Hello... Lora here. Sorry for the long wait for thisupdate... Being sick, trying to work, and doing school isn't a good mix for updating stories... I try though! . Anyway, please enjoy this chapter!

The Truth Behind Their Eyes

Chapter 21: Failed Attempt

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor any other characters of before-mentioned Anime... However, I of course own Lysi... but she's gone:(( Heh, anywayz...

Naraku chuckled darkly as he watched Kanna's mirror His eyes suddenly glittered with a mischievous light, and he let out a cruel bark of laughter. Kagura shuddered in the corner opposite him, although the coolness dank air of the mountain cave had not reached her...

"Perfect..."

Kagome sighed as she finally awoke. She instantly felt a small pressure on her stomach, and she cracked open an eye to see Shippo perched on her tummy, seeming to be anxiously awaiting something. When he noticed that she was awake, he gave out a loud, excited shriek, and suddenly escaped her narrow tunnel of vision. Almost immediately, she felt herself being lifted slightly, and then there was a cup pressed to her lips. She willingly drank the cool contents, the dryness of her throat only hitting her once the liquid was offered. After she emptied the cup, she pushed it away and tried to sit up. However, she was unable, and she wasn't sure if it was more from the sudden, extreme pain that shot through her body, or the hanyou that was now firmly holding her down by the shoulders. After a few moments of thought, she decided that it was a little bit of both.

"InuYasha, what are you doing?" She snapped, trying to use her normal snippy tone. Instead, her voice came out small and scratchy. She frowned at the sound, as did InuYasha.

"Kaede." InuYasha's voice boomed inside the hut, and the elder woman immediately came through the door.

"Ah, Kagome! You're awake! Did you give her the medicine already, InuYasha?" At the hanyou's nod of the affirmative, she smiled as she came to Kagome's side. "How are you feeling, child?" She questioned, her composure immediately resembling the caring healer that she was.

"Fine," Kagome tried to answer cheerfully, yet her voice once against failed her. Kaede frowned and turned to retrieve her bag of herbs. As she did this, she gave InuYasha the information that he had been anxiously awaiting for the past 48 hours. "The poison has subsided... Although it's not completely out of her system, it is no longer threatening her life. I need to brew her some more tea, then she should be back to proper health in another 3 days."

"What!"

The sudden outburst startled Kaede and InuYasha, who had been contemplating whether or not to shout the question himself. Kagome had beat him to the punch.

"Dead child, what is wrong?" Kaede asked, eying the girl warily.

"Three days!" Kagome choked out. "That's too long! We need to get back to searching as soon as possible, and three days is out of the question!"

As Kaede tried to soothe and talk some sense into the girl, InuYasha watched in wonderment. Usually, he was the one to be making such outlandish demands, not his little miko... What was wrong with her? Lysi hadn't knocked her around that badly, has she? Maybe she didn't even remember the incident between herself and the female dog-demon...

At the thought of Lysi, InuYasha's mood immediately darkened, and he sent Kaede out of the hut to make the tea as nicely as possible, then he took up the woman's former spot at Kagome's side.

Kagome was still fuming, and InuYasha silently studied her for a few moments. She was flushed, and her hair was a mess. Her breathing was erratic, and anger burnt deep within her eyes. Right then, InuYasha understood. Kagome remembered everything quite well, and was simply still furious over the whole ordeal. Not that he could blame her. He himself held some strong anger toward the dark princess, as he knew Miroku and Sango did also. He sighed, and Kagome's eyes suddenly flashed up to him, as if just barely noticing that he was there.

"What?" Kagome snapped, InuYasha's hard stare unnerving her. InuYasha snapped back to reality, and scowled down at Kagome.

"What?" He returned her question with the same intensity, and Kagome sighed, letting her anger abate a little. InuYasha watched her, his gaze never leaving her face. He could tell that her body was still exhausted from the fight against the poison. He scowled again, not being able to not feel guilty for what had happened to her. If only he had seen the seemingly understanding, too-good-to-be-true words of Lysi's for the lies that they had been, he would have never placed Kagome in such a dangerous situation. 'Dammit.. I'm so stupid!' He berated himself silently, his gaze slipping down to his lap, his posture taking on an ashamed overture.

"I'm sorry InuYasha..." Kagome sighed, her voice slowing regaining its normal gentleness. InuYasha immediately rose his head, and fixed Kagome was a hard glare. "If I wouldn't have... been so stupid... th-this wouldn't have happened. I-if I hadn't tried to p-prove... my-" She suddenly choked up, and couldn't bring herself to finish her confession. Her eyes started to tear up, and InuYasha quickly brought her into his arms.

"No, none of this is your fault, Kagome! It's mine... If I hadn't been so stupid, you wouldn't be hurt... Kagome, I-I..." InuYasha squeezed his eyes shut against his own tears, and brought Kagome up against his chest, holding her tightly, hoping that his actions could communicate what his words could not. "I'm sorry, Kagome..."

Sango sighed as she squinted up into the sun. It was barely past noon, only a few short hours after Kaede had finally deemed Kagome well enough to travel. The poison was still present, but after a couple days, it would be completely gone. Lysi had not been fooling around when she attacked Kagome, as the group had first thought. In reality, she had been planning on putting the girl through a long, painful death...

Sango shuddered at the train of thought that she was currently on, and quickly diverted her attention elsewhere. She caught sight of Kagome stumble, and quickly moved forward the couple of steps to catch her. "Are you sure you're alright?" She asked in a cautious voice, not wanting to invoke her friend's rage. Kagome had been on a rampage the last few days, and although Sango herself had not suffered any of the wrath directly, she believed that InuYasha had never been sat so many times in such a short amount of time. Luckily for the rest of them, InuYasha didn't seem to take such offense to it as usual, and almost seemed to accept it...

"Yes, I'm fine Sango-Chan," Kagome answered softly, leaning into the support that Sango offered. Sango wrapped her arm around Kagome's shoulder in order to help keep her up right, and smiled softly.

"Alright, but if you feel the slightest bit tired, let us know and we'll stop." Kagome's face twisted, and she seemed to be about to argue, but instead decided against it and sank into Sango's side, offering a small nod of acknowledgment.

The group soon reached a small stream, with a nice clearing beside it. It was near evening, and everyone decided that it was a good place to stop for the night.

Kagome almost immediately collapsed into her sleeping bag, and only ate after several threats from each of her travel-mates. Sighing, she took another bite of the ramen, which she had thankfully packed plenty of the last time she had gone home, right before her encounter with... Kagome shuddered, and looked up to see InuYasha sitting beside her. She smiled, and scooted closer so that their shoulders touched. "InuYasha?" She asked tentatively.

"Hmm?" The answer was muffled by the ramen currently in InuYasha's mouth. After a few seconds, InuYasha looked up at her as he swallowed. "Yeah?"

"Are you okay?" She asked conversationally. Even through her weakened state, she had noticed how jumpy and irritable he had been during their day of travel. Although she tried to simply pass it off as an after effect of Lysi along with the numerous 'sits' that she had dealt to him, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was missing something.

When he didn't answer, she sighed and looked up at the bright stars. After a few minutes of silent, comfortable star-gazing, Kagome stiffened. Through the trees, the moon gazed down at the small, cozy group of companions.

It was almost gone...

Naraku smirked as he gazed down at the army that scuttled in front of him. Numerous demons, from the smallest snake to the largest ogre, mulled around on the ground beneath him. All was ready; his army built, Kagura and Kohaku had their orders, as did Kanna...

Now, all he had to do was wait for tomorrow night; the New Moon...

Sorry for the shortness of this chapter. I tried to make it longer, but I obviously failed... But, I thought that ya'll would be happy with it anyway, seeing as how it is an update... Sorry! Don't kill me... I really did try to work on this chapter before this last time... Several times, actually... but it just wasn't coming to me.

Also, this story is quickly coming to a close... maybe two more chapters, and an epilogue. It would be only one more chapter and an epilogue, but I didn't get everything into this chapter that I wanted to... So, keep your eyes open for another update! It should come a lot sooner than this one!

Also, if you're wonderful enough to review, let me give you a warning; Remember whenI had those 3 A/N (author's notes)to this story? Well, they counted as chapters.So if you reviewed to them, that is why youhaven't been able to review to the last couple chapters... You see, I deleted the A/N, but the reviews that were attached to them stayed. So, the importance of this warning? It might happen this time around, too... Oops!

Much Love,

L.A.

P.S. If anyone can tell me why I named this chapter "Failed Attempt" I would be extremely happy... I don't think I made it apparent enough. If you get it right, I'll give ya something special... don't know what yet, but eh. Maybe you'll get the next chapter before everyone else... Also, there can be more than one 'winner'... Remember to leave an email with your answer! Thanks.