Hey readers I am Lynn of RoseLynnTama and I am also known as ElementalHanyou on my own personal account. This is my competetive fanfic for the competetion between Rose and I. I hope you like it:) Please read and review. If you have any questions and want me to answer them please put LYNN in the reveiw. Thank you

Disclaimer: I don't own anything! Wah!

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(AN: This chapter takes place three days before Inuyasha escaped Kikyou's hut)

Chapter 2: Pain filled Memories

Stretching out it's bright warm rays of light, the sun rose above the horizon of the Shikon Forest, alerting everyone to greet the new day, willing or not. One such unwilling person was still in bed, the pink covers of her blanket covered her head and wrapped around her body like a cocoon, preventing any light from awaking the girl within. The light repelling quilt, however, did not block out sounds.

*BuzzzBuzzzBuzzz* vibrated the cell phone on a bedside table.

A long denying groan came from the bed. The cocoon slowly started to unravel and a slim hand slipped out to grab the phone and pull back under.

"Hello?" the girl mumbled sleepily.

"Morning Gorgeous" a male voice said.

"Oh Hey, Morning" she sighed, voice still hazy. She shifted into a sitting position and dropping the blanket from her head, revealing a head of slightly mussed raven hair and a pretty, but sleepy face. She groaned again as the sunlight trailed into her bedroom and into her chocolate brown eyes.

"Still not awake yet, Kags?" chuckled the boy on the other line.

The tired girl felt a small wave of irritation sweep over her at the stupid sounding nickname. She was fine with nicknames, her most tolerated one being Gome, but Kags didn't sound good at all. It sounded too much like Gags.

"Argh, don't call me that, Naraku. You know how much I hate being called that"

"What? Can't a boyfriend give his girlfriend a pet name?" Naraku asked, feigning confusion.

"Anything, but Kags"

"Kago?"

'Now it sounds like he's saying I'm Prego' she mused.

She had never been big on nicknaming. Why bother shortening some names? Unless one had a long name or was hard to say.

"What's wrong with just Kagome?" she questioned.

"Alright, fine then, Kagome. I'm just calling to make sure you were ok. I can understand why last night was hard on you and I want you to know that as your boyfriend I'm here for you" he offered gently.

Kagome's back stiffened and an itchy prickling started at the back of her eyes, signaling oncoming tears. She was silent as she gained enough composure to talk to her concerned sounding boyfriend.

"I know, thanks Naraku. I, uhhh, need to get ready for school" she answered with only the smallest quiver in her voice.

"Ok. See ya at school. Bye"

"Bye"

Kagome snapped her phone shut and placed it beside her. She sat still for several moments before slowly pushing off the warm comforter and stepping onto the soft carpeting of her bedroom floor. As if a half daze, Kagome wandered over to her walk in closet. Moving aside her hanging uniforms and casual clothing, she pulled out a rather large cardboard box from the far back of the closet. She then knelt down and opened the slightly dusty box. Her brown orbs wasted no time in filling up with unshed tears as she looked inside. With trembling hands, she pulled out the first thing in the pile, a worn photo album that she had, had for years, since she was maybe fourteen, her grade nine year. It was labeled in big, bold and kinda sloppy words: Best Friends Forever by Kagome Higurashi and Inuyasha Tetsagia.

Her fingernail traced the second name slowly. She remembered putting this album together with him for a school assignment, shortly after he had asked her to be his girlfriend. They had gotten a good mark for the album portion of the project, but when it was time to present, Inuyasha had gotten embarrassed and angry, which of course brought down their final grade a little.

Hesitating for only a moment, Kagome slowly turned to the first page and stared at the cover picture. It was a picture of them under the huge oak in the town park, during a sunny fall day. There were bright orange and red leaves scattered around them, as Inuyasha stood behind Kagome with his arms around her and his chin resting on the top of her head. Kagome's eyes completely focused on the glossy image of her former best friend and boyfriend. His bright violet eyes and classical arrogant smirk brought so many memories to mind, memories that now left a sore spot in her stomach and chest. She would never see that smug grin or those shining eyes ever again. He was gone. Kagome's shoulders tensed as the photo album lowered to the floor between her knees and her hands clenched the paper rather tightly. A familiar anger surged through her as those three little words formed in her mind.

How could he do this to her?

How could he leave her like that?

How could he die?

Inuyasha was so stupid! Anybody with common sense would know that going into the forest alone at night was dangerous and yet Inuyasha had done it anyway. Now, due to his own stupidity he was dead, leaving behind everyone who loved him.

Kagome's entire life had been flipped upside down and shaken to pieces on the day Inuyasha had been announced dead. Sometimes when staring into space, she would go off into a trance, a daydream that pulled her into that painful memory.

###################FLASHBACK##########################

"So how was your free day out of school, Kagome?" asked Miroku as he strolled up to Sango and said girl, who stood by her open locker. Kagome and Sango paused in their conversation about which American actor was hotter, Daniel Redcliff or Orlando Bloom(AN: That's a hard and unanswerable question, don'tcha think ladies?), to look over the intruder of their discussion.

"I went on a field trip to what happened to be my dad's family shrine in the city, Miroku, and my gramps wanted me to give the class a tour instead, cause he got a hold of some antiques he wanted to look at. I didn't get to relax or anything so don't call it a free day" stated Kagome a little snippily. Miroku stepped back and jokingly held up his hands in a placating manner.

"Ok calm down, Gome. I was just kidding" he said, grinning.

"I know, sorry. I guess I'm just a little annoyed. I hate it when I get roped into doing my gramp's tours without a little notice" she apologized with a small smile.

"Hey isn't Inuyasha usually here by now?" asked Miroku after giving his girlfriend a morning hug and peck on the cheek.

"I don't think he's coming today" Sango answered, returning Miroku's kiss and still keeping a watchful eye on his infamous wondering hand. Even though she deeply cared for him, she didn't put up with his uncivilized habits.

"Why not?" Kagome inquired curiously, she didn't have a chance to talk to Inuyasha yesterday. She had gotten busy with tutoring her little brother Souta who was horrible at history and didn't even get to call him.

"I tried calling him last night, but Auntie Izyaoi told me he wasn't feeling good and went to sleep early"

"He was fine yesterday" Miroku pointed out.

"Oh, knowing my cousin, he probably forgot some assignment and wanted to stay home" waved off Sango, making Kagome giggle. She was most likely right, that was something Inuyasha would do.

Ding...Ding...Ding

"Come on Miroku, religion awaits" piped up Kagome as she grabbed her books and Binder with a picture of her favorite anime character, Kurama (Yu Yu Hakusho), and slammed the locker door shut.(Haha.. Kyrosethorns:)) Sango walked down the opposite hallway to her own first period as the two others headed to theirs.

As soon as the morning announcements ended the PA sounded again.

"Will the following students please report to the main office immediately; Kagome Higurashi, Miroku Kazanna, Naraku Koto, and Sango Tayjia. I repeat please report to the main office immediately" intoned a clear female voice.

Kagome and Miroku gave each other bewildered looks before exiting the class with their things. Getting called down to the office in a group was never a good thing and it was unlikely that they would return to class before the end of the period.

"Miroku, why would they call us down, you think?" asked the raven haired girl as they walked down the now empty hallway.

"I have no idea. I don't remember doing anything to get myself, let alone you guys, in trouble"

Sango was already sitting in the waiting room with a thoughtful frown on her visage. Miroku smiled at the secretary in a charming fashion, though he sat beside Sango and didn't glance at the woman a second time. Kagome sat on Miroku's other side and nervously twirled a lock of her hair between her fingers. Why had they been called down so early in the day? It's not like they were major troublemakers, well Inuyasha and Miroku could be at times, so why the summons?

"Is that chair taken?"

Kagome looked up to see Naraku standing above her, indicating the seat beside her where she had put her books.

"No, sorry, Naraku you can sit here" she said as she removed her books and placed them in her own lap. Naraku gracefully sat down and glanced over at the other two who were talking about what they might have done to get in trouble. A small frown crinkled his eyebrows.

"Where's Inuyasha? If any of us got in trouble, he would too" he questioned.

"He stayed home sick, I think"

Kagome turned to see Naraku's frown deepen. Raising an eye brow she asked what was wrong. Naraku turned to her surprised.

"Um, it's nothing, I guess, just a weird thought"

"Send them in Miss. Tsubaki" rasped a throaty voice.

The black haired woman gave the group a small tight smile as she gestured to the office.

"The principle will see you now"

The Principle of Shikon High was an much older man who had kept his position of authority for decades, he had even been principle when Kagome's grandmother on her mother's side had been young. Mr. Totosai was a thin man that appeared to have more bones than muscles or sinew, giving him an almost lizard like quality with his huge glasses that magnified his already bulbous eyes.

When the small gang entered the office they were not only greeted by Mr. Totosai, but also by Inutashio and Izyaoi Tetsagia, Inuyasha's parents. Izyaoi looked very upset with her violet eyes red and puffy while her husband was tense and pale. Sango seeing the worried state of her favorite aunt ran towards her, closely followed by a concerned Kagome.

"Auntie Izyaoi, what are you doing here? What's wrong?"

"I haven't seen Inuyasha and I don't know where he is!" bawled Izyaoi, wiping her eyes on a damp Kleenex.

"It appears that Inuyasha's parents haven't see him since early last night and when they went to check on him this morning he was gone, but his uniform and school things were still at home" Totosai spoke up drawing everyone's attention, "I called you all down here to ask if you know where he's gotten to or if you had a chance to speak with him"

Kagome, Sango and Miroku immediately responded with a negative, each of them confused. Naraku on the other hand, wrung his hands and bit his lip. Totosai's eyes narrowed and he questioned said boy sternly.

"You know something don't you Mr. Koto? Well? Speak up, do you have any information about Inuyasha's unknown whereabouts?"

"Well" began Naraku, "Yesterday after I finished telling that story about the witch that lives in the woods to these guys, " here he indicated Miroku and Sango, "Inuyasha started talking about how cool it would be to prove if she existed or not and dared me to go with him last night to check it out. I didn't want to and tried to convince him that it was stupid. I thought I talked him out of it cause he agreed not to go. I think.. that maybe he decided... to go alone"

The police had been called and a small search party that consisted of Inuyasha and Sango's fathers and his older brother, Sesshomaru, as well as a few other friends of the family like Kagome and Miroku's parents (Miroku too) went to go look in the woods. Kagome, Sango and her mother stayed behind to comfort the distraught Izyaoi. The party had been absent for many hours there had been no calls. Kagome wished now more than ever that Inuyasha had bought himself a cell phone when they had gone to the city a few weeks ago. It wasn't until around nine thirty that the front door of the Tetsagia residency opened. All four women sprang up and raced to the front hallway, but were backed up into the living room when the whole search party entered.

"Inutashio, did you find him? Where is he?" Izyaoi immediately questioned, gripping her husband's shoulders. Inutashio placed his own hands on his wife's shoulder and after a backwards glance to his fellows searchers, he looked deep into her eyes and in his low voice began.

"Izyaoi we need to be very strong"

"No! Don't tell me that! When people say that they're brining bad news! Just tell me what's going on!" she begged. All those present looked down on the little scene with sadness and empathy for the parents, the other parents couldn't even begin to imagine how horrible it most feel to lose one of their own children.

"We did find something, but it wasn't Inuyasha" Inutashio gruffed and Sesshomaru stepped up beside his mother and in his hands were a pair of jeans and a red t-shirt with massive rips and blotches of dark stains of an unknown substance.

#############END FLASHBACK###############

'He's dead and he's never coming back'

He had been gone a full year. It was yesterday that had been the anniversary of his death and that alone had send Kagome into a severely depressed state in which she was sometimes prone to do. It was within the past year that Kagome had lost everything due to the fact that she practically removed herself from society. Even Sango and Miroku, who had also been her best friends had turned away from her because of her want to completely forget about her boyfriend. The only ones she talked too and would talk to her was her own immediate family and new boyfriend, Naraku.

'I wish he was alive again. Oh... Inuyasha... I miss you... I think I even loved you once'

Looking back down at the title of the album, Kagome suddenly felt a burst of anger once again as she recalled his stupidity and almost threw the book back in the box and shoved it into the closet.

"I need to move on, otherwise I'll never be happy" she scolded herself as she went to visit the bathroom first to take a fast shower before getting ready and going to meet up with Naraku.

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Walking down the halls of Shikon High was no longer an enjoyable time for Kagome, especially when Naraku wasn't there beside her. She was always nervous that she would bump into Sango and Miroku while making her way to her locker or classes. Whenever such a thing occurred there were always hot words exchanged that lead to a big confrontation. It all started a month after Inuyasha's funeral when Naraku had asked her to go on a small date with him. When Kagome had told them, they were angry and tried to convince her not to go. For some reason Sango had accused Naraku of having something to do with Inuyasha's death, which was of course completely stupid.

Naraku had been just as upset over losing Inuyasha as anyone was and he had comforted Kagome when Sango and Miroku had something else to do. Kagome attempted to look past Sango's misguided accusations, but enough was enough. With encouragement from Naraku, Kagome had stood up to Sango and broken their friendship (Sometimes grief and pressure can hurt and break a person, making them do stupid things). Since then she avoided the two like the plague despite the fact that it felt so utterly wrong. Sometimes when she was alone she remembered all the things the four of them (Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango and Miroku) did together and she wondered why she had broken her friendship with them (excluding Inuyasha). In these moments her gut told her to make amends with Sango and Miroku, but somehow Naraku would get a hold on her on the phone and those urges and thoughts were magically forgotten.

Now here she was wishing with all her might that she make it through today without having a run in with ex-friends as she made her way outside to eat lunch. Naraku knew how much she hated sitting in the cafeteria alone while she waited for him and knew where to find her outside when he made it out of class. On the far outskirts of the school yard there was a large oak tree with huge protruding roots at the base, big enough to sit on. It was part of the school's forestry project to restore a little bit of nature to the rapidly changing world and it made Kagome feel peaceful and strangely free from the worries and problems of the world. As Kagome settled herself down and unpacked her lunch, she gazed around the yard, looking for her boyfriend. After the passing of ten minutes, her cell vibrated in her pencil case, rattling some of her writing utensils. Opening the phone, she saw a text from Naraku

'got detention 4 missing homework. ttyl'

Kagome sighed. Lunch alone then. Why couldn't things just go back to the way they were before when she had her friends?

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R&R