Chapter 12

It was pretty dark out now. The sun had set but a beautiful purple and orange streaked sky was still hanging over Inuyasha. He opened his eyes and blinked. He sat up and looked around him. 'Kagome?' He thought. 'Where is she?' He was asking himself. He was looking around bushes, hedges and trees trying to find her.

"Kagome?! Kagome!" He yelled over and over again. He searched for about 20 minutes looking around for her scent. All he smelt was the scent of flowers and groves filling his nose when finally he got a whiff of Kagome's scent. He followed it to an oak tree that had a piece of her fabric hidden under a root. He bent down and picked it up. It was part of her school uniform. "Kagome's strange clothes...." He declared. He held it in both hands and sniffed it. He stood up, a new look in his eyes. The look of bold fear. He crumpled the fabric in one hand as he balled his hands into fists. "Kagome!!!!" He screamed. The silent forest that surrounded him answered him.

"Koga? Is that too tight?" Kikyo, Kaede, and Sango asked at the same time. (A/N Sango got back by herself. The tunnel let her through because she wasn't in the right time.) Kikyo, his right arm by Sango, and his left hand by Kaede wrapped him around his stomach. He also had a He also had tape across his cheek from a cut. Miroku was staring in amazement at how he could have so many girls around him in so little time. Miroku was devising the perfect plan to get the same treatment as Koga. (A/N his plan was to fall out a tree. tee hee )

"No. Its fine." He said. The girls started cleaning up the bandages and gauze while Miroku asked Koga questions.

"So Koga, what happened? I doubt you got all those scratches and wounds from Inuyasha. The stomach wound, perhaps, but I doubt you got the others from him." Miroku said observantly.

"Yeah, you're right." The girls stopped putting things away and sat down to listen to Koga's story. Shippo was on Miroku's shoulder watching Koga intently. Koga rubbed the back. "We were fighting, and he did give me this stomach wound, but someone interrupted in the middle of our fight. It looked like Naraku but he was slightly shorter. He had on a baboon pelt so I did not see his face but-" Koga trailed off as Inuyasha busted into the hut.

"Kagome's been kidnapped!" He declared. He looked over to his right to find Koga sitting and staring at him. "You....." Inuyasha growled. His eyes narrowed.

"Inuyasha?" Kikyo exclaimed. "You're alive? How? I saw you lying on the ground dead!" Kikyo jumped up from her place in the hut to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She checked Inuyasha and all his wounds. He had a whole in his stomach that went all the way through, his left arm had a very deep gash in it, it looked as if it were about to tear off and he had scratches everywhere. His clothes were very torn up. "You're real." She said amazed. "You're not a dead man walking." Kikyo ran for the bandages and gauze and Sango helped her. Kaede and Shippo went out to pick some more herbs and get some more water. Minutes later, they had Inuyasha all fixed up too. The time that the girls and Shippo were helping attend Inuyasha's wounds, Koga told him what he had remembered.

"Well what are we still doing here?!" Inuyasha asked standing up. "We've got to save her!"

"How are we going to find them?! You couldn't even smell her!" Miroku said rationally. Inuyasha looked at Kikyo.

"She knows where they are." Inuyasha said pointing to Kikyo. Kikyo acted surprised and angry.

"What are you talking about?! How would I know where he lives?!" Kikyo yelled.

"Because you had a child with him...." Inuyasha revealed. Everyone gasped and gazed at Kikyo searching her for an answer to that. She slowly stood up avoiding everyone's eye contact except Inuyasha's. She looked straight in his eyes and placed one of her hands on his cheek. She had a look of sadness in her eyes.

"Inuyasha.... How, how did you know that?" She asked giving herself away.

"I met him." Inuyasha said simply. Everyone was speechless except Kaede.

"Sister! How could you do that with Naraku?! Our sworn enemy?! Your sworn enemy as well!" She yelled.

Kikyo did not answer. She just simply pulled her hand away from Inuyasha's face and lifted up the door to the hut.

"Kikyo..." Kaede said.

"If you need help, then we shall leave now." She looked back at Inuyasha and Koga. "Can you handle this? Will you two be alright?" She said looking at their wounds. Koga stood.

"I don't know about this dog turd here," Koga was pointing to Inuyasha using his thumb. "...But I can handle this, no problem." Koga assured her.

"Humph, you think that I would let you rescue Kagome, by yourself? No telling what you would do. Whether I'm able to go or not, I'm going."

"Don't leave us out this time!" Miroku, Sango, and Shippo chimed in.

"And I suppose I will have to go with you, just in case." Kaede said grabbing her bow and arrows. Kikyo always left her bow and arrows on her back.

Kikyo nodded and smiled. "Lets go then." She said. She turned and walked out the hut into the darkness of the night, everyone was following after her.

In a room that was like a prison, bars on the windows and locks on the doors. It was pretty dark. It was about a little after dinnertime and Kagome was still unconscious, sprawled out across the floor. She woke and looked at her surroundings. She sat up, her eyes were adjusting. All she saw was black.

"Uhhnn..." She groaned. "How am I the one to always end up in a different room than my own? Why am I always the one to be kidnapped?" Kagome wondered aloud. A sudden clicking sound made her jump. One of the doors to the room opened and a bright, flame on the wick of a candle appeared in her view. A person wearing a baboon outfit entered the room and locked the door behind them. he brought in food with him knowing that Kagome was probably hungry. In response to seeing the food, her stomach growled. She clapped her hands over it embarrassed.

"I was right in thinking you were hungry." The voice said. She tried to decide if it was Naraku or Haku. Maybe even Kohaku. The person set down the food in front of her and lit a few more candles that were in the room so she could see. Although she was quite hungry and the food that was sitting in front of her did look tempting, she didn't touch the food. She simply stared at the stranger in her room.

"Who are you?" She asked suspiciously.

The person pulled back their baboon mask and revealed him or herself. "I thought we already went through introductions." He said lightly. It was the little boy from earlier.

"You. Where have you taken me? Where am I?" She asked.

"You? You are at our house. My father's and mine. Mother left us." Haku looked down at the floor trying to avoid eye contact. It seemed like he didn't want to talk about the subject but he went on. "Mother looked exactly like you except her hair was longer and she wore different clothes." He stared deeply into her eyes, his eyes not wavering. He then dropped his gaze and sat down. "Yet, at the same time, I know that you are nothing like her." He sighed. He looked down at the food and then up at her. "The food is not poisoned. You may eat freely without care." He said. He looked off at one of the candles. He stared at it for quite a while. When he looked back, Kagome was done with the food and sipping her drink. She spoke to him.

"Haku..." She said sweetly. He interrupted her.

"Hey, can you tell me what she was like?" He asked. Kagome looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Don't you remember your mom?" Kagome asked confused. He lowered his head and shook it.

"I never knew my mother." He said sadly. "I'm 10 years old, and I don't even know her." She almost spit her drink out when she heard he was 10. "She left us when I was 4 and I never saw her again. I asked father where she went and what happened to her, he would never answer me."

Kagome was looking at the little boy and calculating his age on her fingers. She was trying to figure out how he could be so small and so old at the same time. When did Kikyo have this child anyways?! When Kagome looked up from her fingers, she saw that he was staring at her. She put her hands in her lap and smiled. She patted the floor next to her for him to sit there. He obediently got up and sat next to her. She held him in a hug and rubbed his hair. He was so adorable, like a little, newborn, kitten.

"Well, you mother, she was very brave. She had immense spiritual powers and everyday, they grew stronger. She was kind and always strong. She had to look after the Sacred jewel after all." Kagome was talking sweetly to the little boy, rubbing his back. He was lying on her lap, listening to every word. He looked up once while she was talking, and actually thought, he saw his mother looking back down at him, smiling. "She was very smart and had many people who believed in her. Everyone looked up to her for help, advice, and support." Kagome said. Her expression changed. "Then, one day, she died." She said. The little boy sat up and looked at her.

"She died?!" He cried.

"Yes," She said looking at him. "She did. Fifty years ago." The little boy looked as if he were going to cry. "Now, don't cry." She said. He wiped his eyes with his baboon pelt.

"If she died so long ago... How was I born? How did I know her until she left us when I was 4?" He asked curiously.

"I am still trying to figure out how you were born too. But she did rise from the dead."

"Like a zombie or something?" He asked wide-eyed.

"Yes. Something like that." The little boy laid his head back in Kagome's lap and she continued with her story. "One day. On top of a mountain, your mother rose from the dead, but there was a problem. She had no soul." Kagome said rubbing the child's back again. She could feel that he shifted after she said that. She continued. "Her soul, it had already been reincarnated into me."

A muffled "You?" came from the little boy's mouth.

"Yes, me. I am your mother, reincarnated." She explained. "Of course, your mother needed her soul to move, or do anything, and so, they took the soul out of my body and put it back in Kikyo's. I was unconscious for a bit, so I can't tell you what happened after that, but weeks later, we found out that she was still alive and that she was living on the dead souls of other girls. She planned to take Inuyasha, to the underworld with her. Way before you were born, Inuyasha and Kikyo loved each other, but your father wouldn't have it. He was jealous and so he set them up to hate each other for eternity. His plan worked." Kagome said gloomily. The little boy urged her to go on and so she did.

"Kikyo hated Inuyasha, she thought that he betrayed her and he thought it was the other way. They hated each other and I think, till this day, Kikyo still hates Inuyasha, somewhere deep down inside. After the incident of you mother trying to pull him into the depths of hell, we found that Kikyo had started working with Naraku. That must have been when your were born. But if you were born then, you wouldn't be as old as you are now." She looked down at him. His eyes sleepily opened to the sound of silence. He was almost asleep. She figured she would ask about his birth some other day. He did look like he needed some rest. She continued. "She had you then and stole my jewel shards to help Naraku. Inuyasha didn't want to believe it but he went to talk to her, and she confirmed it. She was then teaming up with Inuyasha sort of. She left Naraku soon after, but he would still check on her from time to time. Just to see her, he would hide in the woods where her new village was. One day, just to prove to himself that he didn't love her, he sent a huge soul carrier after her." (A/N she knows all this because Miroku and Sango told her.) "Inuyasha saved her from the soul carrier and they ended up falling love with each other again. Even though, Kikyo won't admit it. I know she loves him. It's sort of obvious. She helped me in a dream, helped me to defeat my curse and send the curse back at the dark priestess. I guess she was still working with Naraku huh? After all she did come with me to my time. But-" Kagome stopped talking for a second and heard the soft and even breaths of the little boy. He was exhausted. She looked at his adorable little face. He looked even more adorable while he was sleeping. She didn't move him off her lap for fear of waking him up. She just let him sleep on her lap. It was peaceful and the flames of the candles danced around. No matter how peaceful it was, there was still one thing that troubled her. How could he born and be as old as 10 years, if Kikyo was revived this year?

TO BE CONTINUED