AN: The idea for this story was inspired by the story of Kaguya-hime and Inuyasha's firerat clothes. Most of the other characters are taken from Japanese folklore  

Inuyasha

After years of living on his own there were quite a few things he'd learned, mostly to himself alive. One of those things was to trust in his instinct. Instinct had kept him from being eaten by hungry youkai as a child. Even now that spilt second decision, that gut feeling, kept him from being speared, burned, bitten, slashed and run-through most of the time.

Instinct had its good and bad. Instinct told him not to straight out kill the strange, terrified, knobby-kneed girl he'd met four years ago. But instincts that he'd developed also kept him from getting close to people. Humans had unbelievably pathetic instincts (worse then any other creature he knew). Coupled with the fact that most of them seemed to ignore what little they did have, made him wonder how the even survived this far, let alone become so numerous in the future. 

But at the moment he actually wished he were human. His life-saving intuition was driving him nuts. There was a constant buzz in the back of his mind. All day and all night since three days ago; more specifically since the night in the cave and Kagome's stupid story.  Three days and his hair was still standing on end.  Like some ominous little cloud skirting about the corners of his mind. 'Since when have I ever let some little tale spook me? Never, that's when!' He snorted in annoyance trying to shake off the feeling, but his ears still twitched to catch every possible sound, his nose kept sifting through all the smells, eyes still scanned their surrounding looking for anything suspicious or unusual.

It bugged him to no end.

He was in a foul mood because of it when he should be quite content. They'd found not one, but four jewel shards after running into a band of mitsume/hitsume kozo. Counting the ones they'd gotten before it rained made a grand total of six.

An unusually high number for one trip. The were also an unusually high number of spooks and restless spirits about now that he thought about it...

'Damn. I can't stop being paranoid. I feel like we're being watched... like I'm being watched.' He spared a glance at his companions and slowed down. So wrapped up in his thoughts he threatened to leave them behind with out even realizing. At least they were out in the open. He could see any attack coming, the downside: anyone could attack. 

He glanced back again wishing they'd hurry up. He did not want to be out in the open anymore. Sango seemed be explaining how the slayers developed their techniques to an attentive Miroku. More likely she was just keeping an eye on his hands, the damn lech. Kirara rode on Kagome's shoulder. Kagome, who was oddly quiet, was looking off into the distance, towards the mountains in the north.

Did she sense a shard? 'Nah, She'd' have said the somethin' already.' Or did she feel what he was feeling. That foreboding-

"Boo!" Inuyasha jumped and caught the unmanly yelp before it left his throat, too late though, to stop his heart from thundering in his chest. 'Too many nerves.' He grumbled. A giggling ball of kitsune rolled with laughter at his feet.

 A soon to be dead ball of kitsune that is.

"Shippo! You little snot!" Shippo yelped as he dodged Inuyasha's claw and started scampering back to Kagome.

"Come back here ya coward!"

If nothing else Shippo was nice distraction. Annoying but welcome. Inuyasha purposely missed the tyke's tail by a hair's breath. 'Too slow, brat you've been eating too many candies.'

"Ah! Kagome save me!" he cried when Inuyasha hoisted him up by the tail. No response,

"Kagome?" Inuyasha came to a stop before her as their little game ended.

"Hey, what wrong with you? Your face is all funny." That could've come out soo much better. A cloud passed over temporarily shading them. She glared at him reflexively, but then turned pensive, "I don't feel so good,"

"If Kagome-sama is feeling ill, then perhaps we should rest for awhile." Miroku suggested.

"Keh, she don't smell sick."  And if she was all the more reason for them to hurry up.

"No, not sick. Something feels...off. Like something is not right." She reeked of worry and a little fear, 'How could I've missed that?'  He berated himself as he saw her shiver from the slight breeze beneath the shade. 'Shade?'

He looked up,  "What the fuck!?"

He absently heard his companions gasp as well. 'That ain't no fucking cloud...'

Whatever 'it' was, it was slowly, but surely, blocking out the sun. It didn't stop; it just kept getting darker and darker. Kirara transformed offering some light but making it harder to see anything beyond their tiny circle.

He didn't fear the darkness; he still had his other senses. The same couldn't be said for human in the group. The pungent smell of fear was like a beacon.

"Inuyasha?" He heard the uncertain tremble in Kagome's voice. She sounded scared. The girl reached for him in the diminishing light, but was off horribly.

"I'm right here," he wanted to say, but he could only grunt as a horrible pain seized him. White-hot fire ran through his blood as fast as lightening! He gripped his chest, 'Dammit, what is this!  It feels like I'm being fucking ripped in two! Argh!'  He vaguely tasted blood from nearly bit his tongue off in the intense pain.

"Inuyasha? Inuyasha, where are you? I can't see you." Stupid girl was going wrong way! Didn't she at least have the sense to stay near Kirara?! 'I gotta-

"Arrgh...unh."

 And then... darkness.

Kagome

It was pitch black. Not 'hands over your eyes' black or 'middle of the night' black or even 'hands over your eyes in the middle of the night' black. This was sensory deprivation black. The darkness so thick you could feel it slipping past your fingers.   Once, when she was in middle school, her class had taken a field trip to a museum. Part of the tour went through an underground bomb shelter replica. There had been a brief power outage... Not one iota of light for all the two minutes that it lasted. It looked exactly like this. But this… This was and unnatural darkness. Kirara had transforms and yet she still couldn't see. Or made she'd gone too far and didn't realize it. But it had to end soon right? Eclipses only lasted a few minute, didn't they? But she wasn't sure if this was an eclipse or not.

To make matters worse an awful wail wafted through the darkness, the yowls, howls, snarls, growls, grumble, rumbles, roars and whimpers of confused, distraught and terrified creatures. The sound was a horrible cacophony in her ears.

She heard a grunt of pain somewhere close, fear and hope both spiking her heart. "Inuyasha?"

She heard the soft crunch of gravel and grass. To her right? Or from behind? "Who's there? Inuyasha is that you?"

'Please let that be you, please let that be you.' Her heart thundered as she head her breath. In the far back of her mind she noted just how easy it was to be petrified when you literally couldn't see the nose on your face. How much easier it was to imagine some fifteenth century ax murderer creeping up behind you...

'Don't be silly you're just scaring yourself' ...Were those footstep coming closer?!

Something roughly grabbed her arm! "Aaa-mmmh!" It was a hand, a clawed hand. She stopped resisting.

"Wrong way, bitch."  His breath on her ear caused her to shiver. She nodded; removing is hand from her mouth. "Be quiet. Don't move," he commanded, his voice rougher than normal almost like when he...She look at his face (or what she hope was his face) a pair of disembodied eyes glared down at her. She would have screamed, if she wasn't frozen stiff with shock. Inuyasha's eyes were glowing an angry red. "Don't move." He repeated one more time and then let go.

She reached out to stop him and nearly lost her balance grabbing at thin air. She silently whimpered though trying to remain calm, even a bloodthirsty, transformed hanyou was better than being alone in the dark.

She heard something growl off to her right. And another answered it somewhere in front of her. 'I really, really hope that one was Inuyasha...' There were the sounds of a fight, vicious growls and snarls, and it all sounded right on top of her. Like she was right in the middle of it. She felt a bead of sweat roll down her forehead and her heart continued its marathon race in her ribcage. It didn't help that the darkness was suffocating...  She'd like to think that it was courage that kept her from moving, and a small bit of it was, but really she'd probably just get herself kill. The fighting was coming to a pitch, the snarls and growl short and clipped. She felt vulnerable and useless. Feebly squinting in the darkness the forms of the creatures became just barely visible.  She could see! Just barely, to be sure but still! 'The light, the sun, is coming back!' she cheered, hope swelling.

A particularly vicious snarl cutting through the air made her jump. A muffled thud and then the sound of something dragging in the grass and fading away and then all was silent.

The silence was scarier then anything. Almost as frightening as the sudden whiff of blood that choked her nostrils. "Inuyasha?" everything would be okay as soon as she found him. She'd feel a whole lot safer knowing where he was.

Glowing disembodied red eyes swung her way from a distance.

Then again, maybe not.

She closed her eye and took a deep breath. 'Just be calm. A don't make any sudden movements, and maybe he won't see me…' Yeah, right. She'd have better luck trying, 'There's no place like home, there's no place like home,' while clicking her heals

"Oi! What are you doing, wench?" She blinked.  The light was apparently back in full-on sunny day mode, as if nothing had happened in the first place. Inuyasha's slightly concerned and puzzled face greeted her. Everything looked completely innocent and normal. Except the small puddles of blood everywhere.

She frowned, "Don't you remember what happened?"

He gave her that 'when did you lose it?' look, "Remember what?" She looked down; he followed her gaze and inhaled sharply.

His arms were soaked to the elbow in blood.

He looked at her. She knew that look. It was the same horrified shock and self-loathing as when he slaughtered those bandits. It was full of self-abhorrence and disgust even as his eye swept over for wounds.

"Stop that! You didn't hurt me at all, in fact you-

"Who did I kill this time? Don't trying to protect me, I'm the one who did this, I'm the one whose hands are covered in blood Where's Miroku and Sango? Shippo!? Did I...?" She shook her head vehemently. "Then who's...?

"If you'd let me explain a moment, before jumping to conclusions. What's the last thing you remember?"

She saw him visibly shudder and was worried. "Pain, it was getting dark...and then it felt like something was trying to fuckin' pull my body in two. Nothing else." So he had been in pain, what could've cause it?

"…It got really dark, it couldn't see you. I thought I heard you in pain so I went to check. The next thing I know, you're with me telling me to stay put and fighting off whatever made those." Kagome pointed to the bloody paw prints leading away from them. "You saved me, Inuyasha."

For a moment he was silent then, "The others?" She shrugged looking around the grassy landscape.

"Not sure, I think I lost them."

"What?! Are you crazy? Dammit, don't you have any sense at all? You're supposed to stay put! Instead of wandering off and blundering around like some newborn pup!"

"I wasn't blundering! I was looking for you!"

"And nearly got eaten by wild animals!"

"You jerk! I thought you were in pain!"

"Keh, I ain't weak like you puny humans- Ambling in the dark like that... I swear Kagome, sometimes it's like you don't have enough common sense to find a drop of water in a lake."

"........."

"Oh shit."

"Inuyashaaa! SIT!"

She expected a long line of curses and grumbling to follow but he was quiet. "Inuyasha?"

"Inuyasha are you okay?" Nothing. Slightly panicked she kneeled beside him and shook him gently, "Inuyasha?"

He was out cold.

Palace of Eternal Night

'That's it...yes, I can feel it growing.' The Old Hag positively hummed with happiness. The old crone sat in a dark room watching a simple but elegantly decorated cup on a pedestal. Tsukuyomi, the backstabbing fool, wouldn't notice it was missing until it was too late.

'And whoever blotted out the sun...at such a perfect moment h my thanks.' It was a nice touch, even if she had nothing to do with it.

Now her designs were secure. Already see could feeling the chalice accumulate their stolen energies. Soon they would be reduced to pathetic weaklings, this was merely an assurance that those stuck up, and high-minded bastards won't interfere. The Old Hag smiled, her plans had gone this since time she'd help shatter that disgusting wench's happiness, with her own father no less! She hadn't felt this happy since...

Izanagi...

The name left a bitter taste in her mouth and fouled her mood.

Alls the more reason to destroy every last one and reclaim her place as the ultimate power!

Disclaimer: See prologue. Please review any comments questions or criticisms are welcome.