DISCLAIMER: I do not own InuYasha or Yu Yu Hakusho

A/N: I have revamped the format of this story (finally) and I'm working on the next chapter so…YAY!

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Summary: Kagome, woken by Miroku, senses a Shikon shard and runs off to get it, rescuing a small youkai boy in the process. She plans on helping him back to his group, listening to him go on about his group and their wonderful leader. Can she fall for someone she's never met because of a boy's tales?

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"Kagome-sama, please awaken, I need to speak with you." Miroku whispered fervently while lightly shaking Kagome in her sleeping bag.

"Five more minutes mama..." Kagome slurred in her half-awake state, rolling over and again slipping into unconsciousness.

"Please Kagome-sama. I fear that a youkai may be nearby." That got Kagome's attention and she shot up, eyes darting around on alert.

She saw nothing, the wind blew on the trees in the darkness, causing the leaves to dance and rustle, but that was all. Sango was still sleeping and Shippo and Kirara were curled up with each other not too far away. InuYasha was asleep under a nearby tree with Tessaiga in his arms in his human form seeing as how it was the night of the new moon. Nothing was out of the ordinary except for Miroku waking her up either really early in the morning or really late at night.

Just as she opened her mouth to scold Miroku for waking her up for no reason she felt it, the presence of a shard of the Shikon no Tama, with it was a small youkai aura, not very powerful but still strong enough to be sensed. As quietly as she could, she stood up and nodded to Miroku. He rose as well and she whispered, "I'm going to go check it out, it seems really weak and faint. If it comes here then you know I won't be of much help but if it doesn't then know I'll be here before InuYasha wakes up in the morning."

Miroku hesitated and then nodded his acceptance, placing a hand on her shoulder that reassured her. Though he placed another hand elsewhere that told her he had a death wish. Her eye twitched madly as she glared at him and she watched him hastily hold his hands up in front of him as a sign of peace.

She didn't wish to wake up the others so Kagome grabbed her bow and arrows. With her weapons ready, she sent one last glare to Miroku that clearly showed the incident would not be forgotten anytime soon. The trek was quite long and definitely frustrating in the dead of night but she eventually staggered into a clearing where she saw a small shadow lying in the grass. She could feel it. That was where the Shikon shard was and the little shadowy mass that radiated the youkai aura must have been the one she had been sensing.

She approached with caution, slipping out of her shoes and walking stealthily to the youkai in her socks. Just as she was a few steps away from the shard and the youkai, another youkai came into the clearing as well. This one, however, was not small and it's aura was nearly over-whelming Kagome's senses. She stumbled back a step and took in it's appearance.

Veins were popping out of the skin almost violently as muscles bunched and twitched underneath the skin. There were three eyes on it head, two were sewn shut and the third, perched on the forehead, was wide open and unblinking. It's skin was a sallow yellow-green and it was over a foot taller than Kagome. It had sharp nails on each hand, long and jagged that looked like it would hurt like a mother should you be on the receiving end of them. The unblinking eye was staring at her, sending a red glow standing out into the darkness of the night as well as shivers down Kagome's spine.

She stood in a trance, watching as the youkai approached the smaller youkai and the Shikon shard, the glowing red eye still locked on her. Kagome's body would not respond as she screamed inside her mind for her legs to move, for her to run and protect the Shikon and, oddly enough, the smaller youkai. The large youkai lifted it's arm and was bringing it down in a deadly arc, swinging at the small shadowed figure and Kagome's mind finally seemed to snap out of it's haze.

Before she knew what she was doing, Kagome had thrown herself in front of the small youkai and felt the ragged claws dig through her shirt and into the skin of her back. A quiet scream escaped her but she turned around and readied an arrow, aiming at the chest of the large youkai. She released it and it hit its target with a dull thud, disintegrating the front of the youkai.

However, because the demon was so thick-skinned, the arrow only melted away the flesh and some of the bone, leaving the organs visible to the naked eye and giving poor Kagome a nice view. She nearly threw up right then and there, and was pushed even further down that road when the youkai lifted it's arm again and the organs seemed to lurch upward with the motion. Before it could bring it's claws down, Kagome fired another arrow, straight into the red and unblinking eye. The youkai howled in pain and rage and blindly attacked her.

She grabbed one of her arrows and dropped her bow, running up to the youkai and piercing it's heart. She swore that her hand had brushed against it's lungs and again, she nearly hurled. Her power was fed through the arrow and into the youkai's heart, purifying it until it was no more. Kagome fell to her knees for a brief moment and vomited, from the searing pain in her back, from the horrible aura, from the smell of burnt flesh and from the sight of all those moving organs.

When she finished, she stood and wiped her mouth, her movements jerky because of her injury. She gathered her arrows and situated the satchel on her back once again while she held her bow in one hand. Then she finally approached the small youkai and realized, shocked, that it was nothing more than a small child. The little youkai boy was injured as well and was practically lying face down in a puddle of blood; fist closed tightly around a shard of the Shikon no Tama.

Kagome, though badly injured and terribly exhausted, hefted the small boy up onto her back and, wincing with every step, made her way back to camp while the early light of morning was just appearing on the horizon. The sun had already risen when she was safely on the edge of her camp. She dropped to her knees and slid the youkai boy off of her back with a hiss. Miroku rushed over with Kagome's first aide kit in his hands and knelt beside the two.

"What happened, Kagome-sama? At first there was only this child's aura and then I felt the aura of another demon, I prayed to all the Kami that you would return safely." Miroku whispered, frequently glancing over at the sleeping hanyou.

Kagome took the medical kit from Miroku and set to cleaning and bandaging the small youkai's injuries while replying, "I was just about to check out this little youkai when, out of trees come this huge youkai with a terrible aura. It literally made me sick!"

Miroku shook his head grimly, "That is not good Kagome-sama, is that how you obtained those injuries on your back?"

"Yeah, I kind of jumped in front of this little guy when the other youkai went to attack him. It was strange," Kagome continued, her eyes narrowing a little as she spoke, "the youkai had this large glowing red eye on it's forehead that kept staring at me. For a little while I couldn't move because I kept staring at it then, when it was going to attack this boy here, I sort of snapped out of it and jumped in between the two", A small blush appearing on her face.

"That was a very noble thing you did Kagome-sama, you could have easily died." Miroku praised, glancing once more over to the hanyou to see his little white ears twitch as he was starting to wake up.

Kagome looked over as well and her eyes widened fearfully, "I'm going to get it now…" She whispered, her voice almost shaking. Her hands tied off the knot on the boy's final bandage and she dropped them into her lap.

"Miroku? Would you mind patching my back up, I can't quite do that on my own." She blushed again, hoping the Houshi would keep his hands to himself.

"I would be honored Kagome-sama, first I must fetch some fresh water to cleanse your wounds with." He rose and grabbed a bowl and headed in the direction of the stream nearby.

While he was off getting water, the little youkai was waking up and blinked his eyes lazily as he stared up at her. She smiled down at him gently and he started to smile back before he froze.

"Where am I? Who are you?" He questioned rather loudly, waking InuYasha up completely from his half-doze.

That was when the shit hit the fan. InuYasha started yelling and pulled out Tessaiga, which woke up the others. Sango pulled out her Hiraikotsu and Shippo let out a shout as Kirara changed without warning right underneath him. Miroku came running back with the bowl of water, while the little youkai boy started to cry. Kagome was trying to sooth him while InuYasha was screaming at Kagome to get away from him because he was a demon.

"InuYasha…SIT BOY!" Kagome shouted, enjoying the brief moment of peace she got because InuYasha's voice was muffled by the dirt.

"Now," she said calmly, "if you will all calm down for just a minute, Miroku and I can explain everything and there will be no more need for pointless shouting."

Sango eyed the small boy warily before sitting down, her hand readied just in case she need to snatch up Hiraikotsu or her katana. Kirara shrank back down and Shippo sat down next to her while Miroku knelt behind Kagome and peeled the tattered parts of her shirt away from her injuries and began to clean them. InuYasha finally was able to sit back up and sniffed the air, eyes widening slightly.

"Why are you bleeding wench?" He demanded, eyes narrowing at her.

"I'll explain that when I explain everything else, if you'll just have a seat." Kagome said, struggling not to lose her temper.

He "Feh"-ed and dropped to the ground, nose in the air as he faced away from her. Kagome closed her eyes and counted backwards from ten, calming herself as she ran her fingers through the little boy's black hair.

"Alright," Kagome let out a hiss as Miroku hit a particularly tender spot, "while everyone was sleeping, Miroku woke me up and told me that he sensed a youkai aura. At first I didn't sense anything but then I did. It was a small aura, not very powerful and seemed to be sort of faint, so I went off after it."

"Baka! You could have gotten yourself killed!" InuYasha yelled, interrupting her.

"Shush InuYasha or I'll use the 'S-I-T' word!" Kagome said in a singsong voice before continuing, "Anyways, in a clearing there this little guy was unconscious. Just as I was getting close to him this other youkai came out of the trees. It was ugly and it's aura made me feel ill. I killed it and brought our new little friend back with me to camp."

"Kagome-chan, if that's all that happened, then how did you get injured?" Sango questioned, head tilted to the side in slight confusion.

"Oh! Umm…" Kagome blushed, feeling slightly stupid, "I sort of…jumped in front of the little boy when the other youkai attacked…" She let out a nervous chuckle and looked down at the top of the little boy's head. She noted that his fist was still tightly clenched around the Shikon shard.

"WHAT?" InuYasha shouted, jumping to his feet and glaring at her with all his might, wanting nothing more than to strangle some sense in the baka-onna before him.

"InuYasha," Miroku said calmly from behind Kagome, never looking up from bandaging her wounds, "Kagome-sama did something very brave and noble today, do not belittle her for it."

Sango, InuYasha and Shippo all gaped at Miroku. They had almost forgotten he was there, and what he said kind of struck a cord in everyone. Suddenly, Sango leapt up and started to stalk toward the Houshi.

"Get away from my friend you hentai!" She shouted, hand reaching back for the Hiraikotsu.

"Sango-chan, please, he's only patching me up, although…" Kagome gave Sango a smirk and reached upward and grabbed the Hiraikotsu, bringing it down behind her onto Miroku's head. Luckily he had just finished up her bandage job.

"That's for earlier you hentai!" Kagome shouted, face red.

The little boy let out a small chuckle in her lap and was looking up at her with beautiful green eyes. Kagome smiled down at him.

"Now, would you mind telling me your name little one?" She asked softly, eyes never leaving his.

"I-I'm Kiro." He whispered.

Kagome's smile got bigger and she asked, "What were you doing out there all alone?"

He hesitated for a minute but then he realized that he knew he could trust her and answered, "I was training with some of my group and wandered off a little. I got lost and couldn't track their scent and got attacked by some mean youkai but look what took from them!" He opened his clenched fist and showed her the Shikon shard he had.

"Oi brat! That's a Shikon no Kakera, hand it over before I cut your hand off!" InuYasha threatened, angering Kagome and frightening Kiro.

"InuYasha! Don't say things like that! Don't be so hot-headed!" Kagome gave him a look that scared him out of his wits and then looked down at Kiro, "Don't worry, I won't let him hurt you."

Kiro shakily smiled back up at her and leaned back in her lap, "I can't wait to show this shard to my group leader, he's going to be so proud."

Kagome chuckled, "You'll have to tell me more about him and your group while we travel. You're going to have to travel with us and we'll look for your group while we go about what we normally do."

"Okay!" He chirped then tried to stand, failing miserably and falling back into her lap.

"But for today…we're going to rest." Kagome gave InuYasha a pointed look as he opened his mouth that spelled 'S-I-T' and he quickly shut it.

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"…and I'm working really hard and my leader told me that I'm really improving!" Kiro stated enthusiastically.

"Really? That's great!" Sango said encouragingly, though she had no idea what he was improving at.

Kiro nodded and beamed, "Yup! And now that I got this shard he's really going to be proud of me!"

Sango and Kagome gave little chuckles at how cute Kiro was and Shippo, perched on Kagome's shoulder, was investigating Kiro's scent. It was very familiar to him, almost like flowers and leaves. He took in his appearance, his kitsune curiosity getting the best of him. Kitsune…that was it! Kiro was another kitsune! Shippo leapt off of Kagome's shoulder and did a happy little dance of excitement, stopping the group in their tracks with confused looks of their faces.

"Hey Shippo, are you all right?" Kagome asked, concerned about her little kit.

Shippo snapped out of his little dance of happy excitement and exclaimed, "Kiro is a kitsune like me!"

Kagome, a little surprised and taken aback, turned slightly widened eyes to Kiro and asked, "Is that so?"

"Mmm-hmm!" Kiro responded, nodding vigorously.

"Well…" Kagome paused, "Yay! Now you and Shippo can play together! Is your leader a kitsune as well?" Again Kiro nodded.

"Great!" Kagome shouted, laughing with the two small kitsune and walking on like nothing had happened, leaving the rest of the group to follow the trio.

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Translations

Shikon no Tama- The jewel of four souls

Shikon no Kakera- A shard of the Shikon no Tama