Chapter One.

Eve of the new moon.

The stars glittered brightly in the dark sky. The moon was half a cresent, barely even visible.

The new moon is tomorrow.

The gang huddled around the newly lit fire which Sango had conjured up, only minutes ago. Kagome sat staring into the fire, watching the water in the pot boil for the ramen, Shippo curled into a ball, in her lap. Inuyasha sat only three feet from her, figiting restlessly, sensing his powers are begining to wane. Miroku, sat closest to Sango, his eyes shifting from the fire, back to Sango, occasionally. Kirara was in her normal form, curled next to Sango, purring lightly. When the water finally came to a boil, Shippo hopped out of Kagome's lap and began searching through her backpack for the "ninja food", and pulled out the bowls of instant ramen for everyone. Kagome poured the water into the bowls, and handed them to Sango and Miroku, Shippo helped himself, and Sango shared hers with Kirara. Kagome then handed a bowl to Inuyasha who took it carelessly and some of the water slopped onto his kimono. Kagome looked at Inuyasha with concern.

"Are you alright, Inuyasha?" she asked.

"Hmph, I'm fine. Why would you even bother asking?" he snapped.

"I was just seeing if you were okay! There's no need to be rude about it!" Kagome yelled.

Inuyasha piled the food into his mouth, threw the bowl down onto the floor next to the fire, and stormed off.

"Inuyasha, where are you going?" pipped up Shippo.

"For a walk." said Inuyasha gruffly.

"Hm." sighed Kagome.

Miroku looked over at Kagome. "Kagome don't take it personally, the new moon is tomorrow, you know how he gets before he loses his demonic powers."

"I know, but he still doesn't need to be such a grump over it!" she said.

Sango slid over to sit next to Kagome and put her arm around her. "Don't worry, he'll be himself again after tomorrow." she smiled.

Kagome nodded and began to eat her noodles. Shippo climbed back into her lap, and layed his head on her leg, and fell asleep. Kirara yawned and also fell asleep. When everyone finished their noodles, Kagome picked Shippo up and layed him on the ground, and set up her sleeping bag, then put Shippo inside it. Miroku went off a tiny distance to stand guard, and Sango took one of Kagome's extra sleeping bags, slipped into it, and fell asleep with Kirara next to her. Kagome started to clean around the camp fire. She picked up the empty bowls, and disposed of them into an empty pocket of her book bag. She sighed and looked down the path to where Inuyasha disappeared from. "Inuyasha, why don't you understand how much I care?" she thought. She then sighed, kicked her shoes off, and slipped into her sleeping bag next to Shippo. She stared at the night sky for a few minutes, then fell asleep.

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About a mile away Inuyasha was taking his aggression on a small demon that was attacking a villager.

"WIND SCAR!" he yelled at the Wind Scar blast from his sword and tore the demon to pieces.

Inuyasha sighed. "Man, lucky that was a weak demon, my Wind Scar is really off, thanks to the new moon tomorrow."

He then turned to the villager. "Get back to the village, you'll be safe there. Don't wander off by yourself again."

The villager nodded then ran down the hill back to his village. Inuyasha's eyes followed him until he was out of sight.

"I better be getting back." he sighed as he trudged back up the hill back to camp.

When he arrived back he found everyone but Miroku asleep. Miroku walked towards Inuyasha.

"So you're back? Are you going to sleep, or do you want to take over watch?" asked Miroku.

"I'll take over." answered Inuyasha as he walked off towards the distance again. He stood in earshot, and in view.

He sighed and sat on a rock, overlooking the view of the forest. He occasionally glanced over at Kagome, thinking how he should apologize once she wakes up tomorrow.