a lot for a mortal and a wound like that, even though it was shallow, wouldn't heal overnight like it would for him.

Sighing, he reached to his side and untied his robe of fire rat fur, shrugging it off and walked back over to her, tossing it unceremoniously over her head. She pulled it to the side, blinking at him as it fell around her shoulders.

"Inuyasha," She says, sounding a little surprised at the sudden act of kindness. He could feel the blush rising to his cheeks and he turned away from her. "Why-"

"You'll get sick if you don't cover up," He says and she blinks up at him, using her fingers to push the hair from her face. "It ain't nothing like those silks you've been walking around in, but it should keep you warm enough until we get back to the castle." Kagome felt her own cheeks blushing and she grabbed onto the edge of the soft fabric of the robe, pulling it so it set more comfortably on her shoulders.

"Thank you," She says, softly, looking down. "You didn't have to do that." Her husband looked past her at Kirara and sighed. Reaching around the young woman, he lifted her and sat her up on the cat's shoulders.

"Let's go, Kagome," He says, turning away and starting to walk into the woods, towards the direction of the castle she never could have found her way back to. She could feel her heart fluttering a little and he glanced back at her. "What is it now?"

"You finally said my name," She says, and he scoffs as Kirara paces forward to walk beside him.

"So?" He asks and Kagome smiles at him, reaching forward and ruffing his hair.

"I think you like me more than you pretend, don't you?" She says and he ducks away from her, scoffing.

"Yeah, well, I really don't care what you think," Inuyasha replies. "You're still just a fool who I'm stuck looking after." Kagome could see a smirk at the edge of his mouth, and she reached forward, scratching Kirara's ear.

"Thank you for coming to save me," She says, "I'm sorry if I worried you." He looked up at her and shook his head.

"You're gonna be real pain in my neck, aren't you?" He says and she chuckles leaning forward a little, so she was facing him.

"Isn't that the point? For me to be some horrible torture Sesshomaru has imposed on you?" She says and Inuyasha looks at her, laughing at her joke.

As he watched her in the corner of his eye, he couldn't help thinking the woman she resembled so much once again. The priestess was never seen with a hair out of place and her clothes were always straight and clean. She didn't joke much, was always relatively serious in what she said and did.

This girl, with her disheveled appearance of messy, tangled hair and tattered, stained clothing, couldn't be more different as she rode at his side. But her appearance wasn't necessarily what made her so different.

There was a fire, fierceness in her eyes he hadn't witnessed in the woman of fifty years ago. She was determined to make her own decisions and judgements, clearly trying to find out who he was from him and no one else. It was likely why she was grilling him on it when they first got to the forest.

She didn't care who he was born, how the mortals who came before her viewed him. And that, unfortunately, was something she did have in common with the woman of his nightmares.

Kagome had an arm around herself, bracing the sore wound on her middle as she rode on Kirara's back. She could barely hold her head up but seeing as she had lost a decent amount of blood, hadn't eaten properly for over a day, and likely, suffered a decent head injury, that was probably to be expected. 

The fabric of Inuyasha's robe was warm and kept the breeze off her and it had a comforting smell, like that of the trees and soil of the castle garden, as well as a slight musk that likely came from the hanyo prince himself.

She noticed that he seemed lost in thought, looking kind of up in the trees as he walked the trail he likely knew by heart home. The sword he carried looked old and weathered and sheathed; it was much smaller than when he had drawn it in front of the centipede. Not exactly impressive at first glance, but she realized that he had said something about the Tetsusaiga earlier and she figured she may as well ask.

Surely that wouldn't make him snap at her and make her think she was prying too much?

"What is it now?" He asks without even looking at her.

"I wasn't-" she tried to protest, and he glanced at her, not looking mad necessarily, just slightly annoyed.

"I can feel you staring at me," he says. "It's a pretty good talent when you can even give me the creeps. So, what do you want? We can't stop and rest. You need that wound of yours stitched up by Sango as soon as we can safely get there which is why we ain't flying the damn cat above the trees. We have to keep walking so you don't open up what you've already done to bind it."

"I know that," she says.

"Then what's your problem, Kagome?" He asks and she just blinks a moment as he looks back at her.

"I uhm," she hadn't expected him to start being so nice to her all of a sudden, but his tone wasn't as harsh as what she had kind of gotten used to as the usual for him. "I guess I was just wondering about your sword." He glanced at the worn leather grip and then back at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What about it?" He asks.

"Is it really the Left Fang of Toga, the Tetsusaiga?" She asks and he gives her a puzzled look. "You told me earlier Sesshomaru only acknowledges your existence when you or Tetsusaiga could serve him, so I guess I was wondering if you actually carried it with you all the time like this or if this was some other sword." He looks away and scoffs.

"Of course I always carry Tetsusaiga," Inuyasha says. "What kind of fool worries about two swords when they have one that suits them just fine?" He felt his neck grow hot as he remembered the other reason he had to always keep it at his side.

"Doesn't Sesshomaru carry two swords?" Kagome says and he starts laughing again.

"That's because his ability to use the Right Fang comes and goes, with his feelings for mortals," he says. "Besides, even if he could use it properly, Tenseiga doesn't cut the flesh of the living of this world, so it's pretty useless in battle against other yokai."

Kagome kind of blinked at him a moment. She had heard that the Tetsusaiga had lost its power over the years too, only having been used by Inuyasha once in his and Sesshomaru's defeat of the demon that originally corrupted the Jewel she held in her possession. After that, it was said that the sword could no longer be drawn nor summon its power of demonic winds.

But that wasn't true, having seen him draw and strike Mistress Centipede with all the power of the legends she had been brought up on. Had there possibly been a time when Inuyasha himself had not felt care for humans and the sword forged to protect mortal man had feigned dormancy as he mocked Sesshomaru of suffering from with his own inheritance?

Inuyasha looked back at her and saw the way her shoulders had started to sag a little. She was getting worse. Probably still slowly bleeding out despite her efforts on the wound, her breathing aggravating it and not allowing it to properly close. As if on que, the scent of her blood became stronger once again. At this rate, she was definitely only going to get sicker, or worse.

"No," He thought, "I can't think like that. I may not know much about her, but this woman is way to strong and fiery to go down like this, from a weakling demon like that. I won't allow it."

"Enough talking," He growls. "We need to get to the castle, now. Kirara," Addressing the demon cat whose ears suddenly shot up in attention, he turned away from them, "We need to pick up the pace." Kagome looked up at him as she felt the two tailed cat leap after him, her hands instinctively grasping into the thick ruff of fur.

"I thought you said we had to go slowly," she says, and he glances back as she kind of slumps into the nekomata's pelt.

"Going slowly is pointless if you keep losing blood at this rate," he says. "Just hold onto Kirara and don't let go. We'll be back to the castle soon." Realizing she didn't have a choice; she wrapped her weak arms around the giant cat's neck and gritted her teeth against the pain of her wound as she was carried towards the castle.

Slowly, she lost consciousness, her hands still tangled in the fire creature's warm fur.