CHAPTER FIVE

Battle In the Water

"Kagome, it's been hours since we stopped to rest... Shippou is about to pass out." The worn out monk hollered to Kagome, who had gone back for her bicycle and was way ahead of her companions that rode on Kirara's back, peddling like crazy. She didn't want to stop. She couldn't. Something had to be done. Inuyasha was in trouble and she still couldn't sense the shikon shards that the beast had carried..... where had it gone? What did it want with Inuyasha? Those questions were what drove Kagome on no matter how much pain ran through her tired legs. Finally, Miroku couldn't stand anymore and jumped out in front of Kagome's speeding bike. He skidded to a stop and crossed his staff with the handle bars of Kagome's bicycle. "Kagome-sama, I know that you're worried, I am too, but we need to stop and asses the situation."

'WHAT? There's nothing to asses!!! Inuyasha's missing and we have to find him!!! Why are you stopping me??!!!' She thought furiously.

"What I'm saying is that we must regroup what little information that we have and try to ....." But Miroku was cut short by Kagome's piercing glare.

"Would Inuyasha stop to think if you went missing??!! Would he even sit for two seconds sniffing the roses if one of us was in trouble??!! NO! He would be flying to help us even if the odds were completely against him!!! He has risked his life for all of us!! And now you want to stop to THINK??!!" Kagome had had enough. If they wanted to stop fine, but she was going on. She cared... She cared too much. This wasn't a simple matter for her. And to make matters worse, now her friends were trying to hold her back.

"Kagome-chan..." Sango was obviously taken aback at Kagome's outburst of emotion. Miroku, though, hadn't budged. Like if he was expecting this reaction from her. He simply let out a sigh and rephrased what he had said. "I'm fully aware of what Inuyasha has done for us Kagome-sama, but you forget that he is half demon.... he is more resistant than us... if it wasn't for us slowing him down he might run an entire night through the forest chasing after demons and shards. But we do not have that advantage...." again he was cut short.

"That's not true!! Even as a human he's battled and been ready to give his life for us!!," tears had begun rolling down her face, her death grip on the handlebars of the bicyle slackend and for the first time in hours she showed how tired she was, "I'm worrying him... I need to get to him... he'll get mad if I'm not there with him... you know how he is, always....." At this she fell over on her bike and started sobbing uncontrolably. Sango was at her side in an instant offering her comfort. Shippou had jumped onto Miroku's shoulder and was looking down on Kagome with tear filled eyes.

'Why is she so worried? He's ok right? Miroku said that Inuyasha would be ok.... he wouldn't lie to us, would he?' Shippou couldn't dislodge these thoughts from his head.

"I'm sorry Miroku, can we please just keep going....." Kagome had stopped crying and was looking up at the houshi with an utter look of fear on her tear streaked face. "I know that everything will be fine.... I'll just feel better after Inuyasha is back with us." Sango helped her weak friend stand and led her over to Kirara. "Kirara, do you think that you can handle on more?" Sango asked her mononoke friend. Kirara simply stared at Sango wit hacceptance in her eyes and bowed to let Kagome climb on her back. After everyone was settled in Kirara leaped into the air once more and headed towards the south.... away from Inuyasha.

The hanyou opened his eyes to find himself in the wolf youkai's mouth. He took only a second to take in his surroindings.... water beneath them, sky above them, and land around the edges of the horizon. As soon as he noted these facts, with one slashing motion he ripped at the wolf youkai's jaw and fell when the monster howled in pain. The water below felt like a ton of bricks when he punched through the surface... the icy liquid engulfed him and numbed him from head to toe. With no desire to stick around for a swim... Inuyasha looked at the direction that the youkai had been heading and immediately began to swim in the opposite direction. He hadn't even taken five reps in the oppisite direction when a thunderous swoop of air above him caught his attention. The wolf youkai had recovered from the slash and was heading straight for him. Inuyasha had no time to think, he crouched low and prepared himself for the impact. When it came, it was hard. Both the hanyou and the beast were thrust into the freezing water by the impact and sank like stones deep into the lake that the youkai had been crossing. Inuyasha did the only thing that he had time to think of... he waited to feel the soft bottom of the lake.... once he felt the mushy ground at this feet, he called upon all of his strength and pushed himself straight up, slashing the wolf youkai as he passed. The top of the lake had been yet to reveal itself when Inuyasha felt a tug at this legs. 'Damn, that thing just won't give up!!' He kicked with all of his might at the youkai's teeth and broke off the two insicors that held him in his place. After a few seconds of kicking and wading he finally broke through the surface of the lake. He was gulping in the fresh air by the mouthfuls and thinking to himself that he would never take a bath again when he felt a sudden rush of water around him. Without warning, pain rose up his body from his feet all the way up to his head. He was being engulfed in a fireball that had been shot up from under him.

"Do you sense anything Kagome-sama?" Miroku had been silent for the entire trip since Kagome had lashed out at him and now he felt it appropriate to talk. "No, nothing. Maybe we went the wrong way." Kagome was starting to worry that she still didn't sense any shikon shards... surely they would have caught up to the demon by now. At this query Miroku simply bowed his head and resumed his pensive state. His mind was working overtime to figure out what had happened. Why take Inuyasha and where? None of this added up. Was it a trap? Did someone want Inuyasha dead? Well that thought was easily dismissed. of course there were many out there that wished for Inuyasha's death. But if they wanted to slay the powerful hanyou... why go through the trouble of taking him? Why not just send a strong youkai his way? No, something was definitely wrong here. As Miroku pondered on this, the back of his mind was screaming something out. 'naraku, Naraku, NAraku, NARaku', then the answer hit him like a ton of bricks, "NARAKU" he said aloud before he could stop himself. Kirara stopped abruptly, throwing Shippou off of Kagome's shoulder and everyone turned to face the houshi. 'But why' hew asked himself before he explained what he had figured out to his companions.

As Miroku explained that Naraku was the one behind everything, Kagome couldn't help but worry all the more about the present situation. The first thought that crossed her mind was the fact that Naraku could absorb demons and that Inuyasha, having just showed Naraku a few days ago that he can withstand his poison, was about to get pulled into that disgusting lump of flesh. Miroku, of course, had already thought of this... "Although, I don't believe that this is what Naraku is intending to do. It seems to me like if Naraku wants to maybe find another weakness of Inuyasha's." The monk's words, though terrible, were more than likely true. Naraku had noticed that Inuyasha didn't fall to his poison and wanted to find another way to kill the dog demon.

The pain was coursing through Inuyasha's body as he was rappeled upwards by the giant fireball that lit him up from beneath the lake. Doing a limp bodied sunersault, he willed his body to move and found himself paralyzed beyond belief. It wasn't until he felt the next jolt of pain on his abdomen that he realized that he still had a body attatched to his head. The wolf demon had jumped out of the water and snatched the hanyou out of thin air. As they both plummeted back to the lake Inuyasha pried at the wolf's mouth with all of his might. After this didn't work, he dug his claws into his mid section where the youkai currently had his fangs embedded, and let fly on of his special attacks. "Hijin-Ketssou!!!!!!" He yelled as red blades flew towards his enemy's face. For the second time the wolf howled in pain and dropped a now beaten Inuyasha into the lake again. This time Inuyasha stayed still though. He waited. When the youkai regained it's composure, it noticed the speck floating in the water and rushed towards it like like a bat out of hell. The hanyou waited, patiently for the youkai to get closer.

'Come on, just a bit closer......'

Then, without warning, when the wolf was about to swallow Inuyasha, he lept to one side and triumphantly bellowed, "Sakon-tessou!!!!" The golden blades that appeared from his finger tips struck the wolf and cleaved it in half before it had time to react. Then the worst that could have happened did. As the youkai was sliced in two by Inuyasha's claws, the shikon shards, which it had kept in it's forehead, fell down into the abyss. The hanyou dived in after them and swam nearly to the bottom before he placed a clawed hand around the shards and sprung back towards the surface. 'I hate water' he thought as he swam to the shore which now seemed miles away. After shaking off the excess water, Inuyasha made to put the shards away in the himono, and realized that he wasn't wearing it.

'That's right... Kagome has it. It would have protected her if anything would have happend'

At this thought the hanyou sighed in relief and lept into the air, looking for something familiar to tell him where he was.

He had only been running for a few minutes when he started to realize where he was. He was in Jinenji's forest. The smell of herbs had hit his nose dead on..... but something was bothering him.... why wasn't Kagome's scent among the smell of the herbs. Surely she was still at Jinenji's hut. Why would she leave?

'Maybe they went looking for me'

'keh, like they would. They probably think that I'm dead'

Inuyasha's eyes widened in realization.

'they think I'm dead.'