Okay, I know this update took a while, but four honors classes can kinda sap up a lot of a person's time... --. Well, this chapter is kinda different from the rest but I like it. Starts out normal (although parts are a bit lame) and then we reach the point where my two month writers' block started. And then you have today, when I finally was struck with and idea that all my faithful reviewers will either absolutely despise or love with ever fiber of their being. There is no in between. It is an extremely profound change in the story line that comes out of absolutely nowhere for no apparent reason, but I like it, so there. I predict that today (or whenever this gets posted) I will lose half my reviewers, but I will also get different ones who like the little twist my story has taken... But I'm rambling. Review response time!

Raindance-Illusion- Updating! Sorry it took so long!

ScOrPiO sChOlAr- Thanks for the names!

kagome-1990- Sorry it took so long but here's your update!

ThebigW- lol. Funny the way life works, eh? Hopefully you won't get sent to an alternate universe to meet your counterpart in another realm... But I'll stop giving things away now. And as I said, I might figure Kikyo into this but I'm not sure yet.

Yumiko- Thanks! I feel so loved! Sorry it took so long but I'm updating!

IYWriterGirl- Thanks for the names!

Fall Angel- Thanks for reviewing, and also for explaining the date thing! Cleared a lot up.

Sunrider22- You'll see!

flip-x-fantasy- Updating!

Keiko89- Thanks for the names! I'll put them to use next chapter along with everyone else's.

demonchik39- Thanks for the names!

Somebody Like You

Chapter Four: Grounded

"Kagome Ann Higurashi! What on earth do you think you are doing, young lady?"

Kagome's eyes widened and she bit her lip nervously as Inuyasha let her up. "Mom, I'm really sorry about the mess. We'll clean it up, I promise... And we won't make a bigger mess in the process this time," she added, sending a dagger-like glare in Inuyasha's direction.

"Hey, yesterday wasn't all my fault. Besides, you gave me the idea to start this fight."

"Did not!"

"Did too."

"Did not!"

"Did t-"

"Enough!"

They suddenly remembered that they were in Kagome's mother's presence and ceased their squabbling, looking up guiltily. Kagome noticed the look on her mom's face and paled. They were so dead...

"Kagome, you are grounded for the next two weeks, starting after you clean up this mess. That means that you will be spending every second of your life not occupied by school in this room for that amount of time. Understood?" Kagome nodded, and she continued. "You, young man, are banned from this household until Kagome's punishment is complete. And I will be calling your mother to inform her of this incident."

Kagome gasped and squeezed Inuyasha's hand tightly, looking at him in concern as he bent his head and hid his eyes with his bangs so that no one could read his expression. "My brother Sesshomaru is the only family I have left, ma'am, and I doubt he'd appreciate the call," he said softly, unable to completely hide the pain in his voice. "He'd most likely be angrier at you for disturbing him than at me for what I've done..."

Mrs. Higurashi bit her lip and placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. I-I didn't know..."

He smiled softly. "I know. It's okay... You just surprised me, is all. I wasn't prepared for you to say that..."

Mrs. Higurashi returned the smile, albeit nervously. "Would you like to stay for dinner?"

Kagome looked up at him happily and he grinned. "I'd like that. But I think we have a little cleaning to do first, ne Kagome?"

She sighed. "Hai... Let's get this over with. It's gonna take even longer than yesterday..."

"Would you like some help?" Mrs. Higurashi inquired.

"No thanks, mom," Kagome replied. "I think we can handle it."

Her mother smiled. "All right. See you at dinner, then."

"Kay, mom. See ya."

Mrs. Higurashi turned and shut the door, rolling her eyes in exasperation as she heard the sounds of another budding pillow fight. She had a feeling they wouldn't be done any time soon...

Kagome put her dishes in the sink and stretched, yawning. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to bed..."

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows. "What self-respecting teenager goes to bed at nine-thirty?" She glared at him, and he backtracked. "I mean, we need to work on our Home Ec project some more."

"Mm-hm," she replied, eyeing him calculatingly. "Sure you just don't want to take advantage of my sleepiness and trick me into agreeing to the whole five boys thing?"

He looked up at her indignantly. "I would never take advantage of anyone, especially you!"

She rolled her eyes. "Right. You 'seize the moment'."

He glared at her. "No one gets away with using my own words against me."

She put her hands on her hips and arched her eyebrows. "Oh? And what, pray tell, are you gonna do about it?"

He smirked and stood, walking up to her and wrapping his arms around her waist. "This." And he kissed her.

Kagome's mother and jii-chan looked on in amusement. Well, if you define amusement as throwing countless spell scrolls at the hanyou...

"Heavens sake, old man!" Inuyasha cried, ripping off the useless ofudas. "What is your problem?"

Mrs. Higurashi smiled smugly. "Not dating, eh you two?"

They flushed. "Um... Well, about that, Mrs. H..."

She turned her attention to the ruby-red hanyou. "Yes, Inuyasha?"

Kagome interjected to prevent him from saying anything that would worsen their situation. "In our defense, mom, the last time you asked we weren't."

She raised her eyebrows. "That was yesterday."

"A day is a long time when you've only known one another for two..." Inuyasha supplied, strangely rational considering their current situation.

Mrs. Higurashi nodded her assent. "I suppose... Well, Kagome, you're still grounded for the mess the two of you made, but I suppose Inuyasha could still come over to keep you company..."

Kagome's eyes lit up. "Really, okassan?" She nodded, and Kagome squealed and embraced her mother. "Thanks, mom. That means a lot..."

Mrs. Higurashi smiled and patted her daughter on the back. "No problem. Now what were you two saying about a Home Ec project?"

Their eyes widened at the reminder, and they resumed their argument.

"Five boys!"

"No, four!"

"Five!"

"Four!"

"Five!"

"Four!"

"Five!"

"I'm the one who's going to have to take care of them! It should be my decision!"

"I don't care! Five!"

Kagome blinked as a thought hit her. "Hey, I'm a mail lady and you're a garbage guy, right?"
He looked at her in confusion. "Yea... So?"

"Well, we both work in the morning. Who's gonna take care of the kids then?"

"We'll have to get a 'babysitter'."

"I'm not leaving my kids with someone I don't know!"
"Well then what do you suggest?"

"How should I know?"

He rolled his eyes. "Sure I'm the garbage man? Cuz you're spewing trash..."

Kagome fumed. "You're the one who wants to hire a babysitter to take care of my kids!"

They continued bickering, and the two onlookers turned to each other, dumbfounded.

"Hey, otousan?" Mrs. Higurashi asked.

"Hai?" he responded.

"Can I be confused now?"

Her father sighed. "Welcome to the club, dear. Welcome to the club."

lol. 'Can I be confused now?' is my fav phrase... even tho the end is a bit lame, it's still kinda funny, ne? crickets chirping sweatdrops Okay, so maybe not. But oh well... Live with it. I might change it later, tho... On with the story!

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Kagome groaned and rolled over to shut off her alarm. Need... sleep...

She and Inuyasha had argued for a good two hours before her mother and jii-chan had finally interrupted them and asked Inuyasha to go home. He, of course, being a man and the person he was, couldn't go without having the last word and slamming their front door shut, a gesture that caused Kagome to boil over and run outside after him. Their 'friendly discussion' had carried on for another half hour before Kagome gave up and went back inside, where she proceeded to spend the next hour ranting about arrogant, self-assured half-demons who thought the world revolved around them. When she finally wound down, Mrs. Higurashi asked, "Are you sure the two of you are dating?"

Kagome threw her hands up into the air in exasperation and stormed up the stairs, sat on her bed, and fumed for forty-five minutes before remembering that she had homework, which took her an hour to complete. Add in the fact that she set her alarm for five a.m. each morning... Let's just say that Kagome was not in a good mood, and that a certain hanyou was in for it today- that is if she ever woke up enough to walk to school.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and took a cold shower, which succeeded in accomplishing two things. One, she was awake, and two, she was ready to kill.

Which brings us to Inuyasha, who, unfortunately for him, had decided to walk to Kagome's house before school and apologize. He rang the doorbell, and was greeted by an angry and tired-looking Kagome.

"Hey, Kag, I just-"

"This is your fault!" she raged. "All your fault!"

The hanyou was dumbfounded. "Kag, what-"

"I tried to go to bed at a decent hour, but no! You just had to keep me up with that stupid argument! And then my family ignored me, and I remembered I still had English homework- which, might I add, would have been completed earlier yesterday if you hadn't started that stupid pillow fight- that took me an hour to complete! So I wake up at five a.m. and you expect me to function rationally on two hours and fifteen minutes of sleep?!?"

Note to self, Inuyasha thought. Don't keep Kagome up ever again.

"Look, Kag, I just came by to say I was sorry..."

She sighed and fell into his warm embrace. "I'm sorry, Inuyasha... I'm not the best morning person. I shouldn't have shouted at you like that..."

"Well, you were right. All that stuff was my fault..."

She smiled and took his hand, yawning. "C'mon. We're gonna be late for school."

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows. "It's six o'clock, Kagome. School doesn't start 'till nine fifteen."

"It won't kill us to be a little early!"

"A little?" he scoffed. "How can you call three hours 'a little early'?"

"I dunno," she responded, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "How can you call two hours enough sleep?"

His eyes widened and he took a step back. "Well, let's be off then!"

Kagome smiled. "That's more like it."

He lifted her into his arms and they headed off for school, leaping quickly through the trees. He jumped into a sakura tree and paused a moment, plucking one of the last blossoms from it's branches and sliding it behind Kagome's ear, who had fallen asleep to the rhythmic beating of his heart. Before long he touched down in front of the school doors and looked down at the slumbering Kagome, smiling softly. She looked so much like an angel... His angel. His smile widened, and he kissed he forehead gently. Best to let her sleep... He sat down on a bench in front of the school and allowed his eyes to close as well, losing himself to the blissful world that was dreamland...

Kagome sat up and blinked. Where am I? She was surrounded by waving grasses and tall trees, one of which looked startlingly like the one back at her home in Japan, only it was smaller and wasn't surrounded by a wooden fence and strung ofudas. She took a deep breath and smiled. The air was different here than it was back home. It smelled cleaner, fresher... Newer. Here eyes snapped open at this realization. Newer? That didn't make any sense... But that was indeed what she smelled. What was going on here? She heard a noise from behind her and quickly jumped to her feet and whipped around. Her eyes lit up. Inuyasha! She ran towards him happily and opened her mouth to question him about why he was wearing such a worn haori and hakama, but he brushed right by her. She stood there a moment, blinking, before turning and pursuing him. She followed him towards a well, where he sat down grumpily and folded his arms, muttering something about late wenches under his breath. Kagome took a look at the well and gasped. It was the very same well from her shrine back home! What was going on here? Was she dreaming? A noise came from the bottom of the well and Inuyasha smirked and stood. "Took you long enough," he called down, jumping inside and picking something up before hopping back out again. The object in his arms made her blood run cold. It was her, old school uniform and all. But how was that possible? How could she be there and where she was at the same time?

"Well excuse me!" she exclaimed, unceremoniously climbing out of his arms and handing her huge backpack to Inuyasha, who accepted it without a second thought. "I was too busy packing lunch for us all!"

Inuyasha stared at the backpack. "Gods woman, what do you have in this thing? It's heavier that you are! How do you manage to carry this Kami-forsaken bag around?"

She shrugged. "I've gotten used to it, I guess. But it is difficult at times." She smiled sweetly at him. "Thank you for taking it for me."

He blushed. "Keh. It's nothing."

Her other self smiled, but didn't comment on his choice of words. "Well come on then, we should get back. The others will be worried."

He nodded. "Hop on. It'll be quicker that way."

The other Kagome climbed onto his back and they went towards a village in the distance. Kagome sighed and followed on foot as best she could, surprised that she somehow knew the way to Kaede's village. Wait a second, Kaede? As in history teacher Kaede? She shook her head to clear her mind. It was a mere coincidence. Inuyasha and her other self must have mentioned the name, she was worrying for nothing. She pushed her way through the underbrush, scratching her hand along the way. She looked down at the cut sighed. This day was getting worse by the second... Nothing was going right. She had failed to her English homework, she knew, hardly gotten any sleep, and now she was in some kind of freaky alternate universe where Inuyasha dressed weird and she still lived in Japan. What else could go wrong?

She emerged from the trees and came upon a hut. She heard some voices inside and entered. What she saw startled her, although with what had been happening lately it was a miracle she was still able to experience surprise. Sitting around a small fire, for it was a chilly day, not yet winter but nearing it, were six people, each bearing an uncanny resemblance to someone she knew. Inuyasha and her other self were arguing, Sango's likeness was scolding Shippo's for eating too much candy, and Miroku and Kaede's were discussing ancient texts. Kagome looked on in amazement. These people looked exactly like her classmates! What was going on here?

Her likeness finally got fed up with Inuyasha's impertinence and cried, "Sit!"

Kagome stared as Inuyasha fell and made an impression in the ground, then made a quick analysis. A subduing spell. Most likely centered upon the rosary around his neck. But why was this necessary? Didn't they trust this Inuyasha?

Her question was answered as he jumped up from the ground and started yelling at her counterpart. "What was that for, wench?"

"Well you deserved it," she said haughtily. "You never appreciate anything anyone does for you."

Kagome nodded in understanding as their bickering continued. So their relationship was a love/hate one. They were friends, but they argued constantly. She was glad she and her Inuyasha weren't like that... But that was beside the point. Where was she? And why couldn't she get back?

The Kaede of this realm silenced the group. "Ye really had better be off after the Shikon no kaera," she advised.

Inuyasha's expression turned serious at once. "Kaede-baba's right, you guys. Naraku's getting stronger by the day. We need to quit fighting amongst ourselves and try and think of a way to stop him. And as much as I hate to admit it that might mean asking Kouga for help."

"I never thought I'd see the day," Miroku commented. Inuyasha sent him a suspicious glance and Miroku continued. "You're actually admonishing fighting and suggesting we team up with Kouga?"

Kagome walked up to Inuyasha and put her palm on his forehead. "No fever... Are you sure you're feeling all right?"

Inuyasha growled and pushed her away. "Of course I'm feeling okay!" he cried. "I don't want to team up with Kouga, bakas, but I don't particularly want to die at the hands of Naraku either! If you'd rather let Naraku get the whole jewel before we attack then fine, it's your life to lose, but I'm not gonna just sit around and wait while he gets stronger!"

There was silence throughout the hut, and this gave Kagome time to think. Okay, so these people were searching for the legendary jewel of four souls. This Inuyasha was generally even more unruly than the one she knew, but for the most part the rest were the same. Well, she couldn't account for Shippo because she hardly knew him, but it stood to reason that he would be similar to his counterpart like the rest of them. Naraku was apparently a bad person here was well, and they were all out to kill him for one reason or another. She wasn't sure why this Inuyasha was so opposed to Kouga, they were friends in her realm so shouldn't they be here as well? Maybe here they just took their rivalry a bit to far, she was uncertain. But that was irrelevant. She was more curious as to how the others would respond...

"Of course we're coming, Inuyasha," Kagome said quietly. "We weren't trying to upset you, just understand your reasoning..."

Inuyasha sighed. "Yea, well-"

At that moment Kagome experience something very disconcerting- the sensation of having something- or rather someone- run through you. She had long since realized that in this world she was incorporeal, that nothing could see, touch, or hear her in this realm, but she was still a but unnerved when the raccoon youkai ran straight through her and into the hut.

He ran straight over to an extremely surprised Miroku, panting. "Master Miroku!" he cried. "I have very bad news!"

"Hachi!" Miroku exclaimed. "What a surprise! What are you doing here?"

Kagome smiled slightly. So in this world Miroku had a servant? And a very erratic one at that. Interesting. When she woke up from this dream she would have to ask Miroku if he knew anyone by that name...

"It's Naraku, Master! He has all the shards of the Shikon no tama except for the ones you possess!"

The faces of all present steeled, and Kagome gathered that Naraku having the jewel was a bad thing. But it was merely a gem, what harm could it do? Unless the legends were true...

"What about Kouga?" Inuyasha barked.

"Kouga is dead!" Hachi exclaimed. "Kagura killed him!"

The eyes of everyone present widened, and a few tears slipped down Kagome's counterpart's face.

"He... he can't be dead," Inuyasha said slowly. "He's too stubborn to die..."

A flea hopped towards her, and this time Kagome made sure to move out of his path. She wasn't all to eager to experience the same thing she had with Hachi moments before...

"It's Naraku!" the flea cried. "He's coming this way! He is destroying everything in his path in search of you, Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha's gaze steeled. "Then let him come."

One of this realm's Kagome's tears fell on the shards she carried around her neck, and they began to glow a brilliant white. There was a flash of light, and the glowing form of the ancient priestess, Midoriko, appeared. "That is foolish of you, Inuyasha. Alone you cannot win."

Inuyasha snorted. "I won't be alone, baka. I have Kagome, Sango, Miroku, and Shippo with me. Besides, how did you get out of the jewel and how come the monster isn't with you?"

Midoriko regarded him coolly. "How I came to be here is none of your business, and that's not what I meant. You require help from another realm entirely. You must join with your other selves in order to defeat Naraku." The direction of Midoriko's gaze changed, and Kagome could have sworn that she was staring straight at her with a small half smile on her face. "Only through cooperation will you succeed. Trust yourselves and each other, and watch out for familiar strangers. They are the key to your survival."

Midoriko faded away, and Kagome's world went black.

Kagome blinked and opened her eyes to see the concerned face of none other than Inuyasha. "Kagome, are you all right? You wouldn't wake up... I was worried."

Kagome took a deep breath and was relieved to breathe in the familiar, if less pleasant, fragrance of present-day air. She slowly got to her feet, wobbly as a newborn, and told Inuyasha of what she had dreamt, fearing it was more than a mere dream. He snorted as she ended her tale. "Nice dream, Kagome, but it's nothing to get worked up about. It was just a dream, it wasn't real."

She nodded. "I guess you're right. I'll just-" She stopped abruptly as she felt a stinging sensation on her left hand. She said a silent prayer to whatever god was listening and then looked down at her hand. Her suspicions were confirmed as she saw a two inch cut down her hand... In exactly the same place as she had been cut by the shrubbery in her dream.

Inuyasha gently lifted her hand into the light and examined it for a moment before looking back at her, slight fear in his eyes. "I think we have a problem."

Owari chapter four! What do you guys think? Love? Hate? Review either way and let me know! This is definitely not how I planned this fic to be, it was gonna be strictly AU. But hey, I got over my writers' block didn't I? And I'll hopefully post within the next few weeks. So please review!!!!!! I feel bad because this chappie is so short... Sorry! But please find it in your hearts to review anyway!

Torina