Author note: To Whom it may concern

Pla-gia-rize- to take (idea's, writings, etc) from (another) and pass them off as one's own.

I spend a lot of time reading others fic's here. I enjoy searching for and finding interesting stories to read. That is just me, I began writing, because I spent too much money on books. So I began to make my own. Fan fictions are not all I write, in fact, I am working on a couple of novels as we speak. In the world of authors, plagiarism is the worst thing one can do, making you an outcast for life. The words you write, every one is slaved over.

Why am I bringing this up? Simple, last night I opened a story that I thought sounded a little interesting. Imagine my surprise when the first words I read are almost word for word, my own. I literally thought I had opened my own fic. Sadly this is not the case. I debated all day on what to do…It WAS only the disclaimer conversation from my first chapter…and not exactly the same. Should I email the author and confront them? Should I just report them for abuse? I do not consider myself a vengeful person, I didn't want to review on their fic that they had plagiarized my work. The rest of their work seems very original. I really don't like to post it here, but I thought it would be the most anonymous way to do this.

Could you please remove the first disclaimer conversation from your story and replace it with something original? I do not want to report you for abuse, but might if this is not done. It is a very hurtful thing to see.

Sarah

Disclaimer: The characters are not mine, the words are.

Chapter 31

Kagome feared that those the pair had left behind would realize they had gone missing a lot sooner than Shinju and she hoped. She half expected Inuyasha to come barreling out of the restaurant any second. They hadn't even gotten far enough away to get out of sight of the building yet. They would never be able to outrun the youkai's that accompanied them. Suddenly Kagome felt the presence of the jewel, and it seemed extremely close. Too close in fact. "Shinju?"

The exterminator nodded as she turned to address her companion. "I know, I feel it. It is just ahead about 50 meters isn't it?"

Kagome nodded her agreement, looking to where she felt the source of the jewel. All she could see were about six cars, one of which seemed to hold the jewel. She wasn't quite sure what to do about it, when she felt herself being dragged along by her hand by the taijiya.

"It's in that car up there." Shinju indicated the same car in which Kagome had pinpointed the jewel's whereabouts moments before. "We need to get it back now. I can't lose it again."

"Shinju, we don't know what we are getting into right now. Maybe we should wait for Inuyasha and the others to help us. This might not be something we should handle on our own."

Shinju snorted, "I am a taijiya; I don't need their help. I should have been able to protect the jewel myself, I need to get it back myself." She dropped Kagome's hand as she stormed forward, yanking the sickle out of its place on her back.

Kagome sighed, her new friend was about as stubborn as the hanyou.

Following on her friend's heels, they approached the waiting car with caution. A man appeared from within the car and gave them a cold smile. "I have been waiting for you." His cold blue eyes assessed the females slowly before the smile turned into a smirk. "I had been expecting only one, but two will not upset him at all." He lifted a gun to the two girls before continuing. "Put the weapon down, taijiya. If you don't get in the car, I will kill the first one of you to make a move in the opposite direction."

Kagome panicked, in all of her journeys, she had never been held at gunpoint. Sure, she had been poisoned, kidnapped, attacked, cursed….really there wasn't much she hadn't been through. But being held at gunpoint? That was something she had never had happen. She wasn't sure which was worse, the feeling when your soul was stolen, or this.

"I said, GET IN THE CAR!" He screamed, pulling the safety back on the revolver.

'Okay, it's official. This is worse.' Kagome thought as she quickly scrambled into the back seat with Shinju. With one last forlorn look at the restaurant, she knew she had earned a good chewing out by Inuyasha…he was going to kill her.

He didn't hate much about the modern world, but the smell was one thing he hadn't been able to get over yet. The stench that rested in the air rendered his nose almost useless. He thought he had better sense of smell as a human in the past than as a hanyou in the future. He growled, he couldn't smell anything except the food from the kitchen at the moment. All he knew was Kagome and Shinju couldn't possibly spend this much time in the restroom.

He watched as Kirara leapt from where she rested on Kagome's bag, straight to Makoto's lap. She snuggled up underneath his chin affectionately before yanking on the collar of his button down shirt with her teeth. "What the hell is going on?" Makoto asked when the neko-youkai began to growl.

The sentence hadn't even been finished when Inuyasha got a cold shiver run down his back. Every ounce of his being knew that something was wrong with Kagome, she wasn't in the bathroom any longer. For some reason she was quickly moving away from the group. "SON OF A BITCH!" He screamed, pounding his fists on the table as hard as he could. The weak wood shattered instantly, sending dishes flying in every direction.

He jumped from his chair, hearing Shippo say behind him. "Kirara is trying to warn you that Shinju is in danger. She used to do that to Miroku when Sango needed help." Inuyasha stormed toward the bathroom door, determined to find out what happened to the girls.

"You CAN'T go in there, Inuyasha!" Yuka yelled, leaping from her chair.

"Like hell I can't!" He growled.

Yuka had inherited her dad's speed and was at the door just before the hanyou. "It is the WOMEN'S restroom Inuyasha. You can't go in there. I will look and be right back." She placed a hand on his wrist, in effort to calm him. He glared back at her, a low growl emitting from his throat. The wolf demon ignored it and left the hanyou behind, entering the restroom alone.

It took her all of three seconds to figure out what had happened in here. There were paper towels strewn across the floor, the window was propped open and the previously full trash can was now lying on its top below the window. She walked over to the window to confirm her belief, only two scents. They had left on their own.

Dreading the confrontation that was to come, Yuka heading back to the waiting males in the group. As she opened the door she felt three pairs of eyes land on her, but only saw one. Inuyasha was less than a foot away from her, his deadly eyes daring her to tell him that they were in fact gone. She sighed deeply, before trying to walk away from him. "They left, on their own. There are only two scents in there."

"You're fucking lying, wolf! Kagome wouldn't leave like that!" Inuyasha grabbed her arm and dragged her back in front of him, he refused to be ignored.

"She did! The two of them fucking climbed out the damned window, Inuyasha."

"She's in trouble, I can feel it! She wouldn't just leave on her own."

"She's not alone, Inuyasha." Makoto said quietly as he calmed the fire cat within his arms. "Shinju is with her."

"But sneaking out the fucking window? I need to chain that girl to my side when we get her back." He growled, storming back to the table to grab Kagome's bag. "Shippo, let's go! NOW!"

The kitsune handed the man he was talking to a small card before following after the quickly departing group. The group immediately headed out, following the missing girls scents. They had barely made it out of sight of the restaurant when their trail suddenly vanished. "Just disappeared." Yuka whispered in disbelief, looking both ways.

"They can't just fucking disappear!"

"They got into a car or something, that's why we lost their scent. There is no way to know how far they have gotten or where." Shippo's voice was filled with frustration as he tried to get any trace of the girls' missing trail.

"That way." Inuyasha pointed and headed off in the same direction. "She's this way." Why he believed it, he didn't know. He just felt it like a chill in his bones; Kagome was in danger. He could feel her fear in his own body, she was scared. It felt as if she was calling to him, begging him to save her. His body knew where it was going, he only followed it.

The driver seemed to drive them out of the small town they had ate in. About thirty minutes later they ended up at a small farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Dragging open the door, he held the gun at their heads as he watched them climb out after each other. "Netawaki wants to see you, taijiya. You can take your little friend with you."

He followed behind them, holding the gun between their heads. Shinju glanced at Kagome, motioning to her to hide the Shikon jewel from view. If Netawaki were to see it they would be in trouble, and Shinju didn't think that their captor realized who her companion was.

Kagome dropped the jewel down her blouse, blocking it from view. Their captor indicated that they were to take the stairs to the basement. The gentle tapping of their shoes on the wood steps echoed down the stairway as they walked. The damp and musty smell of mildew assaulted her senses the further down they found themselves. She shivered from the quick temperature change, wishing she had a sweater.

He showed them to an empty room, complete with cement floor that would not keep them warm at all. Sighing, Kagome took a place in a corner, this wasn't the first time she had been kidnapped. Apparently it was Shinju's first time. The girl stood at the door pounding. "Let us out of here!" She screamed.

"You'll be let out soon enough" their captor replied with a soft snicker. "He needs your help."

"I will never help that thief!"

"You will do what is required of you, or your little friend there will deal with the consequences of your actions."

Shinju whipped around to face Kagome, a pained expression on her face. Defeated, she sighed and crossed the floor to sit next to the miko. The footsteps of their captor slowly faded away in the background. "He doesn't know who you are, Kagome. We need to make sure he doesn't find out."

"How?"

Shinju scrunched up her nose, in thought. "I don't…Yuka. Let them think you are Yuka. There is hardly anyone who can tell the difference between a demon and a human when they are concealed. I can, because I am a demon slayer. But even you really can't tell."

"I can too!" Kagome insisted, offended that the taijiya thought that she, who had fought demons and reassembled the shikon jewel in feudal Japan, didn't know what a demon looked like.

"How long have you been friends with Yuka and her father? When did you find out there were demons alive in this time?"

Kagome growled, knowing the taijiya had her there.

Footsteps echoed outside the door again, Kagome looked at Shinju. The taijiya bit her lip before whispering, "Yuka, you are Yuka."

Their captor opened the door, catching Shinju's eye. "He is waiting for you, follow me. Your friend will stay here, unless we require her assistance to encourage you." Shinju stood and crossed over to the door, she turned around before walking out of sight. Kagome could see the fear deep in the taijiya's eyes.

'How are we going to get out of here?' She couldn't help wondering to herself. She doubted that Inuyasha and the others would be able to find them. She needed a plan, and quickly.

Shinju was determined not to give Netawaki what he wanted. She knew that no normal human could control the underground, but it was something she had done for the past ten years. Her grandmother, the last Miko besides Kagome, had given the youkai jewel to her days before her death. The underground was determined and willing to overpower the humans, and Shinju could feel their restlessness in the coldness within her bones.

Their captor led her into a small room upstairs, it wasn't nearly as damp as the basement she had just been taken from. The new room was dingy and dusty, as if it hadn't been used in years. There was a desk in the middle of the room, seated there was a human man. Approximately thirty years old, she could only guess that the black haired man seated there was in fact, Netawaki. "Ah, you really did bring me the taijiya." The man said, raking his eyes over his prisoner before turning to his companion. "You have succeeded where so many before you have failed. You may just be rewarded for this."

The man stood up slowly, approaching Shinju with caution. "I have a job for you little taijiya."

"No. I will never work for the likes of you."

"I am not asking, I am telling." He turned to face his companion, a smirk crossing his face. "Bring her friend, if she doesn't agree to help us. We shall kill the girl."

"No!" Shinju yelled, "She doesn't deserve that!"

"There is an easy way around that, get the underground to listen to me and I will spare her life. Without the Shikon, I can't control them."

"I have told you, I protect the youkai's. I will not allow you to control them. They only trust me."

"You will get them to trust me."

"So you can destroy them?" Shinju spat out in anger. "They will only hate you. They will not think twice about killing you."

The door opened behind them, an angry Kagome being pushed into the room. "Here is the friend, boss."

"Good, maybe now the taijiya will listen." He watched the young girl get to her feet, glaring at him. The shock was written all over his face, before he broke out into a grin. "Yume, you did something right for once. After all the demons I sent after them, you are the only one who managed to get the miko away from her hanyou. By accident no less."

Panicked expressions passed between the girls, their inner thoughts were clear from their expressions. 'Oh shit.'

Ryguy5387 Only they can do it? Keh! Being stupid is Inuyasha's job; not hers. They're just going to get injured or captured or... if they come face to face with an enemy, they'd be a lot safer with Inuyasha's Tetsusaiga and Shippo's kitsune magic than just with a priestess and a taijiya. Uh-oh, I'm ranting... sorry. This was another fantastic chapter!

LOL Hmmm….seems Shinju has a little overconfidence in her abilities, huh? Yes, just having the priestess and taijiya do this alone is a BAD combination.

GoddessMoonLadysigh Finally caught up. grin great last few chaps! lol! Inuyasha is acting a tad odd. I swear! It's as though they had never traveled together like this before! shakes head Hanyous! I swear! grin Great! Next chap! And, just maybe, I'll be able to keep up. mutters Stupid public librarys and their time limits...

Um…wouldn't you be a little crazy if you were separated from the one you loved for three months never knowing if you would SEE her/him again. Is he acting a little odd??? I never noticed. evil laugh as long as he stays IN character…

InukagLOTS o'KIDS you go ahead kagome! do what you got to do!LOL if i was her i would have sat inuyasha a couple more times..but that's just me i hope those 2 don't get into too much trouble but i trust they can handle themselves well enough..im just worried about inuaysha...he gonna be MAD!..i love it update when you can K? compliments on the fic! michelle

Um yeah….I think MAD can be a little understatement. He is royally pissed off!!!!! Lets hope the girls can take care of themselves, LOL. Doesn't look like they are doing too well though.

humble-bumble oh! whats with inuyasha. So overprotective-lol- dats so cute-lol. newayz, kagy is so gonna get barked by inuyasha when he finds out she's gone-lol-(pun intended-lol). update soon
Ja!

Barked?? Yeah, something like that. He IS serious when he says he is chaining her with him, LOL

Sueric Ni-i-i-i-i-ice! Great chapter! I like the pacing of your chapters. They flow well, don't bog down, and get straight to the point! Awesome and patiently waiting for the next chapter ;)

Patiently?? Really?? I can't seem to do that with your fic….LOLOL

NefCanuck Oi vey, I think Kagome & Shinju just bit off way more than they can chew by themselves... nice bit with Kirara trying to play matchmaker though, it was cute.

Kirara is definitely playing the role of matchmaker….don't think she is succeeding quite yet. She IS succeeding in angering Shinju about knocking her into the lecher though. LOL