Cloak and Dagger by omizumaru

Practice

She was sick and tired of being taunted. Damn Inuyasha! How was she supposed to be a master of the bow and arrow when she'd never touched the things before? It's not like archery was a class in gym these days! And hey, she was hitting the mark almost all the time now! But still it wasn't enough.

Kagome sighed in resignation. She could understand where Inuyasha was coming from. The final battle with Naraku was drawing closer, and everyone was going to have to be at the top of their forms if they wanted to win..... and live. Although the hanyou had sworn to always protect her, she knew that things were going to get crazy when the final show-down occurred, and he might not be able to keep her safe and fight at the same time. She didn't want him messing something up because he was worried about her. She also wanted to be able to protect herself. She was a modern woman after all, and even though these weren't modern times, some of the ideals of feminism couldn't be abandoned so easily.

So, when she had missed hitting that stupid crow demon this afternoon, she had decided that she needed some practice. Which left her here, in the middle of the woods, alone. Okay, so the whole fighting with Inuyasha thing had helped her get here, but the desire to be self-sufficient was the primary drive.

Kagome spotted a tree that seemed well tailored to her needs, and set down her bow and quiver. Rooting around in her bag, she gave a little victory whoop when she found the marker she was looking for down at the bottom. Skipping up to the tree, she drew a big target on it's trunk. Mission accomplished, she returned to the weapons and got herself into a comfortable stance.

Pulling her arm back, she gave the tree the evil eye. "You can do this Kagome" she muttered to herself while sizing up her formidable enemy. "It's just a damned tree."

Kagome sucked in a breath and let the arrow fly. "Hit the mark!" she yelled.

She missed.

Well, not entirely, but the arrow was embedded in the bark, two feet above the bullseye.

"Stupid tree!" she yelled while stomping one small foot on the ground.

"It is difficult to blame the tree as it is incapable of movement. One would question however, your reasoning as to why it must perish. Has this tree somehow injured your person?"

Kagome stiffened. No way. There was just no way. It sounded like Sesshomaru, but it had to be someone else. Because whoever was talking to her in that smooth baritone voice had sounded playful, and Sesshomaru was scary, deadly, pushy, any number of things. But NOT playful. Turning around, she was shocked to see that it was indeed the taiyoukai of the West questioning her.

"Ummm.... no." She responded. What else could she say? She didn't want to admit that she needed to sneak off for practice.

"Has it in some way offended you?" Sesshomaru quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Ummm... yes." Okay, so maybe he'd leave her alone, and preferably alive, if she just told him something he wanted to hear?

"Hn."

He wasn't leaving. Why wasn't he leaving? With a sigh Kagome told him, "Okay, the tree didn't offend me. I just need practice." She looked up at him. "I suck." she told him sadly.

"Suck what?" He questioned her seriously after a contemplative pause.

"Well, that's embarrassing." Kagome thought to herself as she blushed lightly. "It's just a term from where I'm from. It means I'm not any good at using this damn bow!" She gave said object a disgusted look.

"That is because you hold it incorrectly. You also lack the faith that your aim is true."

What? Sesshomaru was giving her advice on how to shoot the bow and arrow? This day was getting really surreal. "Umm hmm." she said, shooting him a look that could only be described as saying "You are so full of it."

There went the eyebrow again. "You do not believe that this Sesshomaru knows what he is talking about?"

"Not really. I know you're great with a sword and everything, but this is a bow, NOT a sword." So, it was a little rude, but she really did need to be practicing, not shooting the breeze with a demon who had tried to kill her and her friends on numerous occasions.

"This Sesshomaru grasps the differences between a bow and a sword miko" Sesshomaru told her. His tone of voice seemed to imply that she was somehow mentally challenged. And then, so quickly that Kagome had no idea that it had happened, she was no longer holding her bow. Raising startled eyes to the demon in front of her, she saw that he was.

"Watch and learn miko." He told her haughtily. Sesshomaru stepped up beside her, placed one long leg in front of the other, raised the bow and knocked an arrow. Pulling back the bowstring, he let the arrow fly. It's flight held true, and struck the center of the bullseye. Without a word, he handed the bow back to the stunned woman at his side.

Kagome could only stare. So, it wasn't exactly unexpected, but then again, she had never seen Sesshomaru use any weapon but a sword. She looked at him questionably. He only raised his eyebrow at her, and then she understood that it was her turn.

Grasping the bow tightly, Kagome raised it and reached behind her to grasp an arrow. Pulling it out of her quiver, she knocked it and was prepared to let it fly when she felt a large hand settle on her leg. She gave a little yelp of surprise and looked down, only to see Sesshomaru grasping the appendage.

"Your stance is incorrect woman." He told her as he gently picked up her foot and placed it further back. Standing, he stepped up behind her and placed his large hands over her own small ones. "Look at your enemy straight on and concentrate." His rumbling baritone voice caressed her ear and she shuddered slightly. He pulled her hand back, the bowstring stretching dangerously far under their combined efforts. "When you are certain of it's path, let the arrow fly." He released her hand and she in turn released her hold on the arrow.

Kagome watched as the arrow flew straight and true, coming to lodge itself sharply in the tree, so close to Sesshomaru's that the tips almost touched.

"Wow" she muttered to herself. It was all she could muster to say at the moment. Never before had she felt so assured that she would hit the mark.

"Indeed." Sesshomaru said flatly from behind her.

Upon reflection, Kagome would later realize that she despised Cupid. And his damned arrows.

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So, that's it. I was bored and cruising the challenge board when I found this one that sounded like it had potential. So I picked it up and here it is. I know, I know. 3 stories at the same time? I guess so. But hey, you've got to admit that I've been doing a good job with posting regularly right? And I know I'm going to get flak about doing another new one and not finishing that "other" story that I've left crying and alone, but I'll get back to it. I swear. Just waiting for inspiration.

And this story isn't going to be some poetic epic (in case you couldn't tell). It's just a stress reliever, a little something to have fun with. Who am I kidding? We all know it's going to turn into some sort of epic thingy...... I have a love affair with epic thingies. *sighs and shakes head*

So, got this off the board at Single Spark, and it was posted by FloweryNightmare17. Hope I don't disappoint you.

~omizumaru