Chapter 13: The Connection

Loud footsteps echoed in the halls of the mostly empty castle. They quieted down once they reached their destination. The double doors were thrown open as Kagura and Kanna entered the throne room. Naraku was standing in his usual spot. As Kagura approached she crossed her arms and frowned.

"You summoned me," She practically snarled.

"I need you to go and retrieve Katara's sword. She'll also need some new clothes as well," Naraku informed his main incarnation.

"Why can't she go herself," Kagura replied.

"Because," Naraku started, irritated with being questioned, "Her sword is with InuYasha. She needs continue to believe that her friends are dead."

Naraku held out his hand as a beating heart appears with in it. He started Kagura down as he slowly began to squeeze it harder and harder causing the woman pain.

"If Katara ever finds out that her friends are not in fact dead, and that I was the one to make her believe it then you will be experiencing more pain than this. And if that shard in her neck gets purified in any way," he gave the heart one final squeeze before making it disappear again. "You'll be dead. Am I understood?"

"Yes," Kagura replied breathlessly.

"Good. Now get that sword," he ordered.

Kagura removed a feather from her hair was shaky hands. She summoned the power within her to cause it to grow in size and carry her and Kanna in the wind.

"That bastard, Naraku," she thought venomously, "Always playing with my heart."

Kagome ran her hands through her hair as her anxiety ran wild. Naraku took Katara, and even InuYasha couldn't save her. If he does anything to hurt her, Kagome will promise to end him herself! If only they knew where he went.

"Where could he have possibly taken her," Kagome said, frustrated.

"Probably where he always goes, but we can never find out," InuYasha growled at her."

"InuYasha, I know you're upset, but taking it out on us won't help anything," Miroku tried to calm his friend.

"Shut up, Miroku! You have no fucking idea how I feel right now! I couldn't save her. I just let him fly off with her, and... ugh!" He shouted in frustration and punched the nearest tree causing a crater to form in its trunk. "She could be dead for all we know."

No one said anything after that. InuYasha continued to pace anxiously. The others sat in their thoughts trying to piece together where they might even begin to look. InuYasha said that he already looked at least fifty miles each way from where she was taken and found nothing. They just disappeared like always. InuYasha finally stopped his pacing and staring ahead in thought.

"InuYasha," Kagome asked, concerned. "Are you alright?"

"No. I'm scared, and I can't do anything about it. I'm defenseless," he yelled.

"You? Scared?" Sango questioned in disbelief.

Kagome gave a small smile. "For a second you almost sounded like-"

"Katara," everyone but InuYasha said while chuckling.

Kagome suddenly gasped and turned to InuYasha with wild eyes. "Katara!" She yelled. "InuYasha, you're not scared. That's Katara's emotions you're feeling. She's alive!"

"She might not be for long," he hissed in pain as cuts started to form on his face and body.

"What do you mean?"

"Is she fighting?"

"Can you sense where she is?"

"Will all of you stopping yapping and let me concentrate," he barked at his friends.

InuYasha closed his eyes and concentrated harder than he ever had before. He thought of Katara and how he needed to get to her. If she was in trouble, then he had to go save her! He started to become tired and out of breath. No, wait, that had to be Katara. She had to be fighting. A rough pain scratches his back as the back of his head felt like it got knocked on something hard. It felt rough, like bark. She had to be by some trees.

"She's somewhere in a forest," InuYasha informed his friends.

After a few minutes he didn't feel any new pain, although his body felt like it was throbbing. Whatever battle she was in must be over. Which means that she won and is still alive. A small pang of pride hit him. Of course, she'd be alive. His girl was a tough one and wouldn't go down without a fight.

"InuYasha," Kagome called for him. "Can you still feel her? What's happening?"

He opened his eyes and turned to his friends.

"Whatever fight she was in must be over. I can still feel her, so she's alive. From what I can feel, her injuries aren't too bad. She'll just be-" he was cut off by a huge wave of pain.

InuYasha felt like the wind had just been knocked out of him. His knees buckled and he collapsed onto them. His friends raced to his aid with worried faces.

"What's happening," Sango asked.

"I don't -" he could even talk.

His heart felt like it was cracked, and a huge hole was forming in his chest. Without his consent two rivers of tears streamed down his face. He had no idea what was happening, but this was one of the worst pains of his life.

"InuYasha, talk to me," Kagome encouraged him. "Please tell me what is happening."

"I don't know," he said through gritted teeth. "I've never felt this way before. It kind of feels like… this is kind of like the pain I felt when my mother died." Another wave of pain hit him intensely. "But this is so much worse."

"You're feeling grief," Sango confirmed.

"Grief? Why would Katara be feeling grief?" Miroku asked.

As quickly as it came on, it disappeared much faster. InuYasha sat up in confusion and wiped the tears from his face. Why would an intense pain like that just disappear? There is no way you can get over that in the blink of an eye.

"It's gone," he told them. Worry filled their faces once more, but InuYasha squashed their fears. "She's still alive. My body feels like it's distantly throbbing which must be her body I still feel."

"What do we do now," Shippo asked in a small voice.

"Well we do know one thing; she was in a forest. We'll search the area again. If I have to look through every forest in Japan then so be it," InuYasha stated fiercely.

"Am I interrupting something," a feminine voice asked from above.

It was Kagura and Kanna. InuYasha growled as he unleashed Tetsusaiga.

"Where is she," he yelled.

"She's probably getting the royal treatment by now," Kagura smirked.

"Damn you! Wind Scar!" InuYasha yelled as he wielded his classic attack.

"Dance of the Dragon!" Kagura yelled as she flicked her fan with the counterattack. "Do it now!" She yelled at Kanna.

Kanna held her mirror close and began to speak an incantation. Her mirror began to shake as the face started to glow. This caused Katara's sword and backpack to emit the same glow before disappearing into Kanna's mirror.

"It's done," Kanna said quietly.

Kagura broke away from InuYasha and guided her feather away.

"Catch ya later," she taunted them as they disappeared.

"Uggghhh, dammmniiitttt," InuYasha practically screamed.

He took his anger out on the tree once more causing it to go flying.

"They took her backpack," Kagome said in confusion.

"And her sword," Sango added.

"Why would they want either of those things," Shippo asked.

"I don't know, but now we have a direction to go in," InuYasha said, as he stared in the direction Kagura and Kanna went.

"Let's go."