"Kanna, show me again," Naraku watched the images playing on the mirror in the darkness of the cave. On it he saw Kagome climb over the edge of the well and disappear in a flash of light then the image changed to another of her climbing back over the edge, seemingly returning from wherever she came from. He'd spent the last week watching Inuyasha and his friends through the mirror, planning his next move. He'd lost one too many times to let things continue as they were.

That girl, Kagome, has interfered far too many times. Inuyasha is far too protective of her to just simply kill her, especially since I tried to use her eyes. I would be far better off if that girl hadn't found her way here to begin with.

He turned to Hakudoshi and held out his hand, palm up, "Take this shard and embed it in the tree to which Inuyasha was sealed. Be sure you are not seen."

Hakudoshi took the shard, examining it. It glowed with an ominous dark light very similar to the corrupted shikon no tama. "Are you certain this will work? This is a reckless move for you Naraku. How can you even be certain the well and the tree are connected? You're basing this on a few stories told by humans. And even if it does work you can't be sure it will turn out in your favor."

"It is worth the risk, that girl is a nuisance. All attempts to corrupt her have failed so her existence only continues to hinder my plans. It is also clear to me that Inuyasha draws strength from her presence so this will take care of two problems. Now go while they are too far from the well or tree to interfere. Besides, we should be unaffected and therefore have the upper hand going forward. Inuyasha and his 'friends' will have no idea what they are even missing."


As day faded into night Inuyasha glanced around at his companions. They had made camp for the night in a small clearing having traveled for most of the day in pursuit of Naraku. Sango and Miroku were settling in for the night across from him and Kagome. Shippo was sitting on Kagome's lap but jumped down to go set up her sleeping bag. He focused on Kagome, listening as she hummed a tune under her breath. She caught his eye and gave him a small smile that caused the hanyo to blush slightly before quickly flashing her his own small smile.

"You should get some sleep, we're getting an early start tomorrow," he said, his smile growing a little when he saw her cheeks flush a little in return.

She nodded with a small hum in agreement and stood to go to her sleeping bag. "Goodnight Inuyasha," she called as he also stood and jumped into the closest tree to her.

He responded with a quick "g'night" as he settled onto his chosen branch, blushing just a bit darker. He took one more look around, using his senses to check for anything suspicious before letting himself relax enough to let his thoughts wander.

His mind settled on one of its more popular choices: Kagome. They had only been back on the road for a couple of days now after taking a break to let Kagome's feet heal from the acid burns she'd received in the ogre's stomach. That had been a much closer call than Inuyasha liked to admit. He'd been reckless thinking he could use the shard, even on Tessaiga, but he felt like he didn't have any other options. Had it not been for Kagome, he very well may have lost himself to his youkai blood and killed his friends. Equally disturbing was the possibility that his transformation would have allowed him to survive the whole ordeal to witness what he had done. Just the thought of what could have happened twisted his stomach painfully. To make matters worse Kagome had been injured while helping him overcome his own weakness and lack of foresight. He was supposed to be the one protecting her, instead she'd had to bail him out while standing ankle deep in stomach acid.

She was in danger quite a bit of the time being with him but she also gave him the extra motivation and strength he needed to protect her and deal with their enemies. In the beginning of their journey sending her home had seemed like the only reasonable and responsible thing to do. She had seemed like a liability, distracting him during battles and almost getting herself killed. Now however it was clear that, without her around, Inuyasha just didn't fight to his full potential. Inuyasha's desire to protect her drove him to new levels of strength, allowing him to take down foes that may have bested him otherwise. She was also an essential member of their little group. She held them together and lifted their spirits when they needed it the most, never backing down and always ready to supply a smile whenever someone needed encouragement.

It was also very obvious to anyone who observed them that she occupied a rather large part of her hanyo companion's heart. Her feelings for him had always been obvious, even before she knew what she felt herself. Inuyasha had remained guarded throughout their journey but even a casual observer would be able to plainly see how much he cared for his companion. He had, however, decided to maintain a certain distance from the miko from the future. Kikyo made that easier, coming between them at regular intervals throughout their journey. She wasn't his main reason for keeping her at arm's length however.

Kikyo would pass from this world eventually, he had accepted that. He tried to be prepared for the pain it was very likely going to cause but his hope of a peaceful end for her tired soul didn't look promising. He didn't think she had any intention of claiming his life for herself anymore either; another thing he was pretty sure he could thank Kagome for. Either way he had no intention of following her in death, having found plenty of reason to keep on living.

No, the fact of the matter was that all of the optimism and cheerful attitude in the world couldn't change the reality of their situation: the path they walked was extremely dangerous and potentially deadly for all involved. It had already, and very likely would continue to, lead them to pain and death and loss. One or both of them may not live to see the end of their journey. They could lose any one of their friends tomorrow or the next day. It was too much uncertainty. The pain of losing one of his friends, friends who were as close to family as he had ever had after his mother, was just too much. He didn't dare let himself think about losing Kagome, he would die before he let anything happen to her.

And so he kept her at what he hoped was a safe emotional distance. Nevermind that she was already well and truly ingrained in his life and nevermind that losing her would probably break him already. At least if he died she may have a chance at a normal life on the other side of the well, surrounded by her family and friends.

For now he would do everything in his power to protect her. And hopefully they would come out on the other side of everything alive and, if he was very lucky, together.

He looked down at their little group one more time, letting his gaze linger a little longer on Kagome, his thoughts drifting off, and finally let his eyes slide closed.

Inuyasha awoke with a start, jerking his head up. The first sign that something was wrong was how deep asleep it felt like he had been. He had only intended to doze lightly, not needing as much sleep as his human companions, to keep his senses attuned to any potential danger.

The second, and frankly very alarming, sign that something was wrong was what he could smell. Or, more specifically in this case, who he couldn't smell. Kagome's scent was missing. Not faded, not faint, not stale; just completely gone.

Inuyasha looked around in a panic. Miroku and Sango appeared to have not moved, but the spot where Kagome had slept was now empty. Shippo also seemed to be missing, scent and all. He also couldn't locate the large yellow backpack Kagome insisted on lugging around.

The final nail in the coffin of his already barely-there composure was what he saw at the base of the tree he was sitting in. There, poised as always, looking like she thought she belonged, was Kikyo. She was looking up at him with a slightly worried look on her face.

Inuyasha took a few deep breaths to try reign in the rapidly rising panic he was feeling. It wasn't just that Kagome and Shippo were gone, or that Kikyo seemed to have made herself at home in their camp. Everything felt totally wrong. Nothing smelled right, nothing sounded right (though that could just be the sound of his sanity slipping away), and nothing looked right. His instincts were screaming at him, telling him that something had changed and he needed to fix it, now!

Taking one last deep breath Inuyasha steadied himself before jumping down in front of Kikyo. He turned to the undead miko and gave her a slightly suspicious look. With all the patience he could conjure up he asked, "What're you doing here and where's Kagome?"

Kikyo, for her part, had the good grace to look surprised. She gave him an appraising look, tilting her head slightly before answering, "What do you mean 'what am I doing here' and who is Kagome?"

"Don't fucking play dumb with me Kikyo." Inuyasha crouched down so he was eye level with Kikyo. "If I find out you did something to Kagome-!"

"Inuyasha," she interrupted, "I really have no idea what you are talking about. Are you feeling alright? Did you hit your head while you slept?" She reached her hand out to feel his forehead but Inuyasha stood up and backed away a step.

He could hear Miroku and Sango starting to move around behind him but his main focus was the misplaced woman in front of him. Still fighting back his panic, Inuyasha changed tactics. "How long have you been sitting there? Was Kagome already gone when you found our camp?"

"I still don't know who Kagome is," she said, her patient mask slipping ever so slightly, "and I've been here since we made camp last night. You are worrying me Inuyasha. Are you sure you haven't been injured or perhaps cursed?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Inuyasha scowled at her then turned to face his friends. They looked just as confused as Kikyo. "Do either of you have any idea what happened last night? I need to make sure Kagome is safe. And we should probably find shippo too…"

Sango and Miroku exchanged a quick, worried glance before Miroku spoke, "Inuyasha, I'm not sure who this Kagome is but I assure you none of us have any idea where she is or what happened to her. If you tell us where you last saw her we could perhaps go back and check on her."

"Oh fuck no! I'm not buying this shit!" Inuyasha threw his hands up in frustration and anger. "You don't remember Kagome either? We've only been traveling with her for the last few months, fighting demons, chasing Naraku. You know, she broke the jewel, shoots sacred arrows, wears strange clothes, coddles that damn kitsune brat. Who, by the fucking way, is also missing. Or are you gonna tell me you don't remember him either?!"

"Calm down Inuyasha," came Kikyo's cold voice from behind him. She walked around so she was also in front of him. "Whatever you think is the matter we will figure it out. However, yelling and throwing your hands about is not helping anything. Clearly nobody knows who you are talking about but maybe if you took a second to explain we could start to get to the bottom of this."

Nope. This could not be happening right now. Kagome and Shippo couldn't have just stopped existing. There's no way anyone could forget her this easily. She's Kagome dammit, she held their group together through some serious shit. And now the two people who were almost as close to her as Inuyasha was were claiming that they didn't have a clue who she was. And the woman who had, at one point in time, wanted her dead was also claiming ignorance. . Way.

Taking one last look around, Inuyasha gave each of the people surrounding him his best scowl and barked out "Screw this, I'll figure it out myself!" before disappearing into the trees.

All three of the camp's remaining occupants looked around at each other before going about their typical morning routine. This wasn't the first time the hanyo ran off in a huff and it wouldn't be the last. He would rejoin them when he was ready and would hopefully explain his strange behavior.

Inuyasha couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this level of panic. He circled their camp a few times at varying distances looking for any sign of Kagome or Shippo. When he couldn't find even a trace of their scents on his third pass he switched to backtracking the path they traveled the previous day for a while before finally giving up. He stopped running, muttered a string of obscenities, and took out a nearby tree with a swipe of his claws.

His panic was gradually being replaced with a growing dread and a cold fear that settled deep in his heart. It was looking more and more like something or someone had taken Kagome and erased her existence from his life leaving nothing but his memories to taunt him. Not to mention the appearance of Kikyo and the unperturbed acceptance of Sango and Miroku to both her presence and the absence of Kagome. No, things were not the way they were supposed to be and the situation needed fixed, now.

Settling into a tree as high as he could go, still well away from camp so nobody could find him, Inuyasha tried to think about the night before, intending to pinpoint anything out of place. That was when the first skull-splitting headache hit him and nearly knocked him out the tree in its intensity. It lasted only a few seconds but pain was blinding. Breathing through the pain, it took Inuyasha a moment to clear his head but when he did he discovered something more than a little disturbing; he had two sets of memories from the previous evening.

He could clearly remember making camp, eating a cup of ramen, watching everyone settle down for the night, and saying goodnight to Kagome before taking a spot in a tree to keep watch. He could also remember, though not quite as clearly, making camp with Kikyo, Miroku, and Sango, eating something roasted over the fire, nodding to Kikyo, then jumping into the same tree she was sitting under to keep watch. Which definitely did not happen and yet at the same time clearly did. So what did that tell him? Not much that he didn't already suspect.

Alright, so he would just have to try a different memory, a little further back. The day they left the village to set back out on their journey had been pretty memorable, at least for him. Kagome had made a last minute trip through the well that morning to get some extra supplies. Inuyasha went with her to make sure she didn't take her damn time so they could set out before the sun set for the day. Getting the supplies had been pretty uneventful as had packing everything up and heading to the well. Once in the well house though Kagome, in her never ending clumsiness, tripped going down the steps. Inuyasha of course caught her easily and helped steady her on her feet. Which wouldn't have been particularly memorable or out of the ordinary, however, this time his hand ended up, quite accidentally, in unsafe territory. And it may have taken him a noticeably long time to remove said hand, his brain having shut down to admire how perfectly this new territory fit in his palm. Oops.

At least there was no way Kikyo could make her way into that particular memory. He shouldn't have been as surprised as he was when another headache tore through his skull and a second hazy memory of that day drifted through his mind. Kikyo, Miroku, and Sango, along with himself, had stopped briefly to grab some basic supplies that clearly did not come from 500 years in the future. They'd talked to Kaede about something, he couldn't recall what, and set back out the next day. He liked the original memory much better. Inuyasha quickly decided he didn't like this game of recall anymore.

His first idea was to head straight to the well to see if Kagome was safe in her own time (and to see if she remembered him). They were only a few days away from the village and he could make it a lot quicker by himself. That would mean leaving his two remaining companions alone with Kikyo though and he just couldn't bring himself to do that. So he decided he would just have to take his new, mismatched group with him. After he thoroughly questioned them of course. Preferably separately so they couldn't gang up on him. One of them had to know something or suspect something was off. Afterall, Kagome couldn't just be gone.