Chapter 8: The Shadow Demon's Plan

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha.

A/N: I have finally caught up with my sister's fanfic, (Trey in D.N. Angel) and I've just noticed that I've got three more reviews than her! Oh well, never mind. There's sap in this chapter! Anyways, love you all!

With Kagome

She was still being thanked by her friends. Suddenly, she noticed that someone was missing. InuYasha. Looking up, Kagome saw her lover sitting out with a very worried expression on his face. Kagome could guess what he was thinking about, and sighed. He was probably thinking about how Kikyo had betrayed him completely. Sighing once more, she went towards InuYasha. Sango, Miroku and Shippo, however, were too busy trading their feelings about what it felt like to be in one body at the same time.

Walking over to the inattentive hanyou, Kagome sat down beside him and smiled nervously. InuYasha, however, did not notice any of this. He was still too busy thinking.

Kagome waved a hand in front of the dog demon's face. "Hello? Anyone home?" she teased.

InuYasha snapped out of his trance and shook his head as if to shake himself free of the thoughts he was having and turned to Kagome. "What, wench? I heard you coming, but that doesn't mean you always have to get my attention."

"Sit! And not even and 'thank you' to show that you're grateful! I'm going home, you rude thing!" Kagome snapped, and swung her back pack onto her shoulders. "I can't believe Kikyo can put up with you!"

And with that she got onto her trusty bicycle and rode off, leaving the miserable hanyou to bite the dust.

Shippo took his chance just then. Jumping onto InuYasha's shoulder, he said, "InuYasha, I bet you two argued again. You should go back to apologize to Kagome."

InuYasha slapped his forehead in annoyance. Every time Kagome left for home, why did everyone have to keep picking on him like as if it were his own fault all the time? It just wasn't FAIR!

"Shut up, you Kitsune idiot!" InuYasha growled in response, and with those words whacked the little fox demon hard on the head and got up, brushing himself off. Normally Shippo would have run off to tell Kagome about this so he could see the evil hanyou bite the dust, but now that Kagome was gone, he had no other choice but to scamper off and nurse his wounds.

Kagome's P.O.V

I was still ablaze from what InuYasha had said. Those 'ganging' up on me in Sango's body wasn't their fault, but I was truly angry that Kikyo had taken Naraku's side. And guess what happens next? InuYasha comes along and ruins my temper even more!

I was finally at the well when I saw something glittering in the woods. Thinking it a Shikon shard, I went over to investigate. Darting behind a bush, I checked to see what was going on.

Surprise of all surprises, it was Kikyo and Naraku, but I wasn't too surprised at seeing them together. But there was one big difference in all the times Kikyo and Naraku had met: they were embracing!

It seemed that Naraku's old feelings for Kikyo had started up again, and since Kikyo realized that 'her InuYasha' wouldn't love her any more, she had gone to loving Naraku instead. I stifled a laugh as Kikyo kind of grimaced when Naraku wasn't looking.

It was time for me to go back. Taking careful steps backwards the way a servant would do to a king, I accidentally stepped on a twig, and that caught Kikyo and Naraku's attention.

"Who's there? Show yourself, coward," Kikyo said in her cool, scary tone. Naraku held up the Shikon jewel and...you'll never guess what he did...he embedded the whole thing in his forehead!

I had seen enough. Still remaining hidden, I ran off silently, grabbed my bicycle and jumped into the well. Kikyo and Naraku wouldn't find me here, so I was safe.

With the Others

"Gees, what's taking Kagome so long at coming back?" InuYasha complained. Sango and Miroku nodded in agreement for once: now that Kagome was gone, the whole group wouldn't be able to go anywhere at all.

"Typical Kagome. This is the last thing we need," Sango muttered, forgetting about how Kagome had saved her from Kikyo's clutches.

And with that, the group went back to their restless pacing.

With Kagome

The teenage girl swung her bag over the well's thick rock walls and sighed. Her deo had practically run out; the demon who had found it had used practically the whole aerosol can up.

Breathing heavily, Kagome got herself out of the well and walked towards her house, where her mother, brother, grandpa and her all lived.

"Mom, Sota, grandpa, I'm home!" Kagome's shout echoed through the whole house, but nobody answered. Feeling puzzled, Kagome walked into the kitchen and searched around for a note from her mom. Sure enough, there was one that said...

For Kagome, just in case you come home.

Hello Kagome (if you're there)! Sota and I have just gone to fetch the groceries, and grandpa has just gone to Hojo's house as the kind boy has offered to keep him company there. We'll all be back in half an hour.

Love, Mom

As Kagome read the note, her miko powers helped her sense an unwelcoming presence behind her. Remembering that she still had one arrow and a bow, she quickly loaded her bow and turned around, ready to fire. She felt foolish; however, as she saw that there was nobody there.

Kagome cautiously lowered her bow, still aware that her miko senses were still flaring up. Scanning the kitchen for any sign of movement, she calmed herself down and turned around to take the note from the kitchen table.

Just then, she felt a fever burning inside her. Moaning in sudden agony, Kagome stumbled, with some difficulty, into her room a few doors away and fell on her bed, unconscious.

With the Others

"Where the heck is Kagome?" mumbled an impatient InuYasha. Everyone groaned; InuYasha had been mumbling that and pacing back and forth for the past two hours. When would he ever stop?

Miroku finally lost his marbles. Standing up angrily to face the hanyou, he suggested that InuYasha himself go and collect Kagome from her era.

"InuYasha, you stupid b, why don't you go to Kagome's era and collect her, or are you too afraid to go there?" Miroku snapped, and when he swore, Sango covered Shippo's ears with her hands and wished that she could have covered her own ears as well.

"Feh, stupid monk, I'm not afraid to go to that wench's era," the dog demon retorted, giving Miroku three lumps on the head. "And anyways, I'll go, because I can't tolerate being around an unholy monk."

And with that, he bounded off into the woods, grumbling about perverted and bad natured monks.

In Kagome's Time

The teenage girl had come down with what her grandpa called: Akanishi Atai. He had explained that this illness was a shadow demon invading Kagome's soul and it lived in her shadow. Even when trying his 'special cures', Kagome still wasn't better.

"Gee, mom, when will Kagome get better?" Sota asked, munching on a bag of chips.

"In good time, my son, in good time," Mrs. Higurashi replied wearily, as she had been tending to Kagome practically all day.

Kagome whimpered as another wave of pain shot through her whole body. For once, she wished InuYasha were here to see her. Maybe he could find the demon, and then everything would be alright. But no, Kagome just had to go home and leave her lover there, and now look where it had gotten her. Come to think of it, she wasn't even sure how the demon followed her through the well.

Evening had come. It was 8:00p.m when Mrs. Higurashi came through the door holding a tray of some ramen and udon in her hands.

"Here, Kagome. This will help you get better," Kagome's mother said, trying to be cheerful.

Kagome seriously doubted that she would get better by just eating food, but, being the polite girl as always, Kagome gingerly picked up her chopsticks and began to swallow her food.

Mrs. Higurashi watched her with a worried expression on her face. She too had said her previous words without thinking, and she knew perfectly well that this food would not help her daughter get any better.

Deciding to start up a conversation, Mrs. Higurashi asked, "So, how's that friend of yours in the sengoku jidai doing? You know the one with the cute ears?" she added, hoping that Kagome did not have memory loss like her father had described the illness.

Kagome smiled. How could she forget her mother's reaction when she had first laid eyes upon her lover?

"Oh, he's alright, mom," Kagome replied, trying to sound cheerful.

"Oh well, I wish he could be with you right now," Mrs. Higurashi said. "Well, I guess I should leave you to think about your future husband."

The teenager choked hard on her udon. How could her mother already be planning out her future?

"Mother, you're wrong about that. For one thing, InuYasha already loves Kikyo (A/N: Yes, Kagome still believes that), and for another, I will always stay UNMARRIED!" Kagome practically screamed, but Mrs. Higurashi had already left.

Sighing heavily, Kagome lifted her tray off her lap and set it on her now empty night table. Now she came to think of it, did InuYasha really love Kikyo, or had those feelings passed?

With another sigh of renewed sadness, the confused teen fell asleep, leaving her lamp lighting up her body.

With InuYasha

The dog demon was thinking unpleasant thoughts about how daft Kagome was sometimes. He was standing below his Kagome's window right now, so he jumped up, opened the window and hopped in.

Kagome was already asleep, but her light was still on. The hanyou was about to turn the light off when he heard some sort of shuffling noise.

And lo and behold, out came the source of Kagome's illness, a shadow demon.

InuYasha gritted his teeth in anger. Ever since he had entered the room, he had smelt some kind of new aura around Kagome, and now that smelly aura was right in front of him now. From smelling Kagome's scent (she wasn't stinking of Naraku that time), he had also known that his Kagome was ill.

"What the hell did you do to her?" InuYasha asked in a deathly whisper.

This question, which InuYasha meant to be dead serious, was responded to by a playful smirk from the evil demon. "What would you want to know, half-breed? I was just feeding on her shadow, and a quarter of it is now gone. Any more questions for me to answer, then?"

That was when the dog demon realized. This was a shadow demon. Shadow demons take over people's souls and feed on their victim's shadows. Once the whole shadow was devoured, the person would die. Also, normal mortals couldn't see these demons. A miko could sense a shadow demon's presence, but he/ she wouldn't be able to get any farther than that.

"Why you bastard!" the dog demon cried, and made a quick slash at the shadow demon. It was immediately slashed into a million pieces, and different pieces of shadows flew to its rightful owner. This, of course, left InuYasha to freely cross the room and get to his Kagome, who was still suffering.

Kagome's P.O.V

I was still sleeping when something slid out of me. My shoulders relaxed greatly, and my fever dropped down to 98. But I was still weak. But before I slipped into sleep once more however, I heard the sound of two voices talking. One was angry, the tone of InuYasha, and the other was smooth and playful, a new kind of voice.

I tried my best to see what was going on, but if was too late. I was asleep.

Nobody's P.O.V

The dog demon rushed across the room and placed Kagome on his lap. Luckily the shadow demon had only taken a quarter of her shadow: she could recover in time, but her current state was not suitable for a travel down the well. InuYasha sighed and was about to leave when a hand brushed his fingers. Looking down, he realized that Kagome had woken up.

"Inu...InuYasha," Kagome mumbled weakly. "Don't...leave me..." (A/N: Aw...isn't that cute?)

"Of...of course I'm not leaving you!" the hanyou replied, suddenly angry. "Why do you think I came to visit you?"

The teenage girl responded by giving him a sudden bone-crushing hug. "Thank...you..." Kagome whispered, and shoved his head down for a kiss (A/N: Is that OOC? Oh no, I didn't want any OOC in my story...o.0)

The two then spent a lot of time rolling around on the bed, kissing each other in a passionate-savage way. After that they spent the night sleeping together on Kagome's tiny bed (InuYasha was thin enough to fit on).

The next day dawned bright and early, but the two lovebirds slept in. Kagome was about to go back to la-la land when suddenly she heard a snap. Opening one weary eye, she looked about her room and saw...her mother, Sota and her grandpa all taking pictures of her and InuYasha sleeping together.

"YAAA! YOU HENTAIS! GET THAT CAMERA OUT OF MY SIGHT!" the poor teenager screamed, and went down in hysterical sobs.

That was when the hanyou woke up. Kagome had been screaming so loudly that his ears were throbbing painfully from the noise.

"What's up, wench?" he asked grumpily, back to his old self again. "You didn't have to scream, you know."

"It's just that...it's just that mother, grandpa and Sota were all taking pictures of us sleeping together!"

"NANI?!" InuYasha yelled in shock and disbelief. "I THINK I AM GOING TO SOCK THEM IN THE JAW FOR THAT!"

Kagome suddenly realized that the laughing and merry voices downstairs were all silent now. Giggling, she told InuYasha that they could trick her family by sneaking out her window and go back to the sengoku jidai.

"Hmm...fine," InuYasha replied absent-mindedly. He was busy fishing around in Kagome's drawer of underwear and bras...

"Sit!" a loud thud echoed around the room as InuYasha hit Kagome's dusty carpet. Looking up angrily, he said, "What did I do, wench?" (InuYasha did not know what all these underclothes were for)

"Oh, never mind," Kagome sighed. "Let's just get going."

Nobody but a certain pair of eyes watched as InuYasha and Kagome rushed into the shrine. That pair of eyes, however, did not see the two jump into the Bone Eaters' Well.

A/N: Wow! Seven pages on word! I can't believe that this is one of the longest chapters I've ever written. Whoopee! And I managed to fit some fluff and humour into my chapter as well! Now THIS is what I call quality work! Oh well, please review!