Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

A Dig to the Past

Chapter 4

"Can we stop?"

"Again? We just got done with lunch not too long ago." Sango looked back at Rin."

"I know, but you guys are a bunch of archeologists you're used to this. All I do is sew people up. Being on my feet all day isn't something I'm used to." She moped.

"There's a hot springs nearby. We can stop for the night and get some rest." Sesshomaru told the group. "Inuyasha can rest in the springs and you can soak your feet. Does that sound reasonable?"

"It sounds wonderful." Rin plopped on the ground where she was.

"I hate to ruin your mood Rin but we need to move further into the forest so we can avoid people on the main road and set up for camp." Kouga held out a hand to help her up.

She groaned but took Kouga's hand so that they could set up for camp. The group had only made it to their second day and tensions were running. Working together at an archeology dig and traveling were two completely different situations. At least working together you're so involved with your work you don't think about it. Traveling there's nothing to do but to talk which they weren't even doing. There were a lot of irritations with the rest stops and breaks. Being so soon in their travels it didn't look good.

After they set up camp they sat around a fire in silence. "So I think us girls should take a nice soak in the hot springs." Rin stood up.

"What about Inuyasha? He still needs to recover from the poison." Sango asked.

"He said he's fine so I suppose he can suffer." Rin glared at him before stomping off. After a few steps she stopped realizing she didn't know where it was. "Sesshomaru would you mind showing us where it is?"

He didn't say anything but led Rin and Sango to the hot springs. "Are you sure you're alright? We can let you go first." Kagome asked Inuyasha as they trailed behind.

"I told you I'm fine." He grumbled. "What's with her? I never did anything and she just glared at me!"

Kagome laughed and knelt on the ground motioning for him to do the same. He sucked in a breath when she began removing his haori gliding her fingers across his skin. She began removing his bandages to inspect his wounds which at this point were almost nonexistent. You could barely tell he was hurt except for the discoloration of his skin. "Don't worry about Rin she'll calm down after a soak. She doesn't like it when people don't take their health seriously." Kagome finally removed the bandages since he no longer needed them. "Well if I had half the abilities you did I wouldn't have to worry about scars like you do. I still want you to at least soak for a while after we're done."

"Keh." He folded his arms across his chest. "Only if you promise me we'll talk."

"Inuyasha this isn't the time." She looked down and focused on her hands. "Right now I just want to worry about us getting home, all of us."

"And we will, but I still want to talk. You've ignored me for too long and I can't keep holding myself back from you especially since we have the time together now." Inuyasha moved closer to her. Kagome jumped to her feet and Inuyasha did too backing her up against a tree. "You can't ignore me Kagome and I can't keep holding back."

"Don't do this." She said barely above a whisper. It was hard to resist him as it was. There was always something about him. He was a conceded arrogant jerk most of the time but there were moments he was so sweet and sincere it made her forget about it.

But it was already too late he was leaned in too close. She could feel his breath on her lips and she unconsciously closed the gap between them. Her lips pressed forward as her hands pulled him in for contact. All the contact brought back memories of their time together and Kagome couldn't help but let it wash over her. Every laugh, every kiss, every touch was coming back to her and it was getting the better of her. She was so swept away she allowed Inuyasha to part open her lips to deepen the kiss. It wasn't before long that she felt his hands creeping up her waist to open her yukata.

"I hate to interrupt but I don't believe this is the most appropriate place to be so intimate."

Kagome immediately pushed Inuyasha and spun around to fix her clothes. "Dammit Sesshomaru couldn't you have walked around?" Inuyasha growled. He was well aware his brother knew what was happening and deliberately interrupted. "This is a fucking forest get lost."

"The hot springs are straight ahead Kagome." Sesshomaru said. Kagome nodded and ran off to meet her friends. "They were bound to come looking for her and since they are human they would've interrupted something much worse. Be thankful I stopped the embarrassment for her and any chances you have with her."

Inuyasha couldn't help but continue to growl. Sure he was half right but he would've smelled them before they came. Or maybe not since he didn't even notice Sesshomaru get so close. Next time he would have to take her somewhere more private...

Kagome reached the hot springs and stripped off her clothing before slowly getting into the hot springs. "There's nothing like this back at home." She smiled. The natural setting and privacy of this time was nothing like the best artificial hot spring man could ever make.

"What took you so long?" Rin asked. "You should've met with Sesshomaru on the way back. Did you get lost?"

"No, I was making sure Inuyasha was alright before I got here." Kagome hoped the heat of the springs would cover her blush.

"I'm sure that's what it was. And your previous relationship with him and your kiss at the hotel had nothing to do with the extra time spent with a youkai whose wounds can heal quickly on their own?" Sango smirked.

"Of course, I made sure he was healing well since there was poison involved." Kagome stuttered.

"Oh Kagome, you're an adult but you still blush like a teenager." Rin laughed. "So was Inuyasha the 'arrogant but sweet jerk' you told me about?"

"He was." Kagome frowned. "But he won't leave me alone about getting back together. I want to focus on getting us back to where we were and figure out what the hell happened to us."

"What does it matter if you get back together?" Sango asked. "All we have is time right now since we're completely blind in what we're doing. He obviously still wants a relationship with you."

"As if taking a poison hit for you wasn't clue enough about it." Rin smiled.

"I don't know. I broke off our relationship because I didn't think he was serious and committed enough to it." She sighed. "I have been ignoring him and putting him off for a while now."

"Isn't that any indication of how serious and committed he is?" Sango asked. "He probably didn't date anyone while you were broken up and he's continued to keep trying to talk to you."

"Maybe he screwed up." Rin added. "Some guys are just useless when it comes to love. Lets face it if any guy had to muster up the courage to say it they would probably mess it up the first few times."

"I don't know." Kagome looked up at the sky. "I can't help but push him away right now. I just have this ominous feeling about this whole situation right now. Something is just off. I don't know how to explain it but its making me uneasy right now."

Sango knew all too well how Kagome's instincts were. "We should probably cut this short and stick with the guys until we can get this whole traveling set into a good motion." Sango stood up and got out of the hot springs.

The other girls did the same and before they could even get their clothing on all of the guys were in a circle surrounding them with their backs to them. They all screamed and covered themselves. "What the hell is wrong with you guys?" Rin shouted.

"Hurry up and put your clothes on. There's something here." Kouga said.

The girls threw on their yukatas and quickly tied them like robes. "What is it?" Sango asked.

"Don't know." Shippo answered. "It's trying to mask itself. We barely noticed ourselves."

"How observant for a young one." A voice could be heard but they didn't know from where.

"What the fuck do you want?" Inuyasha asked as he stepped in front of Kagome. The rest of the guys began tightening around the girls since they seemed to be the target.

"I sense a miko among the group. Very well concealed and I'm curious to find out which one it is." The voice then laughed. "And one other with some spiritual powers but I can only assume untrained. No monk would go without ofuda or his staff."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kouga growled. "There's no one like that here."

"Hmm I disagree." The voice boomed loudly. Suddenly in front of them was a smoke cloud and someone in a baboon pelt stood in front of them. They couldn't make out a face since it was covered by the nose of the animal and didn't have time to contemplate on anything else since tentacles shot out from underneath the pelt.

Everyone but Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, and Kouga had a tentacle wrapped around their necks. Not tight enough to kill them but more than enough to keep them restrained. While they were restrained the others tried to fight off the oncoming hoards of tentacles that kept coming after them. They couldn't help the others since they could barely do enough to protect themselves. Sesshomaru could keep most of them from even getting near him by warding them off with his poison claws. Kouga was fast enough to keep dodging the oncoming ones. Inuyasha was clawing each one that got close while trying to make his way to the others.

"Let's play a game shall we? Kanna your assistance." In front of the man appeared a little girl. She had the palest skin and matching white hair with bangs giving her a ghostly image. She wore a white yukata and held a mirror in her hands. She raised it above her head and it began to glow brightly. "We'll eliminate the least likely to have spiritual powers and the two who are left, well we'll see what happens."

"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted as he saw the tentacles beginning to glow as the mirror did. "We need to do something other than just dodge these fucking things."

"Obviously but when you come up with a plan why not tell us so we can give it a go?" Kouga snapped sarcastically. "If I knew how to fucking get rid of these things I'd have done it by now."

The tentacle that was wrapped around Shippo began to dull and he was tossed aside like a towel. He fell to the ground and quickly recuperated but was being attacked by more before he could try and help anyone. "Obviously not the youkai." The man stated. Sango was then tossed aside next but she her legs were quickly restrained making her unable to move. "Interesting, only one more to go."

Rin was then tossed next but more violently then the other two. Had she hit the ground it would've been painful but instead she was caught by Sesshomaru. "Ah well here we have it." You could hear the smile from the man. The tentacles stopped glowing and moved wrapping around Miroku and Kagome's necks and lifted them off the ground. "The miko and the monk although I have no use for you monk. One who is unprepared cannot be a threat. The miko on the other hand..."

Miroku was then dropped on the ground and he quickly scrambled to his feet. Kagome was slowly being pulled towards the man in the pelt and he ran to her trying to pull her free of the tentacles grasp. His hands were surrounded by a light as he touched the tentacle and all of the tentacles stopped moving and retracted back to the man.

"Well this was unexpected." This time the group noticed that the voice hadn't been coming from the man standing in front of him. "Kanna your services are no longer needed." The girl nodded before flipping her mirror and disappearing. "Well monk you have unexpectedly hindered my plan and because I'm feeling rather generous I'll allow you to live. But let me leave a gift as a reminder of this little annoyance."

The tentacles once again swooped out but only at Miroku this time barely missing Kagome. It knocked him back against a tree and one of the tentacles glowed red before touching his right palm. "I leave with you a curse that will pass from generation to generation until my death. Your hand will become a void taking in everything you care about until it finally consumes you." The voice laughed and the baboon suited man was gone.

Miroku was dropped to the ground and everyone ran to him but he quickly stopped them. "Don't!" He shouted. His hand was burning and a black line ran through his palm. It then shattered almost looking as if a mirror had been cracked and suddenly his palm opened.

The group began to feel as they were being sucked towards him and tried to stand their ground. "Oh my god, his hand is a black hole." Sango fell to the ground. "What should we do?"

"We need to cover it up!" Rin shouted but soon they saw the power of the curse.

It was starting to pull them in harder and shrubs were starting to go towards him. They gasped when they saw the black hole take it in completely. Miroku was in so much pain and it took all of his effort to turn away from his friends. "Leave me and go! You heard him it's going to suck in everything until it consumes me! If you don't leave soon it will suck you in!" He shouted.

"We can't just leave you here like this!" Sango shouted.

"We need something to cover it." Kagome mumbled. Then she remembered some prayer beads Kaede had given her. She said she'd enchanted it to help protect them. "Sango give me your bandana."

Sango gave it to her without questions assuming she had a plan. But when Kagome started moving closer to Miroku she had to ask. "Kagome what are you doing?" She shouted.

"I think this might help." Kagome moved closer even with everyone's protest. Inuyasha moved to grab her before she got to close but it was too late. She'd reached Miroku and ignored his shouts to get away. The suction was too much and the cloth was pulled from her hands before she could position it and without much time to react she let go of the prayer beads.

Inuyasha had grabbed her and pulled her back but then he noticed Miroku was on the ground and there wasn't any wind around his palm. "Kagome what did you do?" He asked.

She slowly inched towards him and looked at his palm. The cloth had wrapped around the hole stopping the suction. Somehow the prayer beads were sealing the void and the bandana had covered the entire palm. Miroku was passed out on the ground. She tied the bandana securely around his wrist and called out to Rin. She examined him checking for anything threatening and breathed a sigh of relief. "He's alright he's just passed out from the pain." Rin stood up. "We should get back to camp and make him more comfortable."

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Miroku woke up in a cold sweat scaring Sango and Kagome who were sitting next to him. "God Miroku are you trying to give us a heart attack?" Sango asked. She leaned him back to lie on his back and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better since I'm surrounded by so many women." He smiled as Rin knelt beside him. "What happened was anyone hurt?"

"You've been asleep for a day now." Rin said. "Everyone is fine including you but you should take it easy for a while."

Miroku held up his right hand in front of his face. He'd half wondered if it was a dream. "Somehow the prayer beads are sealing the vortex." Kagome answered his question. "Kaede-sama gave them to me before we left. I guess they came into good use."

Miroku sat up and took Sango's hands in his and looked at her with all seriousness in his face. "Sango will you do me the honor of bearing my child?"

He was on the ground with a throbbing head as Sango stood above him. "What the hell is wrong with you?" She shouted at him.

"You heard what he said this curse will live through generations. I need a son before I'm gone." Miroku sat back up and rubbed his head. "It's not nice to hurt an injured person."

"He's laughing through it." Inuyasha shook his head.

"This isn't a subject we should discuss right now. We'll wait until he's had a few hours to settle before we talk about this." Sesshomaru said. "He'll probably want something to eat. Kouga if you will. I'm going to accompany Rin in gathering some more wood. Shippo stay close to Miroku and Sango. Inuyasha get some water."

"I'll go with you." Kagome said. "I want to get some water for Miroku."

"Stay in groups, no one wanders off alone." Sesshomaru warned. "Let's go Rin."

Inuyasha grabbed the bucket they had been using for water and waited for Kagome before heading for the river. They were silent the entire way there. When they arrived Kagome knelt down to fill the bucket and stopped when Inuyasha sat down beside her. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"I told you yesterday I'm fine." She smiled trying to reassure him.

"Does it still hurt?" He tilted her head up with his hand. Kagome had bruises around her neck from the attack and he could see in her face every once in a while that it hurt. He pulled her into his lap gently kissing below the bruises being careful not to hurt her.

"It's sore but nothing too bad." For the first time Kagome relaxed and leaned into him. "We should probably get back. You guys never got your turn in the hot springs and I know we'll need another soak."

"You women and your baths." Inuyasha chuckled as he helped her up.