o.o Wow….I got five reviews in one day. I check my review and it goes from 17 to 22 and I'm like, What the heck? And at the same time…. This is the most reviewed and seen story out of all of mine by so much! Thank you all! TT.TT

Box Queen: I'm going, I'm going! Quality over quantity…or something like that.

Igor Lollipop: Thanks! There are a lot of good Nar/Kag stories out there, but I think there should tons more! I've also never liked how Kikyo is always portrayed a horrible villainess and, while she does do some….weird…things, she's always come through more or less in the end.

Child of the Ashes: Actually, I replaced chapter eight with a different chapter because I made a teensy mistake during editing. My bad! So I don't think you missed an update. I'm always surprised when I hear people laugh at my humor! I always think my jokes are horrible…I'm usually not good at that type of stuff.

Kags21: You got it!

Heavenly Faye-Faye: Yup! I'm updating quicker now…I think.

Disclaimer: If Inuyasha belonged to me….trust me. The list goes on for a LOOOOONG while.


"Kagome?"

She jerked out of her thoughts at the sound of her name being called, staring at Inuyasha in surprise after a quick glance proved Kikyo had vanished.

"Yes?"

He frowned at her and, in a flash, was almost an inch in front of her, nose twitching as he sniffed. She yelped in surprise and backed away, slamming rather hard into a tree.

"W-What do you think you're DOING?"

The frown turned into a scowl and he grabbed her arm, beginning to drag her back to the campsite. It didn't really hurt, he made sure to be careful with his claws, but she tried to tug out of his grasp anyways.

"You smell like Naraku. It's faint, but it's there. How could I not have noticed before!"

They burst into the campsite, Inuyasha with rage almost visibly surrounding him, and Kagome trying in vain to keep up with his long strides. The rest of their little group was immediately on its feet, except Shippo, who was on the ground with a large bump on his head.

He sat her down roughly on a tree stump, Sango and Miroku standing behind him and glancing between her and Inuyasha, trying to figure out what was wrong. This was bigger than the standard 'I'm going home, No you're not, SIT!' arguments they had…

"What are you doing with Naraku! Is he stalking you? Threatening you? Bribing you? And why is he after you in the first place?"

He opened his mouth to say more, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Turning to glare at Miroku, the faintest spark of red swirling in his golden eyes, Miroku backed off, hands raised peacefully.

"Inuyasha…Naraku is probably after Kagome because she was the one that cursed him. He's obviously searching for a cure and Kagome is the most likely person to give it to him. The only reason he hasn't harmed her yet is because of the very spell Kagome cast on him."

Inuyasha glanced back at Kagome, who was sitting quietly, trying very hard not to be noticed, and then back to Miroku. His words seemed logical enough…but then again, how many people had been fooled by the monks' words?

Closing his eyes for a moment and thinking, when he reopened them the golden orbs shone without a hint of red, and the entire group sighed in relief.

"Alright then. What do you suggest we do Miroku?"

The monk frowned slightly, his fingers curling around his staff a bit tighter than normal as he thought.

"We should probably keep a closer eye on Kagome than normal. Naraku has only come after her when she was alone, and so if we're always near, I doubt he'll go so far as to attack her when she's with us."

The hanyou nodded slightly in agreement, his ears swiveling atop his head as Kagome coughed loudly, efficiently drawing the groups' attention towards her.

"I don't…I mean, Naraku has never actually attacked me…We just talked. That's all."

Inuyasha muttered something unintelligible and dragged Miroku a little further away, where the two began talking to each other in low voices. Sango stared at the two for a moment before kneeling next to where Kagome sat, her eyes both pained and sympathetic at the same time.

"Kagome…you know we're your friends, right? You can us anything. Well…at least you can tell me anything, right Kagome?"

The future schoolgirl smiled, resisting the urge to pour out a descriptive list of the things that had happened between her and Naraku. She trusted Sango but…getting kissed by your best friends family's murderer wasn't exactly something the demon slayer would understand…

"Of course Sango. I trust you more than anyone."

The demon slayer nodded, smiling back just as the boys came back. Kagome blinked as a sticky sheet of paper with symbols written all over it was plastered to her forehead, a shiver running down her spine as she tried to stare up at it, only succeeding in crossing her eyes and looking weird.

"What the…?"

"It's for your own safety Lady Kagome. We believe Naraku has placed a spell over you. This will keep both him, and the spell at bay until we can think up something better."

She glared at him, reaching up to pluck off the silly sutra and yelping as a jolt of electricity ran up her arm.

"What…? What the HECK was that!"

Miroku smiled sheepishly, taking a few steps away from the extremely ticked off miko. Kagome was prone to be rather…violent…when she was upset. Just ask Inuyasha.

"I told you Lady Kagome…it's for your own safety! Please don't try and remove it again…you'll only be hurting yourself."

She looked up at Inuyasha pleadingly, who had remained eerily quiet for the past few minutes, his gaze focused on something in the distance.

"Inuyashaaaaaa…You can't let Miroku do this to me! It's not faaaair!"

He muttered something she couldn't hear and turned away, focusing even more intently on the thing in the distance. Whatever that thing was, it must be really interesting….

Sango sighed at the treatment of her friend but made no move to do anything. This was Naraku, and if that sheet of paper would keep Kagome safe, she definitely wasn't going to take it off.

"Let's go back to Kaede's home…at the very least Kagome should spend a day or two at home. Naraku can't get her there."

A 'feh' was her only response, and she took it for a yes, Kirara transforming into her larger form and picking up Shippo by the collar of his shirt at the unspoken command.

Kagome climbed up onto the fire cats back, determined to stay as far away from Inuyasha at the moment as possible. Even if he was doing this for her safety…she still felt slightly betrayed. He didn't trust her spell to do its job, he didn't trust her words when she told him she could handle it, and above all, he didn't seem to trust her!

A rather depressing air hung over the group as they set back out towards Kaede's village, more than a few glances and concerned stares directed towards their miko and friend.


Naraku had immediately moved once he'd felt Kikyo's presence nearby, retreating to a long abandoned mansion that, ironically enough, he'd used once before. An encounter with Kikyo right now, although interesting, the outcome could have dire consequences.

Unlike with most, Kikyo was far more difficult to understand and predict at times…

At the moment though, he was not focusing on Kikyo as much as Kagome, who had gotten herself into yet another predicament…her friends had found out about his meetings with the girl and were now trying to protect her.

How sweet.

If he weren't cursed with that wretched spell he would've slaughtered them all already. Alas, he could do nothing personally at the moment and so had prepared a little…surprise for the group at their village.

They would not keep him from Kagome, for if they did he would never be free of this spell. He was convinced now, and had ceased searching for a counterspell, instead focusing all his attention on how to convince his 'dearest' Kagome to free him herself.

She was his curse, and no one would keep it from him.


I'm so sorry that this chapter is so short! But I promise the next one will make up for it! I'm actually starting to plan this out so it should start looking a bit less…random. Also I'm going to try and start showing the other people in Inuyasha as well. Kouga, Sesshoumaru and the ever lovable Kohaku-kun! I've kinda ignored them lately…