Chapter 1

*Outskirts of Kaede's Village*

"SIT!" Kagome screamed at a startled Inuyasha. The hanyou smashed to the ground with a yelp. He glared furiously up at Kagome.

"What the hell was that for?" He growled.

Kagome stiffly walked over to her backpack which had been carelessly tossed on the ground with all its contents spilled out.

"Just look at what you've done! I had everything organized in here! And you ate all the food!" She furiously started shoving everything back in the bag. "Now we have no food left..."

Inuyasha sat up and stuck his hands in his sleeves. "What's the big deal? There was barely any food left anyways so I finished it off. I don't see what you're so damn angry about"

Kagome took a breath to calm herself. She felt a little guilty for sitting Inuyasha like that, and he was right about there not being enough food for everyone. But she was feeling very moody at the moment and didn't feel much like apologizing.

"Well now I have to go home and get more... Great." She grumbled, although she wasn't exactly against the idea of visiting her family. She flung her bag over her shoulder and stalked off in the direction of the Bone Eater's Well.

"Hey, where the hell do you think you're going?" Inuyasha called after her.

'If he's not going to apologize then I'm certainly not going to...' Kagome could only take so much of Inuyasha's attitude. "Inuyasha you're so stupid! I'm going home!"

And with that, she ran off leaving the confused hanyou behind her.

Kagome couldn't help but tear up a bit. Inuyasha could be so frustrating!

"D...Damn you Inuyasha" As she was running, her vision had become blurred from her tears causing her to trip over a rock. She fell to the ground with a startled yelp. She sat up and gasped in pain; her ankle was sprained. She tried getting up but fell back down with a thud.

"Ouch... Now what do I do?" The thought crossed her mind to call out for Inuyasha but she quickly pushed it aside. She knew he would want an apology for her harsh words, and she wasn't ready to offer them. Miroku and Songo had gone out earlier to see if they could could pick up Naraku's trail, but they were probably back at the village by now.

Naraku had once again vanished without a trace, leaving Inuyasha and the others at a loss at what they should do. Between searching for Naraku, locating the rest of the jewel shards, and constantly arguing amonst themselves; the group had been in bad moods and short tempers lately. Inuyasha especially.

Kagome felt a twinge of guilt at the thought of him. After all, Inuyasha would have a lot less to worry about if she weren't around. It would certainly give him much more time to chase after Kikyo. The guilt Kagome had felt for Inuyasha a moment ago vanished at the thought of the preistess.

Night was falling and Kagome was beginning to wonder what would happen if she had to be out here all night without any food. Her ankle was still in pain, and she tried getting up multiple times but always ended up back on the ground with gasps of pain. She let her head fall to the ground in exhaustion, and looked up at the star covered sky. As much pain as she was in, she was still able to marvel at the beauty of it. One of the reasons she enjoyed the Feudal Era so much was that without all the tall buildings and gasses covering the sky, you could look up and actually see the stars. Kagome couldn't help but feel strangly at peace as she gazed up in wonder at the beautiful night. The pain in her ankle was slowly fading, and her eyes began to close as she contently layed on the soft ground.

She was unaware of the danger that watched her like a hawk from above.

As the moon shone and stars twinkled in the sky, a figure loomed over Kagome watching her sleeping form like a lion watches a baby gazelle. The figure made no move to touch her; he simply stood, gazing down at her as she slept unaware that the man who she and her group were so desperatly searching for was standing over her. She simply slept. He simply watched.

The human girl had fallen asleep somewhere near ten minutes ago, and Naraku had made no attempt to wake her. He had meant to kill her when he had seen her running blindly through the forest, and had nearly lept on her as she lay injured. But something had stopped him. He could not fathom what had possibly kept him from tearing apart this insufferable human girl who was constantly getting in his way and destroying his plans. He knew her death would benefit him greatly, especially if he himself were the one to end her miserable life. She and her irritating companions had already collected most of the jewel shards, and if he were to end her life here and now he would be able to simply take them for himself. And, of course, there was Inuyasha.

A sly smile twisted on Naraku's face as he thought of Inuyasha. The damned hanyou had made a mockery of him too many times. Nothing pleased Naraku more than the thought of making Inuyasha suffer in any possible way imaginable. Inuyasha obviously harbored a soft spot for this little human, and Naraku was going to use that to his advantage. The hanyou was difficult to inflict heavy injuries on due to that damned sword of his, but Naraku knew other ways to hurt Inuyasha. He gazed down at Kagome and a terrible sadistic smile crept onto his face. Oh yes, this revenge would be very very sweet.

...

*Lady Kaede's Village*

"What the hell is taking her so damn long?" Inuyasha was pacing back and forth in Kaede's house, looking very irritated. Songo and Miroku were sitting by the fire to keep warm. The little fox demon Shippo was sitting contently on Songo's lap.

"I'm sure Lady Kagome is perfectly safe. She was simply going home for a bit was she not?" Kaede was calmly sitting on the floor sipping her tea. She understood that Inuyasha's frustration was simply due to the fact that he was worried about Kagome. "You needn't be worried for her, that girl knows how to take care of herself."

Inuyasha spun around to face her. "Who says I'm worried about her? I just don't want her gone too long with those jewel shards"

The others weren't convinced. They all had watched this scene before; Inuyasha only got this aggitated and fidgety when Kagome was gone. It was something they had all learned to get used to, although it was still irritating.

"If you want her back so badly, why don't you go get her?" Suggested Miroku

Songo glanced up from her spot at the fire, "I don't think that's a very good idea. We've all been in foul moods lately, and it will probably do Kagome some good to be gone a while with her family. Besides, she was pretty upset when she left so I don't think she is in a big hurry to come back just yet." She turned a pointed glance at Inuyasha.

"What, are you saying it's my faul she ran off? I didn't do anything, she flipped out at me for no reason at all. Now I have to take the time to go over there and drag her ass back here, whether she wants to come or not. We don't have time to waste on her little hissy fits." Inuyasha stormed out of the hut towards the direction of the Bone Eater's Well. He knew Songo was right about Kagome probably wanting some time to herself but there just wasn't time for that. And it wasn't just that. He wanted to see her and put things right, he didn't want her to be angry with him.

He was running full pace towards the well when something made him stop. Kagome's scent was lingering in the air and Inuyasha could tell that she had been at this spot for a while. He was a bit concerned, Kagome should have gone straight to the well and he couldn't think of anything that would have stopped her. He couldn't smell any demons in the area, and he doubted bandits would be much of a problem.

Then he smelled it. Underneath Kagome's scent was a scent much fouler. A scent Inuyasha could never forget, one that made his scin crawl and blood curdle. The stench of the man who haunted his dreams and consumed his mind. Inuyasha's lips curled back in a snarl and let out a low menacing growl.

"Naraku."