I know I haven't updated in months, but I've been writing a couple other fanfics(which I also seem to be unfaithful about) and then there's the whole senior year that's giving practically no time to write fanfiction. But I do want to finish arc, as much for me as for you guys. So I will try my best to post more often again!

"So she saw him?"

"Yes."

"Did she remember?"

"No, she came with me willingly didn't she?"

"True, but..." Naraku fell into a silence as he thought deeply about the issue at hand. He had known this problem would eventually come up, but he hadn't known it would happen so soon. He'd barely gotten more than two jewel shards out of Kameko, one when she was with Kohaku and another when she was with Kagura. Unlike Kohaku, Kameko was more likely to remember, since practically everyone she knew wasn't dead. How much longer would he be able to have control over her?

"Kameko."

Kameko's head shot up and turned in his direction. From what Naraku could see she had been doodling Kohaku's face on the floor with a piece of burnt wood from her lunch's fire. She quickly dropped the charcoal and rubbed her black hands on her pants in embarrassment.

"Yeah?"

"Kagura tells me a young man tried to kidnap you today. Is this true?"

A flurry of emotions ran across Kameko's face in the next second, as if she wasn't sure exactly how she should feel about the whole incident.

"Yeah."

Naraku frowned at Kameko's recent lack of vocabulary. She wasn't even looking at him, she was staring blankly at the wall behind him while her mind wandered off.

Kanna appeared beside Naraku holding a ball of dark cloth. He took it from her without so much as a 'thank you' and tossed it at Kameko. Kameko snapped out of her daze, looking curiously down at the bundle on her lap.

"Your clothes are filthy and stink up the whole room. Go change and bring back you're old clothes to me. I will dispose of them properly."

She nodded, somewhat confused at the sudden mandate, and scurried into the adjacent room to change. Kameko's new outfit consisted of tighter black pants that didn't bunch up at the bottom like her old outfit. Her tank top was no longer kimono style, but just a black tanktop with a netted v-neck. She attached the hilt of her sword to her new outfit and tied up her hair with the black ribbon naraku had provided, only her purple bang didn't stay up. There was also a pair of black fingerless gloves and a hood she could put on her head. She slipped on the gloves and tucked the headcover in her belt.

Although it was a change from what she was used to, Kameko was happy to be in a new pair of crisp clean clothes. Her old ones had long faded from black to a dark gray and had rips and tears and even blood stains that wouldn't wash out in the river. She felt refreshed having something new to wear. It smelled nice too, unlike her old dirty outfit.

Back in the other room Naraku had summoned Kohaku before him. She lay her old clothes near Naraku and took her place next to the young demon slayer.

"Kohaku, you will escort Kameko over to my base in the far east wood. I have some...business I need to attend to here."

Kohaku stood up dutifully from his seat and walked out, Kameko trailing off behind him. Naraku waited patiently until he heard their running footsteps fade away into the distance before standing up. He looked down indifferently at Kameko's charcoal sketch on the wooden floor. It was not of Kohaku.

"Tell me Kagura, where exactly was your encounter with Inuyasha?"

Meanwhile, back with the gang-minus-Kameko, Inuyasha was calmly coping with the results of his actions that day.

"Miroku this is all your fault! You drove her away!"

"Excuse me? I was merely stating the truth thank you. Who is the one who denied it and called her a... 'jewel tracker' was it?"

"Shut up! Who asked you?"

"You did."

"Shut up!"

Inuyasha swiped his grilling fish out of the fire and stuffed it into his mouth whole.

"Gaaah! Hot Hot HOT!" screamed the half-demon as held out his burning tongue and ran for the nearby stream.

"He acts like a little kid," whispered Shippo as he shook his head. He blew tentatively on his own cooked fish before taking a big bite out of its side.

"Alas, it seems Inuyasha is doomed to act like a stubborn child for all eternity," the monk agreed.

"I'm right here you know," came Inuyasha's unhappy voice from behind. The following few seconds were followed by two bonks on the head and a crying Shippo.

"I miss Kameko, she would make you sit right now if she were here," moaned Shippo as he rubbed his head softly.

"Shippo shhhh," said Miroku.

"What? Oh..."

Looking up Shippo expected another hit on the head, but instead he just saw Inuyasha staring off pensively into the distance. A hint of sadness washed over his eyes.

Inuyasha growled loudly, but instead of reacting to his friends he marched over to the nearest tree and punched it. There was a loud crack and thump as it broke and hit the ground.

"Look, I know ok! I screwed up! I drove Kameko off with my stupid mouth and now she's in the hands of Naraku!" shouted Inuyasha at the forest. He let his hands fall to his side, clenched tightly into fists. His head was bent down, bangs shadowing over his eyes and his whole body shaking.

A hand gently rested on his shoulder.

"Bug off Miroku, I'm not in the mood for you right now."

He pulled away from the hand and spun around angrily, expecting to push off an annoyingly correct monk.

"Oh, Sango," Inuyasha looked away guiltily. "Sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"It's fine Inuyasha. We're all worried about her, you're not alone."

He nodded.

"So what do you plan on doing to get Kameko back?" Sango asked, eager to think positive and cheer up her friend. The two returned to the fire and sat down to eat fish.

"...I don't know...I mean, she didn't even know who I was," he remembered painfully. His head leaned far into his hand in frustration. "And then I only made it worse. Not only does she not know who I am, but now she hates what little she does know of me."

"Don't let it bring you down too much Inuyasha. Remember, Naraku specializes in using the people we care about to mess with our heads. He probably planned for that to happen," suggested Miroku as he finally picked his fish on a stick out of the fire. Shippo popped up on his shoulder.

"Yeah, and besides, this is Kameko. She loves you so much she can't possibly forget you for too long," claimed the little fox demon surely.

The hanyou looked up in surprise, his face rapidly going red. "Huh? She does?"

"The depth of your ignorance never ceases to amaze me Inuyasha," sighed Miroku as he bit into his slightly burnt seafood.

No answer. No loud comeback or bump in the head.

"Inuyasha?"

Miroku glanced sideways to see what could possibly keep Inuyasha from firing a comeback at him. Inuyasha was looking around, sniffing the air experimentally. His ears were cocked, moving slowly as they listened intently to his surroundings. Suddenly he stood up, his gaze pointed east.

"What is it?" asked Sango, reaching for her boomerang.

"It's Naraku. I can smell him," Inuyasha gave another sniff. "It's faint, but I can just barely smell Kameko with him."

The hanyou's hands flexed to show off their long sharp claws and a low growl emitted from the back of his throat as he bore his teeth. "I'm going to kill that bastard."

"Inuyasha wait!"

Too late. Inuyasha had already been engulfed by the dark forest, the sound of his dashing footsteps was all Miroku could hear of him.

Once again I was stuck walking through the woods for who knew how long to who knew where. Kohaku was the one who was good with directions. I'd already forgotten where Naraku had told us to go.

Quickly growing bored at the dullness of just walking through the unchanging forest I glanced over at Kohaku walking beside me. Was he bored too? It was hard to tell. He just stared blankly ahead of him the whole time. Now he was boring me too.

"Kohaku, why do you sometimes act like a mindless puppet around Naraku?"

"A puppet?"

"Yes, a puppet."

"What's a puppet?"

"Well...you know...it's a toy in which the owner control's its every move and speaks for it."

"You have weird toys where you are from Kameko."

"Yeah, now if only I could remember the 'from' part."

"You and me both."

"You didn't answer my question."

"How can I answer what does not make sense?"

"Ugh, never mind," I sighed, realizing that I was getting absolutely nowhere with this conversation.

I fiddled with my charcoal piece unrelentingly. Finally I drew an X on the palm of my hand with it. It marked quite well on skin, though it smudged very easily. I went on to cover my entire right arm in thick black powdery X's. The things boredom will drive one to do.

Arm covered, I struggled to find something else to doodle on while we hiked through the woods. My other arm didn't work, since I could only draw with my left hand. We were walking too fast for me to mark on any trees.

I glance discreetly over at Kohaku, his slightly tanned arms—pretty muscle-y for a kid of his age I might add—screaming to be sketched upon.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"You're marking my arm with burnt wood! How is that nothing?"

"But I'm bored!" I complained, pouting slightly. "Please? I'll draw something pretty!"

Kohaku groaned and attempted to pull his arm away, but I held on fast. I switched to a full on puppy pout. He groaned and reluctantly stopped struggling. The puppy dog pout worked on him every time.

"Fine."

This kid was too easy.

And so the next hour was spent with the two of us walking through the forest with Kohaku holding his left arm up in the air as I doodled on it with my rapidly dwindling bit of charcoal. I started off with a bunch of tiny swirls and finally moved on to drawing something a bit more detailed so as not to use up the space on his arm to fast. Something told me he wouldn't let me draw on his other arm too.

"Done! Kohaku you can look now," I said proudly.

Kohaku looked down fearfully at his arm, not sure what to expect.

"Woah, that's pretty good. It looks just like me," he remarked while gazing in awe at the realistic profile of himself drawn in ash on his skin.

"Yeah well, your face doesn't change much. You stare ahead blankly a lot you know that?"

Kohaku blinked.

"Nevermind."

We lapsed into a casual silence as we continued to walk. How far away was this place anyway? The scenery passed by slowly, the wind lightly blew warm air into our faces, and a few birds even chirped in the background.

"Kohaku?"

"Yeah?"

"This may sound weird, but you being by my side just feels...normal. Almost like...I have a little brother." The second those words left my mouth I knew they true.

"Oh my god. Kohaku! I have a little brother! I'm absolutely sure. Before my memory loss I had a little brother!"

I hugged Kohaku tightly and jumped up and down in excitement. Kohaku turned red, but I pretended not to notice. I had remembered something!

I plan on having some action between Inuyasha and Naraku(undecided what it will be exactly, but I will figure it out!). Review plz if you want me to prioritize this fanfic over the others.