Chapter 1

"Naraku is near," Inuyasha said as he ran through the forest, his silver-white hair blowing in the wind. He sniffed the air. "I can smell him." He continued through the forest and suddenly emerged at the outskirts of a castle grounds.

"Inuyasha!" He heard Kagome call him as she, riding Kirara with Shippo, Sango, and Miroku, came out of the forest as well. "Why did you just take off like that?" Kagome yelled at him.

"I smelled Naraku." Inuyasha said.

"Oh, you did?" Kagome said, subdued with the new information.

"Inuyasha is right," Miroku said. "I can feel Naraku's presence here as well. And look there." He said and pointed. In the air buzzing around the castle were some of the Naraku's poisonous insects.

"Naraku's here alright," Sango said as she and the rest got off Kirara. "let's go find out where exactly."

"Yeah." Inuyasha said and bounded off toward the castle.

"Inuyasha, wait!" Kagome yelled at him. "Oh, he never listens. Shippo stay here."

"Right, Kagome." Shippo said and remained by the trees.

"Let's go!" Sango said and they ran to join Inuyasha. As they entered the castle they noticed how deserted it was. Inuyasha was standing in the middle of grounds, surrounded by the buildings. The others joined him.

"Inuyasha, why are you just standing there?" Miroku asked him.

"I'm trying to find where Naraku is." He said. "it feels like he is everywhere."

"I sense that too." Sango agreed. "Maybe we should separate and look for him?"
"No, that would be what he wanted us to do." Miroku said. "Our best chance is to just stay together. Hmm, very close together." He wrapped his arm around Sango and brought her to stand right next to him, and then he lowered his hand and touched her butt.

"Lecherous monk!" Sango said as she slapped him across the face. "Now's not the time for that!"

"There is always time for pleasantries like that." Miroku said with a smile.

A laugh came out of nowhere.

"What is that?" Kagome asked.

"It's Naraku." Inuyasha said.

"Correct, Inuyasha," Naraku's voice said.

"Coward," Inuyasha said. "Why don't you come out of hiding and show yourself?"

Naraku laughed again.

"Oh, Inuyasha, when will you learn that you can never defeat me?"

"I've always been a slow learner." Inuyasha said and launched himself into the air with his Tetsusaiga and let loose his wind scar on a nearby building, blasting it away.

"One building down, Naraku." Inuyasha said. "You can't hide forever?"
"But who said I wanted to hide, Inuyasha?"

The ground began to shake violently and huge, gray tentacles shot out of the ground. The first wave of tentacles threw everyone in different directions. They all shouted in pain as they were hit. As quickly as the tentacles appeared they soon retracted back underneath though the ground continued to shake.

Another mass of tentacles shot from the ground and aimed at Sango.

"Sango!" Miroku shouted and dived for her, pushing her away. They both rolled away from the attack and stopped with Miroku lying face down on top of Sango. They both stared at each other and blushed, and then Sango slapped him and pushed him off.

"Damn monk, you're going to get us killed." Sango yelled at him as they got back up. Miroku wiped the dust off his robes.

"If Naraku wasn't trying to kill us that would have been very enjoyable," Miroku said. "Not that it wasn't." Sango slapped him again.

"Pay attention to the battle," Sango said.

"Right." Miroku said and headed back into the storm.

Meanwhile Inuyasha and Kagome were still in trouble. After the first attack they had been separated and now another mass of tentacles were attacking Kagome, a row of them shooting out of the ground.

"Inuyasha, help!" Kagome shouted as the tentacles got closer.

"Wind scar!" Inuyasha said and let loose his sword's attack, blasting the tentacles away. "That's better."
"Inuyasha, look out!" Kagome said as another wall of tentacles came straight for them.

"Come on!" Inuyasha said grabbing Kagome and with her jumped out of the way. While in the air he performed another wind scar and blasted the tentacles away again. They both landed back in the center of the castle grounds and met up with Sango and Miroku as they ran up.

"Where's Kirara?" Sango asked. They looked around and saw her lying wounded on the ground. "Oh, Kirara." Sango said and held her.

"Show yourself, Naraku!" Inuyasha shouted.

"Over here, Inuyasha," Naraku said. They all turned around to see Naraku emerge from the main castle building in the back. He emerged from the black entrance of the castle, dressed in his baboon hide. "We meet again."

"Figures you would hide where you can see everything." Inuyasha said. He raised his Tetsusaiga. "You won't get away this time."

"You are a fool, Inuyasha," Naraku said. "You can never hope to defeat me."

"We'll see about that." Inuyasha said and attacked with his wind scar, but Naraku had already dissolved back into the shadows of the castle and escaped. The wind scar tore through the castle and destroyed it. Only Naraku's echoing laugh remained and eventually that disappeared as well.

"Dammit, he got away again." Inuyasha said. "I'll find him."

"Inuyasha wait," Kagome said. "Kirara is hurt, we have to help her."

"Fine, but afterwards we're going out to look for Naraku." Inuyasha said and started walking back with the others. "Dammit."