Inspiration to finish this chapter brought on because Jakotsu was on tv freaking Inuyasha out again. Very sorry for the long wait and I hope the Chapter is decent enough to read for those of you who are still waiting for this story to be done. I still do not have my own working computer so it's still difficult to write and post anything. But, have I mentioned that I'm sorry?

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha

Chapter Eleven: Guard Dog

Inuyasha was almost certain this was considered stalking. He had been following Hojo around all day. From the time the kid woke up until the time he had gotten out of school. He waited outside on the roof of the store that the teen went into and stuck a good distance away so he wouldn't be seen.

It was odd. Kagome had said something about a 'bad feeling.'. By bad feeling she meant there were guys giving him a rough time in his neighborhood, so she told him to follow Hojo around for a while and make sure nothing happened.

It wasn't something that Inuyasha was about to argue over. Hojo had somehow managed to sneak into his close circle of friends. From what Kagome had told him the ones messing with the teen weren't anyone you wanted to mess with and Hojo being the way he was, wouldn't be able to stand up to them very well.

What she said was true. There had been a group of guy who yelled insults at Hojo and tried to provoke him into retaliating. Hojo appeared to be calm as he walked past them, ignoring their comments and keeping his eyes forward.

As calm as he looked, Inuyasha could almost feel his fear. He could definitely smell the bitter sweat that was associated with fear. With a clenched jaw and slightly heavier footsteps, the fear was accompanied by anger. It wasn't an unusual combination, Inuyasha knew that. He himself had felt the two emotions before during battles that went on longer then his human companions could keep up with, or when an enemy attack during a new moon.

Sometimes fear could cause the anger. An animal that was being threatened had two choices, run or stand their ground and no one in the animal world would blame them for baring teeth and growling. Hell, demons would shun you if you didn't fight back. But, Hojo was neither animal or demon. He was full blooded human, and Inuyasha learned quickly that some humans didn't necessarily fight fair. The carried weapons called guns and traveled in groups to out number and over power their victims.

What surprised him was that Hojo hadn't said anything. That he didn't even give the bastards a first look let alone a second. The way his hands gripped the bags until his knuckles turned white was the only reason Inuyasha knew that Hojo was playing it smart. Not safe, smart. To play it safe Hojo would have to take another route home.

The teen must have realized since the first day he couldn't fight the delinquents in the alley. He didn't know if he was more relieved that the kid was smart enough to know when to back off, or more frustrated that the kid wasn't standing up for himself, despite the fact he'd get his ass kicked. Or maybe these guys carries were the kind that carried guns?

He jumped down from the large building and onto a slightly smaller building two roofs across. It gave him a complete view of the street Hojo was on now. This street had three buildings that were connect and housed a lot of people. He never really got an urge to check it out before. It hadn't ever caught is interest before, but he could smell something inside. It was a familiar smell that he could recall smelling at night in human villages and a smell of something foreign and unknown. Right now however he wasn't in a position to run off and give the humans privacy, he had to watch the kid.

Hojo paused on the sidewalk for a moment and looked at another store, tilting his head to the side. Inuyasha was sure he'd go in, but he didn't. He nodded at no one and continued walking. Probably deciding to return when he wasn't in danger.

Inuyasha's ears twitched underneath the hat. He heard hushed voice, and some sniggering. The teen must have heard it too, because he started walking a bit faster, shoes starting to scrap against the concrete. The scent of fear doubled, Hojo was starting to panic and Hojo's panic was making Inuyasha more irritated.

"what a snob."

"He's gotta be loaded"

"Probably never even been in a fight. Can I break his legs?"

"Break his skull if you want."

The half-demon glared at the direction of the voices. There were four all together but only three were talking. The number count didn't matter, he needed to deal with the issue either way. Kagome told him not to do anything that would draw attention to himself. So jumping down and revealing that he wasn't completely human, wasn't an option.

Maybe if he was walking with Hojo, it would make them back off. He moved quickly to the next street Hojo would turn down. Jumping off the roof he landed silently as possible, and waited for Hojo to turn. He could hear Hojo getting closer to him and the gang getting closer to Hojo.

Inuyasha watched as the teen spotted him and froze in shock. It must have been strange that someone you hadn't seen in two weeks, suddenly appear out of nowhere.

The shock didn't last to long. A loud sound of metal hitting concrete reminded Hojo that he was being followed. He flinched and ran over to Inuyasha.

The half-demon seen the younger males eye's light up with something he could only describe as relief. A time like this was probably meant for some heroic line or something cool. However the words that came out of Inuyasha's mouth wasn't heroic or cool.

"Hey." He greeted the kid in a bored, flat tone.

"Inuyasha! What are you doing here I thought you and Ka-"

"Look I told you he was strange." The raspy voice that cut him off was answered with laughter.

Inuyasha noticed the way Hojo tensed and gripped tightly on to the strap of his book bag. Looking over at the guy who spoke he matched the face to one of the voices. This man was the guy that wanted to break Hojo's legs. Greasy hair matted with dirt and too thin to be natural. His tattoo covered arm holding a metal stick. "You got a problem with the kid?"

The man snorted and hit the side of the wall in what he assumed was supposed to be a threatening gesture. However to, Inuyasha, he just looked like an idiot hitting a brick wall.

"Yeah we gotta problem with the little prick. Ignoring us like he's some kind of royalty." the man said spitting of to the side, making Inuyasha sneer in disgust. Not from the spitting but the smell of what ever the man had cleared from his mouth. Human saliva was only ever slightly foul after taking certain medicine or eating certain foods. Perhaps this human got ill recently?

He pushed the thought away. The mans health didn't matter, he was trying to hurt Hojo. The half demon stepped in front of Hojo, getting annoyed by the men. "Can't say I blame him. I'd ignore trash like you too." He stated irritably.

"What the hell did you say!" The man shouted, his grip tightening on the metal in his hand. "You looking for a fight?!"

"Fighting you isn't worth my time, but if your challenging me I'll amuse you." He said with a smirk, feeling oddly arrogant right now. It was only a couple of humans, but Inuyasha couldn't seem to gain enough sense to decline. He was supposed to be protecting the kid not getting into unnecessary fights with a weaker species.

Hojo grabbed onto the silver-haired man's sleeve an gave a gentle tug. "Inuyasha, don't." As gentle as the quick tug was, his voice was a lot more stern and maybe a tad bit urgent.

For a second Inuyasha thought about brushing the guys off and taking Hojo home. The kid looked worried and a bit on edge. The gentle tugging on his sleeve had him becoming worried himself. Not because of the thugs, but rather the fact that the teen seemed to not want a fight to happen at all.

A shorter male of the group jabbed the speaker in the side with his elbow. "I guess you found out who's dicks up the kids ass."

Inuyasha stepped towards the guy, glaring. "You trying to get yourself hurt, bastard." He threatened, unsure of why he was so angry to begin with. Was he mad at what the man was insinuating or who it was directed at? Inuyasha already had suspicions about Hojo, and he might not be sure how he felt about that or if he was okay with it, but he knew the kid never hurt anyone and he certainly didn't deserve this guys shit.

"What? You're not his boyfriend?" The greasy haired man smirked. He stepped forward as well and locked narrowed eyes with Inuyasha, in a challenge. "You look the type."

Inuyasha grabbed the man's shirt and slammed him into the brick wall of the store, knocking the wind out of his lungs and the pole out of his hand. "Think of me as an angry guard dog." he growled.

"Inuyasha." Hojo snapped looking around to see if anyone else was on the street. "Just stop it. You're going to seriously hurt them."

Inuyasha watched the man struggle to get free. He let him dangle a few more seconds before dropping him. He could have knocked the kid out with how frustrated he was. "You do realize that they're planning on hurting you?"

He watched Hojo look to the ground, unsure of what to say. Maybe he shouldn't argue with Hojo over this sort of thing, but he couldn't believe this kid sometimes. How do you forgive someone who had the intention of hurting you before they even apologized. While they still planned to hurt you. It didn't make any sense. 'Kid should have been monk.'

Hojo sighed. "I know that, but beating them into a bloody mess won't solve anything." He said looking back up to the Half-demon. "Can you just walk me home and we'll talk about it on the way?"

"Huh? Uh. Yeah." The older man was a little surprised at Hojo's question. He'd never asked him to walk him home before. He always did the opposite and offered to keep his mouth shut and not tell Kagome if Inuyasha didn't want to. She had been the one that always got Inuyasha to walk with him.

He looked back at the human thugs with a glare. He spotted the pipe laying on the ground and picked it up. He bent it a few times before tossing it over the building. If he couldn't kick their asses he was definitely making sure they at least didn't have a weapon to hit him with. The metal wouldn't kill him but he had a feeling it would still hurt like hell if he was struck with it.

He walked away from them and passed Hojo, who he heard follow him. "Don't expect me to be this nice in the future." He said not bothering to hide his frustration.

"Of course not." Hojo replied smiling. He could honestly say he wasn't effected by the half-demons attitude right now. He was too relieved to feel agitated.

The further they got away from the incident, the easy silence between them grew somewhat tense. Not awkward, but there was a tension that neither of them could describe. Finally Hojo looked over at Inuyasha with a sigh. "I'm very grateful for you help. They've been trying to start with me for a while, I really don't know how bad it would have gotten. So Thank you, though I am sorry you had to g-"

"Hell no. Don't start apologizing. If you want to feel all self-hating, do it on your own time." Inuyasha said folding his arms across his chest.

The only thing that gave away Inuyasha's tough guy act was the light blush. He was embarrassed by the gratitude. "Still. . ."

"Look kid, It's not a problem. It's not like they could have done any real harm to me. If you really want to blame someone for inconvenience , Blame Kagome."

Hojo let out a little laugh and shook his head. "Do you blame her for everything?"

"Of course not. Sometime I blame the runt."

"Runt? You mean the fox child? Shippo?" Hojo asked curiously. Inuyasha and Kagome never really talked about their friends from the feudal era. Hojo and Mrs. Higurashi assumed that it was because they never really liked talking about the enemies and stresses of their ongoing fight against the demon Naraku. So Hojo never asked and took what information he could when it slipped out.

He could demand answers, but that would be rude since there was only two reasons Inuyasha came to the present. To retrieve Kagome, and to get away from his time during a new moon. Kagome was too stressed as it was and he didn't want to burden her with anything else.

"Yeah. He's a brat. Always trying to get me sat or something. You know he stole candy out of Kagome's bag and blamed it on me. Of course she took his side. They fall for it every time." He grumbled and slipped his hands into his pockets.

Which made the younger male notice for the first time, were different. It wasn't anything special, Jeans and a sweater jacket. A baseball cap to hide his ears. "doesn't the hat bother your ear?" He asked, looking at it like it was some kind of foreign object.

Inuyasha was a little surprised by the question. When it came to disguising his demon features, his comfort was never really brought up. Kagome had never asked, she would just smash the hat over his ears and tell him what she needed to do, leaving him to adjust the hat to make wearing the damn thing more tolerable. ". . .A little, but I have to hide them so people don't find out.."

The teen nodded. "I get it." He said before looking around. There were too many people around to take it off. That was a little disappointing but it was probably for the best. "So what does Shippo do that tricks Kagome so easily?"

"Cries. Like the sneaky little fox that he is. " Inuyasha replied, easily shifting the conversation back to more simple topics.

Hojo chuckled at the image of a small child tricking women into giving them sweets and giving men evil grins. "So he appeals to the female's mothering instinct."

"Yup." Inuyasha agreed, holding back a smile of his own. It was nice to see the kid not unsure or frowning.

As they approached Hojo's house the door opened. A woman around the same age as Kagome's mom stepped out, arms folded across her chest and a unconvincing frown on her lips. Inuyasha could tell immediately who this was. She didn't even have to come out of Hojo's house for him to figure it out. This woman was the Kids mother.

"Hojo where have you been? You're late." She started and then noticed Inuyasha. "And introduce your friend."

Hojo sighed. "Sorry mother. The meeting ran a bit late and this is Inuyasha. He walked with me after school." He said watching his mother walk pass him and right into Inuyasha's personal space.

The woman took his hand, shook it and smiled brightly. "So you're Inuyasha. Hojo speaks so highly of you!" The woman let go of his hand. "Surely you must be hungry from such a long walk, would you like to come in for a bite to eat?"

Inuyasha was actually considering the offer when he seen Hojo standing behind his mother shaking his head and waving his arms in an urgent manner. "Uh. . .actually I have to get back to Kagome's house before I have to go back to . . .my home. So, maybe some other time."

The woman frown again, this time disappointed. "Alright, perhaps we can set up a lunch date sometime when I'm off work. I'd like to get to know my sons friends." She smiled again this time, calmer. "Have a safe trip home, dear." she bowed politely and turned to her son who was waving goodbye to Inuyasha.

She guided him into the house and looked at her son with a raised eyebrow and one foot tapping the ground. "Is there any particular reason you don't want Inuyasha to eat my food?"

"It's not you're cooking I'm worried about. It's more like the conversations that would accompany it."

"Are you implying I'd embarrass you?" She asked feigning shock.

Hojo deadpanned "Yes."

His mother deflated with a dramatic sigh. "Fine. If I promise to not to embarrass you will you let us have a nice lunch together so I can get to know him better. I do like to know who your hanging out with. We should invite Kagome too. I haven't talked to her properly since you first met her." The woman stated walking into the kitchen and started heating up the dinner that went cold.

Hojo nodded. "I guess we could do that. Maybe we could have lunch at the Higurashi house. You and Ms. Higurashi seem to get along. You're always trading cook books and talking on the phone for too long."

"Trading recipes is common practice among mothers, and it's nice to have friend to talk to that isn't a doctor. Do you know how tiring it is to vent about work to someone you work with? There always comparing there misfortunes with yours." She rolled her eyes and placed a couple bowls and spoons on the table. "Doctors are such jerks sometimes."

Hojo chuckled and looked at the pot on the stove. "Anything special?"

The woman shook her head. "Nope. Just beef stew."

Sitting at the table, the teen looked down at his empty bowl. He was wondering why Inuyasha had been following him. He would like to think the man had been there of his own will, but he knew that Kagome sent him.

He was grateful either way. He wasn't too sure he would have made it home in one piece if the half demon hadn't been there. Plus it was just nice to see him.

"Aw! You're all lovey eyed!" The woman cooed and wrapped her son up her arms, squeezing the breath out of him.

"Mom. . ." was all Hojo could say. His mother was probably right. He certain felt lovey at the moment. Or any moment he thought of Inuyasha. This crush was getting intense.

Inuyasha glared at Kagome from his spot on the couch. She crossed her arms stubbornly and glared back. He turned his head. "No way! We have to hunt down Naraku."

"Hojo needs help, Inuyasha." She said, starting to lose her patience. This had been going on for five minutes. Her trying to convince him to watch over Hojo when he was outside and him refusing. It was strange and infuriating. It was making her angry for obvious reasons, but the strange was due to him changing his attitude whenever it came to Hojo. One day Inuyasha would go off to check on him without her having to even mention him. The next day he wouldn't want anything to do with him.

Hojo wasn't any better. He would either avoid Inuyasha when he came over, or he would follow him around the house. There were times when Hojo would simply keep to himself and just glance at Inuyasha every few minutes. This behavior had left Kagome confused.

"If I'm busy following the kid around playing body guard how are we going to find the jewel shards?" Inuyasha argued.

Kagome sighed. "What if you spent time following home from school until he got home, make sure he doesn't need to go anywhere and then we'll go shard hunting whenever you get back to the feudal era?"

"Do you even think before you talk? what happens if we're too far away to get to the well when he gets out of school?"

"Well there's got to be something! We can't just let Hojo wander around by himself when there's a bunch of thugs after him. He'll get killed!" Kagome shouted getting fed up with the half demons uncooperative attitude.

Inuyasha looked at the desperate face she was giving him. It was something he had never grown an immunity to. Every time she became this worried over someone it put him through a small guilt trip. It didn't help that he knew for certain that Hojo was in a bad situation with those guys trying to hurt him. Why couldn't things just be uncomplicated for once?

"Fine. I'll figure something out. Just go get your stuff." He snapped, irritated that he gave in. 'What is wrong with me? Why can't I just say no?'

He then realized it was difficult to think that way when Kagome smiled happily and ran out of the room to get her bag. The things he did for his friends.

It did make him think though. What was he going to do? It was true that if they were too far away he couldn't just run back and forth like it was nothing. Some of their travels took days to just get to their destination. It would take him alone a few hours to get to the well and back, and hours counted up quick.

Maybe he could fix the problem at the source. It shouldn't take too long to track down the idiots from earlier. Threatening them might make them stop harassing the teen, but it could make the problem worse. What if they spotted the kid one day when he wasn't around? Inuyasha wasn't naive enough to think that a few simple words would definitely have them back off. He'd need to do exactly what Kagome told him not to. He'd have to scare them. That would be fun.

But again, if he wasn't around Hojo could be in more trouble then before. This was getting more complicated then it needed to. He'd just make them very aware he was demon, and that if they threatened anyone under his protection again, he'd kill them. That was simple enough right?

Honestly he didn't think anything would be that simple, ever. What he did know was that all he had in his life were his friends, and his friends were his family. He protected his family, or at least the part of his family that wasn't blood related.

So tonight when the others went to sleep he'd have to make a small return trip and make sure he did just that.

"Inuyasha why are you smirking like that?" she asked with a bit of worry in her tone.

Inuyasha snapped his head towards Kagome's voice. "Like what?"

". . .Never mind. I probably don't want know." She answered before leading the way to the well.

Inuyasha followed behind, wondering what kind of expression he could possibly have made to make Kagome unnerved enough not to question it.

Strange scents Inuyasha doesn't recognize, and the ones he does. If your thinking you know what they are, you're probably right. I was seriously considering deleting this whole chapter and starting over completely, but the thought that I hadn't updated in so long kept popping up so I couldn't bring myself to. I just edited it to the best of my abilities and added some things. I'm still sorry for the lack of updates and I'm hoping to fix that soon. All I can really say is thank you to those who have stuck with me this long and that I will try to keep posting as much as possible.

As always let me know of any noticeable mistakes.

-VJ

P.S - I'm so sorry!