Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

A/N: Wow...it's really been a busy week. Besides the fact that school started and I have tennis practice everyday, I've been completely exhausted. Why does school have to be so early in the morning? Anyway, I've tried my best to update as quickly as possible, so I apologize if some chapters are later than usual. On with Chapter 10!

I love my reviewers! You guys are all awesome... And we have three new reviewers!; AutumnCherry, Goddess Of The Heavens, and michelle.

Chapter 10 - Mysterious Caller

Kagome drummed her fingers on the mahogany table in the dining room. Had it not been for the...'guests' that had appeared as soon as she got home, she would have ran upstairs and flopped onto her bed. It didn't seem that she was going to get her wish anytime soon, however, because the two sitting across from her and Sango at the table did not appear ready to leave.

Those two were, more specifically, Inuyasha and Miroku.

Annoyance flashed briefly across Kagome's face, even though she refused to look at them. So far, Sango had told them that they had gone to Kyoto, but nothing more. And now Inuyasha and Miroku were defiant to leave until they heard the whole thing.

It wasn't exactly that Kagome didn't want to tell them...rather, she wasn't in the mood. But she finally came to the conclusion that if she wanted them to leave, she would have to tell them. After all, they would just keep prodding and probing until she went completely insane.

Sango bit her bottom lip as she slunk back in her chair and checked the clock hanging on the wall. Five minutes of complete silence. She glanced at Kagome out of the corner of her eye and frowned lightly. 'They're never going to leave...' she mused to herself and crossed her arms over her chest. Sooner of later, someone would crack.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Kagome released her breath in a whoosh and made up her mind. "Guys are jerks," she muttered before leaning in to the table, her voice monotonous and flat. "Alright. It seems Tai and Rizu were going for a meeting with some guy that calls himself Naraku. And...while they were driving, they swerved to avoid someone walking in the middle of the road, and got in a bit of an accident. They were in the hospital getting checked out, and we went to see them. That's it."

There was quiet again before Miroku decided to say his piece. "So...they didn't get attacked by anything?"

This earned a hard smack upside the head from Inuyasha, much to the girls' confusion. Sango blinked twice and tried hard to stifle a laugh. Clearly, Miroku was still true to his ideas. "Man, Inuyasha, what'd you do that for?!"

But he refused to answer, and instead turned his attention back to the story. "They're okay, right?" Normally, Inuyasha couldn't have cared less, but this whole ordeal seemed to put a damper on Kagome and Sango's moods. Besides, he was interested about this 'Naraku' character. Who would call someone in the middle of school and tell them they wanted to talk? Certainly not a somewhat normal person.

Sango nodded her head hastily. "Yeah, they're fine. Bruises, scrapes, whatever. Nothing serious. They should be getting out soon. I don't think anything could seriously damage their hard heads..."

Kagome smiled lightly and stood up, reaching her arms above her head and arching her back like a cat.

But epiphany had its moment, and she suddenly narrowed her eyes and stared down at Inuyasha.

Now, my dear readers, one who has been the victim of Kagome's glare knows that if you should receive it again, it would be best for you to leave right away. And so Kagome's Rule Number Two of the Higurashi Household was established: Never put Kagome in a mood where she might glare at you...it could mean something very dangerous (meaning that you could very shortly find yourself unconscious on a hospital bed), or it could mean scrutiny.

"Why do you two even care? It's not even any of your business, so why do you try so hard to find out what's going on?" Her voice had been lowered to a perilous level. Sango used this time to stand up and make her way to the kitchen, trying to find Kea and ask what was for dinner. Whereas, Inuyasha and Miroku stayed seated, knowing very well that they had gone perhaps a bit too far.

Yet Kagome continued on, now pacing with her hands balled into fists at her hips. "I don't see why you two even bother. Ever since you found out about out secret you've done everything in your power to annoy the hell out of me and Sango."

Now, of course, from Sango's point of view, this wasn't quite true. But she didn't dare deny any of it, because everyone who had met Kagome knew that she was one that couldn't be deferred when she was angry. It had taken Inuyasha a while to figure this out, but by now, he knew better and managed to keep his trap shut. Miroku suddenly found his fingers very interesting, as if had just grown an eleventh one for no reason whatsoever.

Kagome suddenly stopped and buried her head in her hands. If she had a car, she would have gotten in it and drove off a cliff. But since that wasn't available, she decided to take a different route.

You had better be surprised, dear readers, because Kagome doesn't do this very often.

"You guys...I'm sorry." Once Sango heard this, both her, Kea, and Souta (no one has any idea how he heard that from his bedroom upstairs) came running into the dining room, bug-eyed and mouths agape. Inuyasha and Miroku decided that something even more terrible was around the corner, and if it was possible, they sunk even lower in their chairs. "I shouldn't be going off like this...you were just worried, right? My nerves are shot, and I think if there's one more incident, I'll go completely insane."

Sango let out her breath she didn't know she was holding. "Wow, Kagome, I've never heard you say something like that before. I'm impressed." The smallest of smirks was tugging at the corners of her mouth as she reverted her eyes to Inuyasha and Miroku...were they trembling?

Kea hurried her way back to the kitchen while Souta ran back upstairs to play more video games - of course, this was after he asked Inuyasha, but decided to leave when he didn't get a response from the abnormally pale hanyou.

Kagome, however, didn't notice this and changed her mood immediately. She clapped her hands together behind her back. "Do you guys want to stay for supper? It'll be done soon." And before waiting for an answer, she ran into the kitchen along with her mother.

Sango's light laugh snapped Inuyasha and Miroku out of her stupor as she sank back into her chair, all the while shaking her head. "I can't believe you guys got away with that. If you had been anyone else, Kagome would have whaled on you."

Miroku gulped and sat up in his chair, trying to appear calm and composed as he placed his folded hands on the table in a very regal manner. "I guess we're lucky then...right?" he asked, followed by a nervous chuckle while one hand was rubbing the back of his head. "I'm sure Inuyasha and I would be honored to stay for supper."

Inuyasha didn't nod. He didn't blink. He didn't speak. If one studied him from afar, it was easy to believe he was a statue, of the sorts. Yet inside his air-filled head his mind was in a jumble still trying to figure out what had just happened, yet it couldn't come up with a well suited answer. When he finally realized that Miroku said something, he nodded his head ever-so slightly. "Yeah, sure, whatever," although he didn't have a clue as to what he was agreeing to.

Sango smiled and propped one elbow on the table. There was a song playing in the living room, as the Higurashis often left their stereo running. It helped the time pass if they were listening to music.

Well, actually, that wasn't the complete truth. Kagome turned the stereo on and nobody else dared to turn it off.

"I'm going to help Ms. Higurashi and Kagome in the kitchen...so don't wreck anything." This was not a hard thing to do when it came to Inuyasha and Miroku. Especially if Inuyasha got annoyed at something - he would often lose his temper and shortly destroy whatever he was irritated at. However, Miroku was there, so Sango figured it safe for the time being.

As soon as Sango left, Miroku released a long whistle. "That was close. Hey, Inuyasha, are you alright?"

In fact, the hanyou was still staring at nothing in particular, until Miroku started waving hand in front of his face. "Wha...wait, did you say something?" He blinked his gold eyes back into focus and turned to face Miroku - it seemed the color had returned to his face.

Miroku let out an exasperated sigh. "I swear, Inuyasha, I'm surprised you didn't start going off on Kagome. What made you keep your mouth shut?"

Inuyasha shrugged and kicked one of his feet on the table. Nobody else was in the room, so why did it matter? "Well, I figured that if I wanted to keep my head, it would be best not to say anything."

There was silence. Miroku's mouth was hanging open. "You...wait...I did not just hear you say that." More silence. "Inuyasha...maybe you're sick...should I take you home? I've never heard you sound so...logical in my whole life!"

Inuyasha used this time to deliver a rather hard punch to Miroku's shoulder just as Kagome, Sango, and Kea came back into the dining room. Each was carrying plates and chopsticks or dishes of food. Kagome appeared quite baffled by the silence between the two of them, considering the fact she had not heard the two of them converse.

Sango, on the other hand, had a pretty good idea of what had just occurred and merely shook her head. Kea was oblivious to all of this as she set out plates for everyone and called Souta downstairs.

Kagome though that the silence was rather odd, coming from Inuyasha and Miroku. "You two look as if you've seen a ghost or something...Is something wrong?"

Both of them shook their heads hastily. Miroku nodded his head in thanks as Kea set a plate in front of him. "Never been better, Kagome."

It didn't take an idiot to figure out that something had been wrong, but nobody questioned it further. She wasn't about to let them ruin her supper - food was probably one of her favorite things to do, next to sleeping. And so she didn't wait for Souta to get to the table before she began stuffing her face with rice.

And so dinner continued on in this manner, a few humorous perks being passed around, and occasionally someone would say something quite random or drop something on the floor...nevertheless, it was probably the highlight of the day.

Kagome watched as Sango walked through the grass and to her own driveway, and turned her head to see Inuyasha and Miroku walking in the opposite direction. Supper was over and they had decided it was time for them to go home. Now all that Kagome wanted to do was take a steaming hot shower, do some homework, and figure out something else to do before she got tired.

Okay, she could leave the homework part out, but it had to get done sometime. If she had a choice on the matter, she wouldn't even look at her homework - it was too painful.

(Alright...this doesn't have anything to do with the story at all. But just because I need somewhere to scream and vent out all of my frustrations, I'm going to do it here.

School started today. Yup. Total chaos. Our schedules are seriously messed up...I have no idea what class I have on what days and when and where and who with. And all we did today was talk - rules, orientations, getting to know each other (yeah, loads of fun), and tons of other really boring stuff that nobody really pays attention to. Not to mention the fact that my Phy-Ed locker padlock gets stuck 90 of the time, and it takes me about three minutes to open it. (We have four minutes to get to each class. Convenient, huh?)

And it doesn't help that I'm a complete klutz - I fell on the stairs at least three times and tripped across the floor (may I add that there was nothing for me to trip over?; I'm talented like that) probably five times. I also dropped my main locker's padlock twice. I swear, it's going to be busted by the end of the week.

That and I'll probably lose everything/break everything. Just to let you all know, most of the time, I'm seriously in a bad mood because I don't get to sleep in till 12-1 o'clock in the afternoon like I usually do.

Bear this all in mind as you continue on with the story, and blame it on my frustrations if anything is completely messed up. I'm done now. I apologize to (and thank) all of you who actually read this and listened to my raving...you can all get on with your own lives now.)

Kagome pushed her shower curtain aside after about twenty minutes. Steam and the scent of her shampoo and conditioner/body and wash still lingered in the tiled room. To her, it smelt pretty damn good. She wrapped a dark red colored towel around her slender torso and attempted to wipe off the clouded mirror, but the only thing she accomplished was smearing it. So, instead, she got dressed into her warmest pajamas and threw her hair up in a very sloppily done ponytail. Now on to the homework.

She trudged into her room and plopped into her desk chair - binders and notebooks and textbooks sat in front of her, taunting her, mocking her in every humanly possible way. She growled at her array of annoying objects in return and opened the first textbook she decided that she should work on - Math.

Math was probably one of the most boring classes ever. She still had yet to figure out when they would actually need all the math they did in real life - either you were a math teacher or had some other career that nobody really wants to have but they have it anyway, like working in a bank. Being a math teacher didn't count because all you're doing is teaching math to students, who of which couldn't ever figure any of it out. At this point in Kagome's life, she had already decided that she wasn't going to be either or these things, so...what was the point again?

She sighed loudly as she opened the overweight textbook to the assigned pages. Read...complete assigned problems...and move on to the next assignment. Sounded easy enough, unless you had to repeat the same procedure for every single class.

So she got started.

It took around twenty minutes of broken pencil tips, eraser shavings, and much frustrated groans before she completely finished the set of math problems. (I would like to add that she guessed on half of the problems...) Now she had Science, History, and Calligraphy...who in the world assigned homework in Calligraphy?

By this time, she had gotten tired of homework, but figured she should probably finish it all anyway.

And a hour and a half later when she was done, she was figuring, 'What the hell? I should've just skipped it all and failed these classes, which should burn in the fiery pits of a living inferno.' By now, her backside was sore and her back was sore and her fingers were cramped and she had a massive headache.

Maybe she should complain to the school that doing homework can be a serious health risk.

And as Kagome stretched and let her fingers crack and make her mind refocus again, she walked into the hallway and began trudging down the stairway. She would have slid down the banister, except in this state, she was afraid she would fly off the end and hurt herself in some other way that she hadn't hurt already. Which, she thought after a moment or two when she made it down the stairs, she didn't know if that was even possible.

And what do ya know it? As soon as Kagome stepped into the living room, the phone rang. Her mom had disappeared again as well as her brother, so, as much as she wanted to ignore it, she unhappily shacked her way to the phone and glanced at the caller I.D - there was a number, but there was no name.

"Hello. Higurashi residence," Kagome said in the bluntest and most un-emotionless tone ever heard on the face of the earth, although nobody else was around to hear it.

"Ah, Kagome, I've been attempting to get a hold of you."

Kagome froze at this instant, though her mind, as you can probably guess, had instantaneously kicked into overdrive. 'How the hell does this guy know my name? I certainly don't know him. And why's he calling so late?' The clock just so conveniently placed on the wall above the phone read nine-thirty. Nothing annoyed Kagome more than annoying late-night callers. "Who the hell is this?" Once again, she was blunt and straight to the point. What she really wanted to do was watch some tv, eat a snack, and get to bed. And whoever this was had to go an interrupt her night.

There was chuckling on the other line, a noise that made Kagome shudder. It wasn't...normal...it sounded raspy and deep and overall evil, although it sounded more like a ku ku ku ku.

"I do believe I tried to meet with Taiko and Rizumu, although very coincidentally, they were met with an unfortunate event. So I've contacted you instead."

Okay, that didn't exactly answer her question. She huffed and became even more irritated, because she couldn't figure out how this mysterious person knew all of this. "Again I ask: Who the hell is this?"

More ku ku ku-ing. "I apologize, Kagome. My name is Naraku Yokoshima. Do you know why I've called?"

Kagome pretended to think about it for a moment. If she knew why he had called, would she have bothered to ask who he was? She collapsed in the nearest chair and leaned backwards, dramatically throwing her arm over her eyes. "No. Why don't you tell me before I hang up?" She did know that this was the guy that had called Tai and Rizu earlier that day...but that didn't help with much of anything.

There was a shuffling of papers on the other end, from what it sounded like. "I would like to speak to you and the rest of the band about a deal I would like to make with the four of you. How does tomorrow after school sound?"

Kagome blinked and narrowed her eyes. 'How does he know?! Did he find out from someone? No, that's impossible.' So she decided to test him. "I don't know what you're talking about. What band?"

If this Naraku freak ku ku ku-ed one more time, she was going to scream. "Now, now. Don't play dumb Kagome. I know you know exactly what I'm talking about."

Kagome glanced around the empty living room. Where had Souta and her mom disappeared to? "Listen, buddy; I don't know what you're talking about. It's a quarter to ten, and I want to do something other than waste my breath talking to thugs like you on the phone who spurt rubbish and garbage to everyone they call. So I would appreciate it if you left me alone for the rest of the night - find someone else to annoy."

With that said (rather defiantly) Kagome pressed the 'End' button on the phone and slapped it back into its cradle. She let out a weary sigh and used her fingers to rub her temples in a circular motion. It too her a moment to figure out that her hands and legs were shaking slightly.

'He knows.' Those were the only two words running across her mind until she finally registered them. 'But HOW?! This doesn't make any sense...nobody's told anyone. Is he someone Nanami knows? She promised she wouldn't tell anyone...' She wracked her mind forcibly, trying to remember anyone by that name. But to her, that name meant nothing; no spark, no sudden realization, no flashbacks or whatchamacallits, no light bulbs.

Kagome continued to contemplate this as she stumbled sleepily to the couch. "I have to tell Sango...Maybe she'll be able to come up with something. But it didn't even matter, because he probably wouldn't call again.

She always did speak too soon.

The phone began ringing again, and with an anguished groan, she jumped over the back of the couch and made her way towards the stand where the phone sat. Hurriedly, she squinted her eyes to read the I.D. Same number. Still no name. She frowned and tore the phone's jack out of the wall, unceremoniously letting it drop to the carpet.

"There. Problem solved."

And then she decided that she would go to bed early that night, considering that the day had been long and she was exhausted, to say the least.

Perhaps the next day would be better.

A/N: Okay, before you start whaling on me, let me tell you something. I know it's short. It's probably not my best work, either. But I sprained my wrist in tennis, and it's hurting like hell, even when I type. I'm tired, and since I didn't want this chapter to be any later, I ended it now. I apologize to those of you who were looking forward to a longer chapter...I really do. I'll put more effort into the next time - promise. And if I break that promise, you can shoot me...

Alright, maybe you shouldn't be that extreme, but you can do something along those lines. 'Till next time.

I'm back, aren't I? Please don't kill me...I'll update soon! I swear!!