Kagome glared at the smothered pit of ashes in the middle of the camp, it was well past breakfast and of course Inuyasha was nowhere to be seen. Four years of this bull crap, and Kagome was ready to sit the boy into oblivion. Sango and Miroku looked on with concern, debating if they should, and if so what, they could say to the angry young woman.

"Kagome…" Shippo called, his brows furrowed in worry as he looked at his friend. She turned her deep blue eyes on him and his frown deepened. "Should we go to the bath?"

Kagome's angry expression softened as she looked upon the fox kit, a sigh escaping her lips. Her hands fisted on her lap and she jerked up, standing and looking upon the group with burning determination in her eyes. "No."

Her friends eyes all widened at her declaration, hesitating voicing their question. Kagome's jaw clenched as she finally decided, now was the time to reveal her plan for the last few months. Never having the courage to speak up against Inuyasha in his presence, now she needed to take the reins.

"Sango, We're not far from your village are we?" Kagome swept her bag from the ground and hauled it over her shoulder and grabbed her bow and arrows. Sango, still a bit concerned with Kagome's attitude, shook her head. "We're only about an hour away Kagome, is that where you want to go?" She asked curiously, stepping up closer to the woman she thought of as her sister.

If anything, her response made Kagome relax, her face softening at how easily they all seemed to take to her underlying suggestion. Truly, she had the most loyal friends.

"Yes, I'd like to pay respects to your people and if possible…." Kagome blushed, hesitating asking such a thing before being prodded by Sango, her eyebrows arched curiously. "I'd like to update my wardrobe to something like yours." She admitted sheepishly. Sango stared blankly at her for a moment before suddenly beaming with happiness.

"Of course! I would be honored for you to have one of our uniforms for your own!" Sango squealed, grabbing Kagome's hands and grinning wildly at her. Kagome beamed back. "Great! Lets go now, if Kilala and Shippo don't mind flying of course…" She looked at the smaller companions, and Shippo nodded, transforming into his flying form. "I can carry Miroku!" he said cheerily, as Kilala mewed her conformation and transformed as well.

"Great! Let's head out then!" Kagome and sango smiled at each other, both of them climbing atop Kilala and settling themselves for the ride.

"Lady Kagome…" Miroku called, having already seated himself with Shippo with no complaints until now. "What of Inuyasha?"

"What of him?"

Her suddenly ice cold response send a shiver down his spine, and her distant frozen blue gaze on him caused the monk to pale. Kagome felt a bit bad for inciting such a reaction and sighed once more.

"We walk and walk and walk for weeks on end, fight tooth and nail just to be able to get a night to rest, and Inuyasha never cares the effect it has on us. But when he wants to run off with Kikyo, we're expected to wait however long he sees fit to spend time with her. I don't really care if he has to run after us, I'm tired of running after his stupid ass."

Kagome redirected her gaze forward, But not before catching the small grin that graced the monk's face, causing her warmth to return once more. Her mood swings weren't as drastic anymore, but for some reason Inuyasha being gone brought out the worst in her. That had never changed. So many things in the past four years had changed and some of the worst had still yet to become right.

For instance, Inuyasha's horrible attitude and treatment of their group seemed to have only gotten worse. More often than not, Miroku and Sango followed Kagome's lead now. The Shikon Miko had slowly but surely come into her power, spending what time she could meditating and training her powers and focusing them into being useful. Weapon wise, she had taken up training both from Sango and what classes she could find in her time. Self defense was commonly taught to women in her time, but with weapons that she could find in the feudal area were a bit more complicated. Still though, she had continued to work her way up through her classes and practice with Sango, toning her body and sharpening her senses.

And yet, the Hanyou still berated her skills and powers, constantly snapping at her and declaring her useless to half the country. How often she had wanted to simply purify his butt screamed of her patience and tolerance. Sitting him was one thing, causing serious damage that would last much longer was different. In addition, despite their continuous annoyance for Inuyasha, they needed him in order to defeat Naraku.

Kagome pulled herself from her depressed thoughts of the past and of Naraku and Inuyasha just as they landed in the slayer's village. Hopping off Kilala, Kagome followed Sango to the most recently re-built home. Apparently being her family's home before half of it was destroyed in the attack that decimated the slayer's village. Sango had spent a few years refusing to live in it once more, but after deciding she wanted to rebuild the village and train new slayers, it seemed logical to rebuild the house that started it all. That and it was far more comfortable than trying to fit their whole group in one little former supply shack.

Dropping off their supplies in the main sitting room, Sango pulled Kagome back outside to search the Village for what they needed, Leaving Miroku to whatever business he liked while waiting for them to return.

"Now then… Most slayer's received their uniform's fairly young, but we always needed replacements or patches, especially with this occupation." Sango jokingly pulled at her own uniform sleeve, causing Kagome to giggle. With the amount of times they got into fights, Kagome sometimes wondered how Sango kept her uniform looking so nice, and with not too many stitches, even the spots stitched up almost appeared seamless. Sango stopped at a smaller hut, not as big as her home, but not quite as small as the shacks they sometimes slept in. Sliding the door open, Sango glanced around before nodding to herself and heading in, immediately pillaging through the chests and containers for what she seeked.

"So tell me Kagome…" Sango sneezed as she pulled a piece of cloth out of one of the boxes, checking it over before shaking her head and putting it back. "What brought this on?" She asked knowingly, it wasn't often Kagome spoke out in their quest for jewel shards to do something else, obviously something was up.

Kagome blushed a bit, glad that Sango had her nose buried in other matters. "I… well… I've been thinking about doing this for a while… You've been helping me train and really my clothes just don't suit fighting and this era… With Inuyasha gone I just…. I needed to get the change done."

"And you didn't want to wear priestess garb because of those two…" Sango added quietly, Kagome merely bit her tongue and nodded.

Sango suddenly stood, her arms full of clothing and guards as she smiled at her friend. "Well, good thing that you're my sister as far as I'm concerned. These will keep you protected and give you more mobility anyways." Sango grinned.

A few hours later with some fussing and a little bit of struggling for the girl from the future, KAgome emerged from the shack entirely new. The black undersuit fit her like a glove but it was better than the blasted skirt, and more comfortable than a pair of jeans. The color suited her fairly well. A royal purple color for her sashes and secures, along with lining the undersuit, and a rich deep cerulean blue for her guards. Unlike Sango's golden accent, Kagome had a silver vine that started at her shoulder and curved across her chest and down her side all the way down to her knee. The legs and arms needed to be hemmed up to accommodate her short stature, but overall the result was marvalous. Sango showed her how to easily strap on and off her shoulder guards and how to remove her face mask easily. Even giving her an extra arm guard to protect her from the string of her bow.

"Are you sure about the weapons you'd like in addition? You're arrows are just fine…" Sango stood back and admired her work, smiling at how good Kagome looked, the black and purple bringing out the blue in her eyes.

Kagome played with her elbow guards, testing the flexibility and finding herself pleased with the results. "They're just fine for long distance Sango but I need to be able to protect myself from close combat. I've trained with Wakizashi in my time… and I may have already got one…" Kagome smiled sheepishly at her friend. Sango blinked in surprise. "I found one in our old store room back home and I brought it back in my sleeping bag, but it needs some repairs. I just wanted to wait until I knew you would help me before ask-"

"I wanna see it!" Sango squealed at the thought of seeing something from the future, something that had survived the ages possibly from her own village. She needed to see something crafted so well as to survive for so long.

"Then let's go!" Kagome smiled, obviously relieved at Sango's reaction, and started heading back to the main house before Sango grabbed her arm. "I almost forgot!"

Sango dashed back into the hut and returned with some more fabric, unfolding it to reveal a short Yukata. Kagome gasped at how cute it was. Just a little bit longer than her school uniform, it was lined thickly with baby blue soft fabric, the rest of it being black with a few soft cherry blossoms decorating it.

"Sango it's beautiful!" Kagome hesitantly reached out to touch it, her eyes glimmering excitedly. Sango laughed at her reaction then tugged Kagome into turning around so she could help her put it on over her slayer's outfit. "I saw it and thought it would look great on you. If you want to blend in this might help you some. We can find a longer, warmer one when it begins to get colder." Kagome nodded and admired the flowers on her arm, a silly grin plastered on her face. "Thank you… Thank you so much Sango!" Kagome turned and threw herself onto her best friend, tears forming at the corner of her eyes as she laughed. The first step in her plan had gone so much better than she expected.

~ello all! I wanted to give something new a shot, I haven't forgotten my other fanfic trust me, just been too out of it to really play through a game to continue writing. This however I can sit and watch and I'm really excited to see how this goes!

Until next time!~