A Note of Appreciation: A thank you to ShadeOfOrange for beta reading this chapter. I really appreciate it! ;)

Disclaimer:The following is a fan-based work of fiction. Inuyasha is all owned by VIZ Media, Shogakukan, and the fabulous Rumiko Takahashi. Naruto is all owned by Shueisha, VIZ Media, Shonen Jump, and the wonderful Masashi Kishimoto. Please support the official release.

Healing Hands

"I will kill you and everything you hold dear."

The words echoed through her mind and body like in the chasms of a cave. They resonated in her, making her feel fear, horror, and sadness. She tried to move but was weighed down by a heavy numbness. Where could she run to anyway? There was nothing but her and a void of inky black. The terrible voice seemed to come everywhere and nowhere at once. She tried to cry out but no sound came. Even the tears dripping down her face made no sound as they fell into nothing. This had to be a nightmare. A horrible, horriblenightmare. And she was right. Too bad that once she awoke, she would only find herself in another.

Kagome jerked out of the dream to find the ground hard and cold...Or was it? Her body felt like it was floating in space; her vision seeing nothing but black. Kagome tried to move her fingers, feeling them give a little twitch...Or did they? Her mind was in such a fog, it was hard to tell what was real. Feeling like heavy iron curtains, she tried to lift her eyelids, cranking them open little at a time. She tried to move her head but only groaned in pain. Even the slightest movements made her vision go topsy-turvy. She clenched her eyes shut as she waited out the dizzy spell. What in the world happened?

She tried to think but came up with a blank. She could not remember being attacked, ambushed, or anything. Only that voice and those words; those terrible words. A shiver ran down her spine.

Letting her hand run across the floor, she tried to take in her surroundings the best she could. Cool, hard earth and the rough feel of a straw mat met her hand. She was inside a room? Certainly not Kaede's; her hut was always warm and smelled of firewood and hot stew. And her place was never this quiet; not with people like Inuyasha around. A chill permeated the room making her quiver and the silence was deafening.

Cautiously, she tried opening her eyes and moving her head again. Sparks of pain still shot through her head but it was becoming manageable. Looking around the best she could, Kagome found she was in a cell no bigger than a closet. It was difficult to make out anything in the shadowed room, but really other than the rusted over iron bars there was not much to see.

As she closed her eyes, Kagome tried to think through the drowsy mist her mind had become. Someone must have sedated her. Her dizziness, sluggishness, and difficulty to think all pointed to it. But who? And why? Hell, how did she even get there in the first place?

Suddenly the sounds of footsteps and murmuring voices began coming her way. Kagome opened her eyes again. Soon enough, she saw three shadowy figures come up to her cell.

"Oh, look, I think she may be awake," a male voice suddenly rang out. "Interesting. Kabuto, I thought you said the girl wouldn't be able to move at least for a couple of hours."

"I did, Orochimaru-sama," this Kabuto replied. "It seems I made a miscalculation."

Even though they were barely a foot away, Kagome could hardly make out their words. Their voices sounded far away, like she was at the bottom of a tunnel. Another effect of the sedatives she was sure. Their features and looks were hard to make out due to the dark cell and the drugs affecting her system. As the minutes passed, though, the sedatives seemed to be wearing off. Probably due to her purification abilities.

She looked at the man in the center first, Orochi… something. He stood the tallest out of the three and by Kami did he look creepy. Shoulder length black hair framed a sickly white face with yellow snake like eyes. They were cold, cruel eyes. But the creepiest about him was the look on his face. He looked down at her with a malicious grin that hungered for pain and power. Kagome turned away, trying to hide a shiver of disgust.

Then there was this Kabuto person. The boy looked like he was in his late teens despite his gray hair and black eyes framed by Harry Potter-ish glasses. He didn't seem to fit along with the dark scenery of this place though she could not pinpoint why. Maybe it was because he looked so young or maybe it was the glasses, she didn't know. But the look in his eyes told a different story. They were just as cold and cruel as the Orochi guy. Though he didn't hold a candle to him in the creepiness factor.

But if he didn't look like he belonged there, the other boy certainly did not. He looked like he was about her age, fifteen or sixteen, and was the shortest of the three. Standing proud, he looked down his nose at her with a stoic look that Kagome was all too familiar with. She nearly scoffed at him if not for his eyes. It was his eyes that set him apart. They glowed red in the dark like embers from a fire.

They chilled Kagome unlike anything a mere low temperature could do. The miko did not exactly have a good history with red eyed people. All she had ever met wanted to kill her. Yet it was more than that. Those eyes made her think of the dream from earlier. She did not know why but there was a connection between that voice and those eyes. No. No, not his eyes. There was another pair that glowed as red as his. Kagome looked away, choosing to turn her face away into the straw mat.

"You know, Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru drawled. "With her skin and hair, she could almost pass for an Uchiha."

"Pfft."

"Kabuto, since she is awake I want you to go ahead with the experiments while she's still sedated."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama. I will have everything ready and start within the hour."

Soon the sound of fading footsteps and the jingling of keys came to her ears. The door to the cell opened with a crying squeal and Kabuto began pulling her up by the arm. "Come on, you need to come with me," he said.

Kagome put up a feeble fight, but resistance was useless at this point. The drugs still had a powerful toll on her system, making her as weak as a kitten. Still she tried, tugging her arm away or giving a small moan of protest. She didn't want to go with this man. She had not heard them wrong. The sick freaks wanted to conduct experiments on her like some lab rat. Yet what could she do in her state?

So despite her efforts, she soon was on her feet wobbling around like a newborn giraffe. She began to lean on Kabuto's shoulder to keep from falling on her face. Slowly, he began leading her out of the cell. Each slow step forward caused her world to tilt and brought a shooting pain through her head. Sometimes she tried to childishly sit or drag her feet to try to deter the boy, but no matter what she did Kabuto just kept leading her to who-knew-where.

Moving around must have stirred up the drugs again because her surroundings began to become a blur to her. Or maybe she was on the verge of passing out; she didn't know. She began hearing moans, yells, and curses. There were other people; other prisoners like her. The sounds made her want to vomit. What in the world were they doing here with all of them? The question of how she even got there came to her again.

Kagome desperately tried to remember; to make sense of her surroundings. But her efforts only brought more throbbing aches to her head. She unconsciously touched her forehead to alleviate the pain and ended up wiping dripping sweat from her forehead. I must have a fever,she thought.

Before she knew it, she had been led into a blindingly white room with a green tiled floor. The scent of bleach was overwhelming making Kagome scrunch up her nose at the smell. The Kabuto boy had her sit on an examiner table covered with a thin sheet of paper. Afterward, he began rummaging around, gathering materials and going in and out of the room.

This was her chance, she thought. If there was any time for her to make any type of escape, it was now. First objective was to do something about the sedatives. Her body had already done half the work by beginning the purification process. If she could just speed it up, she could purge the drugs completely. Kagome began to block out her surroundings to let her complete focus go to her body. She pinpointed on everything that didn't belong, that felt out of place. The task was easy enough. The infected areas were like black splotches in her mind and all she had to do was focus her energy on them until they were gone.

The skill had been taught to her by Kaede a bit after she had been attacked by Mukotsu, the poison-user from the Band of Seven. The technique was specifically designed to get rid of poisons throughout the body without the need of an antidote. A handy trick for a miko and definitely handy for her now. Bit by bit, Kagome was beginning to feel like her usual self.

"Here," she heard, causing her eyes to fly open to see Kabuto in front of her. "I need you drink this," he told her while putting a paper cup in her hands.

Kagome looked down into the cup of neon blue liquid and then back up at him. "Fat chance of that," she snarled before splashing him in the face with the drink and then kneeing him in the stomach.

He flinched from the sudden attack and while kneeled over in pain, Kagome gave a hard chop to his neck surrounding her hand with reiki to give it an extra punch. That did the trick; the boy was out cold. Kagome nodded in satisfaction while breathing heavy from adrenaline. Now what?She thought.

There was no telling how many people were scattered in this place. Not to mention that Kagome had no idea of the layout or size of the area. She had no weapons of any kind. The only type of protection on her was a flimsy white yukata, her even flimsier fighting ability, and her purification powers. She was also skilled at using ofuda (or sutra) for some minor destruction spells and constructing barriers thanks to Miroku, but she didn't have anything like that on hand. Worst of all, she had no idea how long this Kabuto guy would be out. Kagome had a hunch that the boy was skilled at fighting and that the only reason she was able to do what she did earlier was with the element of surprise. After all, who would expect much of a threat from someone high on sedatives?

First thing to do would be to take care of the Kabuto problem. She didn't want to kill him but she didn't need him waking up to fight her or alerting others that she was making a break for it. Kagome looked over at the doorway. If she had some sutra on her, she would be able to put a barrier on the door so that neither he nor sound could get out. That way no matter how much he yelled or how much he struggled, he wouldn't be able to leave and nobody would be able to hear him. But sutra was the keyword, Kagome didn't have anything like that and she doubted anything like that was on hand.

Perhaps she could improvise.

She began looking through various drawers soon finding a scalpel and a marker. Angling her yukata, Kagome used the scalpel to cut a rough portion out of the sleeve. Once done, she straightened up her abused her attire and began writing kanji on both sides. One side had 決壊, meaning "barrier" and the other 無言, meaning "silence". Kagome picked up the scalpel to cut a small incision in her thumb so that blood would ooze out; then pressed a dollop of her blood onto the homemade sutra, infusing it with her power. That should do it, she thought. The only thing to do now would be to put it on the door and the barrier would be set in place.

But could it really be that simple?

A chill ran up Kagome's spine; an ominous chill that made the hairs on her skin rise. She jerked around to see him—Kabuto. He was up and stalking towards her with kunai in hand.

Kagome let out a shriek as he lunged at her. She dodged him, but just barely. He skimmed her arm, making blood gush out. The attack made her fall hard on her bottom. Damn!She thought as she pressed her hand to the small gash. Not only was she vulnerable now, but she had forgotten the sutra.

Kabuto stood over her like a specter with the kunai twirling on his index finger. He stared at her with cold, murderous eyes. "Looks like my patient's trying to get away," He said in a casual tone. He looked away from her to glance at her sutra. "I don't know what you were trying to do, but it's over now."

He picked up the ofuda, looking at both sides with a vague interest. Looking back over, he saw her hunched over while tightly clutching her wound. The sound of her panting breaths filled the room as her skin became pail and sweaty. She tried to get up on her feet but only stumbled forward and landed hard on her knees.

"You must be feeling the effects of my poison. I had it coated on the kunai just for you." Kabuto observed with a smirk. "I don't know how you overcame the sedatives so quickly but there is no way you can stop this poison. It's a special blend that I've developed over the years. You'll be like putty in my hands for the next few hours. I could cut you open now and the only thing you would be able to do is watch. And don't think you'll lose consciousness. The blend is specially designed to keep that from happening."

A sadistic grin overtook Kabuto's face. "Looks like I win," he chuckled as Kagome glared up at him.

He took the sutra in his hands, preparing to rip it in two. So this was it. Game over. The rebellion was over before it began. Or so it would have been with anyone else.

But Higurashi Kagome was not just anyone else.

The miko shot forward like a missile, head-butting him in the stomach. Kagome wrestled with him on the ground and pulled up to bite him hard on the wrist. He let out a yelp as Kagome made a grab for the sutra. With it in hand, Kagome scrambled for the door with Kabuto right at her heels.

She opened the door putting it between her and Kabuto. She tried to slam his face in with the door but he was able to dodge just in time.

Kagome gave a panicked yelp when he tried to grab for her again. Before she lost her chance for good, Kagome slammed the sutra on the door and tried to trap Kabuto in, but he wasn't going without a fight. He grabbed her arm through the door and tried drag her back in.

"Let go of me!" Kagome screeched and began banging the door into his arm.

He recoiled back giving her the chance to slam the door, trapping him for good. The miko stumbled back into the wall and slid down to the floor. Sucking in deep breaths, she tried to calm down. Her heart pounded in her ears as she covered her face with her hands. The sound was a reminder of how close of a call that was. So much for him not fitting in with the scenery around here.

But now was not the time to rest. She was sure it was going to take a lot more work than that to escape from this place. Kagome stood back up on her feet, determination burning in her eyes.

This was only the beginning.

The Author's Super Special Awesome Corner

And so concludes chapter one. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. Be sure to review and tell me whether you liked the story or not because I am deciding whether or not I want keep posting this. So if you want to see where this story goes, I suggest you review.:D

Also, there are 3 bachelors that Kagome could end up with in this story. Sasuke, Itachi, and Gaara.Who she ends up with depends on your reviews so don't forget to cast in your vote along with your review.

That's it for now guys. Hope you enjoyed it! ^_^

Next time on Healing Hands!

Kagome continues trying to escape Orochimaru's lair all the while trying to figure out how she came to be there in the first place. How will she find her way out? Will she run into obstacles along the way? What about the mysterious voice that echoed in her mind? Does it have a connection to Kagome's missing memories? And what's this! Sasuke and Kagome meet face to face!

Find out all this and more on the next Healing Hands!