Koga finally reached the end of the tunnel and the late afternoon sunlight from outside burned his sensitive eyes. He ran through the forest with a limp, trying to find a safe place to go. But where was a safe place? Those tunnels were around the entire country. He knew Kagome needed help. He needed her to start breathing again.

"Koga!" A voice shouted from above.

Koga tilted his head upward and saw Sango, Miroku and Shippo riding on Kirara's back. 'Those are Kagome's friends.'

He stopped walking as they landed on the ground beside him.

"Are you two alright?" Miroku asked as he got a good look at them. They both had dirt all over them. Kagome was pale and Koga was covered in blood.

"I'll manage." Koga said confidently. "but…Kagome stopped breathing."

As they were talking, they heard a loud boom from beneath their feet. The ground began to shake and crack like an earthquake tearing through the land.

Koga put Kagome in Miroku's arms. "Get her out of here."

Miroku gently placed Kagome onto Kirara's back. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm gonna go look for that mutt." And with those last words, he ran off, following his nose back into the forest.

Inuyasha began to grow weary of fighting with Hisae and Miki. He figured if he used his wind scar to bust the tunnel open from overhead, it would be more likely that he'd escape.

Things didn't exactly go the way he planned. He swung his sword and with a loud boom his wind scar went through the top of the tunnel, opening it up.

Hisae and Miki began to react negatively to the light and started to turn back into dirt.

'Damn. If only I had known that before.' He thought as he watched the two fade into the dirt of the tunnel, leaving behind Koga's shards.

Inuyasha quickly picked up the shards and told himself it was over. He began to feel optimistic about surviving until the effect of his wind scar began to spread.

The ground began to shake violently as the tunnel began to crack and collapse, covering him with mounds of dirt. The heaps of dirt were starting to fill up the tunnel quickly as the ground cracked and caved in on each side.

Inuyasha had to act fast. He ascended towards the hole in the top of the tunnel but another pile of dirt made impact with his body and forced him down. The dirt was burying Inuyasha as he watched things go dark again.

"Maybe I'm just not supposed to make it." He told himself as the dirt began to crush his body and cause him to lose consciousness.

Miroku left Sango and Kagome on Kirara's back with Shippo as he ran beside them and they headed back to Kaede's village. Once they were there, Miroku carried each girl one by one into the hut.

"Lady Kaede! Sango was injured and Kagome is not breathing!"

Kaede quickly went to work diagnosing the two girls. Sango was awake and alert and it appeared she would manage to make a quick recovery. Kaede put some support under her head and gave her water before turning her attention to Kagome.

She noticed a faint heartbeat in Kagome's chest and breaths so small; an ant couldn't survive off of them. She wiped some of the dirt off Kagome's face and out of her nose before putting a compress on her forehead.

"The air should do her some good." Kaede told Miroku. "What happened?"

Miroku began to explain the story.

"So now Koga is looking for Inuyasha? That's quite noble of him."

Miroku nodded in agreement.

But the question was…would Koga find him?

Koga continued to run through the shaky forest, avoiding hurdles of uneven ground, holes and cracks along the way. Inuyasha's scent became stronger, along with the smell of his blood.

"Hey dog-turd, are you here?" He called out.

The running was becoming exhausting. Losing his shards made his legs feel like dead weights, and the injuries weren't doing any good either.

After what felt like endless running, he finally found the hole Inuyasha had opened on his own and the large pile of dirt that flowed inside. He knew the cause of this was more than likely the wind scar as he dug through the pile and finally found Inuyasha's hand.

Koga started pulling as the pile of dirt began to fall apart and Inuyasha's unconscious, blood and dirt covered body was brought out.

'Damn. He's not moving at all.' He sighed as he pulled Inuyasha onto his back and ran back out of the forest.

Koga knew that Kagome's friends were likely to take her back to that human village and that's exactly where he headed.

Inuyasha began to regain consciousness as he stirred on Koga's back.

"Ka…go…me. I'm…sorry." He spoke out lightly.

Koga shook his head. 'This idiot is still in love with her. He's a lost cause.'

As Inuyasha completely came to his senses, he scrunched up his face due to an unsettling scent. He realized Koga was carrying him.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing, fleabag?" Inuyasha questioned.

"Getting you to safety, you fucking idiot! I just pulled you out of a big ass pile of dirt. A thank you is in order, ya know."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. While he was grateful, he refused to say thank you at all. "Keh! I didn't need your help! Anyway, where's Kagome?"

"I told that monk friend of yours to get her someplace safe. He probably took her to that village, so that's where we're headed."

"I don't need you to carry me there!" He said rudely.

"Fine by me." Koga said as he dropped Inuyasha onto the ground and kept walking. "Guess you're not as injured as I figured you were."

Inuyasha slowly managed to get on his feet and limped after Koga. "Hey! Get back here! I'm gonna kick your ass for dropping me like that!"

"Can it! I'm not in the mood to fight with you. I just want to make sure my mate is okay."

Inuyasha's heart plummeted to his stomach hearing the way Koga referred to Kagome as his mate. 'That's right. She is his…and she wants to be with him.' He started to wish Koga had left him in that dirt pile so he wouldn't have to watch them together.

Kagome finally came to and gasped for a large amount of air. She let out a dry cough before begging for water.

Kaede gave her some water as she looked around.

"When did I end up here? What happened?" Kagome asked in a raspy voice. "Where's Koga? What about Inuyasha?" She said that part more panicked and anxious.

"Calm down." Kaede suggested as she laid her back down. "I'm not sure what happened while you were in that tunnel, but your friends brought you here while Koga went to find Inuyasha."

Kagome sighed as the angst and fear filled her eyes. She didn't want anything to happen to either one of them. She decided to wait since there was nothing else she could do in her condition. Her chest was hurting too much.

But she didn't have to wait long.

"I need to take a bath to get your horrible stench off me."

"You need to bathe and get your own stench off you!"

She could hear them both arguing on their way to the hut.

Kagome lost her composure the second Koga walked into the hut. He quickly rushed to her side and held her in his arms.

The second Inuyasha walked in, they were kissing. If only he had the power to unsee that moment.

Kagome noticed Inuyasha was there completely covered in dirt and still bleeding. "I-Inuyasha…are you alright?"

Inuyasha shook his head, for more reasons than one.

"Inuyasha let me tend to your wounds." Kaede told him.

He shook his head again and walked out.

Kagome slowly sat up, and followed Inuyasha out.

"Hey, where are you going?" Kagome asked as she dragged her feet after him.

"You should be inside resting. Koga was really worried about you and I'm sure he's mad you followed me." Inuyasha said flatly as he continued to walk away.

"Sit."

Inuyasha hit the ground face first. "Why did you do that?" He groaned out.

"You were injured and you need treatment." She said adamantly.

Inuyasha slowly stood up and waved off her suggestion. "I don't care. You should worry more about Koga than me."

"Fine. Go find Kikyo and maybe she can heal you since she's so great." Kagome said angrily as she turned away.

Inuyasha turned to her and snarled angrily. "What's your problem? You have someone you're mated to! At least I didn't mate with Kikyo."

"There's nothing stopping you now."

"I wanted to be with you!"

"You broke my heart!"

"You broke mine!"

The two panted as the arguing stole strength from both of them. Kagome walked towards Inuyasha and removed the incantation beads from his neck.

"What's done is done, I suppose." Kagome said as she returned to the hut.

Kagome sat next to Koga and rested on his shoulder. "Sorry. I was trying to convince him to get his wounds treated but he was being stubborn."

Koga shrugged. "He'll be fine."

"What about you? Are you okay?"

Koga nodded "My wounds are already healing. What about you? Do you need anything?"

"I just want to get this disgusting dirt off me and out of my hair. I'm so glad I brought shampoo with me."

"Shampoo? Who's that?"

Kagome reached into her dirt covered bag and pulled out the shampoo bottle. She grabbed Koga's hand and slowly stood up. "Let's go bathe."

This circumstance made Koga even happier about being alive. He followed without hesitation as they looked for a pleasant spot to wash the dirt and blood off themselves.

"They do make a fine match." Sango said quietly to Miroku, trying not to wake Shippo and Kirara from their nap.

Miroku grasped her hand and smiled. "They're not they only ones."

Thank you so much for the reviews guys! xoxoxo :]

Just one chapter left after this!

TELL ME HOW YOU THINK IT SHOULD END O.O

-VQ