Chapter 1: Kidnapped!

"Come on, Inuyasha! We have another two days before we get to the next town! And there is still at least hour of sun left! Come on!" Kagome motioned for him to move faster. "Don't you remember the rumor that Naraku has been seen in the next town?"

"Keh, how could I possibly ever forget?" Inuyasha leaped up to where Kagome was on the path and put a hand over her mouth in frustration. "Now, shut up. Or you'll scare all the animals away."

"Is it me or are you a little excited about this?" Miroku looked up from his view of Sango and noticed Kagome climbing a tree for the view of the oncoming land.

"Of course!" Kagome smiled and nodded at Miroku, who just averted his attention back to the lovely Sango, who happened to be picking fruits with Kirara at her side. "We'll beat Naraku once and for all!"

"Kagome, we have two days before we get there. We have plenty of time. It shouldn't take us more than a day and a half. We'll camp here for the night."

Kagome flopped to the ground. "Darn it." She set her hand under her chin and looked toward Inuyasha. "There's ramen in my bag for you, Inuyasha."

"Naraku will be difficult to defeat. We need to be well rested to be at our strongest." Miroku stepped over to where Sango stood. "Might you be interested in sharing a space to sleep with me, my dear Sango?" He asked, grabbing for her butt and trying to pull her closer. No sooner than he had tried to do that, her large boomerang hit him over the head-- and hard-- sending the poor monk off to sleep alone.

"Miroku is right though, so we should all get to sleep early." Inuyasha said as he dug in Kagome's backpack for food. As he pulled out a cup of noodles, Kagome set some water on the portable heater. Three minutes later, she handed the cup to Inuyasha. "I brought more noodles. Souta doesn't eat them much anymore."

Inuyasha smiled briefly before taking the cup and completely devouring the contents.

Kagome, realizing Miroku's words to be true, sat down against the tree, book in hand and began to read, completely ignoring everyone while they ate.

"What are you reading, Kagome?" Shippou crawled up next to her and started to read as much as he could between the hiragana, katakana and kanji. "The history of Japan?" He asked puzzled. "Does this cover what hasn't happened yet?"

"Yes. It covers all the way through the year 1995. You might not be able to read all of it, but its all there, including pictures of what Japan has sent into space and the technology available. I have to study it for a history class I am taking."

A harsh wind blew through the camp, causing Kagome to lose the page she was on, but continued flipping as Inuyasha looked on. Miroku and Sango peeked for a brief moment before heading off to find a little bit more food before dark settled in. After a few more minutes, Shippou fell asleep, making room for Inuyasha next to her. She put Shippou in the sleep bag and went back to the tree where Inuyasha was patiently waiting for her.

Laying her head on his shoulder, they flipped to the end of the book as Kagome showed Inuyasha a picture of a rocket and gave him a little information that she had learned back at home. He barely noticed when Kagome had stopped talking for he had fallen asleep as well, his arms wrapped around her protectively.

Naraku smiled with excitement. The sleeping dust he had spread over their campsite was working wonderfully. They would sleep so soundly, the hanyou wouldn't even notice he had walked into their camp and taken Kagome from right underneath his nose.

Floating silently into the camp, he clenched Kagome around the upper arms and disappeared into the twilight sky, the book clattering noisily to the ground unnoticed by all.

Miroku and Sango returned to the camp twenty minutes later with a basket of fruits to find Inuyasha and Shippou asleep in their respective spots.

"Houshi," She tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to where the half-dog demon slept under the tree. "Where's Kagome?"

Miroku looked again and found the book, but no Kagome. Shaking Inuyasha, he called out for her. Neither of the two responded.

Sango looked at the book and noticed a silvery sheen to the ground. Touching it and bringing it to her face, she looked at it closely before tasting it. "It's sleeping powder, and strong powder if it kept Inuyasha and Shippou asleep." She brushed Inuyasha's ear lightly, but he did nothing but twitch his ear slightly at the motion.

"Naraku," Miroku spit venomously, "I can still sense his energy."

"Very good, monk, but the question is, will you find the young miko in time?" Naraku's voice faded into laughter as his aura faded from Miroku and Sango's senses.

It was well into morning when Inuyasha's ears twitched, finally waking from the effects of the powder, his head and body hurting like he had just fought of Sesshoumaru, or Naraku himself.

"Ah, so you're awake." Miroku checked a timepiece from Kagome's bag. "You've been sleeping nearly 14 hours, if I have read this time right."

"You have." Sango nodded testing her boomerang on a nearby tree limb.

Inuyasha sat up and looked around. Shippou was still asleep, the potion affecting him the longest due to his size, Sango and Miroku were watching over the camp, and Kagome was not in sight. He sniffed lightly, but found her scent very faint, like she had been gone many hours.

"Where's Kagome?" Sango looked away in shame, as did the monk. "Well, where is she?"

"She was taken last night after the powder affected the three of you," he replied sadly, still averting his gaze from the growing anger of Inuyasha.

"By who?" he growled, "And what powder, I didn't smell any powder."

"The powder blew in, causing you to fall asleep." Sango packed up her boomerang and carefully placed it on her back. "Naraku took her."

That tipped Inuyasha over the edge as the low growls he had been making increased in volume.

Kagura snarled lightly as she watched her master, Lord Naraku, heave the young miko on to a small bed in one of the lower rooms of the castle.

"Are you sure it was wise to bring her here?" Kagura bowed as Naraku turned to face her. "Inuyasha will be able to track her scent to this place, not to mention Kouga. He was fighting Inuyasha for her last time I had seen them."

"Do not worry. Inuyasha won't even be able to track her once I am done with the young priestess. He won't even have enough strength to keep himself from killing her..." He held a small orb of energy up to Kagome's face before guiding it down and pushing it straight into her chest, chanting words Kagura couldn't make out properly.

Not a moment passed and Kagura could already see the changes forming on Kagome's body. Her midnight black hair lightened and changed colors to settle on a dark pinkish-purple color. Her ears had grown pointed and fuzzy, traveling to the top of her head, her small delicate hands formed claws and her mouth opened slightly to reveal a sharp set of teeth. As Naraku turned her over onto her side, a large tail, nearly three feet long, grew from underneath her skirt.

"She has transformed into a cat demon, Lord Naraku!"

Naraku just nodded. "Take care of her while she is recovering and bring her to me as soon as she can stand. It may take a few minutes."

"Yes, Lord." Kagura bowed, but in the back of Kagura's mind, it didn't mean a thing.

"Inuyasha!" Sango called loudly. He was nearly a third of a mile ahead of them, trying to sniff out Kagome's scent, but with increasing difficulty. According to him, it was becoming scarcer with each passing step.

"What?" He sprang back to where the four traveled with Kagome's bike. "I'm doing my best to find her."

"I recognize this path." Sango replied. "Though I can't remember exactly where it leads, but it might lead us even closer to Naraku should we continue to follow it."

"Of course, we must find her soon. When Naraku spoke from the trees, it sounded as though he had plans of his own for Kagome." Miroku looked up into the mid-afternoon sky, wondering about Kagome in a surprisingly non-lecher way.

"Sango, can you go ahead with Kirara and do a search from the sky? I've nearly lost her scent. Maybe knowing what lies ahead could help us with finding her." Inuyasha was somber, almost as if he was losing faith in himself. Maybe he was. Kagome was the one who usually complimented Inuyasha and things that he did, even if they just ended up with a 'sit' attached to the end of them. She was one the cheerful one of the group, and everyone was becoming a little depressed with out, but mostly Inuyasha and Shippou.

Kagome's head was spinning. She felt different than normal, like she had gotten compressed into something. Last thing she remembered was being with Souta. Buyo had gotten into the well house and she was scolding Souta for being there. But what happened next? She struggled to remember, but found only random images flashed across her mind.

She recognized Grandfather, Souta and her mother, but the other images, a white-haired boy with dog ears falling to the ground a faint pink glow along with it, a small fox-like boy hugging her, a girl with a large boomerang crying in her lap, a man -- most likely a monk by his clothing -- grabbing her butt, a flying two-tailed cat, an elderly woman giving her food, a man with hair like the dog-eared boy snapping a green whip, a toad, the dog-eared boy again this time hugging her, and an image of a beautiful pink jewel being shattered flew across her mind along with other images she couldn't quite make out, but somehow knew they had come.

She moaned softly as she regained consciousness. Opening her eyes all she could see was white...

"Hello?" She called out to whoever was there, she could smell them. They smelled like autumn leaves blowing in the wind mixed with a spice almost like cinnamon.

The white had faded to a dull grey and she began to see shapes as the person came closer. With a snap her vision was back and she could see a woman nearing with a glass of water. "Here drink this."

Kagome reached for the water and as soon as she grabbed it, she noticed her fingers. Dropping the water to the ground with a shatter, she inspected her hands. Claws. She had no doubt. The woman made a noise and Kagome twitched her ears to catch it. Wait, twitched? She reached up to the sides of her head where her ears had been last time she checked and found them gone. Searching, she found them fuzzy and on top of her head. That's when a tail came into her line of sight; she grabbed it and pulled quite hard. That hurt! Wait... it's attached to me! Kagome took a deep breath and did the one thing she could.

She screamed.

END OF CHAPTER ONE