Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me. It's very sad.

A/N: Special thanks to my wonderfully loving husband for proofreading this for me.

Chapter 10

Kagome heard the commotion coming from Inuyasha's room and it instantly brought her to full wakefulness. From her years traveling to the Feudal Era life has taught her to listen closely to her feelings and currently her senses were screaming at her that something was very wrong. She was fully dressed and ready to go, with her bow in her hands, before she even finished thinking these thoughts. Kagome also became aware that Sango and fully transformed Kirara were also next to her, prepared to do battle as necessary.

It appeared that Sango had a similar idea, so the two women and a demon cat, without wasting any time on talking, immediately went to find the source of the noise.

The young miko reached the door first, and without knocking or waiting for an invitation, she promptly opened it, and, after a deep breath and a mental prayer for courage, stepped inside the dimly lit room. She could not hold in a startled exclamation and Sango behind her made a similar noise of surprise.

Their ninja friend was standing over a battered looking Kainashi who was leaning against a wall. Neji had a sharp looking implement in his hands as he was looming over his victim and the expression of pure terror on Kainashi's face was unmistakable and a site to see. It took several moments for the new arrivals to spot the other occupants of the room, namely Inuyasha and Miroku, who were unconscious, and in somewhat less than dignified positions on the floor.

Kagome chose to immediately run to Inuyasha. There was no way she was going to attempt to deal with the furious ninja and the hanyou was always her first priority. And Neji was clearly furious. It did not take a skilled empath to feel the waves of raw anger radiating from him in waves.

"Inuyasha? Wake up, we have a problem," Kagome gently shook him by the shoulder. Sango was quietly observing Kagome's efforts while keeping Hirakotsu prepared. She was clearly at a loss whether it was safe to take her watchful gaze off the ninja. "Come on, Inuyasha, get up! It's not like you to be like… this…" as if suspecting that their condition might be more serious than expected Kagome tried to awaken Miroku with a similar result. At that point Sango made her decision, giving up on the ninja in favor of assisting Kagome.

"Their breathing is even and I don't see any physical marks on them," Sango said, just as much to convince herself of their good health as to pacify significantly more frantic Miko.

"Why won't they wake up?" as if to answer her question a painful groan came from Kainashi.

"No! Please, don't hurt me!"

"I will do more than hurt you," Neji's voice cracked with emotion. "I gave you a fair warning."

Sharp scream rang though the air and was quickly cut off before it could reach its full volume. Chancing a look at Kainashi, Kagome saw Neji hold a hand over his mouth to stifle the noises he was making. The shinobi was holding him against the wall with effortless ease while one of his kunai was lodged firmly in Kainashi's hand pining it securely to the wall in question.

"You need your hands to cast spells, don't you?" Neji's voice acquired a deceptively soft note. Kagome sucked in breath at such cruelty coming from her friend and she could have sworn that there were tears in Kainashi's eyes. This scene was impossible to watch and she couldn't let this torture to go on.

"Stop it, Neji," gathering her courage and reluctantly turning away from Inuyasha Kagome felt compelled to say, "You have terrified him enough!"

Wimpering cries filled the room as Neji removed his hand from the magician's mouth while pulling out another Kunai.

"Do you really want me to stop, Ka-go-me?" Neji asked, still in his terrifyingly quiet voice, "Even if you know this man is responsible for the death of your Inuyasha?" As if to emphasize his words, in a movement almost too quick to follow, Kainashi's other hand was pinned to the wall with the same cold blooded precision. His next scream was smothered in the same way as the first.

"Inuyasha is not dead!" Kagome vehemently objected while averting her eyes from the scene. "We will wake him up in no time, so stop torturing our prisoner."

"I should just kill him."

"No!" Kagome was horrified at the depth of violent potential that was so well concealed beneath the Neji's stoic facade. "We still might need him. Keep him alive for Tenten's sake, if not for anything else," the miko felt that this line of reasoning was the only way to keep Neji from doing anything more to the poor mage. "He might still be the key to getting her back to normal!"

It seemed as if an eternity has passed before Neji made his choice. Kagome even began to worry that he was not going to make the right one, but then with one precise strike to the side of the neck Neji halted the whimpering as Kainashi lost consciousness.

Without saying another word Neji braced himself against the wall next to his victim, as if in physical pain himself. But at that point Kagome did not care to keep watching the ninja. All her attention was back to Inuyasha. Arranging his head comfortably in her lap Kagome attempted, once again to wake him up, with the same result as before.

Sango was in the similar predicament and position with Miroku.

"At least their breathing is steady and their temperature is normal," Kagome tried to console herself and her friend.

"We need a way to wake them," Sango was already running all the possibilities through her mind.

"Alright, we can try water, pain stimulation, caffeine and that's all I can think of," Kagome listed off.

"There is also the trula herb. It has a very distinct odor and it is used to revive those that fainted." Sango suggested. With the battle plan laid out and the mission before them clear the two women went about making it a reality. Roughly a half an hour later they had to stop to reevaluate the progress or the lack of their off.

"What else can we try?"

"Well, there is always the "sleeping beauty method"?" Kagome was out of ideas, but she refused to contemplate the alternative.

"Sleeping beauty? I have never heard beauty or lack of thereof being relevant while trying to bring someone to the state of wakefulness."

"It's more of a fairytale, really. But at this point I would try anything," and after a brief explanation Kagome proceeded to try what she logically knew was not going to work. But if there was even the smallest of chances that a kiss would wake Inuyasha up then Kagome was willing to try it. It was, theoretically, possible, especially since they were clearly dealing with a spell.

Her friend was looking at her as if she lost her mind, but she made no comment when Kagome touched her lips to Inuyasha's and waited. Then she waited some more, while trying not to enjoy the musky smell, Kagome could not help but notice, coming from the dog demon.

At that point she started contemplating if maybe the kiss should be a French one when a calm voice startled her away from Inuyasha.

"If you are done taking advantage of your unconscious companion then maybe I should see if I could help," Neji was, apparently back in full control.

"I was not…!"

"I do not care," Neji made his way to the fallen men. He looked as if he was done having this conversation, but he was still intent on his offer of assistance.

"What do you think you can do that we haven't done already," Sango asked suspiciously while hovering protectively over Miroku.

"Every shinobi that lives to reach the rank of jonin has at least a rudimentary knowledge of medical jitsu," Neji explained, feeling that this will go much quicker if he had full cooperation from Sango and Kagome. "Let me start with the monk first."

Please review.

A/N: Sorry for the extremely long wait, but a few things has happened. For example, I am currently deployed to Afghanistan. Though, I have high hopes of finally finishing off this story soon.

As a show of good faith I present the exert from the next chapter that I hope to have ready within the next week: ""It appears that Kainashi's spell did not quite go as planned," Miroku stated, "That seems to happen to him quite often.""