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Chapter Three – Strange Happenings

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'Wow, Inuyasha's actually being considerate today. Hmm…maybe I'll just spoil him with more Ramen for being really polite.' Kagome smiled to herself. Maybe she could also cook him some of her special omelets. Kagome followed Inuyasha downstairs thinking of all the wonderful things Inuyasha would say about her cooking.

Too bad Kagome's thoughts about what Inuyasha 'would' say went down the drain, once she started making his food. She again the yelling commenced.

"You ready Kagome?" Inuyasha asked as he leaned over the edge of the well helping Kagome carry her bags of food and necessities.

"Yea, Inuyasha can you take this bag. It's really heavy." Kagome passed the dog-eared boy another large bag of groceries they bought earlier that day.

"Damn bloody human girls are so wea…" Inuyasha stopped mid-way through his curses as he felt something crack in his spine as he lifted the bag.

"You were saying Inuyasha?" Kagome asked smirking.

"If it weren't for your 'sits' yesterday my back wouldn't hurt so much!" Inuyasha yelled in frustration.

"Don't remind me," Kagome said through gritted teeth as she recalled last nights dinner.

Flashback

"Inuyasha, how do you like the omelets? They're my specialty!" A very happy Kagome beamed at him.

"Huh? You mean this yellow stuff?" Inuyasha asked with a mouthful of Ramen.

"Yea, how do you like the eggs?" She repeated.

"Oh…uhm…they were too sweet to my liking. It tastes really weird," Inuyasha simply stated while returning to eating his Ramen.

"INUYASHA!"

End of Flashback

Kagome and Inuyasha fell through the familiar blue light that engulfed them into the well as it transported the two through time 500 years into the past.

Once they arrived on the other side, they heaved all of the groceries out of the well, the two were surprised when they saw the rest of the gang already there to greet them.

"Ohiyo Kagome-chan." Sango greeted.

"Good morning, Sango-chan." Kagome beamed back at her.

Miroku walked up to Inuyasha and nudged him slightly in the side so he could get his attention and whispered in his ear. "Hey Inuyasha, you slept over at Kagome's house didn't you? Huh? Huh?" The perverted monk winked at his dog-eared friend, clearly referencing his gutter-filled mind.

Inuyasha's face instantly went red and then suddenly Miroku found himself on the ground nurturing his injured head.

"Keep those perverted thoughts in your own head monk! Nothing happened!" Inuyasha yelled, which brought the two chattering girls attention.

"What did Miroku do this time? And what did not happen?" Kagome questioned.

Inuyasha's face went even redder than before as he stuttered out, "N-n-nothing! Miroku is just being Miroku."

The two girls just shrugged. Miroku did deserve to get hit once in a while for whatever dirty thoughts he always comes up with.

"Whatever," Sango disregarded leaving the fallen Miroku behind and Inuyasha to carry the groceries as she grabbed Kagome's hand. "Come on Kagome, I think Kaede cooked up something for your return."

As Kagome was dragged towards Kaede's hut, she sensed something amiss in the air. She turned her head back slightly to see Inuyasha a few feet behind her and trailing behind him was Miroku still caressing his head. To Kagome, Inuyasha looked troubled. His focus was not on the path ahead of him, but his eyes shadowed over as if looking onto the imaginary. He was thinking quite deeply, depending on his nose and intuition to guide him to the hut.

Kagome deeply wanted to ask Inuyasha what was troubling him, but he looked too deep in thought to distract him from. Besides, Sango had a death grip on her wrist.

'What the hell is going on here…something is wrong. That book…it's like it's trying to tell me something…' Inuyasha thought. Once the gang had left the Bone Eater's well, he sensed something strange in the air. Not with his nose, but with his gut. He felt an un-easy feeling that something in the air was wrong. No, it wasn't jyaki…it was something more troubling. 'That book…it said…something more powerful would be coming our way. I don't have a good feeling about this…'

Inuyasha tried to put two and two together and still couldn't figure out what could happen. He didn't like this feeling. It deeply reminded him of the time he had a bad feeling at Mount Hakurei and when he was too late…Kikyo ultimately paid the price. Her life was still hanging by a thread, with only Midoriko's soul supporting her.

'I can't make the same mistake again. I have to act fast about it or someone else could get injured or even die. Even Kagome might…' Inuyasha shook that thought out of his head; he won't let another evil soul get to Kagome again, not like last time. He swore to himself that he wouldn't let Kagome have the same fate Kikyo did…not again…this time he'll be ready.

Inuyasha decided he would talk about it with Kagome later tonight. Miroku, Sango, and the others don't know about the book yet. He needed to talk to Kagome first.

"Inuyasha, aren't you coming in?" Miroku questioned, from the entrance of Kaede's hut. 'Inuyasha seems so out of it today. Something must be wrong. He usually doesn't have that look in his eyes.'

Inuyasha didn't realize that he was standing just outside the hut for so long that Miroku just passed by him.

"Uhh…yea," Inuyasha responded quickly, regaining his composure as he walked into the hut.

Shippou was already sucking on those sweet Ninja foods Kagome brought back as the three ladies chatted away about their day. Kaede continued stirring their evening meal, vegetable stew, as everyone settled down around the fire.

All was calm and normal yet Inuyasha's bad feeling wouldn't go away. The seriousness look in his eyes didn't waver as he stared into the fire and the only person to notice this was Kagome.

"Inuyasha," Kagome called, but was interrupted by Kaede's call.

"Kagome, could ye please help me hand out a bowl of stew to everyone?"

"Uhh…sure Kaede," Kagome answered in a smiling manner momentarily forgetting about Inuyasha's welfare.

Everyone ate their meal in a comforting discussion about Kagome's world. They conversed as if everything was normal and that Naraku troubles was never involved in their lives although it was Naraku that brought the gang together in the first place.

It was right then that Shippou chose to look for something sweet in Kagome's yellow pack. As his tiny fingers rummaged through the bag, he felt something rather large.

"Kagome, what's in your bag?" The young kitsune asked. "It weighs a lot more than usual."

Kagome turned her attention away from the fire and looked at Shippou wondering what he was referring to. She reached inside her bag to pull out whatever Shippou was talking about. It turned out to be that book.

"Oh Shippou, this is just a very large history book," Kagome explained as she laid the heavy book on her lap.

No one noticed, but Inuyasha's eyes widened in horror at the mention of that book. His ears perked up more when Kagome explained why she brought it here.

"I finished my essay with this book, but I decided to bring it because I thought it would be useful on our journey to find Naraku," she explained carefully flipping through the pages.

"Oh really? How's this book useful Kagome?" Miroku questioned.

"Well, I didn't tell you guys this earlier, but this book talks about…"

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled out before she could say any further.

Everyone turned to look at the out-bursting hanyou, all curious to what he had to say that was so urgent.

"Yes Inuyasha?"

"I need to talk to you," Inuyasha quickly responded getting up from his spot on the ground to walk outside.

"Uhm…okay." Kagome briefly looked at the others sitting in the hut to try to get a clue of what Inuyasha would want to talk about. Seeing no hint of explanation, she put the book back into her pack and continued out her way towards the exit.

Kagome saw the red coloured figure walk further towards the forest. 'Why doesn't he want to share what he has to say with the others? He did look pretty restless once we got out of the well…maybe he wants to talk about it.' With that thought in mind, she followed the hanyou's trail.

Inuyasha walked further into the forest. He got so far that Kaede's hut was near out of his sight. He didn't want Kagome to let the others know about the book, because he felt like he shouldn't get them involved yet, at least not until Kagome and himself figure out what is going on first.

Once he was sure that they were far enough, he turned around to face the young girl.

"Kagome…did you notice anything once we got out of the well?" He started.

"Besides the disturbed look in your face you had all morning no," Kagome responded sarcastically.

"I'm serious Kagome!"

Kagome was taken aback. 'Inuyasha's really upset. What troubled him to be like this?'

"No Inuyasha, everything seemed pretty normal to me."

"Are you sure? You didn't sense an evil aura? Or maybe an unknown disturbance?" Inuyasha rambled nervously.

"Inuyasha is something wrong? You're really tense." Kagome ignored his questions and felt more concern about Inuyasha's well-being with seriousness in her eyes.

"I'm fine!" He yelled at the startled girl.

Kagome couldn't understand his pain. Inuyasha wouldn't explain to her what is wrong, so what could she do? 'He was so quiet and in control before this, but now as he's talking to me…his head is slowly forming beads of sweat and…and he's shaking! Inuyasha what's wrong! You're rarely this shaken up! You have to talk to me!'

Inuyasha bowed his head. His bangs hovering over his eyes in an attempt to hide his emotions, but Kagome knew better. He felt sorry for yelling at Kagome. It wasn't her fault she didn't know what he was feeling. It pained him so much that he felt like he was the only person noticing these, strange happenings.

Kagome laid a reassuring hand on the hanyou's arm, urging him to continue.

The hanyou looked straight into the girl's eyes and found nothing but pure concern.

"I…I just don't know what's going on." Inuyasha brought his hands to rub his temples in an effort to ease the pain.

"That book that you brought with you. I think something is going to happen Kagome. Once I got out of the well and when we were walking to Keade's hut, I couldn't help but feel something wrong at the pit of my stomach."

"But Inuyasha you said…" Kagome couldn't believe what she was hearing. Last night Inuyasha kept insisting that it's all fake so why is he all of a sudden so certain it's true?

"I know what I said! But I think you were right. What did the book say Kagome?"

"It said something like 'there was a strange presence in the air. They felt like they were surrounded,' but I can't really remember the rest."

"It's true!" Inuyasha pursued. "When I came out of the well I felt something strange, and it did feel like I was surrounding, as if something or someone was choking the air."

"Kagome I'm really worried," he said nervously knowing how Kagome would feel recalling that event. "I got this same feeling when. Before Kikyo got hurt by Naraku. I can't ignore it again or something worse could happen."

Surprisingly Kagome didn't waver in her feelings as she spoke. "Inuyasha I believe you no matter what and if you feel that something is wrong we'll check it out. First off by looking back into the history book."

"Thank you Kagome." Inuyasha finally got back to his normal composure, but in the back of his mind he still needed to be on high alert in case anything threatening was to come.

The two started to walk back to the hut as the sun set behind the mountains giving the sky an orange and purple colour.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked looking down at her feet.

"Yea."

"Why didn't you tell the others about this as well instead of only me?"

There was an awkward silence for a few moments as he stopped walking to search for an answer.

"I didn't want to worry the others because you and I are the only ones that know about the book…and because I just want you to be more careful from now on." Inuyasha's last phrase took on a more serious tone.

Kagome brought on a quiet smile at the boy's protectiveness. "So should we let the others know about this now? They have a right to know."

Nodding in agreement, they both continued on their way back to Keade's house. Hopefully there won't be a disturbance tonight for tomorrow they would be back on the road in search of Naraku once again.

"So that's the famous hanyou Inuyasha and the miko Kagome." A dark figure spoke, hiding its face behind the shadows.

"It seems that my search has just been cut short." The figure smirked evilly, retreating back once more into the dark.

A/N –If you did not understand what I'm talking about with Midoriko's soul supporting Kikyo…I don't mind explaining that if you ask. This happened in the original manga series (and anime).