Sanji: Hey, everybody! How's it goin'?

Tailz: ::Furious muffled cursing behind the tape around her mouth::

Sanji: Now, now, Tailzy. None of that. There are innocent ears—er, eyes—that might take offense.

Tailz: ….. ::Blank look:: ::Kicks around and thrashes:: Memme gwoh! (Lemme go!) Mpphleshmrifrishtalocciammepmh! ((Better not translate that…. ::Sweatdrop::))

Sanji: ::Sweat:: Erm… well… she really IS sorry about all the ranting last chappie. And we're not mad at you, Marty. Thank you for reviewing, and you weren't too far off. There's a lot of mistakes in there…. In all fairness to her, poor Tailzy really does have a lot going on right now… But that doesn't make yelling at the readers right, Tailz. You understand that, right? And no more thumbscrews?

Tailz: ::Doesn't hear him:: :: is in the middle of a loud muffled stream of yelling::

Sanji: Taaaaiiilz…

Tailz: MMPH! ::Kicks at him, tips the chair over:: OO ::PLOP!::

Sanji: ::Sweatdrop:: Oh dear… C'mere, Tailz… stop squirming… HEY! If you bite me again, I'll give you to B!

Tailz: OO KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! ASFDAMFSASMDASMDA!!! ::Struggles furiously and scurries away from Sanji still tied to the chair::

::In the background noise: WHAP! WHAP!::

Sanji: Um… Tailz… I don't think you're going to fit under the coffee table with that chair on your back…

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The silence had become deafening. Inuyasha sat on the ground near the smoldering remains of the fire, throwing blank glares at the dying embers as if to demand that they resurrect themselves. It had needed to be replenished hours ago, but the supply of extra firewood had long since run out, and he didn't have the patience to rebuild it yet again. That was all he had done for days on end: change bandages, feed the greedy fire, and have long, drawn-out discussions with himself. He couldn't even talk to Kirara—she'd gone off to hunt the day before and hadn't returned yet. She was probably exploring, Inuyasha reasoned; after all,she had the chance to escape. Why would she want to stay around the gloomy, quiet camp?

There was certainly nothing worth doing there. He would know.

Shortly after sunset, he pulled out one of the ramen packages from Kagome's bag and began to prepare the meager dinner. Their supplies were dwindling. Soon he'd have to begin hunting rabbit.

Sango and Miroku still hadn't stirred. Inuyasha was half-mad with dullness; he'd resolved earlier that day that if they didn't wake up soon, he would carry all of them back himself, for Kirara still couldn't carry them even if she was back—two of her paws were seriously injured, and the extra weight wouldn't help the situation. Sango would kill him if he allowed any more harm to come to her pet.

And he wanted to live to see the quest completed, if it humanly possible.

The water soon came to a boil. Inuyasha dumped in the noodles and the flavoring—this time without their stupid plastic wrapper, which wouldn't taste good no matter how long you cook it—and dumped it into three measly potions: one for him, Kagome, and Shippo. He didn't dare take any more, because there was no telling how long they would be stuck where they were (his notions of carrying them were stupid and reckless; what if something attacked him in the middle of it?). He then picked up the two bowls and went to rouse the others.

Shippo was sleeping peacefully for the first time in days, so Inuyasha passed him by, deciding to give him a few more peaceful moments in dreamland. Instead he knelt by Kagome and shook the girl awake.

Her cloudy eyes opened with difficulty, but she smiled drowsily as he pulled her into a sitting position. "Hi," came the sleepy greeting, halfway immerged in a yawn.

"Here," Inuyasha said, by way of responding as he handed over the bowl. "Have some Ramen."

"Mmph…I'm not hungry," she said groggily. "You eat it."

"You have to keep your strength up," he argued, pushing the soup back. "And anyway, soon we'll be having rabbit. So enjoy it while you can." Kagome shivered—they both knew how much she hated eating something that had been cute, alive, and fluffy a few minutes before—and accepted the bowl grudgingly. They munched together in contained silence.

"Shouldn't we wake Shippo-chan up too?" Kagome asked after a while, poking at the dregs of her noodles and glancing at the sleeping kit at her side.

"Yeah. I guess so." He watched as Kagome reached down and shook his little shoulder gently.

"Shippo, wake up please. It's dinner time." The kitsune's face contorted a little as if in aggravation of being disturbed, but his eyes didn't open. Kagome frowned worriedly and tried again. "Shippo?"

"He's probably just tired," Inuyasha offered as convincingly as he could. "Healing takes a lot of energy. Speaking of which, you should—"

"Don't you tell me I should go to sleep," Kagome said in an icy voice. The hanyou blinked in surprise. "I know there's something you're not telling me. What is it, Inuyasha?"

"Nothing, wench."

"Inuyasha!"

"What!"

"Tell me what's going on!"

"I already told you, stupid! There's nothing!"

They glowered at one another, each stubbornly refusing to look away. It was Kagome that surrendered at last. "I can feel it," she muttered. "I don't know what it is, but something doesn't feel right. And you noticed too, haven't you?" He looked at her, revealing nothing. "Haven't you, Inuyasha? Something's about to happen."

Inuyasha looked at the ground.

"I felt it last time, too, you know."

His gaze rose to meet hers. "Yeah…but there's nothing we can do about it. Kirara's still injured, and I can't take you all by myself. If something's about to happen, it's best that it happens here, where we have a chance of defending ourselves."

A light lit in Kagome's eyes. "Kirara. Where is she?"

"She went off to hunt yesterday."

"And she didn't come back?"

"Well, no," Inuyasha said, a little impatiently, "why would she want to come back here? There's nothing to do. I know I'm bored out of my mind."

She waved his sarcasm aside. "Inuyasha, don't you see anything wrong with this picture? Sango and Miroku won't wake up for some mysterious reason. Kirara left and didn't come back, even though she never leaves Sango's side for long when she's injured, and we can't wake Shippo up." She stood and hobbled over to where Miroku and Sango were lying, bent down, and seemed to be searching for something. When she rose a moment later and walked unsteadily halfway back to her sleeping bag, there was something small held between her thumb and forefinger. "This seems like another one of Naraku's tricks to me," she said, throwing the poisonous dart at Inuyasha's feet.

"But…why?" Inuyasha asked. "What could Naraku get out of this?"

"Think about it," Kagome said impatiently. "Miroku and Sango are drugged, Kirara goes missing, either captured or injured further, and Shippo is placed under some sort of spell so that he can't wake up. Naraku fixed it so that we'd be stuck in this clearing."

"I think you're reading too much into this. Who's to say that someone else didn't shoot this dart at the others? Kirara's probably found something more interesting than sleeping humans out in the forest. And Shippo could just be tired. It's not impossible."

"There's dark energy all over the place, Inuyasha. Especially around Shippo-chan. And no one else would have a reason to shoot our friends with poisonous darts, especially in the middle of a fight with our greatest enemy. Naraku didn't touch them at all during the battle! It's too perfect to be just a coincidence. Something about all this doesn't ring true."

"Glad to see you've got your wits back," he teased lightly, sucking up the rest of his Ramen. "It was getting boring with no one to argue with."

"That's not funny."

The Halfling shrugged, picking up the two empty bowls and returning them to their place by the fire. "Are you thirsty?" Without waiting for an answer he walked over and pushed a cup into her hands.

Kagome looked at him for a second, then stared timidly into the liquid's depths. Inuyasha could almost see the fear in her eyes as the feeling of unease flared up—he felt it too. They both glanced about, and then at each other. And then the cup fell from her hands as she stumbled forward and fell into his arms.

"Kagome?!" Her head lolled limply onto his chest, and he could see the dart where it had struck her, just beneath her ear. The stench of Naraku filled the forest, accompanied by ill feeling that evil was near.

Inuyasha grimaced, lifting Kagome for the fiftieth time that week.

She was right.

They were trapped.

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Tailz: ::Crossly finishes pulling the tape from her face:: Yes…I know…it's not as long as my chapters normally are, but I'm updating, so go easy. I almost abandoned ALL of my stories last week. Almost. Let's just say there's been one trauma after another, and I just haven't had the will or patience to write these fics—even though I love them, and every single one of my impatient readers. But nobody's written me nasty e-mails, so I guess you're not too mad….

::Tailz is mauled by an angry mob of readers::

Tailz: AACK! Sanj! Help!!

Sanji: ::Glare:: ::Is tied to the chair::

Tailz: ::Sweat:: Um…is this why mom said revenge is bad?

Readers: GET HER!

Tailz: MEEEEP! ::Runs for her life::

Review fast for Tailzy! I wanna update, but not until I get some feedback!