Kagome raised her arms over her head and groaned as she stretched. The tiger demon she and the others had been fighting lay slain before them and the jewel shard glimmered where it lay in the pool of its blood.

"Keh, he wasn't so tough." Inuyasha boasted, hoisting the Tetsusaiga over his shoulder. "Well Kagome, are you gonna get the damn jewel shard or not?" He snapped.

"I was stretching my arm, ok?" Kagome retorted loudly with a huff.

"Let her rest a bit, Inuyasha." Miroku said. "It was her arrow that helped us defeat the tiger demon."

"You outta stop bein' so mean to Kagome, Inuyasha." Shippo growled at the much larger male.

"Shut up, runt!" Inuyasha snapped and slammed his fist into Shippo's small skull, causing him to wail in pain.

"Inuyasha, sit! Leave Shippo alone already!" Kagome yelled as Inuyasha smashed face first into the ground with a yell of pain.

"They'll never learn…" Sango muttered to herself with a smile, stroking Kirara's soft fur.

Kagome stomped over to the body of the tiger demon and pulled the shard from its spot in the blood puddle, the shard instantly becoming pure again at her sacred touch. She hid the purified shard with the others and slung her heavy yellow backpack over her shoulders again.

"Well we outta get going, huh?" She said to her friends. Everyone but Inuyasha, still muttering in his hole in the ground, nodded at Kagome and fallowed her out of the valley they were in and back up the hill they had come down in the fight.

The tiger demon had attacked them just before dawn, and now the sun was shining brightly on the strange little pack of creatures; an untrained miko, an orphaned fox kit, a cursed monk, a female demon slayer, a fire neko and a white haired hanyou. Complete with shards of the shattered Shikon No Tama and all of Kagome's gear from the future, the group made quite a sight on the plowed fields and rolling hills of Feudal Japan.

Kagome sighed softly to herself. Her archery had improved, yes, but she had no other true skills. Her dormant miko power was of little help if she couldn't heal her friends or purify demons without her arrows. She felt so worthless sometimes…all of her friends battled and battled hard against any foe they came across, and all she did was occasionally launch a helpful arrow at the enemy. She knew she could do more to help with the proper training, but Kaede was the only other miko she knew. Could Kaede train her miko powers? It wouldn't hurt to ask the next time they met.

Inuyasha lead his small odd pack down a worn dirt path that twisted through the lands, and heard Kagome's soft sigh. He considered asking her what the problem was, but everyone being witness to such a thing changed his mind. He was being left alone at the moment, and he preferred it that way. He liked and trusted them all, but damn it, could they get annoying! Plus when he argued with them, Kagome usually sat him. He shuddered at the pain and shame that damn command brought him.

Miroku and Sango walked after Inuyasha side by side, Miroku occasionally letting his eyes roam her slender form. Sango didn't notice, luckily, as she was playing with Kirara in her arms and laughing at the small cat that bounded around her shoulders and sometimes jumped down to chase Shippo in circles around them.

Kagome was so engrossed in her thoughts of becoming a stronger fighter that she almost didn't sense the approach of a pair of jewel shards. She was brought out of her musings by a cyclone of dust barreling towards them at high speeds. The pack had come to recognize this particular cyclone however, and no one batted an eye but Inuyasha, who began snarling at once.

"What does that mangy wolf want this time?" Inuyasha snapped, a hand grasping Tetsusaiga's hilt.

Kagome raised her eyes and the dust twister blew by her, ruffling her hair and her clothes before it settled to reveal the grinning wolf demon who had become so enamored with her. She smiled. It was always nice to see Koga, even if he fought with Inuyasha constantly and refused to believe she wasn't interested in him…well not the way she was interested in Inuyasha, anyway.

"Hey, Kagome. I was passin' by and caught your wonderful scent. How are you? Mutt-face treating you well?" He added, casting a dark look toward the growling hanyou.

"Why you dirty-" Inuyasha began at once. Kagome sighed. She really didn't like to subjugate Inuyasha, but she also didn't want him and Koga fighting every time he came around.

"Inuyasha, sit." She grumbled, sending him face first into the ground again. Koga chuckled.

"That always makes me laugh, Kagome…aren't you tired of him yet?" He asked and took her hands in his. "I'd be glad to take you back to my den, get you away from dog-breath over there."

Kagome laughed nervously. Sure Koga was a sweet guy, and not to mention nice to her, but she couldn't help that her heart still belonged to Inuyasha, even though his mannerisms were starting to wear on her.

"I'm gonna have to turn you down again Koga." Kagome said, doing her best not to hurt the wolf's feelings. Inuyasha snarled as he hauled himself to his feet.

"Get your hands off of her, ya flea bitten wolf!" He yelled, brandishing a fist at him.

"She hasn't told me to let go yet, mutt-face…maybe she wants me to touch her!" Koga retorted with a laugh of what was presumably triumph. Kagome groaned and pulled her hands from Koga's

"Koga, you're gonna have to get over yourself someday." She said as Shippo landed on her shoulder.

"Tell me about it…he's more clueless than Inuyasha." Shippo grumbled, rolling his grass colored eyes.

"Who're you callin' clueless?"

"How dare you compare me to that mongrel!"

"Mongrel this, wolf!"

Kagome shot a long suffering look at her human friends who merely shrugged back at her. They found these encounters much more entertaining than she did, although they didn't let her know that.

"Inuyasha, leave Koga alone! Koga, you should probably go before he stops listening to me." Kagome said, stepping between the two snarling males. Again. It seemed this was starting to happen a lot lately. Koga had been around more and more often in the past few weeks. Kagome wondered for a moment why until he grasped her hands again.

"I'd never let that mutt defeat me, my dear Kagome. Don't you worry, one day we'll be mated, and we'll never have to put up with his loud mouth again." Koga announced.

"Over my dead body!" Inuyasha shouted and jumped at Koga, but he dodged the attack, bade Kagome and the others farewell, and disappeared again in a whirlwind of dust and grass.

Kagome sighed. She had at least prevented another fight between those two, but as was usual, she geared herself for the shouting match she and Inuyasha were sure to have in mere moments.

"Why are you always on that wolf's side, Kagome?" Inuyasha howled at her. "Why don't you just let me get rid of him already?"

"Koga may be annoying at times, but he's my friend and our ally, Inuyasha! He's helping us hunt Naraku, after all, isn't he?"

"Keh! He just wants the shards, and he just wants you to find 'em for him!" He replied loudly.

"Sit! Stop calling me nothing but a shard detector, and stop saying that's all Koga wants from me! Other people see me as Kagome, you know, not just a shard detector or Kikyo's shadow!" Kagome barked and at once turned on her heel and stormed away from where he lay. He growled something that made her stop at once.

"What did you say?" She asked in her soft and dangerous voice without looking back at him.

"I said you sound like you want Koga to want more from you! What's with you two anyway? Is that why you keep siding with him?" Inuyasha growled at her.

Kagome stood shock still in her anger, and Inuyasha knew he was in trouble. Shippo jumped from her shoulder when he felt her stop and the others backed away to avoid being caught up in the wide scope of her teenage wrath.

The young miko from the future took her revenge on the hanyou the only way she could. She shouted 'sit' until she lost her breath and had to gasp for air. She whirled on the crater she had used Inuyasha's body to create and shouted down at him.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll stay in that hole until you can act like a mature adult!" She screamed and at once headed for the Bone Eater's Well. Waking up to a fight with a tiger demon had put Kagome in a foul mood, and dealing with Inuyasha's temper and Koga's flirtations was something she wasn't prepared to handle all at once. In all probability, she'd never actually make it home, but would calm down by the time she made it there and end up turning back to return to her friends.

As she pushed her way through the trees, she fought back a smile at the familiarity of her life in the Feudal era. She was much more accustomed to life here than she was to life in her own time, a thought that should have frightened her, but only made her smile brighten. She had decided long ago that this was the place where she truly belonged.

She wasn't sure what would happen when they completed the jewel, however. She wondered what the well would do; send her home? Close up behind her? Remain as it was, an open gateway? Or let her make her own choice? She heaved a sigh…it was still far too early to keep using her brain so much. Perhaps she should head to the village by the well and ask Kaede about miko training.

She smiled at the thought of seeing the old miko again and decided to pay her a visit instead of the well. Inuyasha would know where to find her.