Chapter 10 – Finding Naraku

Wow, it's been a while since I updated, ne? But I started high school last week – OMGWTFLMAO – yeah. And I've been trying to slowly break my Inuyasha obsession, you know, so I don't flunk Marine Biology by watching episodes when I should be studying. But I was watching AMV's and I'm like, 'wow, I wanna write!' so I did.

All the crap: Still don't own Inuyasha, damn…Kaza's POV…you know the drill by now. READ!

"Okay, Kaza," Inuyasha yelled at me from up ahead, "we're here!"

"What?" I said. "Wait, we can't be there this soon."

"We've been making pretty good timing," Kagome added from beside me, "so it's perfectly normal." We climbed the crest of the hill and looked down onto the plain where my father and Naraku had vanished. Almost immediately my heart started to race, though I expected the field to be a bit more…well, mysterious or exciting. According to my mom, there had been a lightning storm that had been caused by some dark magic that made my dad disappear, but it was almost a perfectly normal field. A couple miles away or so I could see the edge of the forest, but other than that, it was just one big, grassy plain. I'd been traveling for a whole month for this, and I knew that now was the time for me to be all heroic and smart and think of some ingenious way to pull my dad out of here.

Problem is, I didn't know for shit what I was supposed to do.

"So now what?" Inuyasha sneered. "We got ya this far, now where's Miroku? You said you knew."

"Well, um, yeah, sorta…"

"You don't have a clue, do you?"

"Damn you, Inuyasha."

"Shut up, Inuyasha." My mom said, walking up to me. "Kaza, do you remember what I told you when you left our hut, almost a month ago?"

"Umm…don't die?"

"The other thing."

"Was it, trust the wind?"

"There ya go." She smiled. "We got you this far because we knew that you must've had a good reason to pull us halfway across Japan. And you wouldn't even have gotten the idea to come here if something, or someone, hadn't told you. So think about it. Where is the wind – your heart – telling you Miroku is?"

I was all business now. I walked slowly down the hill, feeling the dirt beneath my sandals. On an impulse, I took them off and crunched the dirt beneath my toes. It kind of felt like it was grounding me. (A/N Grounding? Get it? LMAO – okay, shutting up.) Looking out at the field, it wasn't as big as I thought it was – I could probably walk from one side to the other in about half an hour. I stared at the sky. Nothing out of the ordinary there. No lightning storms. No floating castle where my dad might have been hiding. Just beautiful, clear blue, dotted sparsely with a few clouds.

I plopped down. This was hopeless. Why had I dragged the entire crew all the way across Japan on a stupid whim that I could find him? Who was I kidding – I didn't know for crap where he was, and it was very likely I would never know. I could feel the Kazaana tugging at the beads, and right on cue, a soft breeze wound through the field. It picked up the ends of my long brown hair and flicked them across my face. As I brushed them out of my face absentmindedly, that's when the wind picked up, slapping the entire ponytail across my face. As I closed my eyes and the wind breezed over my eyelashes, that's when I got the idea.

The first thing I thought was that I was hallucinating or something, it was so retarded.

What the hell had I eaten yesterday? There was something wrong with me. I mean, really wrong. That's what I thought.

And then I figured, there's nothing else. What the hell? Maybe it'll work.

I ran back to where the whole group was waiting, and said breathlessly, "I think I've got it."

"What?" They all barked at me.

"I think I have to use the Kazaana, and suck him out of the sky."

Their reactions were amazing. I will never forget it.

Inuyasha and Shippou's mouths dropped automatically. Kagome gaped at me. Kirara purred in question. And my mom walked over and put her hand on my arm.

"Honey, what did you eat yesterday?"

Whoa. Ironic.

"No, Mama, seriously!" I shouted, pointing at the sky. Now was the time to display my temper and show them I was serious. "Look, there's nothing else! I think he's in the sky, and somehow I have to get him out with the Kazaana!"

"Kaza, there is seriously something wrong with you." Inuyasha said slowly. I could see Shippou and Kirara nodding in agreement.

I was really going to kill them now. I sighed, turned to my mom and said softly, "It's what the wind is telling me."

She nodded, stroked my hair and said even softer, almost a whisper, "Then do it, baby."

I walked down the hill again, my heart slamming. Behind me, I heard Inuyasha shouting, "Are you crazy? She's gonna get herself killed!" and Kagome saying, "SIT!" I tried to ignore them, even though my heart was seriously thinking about whether or not this was the right thing. It was dangerous for me to open the Kazaana at all, seeing as I had no clue how to use it, and I suspected I'd have to leave it open for a while…but I had no other choice. I owed it to my dad.

Stepping out to the middle of the field, I saw below me that no grass grew in the spot where I was standing. My heart stopped as I realized this was where my dad had vanished. This was the last spot he had ever stood on earth. Taking deep breaths, I braced my legs, raised my hand, and whipped off the beads.

The winds started slowly, then built up speed as the minutes passed that I kept it open. Soon, it was like a miniature tornado was centered around my hand. My body was getting nauseous from keeping it open that long – I hadn't had any real training, aside from sucking up barnyards. And for a while, it didn't look like anything was happening. The sky stayed exactly the same. Not even any clouds were sucked in. For almost five minutes, I stood there, the winds gaining velocity, and I seriously doubted my sanity.

And then, in an instant, the sky turned black.

I didn't even realize it had happened. In just a blink of an eye, the eye turned to pitch black. The cute fluffy clouds became like towering monsters. My heart was pumping against my rib cage now, I could feel it. It only took a minute for the entire gang, ready for battle, to converge around me. I was still wearing my yukata – if anything came out of the sky, there was no way I could fight it. The tornado above my hand slowly began to die down, and from the clouds a figure drifted down slowly, like a shadow descending. And then it took form.

I didn't recognize it, though obviously everyone else did. For a while it looked like a monkey. As it came closer to the ground, I realized it was a man – a man in a baboon suit, with the skull over his face. I could tell that everyone else recognized him, because without even looking, I heard Kirara growl, Kagome and Sango gasp, and the simultaneous hissss as Inuyasha and my mother both drew their swords.

Slowly it touched land. He breathed deeply, with a big sigh, almost as if he was breathing for the first time in - fifteen years? I wrapped the Kazaana back up and almost fell backwards, I was so weak. Kirara ran forward and supported me, and then the creature turned its eyes to me.

They were cold and black.

And then I knew. My father, I'd always been told, had my eyes – blue-purple. This thing's eyes were as black as the night sky. And that's when I realized that I hadn't sucked my father out of the sky – I'd sucked out Naraku.

He chuckled, looking straight at me. His laugh made my heart stop.

He laughed again and said darkly, "Well. You must be Kaza."

Oooh, a cliffhanger! Tough tradeoff - instead of sexy Miroku, we get the creepy guy in the baboon suit. I think this was one of my better chapters – so please review and tell me if you thought so too! Arigatou to you all!