Author's Notes: Konnichiwa minna! Valese and LadySword04 here with a chapter that is truly a joint effort. Each of us found our inspiration and the time too, and the result was that we Both wrote this chapter! After a few hours of compiling everything, we hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: Pointless as ever…but necessary so no-one gets the idea that we secretly believe WE own the series…even though in real life we don't.
Warning: Naraku may be a little out of character…just thought you'd like to know!
Chapter Four: And The Plot Thickens
The morning hours seemed to creep by at an annoyingly slow rate; even the sun took her sweet time climbing into the sky. Unlike the Inu-gumi though, she decided to sleep in a bit more behind the clouds before feeling ready to start the day. When she finally did reveal herself, the group had already been up and on their way for a few hours.
'This cool morning air sure is nice! I just hope it stays this way all day!' Kagome thought as she stretched while walking.
Her thoughts of a nice cool summer's day were dashed by mid-day. By this time, the sun was beating on everyone's backs and the heat was more than oppressive as the group trudged along.
"Man! It feels like a hundred degrees out here today!" Kagome whined to Sango who nodded as Kirara meowed in agreement. "I think I could stand the heat if it wasn't so humid out today though!"
As expected the hanyou of the group muttered a "Feh!" and some other comments about weak humans that only the two other demons in the group were able to hear. Lucky for him, Kagome didn't hear; if she had an argument would have burst out along with the grand finale of "Sits" and Slams; Lord knows, the world was warm enough today as it was, and the last thing it needed was the help of fuming tempers.
When even Shippo began to complain about the heat, Inuyasha reluctantly agreed to let them stop for awhile to eat lunch. Kagome found a nice shady spot under a large tree and began to unpack what she brought along. She pulled out still-hot plastic and almost translucent bags of rice-balls, chicken, beef, and fish whose warmth filled the bags with condensation. She smiled triumphantly at the group.
" We're in luck! The food's still hot!" She then proceeded to lay out plates and heap a portion of each bag onto each plate. "Lunch is ready!" she called. Everyone arrived in a split second. Kagome laughed, "Guess you're all as hungry as I am." She said with a grin as they all dug in like wolves.
Thanks to Kagome, this meal was one of the best they had eaten in a long time because she had taken the time to help Kaede make some dishes before they left.
Most of the meal passed in silence as everyone enjoyed what they were eating. 'They're all quiet. I guess that means it's good and they like my cooking!" Kagome thought excitedly, though she kept her mouth closed. A few more minutes passed and soon everything was gone.
Earlier that morning
Kagome hummed a random tune and picked up the food Kaede have given them and laid it out on the ground around her. Then, one at a time, she picked up a plastic ziplock bag and packed a little food inside it. Then, she pressed the air out and zipped it shut, securing it. One by one, each zip-lock back was filled with some freshly cooked food. Soon, she was surrounded by a ring of bagged rice-balls, roasted fish, seasoned chicken, and sauce-cooked beef. The smells wafted about her and she closed her eyes as she took it all in contentedly. Finally, each bag had been filled and all the food had been packed. The bags were now steamy from the hot condensation trapped inside. She picked each up carefully and tenderly placed them in her big yellow bag, being careful not to crush any of the food.
Naraku watched curiously. He had never seen anything like it. She was putting the food into bags, but the bags were…different. They were transparent and didn't become wet from the condensation or sticky from the sauce. He marveled at the way she could pick each up and place them anywhere, and nothing would become messy. Her hands remained clean and they had a strange tie at the top. She just slid her fingers across it and it magically closed. "It's her miko powers," he murmured, awed. "She is truly a powerful miko."
And after watching Kagome unpack lunch, Naraku couldn't help but wonder, 'How is it that the food remained hot? How is it I have never heard of or seen these magic miko bags before?' Curiosity winning the better of him, he decided to follow Kagome and her 'magic bags' for the rest of the day.
Return to present
After lunch, the group cleaned up and began their journey for shards yet again. Unfortunately, Kagome didn't sense a single shard for the remainder of the day. This was unfortunate as the lack of battle further stoked the fires of Inuyasha's rising temper. Inactivity was everyone's enemy and an irked hanyou on a short leash was no fun to travel with.
The sun parted company with the land of Japan for the evening, handing her reins over to her sister, the moon, for her share of time in the sky. This was when Inuyasha finally agreed to let the group stop and sleep for the night.
With a grateful sigh, Kagome and Sango set up camp and prepared a small meal of ramen and dried fruits from Kagome's time. After eating the girls headed to the hot springs nearby to take a quick bath and relax for a short time in the absence of a temperamental hanyou.
After a good soak, the girls returned to camp and luckily without incident. Kagome spread out her sleeping bag and crawled inside of it with Shippo at her side. Sango and a larger sized Kirara curled up on some soft grass and leaves while Miroku propped himself up against a tree. Inuyasha had found a branch to his liking and he too settled in for the night.
After the group exchanged "goodnights," they quickly were pulled into the land of dreams within minutes; all except for Inuyasha who was used to staying awake and alert for any potential threats. As expected, his wakefulness was not necessary as the night passed uneventfully as it had for the past few weeks now.
Meanwhile with Naraku
Still unbeknownst to the group, Naraku had been following them all day observing their habits and, where he was concerned, pointless banter and odd silences. 'This certainly was a wasted day, there is nothing that will help this plan of mine! Here come the two girls of the group…this looks promising indeed. Now would be a perfect time to attack them, but in doing so I would disclose my location, something I can ill afford to do. Hopefully I will learn something tomorrow or the next day that I can build on for later.' He smirked darkly.
This thought, Naraku crept off a few hundred yards for good measure before he found a suitable hiding place for the night. Little did he know that his presence would actually keep other demons (with a knowledge of the special ki that a barrier like his would give off) away, thereby protecting his enemy that night and the remainder of those he would be observing. However, no one would be protecting him from his dreams. Even though he intended to rest, tonight Naraku would be plagued by strange dreams and find himself awoken numerous times during the night.
Naraku feel asleep behind a tree near the inu-gumi. All he could think about were those bags. They had essentially driven all thoughts of his original plan out of his mind. His new priority rode on into his dreams.
(Dream)
It was dark all around. Naraku looked around in curiosity. Suddenly, he heard movement around him. He could just make out Kagome's sandwich bags dancing about in a circle. A spotlight shone down on the circle. Naraku suddenly found himself in the center of the circle. He looked around, and on every side, he was surrounded by the plastic bags. Instead of being frightened or confused, Naraku suddenly felt his belly fill with a great desire.
He wanted those bags!
They looked so useful and powerful; they could be his, but they were just out of reach! He growled and swiped out to grab out, but it danced out of his reach. Stupid bag… He swiped again, timing it carefully as the bag danced tantalizingly into his reach, but it escaped him again.
I'll get it this time. Nothing escapes Naraku! Mwahaha!
He swiped more furiously this time, but could not touch a single bag, let alone catch one. Their smiles and joyous laughter as they danced only added to his raging temper. He snarled angrily and began madly charging randomly at the bags. He couldn't reach even one. Finally, he gave up and sat down, exhausted.
I must have those bags! He promised himself determinedly. His desire for them was only fueled by their distance. The bags began to close in on him, and he grinned as they came in his reach. He extended his hand, but was surprised to find that no matter how close the bags came, he could not touch them! They danced in closer and closer until the ring was on top of him…
(End dream)
Now Naraku may not fear any enemy that had a physical form, but the dreams he had been having this night were scary enough for him to consider calling them nightmares. They were just so nice, some of the earlier dreams had the bags with smiles on their plastic parts, and the singing and dancing were absolutely something out of a horror flick gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Naraku woke up suddenly, his eyes blazing. "Blasted dreams! But those bags will not escape me!" he vowed aloud to himself.
Return to the hot-springs
Needless to say, the girls returned to camp without incident. Kagome spread out her sleeping bag and crawled inside of it with Shippo at her side. Sango and a larger sized Kirara curled up on some soft grass and leaves while Miroku propped himself up against a tree. Inuyasha had found a branch to his liking and he too settled in for the night.
After the group exchanged "goodnights," they quickly were pulled into the land of dreams within minutes; all except for Inuyasha who was used to staying awake and alert for any potential threats. As expected, his wakefulness was not necessary as the night passed uneventfully as it had for the past few weeks now.
Morning light quickly spread over the land the next morning and was not effective at waking the exhausted group. Several times the sun tried to summon them from their slumber, even pulling the trick of hiding behind a cloud before peeking out with a strong beam of light in a teasingly playful game of peek-a-boo. Giving up, she climbed into the sky and changed her canvas into shades of light and dark blue.
Kagome was the first to rise, other than Inuyasha that is,(even though Inuyasha was up; it doesn't count as he was awake all night!), and Inuyasha watched amusedly as she let out a loud yawn and stretched. He continued to watch her movements from across their makeshift fire pit as she went about making breakfast.
"About time you got up," he remarked.
"Well sor-ry if I happen to want to sleep in a bit longer than normal after one of your longer than normal walking days." She fired back.
Their argument woke the kitsune of the group who stated while rubbing his little eyes, "Great, they just wake up and already they're fighting! I'm going to wake Kirara. At least we don't fight like they do!"
With that he quickly went over to Kirara and played with one of her tails. Sango and her demon cat were up shortly after that and the four of them made a quick breakfast as well; Miroku could sleep in today for a bit longer as Sango wanted the most possible "hentai-free" time she could get.
Breakfast was quickly prepared, served, and eaten, and the group cleaned up extremely fast this morning; with good reason too. Halfway through the clean-up Kagome got a strange tingly feeling on the edges of her senses that could mean only one thing. . .a jewel kakera was within range!
'Better not say anything until we get finished. I am not leaving anything behind. That's all I need, having some archaeologist finding a wrapper or ramen cup five-hundred years from now and wondering how it got there, especially if it has the date on it!' Kagome thought.
"Let's get going already! The sun's already up!" Inuyasha huffed.
"I know, I know! I just have to do something before we go ok?" And without waiting for a question of exactly what she was doing or even where she was going, she was off like a shot.
She stood up and, without a word, left with her yellow back pack filled with the plastic bags, for the stream. When she got there, she opened her bag and knelt by the river with the now-empty plastic bags. She heard somebody approach her and turned around o find Sango.
"Hey, Sango."
"What are you doing?" her friend asked curiously while pointing to the plastic bags.
"Well, I figured I might as well reuse them."
"But why are you washing them?"
"Oh, because I don't want them to make the stuff in my bag dirty."
"I see. Would you like some help?"
"No, I'm fine, thank you. There aren't too many I need to do."
"Alright, if you're sure. Can I watch, though?"
"Sure." Sango sat down and Kagome returned to her task. The schoolgirl picked a bag up and dipped it into the river and wiped it clean with her fingers. She did this to them all until they were all clean and wet. She then picked up each one in turn and dipped it into the water until it was full of water. She then lifted it out of the stream and shook it for a moment.
"Why are you filling them with water and shaking them?"
"What?" Kagome looked up, "Oh. I want to make sure that it doesn't have any holes, because if it does, when I carry soup, it won't leak out."
"Wow! These bags are sugoi! And definitely useful too! I wonder what else you can hold in them?" Sango asked.
"Anything that is small enough to fit in it, and that doesn't have sharp edges. You just have to make sure you don't over fill them. But that's not much of a problem as they come in all different sizes. You can put them in the freezer to keep them cold, you can put hot or cold things in them, you can store toys, drawing utensils, anything that you don't want spilling out. And what's really cool is that you can hold them upside down, submerge them, and lots of other things and nothing inside will come out unless you open the bag." Kagome explained while she dried each bag off with a cloth she brought with her. She then took out the bags that still contained food.
"I don't want the food to get squashed," she explained. Kagome placed the clean bags in her backpack, and then started to place the food on top. It was very full, so the last bag, which held a riceball, was gently stuffed on the very top. Kagome stood up quickly and accidentally knocked the bag over. Luckily, only the top bag with the riceball fell out. Unfortunately, the bag was close enough to the edge of the bank that the plastic bag toppled into the water and began to sink slowly. Kagome waved her hands frantically. "Oh no!" She hopped forward onto her knees and reached out for the bag. When her hands grasped it and pulled it out of the stream, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Clean up accomplished, Kagome put away the bags and left to find the rest of the inu-gumi, Sango right by her side. They found the three boys lounging by the fire pit. When they spotted the two girls, Inuyasha jumped up. "About time! Let's go!"
"Alright, alright, we're coming!" Sango chuckled.
Inuyasha grunted in the affirmative, pleased to get going at last.
In the mean time with Naraku
After waking up from the final nightmare, Naraku decided he had better not try to rest again lest he see those horrible bags again. "The sun will be up in a little more than an hour anyway. I can just walk slowly towards their camp and watch again." With that he slipped out from behind his tree and put up his barrier. He followed Kagome to the river and watched from behind a tree as she took out her bags – The bags! – and he then saw she was soon joined by Sango. "What is she doing?" Naraku wondered.
When he heard the explanation, he couldn't help but be amazed. "Interesting. They can hold liquids? And anything else that will fit inside? What power!"
He couldn't stop watching hoping he could hear more about these bags and find out how they worked from the modern day miko. Needless to say he was shocked to see the girl drop the bag into the water, pick it up, and have the contents remain dry. Naraku's eyes widened. He was sure the bag had been completely submerged in water, yet the rice-ball was virtually untouched. It was not wet at all!
His focus was riveted on the little plastic wonder of the twenty-first century. His mind began working as all his mental cogs began turning. I must find a way to steal those bags from the miko! He sat back and thought deeply for a few moments. Nothing came to mind in those seconds, so Naraku decided it give it a day or two. "What am I thinking? I have no need for plastic bags, they are merely a distraction! This is unacceptable! I came here to find out a weakness and create a plan to kill them. Besides, people are easier to search and steal from when they're dead. I will get them, just not immediately." He vowed quietly to himself and the group. He then retired away deep into the forest that lay behind the group.
Naraku, through his haze of thought, realized that the inu-gumi had left and jumped up to follow them. He leapt out of the forest and ran from shadow to shadow, keeping in mind that speed was essential. They had already gained a big lead on the hanyou.
Half an hour of nonstop running later brought the evil hanyou just behind the flying group. I've caught up to them! Now to follow them. Now that he had caught them, Naraku was comfortable to just keep a constant speed with them. He sped along, lost in thought once more.
Authors' EnD NoTeS: We both hope you enjoyed this chapter! The next one has already been written and should be posted on the 28th of December! Look for more and we hope to see you guys again! We both hope you enjoyed this chapter! The next one has already been written and should be posted on the 28th of December! Look for more and we hope to see you guys again!
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