Hey readers I am Lynn of RoseLynnTama and I am also known as ElementalHanyou on my own personal account. This is my competitive fanfic for the competition 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 review. Thank you

Disclaimer: Blah Blah, I don't own this

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Chapter 4: What The Hell Is Going On?

'What happened after I was taken prisoner? Dad and Sesshomaru having to visit my mom in the hospital because she's going through major depression? Do they think I'm dead?' wondered Inuyasha, he snorted as he mentally answered himself, 'Most likely. It's not exactly normal for someone to somehow disappear into thin air and not come back for a year. I would have thought the same thing too'

He frowned as another question was added to his list.

'Did Naraku tell anyone where I might have gone that night, did he tell anyone about where I was going?'

Naraku was going to be the third or fourth person he went to check on to try and piece together what he had been missing. Currently, he was roof hopping over to Sango's on Slayer Street which was on the farthest side of town. It was much quicker jumping on top of buildings than walking all the blocks to her house. He shook his head in amused wonder at how his cousin always braved the walk to come visit her closest relatives and friends.

His uncle and aunt's car was gone, meaning they must have gone to visit his mother, his aunt's sister. A blue light was on in Kohaku's room, indicating that his youngest cousin was playing on his game cube, probably Super Smash Bros. The only other light on in the house was Sango's on the ground floor. The window was open, allowing her music to be heard on the outside. It was one of her favorite Skillet songs, Hero, that was playing and she sang along with it while she reorganized her shelves. Inuyasha nearly laughed when he remembered how embarrassed she got when he and Sesshomaru had videotaped her unknowingly when she was singing. She wasn't half bad, but she was self-conscious about it.

Her room hadn't changed much at all. In many ways it looked the same as it always did. Dusty pink and yellow dominated the room, looking very unnaturally feminine for the usually tom boyish Sango. Drawings of kittens and wild cats, Sango's favorite animals, littered many parts of the walls presenting her artistic side. A large book shelf on the far wall was decorated with multiple trophies from every sport Sango had been able to play throughout the years. The trophy case was the thing that Sango was currently rearranging.

Finding nothing out of the ordinary, like the state his house was in, Inuyasha was about to move on when the phone rang. Forgetting what the sound was, Inuyasha jumped startled, bumping back into a flower pot placed near the window. He looked up to see Sango glance at the window and he thanked the fact that it was too dark for her to see him from that distance. Sango's eyebrows ceased thoughtfully.

"Probably just a raccoon sniffing about" she mumbled to herself. The ringing phone held her full attention at any rate and she hurried to answer it before the message machine got it.

"Hello, Tayjia house, Sango here" she said, wishing she had caller id. She always had to answer the phone that way so that the caller would know right away if they got the right number.

"Good evening my goddess Sango. It is I, your handsome and charming prince, Miroku" someone greeted dramatically.

"Charming? Maybe, but handsome? No" countered Sango smiling.

Inuyasha was only faintly surprised that he could hear Miroku's end of the conversation. The more time he spend with these new abilities the less fascinating they became to him.

"So what are you up to?" inquired Miroku.

"Just cleaning up my room, really. You know, to help get my mind off things" Inuyasha noticed how fake her indifferent words were.

"Yeah, I'm sorry that I wasn't there with you"

"It's not your fault, Miroku. I shouldn't have spoken to him, but I wasn't thinking"

Inuyasha's eyebrows creased and his head tilted to the side in confusion. What happened to his cousin today?

"I wanted to ask you what it was about. I was going to before you walked home, but my dad called and wanted me to do the yard work"

Sango sat down on her bed and sighed.

"I tried to talk to Kagome again today. You know how I miss her sometimes and I wanted to mend our friendship," she paused, her voice sounding thick.

Outside, Inuyasha had a hard time trying to decipher what it was Sango was saying. Mend their friendship? They weren't friends anymore? Why not?

Sango regaining her composure, continued.

"This time I wasn't going to say anything about that bastard so that she would talk to me and it was working great until that asshole interpreted. He yelled at me for trying to take her away from him and things just got worse!" she cried out angrily.

As Miroku tried to comfort her on the other end, Sango stood up and paced her room, still angry. She, like her cousins, had a hard time keeping her temper in check at times.

"No! He's the one who took advantage of her grief over Inuyasha and made it seem like we didn't care about her! It's all that bastard's fault that Kagome doesn't talk to us anymore! It's his fault that she's so different! Argh!" she kicked her ball, which ricocheted off the wall and sailed out the window on the opposite wall. Inuyasha, who was not paying attention was smacked with a soccer ball in the face and was for a moment stunned. Sango hearing the smack of a ball hitting skin, ran to the window to see who was outside.

A figure was outside her window and from the light that streamed out she could just barely see the face of the stranger. She dropped her phone as her hands grew limp with shock. She stared wide eyed straight into the face of someone she knew very well, but believed dead.

"Inu-Inuyasha?" she whispered.

Inuyasha stared right back at Sango and did not make a move, waiting to see what she would do. Her violet eyes fell on his snow white hair and her cheeks paled.

"A GHOST! OH MY GODS!" she screamed and fainted.

His dog ears immediately flattened to his skull and he jumped away, fleeing the house before someone came running to see what the noise was about. The last thing he heard was the greatly concerned voice of Miroku on the phone.

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Tonight had been like something out of a nightmare for the human turned demon. First, his finds out that everyone thought him to be dead and that from his disappearance things started to fall apart. Secondly there didn't seem to be anything he could do about it. After practically scaring his cousin to death, Inuyasha had fled to the park and into the tree he had been earlier. He only hoped she was alright.

Now, Inuyasha was debating on what he should do next. There was still so many things he didn't know about. What was going on. He needed to find out what had happened to all the people he had been separated from. He might have gone to see Miroku next, but he doubted that now, seeing as how Miroku might be preoccupied with Sango at the moment.

He did plan on checking on Naraku and see what he had been up to since that fateful day. It took him only a few minutes to locate the Koto household, but the house was empty. It seemed like all the occupants had gone out. Well, maybe tomorrow he would stop by again. Now there was only one other person he had been anxious to visit more than anyone else: Kagome.

But, did he have the guts to go see her?

The whole experience with Sango flashed through Inuyasha's mind. What would he do if Kagome saw him and freaked out like his cousin had done?

It seemed like there were two voices inside his head, one pressing him not to go, the other urging him to do so.

If the cousin who's practically your sister was scared, won't SHE be petrified?

You don't have to reveal yourself, you just need to be careful.

Besides are you really sure that with the way things seemed to have developed, since you were gone, that you want to see what happened to her?

She was your girlfriend and your best friend before that! Of course you have to make sure nothing serious has happened to her.

Remember what Sango said? Kagome probably isn't the same person anymore.

It shouldn't even matter if she changed, you have too and not just physically. She was the number one thing that kept you sane in that cage, remember? If you refuse to see her simply because of how you look than you might as well give up and call yourself a coward, Inuyasha!

'Ok! Fine! Get off my back. I'll go see Kagome' he mentally snapped, trying to quash down the feeling of fluttery nerves at the thought of finally seeing the real, un-photographed version of his girlfriend.

"Alright Kagome you better be home" he muttered hopefully.

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Kagome looked around the restaurant Naraku had taken her for their date. It was a quaint facility on the other side of the town that she rarely visited since it was so far away from her neighborhood. It had been a rough day for the raven haired woman. It had started off decent enough and she had been happily surprised when Sango had struck up a conversation with her at the lunch line. At first she had been nervous that the other girl would bring up the argument of Kagome dating Naraku, but it had passed after a few minutes. Kagome was strongly reminded of how things had once been between them and she was happier than she had truly been in a long time. However, the illusion of old times was shattered when Naraku had appeared.

"Why do you pretend to still care?" The strangely enraged teen demanded.

"I do care about her, you jerk, I always have!" Sango snarled not bothering to hide her dislike of him.

"Yeah, you care so much that you continuously torture her with ideas that Inuyasha is still alive! You won't let it go and let her continue with her life! You even went so far as to somehow pin the blame of his death on me for trying to comfort her! You're selfish to want Kagome to always think about someone she'll never see again!" accused Naraku.

"I was only giving my own opinions. You're the one who keeps twisting around my words, you bastard!"

"Don't call my boyfriend that!" Kagome intervened steering away Naraku, leaving Sango alone by the lunch counter.

Kagome's heart felt heavy at the flashback of how dejected and upset Sango had looked after Kagome had shouted at her. She didn't know what came over her. She never did when Naraku was around, but she just brushed it off as hormonal nerves that caused her to act differently around him. The conversation about their classes had brought back such good memories and to be honest Kagome was tempted to try and patch up the friendship she had lost, until the interruption.

"Kagome are you ok?" asked Naraku, breaking said girl from her thoughts.

"Hmm? Pardon?"

"Are you ok?" he repeated, "Is it about earlier?"

"Kinda. Hey, um, Naraku?" she piped a little nervously.

"Yes?"

"You know, I like your friends; Yura, Hiten, Manten, Kaguya and Muso, but..." she trailed off.

"But?" urged Naraku.

"I want to hang around with some friends of my own"

There was a moment of tension and silence which drowned out the clattering and chattering of the restaurant for the couple. A dark look crossed Naraku's face for a mere second and was replaced with an arrogant smirk. Kagome who had not been looking at him and instead had been focusing on the food in front of her, missed it.

"Well, of course you can. I can't control your whole life," he said, the under laying message was coated with a pleasant laugh, like he was sharing a joke.

'Although I can try' he thought.

His hand slipped into his pocket and he fiddled with the small round sphere that contained his leverage over others, Kikyou's jewel, the jewel that gave him a small extent of her power and allowed him to gain what he wanted. It was thanks to this baby that he had been able to manipulate Kagome's emotions as well as performing small acts of magic so he could get what he basically wanted.

Gripping the jewel, he felt a warm sensation flow into his fingertips. He muttered under his breath when Kagome did not look up and reached out to cover her hand on the table. To everyone around the gesture was kind and understanding.

"Look, Kagome, I'm sorry if you assumed I didn't want you to have your own friends, it's just that... I don't want those 'friends' to come between us. You know how Sango and Miroku are, they're liars and in the end they just want to use you" he said soothingly.

Kagome's head whipped up and an angry frown creased her eyebrows and she quickly countered his statement to defend her old friends.

"They would never do that!" she snapped. She had known those two since forever and she knew in her heart that that was something that would never happen.

'Why does Naraku try so hard to make me doubt them?' she asked herself.

When she tried to pull her hand away, Naraku's hold tightened slightly. There was something he said, but Kagome did not hear him. For a moment her world turned blank and there was a distant voice talking to her.

Sango and Miroku have abandoned you. Inuyasha is dead and he's never coming back, but they will not let him go. Do you want to be miserable for the rest of your life? Naraku cares more for you than even Inuyasha ever did. He doesn't want you hurt. Do what he says and you'll be much happier.

The honey quality of the voice was convincing and Kagome gave into what the voice was saying. Perhaps the voice was her heart and she believed in listening to what her heart was telling her. When she opened her eyes, she smiled at Naraku in apology.

"You're right, Naraku. I don't know what I was thinking. I don't need anyone, but you" she nodded, her eyes only the slightest glazed over.

"Good to hear. Are you ready to head home now? I'm done" Naraku stated, standing up from his seat and helping Kagome up. After paying for their meal, the couple began trekking home. It was already past dark when they made it to her house. She sighed as she approached the middle class house on Arrow Drive, thankfully it was nothing like the family Shrine in Tokyo where there was a million steps to climb. Naraku was such a gentleman that he even walked her to the door. However, instead of going inside, Kagome sat on the porch swing in front of the bay window.

Patting the seat, she gestured for Naraku to sit by her. This was her favorite spot on their property and she would often come out to just sit and swing when she needed to think. Smiling pleasantly, Naraku accepted her offer and sat down beside the young girl. A memory flashed through Kagome's mind of a younger verison of herself sitting alongside an equally younger Inuyasha, their hands held tightly in the others. She glanced down at the pair of hands that lay on her lap. She missed having her hand held at times. Of course she and Naraku had held hands before, but it always felt strange and she would feel disoriented for while. When she tried to pinpoint what these feelings might be the thought of love was rarely one of them. It was different from how it felt when Inuyasha had held her hand.

She couldn't help, but compare the two pairs of hands. Naraku's were pale and long fingered, almost spidery and making it awkward when trying to entwine his fingers with hers. Inuyasha's were tanned and calloused from all the physical activity involved with Kendo and they fit perfectly around her small ones.

Naraku looked over at Kagome and frowned only the tiniest bit at the far off look on her features as she looked down at her hand. He wanted to know what was on her mind and once again thanks to the Jewel he could. Gripping it he muttered a different incantation than he had did at the restaurant. In a matter of seconds the inner voice of Kagome entered his own thoughts.

I try so hard to forget him, but I can't! I miss him so much

The frown on Naraku's face deepened. Again? What did it take for the girl to forget about Tetsagia?

I hope that she still lives here. Feh, that's all I need. For Kagome to have moved

Another inner voice interrupted Naraku's ranting thoughts and he recognized it!

That was none other than Inuyasha Tetsagia, himself!

Hmmm, he should have known that bastard would come to Kagome sooner or later. He still had no way to deal with that brat being some sort of half demon and so far he had no plan. Wait, why should he be afraid of Inuyasha the freak? It wasn't like Naraku didn't have power, after all he had the Jewel. Besides he didn't have to worry, no one would believe what Inuyasha was unless they shipped him off to be experimented on. A malicious grin inched across Naraku's features. He could do whatever he wanted and there wasn't anything to really stop him.

'I'm going to make Tetsagia regret ever escaping Kikyou's prison' he thought savagely.

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Please R&RJ