CHAPTER ONE

Remember

The sun was setting and another day was ending as the wary travlers dragged themselves into an all too familiar village. At the head of the group walked a most unusual pair... a half demon, or hanyou, with a human girl on this back. Behind them came a youkai exterminator, a young monk, and a kitsune... all three riding on a mononoke. The darkness was setting when they reached their destination, a tiny hut that sat in front of a shrine. Out of this hut came an old lady and welcomed them in. Everyone walked into the little makeshift house and sat down. "well? What news have ye about Naraku?" the old lady asked as she served them all soup from a pot sitting in the middle of the room. "Keh, nice to see you too old hag," came the sarcastic reply from the hanyou who was noticebly upset about something. "Inuyasha, come, what news have ye?" was her only retort to his sass. "Don't listen to him Kaede-sama," the tiny kitsune had jumped up on Inuyasha's shoulder and announced, "he's just mad because he screwed up and let Naraku go again". The hanyou's face contorted with rage and embarassment at the same time, he looked like he was about to tear the little kitsune to pieces, but instead just got up and exclaimed, "keh, the only reason that Naraku is still alive is because he's too weak to fight fair!" With that he turned on his heel and stormed out of the hut, leaving the little screen that acted like a door hanging by a thread in his wake. Nobody seemed to mind this... like if it happened all the time, and brought their minds back to the conversation at hand. The girl that had been riding on the back of the hanyou, a pretty dark haired girl with eyes the size of saucers , began to explain what had happened. "we really thought that this was going to be the last battle, Naraku looked almost defeated... but he pulled a dirty trick..." her eyes began to water, "I had him in my sights with my bow drawn, Miroku-sama was on the side oppisite of me with his kazaana at the ready, Sango and Kirara were up in the air to keep him from flying away, and even Shippou was trying to help by using his fox fire to keep Naraku from running in his direction." her voice cracked, "but none of us could do anything..."

Outside of the hut, the hanyou stalked off into the forest and began running at full pelt... he didn't care where he was going, as long as it was far away from there. 'It's all my fault,' he thought to himself, 'had they all struck together they might have had a chance.... but they didn't want to hurt me... I was too close to Naraku and I had lost too much power in the fight... it's my fault that we lost' Inuyasha came to an exceptionally large tree and with one simple bound he made it to one of the highest branches and sat himself in it. 'Damn that Naraku for using me as a shield against my own friends' he thought as he stared off into the night sky. His mind started working overtime and images started flashing in his head.....

Flashback

"Inuyasha, move!!!" the demon exterminator named Sango yelled at him as he battled intensely with his rival.

"You'll get sucked in!!!" came another shout, this time from the monk named Miroku.

His plan was simple, hold Naraku long enough for Miroku to get him using the kazaana, using his life if need be.... the problem was that he was the only one that seemed to think it was neccesary for Naraku to be held down.

"Miroku you idiot!!! Do it now!! I don't care what happens to me, it ends today!!!!" Inuyasha bellowed and flung himself at Naraku, who had shown his true form as he always did when he was in a battle he might lose... The large purple blob standing in front of Inuyasha suddenly grew tentacles and proceeded to wrap itself around the oncoming hanyou.

"Inuyasha, do you intend to throw your life away to kill me?" Naraku queried with a soft and malicious chuckle, "Well then I shall grant your wish." With that another set of tentacles pierced through the Hanyou's body. Inuyasha winceed in pain, but didn't let go of his sword, he was determined to finish this fight. Then he heard it, off in the distance, the sound that gave him the strength to free himself from Naraku's grasp. The dark haired girl, Kagome, was screaming his name.

End Flashback

'I'm sorry Kagome,' he thought as he stared at what he was positive was her face staring back at him from the heavens, 'I didn't mean to frighten you'

Back at the hut, Kagome had just finished telling Kaede what had happened. "So you say that Naraku plunged his poisonous tentacles into Inuyasha's chest and he survived?" Kagome now had tears in her eyes... it was the worst sight she had ever seen. There was her Inuyasha, the one who protected her always, who kept her safe and fought off her demons, not even 20 feet away from her with tentacles through him and she couldn't even move to help him. She was thankful when Kaede's voice broke her free from the horrible mental image "Ye did the right thing by not interfearing... had something happened to ye, Kagome, Inuyasha would never forgive himself." Kagome's thoughts returned to the hanyou fighting Naraku and breathed his name through her soft lips as if the mere sound of his name calmed her, "Inuyasha." "That's not all Kaede-sama," interjected the monk," I noticed that when Kagome called out to Inuyasha, his aura intensified and repeled Narakus' tentacles. Obviously Kagome-sama has a great influence on Inuyasha's aura" The old priestess stared into the fire in the middle of the dark room and started," Yes, Inuyasha himself has proven to be stronger, faster, and more determined to fight when Kagome-sama is involved. But we cannot take any chances, if these poisoned tentacles really did strike through him, then it can only mean one thing... Inuyasha has been poisoned." Everyone looked at Kaede with wide eyed expressions, apparently nobody knew what to say. Shippou, the kitsune, was the first to break the silence, " We have to do something... Inuyasha is too stubborn to accept treatment... what will we do?!" Tears were welling up in his eyes as he spoke and his voice was more high pitched than usual. Although Inuyasha and Shippou hardly got along, Inuyasha was like a big brother to him... this was his family... his home... now at the thought that he might lose a member of his family he panicked and was on the verge of tears when Kagome put her hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry Shippou, if I tell Inuyasha I'm sure that he'll listen to me... he has to." These words did nothing to calm the little quivering Kitsune, but he gave Kagome a fake little smile to show her that he was ok.

The night had dagged itself over the village and had shrouded the huts and barns in a star studded darkness. Outside in his tree, Inuyasha was still letting his thoughts wander. 'At that time.' he told himself, ' I felt an enourmous amount of pan from Naraku's tentacles,' he clutched at his chest and whined a bit like a dog that had just been stepped on. 'Why didn't I die?'

Flashback

"INUYASHA!!!!!!!!" Kagome's voice had flooded Inuyasha's ears. His heart had begun pounding furiously and his life had begun to slip aways from him... only it didn't. Something kept him together... something that he coudn't see. He had to use this to his advantage, he raised his power as much as he could to take a final swing with Tessaiga before he passed out, but instead Naraku had been thrown back by the force of his energy... that had never happened before. He fell to the floor and tried hastily to get back up and chese after Naraku, but stopped at the sound of Kagome's frantic sobbing.

"What the hell are you crying about?? I'm fine, you're making a big dea....." when he turned to her he couldn't finish the sentence. There she was, slumped over on the ground with her face buried in his himono, crying like if she had just lost the most important thing in her life. He couldn't bring himself to turn and chase Naraku with Kagome like this. Inuyasha walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder... instinctively she jumped up and grabbed hold of him, pulling the hanyou as close to her as physically possible. Her voice rang loud in his head, quite possibly because she was so close to him, but more than likely because of what she said.....

"Thank god!!" she exclaimed between sobs, "I thought I was going to lose you" Her tears were flooding down her face... the only thing that Inuyasha could do was hug her back... he didn't know what to say so only whispered one thing into her ear, low enough so that nobody else would hear.

"I'm sorry Kagome," he whispered into her jet black hair, "I didn't mean to worry you."

End Flashback

'She thought that she was going to lose me' Inuyasha remembered, 'lose me'.... those two words stuck in his head for the rest of the night. He jumped down from his tree and walked back to the village. 'Lose me.' It echoed in the forest and off the creeks.... He walked into the village and towards Kaede's hut. 'Lose me' his own voice bounded off the huts at him... Why was this affecting him so much? When he reached Kaede's hut he noticed that nobody had bothered to fix the curtain over the doorway and he put it up himself... he walked into the dimly lit room with the dying fire in the middle and made his way towards Kagome's sleeping bag. He sat down close to her, all the while watching her to make sure she wouldn't wake up, folded his arms across his Tessaiga, and proceeded to stand watch over the one thing that mattered the most to him, his Kagome.