Inuyasha pulled out his Tetsusaiga and ran in the direction of the scream; his friends following. He reached Kagome's room and yanked the door back. Shippo was huddled in a corner; a cloaked demon standing over him.

"Get away from him!" Kagome screamed at the demon. Shippo opened his eyes and shouted,

"Kagome!" and ran into her arms.

"Are you ok Shippo?" Kagome said looking for any signs of damage. Shippo shook his head,

"I'm ok Kagome" Kagome smiled and turned her attention to the demon.

"Alright, you have two seconds to tell me who the hell you are before I blow you to shreds" Inuyasha growled and pointed the Tetsusaiga at the demon. The demon chuckled darkly,

"My Inuyasha, you're always so dramatic."

"I know that voice…" Miroku said glaring more intently at the demon.

"Kagura!" Inuyasha shouted. The demon pulled off her cloak and threw it to the floor.

"You're not as stupid as you appear Inuyasha" she replied; her eyes taunting.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Inuyasha shouted at her.

"Whatever I want," she replied. Inuyasha growled in annoyance.

"Tell me Kagura, are you the demon that's been terrorizing this village?"

"What village?" Kagura said with a wry smile. She waved her fan and the village disappeared. In its place were bodies, dead bodies and burnt buildings. Kagome screamed as she realized she was standing on a dead man. She jumped off and stood behind Inuyasha, glaring at Kagura with hatred in her eyes.

"You slaughtered all the villagers?" Sango asked her voice twisted with disgust. Kagura laughed and replied,

"What did you expect?" Inuyasha growled again and shouted,

"Wind scar!" Power surged from the sword and was sent hurtling to Kagura.

"Dance of the dead!" Kagura yelled. With a wave of her fan, dead bodies flew in front of her; blocking her from the wind scar.

"Damn!" Inuyasha shouted when he saw her alive and well. Kagura just laughed.

"See you later." She pulled a feather out of her hair and threw it into the air. It grew in size until it was big enough to ride. In a matter of seconds, Kagura was out of sight.

"Come back and fight!" Inuyasha shouted. No response came.

"She got away" Miroku mumbled. He looked around at all the dead bodies. "Inuyasha, we should do something with them."

"It'll take a long time to bury them…" Inuyasha said staring into the distance. "We'd better get started." He turned and began digging a hole with his claws.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome smiled. She looked at her surroundings. "I wonder what Kagura wanted from this village…"

"What?" Inuyasha said looking at her.

"Well she had to be after something… why would she destroy an entire village for no reason?" Inuyasha snorted.

"Because she's following Naraku's orders."

"No Inuyasha, Kagome has a point. Naraku doesn't do things pointlessly, he's always after something." Miroku said putting his hand on his chin. "Well we can talk about this later, we have work to do" He and Inuyasha resumed burying the dead. Kagome walked away looking around her. She entered one of the few still standing buildings and looked around. She noticed a bow and arrow in the corner of the room. She picked up the bow and ran her hand over it.

"So pretty" she whispered. She took out her own bow to compare, and gasped. The bows were very similar, only the markings on the side were different. Was this a priestess' hut? She thought gazing at the bow; deep in thought. A few feet away from the bow was a box. Kagome walked over to it and picked it up.

"What a pretty box…" she mumbled. She opened it and saw very pretty cloth inside. "I wander what this held." She started to walk out of the hut, and tripped over a post leaning against the wall. She fell to the ground and the post followed. Kagome screamed and covered her head. The rest of the building came tumbling down on top of her. Inuyasha heard her scream and shouted,

"Kagome!" He ran towards the hut with the others right on his heels.

"No" Sango exclaimed covering her mouth in horror.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted again. "Kagome can you hear me?" He picked up pieces of the hut and threw them behind him. Kagome… was his only thought. He caught a glimpse of her before more wood collapsed. "Kagome!" He shouted again. He was vaguely aware that the others were digging beside him, but he couldn't concentrate on them. After a few minutes, Sango shouted

"Inuyasha over here!" Inuyasha ran over to where Sango and Kilala had been digging. They had completely uncovered her head. Inuyasha gently lifted her out of the rubble.

"Kagome?" He whispered. She didn't answer. She had a bruise on her head and all over her body. "She's alive." He told the others who were staring worriedly at them. "She's just unconscious."

"We should take her to Kaede's village," Shippo suggested.

"Yes," Miroku replied thoughtfully. "Kaede would be able to help her." Inuyasha nodded and began walking away with Miroku and Shippo following.

"Wait!" Sango called out. They turned to see her holding a small box. "This was near Kagome."

"Let me see that, Sango." Miroku said holding his hand out. She handed it to him wordlessly. He turned it over in his hands before he said,

"I think this contained something of great importance." He stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Do you have any ideas?" Shippo asked jumping onto Miroku's shoulder.

"Maybe… I'll have to talk to Lady Kaede."

"Well let's get going" Inuyasha said walking away from the others.

Kagome awoke in a hut. She opened her eyes slowly and sat up too quickly causing a major head rush.

"Lay down, you need to rest" someone said beside her. She looked over and smiled.

"Hey"

"Hey" Inuyasha replied giving her a small smile.

"W-Where are we?"

"In Kaede's village" he said. He stood up and walked over to where she was laying. He sat cross legged beside her. She reached out and took his hand, interlacing their fingers. He brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed it. She smiled lovingly at him.

"So… what happened?"

"The hut collapsed on you. What were you thinking? Going in there like that… you could've been killed! You're lucky you weren't seriously injured!"

"I know. I-I'm sorry," she replied looking down. "I just… I was looking for any clues to what Kagura was doing, and I did!" Kagome looked around urgently. "Oh no! The box!"

"Don't worry." Inuyasha said, rolling his eyes. "Sango dug it out and we brought it with us for Kaede to look at."

"Well what did she say about it?"

"I don't know. She didn't want to say anything until you were awake."

"Well I'm awake now! Let's hear it!" Kagome stood up quickly and staggered. Inuyasha jumped up and caught her before she collapsed.

"You're too weak. You need to rest"

"I'll be fine! I want to hear what was in the box that was so important Naraku murdered an entire village!" Kagome insisted. Inuyasha chuckled and picked her up bridal style.

"What are you doing?"

"Carrying you. You're too weak and you don't need to be overexerting yourself." Kagome sighed and smiled. She leaned forward and kissed him softly. He held her tighter against himself and kissed her back. They pulled apart and smiled at each other. Inuyasha walked her over to hut next to Kaede's and walked in. Sango, Miroku, Shippo and Kaede looked up at them and smiled. Inuyasha put Kagome on her feet and held onto her shoulders.

"Kagome!" Shippo shouted and jumped towards her.

"Oh no you don't" Inuyasha said as he caught Shippo in mid-air. "She's still really weak." Kagome sat down and Inuyasha put Shippo in her lap then sat down next to her.

"How are you feeling Kagome?" Sango asked putting her hand on Kagome's arm.

"Better" Kagome said with a smile.

"We're glad to see you out of bed" Kaede said to her, smiling warmly.

"Now, I wanna hear about this box" Kagome said looking at Kaede.

"Yes… I suppose it's in your best interest to know. First, the village was the village of Kouensha."

"Protector?" Miroku asked. "Protector of what?" Kaede looked directly at him and said

"The Amulet of Charta"

Me: Hey people. Sorry about now updating sooner… been really busy. Lol. But anyways… aha… well umm Kouensha means protector in case you didn't catch that :) Well um I would really like 5 reviews before I update again… I don't think that's a lot to ask :D so PLEASE REVIEW!! It's not that hard. Just push a little button and type what you thought. Flames are welcome but beware I may reply ;D