Author's note: This is my first shot at writing a fanfic. I've been toying with the idea

For a long time now. I'm finally doing it, but I need help with what to call this story. I

welcome any input you guys can give me:) Thank you so much and please read and review!

Disclaimer: I do not own the original Inuyasha story, or any of the original

characters.

Chapter one: A Perplexing Possession

Kagome was done. After seeing her beloved Inuyasha run after Kikyo,yet again, and then having the gall to foam at the mouth because Kagome wanted just a little comfort from her married and fully committed, though admittedly, lecherous friend, Miroku- and no, she did NOT want to sleep with him- Kagome was run hard and dry. Hard from her constantly squelched emotions, dry from all the tears that she had shed over the years, and there were many. Many years AND tears. After she came back through the well the last time, and decided to sacrifice ever seeing her family again, for Inuyasha's sake, and he chooses to treat her this way? No, she didn't think so. She's tired and weary of all the sacrifices she has made. She's sacrificed her dignity, her sense of self worth, her pride, and most of all, her time and youth. Though she knows she would still be considered young, in her original time. But that is not the case here. Now, in the warring feudal states, she is considered old. None of that 30-is-the-new-20 crap; she is "old". And the icing on the cake: Kikyo isn't evensupposed to be alive. After the last, and supposedly, FINAL time that she died, she came back- again!

It would seem that fate had one final, cruel joke to play on the ever faithful, but too naive and trusting, miko.

How was it even possible? she questioned. There was no witch around, educated and powerful enough, to perform that amazing and terrible feat. Kagome and the others would've blamed Naraku, but he was gone. Others in the village of Edo, who were unfortunate enough to find out, think that Kaede inadvertently summoned her, and possessed her in Rin's now fully grown, and still innocent, body, upon her slow and painful death.

Kaede became sick, shortly after Rin began her womanhood. She was only 11, though nearly 12. But due to her weight, Kagome had explained, her first menstruation was light and short, and she did not menstruate again, until she was 13. Shortly thereafter, Kaede fell ill.

But in regards to the villagers' beliefs that the old miko had unintentionally summoned her former sister? That was another story, in and of itself.

Though everyone chalked up Kaede's sudden and terrible illness to the normal result of being old and her time, Kagome strongly suspected cancer. She'd seen it enough in her own time, to recognize the signs, anyway. What type, of course she couldn't rightly say, but it was definitely cancer. And she had no doubt that it was very advanced at that point, as poor Kaede writhed in agony for several weeks, before finally succumbing. Towards the very end, she kept mumbling and chanting Kikyo's name, which although highly circumstantial, was the villagers' only answer for how Kikyo suddenly showed up, the very next morning, and Rin was suddenly nowhere to be seen. Oh, they looked. They even sent an extremely reluctant Inuyasha to run out and seek his ice prick of an older brother, to see if Rin was with him. Alas, she was not. Sesshoumaru had not seen, nor heard, from his former ward, since the last time he visited her, the year before. Sesshoumaru made it a point to come and see how she was faring, every spring. He would not stay long; duty in the West calls, after all.

But unbeknownst to all, except for Kagome and Kaede, before she died, he stayed nearby, for a night, before leaving. They refused to speculate about it, of course; if it wasn't to reassure himself that Rin was indeed safe, then they knew that he had his reasons.

But when Inuyasha returned and confirmed to his former InuTachi that Rin was, indeed, truly missing, everyone's seemingly ridiculous belief that Kikyo had indeed possessed the young, little woman's body, became solidified. Kagome remained unconvinced. Kagome didn't know what had become of the young, former miko-in-training, but she refused to believe that Kikyo had taken control of her body.

It wasn't because she had the overwhelming urge to exorcise Kikyo straight to HELL; she knew that despite how unbelievably angry she was over this supremely unfortunate- and completely unfair- turn of events was, that she found that she STILL did not have the heart to do what the rest of the people, save Inuyasha, believe needed to be done. It wasn't even because she still felt compassion for Inuyasha's apparently still, unfinished feelings for her. No, she was DEFINITELY done with that BS. What little amount of compassion she had left for the former, unfortunate miko and her former lover, flew away with her soul, the last time that she died. She had barely hung on to it, as it was. Only her love for Inuyasha, and her determination to see Naraku destroyed, and the shikon jewel forever banished from the world, had kept it alive. Kikyo HAD been a tremendous help to them, after all. She felt that she owed her that, and Inuyasha also, for everything that he had suffered, trying to right the wrong that he felt that he was responsible for, concerning Kikyo.

No, Kagome did not believe that Kikyo had possessed Rin for one, very simple reason: She could not SEE Rin. Like everyone else around her, she could only see Kikyo. Kagome was absolutely certain, both due to her status as a very powerful miko, and a very close friend of Rin's, that her eyes would NOT be fooled by Kikyo's image. And it was POWERFUL. Too powerful to be any typical spiritual possession. Seeing a passed soul as a full, corporeal being in possession of another, still living person, was extremely rare. Kagome knew this. She also knew that monks and mikos of her caliber were the only ones capable of seeing the original person through the possession, and she could not. Forget Miroku; unlike Kagome's mating, Miroku lost his powers, after wedding Sango. He wasn't nearly as powerful to begin with, like Kagome. Kagome's heart, as well as her body, was always pure, unlike Miroku's. Oh, don't get me wrong, he was a good man; still is, but because of his constant, lecherous desires, he was not half as powerful as he could've been, if he had been pure. And definitely nowhere near Kagome's purity, that's for sure.

So, in conclusion, was this: Number one, Kikyo was back. She was in possession of SOMEONE'S body; of that, Kagome had no doubt. Number two, Rin was missing. What could've become of her? Kagome was determined to find out.