Author notes: As I said in the author notes, I had a hard time. Luckily I'm better now ^^ so I'll begin to update regularly again =) thank you for all your support ^^

Once again remember that my native language isn't English, so I may have grammar errors. But since it's been too long since my last update I don't know if my beta-readers are still willing to help me, anyway I did my best and I'll try to update the revised version soon ^^ thank you so much for your words =D see you next Friday! I promise the updates won't be slow again. Pinky promise!

And sorry for take over two months to update the story, at least last time I didn't left cliffhangers… … … ^^U

Disclaimer: Besides the plot line, I don't own anything. Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and Yomiuri TV Corporation. I'm not getting any profit from this story; this was just made for fun.

Warning: Maybe there is bad language? I'm not so sure what you consider bad language... ^^U

Thanks to: My beta reader, PandaStarz, for her wonderful work on this chapter.

Slavery.
Author: MikoAucarod

Chapter 16: Why is this happening?

"Good, this is the last one," said Miroku, placing the last of the suitcases on the roof of the van. That day they would return home.

"Yeah, but…" Kouga approached and moved the same suitcase a bit to the left, "this is much better."

"Whoa, you're right, Kouga."

"Hey, guys… one thing is Kagome making a tower with our suitcases, but yours is exaggerated." Inuyasha approached them, with his hands inside his jeans pockets, while observing the 'castle' – Miroku swore it was a castle - made of their suitcases.

"Well, Miss Kagome's idea was good. Besides, it was boring to just put them on the roof and in the trunk of the van."

"You two are hopeless."

"Let them have fun, Inuyasha," spoke Sango, walking towards them with four ice pops in her hands. "Thanks for all the help."

"It was a pleasure, my dear Sango. Thanks to you for bringing us this exquisite delicacy." Miroku took her hands between his – she was still carrying the ice pop – and made her blush.

"W-well… d-don't exaggerate, Miroku. They're just ice pops."

"Brought from the heavens, believe me."

"Stop being corny, Miroku," Inuyasha huffed, rolling his eyes, bothered.

"Oh, Inuyasha. Don't tell me you've never said something nice to Miss Kagome," the monk responded while placing his left arm around Sango's shoulders in some kind of hug, which only made her blush deeper.

"Keh! That's not any of your business, pervert."

"Is everything ready, guys?" asked Kagome, approaching and looking at the castle with an expression of awe. She was excited; it looked so cool! "Great! We can go now!"

"Driver's seat!" yelled Kagura, waving the keys of the van and climbing into the driver's seat. Sesshomaru, silent as always, took his place in the front passenger seat.

Finally, with everyone settled, the van started to move. Kagome, who was sitting in the back, along with Inuyasha and Kikyo on either side of her, couldn't help but look behind her and stare at her former home getting away while they entered the main road and left the beach.

"It's weird… at first, my mom didn't wanted us to come here alone… but I wanted to return and enjoy some time with all of you…" she spoke, mostly to herself but gained all the attention of Inuyasha who placed one of his hands over her shoulder and squeezed it lightly.

"I can imagine that it had to be hard, right? To get away from your home, from where you were born, where you grow up. To leave behind everything you knew..." 'To see it destroyed in just a second.' He didn't say that last phrase out loud, and his voice had been soft, as if not wanting to trouble her.

"Well… not really. Mom was scared, but thankfully, I was old enough to understand and I managed to catch up with everything. Besides we're not that far away from here, as you can see… it was good to return for a while." She smiled with nostalgia and that made him look at the beach too. It had almost vanished behind the path.

"Hojou came home. The day we couldn't enter the cinema," he said, just like that, making Kagome to look at him with doubt and some fear.

"Did something happen?" Inuyasha shook his head and smiled a bit, making her relax.

"On the contrary. It was him who gave me the tickets. He saw us when you were insulting the world and understood what had happened. He told me that he was sure that that was the movie you wanted to see since, years ago, when the first ones of the saga came out, you never missed them."

It was Kagome's turn to smile, tenderly, for the gesture of who had been her childhood friend. Perhaps with time, just like it had happened with Kikyo, he could change for better.

"What else did he say?"

"That he would travel around the world and try to make things right. Change for good, just like your cousin… just like you."

Kagome nodded, glad, and sitting correctly again, she placed her head on Inuyasha's left shoulder. He held her hand and began to rub her thumb, as usual. Nevertheless, a blush came over the hanyou's face and he looked out through the window, trying to ignore Kikyo's giggling.

"I hope he succeed…" was the last whisper of the teenager, who closed her eyes and gave herself to a small afternoon nap.

It was dark when they entered the road leading to the apartments, so Kagura chose to go first to Kagome's house for them to rest and the next morning they would depart towards their respective homes. Besides, she needed to pick up her sister from their place.

Everyone stepped out of the vehicle. Inuyasha was carrying Kagome bridal style, since her 'afternoon nap' had turned into a deep slumber. While everyone else began to untie the suitcases and got everything they needed out of the van, Inuyasha went to the apartment's door but then he noticed something weird.

"Kagome, wake up…" he whispered, moving her slightly while staring at the door. It was half open and the interior of the house was completely dark. The whole place was barely illuminated thanks to the street lamps.

"Mmm… What's wrong, Inuyasha?" she mumbled, stopping mid-yawn.

"Something's wrong…" Inuyasha placed her on the floor and she woke up immediately at that phrase.

"Oh no… Mom! Shippo!" She exclaimed and before Inuyasha could stop her, she fully opened the door and entered her home. The hanyou felt petrified to think that something could be inside the house that could hurt her. His feet soon began to run towards the house.

When he crossed the door, the lights shouted on, forcing him to close his eyes for a moment. Kagome had pressed the switch and what they saw in front of them left them shocked.

Their home was completely destroyed.

Literally.

The furniture was destroyed and scattered all over the place. The walls showed burn marks and other ones had holes through them. It seemed that they had been stabbed with claws of a very large tiger. The TV looked as it had been hit by something similar to a giant canon ball and kept throwing sparks.

They could hear the water running out from the damaged pipes but the floor was barely soaking so this had not happened a long time ago.

Kagome looked for all over the place, fearing the worst, but they were only material stuff in there. Then she ran began to follow Inuyasha towards the second floor. His face was carrying an emotion that she had never seen before in him. He was purely terrified.

When they got upstairs, they observed how all the room's doors had been destroyed, some cut in half, other ones completely burned and small woodchips were scattered all over the floor.

Inuyasha then detected Kagome's mother, Shippo's and Kanna's faint smell so he went towards it. He entered the room he used to share with Kagome, Kikyo and Shippo.

He then discovered where the smell was coming from. There was a small lock of hair from each one of them, hidden near the balcony, which had also received damage. Part of the stone railing was broken and the glass door was now shattered.

"Where's my mom?" Kagome almost cried, taking between her hands the locks of hair that Inuyasha handed towards her. He also was terrified but he knew that they weren't at home and he couldn't smell their blood so at least they hadn't been hurt… he just hoped that they hadn't been kidnapped.

"Their scent ends here… I can't-" and then he felt it. Shippo's scent DID get away from the balcony, towards the forest. Because he was a youkai his scent managed to linger in the air for more time than a human one could. "They're fine. They managed to run away…"

"How are you so sure?"

Inuyasha got out to the balcony and stared towards the forest. Being outside it was more notorious, it was faint and almost inexistent, but it was there, their scents, the three of them, getting away from the building and mixing between the trees of the forest.

"They are. We have to get away from here, and quickly." He observed how Kagome took from the bedside table the bag with stones that Kei had given to her and placed them safely inside her pocket.

And then there was an explosion.

"Oh no… Mom! Shippo!" Sesshomaru heard Kagome's yell and he turned around, only to see how Inuyasha went inside the dark house and then the lights went on.

Something wasn't right. His youkai instincts woke up and he began to study everything around them. Everything was deadly silent and the street was empty and dark, except for the street lamps. But that didn't help him to see farther away than a couple of meters.

It was at moments like these that he hated most the power the shackle had over his supernatural powers. They had been minimized; he wasn't at his full capacity. With time he had come to terms with it and had adapted his fighting style but that didn't make it less frustrating.

He spent the next couple of minutes in silence, observing the work of everybody else. Kagura had insisted that she would carry the packs, but she was having troubles untying the ropes that kept them in place over the van's roof. He couldn't help but think that that woman was really stubborn.

Finally, they got down all the backpacks and began to walk towards the house, not knowing what was happening inside.

It was then that he heard it, the unmistakable sound of a weapon being activated, it was faint, but it was there. Kouga also heard it.

At the next moment, Sesshomaru and Kouga used their demonic powers and threw themselves towards the others, hastily pushing them inside the house. At the next second, where they had been standing there was an explosion.

The van was now covered in fire and a second shot was heard.

"Everyone to the forest, now, now, now!" exclaimed Sesshomaru, at the same time that he pushed them away of the entrance of the house, where the next bomb fell. It was some kind of bazooka what was being shot at them.

Kouga got first to the back door at the kitchen and told the girls to hurry up. Miroku was behind them, making sure every one managed to get out without injuries.

Almost at the same time, Inuyasha went down, carrying Kagome on his back.

"Get them all out of here! Miroku, Kouga, take them to the forest. Try to find some trace from Shippo!" was the order the hanyou gave to them while giving a scared Kagome to the monk, who nodded and without saying anything else, guided the girls over the forest. Every one of them was so scared that they only managed to follow, being protected at their backs by Kouga, who kept saying them to hurry and get out of the place.

Whatever was happening, it wasn't safe for the girls.

What the hell had happened so suddenly?

"We must get out of here, too. The entire place is on fire," spoke Inuyasha to the taiyoukai at the same time they heard another explosion. This one was launched towards the second floor.

The front wall collapsed and Sesshomaru could notice, in the middle of the flames, the silhouette of someone standing on the roof of a building that was a far distance from their place.

"It's a planned attack; they know we're in here, Inuyasha. We must stop them."

And Inuyasha knew why. If they ran away and whoever attacked them managed to follow them, they would find the girls and put them in risk. The flames were now covering the entire floor and touching the ceiling of the first floor. And then they could see them. Thanks to their enhanced abilities they could notice a group of six people outside the building, approaching from the main road towards the van on fire and looking towards the house. The silhouette of the one who had shouted at them was nowhere to be seen, so they supposed that he was going towards the place at that moment.

"Another thing that I'll add to the long and endless list of things that I hate of these shackles… is that the order never vanishes unless someone manages to counter it…"

They couldn't kill their attackers. One of their former owners had been a pacifist and when the wars ended he ordered them never to kill any human again.

And their attackers were human. Or at least, they seemed to be.

"I believe they're already dead…"

"Maybe they're hiding in another apartment of the building."

"We can't take the risk, brother. Naraku told us-"

"I know what he said, Jakotsu. Tell Renkotsu to shoot at the entire building, we will entirely burn it."

"Right away, brother Bankotsu."

Sesshomaru turned towards Inuyasha and with a movement of his head, told him to get out of the building. If they believed that they had died during the explosion that would make things easier for them.

They heard new explosions and the building began to collapse and burn in fire completely. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru managed to get out and hide between the branches of the trees, focused and alert, just in case someone decided to go to the back of the building and search for them. It was then that Inuyasha remembered the couple of old men that also lived at the building and he felt as if a cold tank of water fell over him.

"Damn, Sesshomaru! Myoga and Totousai are-" when Inuyasha turned his gaze towards Totousai's department, he felt his stomach drop down then he saw that part of the building collapsing entirely, as if it was only a tower of cards being blown away by the wind.

'Dammit, now because of us they were-'

A new sound could be heard and they turned their eyes towards the other side of the building. Myoga's apartment was already in flames. Then the window of his room exploded and two figures emerged from that place. Totousai was carrying Myoga over his back and was running with a noticeable speed, to be just an old man, towards the forest, where he found a secure place to hide among the shadows of the trees.

Finally, the building turned into ruins and, luckily for them, those people had already gone. Inuyasha sighed in relief, at least, for now the danger had gone… but they couldn't let their guards down again. He knew it now: Naraku was capable of anything to take his revenge. And now he had allies… some very aggressive allies for his taste.

He allowed himself to relax a moment but when he turned to look at Sesshomaru he noticed he wasn't at his side anymore but standing next to the old men and was holding Totousai in the air, with a strong grip around the collar of his shirt. Totousai was just smiling in shame and hurt, but he could see his eyes were terrified. Myoga, at Sesshomaru's feet was struggling to breath normally again, coughing once in a while because of all the smoke.

Inuyasha went towards Sesshomaru in less than a second and forced him to drop Totousai.

"What the hell's wrong with you, Sesshomaru?"

"Tell me where Rin is!" exclaimed the youkai, barely being stopped by Inuyasha. Totousai helped Myoga to stand and when he noticed that the poor man was all right he looked towards Sesshomaru.

"You were very clever, Sesshomaru… Inuyasha never noticed that I was a youkai, not even when he came to visit me with Kagome."

The young half-demon widened his eyes in surprise. Totousai was a youkai? That explained his act a few seconds ago but… how damn lucky he was for have been able to live all those centuries and not be turned into a Slave!

"First, we must take Myoga to a safe place. He's human and he's old. Then we can peacefully have a talk, Sesshomaru… but no. I don't know where the little Rin is."

Inuyasha felt terribly confused and out of place at that moment, he couldn't understand what had happened before or what was happening right now.

It was then that a small blue flame appeared between everyone and Shippo's form appeared from the nothing. A ghostly vision, they must say, because it seemed to be made of that blue fire.

"Inuyasha, the girls are safe, look at the base of the mountain for a cave. I left a trace near the lake, they're 'crying mushrooms', they will react once you get near of them. We're all safe and fine. Don't worry about us. We hope you too are ok."

And with that, the ghostly vision disappeared.

"I think…" was the first thing that Inuyasha's mind managed to organize. Just ten minutes ago he had been very calm, staring at Kagome and thinking how beautiful she looked while sleeping and now he felt a tremendous adrenaline running all throughout his body. "I think… we must go to the lake and then find the guys…"

Not saying anything more, Inuyasha walked towards the old Myoga, carrying him on his back and then moved towards the lake, being followed closely by Totousai. Sesshomaru, however, stared again towards the ruins of the building.

"Damn it, Bankotsu… how the hell did you managed to survive? You're humans… you should be long dead."

Sesshomaru stood there, staring at the rubble… when he thought that Naraku may have had allies, he never thought that he would have under his power to the seven most powerful and dangerous warriors of ancient Japan.

"I suppose… that exploiting and showing off your skills was what led you to conviction. Being Slaves because of your abilities… what a stupid thing."

He finally turned around and began to follow Inuyasha's trail.

Things would be turned upside down from now on, he knew.