Disclaimer- I do not own Inuyasha! That special credit goes to the one and only Rumiko Takahashi. Man I wish that I was her! Sob Oh well. Please R&R!

Chapter One
The Decision

As Naraku gazed into Kanna's mirror, he watched as the shard hunters journeyed, looking for the remaining few jewel shards. He had been watching them more lately to find out their weaknesses. The time was fast approaching where he would have to take care of the pests once and for all. At that time, he would have the complete jewel and nothing would be able to stop him. Time went on as he stared at the mirror. The sun had begun its descent over the horizon and the group was making camp.

Naraku watched as Kagome left the camp, heading into the foliage that surrounded them.

"Kanna," Naraku spoke.

"Yes Naraku-sama?" asked Naraku's void-like incarnation in a whisper.

"I wish to keep an eye on the miko." he stated.

His incarnation did as her master wished and followed the miko's image with her mirror. The young girl had made her way to a river where she began to remove her clothes.

"Inuyasha, I'm going to take a bath." Kagome told the hanyou before she grabbed her yellow backpack and began making her way to find the nearest body of water available.

"Can't it wait wench?" Inuyasha was irritated by the girls' almost constant need to clean herself.

Kagome stopped in her tracks as she regarded the hanyou. "No, it can't wait! We just ran into another demon with a jewel shard, and he decided to just EXPLODE all over the place when you fought him and now look at me! I'm filthy, and sticky, and smelly! Do you expect me to let this nasty, slimy matter sit on my body? I feel sick just thinking about it!"

"Fine! It's not like that was my fault anyways. How was I supposed to know that was going to happen?" Inuyasha growled. "Just go. Don't take too long, stupid woman."

"I won't. Thanks!" she decided to ignore Inuyasha's last comment before she headed on her way, oblivious that she was being watched. She only had to walk a little before she spotted a river, and though she would have preferred the warm and relaxing water of a hot spring over the cold water of a river, she wasn't about to complain.

She set her bag by the shore and pulled out a few necessities including her shampoo and conditioner, body wash, a towel, and a change of clothes. A large rock provided a safe place to put her clothes and towel so that they wouldn't become wet. With everything in place, Kagome peeled the gore-covered uniform from her skin and tossed it to the side before she waded into the flowing water. The cold temperature shocked her at first, but she forced herself onward and knelt down to cover her body more. She began scrubbing her pink flesh raw, determined to cleanse herself fully of the demon's guts.

"Kagome."

Kagome screamed shrilly before she tried to duck further into the water. When she looked at the person who spoke her name, relief washed over her and her posture returned to its prior state. It was only Sango.

"Sorry for sneaking up on you Kagome," Sango apologized. "Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all." She replied, holding her chest where her heart thumped against her hand. Sango laughed as she joined Kagome in the water where they both scrubbed their bodies clean.

Naraku watched as the miko and exterminator bathed. Although he paid no attention to the exterminator, he paid much attention to the miko. He found himself ogling the young miko's naked body, obscured only by the transparent fluid of the river.

The sadistic hanyou wouldn't lie to himself; he wanted her badly. Even if she was a human, she was beautiful to him and useful as well. She could locate the shards after all. It wasn't like she was weak either, as she had fought many of his spawns and still lived, showing that she was powerful indeed. She could be of assistance to him. All he had to do was take her. Simple enough.

"Kanna, I have seen enough." He said with a wave of his hand in dismissal.

"Yes, Naraku-sama," replied the incarnation and bowed as she left her master.

'All I have to do now is wait for an opportunity' Naraku thought with a malicious smile planted on his face. He WILL have what he wants. No matter what it takes.

After the two women were finished bathing, they dried themselves and dressed. In place of her school uniform, Kagome took to wearing a pair of loose black sleeping pants and a light blue tank top. She pulled her dark hair into a loose ponytail and brought it over her shoulder. Assessing the damages of her uniform, Kagome sighed and brought it over to the river and dipped it into the river, rubbing the fabric together to scrub the stains off. She couldn't exactly keep dirty clothes lingering with food and clean clothes, now could she?

When she deemed the clothes passable, she wrung them out and hung them over her forearm. She turned to Sango and smiled, saying, "All done!" The two girls trekked back to camp, seeing a fire had been built and the boys were sitting near it.

"Took you two long enough! Kagome, make me some ramen!" demanded the irritated hanyou.

"You're so bossy Inuyasha! Why don't you make your own ramen? I'm not your servant you know!" Kagome fumed, hands placed on her hips as a sign of her obvious ire.

"Says who?"

"ME!"

"Feh!"

"'Feh' yourself!"

"Quit it you guys! Instead of fighting we should be thinking about how to find the last jewel shards before Naraku and how to defeat him." Miroku interrupted.

They both turned to glare at him. "Who asked you!" they both yelled in unison, glaring at the monk.

Miroku held up his hands in defeat as he sighed in resignation.

"You know he is right," stated Sango in a calm manor.

Kagome puffed out her cheeks childishly before she conceded and turned away from the still-pissed Inuyasha.

After hours of discussing tactics, Kagome spoke up. "I think I have a plan," she stated hesitantly.

"Well say it then! We ain't got all year!" barked Inuyasha. Kagome glared at him.

"I don't think you are going to like it, but here goes nothing," she started.

"Well…" Inuyasha pushed on.

"I'm... useful when it comes to finding shards, right? I mean, I can sense them. And I'm not as weak as I used to be. What if..." Kagome broke off, hesitating, before she continued on, "What if I provoked Naraku somehow? Maybe I can get him to take me with him to wherever he is."

By then Inuyasha was fuming. "You expect us to send you to Naraku, who might KILL YOU!" he yelled, stressing the words 'kill' and 'you'.

"Inuyasha, I think this is the only way that we can gain enough information to defeat him once and for all. It's not like we can just magically find where he lives. Please understand! I know I can do this!" pleaded Kagome.

"And just how are you going to give us the information? It's too dangerous to send messages." Inuyasha stated.

"Remember the last time we visited Kaede?"

"Yeah...?" He had no idea where Kagome was leading into.

Kagome wasted no time and explained. "Well, Kaede has been teaching me many things about my powers as a miko, and we discovered this... mental link, almost like telepathy, except I can only communicate with someone when they have an object with a small portion of my powers in it. That would be those beads around your neck. I can use that as a medium to contact you, but only you."

Inuyasha didn't like it one bit, and he made that known, yelling at Kagome. "Are you stupid? You think I'll let you do this just because of that? You must be crazy! There is no way in hell that I'm gonna let you be kidnapped by that bastard!"

"Inuyasha, I can take care of myself!" Kagome shot back at him.

"Like hell you can. I am not going to allow this. Over my dead body!" He growled low in his chest, warning Kagome to obey his wishes.

"Do you have a better idea then?" she stomped her foot, showing that she wasn't happy at all.

Inuyasha was taken aback before he retorted, "No, I don't, but if you keep insisting on risking you life like this, I'm going to throw you back into your time and fill up that well so that you can't even THINK about coming back!"

Kagome clenched her teeth at Inuyasha's threat and screamed out, "BAKA!" before unleashing a barrage of "Sit!", digging Inuyasha down into the earth and creating a crater.

A/N: Hey! Hope you enjoyed this chappie! Please R&R!

REVISED on 4/10/12