Chapter Three
Moving thru the forest was nothing new for the genin. Having spent their whole lives in Konoha they were completely at home in a forested environment. But most forests don't have strands of hair everywhere like ninja wire traps set up by giant spiders. Luckily they had some experience with these traps so they could handle them, even if they slowed the two down.
"The woman's not around, and I don't see anything connected to the hair." Hinata said as she cut thru the hair with a kunai to conserve her chakra. Fortunately the throwing weapon worked as well as her juuken had.
"Then why are we being careful with cutting it?" Naruto asked, doing the same as her and cutting with a kunai.
"If we cut too much we might give away where we are." Hinata told him. "Plus some of this hair is glowing, I don't know why. I think these hairs aren't just to hurt us, but to alert her to where we are."
"What do you think she wants?" Naruto asked.
"I don't know, but I don't intend for her to get us." Hinata answered, then came to a stop. "Na-Naruto-kun, d-do you... see what I see?" She pointed ahead, her hands quivering a bit.
He nodded. "Yeah, I do."
Up ahead was a campsite with the fire still going but dying, and there were three people around it but they were dead for sure. Each was decapitated with a clean cut.
Hinata got a better look with her byakugan despite her desire to look away. "This had to be done very recently. The blood hasn't coagulated yet and the fire is still fueled. These poor men must have just been found by her first."
Naruto frowned deeply, as if offended. "Murderer."
"Wait Naruto-kun, these men look like traveling warriors. For all we know they were this times version of missing-nin." Hinata suggested to calm him down. If Naruto got too angry he'd make the basic mistakes ninja make in anger and thus be more likely to die himself.
"That doesn't matter Hinata-chan." He replied, still looking angry but showing no signs of being influenced by the Kyuubi. "This hair-weaver didn't kill them because she had to, like a hunter nin. She killed them just because she could and they were there. This is murder plain and simple, and that's something I refuse to forgive."
"Hold on, I see something new." Hinata added, changing the subject for his sake. "It... it looks like a giant hairball suspended over a small depression in the land. With human skulls inside it." She looked disgusted at the last part.
"Gee, subtle much?" Naruto said sarcastically, then got an idea. "I do have one exploding tag on me. Maybe we can blow it up. That would get to her."
"I think it would only make her angry. Save it for using it against her directly if you can Naruto-kun." The Hyuuga heiress advised.
"If you say so Hinata-chan. For now though, let's try to find her and ambush her."
"She's out of my range, so she could be anywhere. I think maybe... we need to make her come to us." Hinata suggested.
Naruto smiled. "Great idea Hinata-chan. But where? Not the village, we shouldn't put innocent people in danger, and I don't know if going to that giant hairball is a good idea. It might only give her a home-field advantage."
Hinata looked around. "I think I know just the place."
"And that's pretty much everything that happened to me." Kagome told her family, finishing up the story of her disappearance while sitting at her family's dinner table. "I know how it sounds, and to be honest if Inuyasha wasn't right here beside me even I'd have a hard time believing it."
Said hanyou was behind the teenage girl to keep his distance from her family. He knew as a hanyou his presence was inherently unwelcome, not to mention that he was incredibly uncomfortable with Kagome's mother trying to rub his ears. Another factor was her house smelled incredibly unusual to him and he didn't like that, but her scent was familiar by comparison so being near her gave him a sense of comfort.
Her mother looked shocked but mostly just relieved her daughter was back home. Her younger brother Sota was essentially the same, and at the same time a bit afraid of Inuyasha. Her grandfather looked like he was trying to figure out how Kagome could travel thru time.
"I'm just glad you're back home safely Kagome." Mama said in her normal reassuring way. "You could probably use a nice hot bath and a good meal."
At the word 'bath' Kagome perked up and practically darted upstairs. "Be right back, but not too soon." She intended to enjoy this, and would be unlikely to take indoor plumbing for granted again.
Left alone, Inuyasha was tense, ready for the hanyou-hate to come. He looked to the humans as if to say 'Get it over with' and 'It's nothing I haven't heard before'.
"Would you like to sit down dear?" Mama offered.
Inuyasha almost facefaulted, for no part of him had anticipated anything that could be considered positive, let alone an invitation.
His shock was clearly evident. "You don't have to be afraid... Inuyasha was it?" Mama asked, and he nodded. "You don't mean my daughter any harm so we have no reason to believe you'll harm us."
Inuyasha was so surprised that he didn't know if he should be scared or angry. Scared because not only was the surroundings completely alien to him, but the behavior they were giving him was even more alien by comparison. Hate and scorn and threats were to be expected, it was all he was truly familiar with, but hospitality and decent politeness?
The anger came from the fear, he didn't know how to perceive this and suspected this was somehow a threat, deception to catch him off guard. Not unlike what Kikyo had tried before revealing her true colors to him.
"What do you want?" He asked, his voice tense and guarded.
"What makes you think I want anything?" Mama asked.
"You expect me to believe you're just being nice?" He asked back.
Mama was silent for a moment, but showed no negativity. "You're not used to people treating you with civility are you? Where you're from, you're met with hostility all because you're different. Enough so that you've come to expect it, am I right?"
There was no longer any hostility on the hanyou's face, only surprise that she was able to figure out that much about him just from a very brief interaction. That bothered him, but nothing about this woman seemed dangerous to him.
"So, why don't you tell us a little about yourself?" Mama offered.
Back in the Feudal Era, when it was reaching the twilight hours of the day, a dangerous but attractive demon was scouring the forest looking for her prey. She was known as Yura of the Hair, a unique demon in that she controlled the hair of the dead, and stole hair from the living.
"Come on out yellow hair. Let me see those bright strands."
To find her prey, she had sent a bunch of hair throughout the forest like a spider weaving a web. And like a spider, she could detect when her web had caught something. So far the hair hadn't caught anyone, but some strands had been cut away from her.
"Cutting my hair huh? Oh I don't like that at all." She mused to herself, calmly heading in the direction of the new slack in her web.
As she was searching, she saw a rock thrown at her. Frowning, she made her hair deflect the rock for her. "How childish. Who thought they'd get rid of me that easily?"
Naruto came out from behind a tree, another rock in his hand that he was casually tossing up repeatedly. "So you're the crazy barber demon?" This time with Yura around Naruto could actually see the hair she commanded.
Yura was confused by the reference, but pleased by his appearance. "Ah, the yellow hair I've been seeking. Be a good boy and offer me your neck." Not giving him a chance to refuse, she sent her hair right for his throat.
Upon contact Naruto was immediately replaced with smoke and a log that was immediately cleaved by the hair.
"What the heck?" Yura asked, confused. "Is this kitsune magic?"
"You could say that!" Naruto yelled out, making her look off farther. He taunted her by sticking out his tongue and pulling on his eyelid, then darted off into the woods.
Yura frowned. "What a lousy rotten trick. Although, I've never tried anything but human hair in my collection. Maybe some kitsune hair is worth a try."
With that she gave chase, using hair like vines to accelerate by swinging from tree to tree. Once in a while she would lash out at Naruto but each time he'd be replaced by a log and dart away again. Yura didn't understand but she had to admit to herself she was having some fun in the chase.
She came to a stop when she saw something rather unexpected. Naruto was back at the lake where she originally had taken control of him for fun, this time standing on the water in the center.
'Standing on water? But how? This must be an illusion.' She told herself. "Nice trick boy, now where is the real one?"
"You really think I'd just tell you because you asked?" Naruto asked back.
Yura mentally sighed. "The real you cannot hide forever."
"I don't have to, I just have to hide long enough to distract you."
"Distract me?" Yura repeated, confused, then the implication clicked in her mind a little too late.
Hundreds of kunai came flying at her from the trees all around her. Each hit her and practically made her a kunai pincushion. She yelled, and the kunais disappeared in puffs of smoke, leaving holes in her body everywhere.
'Something's wrong.' Hinata thought from her hiding spot, waiting for her role in this. 'She's not bleeding.'
All the hair around Yura swarmed around her, as if cocooning her, and moments later she was fully healed. "That hurt." She stated, a cross look upon her face.
The Naruto on the lake, which happened to be the real one and not a clone like he had hidden in the trees, frowned and pointed a finger at the hair demon. "Hey! No fair! You weren't supposed to do that!"
Yura grabbed her sword and unsheathed it. "I'm a youkai boy, fighting fair means I live and you die." She then rushed at him, using her hair to stay above the water. "Now give me your hair."
All of a sudden, the water underneath her seemed to explode, getting Yura completely soaked. It didn't appear to hurt her, but the hair she was using for support went limb and fell into the water, taking her with it.
Hinata grinned. 'I still need more practice with that jutsu, but at least I can do this with it. Even if her hair is demonic, it's still hair and should behave no differently than normal hair when wet.'
She was right, the hair was weighted down now and could no longer remain suspended. Yura, in the water, reached up to the sky and seemed to command more hair in the area that was still dry to gather above her and pull her out, allowing her to be suspended above the water.
Dripping wet, Yura frowned and brushed some water off her. "You are making this unnecessarily difficult."
"Just fighting fair." Naruto taunted. "Not my fault you can't handle your own rules. And it's not my fault you don't take as good care of your hair as you think you do."
Yura tried to frown and raise an eyebrow at the same time. 'What does he mean by that?'
She caught the sound of hissing from an ignited paper bomb Hinata threw into her hair too late. The force of the explosion caught the hair weaver completely by surprise, destroying most of her hair and scattering it, and her, across the forest. Naruto was quick enough to do another substitution and get away from the blast.
'I hope that didn't frighten the villagers.' Hinata thought to herself. 'Where's Naruto-kun?' She asked, using her byakugan to find him. It naturally didn't take long, and she ran across the wave-covered lake to get to him. "Are you okay Naruto-kun?"
"I'm fine." He said. "You think that got her?"
"Probably not, but we at least got rid of her long enough to hopefully give Inuyasha-san and Kagome-san enough time to get back."
From the forest, what looked like a blob of hair started to come their way.
"On second thought, I don't think we can wait around. Let's go to them." Hinata suggested.
Without hesitation, the two ran off towards the Bone Eater's Well, followed by a living mass of hair.
So far Inuyasha and Kagome had yet to leave the young girl's house. After bathing and putting on something other than her school uniform, Kagome wanted something to eat. Inuyasha was still uncomfortably feeling out of place, but he had to admit he liked the smell of whatever Kagome's mother had cooked.
"Oh wow! Oden!" Kagome exclaimed happily at seeing her favorite presented to her. "I should fall down time-traveling wells more often if this is what I get for it."
"Fear not Kagome, there will be no more of that." Her grandfather said. "I already sealed up the well for good."
Inuyasha scoffed. "With those pieces of paper old man? They did nothing to me what makes you think they'd do anything to that well?"
"And even if they do, are you willing to put up with Inuyasha being here all day if he's stuck here?" Kagome added, grabbing some of the oden to start eating.
"Won't have to, I'm going back tonight." The inuhanyou stated. "And you're coming too you know."
Kagome turned to him. "Can't I at least wait until tomorrow? I want to be in my own bed tonight."
"Wait a minute, Kagome you can't go back there." Mama claimed. "You've got school remember? Which you've already missed two days of."
The modern day girl looked to her mother. "Mom, we're talking about something that affects time itself and I have a role in it. What am I supposed to do? Pretend this was all a dream?"
"Kagome, as your mother I'm saying you can't go back there." Mama pressed, her expression starting to get firm. "Especially when the only person you're going to be around is someone I don't even know."
Inuyasha frowned, feeling a bit insulted but at the same time relieved she didn't base her accusation on the fact he was a hanyou. No, what bothered her was he was a stranger.
Kagome frowned a bit too. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, I have a way of keeping him in line if he gets too reckless."
"Oh yeah? And what is that?"
"He's got this-" Kagome started, about to reference his beads of subjugation, then halted when she looked at him. "Wait, where'd it go?"
Inuyasha's ears moved a bit to reflect his confusion. "Where'd what go?"
"The beads Kaede-baasan put on you."
Inuyasha looked down as his collarbone, and saw the purple bead necklace was indeed gone.
"We're almost there!" Naruto called out, the dried up well in sight and Yura's hair in hot pursuit.
One of the tendrils of hair darted forward at the blonde.
"Naruto-kun jump!" Hinata warned.
He did, but the tendril caught his ankle and wrapped around it, trying to crush him. It certainly disrupted his momentum and made him fall on the ground with a hard thud. Hinata immediately knelt down and used a kunai to cut at it, but the rest of the hair was coming for them both now that they've stopped.
'Is this it for us?' She asked herself. 'I'm sorry I failed you Naruto-kun.'
To her surprise she heard Naruto yell accompanied by a ripping sound. She saw Naruto fight against the hair and actually succeed in tearing it, although it did put up a heck of a struggle against this.
Once the hold on him was weakened but not completely severed, Naruto stood up and grabbed Hinata's arm. "Let's go!" She got up too and ran with him.
Surrounded by the demonic hair both young ninja jumped into the Bone Eater's Well, hoping this would work.