Author's Note: So, this chapter is sort of long. Please give the story a shot. It just took me a bit to get it all started. I wanted to set it up a certain way. So, I hope you all enjoy! Please remember to review – they always make my day!

Chapter 1: A Disappointment's Fresh Start!

"Oh, great Ancestors," he begged in silent composure. Grandpa Higurashi tightened his clasped hands and knelt his head down towards the ground. "Please, Please help my Kagome." He remained respectfully bowed in front of the old ancestral stone; silently hoping his words would be heard. After a short time the chirping of birds became louder and the sky was quickly fading from midnight to a warm bright blue. Sighing to himself he sat up and slowly eased himself to his feet, glancing at the stone again he bowed and said his daily prayer, then began the short walk back to the main house.

Kagome was a young woman of fifteen and was just a few months away from her High School entrance exams and if she didn't do well her Grandfather feared her future would be limited. She was a strong spirited young woman who deserved the best life had to offer and he knew she'd never just be happy marring some man and having children. Thinking of his Granddaughter brought a smile to the old man's face, passing beneath her window he glanced up. She should be getting about right about now, he thought but then laughed.

"Knowing Kagome she won't wake till Souta's halfway out the front door," he chuckled to himself. His granddaughter was clumsy, prone to lateness, forgetful, and just a smidge lazy but he loved her all the same. Many successful people had much worse habits and vices, as long as his dear Kagome could find her inspiration and focus he knew she could do anything she put her mind to.

Placing his hand on back door shoji screen he paused before opening the door, gazing up and giving the blue sky a wistful glance, "Please, help my Kagome in anyway you can!"

Grandpa Higurashi just wanted her to be happy, was that too much to ask?

xxx.

"Oh no! I'm going to be late!" Kagome shrieked and exclaimed, "Again!"

She stampeded down the staircase unaware of her extremely disheveled appearance. The front of her school blouse hung open a little too much and the red sash was sliding down her from beneath her collar. When she reached the first floor landing she grabbed a notebook off the hallway table and jammed it into the yellow bag on her back as she raced toward the front door.

"Have a good day at school today, Kagome!" Her mother yelled from the laundry room across the house, she knew the loud sound of a late Kagome and laughed to herself as she folded some shirts. "When will she learn to put the alarm clock on the other side of the room?" She shook her head and continued her morning chores with a small smile on her face.

"Crap!" Kagome whispered over and over as she attempted to pull the back of her shoe from beneath her heel. In her spastic frustration she failed to hear her Grandfather walk up.

"Kagome!" He exclaimed in his usual shrill melodic tone. Kagome shrieked and almost fell backwards, "Grandpa!" she exclaimed her expression and hair frazzled beyond belief at his sudden appearance.

"Here!" he handed her a piece of toast from a small plate, "A young girl like you needs her nutrition!"

Kagome looked down at the plate, "Grandpa," she picked up the toast slowly, pausing for respect, she needed to be polite, this was her Grandfather after all, "Since when it burnt toast and grape jelly a nutritious breakfast?" she attempted to remain serious but sometimes she seriously wondered if her Grandfather was all there.

"Kagome!" she almost dropped the toast and frowned slightly, momentarily forgetting the fact that she was late for school.

"Yeah, what is it Grandpa?"

He stared at her silently for a moment and she leaned in, genuinely interested in what had her Grandfather so quiet.

"Don't you have school this morning?"

If she had attempted to resist the urge to twitch she failed miserably as a distressed scream left her throat.

"Thanks Grandpa!" She exclaimed sarcastically as she ran out of the house slamming the door behind her. She was never going to be on time to school ever. Was it possible to be expelled from school due to tardiness?

Kagome didn't even want to consider that idea, it was already bad enough she got grape jelly on her school shirt.

xxx.

Kagome sighed as she walked home, crushing the rolled paper in her left fist she tried to think about anything else other than the massively horrible grade currently being punished in the form of crushing by hand, "Oh man, I studied so hard for that exam too!" she mumbled to herself as she absently paid attention to her friends to her left.

"Oh come on, Kagome," Ayumi said cheerfully, her wavy black hair bouncing lightly as they walked. "I'm sure you'll do great on the next one!"

Kagome laughed darkly as she avert her eyes from her slightly sickeningly cheerful friend, "I wish I had your optimism, Ayumi."

Eri rolled her eyes as she fiddled with her yellow headband, "Oh stop being such a grouch, Kagome! We all make bad grades, just study really hard next time, you'll do fine!"

"Plus, entrance exams aren't for a few more months anyway!" Yuka chimed in as she leaned over to look at Kagome.

Kagome took a deep breath and finally put the exam in her bag, her friends were right, there was no use beating herself up over something she couldn't change anymore.

"Yeah, you guys are right. Sorry, I was being a bit ridiculous," she admitted.

"It's okay, Kagome," Ayumi said playfully before she stopped walking. "Well, this is my stop, I'll see you guys at school tomorrow!"

The girls waved their friend off as they continued to walk and talk to one another till they each went their separate ways.

By the time Kagome made it up the shrine steps it was late afternoon, she had stopped with her friends to grab a snack by the school before they all headed home. Her mom was out pulling laundry down from the lines and her little brother Souta was kicking a soccer ball around.

"Good afternoon, Kagome," her mother said, "So, how did your exam go?" she asked good-naturedly. Kagome stopped and felt her shoulders visibly slouch as she nervously rubbed the back of her neck.

"Um well…"

"Kagome," her mother's tone was slightly stern commanding to be told the truth.

"I failed…"

Kagome clenched her eyes shut and grimaced waiting for the lecture that always came after a bad grade. But when she heard a sigh and nothing more her eyes popped open and she turned to look back at her mom who'd returned to pulling down the laundry. Kagome knew her mom was disappointed in her; she was disappointed in herself if she was being honest, but usually her mom said something.

xxx.

Dinner that night was tense and silent and Kagome felt incredibly awkward. Her Mother hadn't said a word since that afternoon and now her Grandfather was eerily quiet too. And apparently she wasn't imaging things because her little brother was as quiet as he grave apparently he sensed the inevitable talk that was going to come.

After finishing her rice Kagome placed her chopsticks across the bowl and whipped her face clean. After placing the napkin down she glanced around the table and no one made eye contact, "May I be excused?" She asked nervously.

When no one said anything she began to rise when her Grandfather spoke, "Kagome," she paused and looked toward her Grandfather. "We are not mad at you, my dear. But," he looked at her now. "You must do better in school. Your future depends on it, my dear."

She bowed her head in shame, "Yes Grandfather."

xxx.

The next morning Kagome awoke before her alarm went off, she hadn't been able to sleep at all during the night. Every time she had fallen asleep she would toss and turn and wake up every twenty to forty minutes. So, she lay there and absently blew air at her bangs that moved lightly across her forehead. Running her fingers threw her thick black bangs she sighed, it was going to be a long day and she hadn't even slept that well the night before. Soon light began to weakly shine threw her window and she begrudgingly decided to get up. If she lay in bed any longer she may actually just pass out from exhaustion and that was out of the question. If anything she was at least going to be on time for her first class today.

In almost no time at all she was dressed in her customary green and white school uniform and downstairs. She walked toward the front door chewing the remains of a strawberry pop tart as she slipped on her brown Dockers. She glanced at her watch, she still had a whole forty minutes till she needed to leave but she didn't want to take any chances.

"Nothings stopping me from getting there on time today!" She muttered defiantly, as if asking the universe to try something.

When she stepped outside the wind blew lightly tousling her long black hair, it was refreshing and cool and she was reminded that fall was coming. A smile jumped to her lips at the thought of all the adorable scarves she would be allowed to pair with her school uniform once it got cold. She decided to pace the shrine grounds a bit till Souta got up and she'd walk with him this morning, "And who knows, maybe I'll buy that brat a pastry from the bakery," she mused, but that was only if he hurried up!

Sighing she dropped her bag at the foot of the steps to a small shrine house at the back of the property. The old creepy well house, normally Kagome steered clear of it, it gave her an inexplicably unsettling feeling every time she was near it. But she was in such good spirits this morning that nothing was going to get her down!

"Not even a rotted creepy little hut like you!" She exclaimed at it and huffed turning back around, she then felt incredibly silly for talking to an inanimate object.

Glancing across the shrine for her brother again she was about to sit down when she heard a weird noise. She paused mid sit and turned toward the well house, her brows furrowed in confusion, "What the-?" she mumbled as she stood up and absently grabbed her backpack. She could have sworn she heard a knocking sound coming from the well house but that was impossible. Or rather improbable, who would hangout in that old creepy factory? It was actually the one part of the whole shrine that didn't have an offering area and even if someone had stopped to check it out they would've figured out really quick that nothing was there to take.

Then she froze what if it was a homicidal homeless person? Kagome started to have a mini panic attack, her mind flashing back to all the late night American films she watched that she wasn't supposed to be seeing.

Nervously she laughed and pushed the thought from her mind as she began to turn to walk away, she would just forget it ever happened and –

Knock knock.

"Oh god," she mumbled. She turned back around and gulped, after a moment of terrified staring she took a deep breath and furrowed her brows determinedly. "Listen buddy," she yelled as she stomped up the well house steps. "I don't know what you're doing in there, but this is restricted to the shrine family-" she slammed the shoji door open expecting to be face to face with some creepy man.

"Huh.." she exclaimed and even a little let down. "There's no one…there…"

She stepped in and looked on either side of the door to make sure and sure enough there was absolutely no one there. "Weird…" she mumbled and after a moment of staring and listening she was about to give up and go pester her brother to hurry when the knocking happened again

Knock Knock.

Her heart started hammering in her chest, sure enough it was coming from the well house, but more specifically, it seemed like it was coming from the well itself.

"No…way.." she whispered, mentally trying to calm her heart and the adrenaline currently pumping through her system. Slowly Kagome walked into the well house and down the steps towards the well, the knocking continued and she was seriously considering the possibility of ghosts when it halted as soon as her finger tips brushed the sealed opening.

She found herself frowning and beginning to wonder if her brother really was already awake playing some elaborate joke on her. She turned around from the well and looked for him, "Souta, I swear to god if this is you-"

Whatever else Kagome had planned on saying she immediately forgot, suddenly there was this loud splitting sound and a bright purple light. She turned quickly around but everything seemed like it was in slow motion, the well was now open and this bright purple light was shining out. Once curiosity won out over fear she leaned over the lip of the well to look in and suddenly there was a swift pull at her navel and she was falling forward into the bright purple light, screaming.

xxx.

When Kagome woke up her head was killing her, groaning she sat up rubbing the side of her head.

"Oh man, what a weird dream.." she mumbled as she finally opened her eyes and for a moment she was completely confused.

"Where am…oh my god," she whispered, clasping her hands over her mouth she looked up and sure enough she was sitting at the bottom of the well! Kagome looked up again but couldn't see the ceiling of the house just a bright light.

"Well, at least I left the door open so I can see," she mumbled as she stood and dusted off her skirt.

"Mom! Souta! Grandpa!" she yelled, they had to be looking for her by now, right? After five minutes she sighed and figured they must've thought she was at school. She noticed there were some vines extending from the top of the well; odd she'd never noticed vines on the well before. But she shook off the thought it wasn't like she made it a priority to hangout in creepy old well houses, so what, maybe she was a little unobservant. Surprisingly the vines held her weight, she had expected the old vines to be brittle but they felt thick and actually alive.

After a few moments she reach the top and pulled herself out with a satisfied huff but she had to catch herself from falling back in.

"What in the…" She was speechless; she wasn't in her well house at all, but in the middle of a beautiful green field. "Toto…I don't think we're in Tokyo anymore…" she mumbled as she hopped off the edge of the well. Upon further inspection she realized she was actually in a rather small meadow in the middle of a forest, which would be disconcerting if it had been nighttime.

"What am I thinking?!" she exclaimed to herself. "I'm dreaming, clearly…" She looked around and then felt a surge of excitement. "The sacred tree!" she could see it easily towering above all the trees ahead of her. It was a little bit away but not more than a five-minute walk, sighing gratefully she headed toward the tree.

But when she reached the tree she began to get nervous, there it was, but where her home and the shrine was supposed to be was just forest.

"What the…" she mumbled for probably the hundredth time today. She turned around in a circle just to make sure there was no roof to her house peaking up behind some trees. It was irrational, of course, if the house was there it would be there, becoming nervous she stopped and pinched her arm and closed her eyes. She repeated this multiple times but she couldn't wake up and her arm was beginning to really hurt.

"Oh my god…" realization hit her. "I'm dead."

Just as she felt she was going to faint or vomit, or perhaps a bit of both, she was pulled from her existential crisis by a voice getting nearer.

"Let's keep hunting, we're bound to find something worth selling at the market!" a man said while laughing and soon the sounds of other male voices made it to her ears. At first she was overjoyed to her the voices of others, but as they voices got nearer dread and uncertainty began to settle at the pit of Kagome's stomach. And before they broke through to the small clearing, she dived around the back of the tree and into a small patch of bushes.

What she saw step from the forest had her blood running cold, the men or whatever they were, were covered in head to toe traditional feudal solider armor. With the exception of helmets and full leg guards they looked, Kagome wrinkled her nose, and certainly smelt like actually feudal soliders.

The odd thing was one of them had skin like the color of fire and long fangs, another looked part panther, and the third seemed human… enough…but his eyes were a bright orange.

Nope, definitely not human she thought shrilly, as her palms began to sweat and she began to consider the possibility that not only did she travel through time but…demons? They were real?

After a few minutes the voices disappeared as they, presumably continued, their 'hunt'. She shivered at the notion of being on their prey, but just for the sake of being safe she laid there beneath the bushes for another fifteen minutes silently listening for the demons to return. She'd seen enough horror movies to at least give the bad guys some time to walk away before jumping from her hiding spot screaming bloody murder.

So, after she was certain she was safe, she slowly stood up and looked around, the coast was clear! Immediately, she began sprinting towards the well again.

Maybe if that's how I came through, I can get back that way!

But if it was, she would never find out, at least not today. As suddenly something grabbed the back of her collar and she felt herself pulled back into a pair of arms and behind a tree. Her heart was palpitating and she was so scared she momentarily forgot to scream. Apparently her assailant realized this too and before she could get out a good yell he covered her mouth with his hand.

"Shhhh!" he whispered into her ear roughly. She calmed and looked down at the hand, it looked human enough, well except for the nails…those were pretty sharp for human nails…she screamed against the hand, Definitely not human nails!

"Shh!" He repeated harshly into her ear again, "What, do you want to get us both killed?!"

She stilled her tantrum, Wait he's helping me? She thought incredulously.

"If I let you go, do you promise not to yell?" he asked. She nodded her head, his hand still didn't move. "Look, girl. If you yell or try to run you'll die. Those demons by themselves are nothin, but if they call their buddies, we got a problem, got it?"

Kagome shook her head again in understanding, his palm was starting to get sweaty and she seriously wanted some fresh air.

"Okay…"he muttered, his tone sounded slightly uncertain but he pulled his hand away anyway and let go of her, she heard him step back.

For a moment Kagome just stood there scared to look at her possible savior in the eye.

He was either patiently waiting for her to turn around or he'd ran off but on the possibility he was still there, she turned slowly toward him. First, all she saw red, then she looked up, and gasped, involuntarily Kagome felt her hand go to cover her mouth.

The man behind her was dressed in old-fashioned garb, but alarmingly red in color. He stood a whole head taller than her and had long wild white hair and mess of tousled bangs that fell into amber eyes. But what had caused her to gasp was the two patches of raised white fur on the top of his head that twitched slightly in her direction.

"Your…your ears," she muttered, she saw his mouth twist arrogantly and begin to open, most likely to say something rude, how she could know that she didn't know. Call it woman's intuition.

But he was stilted by the sudden and rather unexpected response from the young woman in front of him.

Kagome had swiftly leaned forward and lightly grabbed each ear in a hand and tweaked them slightly between her thumb and forefinger. They were so soft! Kagome couldn't believe it, they were real, real dog-ears on a guy!

"What're you-" his face was an alarmingly bright shade of pink and kagome quickly pulled away, pink in the face as well, embarrassed she quickly apologized, "Oh my god, I'm sorry.."

When he didn't say anything she looked back up at him, he was giving her a bewildered look but he then cleared his throat and turned around.

"Anyway, follow me girl, if you wanna live. You're too deep in the forest and if you don't find yourself in a human village soon you'll be demon food."

"They would've eaten me?" she asked, disgust and surprise overtaking her. She followed closely behind the strange man who'd saved her, he scoffed at her words and responded without turning back, "Well, lets just say they could've found more than one way to sate their hunger with you."

Kagome gulped, where the hell or better yet, when the hell was she?

"You never told me your name."

She heard him scoff again, "Yeah, you'd be right."

She pouted at the back of his head, "Fine! Don't tell me!" She folded her arms but despite her aggravation at his arrogant attitude, she still followed.

After what seemed like an hour the forest began to thin out and he stopped, when she stopped next to him they were at a tree line. Below them was a slope that headed towards farmers' fields and not too far past that was a village.

"Inuyasha."

"Huh?" She turned to look at the young man who'd saved her, his gaze was averted from her own and he seemed rather uncomfortable, but he sighed dramatically before repeating himself, "Inuyasha, my name is Inuyasha."

His amber eyes flicked down and made eye contact with her own and after a long silent moment she smiled and laughed a little, breaking their gaze she looked over at the village before saying, "Thank you, Inuyasha. My name is Kagome."

And for the first time in this insane day she felt calm.

But the loud clammering of footsteps and snapping tree branches behind her quickly brought back her new buddy, adreneline. Suddenly, Inuyasha grabbed her hand and pulled her onto his back and she yelped in surprised and wrapped her arms around his neck as he grabbed her legs.

"What're you doing!?" She yelled, temporarily forgetting the alarming sounds from the forest behind them as Inuyasha made an impressively inhuman leap through the air.

"They must've smelled you!"

"Who?!"

"The demons! Who else, stupid?" Inuyasha yelled as he landed and leaped again, they were past the fields now and soaring into the village.

"Stupid? Who're you calling, stupid?!" Kagome yelled pointedly.

"Keh! Look, girl! Either Shut up or I'm dropping your ass and you get to play bait."

Kagome clamped her mouth shut and glowered at the back of Inuyasha's head, first he's an enemy the a reluctant savior then a potential friend and now he's a ruthless jackass? Kagome had only known this Inuyasha for a little over an hour and she needed a drink.

What am I thinking?! I don't even drink! She though with exasperation, but was pulled from her thoughts by Inuyasha's yelling, "Hey! Are they still following us?!"

Kagome turned to look and felt her stomach drop, sure enough the three demons from the woods were bounding after them like fleas.

"Well?!" Inuyasha yelled.

"Yep!" Kagome yelled as she turned around and held onto his neck a little tighter. "So, what's the plan?"

Kagome couldn't see his face, but he smirked, "Normally, I wouldn't ask a human this. But you don't seem like you're from around here," he started as he continued to soar through the air then land then into the air again.

"Well, how very asute of you," Kagome muttered sarcastically as she glanced back at their pursuers. If he'd picked up on the sarcasm he ignored it because the next thing out of his mouth had her snapping her neck back in his direction.

"But how good can you swim?"

"What?!" Kagome exclaimed and when she looked down all she saw was blue, bright blue sloshing water, very, very far down.

xxx.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: okay so this is taking wayyyy longer than I expected to get started and Sesshomaru hasn't even showed up yet! But I promise this is a Sesskag fanfiction! Let me know what you think and once again I'm sorry for the lack of Sesshomaru.