Chapter 1
Waking During the Night
Kagome's eyes snapped open, and she sat up quickly. She looked around at the familiar sight of the campfire, trying to calm herself down.
"What's wrong?" InuYasha said suddenly beside her, with a look of concern in his golden eyes. She was amazed at how quickly and quietly he could jump down from an overlooking tree branch. She had always wondered why he even chose to sleep in a tree in the first place, but she had never really asked.
"Nothing, just a nightmare," Kagome said feeling like a little girl. "I guess you can say I'm just nervous about facing Naraku tomorrow. We've come so far, but do you really think we're strong enough?" Kagome questioned. Her hand rose to the jewel which she kept on a chain around her neck. They had spent almost two years collecting it, but they only had half completed. But tomorrow they would take the other half from the only other demon who had it. Naraku.
"You shouldn't be worried. You know I would never let anything happen to you," InuYasha said. Kagome nodded, but she was still worried. She just had to trust InuYasha to protect her like he had always done in the past. "Just try to get some rest. You'll need all your strength for tomorrow," InuYasha added. He was about to jump back into the tree but he hesitated. He suddenly grabbed Kagome into a tight hug. "No matter what happens tomorrow I'll always protect you. I swear. So try not to have any more nightmares." Kagome blushed in the darkness. It was so rare for InuYasha to show any sign of emotion and Kagome was always shocked when he did. Shocked, but glad too.
"If your scared Kagome you could always come sleep with me," Miroku interrupted patting the spot next to him.
"Shut up pervert!" InuYasha shouted hitting Miroku hard over the head.
"Shhh! You'll wake up Sango and Shippo," Kagome whispered, checking to see if the fox demon beside her was still asleep. Luckily Shippo was a heavy sleeper and never woke up during the night.
InuYasha shook his head in disgust. "Just go to sleep," he said before jumping back into his tree.
Kagome stared at the stars in the sky, unable to sleep. It wasn't that she didn't trust InuYasha, but Naraku was so strong. Plus he had half the jewel, and Kagura and Kanna's help. If only she were more powerful, then she could help more. Even though she was Kikyo's reincarnation, she still lacked the accuracy and amazing spiritual power that Kikyo had. Thinking about Kikyo just made Kagome think about InuYasha. It was obvious to everyone that InuYasha cared a great deal for Kikyo, and she cared for him, but for some reason Kikyo still wanted to keep her distance from InuYasha.
Kagome had a feeling that it had something to do with Naraku. Probably after Naraku was dead InuYasha would go live with Kikyo, and what would she do then? Go back to her own era and live a normal life? When she first began this journey on the day of her fifteenth birthday she would have wanted nothing more than to go back to living a normal life, but now a month before her seventeenth birthday that just didn't seem possible anymore. She had entered this era with a mission to find the shards of the jewel, but along the way she had fallen in love. Kagome felt her eyelids get droopy and she fell asleep thinking about InuYasha.
Miroku heard Kagome's breathing got back to normal. She had finally fallen asleep. If only Miroku could do the same. He knew that the wind tunnel in his hand was getting bigger. Soon it would suck him in. He watched as InuYasha closed his eyes and went to sleep. It was funny that InuYasha always waited until Kagome fell asleep before he fell asleep himself.
Of course Miroku had only been joking when he offered to sleep with Kagome. He only loved one girl and that was Sango, but he kept it a well guarded secret. He was worried if she found out she would start to fall in love with him, after all no woman could resist his charm. But what happened when his wind tunnel sucked him in? He didn't want to leave Sango in this world alone with such a horrible memory. He couldn't bear to hurt the one person he loved most. That's why he had decided a long time ago to wait until after Naraku was dead and the wind tunnel was gone. Then he would tell her how he felt.
Thinking of Sango only made him long for her so he silently crept toward her and sat down beside her. He often watched her when she was asleep. It was the only time he could stare at her without her blushing and looking away. He reached out and brushed some hair from her face. He started stroking her cheek, amazed at how soft it was. Her eyes fluttered open and Miroku instantly drew his hand back.
"Miroku?" she said sleepily.
"Sorry to wake you," Miroku said gazing at her. His heart was thumping so loudly he was positive she would be able to hear it. Having her lie in front of him was just too tempting. He had to do everything in his power to stop himself from leaning down and kissing her the way he did in his dreams.
"That's okay. I wasn't having such a good sleep anyway," Sango said. Miroku knew what she was about to say before she even opened her mouth. "I'm worried about Kohaku. Do you think he's alright?" she said. Miroku was right. Sango always got the same look in her eyes whenever she spoke about her younger brother.
"I don't know," Miroku replied honestly. It was possible that Naraku had taken the jewel shard out of Kohaku's back to increase his own power. It was also possible that Naraku had left it in so that they could fight with him tomorrow. Naraku enjoyed seeing loved ones set against each other, Miroku thought thinking about InuYasha and Kikyo.
"I guess there's no point worrying. We'll just have to wait and see," Sango said, shutting her eyes again.
"Your right," Miroku whispered. Suddenly Sango's eyes snapped open.
"Hey! What are you doing here anyway? You really should be asleep. You're not planning something perverted, are you monk?" Sango asked suspiciously. Miroku shook his head, trying to act offended that Sango would even imagine something like that.
"No, no. I'm going back to sleep," Miroku said moving back to his original spot. He quickly fell asleep dreaming of the moment when he could finally tell Sango how much he cared about her.
Sango watched the monk lie back down. She waited to see if he would come back, but he didn't move. Deep down she felt a little disappointed but she quickly brushed this feeling away. She told herself to forget about him, but she couldn't. She knew she was falling in love, despite her best efforts not to. She didn't want to admit she loved him. Doing so would only bring her heartache. Miroku was too much of a womanizer. He would break her heart. She couldn't love him. She wouldn't. She fell asleep thinking these thoughts but deep down she knew she couldn't hide the fact forever.
InuYasha woke up surprised. There was a familiar scent in the air. A scent that could only belong to one woman. It was Kikyo. InuYasha tried to sniff the direction, but just as suddenly as the scent came it left. He sighed and told himself it was probably his imagination playing tricks on him. He knew he was going to have difficulty falling asleep now. His thoughts revolved around Kikyo. He had loved her once, but did he love her now? She had changed so much; she wasn't even the same person anymore. But then what would he do after he defeated Naraku? He glanced over at Kagome, and wondered if she cared about him. He had so many mixed feelings. One day he would feel that he was in love with Kikyo, the next day that he was in love with Kagome and her cheery personality. Some days he just gave up on the whole idea of love entirely.
He didn't even know what love was. No one had ever explained it to him. The only memories about love were ones with his mother, but that was mother-son love, not woman to man love. Were they the same thing? Kikyo had told him love was an agreement between two people who got along. They promised to look out for each other and tried to make the other person's life as easy as possible. But Kagome had said love was something you gave without wanting anything in return, and a happy feeling you got whenever you were with that special person. You wanted to be with that person all the time, no matter what. InuYasha had been confused with Kagome's speech at the time, but now he thought he understood a bit of it.
He wanted Kagome to stay in this era with him, but was that really love? He figured that he didn't really love Kagome, he just wanted her companionship. She probably wouldn't stay anyway. In her world she had her family and friends. She had all those modern conveniences to make life easy. There was no way she'd want to stay in this era. He could live with Kikyo, but he wasn't sure that would really make him happy. He watched as the first rays of light filled the dark sky. He banished all thoughts of Kikyo from his mind and focused all his energy on the one person he had to kill. Naraku.
