A Bewildering Rescue:

"…."=speaking.

'…..'=thoughts.

Kurama=Biju speaking.

"So how much further is this well?" Kagome asked. "It's not much further miko-san. We're very grateful that you could purify it." "It's alright. Please, call me Kagome," she replied gently. After receiving the thanks from all the people in the clearing after their battle with the Konchu no o, the village headman approached them. He informed them of a cursed well one day's travel from his village, which never gave water, and everyone who entered it had never emerged again.

'Hm. Another Bone-eater's well?' thought Inuyasha. "I'm not sure if this is really worth it Kagome. We've solved the problem, and even that Hanyo didn't go near the well. This is a waste of time."

Kagome answered her husband sweetly: "Inuyasha, stop pouting over the fight ending so quickly. I'll just see if I can purify the entrance so no one will be lost anymore, and nothing worse will come out of it in the future and hurt these people."

"Pouting! I am not pouting! I just concerned!" Inuyasha shouted.

Songo looked at the scene with a smile. 'Just like old times. People talked about changing over time, but Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku and I only seem to have become more of our inner selves since our journeys to find the Shikon Jewel shards. Kagome's as kind as ever and even more patient and strong, while Inuyasha is his brash self but he shows the same compassion to everyone that only Shippo, Miroku, Kagome, Kirara, Mioga, and I used to witness. She doesn't even have to say-" "Sit Boy." Kagome spoke gently-WHAM! '-very often,' Songo finished her thought.

Inuyasha picked himself up from the group. "Ha! Those are a lot gentler than they used to be Kagome."

"Would you like me to repeat it harder?" she replied in slightly more serious tone.

"Uh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

"Then let's check-out this well then get back to the village so we can head home."

A matter of minutes later the group reached the Void Well. Named since nothing emerged from it. Kagome was surprised. Her spiritual senses had also developed much more advanced from Kaede's teachings. Just being close to the Void Well felt similar to the sensation of passing through the Bone-Eater's well. Yet while the aura was foreboding, it was not pure or innately evil.

"Kagome, do you feel that?" Inuyasha asked.

Now Kagome was surprised. She was a spiritual sensor by nature. But for Inuyasha to feel the same thing meant the aura was much more potent than the Bone Eater's Well was. And likely more powerful as well.

"What is it Kagome-san?" Kohaku asked.

"Do you feel that Kohaku? That feeling is the same one Inuyasha and I had whenever we passed through the Bone Eater's well between this era and my home era."

"Kagome-chan, I don't feel anything." Songo spoke-up.

Now Inuyasha and Kagome were concerned. This aura was strong, almost extending out to them. But it seemed that only they felt it, since Kahaku had been curious to their reactions as well.

'Could this be because Inuyasha and I are the only ones to pass through the Bone Eater's well? I wonder if it means something.'

In a sudden flash of light and screech of steel, Kagome attention was diverted by the drawing Tessaiga.

"Inuyasha, don't cut it! Something's up!" Inuyasha held his sword in a guard stance:

"I know Kagome. That aura from the well just got stronger, and it feels like only we are being drawn to it."

Everyone was on their guard now. Such focused power was usually a threat. Suddenly a strong wind started to flow past everyone and towards the centre of the well.

"Everyone Get Back!" "Look out!" Kagome and Inuyasha shouted.

The wind increased, and they noticed that leaves from the trees nearby were being pulled towards from. From the left, right, and ahead of the group, the green leaves formed a light cyclone are they flowed towards the opening of the Void Well!

"Songo, Kohaku, get back!" Kagome yelled as she felt herself being pulled into the well.

Inuyasha felt the same, but responded in kind: "Wind Scar!"

As the destructive force emerged from his blade and tore apart the ground before the Void Well. Yet rather than destroying it, the engulfing wind grew stronger.

"Kagome-Chan!" "Mito-san! "Hanyo-sama!" "Inuyasha-san" "Rawrawrwarwar!"

Kohaku, Songo, the Head-man and Kirara ran forward to try and grab their friends.

"Stay back!" "Inuyasha yelled. "We don't want to drag the rest of you in! Kagome! Grab my hand!" Kagome was shocked, but understand in an instant. Whatever happened, she and her Husband might be separated if they passed into the well. They wanted to stay together, and never be forced apart again.

"No!" Songo yelled. "Kirara-"

"Damn it Songo, you need to get back to your family! Don't even try it! I know what it's like to lose your mother! Don't put your children through that." Inuyasha shouted.

"We'll be fine! Losing my father was hard too! Stay together with Miroku!" Kagome cried. As she and Inuyasha were pulled forward their hands clasped together and Inuyasha pulled her into his arms.

The vortex's magnitude had increased steadily. They were pulled forward more and more in the span of seconds, and entered the well.

The spectators watched helplessly as their friends and family were pulled into the Void Well. Once they entered the winds died in two seconds. Songo was shocked, trembling for a second before falling to her knees. Kohaku ran to his sister as she struggled to catch up with what happened so suddenly. 20 seconds earlier they had been walking easily towards the well, happy, content, and reflective. Now Inuyasha and Kagome were sucked into the well, and she was too shocked to respond.

"Hanyo-sama! Kagome-sama! Are you alright?"

1…2…3…4…

"What the!" Inuyasha's voice rang out. Songo looked up, and ran to the Void well with Kohaku and Kirara. The Head-man had run up to look inside the well. Inuyasha and Kagome were lying on a bed of earth inside the well, safe, unharmed, and confused.

They both looked up. "What is going on! First we get sucked into this stupid well by a vortex and then nothing happens!?" Inuyasha shouted.

Songo and Kohaku were relieved. "Are you both alright? Do you see anything down there?" she asked.

Kagome started to look around and was surprised. She noticed hundreds of kanji along the wall. Her eyes fell on one symbol "Shinobi?" she whispered.

Then Songo started shouting "Kagome-chan! Inuyasha-san! What happened!"

"Songo we-"

"Kagome-san! Inuyasha-san! Where are you!"

All of their friends at the top of the well were crying for them. Unbeknownst to them, the moment Kagome had spoken "Shinobi" the Void Well had gone black, causing them to disappear from the sight of their friends.

Then the Kanji for Shinobi began to glow. Inuyasha snarled and Kagome looked anxious at the bright lights. The next instant, both of them were flowing through a bright, multi-coloured medium. Much like the one the pair passed through whenever they used the Bone Eater's Well, it was like travelling through water, with shapeless blobs, some close and others seeming kilometers away. The two held close to each other, and after what felt like an eternity, they were encompassed by a white light, and standing on the ground in a clearing…with the sounds of a battle nearby.

"Earth-style: Pulsing earth-wave jutsu!" Inuyasha ears twitched at the cry, turning his head to the west, and sniffed the air.

'Blood, gun-powder, burning wood and skin, unrooted earth. A Battle!'

"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, catching his attention.

"There's a fight going on close by. Can you hear it?"

"Only faintly. It must be a long way away if only you can hear it. Maybe 300 meters," Kagome assessed.

"Probably further. I can smell it too, but only because we're down-wind. We probably shouldn't get involved. It's not our fight, and we don't know anything about where we are." Inuyasha was looking around the clearing while he spoke. While he eyed the well beside them with suspicion, the forest surrounding him and Kagome was much denser than the one the Void Well had been in. Also, the trees were much larger.

"Maybe not." Kagome replied. "If we get close, then we could help whomever wins the fight, and they could tell us more about where we have landed."

'Hmmmm.' Inuyasha did see some sense in his wife's pragmatism. "Alright. We're down-wind, so we can get closer to them without being detected if we move quietly. Jump on my back, Kagome. We'll go in from the trees and take a look from above."

Moment later, the pair were soaring through the air as Inuyasha leaped from branch to branch. In moments they were close to the site. And saw three armed figures with red clothing standing in the trees.

"hhhh..hhhh….hhhh." 'This is going bad. I'm two-thirds out of chakra, and there are still five of them." The grey-haired shinobi panted, grimly assessing the odds the he and his comrades were in.

The shinobi was Hatake Kakashi, one of, if not the, most capable, experienced and deadly shinobi of Konohagakure. A high A-ranked ninja, he had been assigned to investigate reports of rouge-nin in the area 40 km. northwest of the village; near the border between Tsuchi-no-Kuni and Hi-no-Kuni. Given the reports of a team of four shinobi with the calibre of their capabilities being around chunnin-level, a team of four jonin-class Shinobi were dispatched to eliminate them.

Kakashi himself was the team-leader for his tracking skills and ninjutsu-prowess; along with Might Guy, a taijutsu specialist comparable to a coordinated martial hurricane; a recently-promoted Tobuketsu-jonin illusionist named Yuhi Kurenai; and a dynamic interrogation-specialist called Mitarashi Anko.

Between Anko's skill at…acquiring…information and Kakashi's tracking expertise, they had tracked the group without any unusual difficulties.

However, while they were scouting the rouge's camp, their information proved to be fatally incomplete. The group consisted of 10 rouge-nin, three of whom were Jonin-level. All former Iwa shinobi with a serious grudge against Konoha and Hi no Kuni.

Seven were inside the camp when they uncovered it. However, three of the criminal ninjas had returned from the outside and spotted the Konoha-nin. While two were killed quickly, the other seven had responded and saved the last one. Since then the hunters had cut them down by two, but four chunnin-level and two jonin-level enemies remained.

"Explosion-style: upheaval!" One of enemy jonin attacked, a former member of the Iwa Explosion-corps.

Kakashi's Sharingan saw the jutsu streaking towards Kurenai, who had three enemies trapped in one of her genjutsu's. While Anko would kill two, Kurenai was moving on the third.

Her body shattered in a bloody geyser, too slow to evade while maintaining the illusions despite noticing the technique!

Kakashi's Sharingan precognition foresaw everything as the Iwa-rouge had spoken "Ex-"

Immediately his hands flew through three signs, emitted a notoriously high-pitched chirp, and met the target's chest as he dashed forward. Leaving an electric hole burnt through the dead shinobi's heart.

Kakashi had used his infamous high-speed assassination technique, the Chidori. Favouring its speed to save his comrade, and lower chakra-cost than the Raikiri.

When you cannot defend, attack. With no reliable jutsu's to block or deflect the explosion-jutsu, killing the source was the only way to save Kurenai.

With no shinobi to empower the long-to-medium range jutsu, it dissipated before it could reach her. Saving her life and cutting the enemy forces down to three.

However, the burst left Kakashi spent of any usable chakra. Kurenai was also close to dropping.

Guy had taken four kunai into his back earlier in the battle, when one of the enemy Jonin cleverly substituted himself with Guy to avoid poisoned kunai thrown by Anko. Anko herself had also taken some hard hits from a collaborative Fire+wind style Jutsu while covering Guy and couldn't do any heavy lifting.

The remaining Jonin and two chunin had fallen back 10 meters to take stock of the battlefield.

As the Konoha-kunoichi stood in front of Guy and the kneeling Kakashi, their enemies smirked at their impending victory.

Kakashi frowned at their enemies, as he lowered his armoured head-band to cover his eye. He would need to conserve as much chakra as he could.

'I already used a soldier-pill earlier, and don't have anymore. Guy's still recovering from the antidote Anko gave him after she was burnt, and Kurenai is nearly as spent as I am…This mission is close to failing. I need to order the others to retreat. I'm never going to let me comrades die again. Plus I'm the only one here who can destroy my body so the enemy do not learn anything.'

"Hahahahahahaha!" "You Konoha-punks are seriously pathetic. Ever since the Yellow-Flash died you've seriously slipped. Not even his student could handle a few dozen of us, while he could fight hundreds!" "Don't talk like that! Kakashi has done us a favour. His Sharingan is going to buy our pardon back in Iwagakure from the Tsuchikage. We should be respectful to him."

Kakashi's face didn't respond to the opposing jeers.

"No way! You bastards are going to make us rich from your bingo-book bounties! And I need to repay you for the bad sauna treatment!" Anko responded with a sadistic smirk.

Kurenai, by contrast, was much more serious. "You will not leave here alive and continue to kill more innocent people," she swore in a slow, serious tone as she gathered her remaining chakra for a final genjutsu.

"Ha! Like you could stop us in your pitiful state. I'm overjoyed to see you Konoha-disgraces brought lower than those people we killed two weeks ago. Helpless and weak! Like a cockroaches waiting to be-"

"Iron-reaver Soul-stealer!"

Two glowing claws suddenly cut-down two of the Iwa-rouges from behind!

Kakashi's eye widened as a blur of red, white and black landed in the clearing between his team and the single, remaining Jonin.

After hearing the red-clothed woman gloating about killing innocent people, Inuyasha and Kagome had heard enough.

Inuyasha had dashed forward, using his lethal claws to kill two of the enemy from behind rather than waste time, surprise, and efficiency by drawing Tessaiga while Kagome was on his back.

After landing on the ground, Kagome stood behind him, while Tessaiga sprang from its sheath.

The Iwa Jonin was more than shocked to see her remaining allies fall. But, as a elite ninja, she reacted to the new development immediately. Prioritizing escape, she quickly performed a summoning-jutsu to distract the new arrivals while she made a break for it.

Kagome notched an arrow in her bow, as Inuyash unsheathed his sword.

The next instant a cry rang through the clearing: "Summong-justu!"

A cloud of smoke exploded, rising 10 meters high…as six spindly legs emerged from it.

As the smoke cleared, a giant-sized Whip-scorpion stood in front of the hanyo, miko and shinobi. While such creatures lack the rapid stinger and venom of other scorpions, their tails arc around them, like a whip. Releasing powerful toxins from glans within the tail. This particular Summon had its tail-glans filled with acid, and could cover an arc of 50 meters within 5 seconds. While too harmful to use when allies were close-by, the loss of the Iwa-rouge's remaining followers removed the risks in using this Summon.

"Hey, move outa it's range! I'll deal with this Summons!" Anko commanded as she swiped her hand over her bloody shoulder to summon a snake.

"Ha!" Inuyasha smirked.

"WIND-SCAR!"

Anko had finished half of her hand-signs, when the shock of her life met her.

A cutting wind of pure destruction materialized from the arc of a giant blade!

The Whip-scorpion had shifted its tail, but the arc raced across the clearing-severed it into three-and spread further beyond the target!

The cut had been angled left to right, cutting the scorpion in half, and severing the head of its tail from the appendage! Leaving three piece behind-which quickly poofed out of existence!

The slash raced further beyond-too fast for jonin to do more than glance…before her body was obliterated by the giant slash…

Kurenai was gawking at the site! Within six seconds her and her team's situation had gone from hopeless to solace.

'Wha-…wha-…"what the heck!"

She watched, dumbstruck, as the figure in a red hakama casually hefted a giant blade to his shoulder. And cock his head towards the sky. "I don't smell anyone else around here. How about you, Kagome?"

"I'm not sensing anyone close by either, Inuyasha. Keep on-guard though. I'll tend to these people and their injuries."

Kurenai shifted her eyes to the second person, who was turning towards her team.

"Is anyone seriously injured? I can help if you are."

"What about that Iwa-bitch!?" Anko called.

"She's dead."

Glancing over her left shoulder, Kurenai saw Kakashi's head-band raised over his eye.

"When they moved in, I uncovered my Sharingan in case they tried to attack us as well. The Jonin kunoichi was…that 'wind-scar' obliterated her," he explained.

End.