Author's note: Please review! (^_^)

Remember English words are in italics and Japanese words are normal looking. It's important to remember this.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Inuyasha manga or the anime series. I only own my original characters and the plot. I would be most pleased and grateful if no one sued me.

Chapter 4

Laura's POV

It's been about a week since Naomi fell into that stupid well and I still don't know what happened to her. When she first fell into the well I thought she might have broken her neck or something, but when I looked into the well she was gone. How on earth could she just disappear into thin air? I looked everywhere at the shrine, but she wasn't there.

I even went to the old man at the gift shop and told him what happen. Unfortunately, the old man was a total nut job. He tried telling me that Naomi was probably in the feudal era, but that there was nothing to worry about because his granddaughter was there and that she would help her. I left the old man to his wild illusions and called Sensei. He informed Naomi's family and came here the next day with her father. We have been looking for her ever since.

We were at the police department due to a call from the lead investigator. With his solemn face he looked us in the eyes to tell us his news. In a very strong accent he stated "I'm sorry to inform you but the search has been called off."

Naomi's father enraged stood up and started yelling "Called off! Why! We can still find her!"

The investigator sighed and replied "Sir, I'm sorry, but she was an American girl who has been missing for a full week now in Tokyo, Japan. She is probably already dead and even if she is alive there is no possible way to track her down now. If an American girl goes missing here the usual time frame for any possible hope of finding her, dead or alive, is within the next 48 hours of her going missing. We have already been on this case for a week. There is no hope in finding her."

The news hit all of us with a wave of despair. No one wanted to believe it, but the facts were there and it could not be argued. Naomi was gone and nothing would be able to bring her back. I started crying and for the first time in my life I saw her father cry too. No words could comfort him. Sensei only stood there with a sad face.

The next day Naomi's father went back to America to prepare for his daughter's funeral. Sensei and I's plane wouldn't come until the next day. However, before her father left he said to me "Don't blame yourself for her death; you did all you could. Thank you so much for being such a good friend to my Naomi." I couldn't look him in the eye. I did blame myself for her death. How could he be so understanding and not blame me for his daughter's death? I was the one that was with her when she disappeared. She did so much for me, hell she even saved my life, but all I did to repay her was by letting her disappear and die.

Naomi was always a caring person; often putting herself through harm's way just to help others. She went through a lot of garbage in her life, but yet she ignored her own pain and helped me. If it wasn't for her I'd be dead in some dark alley in Seattle. Hell, I wasn't even nice to her when we first met. I was in a corrupted dojo that only cared of defeating your opponent and showing no mercy and weakness. I was even in one of the smaller gangs.

I remember when I first met her; it was our last year of middle school. Naomi was going to lunch and she accidently bumped into me. I got ticked so I pushed her and started yelling "Watch where the hell you're going!"

Naomi stumbled to the floor and squeaked "Oh, I'm sorry."

I glared at her and said "Yeah, you better be sorry." I then grabbed her lunch and walked off.

The next day after our first class she walked up to my desk and put a paper bag in front of me. I looked into the bag and saw a sandwich and a water bottle. I looked up at her suspiciously trying to figure out what her angle was. She gave me a small smile and said "I hope you like peanut butter and jelly. Sorry, for there not being any fruit or extra snack in there."

I was confused so I retorted "What are you trying to do; suck up to me?"

Her smile disappeared. "No, I just wanted to give it to you, but if you don't want it then I'll give it to someone else."

She was about to grab the bag when I pushed her hand away. "I didn't say I didn't want it. I just want to know why you're giving it to me."

As I looked at her I noticed she didn't have a lunch. "Wait a minute, where's your lunch?"

Naomi quickly replied "Does it matter? Just take the stupid food already." And with that she left in a hurry to her next class.

At lunch time that day I saw Naomi under a tree reading a book. She was confusing as hell; giving me her lunch after what I did to her yesterday made no sense. I went up to her and kicked her foot. "Yo, weirdo!"

She looked up from her book and replied "What?"

"Why did you give me your lunch? Are you nuts are something?"

"I never see you with a lunch."

Angrily I tossed the lunch bag at her and yelled "I don't need your pity or your charity."

"Who said I pitied you and that I gave my lunch out of charity? I gave you the food, because I wanted to; it was a gift, not a charity. So just take the dumb food already." With that she tossed the food back at me.

Raising my eyebrow out of confusion I said "You are crazy aren't you?"

Naomi thought for a moment and with a motion of her hand she replied "A little."

I found myself laughing at her comment. This girl wasn't so bad after all.

I threw the bag back at her and sat down. "We'll share the sandwich."

After that we always ate lunch together. We weren't exactly friends, just friendly acquaintances who shared lunches. I remember her telling me about her parents; like how her birth mom wasn't in the picture and stuff like that. Other than that Naomi always talked about how grateful of what she had even though it wasn't much.

A couple months later I was walking home from the drug store with a gallon of milk. I was stupid and thought I could take a shortcut through an ally; big mistake. Guns started going off, it was a gang fight and I was in the middle of it. I dropped my jug of milk and ran out of the ally, but I was soon followed by a guy shooting his gun at me. I started going past the drug store when all of sudden I tripped and fell to the ground. The guy stopped in front of me laughing.

His gun was aimed at my head and just when I thought I was a goner Naomi rammed into him making the bullet go passed my head by 10 inches. The guy fell whacking his head on the cement causing him to go unconscious.

Naomi then quickly ran to my side asking "Are you ok?"

Still in shock I replied "Yeah, I guess so."

Smiling Naomi said "good" and with that she hit me hard right on top of the head.

Grabbing my head I yelled "What the hell was that for!"

"For almost getting yourself killed!"

Before I could yell anything back we noticed the guy starting to wake up. Naomi then grabbed me and we ran off. Ever since then we were best friends.

Shortly after that incident I left my old dojo and convinced Naomi to join the new one I was going to. I even left my gang; though it wasn't a pleasant process. I wanted to keep Naomi safe and if I couldn't be there to do it I wanted her to know how to take care of herself. Naomi was tough and she did save my life, but that one time was pure luck. She wouldn't be so lucky next time; so I did the best I could to help teach her martial arts and street fighting.

I remember, our first day at the new Shotokan dojo. Our sensei was Shintaro Koku, who was famous for his skills in multiple martial arts and only in his middle twenties at the time. He was a very handsome Japanese guy with long black hair that was always in a ponytail. He was a man who demanded respect, but at the same time he was kind and gentle.

We had to do sparring for our first day there. I won my first match, but not without getting a few bruises in the process. Naomi didn't fare so well. She lost along with getting a black eye and the wind knocked out of her. However, despite the rough start we got better over the next few years. We became close to sensei and we finally became black belts.

A half year later after we got our belts we were in Japan for the Championship tournament. We were supposed to compete. We were supposed to have the time of our lives. We were supposed to go back home together. We were supposed to start our own dojo together. But we can't now, because she's gone.

We were back at the hotel getting most of our stuff packed for tomorrow. We didn't talk for a long while until sensei broke the silence speaking in his native tongue "Laura… there is something important I need to tell you."

I looked up from my suitcase and said "Yeah, sensei?"

Sensei had his hand to his chin with his eyes looking straight into mine. "Naomi isn't dead."

"What do to ya mean she's not dead? Sensei what are you talking about?"

"I mean what I said; she is not dead. The Naomi you know is in the feudal era."

I stared at him, shocked at what he just said. "Sensei, what are you talking about? Have you been talking to the old shrine man? And what do mean the Naomi I know?"

Sensei sighing answered "Just what I said; the Naomi you know is in the feudal era," and with that he threw a small medallion at me.

I looked at it; it was Naomi's medallion but it looked worn with time. I looked back up at sensei. "How did you get this? Sensei, what's going on?"

Sensei sighed again and replied "Naomi gave it to me. She said to give this to you."

I was really confused. If it wasn't sensei saying this I'd say this was some type of sick joke.

Frustrated and raising my voice I said "Sensei, you're making no sense. The Naomi I know is in the feudal era? She gave this to you? Did I miss something?"

Sensei grabbed my shoulders and stared sternly into my eyes. "Laura, you have to trust me and listen. The Naomi you know is now in the feudal era, because she made that wish. I can't explain everything to you, but you must trust me when I say that you need to use the medallion to get to the feudal era too."

I looked at sensei's eyes, they were sad and I could tell that what he was telling me was the truth. I still didn't understand anything that he was saying, but I had to take him at his word.

"So… all I need to do is make a wish like Naomi did and I'll go back to the feudal era, right?"

Sensei looked down at the ground and said "Yes, that's all you need to do."

I gave a small sad smile. I hugged sensei and said "Thank you."

He returned the hug and with that I let go and made my wish.