Yay! Chapter 5! The long awaited one! You all confused from my hint-hint? Be confused no more! Chapter 5 is here! (and by the way, you're all wrong. Probably.  A box of chocolate and some cookies to he/she that guessed right)

Disclaimer: If I owned Inu-Yasha that would mean I'm a filthy rich and ultra-famous manga-ka. I'm not.

Chapter 5

 Journey

"Inu-Yasha…" Kagome sobbed, pressing her face tightly into her guardian angel's chest. Inu-Yasha stroked her hair, remembering a time when he had felt such a sadness in his heart. He couldn't fathom which was worse, dying or having a loved one die, but he knew the separation hurt. He held her close, doing his best to comfort her, to ease her sorrows.

The eyes watched them from outside, the demon feeding off of the sorrow that the mortal was emitting. Soon, it thought to itself, soon. All it needed was for the angel to leave. Just to leave the mortal alone for a moment. One moment, that's all it needed. The mortal would never even scream. It laughed softly to itself, already imagining what the flesh would taste like. So sweet…

There! The angel was releasing the mortal, getting up. It was saying something, but dammit who cared! The mortal was listening, but half listening. The demon knew that the sorrow was too great, too delicious! It giggled to itself again. The angel was turning around now, yes, turning around and leaving! Oh, what a happy day! To feast on the soul of a Reborn! The demon waited, waited for the guardian to leave the room, to leave the house, and then, only then, did it slither inside.

Kagome almost didn't feel the strange temperature drop, so out of it she was, but she sensed it slightly. Just enough for her to notice. She remembered the last time she felt this type of energy, this chill down her spine, and she remembered what followed after that. Slowly she got up, steadied herself against the wall and wiped the tears from her face. She had to get out of here, to lead whatever it was away from her family and to reach Inu-Yasha in time. She took a deep breath and began walking down the hallway.

The feeling was getting stronger now, and she picked up speed. She had to get out of there and fast, she thought. Get to Inu-Yasha. It must have noticed her panic and hurry, because it was speeding up too. She started running through the hallway, her heart beating against her chest. She didn't want another repeat of yesterday.

"Inu-Ya-" she was cut off and hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her. Her scream was silenced by a heavy weight on her head, pushing her face into the soft carpet.

"Where's your pain?" a voice whispered into her ear; a demon voice. "Where's your sorrow? Where's your sadness?" Another weight added itself to her chest, pushing her down. She couldn't breath again, couldn't breath. What was with these demons, killing her by taking her breath away. Was it the only way a ghost could die? Was it because it had to be one of the most painful ways? Or was she just lucky, getting all the suffocating ones?

The weight lifted off her head and the rough hand wrapped itself around her neck. "Cry." The raspy voice came again. "Cry so I can feed off your sorrows. So I can taste your sweet, sweet flesh."

Kagome wanted to scream but she couldn't with the weight on her chest. Let go of me, she thought closing her eyes tightly, let go. Let go, let go, let go, let go, let go, let go! She felt a curious energy form inside her as she struggled.

"What's this?" the demon hissed, and the weight was released from her chest. Kagome opened her eyes and turned around, to see a strange, half-human half-freakish creation standing over her with burned hands. It glared at her with red eyes and snarled with a mouthful of teeth. "So, you have mastered your powers more then I thought! And The Master said you were newdead! Well Reborn, I will feast on you anyway!" it roared and lunged at her and Kagome screamed, rolling out of the way. She got up and began running, the snarling demon chasing after her with unbelievable speed. "Inu-Yasha!" Kagome shouted with a volume born of fear. She raced outside, where her guardian was nowhere to be seen. "INU-YASHA!"

"Kagome!" Inu-Yasha suddenly appeared, jumping down in front of her. His right hand was rested on his sword and he snarled at the demon. The twisted creature snarled back, his face twisted into a grotesque grin.

"So you are the guardian, you are the angel, protecting the Reborn, are you?" it asked in it's rasping voice. "Let me kill it, let me taste it, let me feed upon it's flesh!" Kagome felt very, very sick and hid behind Inu-Yasha.

The angel spat to the side and drew his sword. "Reborn, eh?" he glanced back at Kagome, who was now wondering just what a Reborn was. "So that's why you assholes are always after Kagome. Well guess what," he positioned himself ready for battle. "You can't have her!"

The demon hissed in it's laughter. "But The Master says, The Master orders, I can taste flesh, I can taste Reborn. I dearly, dearly want to eat, little angel."

"The Master?" Inu-Yasha growled, his grip on his sword tightening. The demon hissed some more.

"Yes, yes, The Master, my Master. Heard of him, have you not, little half? Naraku be his name, The Master Naraku, yes indeed." The thing danced around, giggling insanely.

Naraku? Kagome's eyes widened. Wasn't that the demon that Miroku said killed him, the name that got such a reaction out of Inu-Yasha? At that thought she turned to look at her guardian, who was glaring the utmost death upon the demon.

"You bastard…." Inu-Yasha snarled. "Just because I screwed up once…" he tightened his grip on the sword so hard Kagome thought he was going to break the handle. Then she felt a large flash of dark energy and before her eyes Inu-Yasha's katana transformed into a giant, magnificent sword. Inu-Yasha snarled and raised the sword above his head. "Doesn't mean I'm going to fuckin' screw up AGAIN! Tetsusaiga!"

 He swung the sword, cutting the demon in half and in a flash of brilliant youki and light, the demon was gone. Kagome watched as Inu-Yasha stood there, breathing heavily, his eyes not leaving where the demon had once stood. The sword changed back to it's original state but Inu-Yasha didn't seem to notice. To Kagome, he seemed trapped in his own little world.

"Reborn eh… fuckin' bastard. So I screwed up once, I'm not letting that asshole kill her again. That's all he wants, isn't it? Hasn't had enough fuckin' fun, has he? Well I'll show him. I'll kill him, just like I promised. I never break a promise." He muttered, then seemed to remember where he was. He stood up, put the sword back into it's sheath and turned around. He walked back over to Kagome, who wasn't quite sure whether she should be thanking him or running away now. He looked her straight in the eye. "You 'k?" he asked.

Kagome nodded, a little relieved he wasn't going to go insane and kill her. Inu-Yasha stood there for a minute, studying her face. Then an ironic smirk appeared on his face and he turned away. "Fuckin' right." He muttered, before beginning to walk away. He turned back and looked at Kagome. "You coming?" he asked. Kagome recomposed herself and raced after her guardian, now more then ever afraid to be separated from him.

"Reborn? Are you sure?" Miroku asked, concern on his face. He looked over at where Kagome and Sango were talking and digested everything Inu-Yasha had just told him. The angel followed his gaze and snorted, causing Miroku to look back at him. Shippo looked concerned as well.

"If she was a Reborn, then who is she?" the little fox-angel muttered. "And why would Naraku send a flunky like him after her?"

"Playing." Inu-Yasha spat angrily. "He's playing with us. It's how he operates, like everything's just a game to him. A sick, twisted game where he makes up the rules. It's disgusting." He looked back over at the girls, as Kagome retold the battle to Sango. "Ever since Kagome was little, demons had been going after her more so then usual. I thought it just might be because there are more demons in the area then before; looks like I was wrong." He turned back to Miroku and Shippo before getting up and leaving to think alone. The other two let him leave.

Kagome watched Inu-Yasha leave, then turned back to Sango. She was trying to piece everything together, but nothing seemed to fall into place. It was like this was a giant jigsaw puzzle, and half the pieces were missing. What was a Reborn? Who was Naraku and why did he have ties with Inu-Yasha? Why did he kill Miroku? And where did she fall into this? She hadn't heard the boys' conversation but she was certain it was about what the demon said.

"Kagome? You alright?" Sango broke through Kagome's thoughts and the girl shook her head to clear it. "Oh, sorry Sango. Where was I?"

"You were telling me about Inu-Yasha's sword." Sango said, stroking Kirrara's two fluffy tails.

"Oh right." Kagome remembered now. "It… changed somehow. Because a completely different sword. He called it Tetsusaiga or something like that."

"Tetsusaiga?" Sango looked at Kagome, and then at Kirrara. All these strange names: Reborn, Naraku, Tetsusaiga. "That's an odd name for a sword."

Kagome nodded. There certainly was something peculiar about it, and not just the name. "It had the strangest energy." She mused aloud. "It wasn't like yours, or mine or the angels. It was dark and powerful, more like the demons." And like Inu-Yasha's, she added mentally. She had noticed that Inu-Yasha's energy felt darker and deeper then the other two angels she met, but decided to keep it to herself. But now that the Tetsusaiga problem had arisen…

"Waitaminute," Sango interrupted her. "What do you mean, energy?"

Kagome blinked at her, confused. "Energy, you know, like the aura. Haven't you noticed that when you die everything seems to get a different aura, an energy level? It's…" she waved her hands in the air absentmindedly, trying to find a good way to explain. "It's like way somebody feels when you first meet them, not physically, but like a sixth sense or something, you know?"

She didn't like the look Sango was giving her. "No," Sango said slowly. "I don't know. Alive or dead I've seen people the same way. No aura, no energy, no nothing."

"But…" Kagome trailed off. Sango didn't feel the difference? At all? Maybe I should ask Miroku, she thought, that way we'll see which one of us is… is different. She opened her mouth but Sango beat her to it.

"Houshi-sama! Get over here!" she shouted. Miroku and Shippo looked up at them, then got up and came over. Miroku sat down beside Sango and held his hands up to show her where they were as a gesture of peace. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Sango looked over at Kagome worriedly. "Miroku," she turned back to him, trying to sound as casual as possible. "Do you feel… oh, how do I put this?" she paused for a second, trying to find a way to say it without Miroku making some type of perverted comment or action. "Can you like, do you, when you died did it seem that the living people changed?"

Miroku looked a little confused at the question. "Changed? In what way?"

"Like an aura." Kagome tried explaining. "It's kind like a small feeling of energy, a sense. Like a glow around the person, except you can't see it, only feel it." She knew she was either bad at explaining things or the odd one out when Miroku's face mirrored that of Sangos. The monk looked at Sango then back at Kagome, trying to stay calm although inwardly he was very, very worried. "So how do our… auras feel?" he asked, trying his hardest not to sound perverted. This was no laughing matter.

Kagome felt like some freak being experimented on by scientists, but answered his question anyway. "Like…" she concentrated. "Well Sango's is a deep red feel and yours is a deep violet and you both feel confused. Kirrara and Shippo both have a sort of… light feel to them. Most demons feel really dark." She knew she wasn't getting anywhere with this and doing as good a job confusing herself as with confusing all the rest. She was getting frustrated and wished she had just never brought it up. "Listen, I just noticed this at first, so maybe I'm just going crazy or something! I sense things and that's all!"

Sango, Kirrara, Miroku and Shippo all looked at each other, then back at Kagome. "Does Inu-Yasha know about this, Kagome?" Sango asked quietly.

"Do I know about what?" Inu-Yasha's voice came from behind them and they all jumped up and turned to see the red-garbed angel standing behind them, looking a bit miffed at being left out of what seemed to be an important discussion. "Well?" he barked after a moment with no one talking. "What do I know about?"

"Uh…" there was a moment's hesitation as everyone wondered if they should tell him or not. Miroku decided to take the matter into his own hands. "Inu-Yasha, did you know about Kagome's unique abilities to sense the aura of the living and otherwise?" he asked, keeping it as calm and formal as possible.

Inu-Yasha's reaction was anything but calm and formal. His eyes widened and he folded his ears back as he looked from Miroku to Kagome to Sango to Kagome and back to Miroku. "She can fuckin' WHAT?!" he freaked out, grabbing Miroku by the collar. "What did you fuckin' say?!"

"Inu-Yasha, sit!" Kagome shouted, sending Inu-Yasha slamming downwards. (luckily he let go of Miroku first, although Miroku did land rather hard on his rear end. It was better then having Inu-Yasha fall on him) As Inu-Yasha swore as always and pushed himself up. He seemed more angry, however, at what Miroku said rather then Kagome's use of 'the word' and quickly walked over to Kagome. She looked at him and slid backwards a bit. She didn't like the look in his eyes at all: worry, anger and most of all, fear. He squatted down and looked her straight in the eye. Then he grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Is this true?!" he shouted.

"SIT!" Kagome shouted and Inu-Yasha fell.

Face first onto her lap.

Kagome screamed, jumped up and hid behind Sango, who looked undecided as to whether she should laugh or not, while Miroku already made his decision and was laughing his head off. Shippo and Kirrara exchanged smirks at their fellow angel's misfortunes, glad that the dark mood of the situation had been lightened at least. Inu-Yasha sat up, his face as red as his kimono, and kept his back to the rest of the group, pouting. "Try to understand something and everyone gets on your case." He grumbled.

"It's all right Inu-Yasha," Sango tried to calm down the rest of the group, managing to bring Kagome down to low octave hysterics and kicked Miroku so he would get the point, which he did. The older girl picked up Kirrara, who aided calming Kagome down by nuzzling against her cheek. Sango looked over at the furious dog-eared boy. "What's so special about Kagome feeling energies anyway?"

Inu-Yasha visibly stiffened, but kept his back to the group. "Nothing." He muttered almost inaudibly. Sango frowned and was about to reprimand him for getting so worked up over 'nothing', but Miroku beat her to it.

"Does it have anything to do with her being a Reborn?" he asked. Inu-Yasha got up and walked over to the monk and glared at him. "What did we discuss about keeping this quiet?" he growled between clenched fangs. Miroku laughed nervously as his own tiny 'guardian' hid behind his back. Stupid Shippo, he was supposed to be protecting him, not hiding from others of his kind, even if they were nearly demonic themselves.

"What is a Reborn?" Kagome asked, turning everyone's attention to her. "I keep getting called that, but I don't even know what it means. Is it bad or something?" She noticed that Shippo, Miroku and Inu-Yasha, even Kirrara, were avoiding her gaze. "Hey, look at me!"

"Well, Reborns don't happen very often." Shippo said, still not looking at Kagome. "It's… it's hard to explain."

"Does it have something to do with this Naraku guy?" Kagome asked, her focus on Shippo so that she didn't see Inu-Yasha flinch, although Sango did. The guys didn't answer, so Kagome tried again. "Who is this Naraku guy anyway? If he's trying to kill me, I think I have a right to know!"

There was a pause as the others thought about this answer. Finally Miroku sighed and turned to Kagome. "I suppose you should learn a bit about the demon." He said, earning him glances from the rest; worried by Shippo, curious by Sango and Kirrara and angry from, surprise, surprise, Inu-Yasha. "You see," he explained. "Naraku is a powerful demon from Hell, whose intentions aren't really known. He existed many, many years ago and was slain by a group of adventurers, including my ancestor, but unfortunately has been… " He searched for a better choice of words but found none. "…reborn again. When I found out about this, I set out to kill him as my many-times-great grandfather did before me. However, Naraku is much more powerful then he used to be, and has gained a legion of demons, all who refer to him as 'The Master'. He's much stronger then before and nearly has the power of a Great Demon. Just before he killed me, he cursed my afterlife with this Air Rip."

He looked at his gloved and beaded right hand, which Kagome remembered he was going to use in the fight where she met him before Shippo stopped him. "This Air Rip in the palm of my hand can be useful; it can suck up anything into it's void, much like a black hole. However, just before my final day in the after life it will open up and swallow me whole, destroying me completely. Only this rosary keeps it from sucking up everything in a ten meter radius right now."

"Miroku…" Kagome said, trying to think of some way to cheer a person up when they're facing total destruction of their soul. However, Sango interrupted her.

"Waitaminute, you said the demons that followed Naraku refer to him as 'The Master'?" She asked roughly. Kagome looked at Sango in surprise, seeing the same fire in her friends eyes as when they had first met. Miroku also looked at the girl with mild bewilderment.

"Yes, that's what they refer to him now. It's either a stupid term of respect or all of his demon followers believe in the Beetlejuice syndrome and think he'll pop up if they say his name to often." Miroku snorted. Sango either didn't get the joke or didn't find it funny. Instead she was looking at Kirrara, grim determination in her eyes.

"I-I was killed by a… by a demon too." She said slowly, running back over sentences as if trying to cover up something or, more likely, not knowing how to phrase it. "A demon that possessed my brother. He made my brother kill me and my family. And…" she choked, fighting the lumps in her chest and throat. "He referred to his boss as 'The Master'. It was always 'The Master' this and 'The Master' that…" her voice trailed off.

Kagome gasped. She had known Sango had been killed, but not that it was by the hand of her brother. Sango sat here, staring at her clenched fists in her lap. Kagome put a hand on her friends shoulder. "Sango-"

"Let's go." Sango lifter her head up, that familiar fire burning in her eyes. "We all have a score to settle with Naraku." She smiled darkly, looking from Miroku to Inu-Yasha. "Let's go kill the bastard."

Inu-Yasha smirked. You had to admire the spunk in these mortals these days. All action and no brains… it's little wonder they got themselves killed so quickly.

"We're with you." Kagome said, earning looks from both her guardian and Miroku. She stood up, a look in her eyes as fierce as Sango's. "I don't know this Naraku guy, but he sounds like a total ass. I say we go after him and stop him before he hurts anymore people."

And then there were those who were either too naïve or too stupid to count as spunk, Inu-Yasha added mentally, looking at his task. She helped Sango up, a determined look on her face, and looked over at Inu-Yasha. She smiled and pointed her finger to the sky.

"I, Higurashi Kagome, swear on my afterlife that I will do everything in my power to kill this Naraku guy before my year is up!" She vowed. Sango and Kirrara looked at each other, unsure of how to react on Kagome's attitude. Then they both decided that no harm could come of it, and whatever Kagome had caught appeared to be contagious. Sango put up her hand and placed it on top of Kagome's, lowering it a bit. "And I, Taichisa Sango, vow to protect my best friends life at all costs and revenge my family!"

Inu-Yasha watched this strange procession, as Kirrara added her paw and vowed to protect Sango (although all Kagome heard were meows) and the dog-eared angel tried to understand just what was going on.

"You have to admit, they have spunk." Miroku said beside him. Inu-Yasha just looked at him as if he were insane, watching Miroku and Shippo go up and add their own vows to slay the evil demon, much to the delight of the girls when Shippo tried to look important and ended up looking cute. Now everyone was looking at him. "What?" He protested, knowing he hadn't done anything wrong this time.

"Aren't you going to join us?" Kagome asked in that voice that always got her everything. He should know, he'd seen her do it enough times. Inu-Yasha just looked at them all, convinced they had snapped.

"You have a score to settle with Naraku too, don't you?" Miroku asked.

"And wouldn't it feel good to kick his ass?" Sango said, an evil grin on her face.

"C'mon, it'll be an adventure!" Shippo squeaked/bounced and Kirrara nodded, adding in a 'mew'. Somehow, Inu-Yasha thought, there just wasn't something appealing about going for an 'adventure' with Shippo. But everyone else had a point.

"Well…" he started uncertainly, then stopped. What the hell was he thinking? Of course he had a score to settle with Naraku! Look at all the shit he had done, and Inu-Yasha knew he'd do ever more if he wasn't stopped. Besides, he killed him once and he was going to do it again. He looked at the group, grinning a fanged grin that made him look dangerous and more demonic then angelic, and he walked over to the group.

"You guys are all a bunch of idiots." He said, earning a few glares (Shippo and Sango), a sigh at his attitude (Miroku) and the 's' and ''i' of his dreaded word from Kagome before he interrupted with the rest of his sentence. "But I'm joining along anyway."

He placed a clawed hand onto everyone else's.

End chapter 5

And another one bites the dust! The plot's getting a nice little push forwards now and things should be starting to pick up! Are you all excited? Can you see where this is going? Can you tell me, so I have an idea too? Just kidding.

I got to watch more Inu-Yasha and I just love his full youkai self! I'm not an Inu-Yasha fangirl like my sister, so she was traumatized while I found it rather amusing. And his voice is really, really cool. I'm so glad I don't have to watch the English one. When they finally get to that episode ('when' being the operative word) they're probably going to ruin it. Dubbers always do.

And I'd just like to add that Kagura is really, really trying hard to get to the top of the 'Inu-Yasha characters I hate the most'. Kikyou's still beating her, but just barely. I really can't stand Kagura.

And one final note: I wanna be Rin!

Well, that's all for today's little Rant-'o'-Ama. See you all Wednesday for instalment number 6!

~Ama~