A week ago Inuyasha would never have believed that he would be relieved to see a temple full of monks. And yet, here he was. Fucking ecstatic to see the tall building on top of ridiculously high set of stairs.

He wasn't foolish enough to think that he would be welcomed in the building, but he didn't need the monks to be happy in order to get what he wanted. Scared for their lives would do just fine, if they didn't volunteer the information he and Kagome needed.

Sure, the priestess would probably not be happy if Inuyasha threatened her fellow holy men, but Kagome could be as angry with him as she wanted as long as Inuyasha was able to get away from her without the fear of death.

"You can wait here if you want," Kagome said, eyes fixed to the top of the stone steps.

"Worried your friends will purify my ass?" She chewed on her lip, refusing to answer or even look at him. Inuyasha got the message loud and clear. "Keh. As if I would die in the hands of some monks. C'mon."

He started up the stairs. He had taken a dozen steps before his ears picked up the sound of Kagome doing the same.

Inuyasha didn't understand why she would worry about how he got along with the monks. It wasn't like she was in any danger. Most likely the monks would be coddling and fawning over her once they heard that the young priestess had been forced to travel with a half-demon. Those damn celibates would probably be drooling for the chance to have her attention.

Inuyasha was a little disturbed to notice that the thought bothered him.

He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the feeling. It was dumb. Why would he care who Kagome paid attention to? She was a human -a fucking priestess at that. Just because she had been a little nice, didn't mean he should forget that they were on different sides.

Gods, he must have gone mad during the years he spent alone if a few conversations with a woman had him attached to her.

This whole mess better be over soon so he could take off. Kagome and that old hag could deal with this Naraku -thing on their own.

There had been one more demon-attack last night. Though it could barely be called an attack since it was just a handful of weak demons. Between the two of them, it had not taken long to deal with the threat. But as Kagome had pointed out, the demons had probably been there to collect information. Especially since a few of them had stayed away from the fighting and taken off when it became clear that Inuyasha and Kagome had no problems defeating their brethren.

Damn Naraku, Inuyasha thought darkly. Coward can't even fight us himself.

When Inuyasha reached the top, he turned around to see that Kagome had only just passed the halfway point of the steep steps. He chuckled over how out of breath she looked. He kept forgetting how frail humans were. His amusement grew when Kagome looked up, sensing his gaze, and scowled as she noticed his smirk. She seemed to gather herself and trudged up the steps with more determination.

He had to give it to her, she was stubborn as all hell.

His attention was pulled away from the girl when he heard hurried steps approaching. He braced himself for the worst before turning around.

The young monk stopped in his tracks, eyes snapping from his eyes to his ears to his claws, and then back to his eyes. Looking frightened, the monk took a step back and clutched his prayer beads with both hands.

"Stop, you evil beast!" he yelled with a shaky voice, lifting up the flimsy beads like they would stand a chance against the annoyed half-demon. "Th-these are holy grounds. You h-have no right to be here!"

Inuyasha snorted and rolled his eyes. This monk was barely an adult and very clearly not at all confident in his ability to face off against a demon. Inuyasha could only hope that this wasn't the Miroku -person, who was currently the half-demon's best hope for freedom. "Oh, please. You couldn't fight a mosquito with those things, like hell are you driving me away with them."

His words had an instant effect on the monk who started trembling, nearly dropping his precious beads from his shaking hands. Inuyasha was just about to see how badly he could scare the foolish monk, when Kagome finally managed to reach the top and step next to him. Well, 'step' might have been a generous term -it looked more like a stumble.

Kagome was leaning her hands to her thighs, breathing heavily. "Gods, I will never understand why these temples have to be build so high up." She straightened up, rubbing her side that was stinging from the exertion.

"Kikyo!" the monk yelled out, instantly gaining Kagomes attention.

"No," she started slowly, her voice sounding brethless. "I'm Kagome. Kikyo is- was my sister."

The monk looked taken aback, faltering over what was happening and what to do. Before Inuyasha could snap at him again, Kagome took charge of the situation.

"We would like to meet with Mushini." Kagome stated with a voice that didn't leave room for an argument.

The poor boy tried anyway.

"I...uh..d-don't think that that's possible." Inuyasha rolled his eyes, already bored with watching the monk's fumbling.

"Mushin is here, isn't he?" Kagome was tapping her foot impatiently.

"Yes, but-"

"Then it's possible to meet him." Even Inuyasha, the fierce half-demon that he was, would have thought twice before going against her if she'd used that tone of voice on him. This monk was clearly more than a little stupid. And maybe self-destructive if his feeble attempt to stand off against Inuyasha had been any indication.

"Yes, but..uh..." He looked very nervous before seeming to gather himself. "The demon can't come here."

Of fucking course, Inuyasha thought with a roll of his eyes. He was about to snap at the sorry excuse of a monk, but Kagome beat him to it.

"The demon is named Inuyasha and he is with me." The priestess stomped forward until she was right in front of the boy. "We have been walking for days, I'm exhausted and I just climbed those damn stairs, so if you were smart, you'd know it's not him you should be worried about. Now, are you going to show us to Mushin or do you wan't to stand here annoying me a little longer?"

It seemed that the boy did have something between his ears, because with a quick 'this way', he half-stumbled, half-ran towards the temple.

"Gotta say, I'm impressed," Inuyasha said as he fell into step next to her. "You were actually a little intimidating. Wouldn't have thought it was possible for someone as small as you."

She snorted at that. "How many times have we fought already and you're just now thinking I can be taken seriously?"

"When you're yelling at me, it's like a little dog nipping at my heels. More irritating than anything." He had thought she might take that as an insult, but Kagome surprised him with a laugh.

She opened her mouth to shoot back, but stopped when she noticed a few of the monks they were passing by staring at them and clutching their prayer beads. Kagome narrowed her eyes at them, daring them to say something. Inuyasha clenched his jaw, having long since grown used to a variety of different reactions his presence would bring. What he found odd was that Kagome seemed bothered by it.

"So- uh, why are we meeting this Mushini -guy? Didn't that old hag think that the other one would be more useful?"

Kagome turned to look at him, and for a moment he was taken startled by how big her eyes looked. "Yeah, Miroku, but... he can be a little much at times, so I'd rather see if Mushin can help before asking Miroku."

Inuyasha was about to ask what she meant by that when a loud "Kagome!" pulled their attention. They had arrived in front of the temple, and on it's steps sat an old, sake reeking monk.

"Mushin," Kagome greeted kindly, bowing slightly to show respect. Inuyasha didn't bother with that.

"My girl, it's good to see you again. It has been far too long since the sight of a woman has blessed these grounds." Mushin was smiling widely, looking them over. "And I see you brought a friend. I must say I'm a little surprised by your choice of company." The half-demon had expected there to be hatred or disdain in those words, but all he heard was curiosity.

Kagome nodded softly. "Yes, well, the situation we are in is a little...unexpected and we kind of need some help." She looked pointedly at the young monk still hanging around, watching them like a lost puppy. "Would it be possible to speak somewhere more private."

Mushin raised his brows at her. "Why, of course. Thank you Hojo, you may go now." The younger monk looked disappointed, but made quick work of leaving. After he was gone, Mushin struggled to his feet and started to head inside the building. "Come along. I'm sure this will take you some time to explain and I must have something to drink while I hear it."

A little later, Kagome and Mushin were sitting around a table, the old monk sipping from a cup of sake as Kagome ignored her tea in favor of telling the recent events that had led them there. Inuyasha was leaning against the wall and refusing to take part in the conversation or repeating a story he had already gone over far too many times.

His ears were standing to attention, listening to the monks walking around the temple grounds, gossiping like old women. They whispered about the monstrous demon that had been allowed onto the sacred grounds, as well as the pretty priestess who surely had come here to seek help. The bastards were spending awful lot of time wondering over which of them would be best suited to help her and what kind of reward she would give.

He felt immensely satisfied when the boys were caught over their less-than-holy topic of conversation by an older monk, who didn't hold back on handing out punishments.

"So do you think there's anything you could do to help us?" Kagome's words pulled his focus back, golden eyes snapping to look at the monk.

Mushin was quiet for a few moments that felt like pure torture. "No. This is not a spell I'm familiar with. Kaede was right, Miroku will be of more use to you on this."

Kagome seemed to deflate a little as she sighed with defeat. "All right then. Where's the per- Miroku?"

"He isn't here."

"What!" Inuyasha shot to his full height, dread crashing into him. "Where the fuck is he then?"

Mushin didn't seem bothered by the half-demons outburst, sipping his drink with serene expression. "He left for the slayer village a week ago."

At this, Kagome's head snapped up with interest. "The slayer village? Why there?"

"Why the fuck does that matter? Get up, wench, we're in a hurry." Inuyasha was already half-way to the door. Like hell was he letting this drag on any longer, he would fucking carry Kagome the whole way if it meant not having to stop. He knew where the slayer village was, and he knew it would take at least another week to arrive if they went with human speed.

"Hold it, boy. There is a bad storm coming and you don't want to be caught in it." Inuyasha stopped and turned to tell him just how little he cared about a damn storm, but the half-demon was already being ignored as Mushin focuse on Kagome. "We received word that the slayers were badly attacked, many are dead and in need of proper burial ceremonies, as well as help with the defense of the village while the survivors gather themselves."

"W-was...did...do you know who were among the dead?" Kagome sounded strained. Inuyasha furrowed his brows, wondering what had her so worried.

"I don't know the specifics," Mushin started. "I do, however, know that the attack was led by a demon named Naraku."

Kagome slammed her hands against the table, her shoulders shaking. For a moment, Inuyasha worried that she was going to cry.

But when she spoke, no one could mistake the pure anger there. "That bastard." Kagome stood up, her face was hard as stone as she bowed respectfully to the monk. "Thank you for your help, but we must leave now." She turned to face Inuyasha and nodded towards the door.

He was a little surprised that there wouldn't be a fight over traveling in a storm. Not that he was complaining.

"Why are you young people always in such a hurry. You have shared your knowledge with me, would you not want me to do the same?"

They both halted in their tracks, Kagome turning her head and frowning at Mushin. "What do you mean?"

"You and your sister are not the only once plagued by Naraku. He has bothered and murdered several of those possessing sacred powers."

"What?" Kagome sounded completely shocked, while Inuyasha was busy cursing in his head. Naraku was really going to be a fucking nuisance on his ass.

The demon was planning something, and it was bigger than just taking out two priestesses because of some personal vendetta. Inuyasha knew well enough that demons were always after more territory, more power, more influence...more everything. So whatever it was that Naraku wanted, it was sure to affect all demons. No demon would go around killing monks, priests and priestesses with such focus if they didn't have something big planned.

Fucking hell, what had he been dragged into?

"Kikyo visited us more than a year ago and asked for my assistance. Since then I have been gathering information." Mushin was the picture of solemn as he talked, even his sake sat forgotten. "At first it was just years old reports of a demon fitting Narakus description killing monks and priest who were still very young and new to their duties, but the more recent information shows that he has been murdering those of higher rank... Kikyo being the strongest."

Kagome was quiet for a long moment, taking in the new information. "Why? What does a achieve with killing us? What's the point, other than to anger those whose friends and family he murders?"

She was right, this made no sense.

Naraku was doing nothing but adding to a list of holy-men wanting to take vengeance on the demon. He was either dumb, insane or very confident in himself.

Inuyasha surprised himself by worrying over the situation. He wasn't supposed to care about anything aside from being free again, but the concern in Kagomes eyes was tugging at him.

Why is she looking at me? Inuyasha wondered. He didn't have answers or solutions. He had absolutely nothing to offer in this situation.

He clenched his jaw and met her gaze, unable to say anything. All he could do was listen as the storm drew closer.

Hi! I'm so sorry that this chapter took so long. The only excuse I have is that I did not like how this chapter ended up and I've re-written it so many times. I'm still not happy with it, but if I try writing this again I might just delete the whole story in frustration.

Anyway, sorry again for the wait and I hope you liked it.