Something Worth Living For by Walter205

Chapter 1

 I don't own Inuyasha, nor will I profit from it.

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 With a resounding thwack, another set of vines was cut aside by the sharp blade as its user advanced deeper into the foreboding Amazon Rain Forest. He was the leader of a pack of about two dozen people, one dozen of which were archeology students, from a mixed bag of places; six from the United States, three from Japan, two from the Russian Federation, and one from India. Of the three Japanese students, two were an older married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Ozawa, while the younger one was a high school student by the name of Kagome Higurashi. This was her first expedition, and really her first experience outside of native Japan. Although her mentors had warned her it would be a tough trip, like nothing she had ever experienced before, she felt she was up to it, due to certain other experiences that she couldn't tell them about.

 "I was wrong, they were right, I was wrong, they were right," was the mantra repeating itself over and over in her head right now as she trudged along, not even bothering to swat the mosquitoes stinging her legs, only bothering with the ones on her arms and face. The first day in, she had wondered why everyone had burst out laughing at her when she had emerged from her tent wearing her high school uniform, complete with the medium length skirt. She had brought and worn it as a symbol of pride for her school and country, and wondered what the big deal was about. Now it was obvious why everyone had been laughing as it felt like her essence was being sucked out of her legs in about five dozen different little spots.

 Her mind wandered elsewhere for her sanity, thinking of home, of colder times, of friends she had traveled with in the past, and when she said the past, she meant the past past, and of treats to be had, both in modern times and older times. A croc had taken their mule filled with the few treats their guides had allowed them to bring, not that Kagome desired any of them right at the moment. No, what she desired was heaps of her favorite ice cream, Banana Nut, or even her second favorite flavor, Rocky Road Mixed. To be eating either of those, or no, both of those mixed in together in a sundae, with a good romance book, was almost enough to make her faint.

 Tripping over a vine was sufficient to snap her back to reality however, as she went crashing to the ground in heap, her one hundred pound pack driving her into the muddy ground. Silently she cursed herself, but her musings were cut off as screams broke out all around her. Unknown to her, tripping over the vine had ended up saving her life. Had she continued on, perhaps two or three poisoned needles would have buried themselves into her arm and side. This fate befell the older couple from Japan, dying with their arms wrapped around one another in confusion. The pack scattered as natives with knives and blowguns emerged from all around them. Two fell on Kagome in an instant, cutting away her pack. One of them, upon seeing her beauty, reversed his knife to club her in the head, knocking her out before she could fully comprehend what was going on. She blacked out before she could even think of her family back at home.