The Sun and the Moon

Disclaimer: Guess what? I own a CD player, and a computer, but not InuYasha… or any of Rumiko Takahashi's work, for that matter. Oh well… I can write fan fictions.

Chapter 1: The Crossroad

A huge ogre-demon was running up to InuYasha, swinging his giant club in vain attempts to murder the annoying dog demon and the little humans he ran around with. They were hurting him, badly, considering how much larger he was than them. One of them, a young demon slayer, threw her boomerang at him, shouting "Hiraikotsu!" It flew at his giant arm, cutting it off from his body. He roared in anger, charging the little pathetic human who had harmed him so badly. A saber-toothed flying demon cat with two tails bit his other arm from nowhere, it seemed, causing him to become even more infuriated. Before he could hurt the cat, a monk threw some sutras at him, causing his skin to burn. There was pain, blinding pain, everywhere he turned. He had to kill them all! Before he knew it, the dog demon was upon him with his sword. The dog yelled at a girl, who yelled something back. The dog demon began to slash at his stomach, where he had put his jewel shard that he had found. The jewel shard came loose, and the ogre demon shrank to about half of his previous size without its power. The girl wearing a green uniform and who had a small fox demon clinging to her lower leg pointed her arrow slung in a bow at him, and it began to glow with an enormous amount of energy, frightening him. He threw up his remaining arm to protect himself as she shot the arrow, and he knew no more.

Miroku opened his wind tunnel upon the dead demon, removing it from the face of the earth. Sango, the demon slayer, ran up, with her cat Kirara, who had returned to her smaller state, no bigger than a kitten, but she still had two tails. InuYasha came to Sango and Miroku with Kagome in his arms and Shippou the fox demon on his shoulder. He set down Kagome carefully, and turned to look over everyone.

"Anyone hurt?"

"No, we're good." Sango answered.

"Yes, a nice way to wake up in the morning." Miroku said as he stretched.

InuYasha turned and picked up Kagome's backpack, which she had left next to her bike so it wouldn't be damaged in battle. He began to dig through it, hungry after fighting such a demon. Not that it was exactly hard for him, anyway. After not finding any food, he got up.

"Kagome, where's your food? You can't be out!" InuYasha complained.

"Well, I am. I ran out last night, remember? Let's look for a village. We can re-stock on food, and I need a blanket. Mine was destroyed from when you had to go and insult my cooking again. I had to get mad and sit you… Oops, sorry, I didn't mean it that time." Kagome said, as he hit the ground.

Everyone agreed that they should look for a village, and they set out along the road they'd been following. Soon enough, they came to a small one. Miroku began wandering after a couple of young women who unfortunately crossed his path, talking to each other. Sango followed him, glaring at his back. Kirara headed after her, purring in content. InuYasha, Kagome and Shippou sighed, shaking their heads, before walking into town searching for a market.

The townspeople were whispering and pointing at InuYasha, who had become used to this in most villages they came to. He still cocked his ears in annoyance, but it was out of habit. They headed down the main street, looking for some food. The quickly found some, thanks to InuYasha's nose, and bought a lunch, using the last of their money. Kagome saved some for Miroku and Sango, who showed up fifteen minutes or so later. Sango was prodding a bruised Miroku forward, and he was walking along, looking defeated although he was chuckling to himself. After they had eaten their fill, they began to search for work in the small town. After trying nearly every house, they gave in and decided to go sit on the slanted bank of the river that ran right near the edge of town.

There, they planned where to go next, without any money or food. They could always fish, but if they followed this river, it would lead them to where they'd already searched for jewel shards. All of a sudden, a crash startled them all. InuYasha looked up, then returned to laying on his side, head resting in his hand. Kagome and the others jumped up to investigate, and see if they could help. Kagome and Miroku paused for a moment at the top of the bank, questioning InuYasha, but continued after Sango when InuYasha ignored them.

A wheelbarrow of rice had fallen over. One of the villagers was taking it home from their field, and had hit a rock. All but InuYasha immediately set to work picking it up, hoping for a small tip or something. About thirty minutes later, they had almost every grain up off the ground, and were receiving a tiny coin each by the villager. They went back down to the river and InuYasha with dinner for that night, which consisted of a handful of fruits, not even one for each of them.

In the morning, a villager ran up to them, waking them all.

"There's a demon! Come quick! The headman of the village is being attacked! I'm sure he'll pay something for rescuing him." the villager added as few of them showed interest besides Kagome and Sango. They all ran after the villager with their weapons, and found a pathetic mouse demon. It wasn't letting anyone near the village headman, who was tied up and gagged on the ground behind it.

"I demand a sacrifice! For the release of your beloved headman, give me the blood of a child!" The rat hissed.

The four teens looked at each other, and Miroku sighed.

"Do you want this one, Shippou?"

"No, that's ok, Miroku… you can get him." Shippou said boredly, as if he could have defeated the demon easily (but tried to keep himself from shaking). Miroku threw a sutra at the demon, which screeched and dissolved into the air. The village headman was released by Kagome and Sango, who stood him up carefully.

"Are you alright, sir?" Sango asked.

"Yes, quite alright. Thanks for saving my life from that horrible demon."

"Don't worry about it, it was nothing, really." Kagome said.

"Oh, but you must have pay!" The headman said, handing each of them a gold coin. After some repeating and assuring, Kagome got a nice warm blanket instead of a coin. They accepted their rewards gratefully, and headed off down the road, able to travel to the next village at least now.

Early that afternoon, the group came to a fork in the road. One road headed almost directly to Kaede's village and the sacred well, and the other went off into territory where the group hadn't been.

"Hey, how about we split up here?" Kagome suggested.

"InuYasha, you could take me back to the well. I could get food from home, and some other supplies. You should give Sango and Miroku your payment from the headman so they can buy food while we're gone."

InuYasha gave Sango his coin because he'd never had much of an obsession with money. It brought food, but so did Kagome, and she was better.

"But what will you two eat?" Sango asked.

"Oh, fish, berries, anything we find. There has to be food, don't worry about us."

Kagome leaned over to Sango.

"Are you sure you're ok with being left with Miroku?"

"Yeah, I have Shippou and Kirara, he wouldn't try anything." Sango answered. Kagome giggled, and leaned back to talk to the group again.

"Well, how about we meet in the forest between Kaede's village and Mount Fuji?" She suggested.

"How about on that one mountain?"

"Which one?"

"Ok, how about Miroku and I will meet you on top of the mountain directly north of Kaede's village, alright? The one with the cave, about… you said fifteen miles north?"

"That will work fine. Here, take these, you might need them while I'm gone." Kagome said as she passed out two boxes of Band-Aids. "I'll see you later, Sango. Bye Shippou, Miroku, Kirara!" Kagome said as she climbed onto InuYasha's back.

"Good luck!" Kagome shouted back to Sango as InuYasha left down the right road.

"I'll see you in a few days!" Called Sango.

"So long!" Shouted Miroku.

"Come back with more ninja food!" Shippou called, smiling and waving from Miroku's head.

InuYasha turned to look at them, and he had a gleam in his eye that hadn't been there since before Miroku, Sango, or even Shippou had joined forces with Kagome and him. He grinned silently as he bounded down the road.

Miroku, Sango, Shippou, and Kirara walked down the left road, searching for a place to stay for a few days, and thinking separately if they had really seen the gleam in InuYasha's eye, or if it was imagined.

Well, how do you like chapter 1? Please, tell me what you think, it's a new fan fiction, and there is more to it. Believe me, MUCH more. Please, I need reviews. Ok, I'm still new at fan fictions, so I'm sorry if it stinks. It's an Inu-Kagome romance, and it might take me a while to get to the good parts. I've read a few more fan fictions from other people, and I've tried to adjust my fan fiction according to what annoyed me and what I liked from the other fan fictions. What annoyed me: Not much, maybe they wrote too much not-story. Mostly replying to people. What I liked: longer chapters. I'm going to make mine at least two pages long. Good, long chapters, with detail, but not every excruciating detail. The other fan fictions were also a bit out-of-character, but it worked for the story. So, on to Chapter 2: Friends or Foes? - Oh, and this part of the ---I think I'll make it a Trilogy, or more--- is mostly romance. There's no REAL challenge, or big conflict… it's just the build-up. I've started the sequel, so get to readin'! There's a lot to be done, ya hear? Kays, thanks!