WG- Again... sorry my updates are soooo late. Especially this one. Life gets more complicated by the day, so I haven't had any time for my stories. Well, without further ado, for those of you who have patiently waited to find what happens next...

Chapter 4

Inu Yasha was half in a daze as he saw Miroku moping on the outskirts of Keade's Village. For some odd reason, he was soaked in water. Shippou was giving him one of his speeches.

"What's wrong with you? What happened this time?" Inu Yasha said as he crossed his arms.

"Yet again," Miroku started. "My timing has been quite regrettable in my search for someone to bear my child..."

Inu Yasha rolled his eyes and sighed. 'Leave it to that pervert...' He thought and he walked off to find Sango as he shook his head.

Sango was behind Keade's hut, violently brushing Kirara's fur.

Kirara growled at Sango until she gave her a glare that even scared Inu Yasha.

"You alright, Sango?" Inu Yasha asked.

"Yes, though that monk needs to have a good kick in the head..." she said. Her voice was frostier than usual.

"Did you find anything useful?" She asked as she looked up at him. Her voice wasn't as menacing this time.

"Not much... but Kagome sticks to me like hell! This is one of the first chances I've had away from her since yesterday. She just wouldn't let me go... You find anything out?" He said as he pet Kirara's head.

"No," she said. "Maybe you should stay with her for now... you might find a clue to how to return Kagome to her former state. Besides, if any demon's survived into her time, you can protect her from them."

Inu Yasha crouched down and scratched an itch behind his ear with his foot.

When he had finished he sighed and said, "I guess you're right... besides... she'll be crying the minute she knows I left. I'll see what I can find and do whatever I can until then."

Inu Yasha jumped off in the direction of the well again as he became lost in his thoughts again.

Once he was in Kagome's time he hurried towards her house again.

Kagome was laying on her porch drawing a picture. When she looked up and saw him, she jumped up and ran to him.

"Inu! You're back! I missed you!" she said as she hugged him.

There wasn't as much of a lisp as he remembered. Then he also noticed that she was just under his chest height.

He crouched down and looked at her as he asked, "Did you get taller since I left? You look different..."

She was taller and lankier than he had remembered... and her hair was almost past her waist in a braid. Last time it had been chin length and in pig-tails.

"You look like you're three or four years older..." he mumbled.

Kagome giggled. "Silly Inu. How could I get two years older? I'm only..." Kagome looked down at her hands and concentrated as she counted her fingers.

"This many!" she said as she held up six fingers.

"You did get older...maybe this curse wears off on its own." He said.

"C'mon!" Kagome said as she pulled him into the house. "Momma wanted to tell you something!"

Ms. Higarashi was sitting in the living room patiently waiting for Inu Yasha.

Inu Yasha sat down and Kagome flopped into his lap.

She automatically went to braiding the hair that hung in front of his ears as he looked to her mother.

"I wasn't sure if it would help, but I noticed something about Kagome after you left." Ms. Higarashi said. "When Kagome saw something that jolted her memory, she seemed to age. As if, by gaining her old memories brought her back. When she saw Sota this morning, she grew to what she looked like at age four. That was when Sota was born."

Inu Yasha wondered about this. Maybe, just maybe this could work.

"Thanks, Ms. Higarshi! You may have just helped us more than you know!" He said as he got up.

Kagome followed after him when he went outside and started to pout when Inu Yasha had set to raking the braids out of his hair.

"Alright," Inu Yasha said. He stood in front of the old God-tree. "How can I remind you of your past?"

Kagome shrugged. "I dunno..."

Inu Yasha's ears perked up as he had an idea.

"I know! You always used to talk about the places you go with your friends!" He said.

Inu Yasha grabbed Kagome's hand. He walked with her out of the entrance of her family's shrine.

They went down the street as they both marveled at their surroundings.

After a moment they reached the local playground.

Kagome looked at it and smiled.

She let go of Inu Yasha's hand and ran to the swing.

She jumped on and gazed at one of the chains. Her eyes were unreadable.

"This is where..." she said.

Inu Yasha cocked his head and went over. "This is where what?" He asked.

"When I was a baby... daddy would push me in this swing... we were supposed to swing that day... but that bad man came..." She said. At first she looked really sad, but when she said that last sentence, she had a look of pure hatred.

Inu Yasha looked carefully at her. She seemed to have aged even MORE in the past few minutes. She looked eight or nine.

"It was all that stupid man's fault! If he had left Papa alone... we could have come to swing again. It was his fault the kids at school teased me that I didn't have a papa!" She yelled as she gripped the swing's chains.

She clenched her eye's shut and a teardrop ran down her cheek.

'I understand.' Inu Yasha thought. 'She must have been taunted at school. They probably called her mother a prostitute or something. That would have happened about this age..."

Kagome suddenly looked up as she felt someone push her on the swing.

Inu Yasha grinned from behind her and pushed her forward again.

Kagome laughed and swung her feet out in front of her.

They stayed at the playground until about an hour before nightfall. Then they left to go back to Kagome's house.

They were about a block or so from her house when Inu Yasha caught a familiar scent. Narraku's scent...

He and Kagome both quickly looked around, as if she felt him too.

Kagome gasped and hid behind Inu Yasha's leg. She pointed towards a man standing at the corner and growled, "That's the bad man who did it. He hurt Papa!"

The man was tall and had short black hair. He wore a business suit but had it unbuttoned at the time.

Inu Yasha pushed Kagome farther behind him as he thought, 'That's no human scent.'

He walked over to the man and the man looked over at him and smirked.

"Hello there..." He said tauntingly.

"Narraku..." Inu Yasha growled.

"Oh, no." The man grinned. "You have me mistaken... Narraku was my great-grandfather. And you must be Inu Yasha. Narraku told me I would find you in this time period. My name is Harukentso..."

Kagome came up and glared at Harukentso.

"Augh... Kagome... I see our curse has worked...You always were much...nicer when you were young... oh, don't worry... you'll get to see your father soon enough..." He said when he saw her.

"Shut up! I'll destroy Narraku and kill you too!" Inu Yasha growled.

"Well, I would like to finish this conversation, but I'm late for a meeting. Farewell... while you can." He said and crossed the street.

Kagome and Inu Yasha stood still for a moment as what happened registered in their minds.

"Damn! That means Narraku knows about the well..." Inu Yasha thought. "and he knows about Kagome..." He looked down at Kagome. She looked upset.

Slowly, they went back to Kagome's house.

Kagome went up to her room to change into her pajamas.

Inu Yasha went outside and punched the old God-tree.

"Damn! Damn! Damn! At this rate, she'll be safer in my time..."

"Inu? Are you alright?" He heard a faint voice say from behind him.

He turned around and saw Kagome standing behind him. She was wearing red pajamas with stars scattered on them. She had her long hair in two pigtails down by her cheeks. It hung to about her waist.

"Yeah... Fine..." He mumbled.

'I've gotta talk to her mom...' He thought and walked past her into her house.

For a moment Kagome stood there and wondered about something as if she were trying to remember something.

She looked at the stars for a moment and then pursued Inu Yasha.

Inu Yasha approached Ms. Higarashi and quickly said, "Ms. Higarashi... Something unexpected has happened... I think that it may be a good idea for Kagome to come to my time period for a bit..."

Kagome's mom looked at him with worry as she asked, "What's wrong?"

He scratched a nervous itch on his cheek as he said, "It's nothing. We just... might have a way to cure Kagome faster! Yeah!"

She studied him for a moment until she finally replied, "Alright. I know you would never let anything happen to my Kagome."

Kagome's mom turned to go to the kitchen, but stopped. "Will you at least stay for tonight? That way you two can have a fresh start in the morning and I can make some fresh rice-balls to take with you."

Inu Yasha greatly thought they should move tonight, but Kagome was only a kid now... maybe it would be a good idea to leave tomorrow.

"Yeah. We can do that." He said.

Kagome's mom smiled and went to the kitchen to finish cooking the dinner just as Kagome walked in.

After they ate that night, Kagome came up to Inu Yasha and pulled his sleeve.

"Can you sleep with me tonight? Inu?" She had a scared look on her face.

Inu Yasha thought about his previous experience with Kagome's sleep and slobber disorder. Once he looked down at her again though, he said, "Sure. C'mon."

Inu Yasha picked Kagome up and walked past Kagome's grandfather, who was reading the paper and up the stairs.

He put Kagome down in her bed and then he sat cross-legged on the other end.

Kagome leaned over her bedside table and turned off the lamp.

There hadn't been more than five minutes of dark when Kagome whispered, "Inu... are you gonna make sure that man doesn't come back?"

"...Of course... why wouldn't I?"

"...I don't want to happen to you what happened to Papa... cause he said the same thing when he saw that the man... hurt me..."

The pause before she had said "hurt her" worried Inu Yasha slightly, but he ignored it for now...

"Don't worry about that. I can easily take him down."

"Alright..." Kagome muttered. "Thanks..." Kagome yawned and Inu Yasha heard her breath slow a bit.

"Good. She's asleep." He said to himself.

Inu Yasha got up and had his hand on the doorknob when he heard Kagome stir.

She started to roll around in her bed and whimper in her sleep.

Inu Yasha listened for a moment, but it stopped after a bit, so he sat down on the end of her bed and went to sleep.

Thank you everyone who has stuck with me for the story thus far. As a treat I sat awake all night and typed this for you. The next chapter is coming up soon, but just in case I've finally gotten the first chapter of another story typed (I'm a multi-tasker...). It's mostly a first person for one of Kagome's friends... but read into it! It's called 'Torn in Two.' It has a good base story and GREAT details. Well, leave me some reviews and say hi. Until later... Oh! Yeah! None of the characters in this fan fiction belong to me or any other characters mentioned.

C Ya! howls and walks off humming