InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Breaking of Dawn ❯ Gone! ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter Eight - Gone!

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Rushing over to Kagome's empty sleeping bag, Inuyasha picked up the sleeping Shippo and shook him hard.

He had to know where Kagome was before he freaked out. Perhaps she'd gone to relieve herself, or maybe she just couldn't sleep and had gone to take her mind off stuff bothering her.

For once in his life, Inuyasha wowed that he wouldn't yell at her if that was what she'd done, but somehow he knew that it wasn't the case this time. The whole situation was too suspicious. Too coincidental.

Shippo yelped in surprise when he suddenly woke with a start.

Inuyasha didn't feel better about the fact that it had been hard to wake the fox. He'd actually been shaking Shippo for quite some time before he woke up.

Silencing the kit with a short growl and a stare, Inuyasha took a deep breath to calm himself. It wouldn't do to scare the kid. He was only able to make matters worse, but then again…

How could it possibly be worse?

"Listen runt. Did you notice Kagome waking during the night? Did you see her walk off somewhere?" Inuyasha was barely able to keep from growling.

Shippo looked at him with a confused expression. It was obvious that he was still partly in the dreaming world.

Shaking him one more time to snap him out of it, Inuyasha couldn't manage to keep from growling anymore.

"Answer me Shippo! Did you notice Kagome moving at all during the night?"

~*~

Sensing the obvious agitation to the grumpy hanyou, Shippo was finally able to answer.

"No. I didn't. I've been sleeping through the entire night. Actually, I've never slept better." Shippo smiled and shrugged in apology.

"Why do you ask?" He then inquired, getting suspicious to the hanyou's intent.

"Fuck!" Was all he got out of him, before he was dropped unceremoniously to the ground.

Shippo watched with rising dread as Inuyasha made his way over to the two sleeping humans and began to yell and growl, telling them to wake up. When that didn't seem to work, he slapped the monk in the face with his palm repeatedly to get a reaction.

"Inuyasha, why are you…"

Shippo didn't get the chance to finish as Miroku suddenly flopped up with a start, bringing his hand up to cradle his sore face.

"What has gotten in to you Inuyasha?" Miroku said with growing anger in his voice.

Shippo took the time before Inuyasha answered to check out his surroundings to find out a reason to the strange behaviour. It didn't take long before he noticed what Inuyasha had noticed long ago.

"Kagome's gone?" It was more of a question than a statement when he said it. Fear rising in him rapidly.

~*~

Inuyasha's patience was as good as gone when Shippo stated his observation.

"You don't fucking say!?" He screamed, sarcasm and panic radiating from his voice and tone.

When Miroku tried to calm him down Inuyasha couldn't take it anymore.

"Take a fucking look around Miroku. The sun's up and no one's woken before now. That's not normal. We always wake up at dawn to go and search for shards. And Kagome's nowhere around."

Miroku brought his hand down from his face and took a quick look around.

"Maybe Lady Kagome's gone back to her own time. She was low on supplies after all. Maybe she just didn't want to bother and wake us." Miroku calmly explained, hoping that Inuyasha would understand and believe him. It really wasn't good when Inuyasha was agitated. He had a bad habit of using his claws in that state.

Inuyasha snorted as he looked around one more time, trying to catch Kagome's scent in the blowing breeze.

"Get your head out of your ass Miroku. Something's fishy. Do you even realise how hard it was to wake you and Shippo. Just try to wake Sango yourself and then you'll see. Besides, Kagome wouldn't have gone back home without me. Not this time."

Inuyasha didn't realise his mistake before the words were out of his mouth.

Miroku was grinning while he studied Sango's sleeping form. Edging closer by the second.

Inuyasha closed his eyes, praying for patience. He really didn't have time for this. What if Kagome was in danger? It was his duty to protect her.

"Damn it all." He growled out in frustration as he yanked Miroku away from Sango by the scruff of his neck.

Miroku had been groping the young taiji freely without any resistance and was rather disappointed at the interruption.

"Inuyasha!" He whined as he tried to force his way back to Sango's rear.

Inuyasha's brow twitched in anger as he threw the monk away from the sleeping girl. This wasn't getting him anywhere.

"Quit it Miroku! Kagome might be in danger and all you can think about is groping Sango. You're more of a hentai than I ever gave you credit for. Now get your brain out of the gutter and wake her up properly. I'll scout around to see if I can catch a whiff of Kagome's scent. You'd better hope for your sake that she's unharmed."

With that, Inuyasha leaped out of the clearing, straining his senses to pick up on anything familiar.

~*~

Shippo was silent for some minutes as he absently watched Miroku edging closer to Sango. In reality, Shippo was thinking about where Kagome could be. At first he had thought that Inuyasha had said something to upset her, but with the way Inuyasha had been acting since Shippo woke up, he really doubted it. Besides, Inuyasha had been really nice to Kagome for an entire week now.

`I hope nothing's happened to her.' The thought seemed distant to him.

Finally shaking his head out of his brooding, Shippo sprinted over to Sango's sleeping form, beating Miroku's wandering hands by a mere second. He jumped up and down on Sango's chest at the same time as he pulled at her, wanting her to wake up quickly so that they could go and look for Kagome.

"Sango! You have to wake up! Kagome may be in danger. She's gone!"

No matter what he did, it didn't seem to affect Shippo and he slumped down in a defeated manner, fighting tears.

"We have to save her," he sniffed.

Apparently Miroku didn't seem to find it a problem that Sango wouldn't wake up and his wandering hand found the front of Sango's chest, squeezing lightly.

Shippo was as surprised as everyone else when a lout `smack' rang through the air, even startling Kirara out of her deep slumber.

~*~

"What on earth do you think you're doing you damn hentai!?" Sango screamed as she sat up from the ground, cradling her stinging hand. She'd really hit him hard this time.

Miroku was down in a heap on the ground, mumbling incoherent words in his attempt to explain himself.

Snorting at his lame excuses, Sango pushed herself off from the ground and caught Kirara in her arms when the neko-youkai jumped into her embrace. Looking around it didn't take long for the experienced taiji to know that something was seriously wrong.

"Where is everybody?" She glanced around and shaded her eyes against the piercing sun.

"And why's it close to midday?"

She turned to the lecherous monk just as he managed to push himself up from the ground and stand on his own.

Miroku shook his head to clear it after the slap and looked around too. Of course he didn't see anything that he hadn't noticed before.

"It seems that Kagome's gone. Inuyasha insists that she didn't leave of her own free will and suspects that she's been kidnapped. He's currently out trying to find a clue to her whereabouts. "

He stated it so calmly and collected that Sango felt a vein pop in her for-head.

"WHAT!?" She exclaimed loudly, startling him so he jumped back.

"Kagome's been kidnapped and you're busy groping me while I sleep? Speaking of… Why didn't anybody wake me earlier?" She had been advancing and speaking louder and louder by the moment, forcing a nervous monk to retreat step by step.

Holding his hands up in defence, he tried to calm her.

"Dear Sango. It seems that we've all been put under some kind of sleeping spell. Everybody just woke up. I merely tried to wake you when my hand found itself by a mistake on your chest. I really was aiming lower…"

He trailed off when he saw that his words did nothing to calm her nerves. In fact, she was either red with rage, or she was blushing rather furiously. He wondered if it could be both. It seemed likely…

Growling under her breath, Sango turned abruptly and picked up her bone boomerang.

"Kirara.Transform."

When the fire cat had done just that, she picked up Shippo and climbed on. Turning at the last moment to quirk an eyebrow at Miroku, he followed suit and they were off.

"Now we have to find Inuyasha, then we can go to look for Kagome. I only hope Naraku hasn't gotten to her. This all smells of his traps…"

The whispered words brought a chill to everyone present.

~*~

The room she was in was rank and dark. An overwhelming stench of blood intruded her nose and her head felt heavy. She was sure that she was going to puke sometime soon. Or pass out. She wished for the last…

Feeling her way across the cold stone floor, she was able to find a wall. She touched the surface briefly, but quickly yanked it back at the sticky and slick feel. When she brought her fingers up to her nose she found that the scent of blood multiplied and she felt her stomach heave.

When the last spasm finally resided she was only grateful that she hadn't eaten anything yesterday. The acrid scent of her stomach content added to the blood, made he head spin out of control, but she managed to scoot herself away from the vomit before she collapsed into oblivion. Grateful for the relieving darkness.

~*~

Inuyasha turned to look over his shoulders at his approaching companions while he kept his senses alert for anything that could reveal a trap.

He had searched for hours before he finally managed to pick up on a weak trace of Kagome's scent. It had been covered by another that he both despised and hated, and he hoped with all of his soul that Kagome would be alive when he found her.

Naraku was not one that was to be ignored…

When Kirara finally caught up with him with the others on her back, he turned and gazed at the village in the distance. Kagome's trail led directly towards it, but from the point he was now, he couldn't see anything that signalled a populated area. Nothing moved.

"Is Kagome in that village?"

Inuyasha glanced over to Shippo, acknowledging his question.

"I don't know, but her scent trail leads towards it. It could be a trap though so we'd better be careful."

Secretly, Inuyasha was proud of the pup. Shippo hadn't made the fuss he'd normally make when Kagome was in danger, even if his body language told of real fear for her life. The kit had finally begun to control his feelings. That was a good thing.

Moving forwards, he checked that Tetsusaiga was free in its scabbard.

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A/n: Here's the new chapter. Enjoy!