Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, or the song Easier to Run.
Dark Wanderer
By: Mika Saito
Chapter 1- Easier to Run
It's easier to run
Replacing this pain with something numb
It's so much easier to go
Than face all this pain here all alone
Easier to Run by Linkin Park
Kagome sighed tiredly as she lowered herself to sit on a rock by the stream. She'd spent the better part of a day running endlessly through the woods, trying to put as much distance between her and Inuyasha as she possibly could. If it wasn't enough then she'd be caught and forced back into the group- though they'd never find out why she'd ran in the first place, she wouldn't, no that wasn't right, she couldn't give them that.
Idly her eyes wandered around the small clearing that she'd stopped in. The stream she currently sat next to cut it right down the middle. The stream was deep, she could tell, deep and fast, not to mention wide enough that no human could make it across without stepping foot in the water. Stepping into the water would be a bad thing if one didn't know how to swim. Probably wouldn't matter even if you did, from the look of the rushing water.
"I wonder what Inuyasha's reaction was…." Kagome mused, chocolate colored eyes gazing unseeingly at the grass by her feet.
"Kagome? …..Kagome? …….. KAGOME!" Inuyasha yelled, eyes furious, as he looked under everything in Kaede's hut in attempt to find the missing miko.
"She's not here, Inuyasha," Shippou said mournfully.
"What do you mean not here?" Inuyasha growled, grabbing Shippou by the back of his neck.
"I mean she left in the middle of the night, baka," Shippou growled back angrily. The little kitsune cowered when Inuyasha glowered at him in response.
"What was that wench thinking!?" Inuyasha grumbled to himself as he stormed angrily out of Kaede's hut, carelessly tossing Shippou head first into the wall.
"I wonder why Kagome left…" he mused quietly, rubbing his sore head.
"I don't know Shippou… I don't know…" Miroku answered, a worried look on his face.
"She'll be back. She probably just went home for a little while. Her fight with Inuyasha was pretty bad last time, and she was still fuming over it last night…."
"Maybe," Miroku shrugged, "but something tells me that isn't it…"
"What do you mean?" Sango looked at him, eyes starting to show her worry.
"Look," he pointed to the corner. Kagome's big backpack sat there, as it had the day before. It hadn't even been opened since Kagome had gotten back. "She set it there, and didn't touch it at all before we all went to bed. She must have had this planned, whatever this is."
Sango felt the weight of his words on her heart. Kagome wasn't coming right back, as she had wanted to believe. The truth in Miroku's words struck her hard, bringing up another important fact that she had chosen to overlook before. Kagome had left in the middle of the night- she'd had plenty of time to run home for something she might have forgotten, plenty of time to return no matter what it was she had left to do. Something had driven her to leave them.
"…. Uh… Miroku, Sango… we have another problem…" Shippou broke the silence hesitantly. While Miroku and Sango had been thinking things over he had dived into Kagome's backpack, looking for some clue as to when she'd be back, if ever.
"What is it Shippou?" Sango walked over to the bag and knelt next to it.
"The Jewel shards… Kagome took them," he opened his hand, palm up, for them to see what he'd found. In his palm lay the little glass bottle Kagome had taken to keeping the shards in.
"Inuyasha isn't going to like this," Miroku stated, eyes pensive.
AN: Okay. I know it's kinda short... but it's the first step to getting it on track again (and I'm running out of time to write for the day, and if I don't post this now I wont ever post it...) So let me know what you think. If you see any errors please point them out (this was written in 45 minutes, with no editing as of yet.) I think I might find a beta for this story, so if anyone wants to volunteer just let me know, it'd be very much appreciated...