Disclaimer – To make this short and simple, this is officially the disclaimer for this entire story. So, without further ado, I do not claim any rights to Rumiko Takahashi's Inuyasha or any of the characters present in said story. Amen.

A/N - Alrighty then, I have practically nothing to say, so just make a note that any and every flashback sequence will be marked with ()()()()() at the beginning and ()()()()() at the end. Not so hard to remember, now is it? And, before you read, my apologies fort any grammatical and/or spelling errors that you might find in here. I actually just started revamping this story and stabbing every mistake I can find, but my English skills probably aren't that great in the first place. : D Oops?

With You

Chapter 1

Oh, the Woes

Kagome groaned miserably as she pressed her forehead to her knees in place of knocking it on the brick wall. Or, should it be said, the moldy brick wall. Eew… 'Why, in the name of nobility, am I still here?' was one of many questions stumbling around in her head. The castle guards really should have been out looking for the princess of their own kingdom. That's what she was: a princess and a priestess. That's what she had been, at least, until she was unfairly kidnapped and tossed into a dark, dismal, and ever-so-stereotypical dungeon cell.

Kagome dropped wearily onto the stone floor, picked up her favorite black rock, and scratched another disproportional rodent onto the dull surface of the granite. She was downright bored.

Tugging her sleeves over her fingertips, Kagome shook her head and shivered slightly. Speaking of the castle, it was a great deal comfier there; there was always something warm and fuzzy conveniently bunched up in a cupboard when one was cold. There weren't exactly a whole lot of warm, fuzzy things here.

Environs aside, Kagome was, to begin with, at a loss of just how whoever had miraculously managed to kidnap her had done so. Mom had always said that their castle was more secure than any other in this part of the world.

"Hey, Souta, can you tell Mom I'll be outside, please?" Kagome asked her younger brother, ruffling his hair as she passed.

Souta shot her a disapproving frown. "But didn't she tell you that before you did anything else, you had to-"

"I'll do it later," she interrupted, continuing to walk away. "I promise." She'd have plenty of time to study when she got back. Just one more glimpse of sunlight before both her and Mr. Sunshine hit the sack was all she wanted.

"But, Sis!" whined the younger of two with exaggerated shaking of the head. "I guess I can tell her…"

"Thanks, Souta!"

Kagome skipped up the marble steps leading to her room and gripped the brass door handle. She tried repeatedly to turn it, but it wouldn't budge. Her brow furrowed indignantly. Damn thing…should have asked for a replacement weeks ago. "Souta!" she stepped back from the door and barked, "Sooooouta!"

"What!" came the distant reply.

"Can you come here for a second, please?"

"Err, not now!"

She paused, curled her lip, and shouted, "Why? What are you doing?"

"Stuff!"

Kagome sighed in defeat and retreated to the front entrance; little brothers will be little brothers.

Once she reached the large stone doorway, Kagome inched past the snoring gateman, resisting the cruel temptation to shout "BOO!" in his ear, and rushed off across the grounds.

On one dreadfully miserable day so very long ago, a younger, smaller Kagome had burst out those doors and ran through the grounds until she had found the quietest, most forlorn of places and sat down to be alone. So, naturally, that place was precious to her.

This place of hers was actually a fairly small hill near the boundaries: barely big enough, in her opinion, to even earn the title of 'hill.' It wasn't tall or wide, and it was barely even round, but it was quite pretty. In the spring and summer months, tiger lilies projected through the untamed grass, and purple and white lilacs littered themselves throughout. It being late fall, only the withering grass and a few sparse dandelions remained.

A satisfied breath drifted through the thick evening air as Kagome languorously trudged through the grass. Her sixteenth birthday had been only one month ago, and the solitary drawback was the constant pestering of her overprotective mother about marriage and things of such nature. Quite frankly, she had little to no desire to get married anytime within the next three or four years. The average girl was engaged before eighteen or nineteen, but Kagome was never one to do things the normal way. Besides, love was something that she didn't feel for any male right then. Any except Souta, that is.

But oh, how her mother pushed the idea. She pushed it to Kagome, Kagome pushed it off the nearest cliff. Her mother was set on her marrying a prince of sorts, and a wealthy one at that. Kagome knew that she was indeed a mother and, therefore, acted they way she did purely by instinct, but the fact that her mother was supporting that crazy law the council was trying to pass that required her to marry a prince was a little upsetting. It was all simply ridiculous, if you asked her.

Kagome blinked hard to stop her flow of thought; this wasn't the type of thing she enjoyed dwelling on when she didn't need to.

Kagome tugged her shawl tighter over her shoulders. Was it just her, or was that breeze a little sudden? She shook her head and gave it no further thought.

Ah, it was nice to be alone for once…

…or so she thought.

Kagome froze as a rough hand clamped over her mouth and a fold of prickly material pulled over her eyes. "Don't make any noise unless you want to get yourself in trouble, alright?"

Kagome nodded and attempted fruitlessly to gulp down the cold lump forming in her throat. Another rough hand gripped her upper arm and led her quickly down the hill. She could feel the familiar sensation of tears rising, but she refused to consider crying. Risking the anger of this moody thug didn't sound like the best of ideas…

Her eyes snapped open from under the blindfold. She had to sneeze…!

Kagome officially deemed herself very, very pathetic.

She devoured what stray nips of willpower she had and bit her lower lip. She could hold in a sneeze, couldn't she?

One…two…three…

"Tch…!" The guard turned slightly to face her; she couldn't see him, but she could feel his eyes boring through the blindfold.

"What was that?" he asked her in an irritable tone. Aw, great, the snippy one…

Kagome shifted uncomfortably. "A mouse?"

"Is that so?" he replied, sounding annoyed to some point. A few other voices could be heard sniggering quietly among themselves.

"Well?" he pressured impatiently.

"It was! I swear! I think I saw it run that way." She raised her arm and pointed randomly.

A pregnant pause stretched around them before the burly man spoke. "Shut her up. She's just being annoying," he grumbled and turned away from her.

Something hard and heavy struck the back of Kagome's head. She slumped listlessly to the ground as her vision went from very dark to very black.

Kagome groaned at the memory, or what she had of it, and pressed her fingertips to her temples. Beyond the point of being knocked out, she didn't remember anything. Her sandals had gotten lost somewhere along the line, and she still didn't know what they'd done with her poor old shawl; that one had been from her long-deceased grandmother.

This experience was steadily climbing to the top of her 'most horrible times in my life' list. There was only one day in competition with it for first place… but she'd recalled enough bad memories for one day.

"I've been in this cell for what, 3 weeks?" she glanced despairingly at her wall chart. Would she ever get out?

Honestly, though—if she didn't escape this pathetic little cell soon, she was going to end up certifiably insane. There had to be some way out. Then again, maybe there wasn't; she might never escape from this hole, she might end up dying in here, and-

No! No. She wasn't going to die in there, and she was going to get out, even if she had to resort to eating her way through the walls to do so.

Kagome only hoped she didn't lose her sanity in the process…

Inuyasha panted as he dashed through the crowded village streets, tightly grasping his 'borrowed' food within his claws. Not that he planned to return it or anything, he just preferred to use the term 'borrowed' instead of 'stolen' because, actually, he wasn't really a thief… But hey, he didn't exactly have any money to buy food with, so he had to resort to 'borrowing' it.

It wasn't his fault he didn't have the money; no one would give him any. He couldn't get a job because there wasn't a single good soul that would hire him - no one would have a hanyou.

Even starting a business of his own was completely out of the question. He didn't specialize in anything, he wasn't a farmer or a trader, and people would have just continued to purchase their goods elsewhere anyway.

And he would not just run out into the woods and kill and eat the first thing he saw. Just about everything in the bush these days had rabies or some other crazy disease, and, personally, he didn't fancy being the idea of being diseased.

So, what was his only choice--his last resort? 'Borrowing' from the local villagers.

Inuyasha had waited for the perfect moment, and it had finally come. The orchard-keeper had just left his fruits stand to argue with his angry business rival across the village road. All he had to do was run up and snitch what he came for and get away before anybody spotted him playing thief.

He took a deep breath and set his eyes on the prize. "Ready…set…go!" seven-year-old Inuyasha murmured as he dashed from his hiding spot and made a beeline to the apple basket that the obese orchard keeper had been tending.

It was right there, just a few more inches away from him. A little more and he'd be able to grab it-

"Hey, you! What do you think you're doing?"

Inuyasha froze.

"Hey!" the man shouted as he started back to his stand upon realizing what the dog-eared boy was out for.

Oh dear. Wasn't this the part where he ran?

Inuyasha snatched two plump apples and ran for the bushes near the side of the beaten road. He'd be safe on the other side.

"Gotcha!"

Or not. "You little runt! What do you think you're doing with my apples, eh!" the orchard keeper barked as he grabbed one of the tiny white ears poking out from Inuyasha's hair.

Inuyasha gave a pained screech and clenched his fists as the man dragged him scruffily over to the other side of the shrubs. "Let go! That hurts! Let go of my ear!" he screamed as he kicked at the man's legs.

The man ignored him, grabbed him by the arms, and threw him to the ground outside of the village boundaries; his head smashed against a protruding rock.

He closed his eyes and hissed in pain as the rock gashed the back of his head and the apples he grasped so tightly fell to the feet of his pursuer. His consciousness remained long enough for him to hear the man's last comment.

"And don't come back to this village, you filthy hanyou!"

Flash

His jaw stiffened, and he shook his head. Not pleasant thoughts.

Inuyasha chuckled as he glanced at the old farmer running after him. "Hmph," he scoffed at the pace of the little man. He spared a second glance behind him to find that the city officials were tagging along as well.

He sneered; they were only human, and he was half demon. They would never catch him.

So he kept running on his merry way, heading towards the river. He'd done this a million times, so it had essentially become second nature – with the exception of being chased by that many guards… usually there less. Why so many?

"Doesn't matter." He shrugged indifferently.

He was almost to the river anyway; all he had to do was go between those two cottages ahead then take a flying leap across the river. Then he'd be-

The sharp point of an arrow skimmed his left shoulder and several more zipped past him. It wouldn't have bothered him as much if the arrows had come from behind him, where all the guards had been following from, but they hadn't. They'd come from in front.

Inuyasha was considerably annoyed. They'd never actually devised any plans to capture him before, so why now?

He dodged another flock of arrows and veered his course to the right instead of trying to run right through. Only to find that they were there too, and they were also hiding out to his left.

He cursed under his breath. He really didn't want to kill all of them, but he would if he really really had to. Either that or be captured himself, which wasn't an option.

So he resorted to just running away from them; he could get past easily.

Maybe.

Kagome frowned and grabbed her rock to cross out another escape plan; she hadn't thought of anything reasonable yet.

She'd considered bribing the guards to let her out by assuring them that if they could help her escape, she'd give them gold, silver, or whatever else they wanted. And, of course, she would have given them some, but not much. They seemed like pretty greedy people. But she eventually passed that plan off as ludicrous.

Chiseling her way through the wall was another option. If she worked at it day and night, she might be out of there in a few weeks, but she figured that the guards would have found her out before she even made a hole the size of a peanut. Besides, it sounded tiring, so she scrapped that plan.

She figured she could always scream 'FIRE!' until somebody let her out of there, but really, the guards here weren't that stupid…

Kagome eventually concluded that she might have to go with her original plan of chewing right through the walls. Ah, that sounded like loads of fun…

She sighed; her ideas were snowballing downhill.

Kagome soon resumed banging her head against the wall. At least she didn't have to think so hard when she did that; but after one knock she heard some commotion outside her cell door. It was nearly inaudible from where she was sitting, so she stood and padded her way across the cold floor to press her ear to the door.

"…Kusaki and Terashi. All of you are needed immediately in the second northeastern village! They're having some trouble with a hanyou boy, and backup is needed as soon as possible!" an older male voice shouted.

"With the hanyou, sir? Haven't they already made the plans, and-"

"Just do as you're told, Kusaki." The older man said.

Kagome stepped back from the door and put her fingers to her lips. Could they really have that much trouble with a hanyou? Why did they want to catch him, anyway?

She shrugged it off; she should probably get some sleep...

Tottering back to her bed, she slipped her legs under the sheets and let the rest of her body slide down with them.

Ah…sleeping was probably her favorite thing to do. It wasn't so cold then.

Not to mention that it was usually the most peaceful thing - emphasis on the word 'usually' because right then she couldn't sleep at all. There was an irritating tapping and scraping against the wall next to her that was keeping her awake.

After laying for at very least ten or fifteen minutes and trying to block out the noise, she gave an impatient growl and turned a glare on the wall.

"Hey," Kagome snapped, "stop it right now. I'm not kidding."

Amazingly enough, it stopped. She hadn't even expected to be heard.

She sat up in bed and focused her attention on the wall as if expecting it to do something incredible. She leaned closer and trained her hearing on it. There it was – the little scraping noise! Except it was a bit different this time. Earlier it had sounded like chiseling and scratching, but now it just sounded like… like two rocks sliding against each other.

Kagome frowned and called to whoever was on the other side, "Um, hello?" No response. "Hey…! Is anybody over there?" She leaned down quickly, pressing her ear to the wall and awaiting an answer.

"Just a second…!" came a strained old voice.

Wow - an answer. The world was pretty exciting today…

"Got it!"

"Got what? Got what?" Kagome questioned as she leaned lower, toward the voice.

"This!"

She knelt down by the wall, expecting once again some sort of miracle or strange happening, but nothing changed.

"I think…" She stopped speaking to watch a brick slide from its place in the wall and drop onto the floor. Kagome blinked in surprise and jumped back as an old, yet feminine hand extended from the new hole in the wall, waiting to be received.

"Good evening - I am called Kaede. And what is your name, child?"

She was stunned. Had this lady actually just cut a brick out of the wall? "Kagome - Kagome Higurashi," the princess sputtered and shook the elderly woman's hand, still dumbfounded.

Kaede wheezed and released Kagome's hand. Predictable…whenever someone recognized her for who she was they changed demeanor. It was an unspoken rule that she should not be treated as a normal person, of course. She was Princess Kagome Higurashi, the great and powerful miko, not some ordinary girl with an ordinary home and an ordinary family. Nope.

"My goodness! Princess, what has happened? How is it that you have ended up in a place such as this?" the woman asked anxiously.

Kagome paused for a moment and replied quietly, "I was kidnapped three weeks ago, and this is where they brought me." She leaned against the wall and hurriedly changed topics. "You wouldn't happen to know where we are, would you?"

"Why Princess Dear," Kaede started, "we're in the northern kingdom, in one of Lord Naraku's castles. You didn't know?" She raised an eyebrow as she peered through the small opening at Kagome.

Kagome turned her eyes to the floor and picked up her rock to make some fresh marks on the cement. She answered Kaede with a nod and floated off into her thoughts which, oddly, included a certain hanyou boy. "I wonder…" she hummed.

"What is, dear?" Kaede prodded once again.

"It's nothing…" Kagome mumbled, paying no attention to Kaede's questions.

Kaede frowned and bid the princess a quick 'good night,' wandering into bed herself and leaving Kagome to her thoughts.

A/N – Constructive criticism please. : )

I'm going to cry when (after all my editing) no one thinks that this is any different than the first run through… But I guess that's okay because I still don't really like it.