A/N: Thanky you to innocentanimefan for their review on chapter 11! :)

Not much more to say really...

Please R&R! ;)

Timeless

Chapter 12 - The Caves

"What do you think Inuyasha?" Miroku whispered, not wanting to wake up the others as they had finally fallen asleep.

"It's strange." Inuyasha said simply as he positioned himself against the wall, Tetsusaiga resting against his shoulder.

"What is?"

"Well, the Naraku that we knew three years ago would have spent no time in making us aware in at least some way that he was back to extract revenge. Like with those weird bugs he kept sending after us that poisoned you several times." Inuyasha had his eyes closed, thinking about the situation at hand. All he had so far was a really bad gut feeling though.

"True, he taunted us quite a bit the last time, baiting us. This time he has been abnormally quiet." Miroku mused about the whole scenario, not liking it any more than Inuyasha did.

"And then there is also that the demons appear to be trying really hard to mask their scent. My nose is getting all numb from the weird things they've put in the air here to stop anyone detecting them." Inuyasha opened his eyes which portrayed a fair amount of annoyance while his nose twitched.

"They're trying to mask their scent?" Miroku looked at Inuyasha in surprise.

"Yeah, and they've used some herb or the other which smells quite unpleasant to us demons. I mean, I'm only a hanyou and it annoys the hell out of me, I don't want to imagine what it would be like for Shippo or Kirara. Or even Sesshomaru for that matter. I think it is some kind of herb that miko's use to keep demons away from shrines or something." Inuyasha looked uncomfortable admitting this weakness and Miroku knew that it was only because they had such a good friendship that Inuyasha was able to admit that.

"And using a herb that normally only mikos use... it must mean that Kikyo is actually with them, just like we thought." Miroku didn't like that little fact the most. Last time, Inuyasha had nearly thrown it all away for Kikyo, there always stood the risk that he would do that once again for his old flame.

"Don't worry about me Miroku, I've decided that she belongs in the past." Miroku looked at Inuyasha in surprise, it was almost as if Inuyasha had read his thoughts.

"No I can't read your thoughts." Okay, that was just creepy. "But the doubt is kinda written in your eyes." Inuyasha looked outside, through the door of the old hut that they were currently seeking shelter within from the storm that was beginning to form outside.

"I realised it once Kagome had vanished." Miroku looked closely at Inuyasha's face, recognising the distant look in his eyes. It had been a look he had often worn during the time that Kagome had gone. "I broke down when I thought Kikyo had died. At that moment in time she meant the world to me and I would have done anything to get her back." Inuyasha turned back around to face him. "But when Kagome vanished it felt a hundred times worse. There was this longing within me to see her again and I knew I would do much more to see her again than I had for Kikyo. It's strange. Kagome once said that 'You don't know what you had until you've lost it at least once.' That saying is true. I didn't know just how much I cherished either until I lost them."

"So you won't go after Kikyo again? Can you honestly say that without even a hint of hesitation?" Miroku searched Inuyasha's eyes and face, trying to find any hint of hesitation that might give a lack of resolve away.

"I won't." His voice sounded sure of itself, completely honest. "At the time Kikyo was the only one that I could relate to. She was the only one who tried to make friends with me and I will always love her for that. She was my light at the time, I won't even try to deny that. But Kagome introduced me to all of you guys. She got me to open up to more people than just to herself. And she broke through my barriers much faster than Kikyo did. Maybe my barriers were already weak but I don't think so. After I thought that Kikyo betrayed me I shut myself off completely again, just like I had after my mother's death." Sadness entered his orbs as he thought of his deceased mother.

"And when I lost her, not knowing whether she was still alive or whether she was dead, it hurt so much more. I waited each and every day for her to return to me, to us. You can't imagine what I felt when I saw her on top of me after three long years, it was as if I'd finally found my other half again."

"You know that you sound incredibly cheesy when you say that?" Miroku asked with a smirk. His friend had just indirectly admitted that he was in love with Kagome. It really was infuriating to watch the two of them dance around each other when their emotions were so clear to everyone else.

"Oh shut it." Inuyasha grouched, sending an annoyed glare at his best friend.

Miroku's soft chuckle filled the hut. "It's good to know that you won't jump any ships though my friend." He smiled at him before turning serious once more. "I still have a feeling that there's more to this than we might think though."

"Yeah." Inuyasha grew pensive again.

"Let's sleep for tonight. We can always worry about it tomorrow." Miroku said softly before blowing out the candle and lying down to sleep while Inuyasha silently kept watch. Despite everything, sleep did not come easy to either of them that night.

~.~.~.~.~

"So we're going to explore the caves today?" Kagome and Sango looked over at Inuyasha and Miroku as Shippo and Kirara dug into their joint breakfast.

"We thought it might be a good idea. After all, the forest is pretty big, they could be anywhere and without any of the demons here being able to smell properly due to this strange herb that Inuyasha mentioned..." Miroku pointed to Shippo and Kirara who had small pegs on their noses since otherwise they would probably succumb to the powers of the smell while Inuyasha was holding things that smelled good suspiciously close to his nose...

"It's gotten worse." He said rather defensively, noticing everyone else's eyes on him.

"We didn't ask." Sango said while a sweatdrop formed at the back of her head at the hanyou's not so subtle behaviour.

"Anyway... if we limit the area we're searching in it'll be good for us." Miroku said, obviously trying to pull the attention away from Inuyasha's discomfort. Inuyasha sent him a look of thanks.

"So are we going to split up when we search the caves?" Kagome asked the question that seemed to be the most obvious one. Shippo shook his head fervently, not feeling like it would be a very good idea to split up. Kirara mewed a soft tone at him to reassure him that everything would be alright.

"No, I don't think that that would be a very good idea." Sango raised a brow at Miroku's answer, wasn't that how they always did things though?

"What Miroku means is that considering that Naraku might pop out of anywhere, it wouldn't be wise if we split up. One group might get confronted while the other is too far away to help." Inuyasha pointed out.

"And with the loss of my wind tunnel and Sango's pregnancy, we do have some weaker spots. It could get dangerous for either groups if we split up." Miroku stated calmly, ignoring the pointed glare Sango sent him at the mention of her pregnancy.

"So which cave are we gonna search through first?" Shippo looked up at the others around him before throwing a quick glance at Kirara who nodded at him before he turned back. "There are quite a lot of them and I think that they were quite big the last time we went into them." Worry made itself evident on his face.

"I think we should take the cave where Midoriko is entombed in first." Kagome said quickly before either Inuyasha or Miroku had a chance to speak.

"Why?" Inuyasha turned back around to look at Kagome, he had already started to make his way towards the caves, impatient for a good fight as ever.

"I have this feeling." Kagome shrugged. "But apart from that, demons couldn't enter comfortably the last time we checked so we can check that one pretty quickly. I also wanted to see something about Midoriko. Since I have the complete Shikon no Tama now, I wonder if it might react with her statue."

"I don't like the way you're thinking Kagome but you're probably right. That cave was pretty safe the last time we checked since no demons could really enter it." Miroku didn't like the fact that Kagome wanted to experiment with the jewel around her neck, it normally brought nothing but bad surprises with it.

"Let's go then!" Sango called out happily as she marched off towards the caves, humming a merry tune.

"Wasn't she mad just a second ago?" Inuyasha asked, feeling slightly confused at her sudden change in attitude.

"Yeah..." Shippo trailed off while Kirara nodded, a sweatdrop forming at the back of their heads.

"And it doesn't seem to bother Miroku one bit..." Inuyasha sent his friend a meaningful glance that he completely ignored.

"I'm kind of scared to get married now." Shippo looked even more worried than before. Kagome just shook her had at the lot of them. Boys. They never change.

~.~.~.~.~

"I feel sick..." Jaken muttered nearly unintelligibly as he hung on Kohaku's back. Normally his pride would have prevented him from even touching the young man but right now, his nausea was winning over all. He looked over at Ah-Un in annoyance. The herbivore was able to close his nostrils at will and was thus able to breathe in through the mouth without the smell assaulting his nose.

"We are never mentioning anything about this again." Sesshomaru practically growled. Yukari just smirked as she helped support the proud Lord of the West. Despite already wearing a peg on his nose (which she had to say looked quite ridiculous on him), the smell still managed to invade his overly sensitive nose. She found the smell quite uncomfortable herself, but it didn't make her sick or affected her like it affected the demons. Out of their whole group, Kohaku was the only one who appeared to be completely unaffected by it all.

"Yup. Never mentioning it again." She said quite happily while Sesshomaru scowled at her. She was bloody annoying, that was what she was. He knew perfectly well, after knowing her for a good five hundred years which incidently was nearly his whole life, that she would never let him live this down.

"Is she trying to aggravate Lord Sesshomaru?" Jaken's normally heated question came out quite weakly. He really wasn't faring all that well with the smell of the herb in the air. And it only seemed to be getting stronger as they went on.

"Yes, I think she is." Kohaku said quite calmly but with a hint of amusement in his eyes. It really was interesting seeing someone stand up to Sesshomaru. It wasn't something that anyone saw often. Yes, Inuyasha blatantly disrespected his brother in front of others but Sesshomaru did the same too. And they were brothers anyway, so that didn't really count. And Lady Satomi struck fear also in his heart, she really did seem to be slightly off her rocker each time he had met her. Not a kind of lunatic crazy, but rather a much more unsettling calmer crazy. While still appearing to have all her marbles. The mere fact that both Inuyasha and Sesshomaru avoided her like the pest meant quite a lot.

But Yukari just treated him like an equal, and after learning that the two had practically grown up together, Kohaku could kind of see where she was coming from. It was still funny to watch Sesshomaru treat her exactly the same though.

"How about we check those caves first. The smell might not be as bad there and then we can all get used to it a bit more before we venture out into the forest again." Yukari said brightly but nobody but Sesshomaru noticed how she said that 'we' could get used to the smell. So she was obviously affected by it too, though not as strongly as they were.

He would have to remember that for future references.

~.~.~.~.~

"It's strange. The air around the caves feels different than last time." Inuyasha said tentatively as he stared around himself, getting a slightly uncomfortable feeling.

"Don't you mean that it smells different?" Sango asked while continuing to walk forward.

"And how should I smell with this?" Inuyasha said pointedly, pointing his finger at his nose that was currently closed due to the help of a peg. Kagome had had enough of him attempting to appear as if the smell didn't bother him and had just put the peg on the nose. Inuyasha had complained, but he hadn't taken it off either.

"I don't know. It's your nose." Sango said, her mood having switched to grouchy once more. Inuyasha immediately backtracked and hid a bit behind Kagome, not wanting to incur Sango's wrath.

"But I agree with Inuyasha. It feels different than last time." Kagome said softly, feeling a sudden silence fill the air. It was almost as if there was no life near the cave. As if it had all been shut out or silenced. Sango glared at her best friend, feeling slightly betrayed. Miroku sighed as he watched his wife's mood swings. The closer they got to the date, the more difficult she was to predict. It was exhausting trying to keep up.

"I wonder what happen..." Miroku froze as he stared at the cave in front of them. The barrier was gone, everybody could feel that. Not only that, but the claw marks at the sides of the cave clearly indicated the demons that had entered the cave. Silence also came over them. The shock from seeing the once so well protected and holy cave become so worn down was overwhelming.

"The demons entered this cave." Sango breathed out quietly, not wanting to disturb the silence that had the whole area in complete control.

"But... how?" Miroku looked more shocked than anyone else, probably since he knew just how powerful such spells could be against demons.

"Who knows. Why don't we try to find out?" Inuyasha pushed forth, entering the cave with no difficulties at all. He felt apprehensive, this was probably the reason why he had been getting that awful feeling in his gut the last couple of days. Getting closer and closer to the slayer's village had intensified all of his feelings and he didn't like it. Not one bit.

"Wait a minute Inuyasha!" Kagome rushed after him, Shippo close on her heels, his natural instincts causing a strong sense of fear to rise within him. Miroku and Sango lost no time following. They felt incredibly uneasy too.

Inuyasha came to a sudden stop, causing Kagome to bump into him. Just as she was about to reprimand him for his sudden stop, she saw what he was looking at and her sharp intake of air could be heard throughout the whole cave.

In front of them was a humongous hole where the statue of the petrified Midoriko had once stood. All the demons that had been around her were gone too. No more water dripped from the cave ceilings, the whole place was dry. Parched dry like a desert. The deep scars in the rock walls around them indicated a heavy battle which didn't appear to be all that long ago. At the most a year back.

The whole cave looked like a mess. Apart from the walls, the floors were strewn with rocks and other various debris. In one place, the cave floor had even been torn open, revealing a large crack that ran straight from one wall to the next.

"Oh my..." Kagome held her hands in front of her mouth, completely and utterly stunned. It looked like a war had broken out in here.

"Come on." Inuyasha held out his hand and she took it gratefully, knowing that her knees were feeling weak from seeing so much destruction.

They simply surveyed the cave in silence, not really knowing what to say. There was not that much to be said. Everyone could roughly guess what had happened here. As it happened, none of them were completely right.

"Oh. You guys are here too." They all jumped when they heard a voice to their left and Kagome let out a small squeak. Inuyasha quickly moved in front of her protectively, while Miroku immediately stood in front of Sango.

"Sheesh, calm down. It's only us." And around the corner came Yukari, supporting a rather disgruntled Sesshomaru. Close behind them were Kohaku, who was carrying Jaken, and Ah-Un, who was carrying all of their other stuff.

"Since when have you been here?" Miroku queried, being the first to get his voice back.

"A couple of hours maybe." Yukari said, taking in their appearances and the way the demons all had their noses blocked in some way or the other. "Like you, most of us were pretty affected by the horrendous smell of the herbs someone has scattered in the winds. We thought that maybe if we took refuge in some caves for a while we would be able to recover a bit and get used to it but when we saw this, we couldn't help but explore." She motioned towards the damaged walls with her head.

"Rather, you wanted to explore and none of the others wanted to be left behind." Kohaku said with an amused tone.

"I can't just let that heathen drag Lord Sesshomaru away! Who knows what she would do with him!" Jaken quickly interjected, having regained some of his strength.

"Kohaku or Ah-Un. Could one of you please hit that idiot for me?" Yukari's eyebrow twitched dangerously. Ah-Un gave Jaken a slight tap on the head, seeing as Kohaku was already holding him.

"Thanks Ah-Un." She threw the herbivore a quick look of thanks. Everyone else felt a sweatdrop forming at the back of their heads. They were totally teaming up against Jaken.

"In case you're wondering, the cave just goes on like that. It's completely and utterly torn apart. There's not one bit that we haven't seen that been left unscathed." Yukari's eyes became grim. Sesshomaru knew that she wasn't liking this any better than the rest of them. She normally knew what was going on and not knowing something set her on edge.

"That's really strange." Sango said softly, more to herself than anyone else, but because of the quiet everyone heard it loud and clear.

"I really do wonder what happened here." Miroku and Inuyasha relaxed a bit, knowing that the ones that had surprised them weren't demons or any other enemies.

"This hole seems to never end." Shippo's loud voice surprised them all. They spun around to see him leaning over the hole, peering down into it with Kirara by his side.

"Shippo..." Inuyasha growled dangerously, not taking it in a good way that he was being surprised so many times in one day.

"Be careful!" Kagome called out to the younger kitsune. "You might fall!"

"Don't worry Kagome, I'll be fi-aaah!" Shippo suddenly lost his grip on the small outcropping of rocks that he had been holding onto. Kirara rushed forward to catch him with her mouth and also slipped on the surprisingly wet rocks.

"Shippo! Kirara!" Sango and Kagome rushed forward when suddenly a bright light came out of the hole, engulfing them all within it.