Hiya people! You know, I don't know if any of you sent me reviews 'cause I haven't got any. I know I had gotten more than two reviews from chapter 4 (the ones I do have are from Shirro-77 and Shadow Wraith). I'm pretty sure that loozer-09 and Sweet Sad Jess sent me reviews 'cause I read them via email. Well, sorry you two that your reviews didn't show up. I don't know what's wrong. So, if you sent me a review and I never got it, I apologize. I have no idea why I received no reviews. Well, here's chapter five!

            Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the anime "Inuyasha".

"Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I may be in, therein to be content."

–Hellen Keller

"Fool," the lord whispered as his puppet's head fell to the rouge carpet with a dull thud. The pawn's body soon followed the head's example and too plunged to the floor. Thick, hot, red blood seeped from the stump of what remains of a neck like a mad river. The lord wrinkled his nose in disgust as the blood started collecting around his feet and wet the bottom of his dark purple robe.

With a snap of his fingers, a servant rushed in to dispose of the body. He vaguely remembered ever seeing the young servant boy, but was glad he was quick with getting rid of the puppet's corpse. Soon after the boy left, a woman entered with a pail of hot water and two dingy rags and began scrubbing at the carpet. Truthfully, he did not care if the blood remained on the rouge carpeting. It was one reason he had chosen the color to be on the floor of his "business" room. Blood won't show up much on rouge.

The lord stole one last glance at the woman servant and stalked out of his room. For many minutes he walked slowly through the hall of his palace, and when he came to a desolate door at the very back, he flung it open with his powers, and used them to close it behind him. This lone, wooden door leads to his room of solitude, his bedchamber. Every servant in the palace knew they were not to enter for any reason, or suffer an agonizing death. Most servants were scared witless at the thought of death.

He sighed when reached his four poster bed and sat heavily on it. The comforter, too, was rouge like the carpeting in his business room, but was made of velvet. The walls had decorative fabric hangings of black fabric with blood red sewing on them of the Uranin coat of arms: a man stood between two trees with his right arm looking like a snake, his left looking like an axe, and both legs ending in lion's paws instead of feet.

Standing up, the lord walked to the mirror at the far end of the room and stood in front of it, staring curiously at his face. He possessed dark red eyes that, at the moment looked angry, with the blue demon marking on his eyelids. To anyone who would not know better –which was surprisingly quite a large number- he appeared a full youkai. But as the saying goes "Appearances can be deceiving"; such is the case with him.

At one time, he was a human (just like every member of his late family) who was taken in by the promises of power, thus producing him. A half breed… A hanyou…

Naraku…

Yes, Naraku. That was the demon born from the human lord of Uranin named Onigumo. He snorted at the recollection of his past (half) self. Naraku hated to think he was once a ningen, but no one else knew. If they did, he laughed, they kept the secret safe in death.

Feeling a wave of tiredness wash over him, Naraku decided to give into it and sleep. He thought it strange that his body craved rest because youkai do not often require sleep. Naraku shook his head and began undressing himself. When the last of his robes fell limply to the ground, he turned around to examine a mark that had remained on his back even after his transformation. As a human, Onigumo had the secret mark of the Uranin royal family burned onto his back. A spider is the burn mark. Naraku hated it because it spoke of what he used to be, but he still made use of it. His creations possessed the mark as well to show they belonged to him.

Naraku snorted and walked to a cabinet mounted on the wall over by the bed and pulled out a white sleeping robe. Just as pulled the robe over his head and gave it one last tug to be sure it covered him, Naraku felt a breeze rush through the room. He looked up to meet the eyes of one of his creations: Kagura. She looked at him hesitantly with her ruby red, pupil less eyes, and bowed slightly at the waist.

"Kagura," he spoke in light surprise. "What brings you here? I thought you were staying over night after collecting the boy."

"I was," she picked at her nails and sat down on the edge of the rouge bed, "but I decided to bring him here. He his with Kanna for the time being, so don't worry. I did everything as you told me."

"Really?" Naraku inquired. "The last time I gave you a mission you betrayed me. Then, as I was about to destroy you, you begged for me to give you another chance. This mission was your other chance."

"I did everything you told me!" Kagura shot up. "I killed him first then used the black orb you gave me to trap his soul to control his body. He is oblivious to everything other that what the beholder of the orb allows him to feel or comprehend -a perfect puppet."

"What is he called? The vision did not tell me his name."

"Kohaku."

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            "So, when you were two," Inuyasha said slowly, "you were separated from you mother?"

            "Exactly," Kagome nodded.

            For the past seemingly endless hours, she and Inuyasha sat in the Maze Garden talking about everything that happened in their life. Kagome had just finished telling the tale of how she lived before she stayed with Typha. She was surprised how intently Inuyasha listened to her every word as if she was telling an important secret. It kind of flattered her that he was so interested in what she had to say.

            Inuyasha shook his head in amazement. Never in his whole life had he heard of someone being purposely taken from a loved one -especially in Kagome's situation.

            "I'm sorry that you suffered," Inuyasha said sincerely.

            "N-no," Kagome stuttered, surprised that he offered his sympathy. "You shouldn't apologize because it was not you who was after my mother or me. But thank you, anyway."

            "You're welcome. My mother died, too, when I was younger. I was seven," he blinked uncertainly, "I think."

            "Wow," Kagome breathed. "Both of us have lost loved ones at a young age. I suppose we have lots in common, then."

            "Yes, I guess," Inuyasha shrugged.

            He looked up at the sky and inhaled suddenly when he noticed a pink fringe coating the horizon. Morning is on the way. Kagome furrowed her eyebrows and looked in the direction Inuyasha was to see what abruptly captured his attention. Then, she too noticed the signs of the approaching morning and sighed, somewhat downhearted.

            "Morning," she mumbled.

            "Yes."

            "I thought we were out here for a while, but not that long," Kagome mused aloud.

            "Yeah, but time flies fast when you least expect it to. I assume we least expected time to go by so fast," Inuyasha smiled.

            Kagome could not help but crack a grin at his smile. She thought he had a beautiful smile with his bright, white teeth, complete with long, sharp incisors.

            "I should probably get back to the barracks, then. Maybe I could get a few hours of sleep before archery drills start this morning," Kagome piped up and looked around. "You… Uh… Wouldn't happen to know how to get out of here, would you?"

            "Not a clue," Inuyasha shook his head.

            "Well," Kagome began and looked up at the sky which was now starting to lighten, "I think I'm going to try and find my way out of here. Eventually I should get out, eh?"

            "That'll take you all day. I don't think you understand how big the garden is."

            "How big?" Kagome asked, putting her hands on her hips.

            "It's…uh… Big, trust me."

            "Right," Kagome rolled her eyes.

            "Hm. Well, if you hop on my back I could have us out of here in a matter of seconds."

            Almost as soon as the words "hop on my back" left Inuyasha's mouth, Kagome had jumped on his back. After getting a good grip on Kagome's legs so she would not fall off, Inuyasha bent his legs at the knees, and pushed off the ground. Inuyasha cringed when Kagome's excited wails invaded his ears. As the decent of Inuyasha's jump neared, Kagome lightly wrapped her arms around Inuyasha's neck and rested her check against the side of his head. When he hit the ground on the other side of the tall garden bushes, Inuyasha ran at a moderate speed (moderate for him that is) and shot off toward the barrack lots. In a matter of seconds he skid to a halt on the outskirts of the lots and Kagome carefully climbed off his back.

            "Thanks for the ride," Kagome wrinkled her nose when the smell of stagnant muddy water reached her nose.

            "No problem," Inuyasha shrugged nonchalantly. "How long will the archery drills take tomorrow…uh… I mean today?"

            "Oh, I don't know. Most of the morning and nearly all afternoon, I should think," Kagome tapped her chin with a finger a couple times.

            "Okay. Well, maybe I'll come and laugh at you during the drills," Inuyasha teased.

            Kagome gasped mock-dramatically and gave him a playful slug, "You wouldn't!"

            "You think so?" Inuyasha smirked. "Then I'll have to come and make fun of you."

            And without so much as a backward glance, Inuyasha turned around and bound toward the palace, leaving Kagome in his wake. Kagome watched his fast retreating figure and smiled dreamily to herself.

            "I think I'm starting to like him!"

Sorry this chapter isn't the normal length that I have them being. I think this one is just four pages, and my normal is about seven. I couldn't think of anything else that would go with this chapter. But… yeah… Things are gonna start picking up soon, I promise. Next chapter will be the archery drills with Inuyasha teasing Kagome, and Kikyo hitting on Inuyasha. Yeah, I think that sounds good! ^_^ Anyway, the battles will start soon, and eventually Inuyasha has to find out about his papa, right?

Well, I hope you drop a review and it actually comes up unlike last chapter. For some stupid reason my two reviews that I got for chapter four never showed up. If I got any more than those two, I don't know. Well, if you did review chappie four and it didn't show up and you review this chapter as well, you wouldn't mind reviewing chp. 4, would ya? I'm sorry to bother you, but I love reviews! I'm sure you all understand.

Thanks and we'll see ya next time!

^_^