IMPORTANT AN: Okay, so I finally updated! Woohoo! I also went back and fixed a few things in the first three chapters, could you PLEASE tell me if it's any easire to follow. I clicked the "bar" thing to space it out more, I'm just not sure if it actually worked.If you could let me know, that would be great!

Chapter Four

He had never felt pain like this before. A slow, dull ache stabbed at his heart and throbbed throughout his entire body. It felt like he was being ripped in two. 'Kikyou is dead. How could I have allowed something like this to happen?'

The pain of losing Kikyou brought with it a whole new fear for Kagome. Everyone he ever got close to ended up dying, he was positive of this now. His mother, his father, and now Kikyou. He was worried that if he remained close to Kagome that she would eventually be hurt, too. Or even worse, that she would be killed like all the others.

As a child, Inuyasha was taunted by the village children for being a "freak". They constantly told him that no one would ever want to get close to him because he would attack them. They made it sound as if he had some kind of incurable disease that spread to those who were brave enough to come near him. He was cursed. His mother would tell him that they were just being children and to ignore them, that what they said had no real truth behind it. But, now, Inuyasha was beginning to believe that maybe what they had yelled at him all those times was true. Maybe he was cursed to be alone for the rest of eternity. Either that, or the fates had made a sick game out of messing with his life.

Inuyasha hung his head in shame as he finally pulled his tired body off of the floor of the well house. He was exhausted and every movement made his muscles ache. He wanted to lie down and cry his heart out over the loss of his former love, but he picked himself up and slowly made his was towards Kagome's home.

The smell of freshly made oden reached his nostrils before Inuyasha even reached the front door. A slight smile graced his lips at the closeness of Kagome's family. He never knew what it was like to have a family that loved him, but he picked up on a small feeling that radiated from the Higurashi household. Everyone cared about everyone else, it was like a bond that was forged centuries ago. Inuyasha wanted desperately to place himself in the middle of her family and designate a position for himself, but he knew that it was not his family to intrude on.

Stopping just before he reached the door, Inuyasha listened in on the hushed voices coming from the kitchen table. They were having a conversation, one that sounded important. Swiveling his dog-ears on top of his head to get a better angle to hear the conversation, Inuyasha placed the side of his head to the door.

"Jii-chan, what am I going to do? Inuyasha is going to freak out when I tell him." It was Kagome's voice, she sounded stressed out over something.

'Tell me what?' Inuyasha asked himself in confusion.

"Kagome, you should not worry about this right now. He will find out on his own." Her grandfather replied. Inuyasha could almost picture the stern look on the old man's face.

"But I feel like I should tell him. He has a right to know!"

"Dear, you need to keep the Shikon no Tama safe."

'Shikon no Tama! But...the Shikon no Tama was destroyed when I made the wish for the well to stay open!' Inuyasha's mind began to race a mile a minute with the idea of the sacred jewel being back. 'How is this possible?'

"How did it get back in this time? It was destroyed when Inuyasha made his wish!" Kagome nearly shouted. There was the sound of a chair being roughly pushed back, followed by the patter of feet rushing up the old wooden stairs. "It must have something to do with Kikyou's death, I just know it." Kagome whispered as she rushed up the stairs, but Inuyasha heard her.

New pain rushed back into Inuyasha's system as he once again remembered that Kikyou was dead. So many things were happening at once, and the hanyou didn't know how to deal with all of them. First, he goes back to Sengoku Jidai to think over what happened at the diner, only to find Kikyou's bloody body sprawled out beneath the Goshinboku. Then he comes back to the future to hear that the Shikon no Tama has been resurrected once more. 'Something is definitely wrong.'

Taking a frantic look around the backyard, Inuyasha quickly jumped up to the second story of the house. He tapped on the window impatiently to get Kagome's attention, but when she didn't open it he simply slammed it open on his own.

"Kagome, we need to talk!" Inuyasha shouted as he stepped into her air-conditioned room. He looked about with a sense of panic when he realized that she wasn't in her room.

'But I could have sworn that I heard her run up the stairs...'

The sound of water turning on in the shower down the hall caught Inuyasha's attention as he stormed out into the hallway. Pounding an angry fist on the thick wooden door to the bathroom, the hanyou grumbled a series of curses under his breath. He could smell Kagome behind the door, he knew that she was in there.

"Kagome, open up! We need to talk, NOW!" Several emotions were running through Inuyasha veins: sorrow, grief, confusion, and anger; but anger was the easiest one to deal with. "Kagome!" He heard the water shut of in the shower. There was a pause before the doorknob began to turn slightly before the door opened a crack.

Steam rushed from the heated bathroom, trying desperately to escape the confines of the muggy room. Inuyasha's eyes fell on the girl before him with a towel wrapped around her thin frame, her face flustered from the heat and her hair pulled up messily into a cotton towel. All of the insults he was about to throw at her flew out the window when he saw the half-naked girl in front of him. All he could do was stare at her.

"What is it, Inuyasha!" Kagome nearly screamed as she opened the door. She was startled to see Inuyasha standing there with his mouth practically reaching the floor. "Inuyasha?"

"Huh?" Inuyasha asked with a dazed look in his eyes. Suddenly snapping back to reality, Inuyasha licked his lips to clear out the dryness that was trying to take over roof of his mouth. "Oh, yeah. We need to talk, Kagome."

She noticed that his voice had suddenly changed from being rough and demanding to being soft and almost shy. His head was hung low and his bangs were shadowing his amber eyes, making it nearly impossible to tell what he was thinking.

"Well, can't it wait until I'm done taking my shower?" Kagome pleaded, wrapping the towel tighter around her body. Her wet hair flung in multiple directions, spraying Inuyasha with a fine mist of water, as she turned around and prepared to close the door in Inuyasha's face. Before she could close the door completely, a clawed hand stopped it and pried it open again.

"No, Kagome, it can't wait. It's very important, it's about the Shikon no Tama." Inuyasha spoke loudly, his normal arrogance returning to his voice.

'He knows about the jewel? He must have overheard our conversation earlier!' Kagome began to panic as she glanced behind her at the sparkling jewel on the bathroom counter.

"Inuyasha, I was going to tell you-" She was cut off by Inuyasha's fingers being placed gently over her lips, silently telling her to speak no further. She stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out what was running through his head. The ears on top of Inuyasha's head fell back to rest on the top of his head as he leaned in and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"I know, Kagome. I didn't mean to freak out like that. It's just that so many things have happened today that I don't know what to do." He paused for a moment to take in a breath of air before continuing. "Kagome, I heard you talking to your grandfather about the Shikon no Tama. What's going on?"

"I don't know, Inuyasha." She answered truthfully. "Do you think that it might have something to do with Kik-" She stopped suddenly when she noticed Inuyasha's ears droop. "Listen, let me get dressed, then we can talk."

Inuyasha gave a sad nod before allowing her to return to the bathroom. Instead of waiting out in the hallway, he went back to her bedroom and sat down at her desk.

'I'm never going to be able to put Kikyou in the past, am I? Do I really want to?' The memory of Kikyou's bloodstained face shot through his mind as Inuyasha slammed his head down hard on the wooden desk. 'Why do things have to be so hard? Goddamnit!' Inuyasha began banging his head on the desk and was about to slam his skull right through it when he heard the bedroom door open.

Turning around with a slightly dazed expression on his face, Inuyasha took in the sight of Kagome standing there in a pair of teddy-bear pajamas with her hair wrapped in a wet towel. She looked a little exasperated as she sat down on her bed and began to towel-dry her hair. Inuyasha could slightly see the warm glow of the pink jewel from beneath her thin cotton T-Shirt.

'So, there it is.' Inuyasha thought with malice.

"So, where did you find it?" Inuyasha cut straight to the point. A large ball seemed to form in the pit of his stomach and was slowly rising to his throat. He couldn't believe that after everything they had gone to in order to destroy the jewel, it just showed up in this time like it was no big deal.

"At some old antique shop on the way home from the diner this morning." When he didn't respond she continued. "I went in there to find something for Jii-chan's birthday next week. Most of the stuff there was just cheap replicas of this stuff found in the Sengoku Jidai, but then something caught my eye." She paused for a moment and subconsciously fingered the jewel that hung from her neck. "I asked the guy if it was for sale and bargained him down to a cool Thirty-Five Yen. He said something about it being in his family for generations. I'm so confused, Inuyasha. How could the jewel have been reformed so quickly?"

"Well, according to this time, it was destroyed five hundred years ago." Inuyasha thought aloud. But it still didn't make any sense. "Kagome, did you notice anything odd about the jewel when you first found it?"

"No, why?"

"I don't know, I thought that maybe it might be a replica or something. I mean, it is odd that it just showed up out of nowhere. You didn't sense it from outside the building?" He asked as he got up and went to sit down beside her on the bed.

"Well, I guess that something compelled me to enter that particular building, but I wasn't thinking about it at the time." Kagome held her head in her hands and crinkled her brow in frustration. "When I hold it, though, I feel the same power that I felt with the original Shikon no Tama. So it must be real, right?"

"I guess..." He thought for a moment before looking her in the eye with a smile on his face. "What are we going to do with it?"

"I don't know. If it's the Shikon no Tama, though, making a wish should make it go away, right?" She asked with a hopeful glint in her eyes.

"Maybe. I don't want to risk it. It doesn't matter though, there aren't any youkai in this time to protect it from. So, I say you should just hang on to it for a while before you're positive what to do with it." He answered wisely.

"I just have a bad feeling about this, Inuyasha. Why would it appear now? Whenever we had Shikon no Kakera in the Sengoku Jidai, there was always something trying to get us. How can we be certain that it won't be the same way this time?" Kagome rambled on the verge of tears.

"We can't be. That's the problem with life, Kagome." Inuyasha pulled her into a comforting hug before continuing. "You can never be certain about anything in this world. You just have to go with what life throws at you. But I promise you, Kagome, that I won't let anything happen to you."

She looked up into his amber eyes, which held nothing but love for her and replied, "What about my family? Something could easily happen to them."

"I won't let anything happen to you or your family, Kagome." He answered her with a warm smile. "Trust me, Kagome."

The moon rose into the thick ink of the summer air, slowly making it's way to the center of the open sky. A countless number of stars shined with all their might behind the moon, giving it their utter support. The nocturnal creatures native to Japan began to make their way out into the night world as the sun sunk deeper over the edge of the horizon. A sharp wind picked up and rustled the fully bloomed trees, carrying with it the fallen leaves of the trees that didn't make it.

Piercing red eyes watched outside the Higurashi Shrine, nestled high upon the Goshinboku tree. They moved about with the grace of a cat, leaping from one branch to another with lightning-fast speed. A light quickly flipped on in the living room of the Higurashi house, startling the creature and causing it to reflexively jump behind a nearby bush for safety. The creature could faintly make out the silhouette of a fully-grown person moving about in the house. Creeping in for a closer look, the creature made his way towards the house as quietly as possible.

Sliding up towards the door, the creature made it half way before he ran into an exposed trashcan. Stumbling from the fall, the creature once again jumped behind the bush it was hiding behind just moments before.

Inuyasha had a weird feeling that someone was watching him. Getting up for a much-needed glass a water, Inuyasha slowly made his way downstairs. The kitchen lights were off, casting an eerie shadow throughout the entire house. Inuyasha quickly flipped on the light switch on a nearby wall and leisurely made his way to the cupboard where the glasses were kept.

Before he could open the wooden cupboard a sharp crash from outside caught his attention. Turning around swiftly, Inuyasha quickly scanned the backyard from behind the protective glass of the sliding door. His instincts were on alert as he slid the door open with practiced ease.

The side door to the house slid open in one fluid movement and out stepped a red-clad figure with waste length silver hair. Two dog-ears perched atop his head swiveled in every direction, trying to pick up the sound he swore he heard from the inside. Inuyasha noticed the knocked over trashcan lying discarded beside the small stone path that led to the Goshinboku.

"You must be the hanyou Inuyasha." A small voice hissed from somewhere in the dark. Inuyasha honed his senses in on the sound and tried to locate the source of the voice. Before he could hear out the suspect a tall, shadowed figure stepped out from behind a nearby bush. "I have come for the Shikon no Tama...and you."

The creature stepped fully out into the light of the moon. He looked human enough, except for his long green hair and glowing red eyes. The 'man' stood about six feet tall, just a bit taller than Inuyasha, and wore a dark purple trench coat. He almost looked like a character from one of Sota's comic books. He strolled over to Inuyasha with a confident gleam in his eyes. Inuyasha could sense the man's youki.

But I thought that there weren't any youkai in Kagome's time?'

"I have heard a lot about you, hanyou." The youkai spat the word out as if it burned his tongue. Inuyasha didn't have time to blink before the youkai had him pinned to the ground, a cold barrel pressed to his temple. "If you know what's best for you, you won't move."

Inuyasha didn't know what the youkai had pressed to his head, but he decided not to concern himself with it. Kneeing the youkai in the groin, Inuyasha gained the upper hand and pinned the youkai beneath him by his shoulders. Pressing the palm of his hand against the youkai's throat, Inuyasha spat out a few choice curses before speaking to him directly.

"What do you want with the Shikon no Tama?" Inuyasha asked impatiently. The youkai tried to respond, but the pressure on his throat was too great. Inuyasha let up a little bit, just enough to let the youkai speak.

"Wouldn't you like to know!" The youkai's eyes suddenly changed from a bright red to a seemingly endless black. Inuyasha felt draw to those orbs, as if they were pulling in his very soul. He couldn't pull away. Inuyasha's momentary distraction cost him. The youkai pulled back a fist and sent it flying in Inuyasha's direction, landing squarely at the base of his jaw.

Inuyasha went flying back and skidded across the grass until he was backed against the Goshinboku. Shaking off the daze from the spell, Inuyasha slowly got to his feet. He suddenly realized that this was a battle that he might want to pay attention to. Inuyasha's hand instinctively went to the hilt of Tetsusaiga, but he gasped when he realized that he left his fabled sword up in Kagome's bedroom.

"Poor hanyou, what are you going to do without your precious sword?" The youkai laughed. "Yes, I know all about you. I've been watching you for some time now." The youkai took a step closer to Inuyasha and held his gun out in a offensive manner.

Inuyasha suddenly remembered where he had seen the weapon before. Last week he was watching a movie on the picture box that Kagome called a "TV" and the men shot these "guns" at each other. Kagome later explained to him that they were like tiny bows that shot these small metallic arrows at an alarming rate. In the movies, Inuyasha witnessed how much damage those "gun" things could cause.

Thinking only for Kagome's safety, Inuyasha quickly charged at the youkai before him. A loud pop resounded in Inuyasha's ears a millisecond before the pain hit him. A searing pain drove though InuYasha's shoulder and felt as if it were trying to make it's way straight though him. Letting out a slightly audible hiss of pain, Inuyasha instinctively grasped his shoulder before glaring at the youkai that had shot him.

"You little shit, can't you fight me without your weapon?" Inuyasha growled. "What's the matter? Are you scared."

Contrary to the response that Inuyasha had been expecting, the youkai smiled at the hanyou with a torturous glint in his eyes. He took a step closer to Inuyasha, stopping a mere three feet from the hanyou.

"You obviously failed to realize what type of bullets I equipped this gun with, hanyou." The youkai practically laughed. "These bullets are filled with a paralyzing toxin developed specifically for bringing down youkai. You should feel you muscles begin to betray you any minute now."

As if on cue, the searing pain in Inuyasha's shoulder began to spread throughout his entire body. He felt his muscles go numb a second later before his knees gave out and he fell to the ground. Inuyasha tried desperately to pull himself up, but nothing would work. He was defenseless and all he could do was lay there and wait for his fate.

"You coward." Inuyasha barely managed to whisper before everything went black.

AN: See, now I actually have a plot going. What's gonna happen to poor inu? Well, read and find out! REVIEW!