Disclaimer: Owning InuYasha? Pfft, not me. I just like putting the characters through Hell. Do I look like Rumiko? Or Viz? Geez. Rated for violence and the occasional swear word (though I believe it's a little late for the swear warning).

There shouldn't be much in the way of spoilers, and one can be able to implement it any time of the series, given that at least Kouga has been introduced. This is quite different from my previous writings because I'm aiming to put in the reader a different mood than usual. That being said, please review so that I know if I succeeded or failed. There's a lot of Japanese terminology, so I've defined some words at the end of the fic.

Kamibana

It was a fluke. InuYasha tried to protect Kagome. He really did. But it wasn't a matter of his strength and speed, nor did it happen of Naraku's own ability. It just ended up that way. Kagome was a victim of fate and bad luck. Had the wind not pushed her just as she was running forward, or had she fallen in a different direction, she wouldn't have been pierced by Naraku's flailing tendril. Naraku himself didn't realize it until after he pierced her flesh, and he immediately took the opportunity to snake through towards her heart and inject any amount of corruption he could.

But he couldn't get any shards she might have had on her, nor could he take this time to act against anyone else, for she quickly took out an arrow and stabbed at his extension, purifying and disintegrating it. When he fell back from her assault, she put that arrow into her bow and took aim. But Naraku, being as wily as he had been in the past, fled before any more harm could be brought upon him. The darkness that surrounded him diminished as he escaped, and Kagome crumbled on top of her weapons.

The wake of the battle was eerily still as InuYasha shouted Kagome's name through the mountains again and again. He was effectively the only creature moving as he shook Kagome's shoulders and begged loudly for her to respond, before Shippou bound across and followed InuYasha's example in suit. But Miroku and Sango were as motionless as the ground below them, and Kirara only exhaled and lowered her head.

It was useless.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The old shrine master brought his sleeve over his brow before continuing to sweep up around the temple. "Tokyo summers never fail, do they?" he absentmindedly mused as the strokes of straw scratched lightly over the stone. Normally, he would have gotten one of his grandchildren to do the sweeping as he sorted things in the sheds, but Souta was visiting a friend, and Kagome was still in the Sengoku Jidai. Even Kagome's mother was at the store getting groceries. But the temple had needed a sweep for too long.

He heard the door to the shed that contained the well slide open, and he glanced over his shoulder, hoping to see his youthful granddaughter so that he could pass the broom to her and retreat to a cool interior. Indeed, he saw his granddaughter, limp in the arms of the inugami hanyou InuYasha.

The broom fell from his hands and clattered on the ground as he ran towards the sight. "What happened? Is Kagome all right? Is she hurt?"

The silvery dog-ears perched on top of InuYasha's head lowered, and his eyelids fell to obscure his sore, tired eyes. He couldn't think of a way to say it; every time he tried to form a phrase in his head, a pain shot through his chest. It didn't matter, though. Kagome's grandfather came closer and studied intently the girl's face before looking down at her ruddied clothing. The old man felt the wrinkles on his face get heavy and his gray mustache sagged.

"Ji-chan! I picked up Souta on the way back from the store! I'll begin dinner as soon—" Kagome's mother stopped when she reached the top step, one arm clutched around some grocery bags and the other hand holding her son's. They both stared forward at InuYasha.

The hanyou closed his eyes, cold pains striking his heart. "We were in the middle of battle with a horrible demon." His limbs shook as he clutched more into her clothes, trying to control himself. "It was an accident, but before we knew it…" He trailed off, the anguish scratching on his throat too much to continue.

Kagome's mother drew closer a few steps, but was trapped by a faint before she could continue. Souta tried in vain to catch her and hold her up, but his child body could not possibly support his mother's frame, and was instead drug down with her. The old shrine master called out in surprise and went to assist them and bring the weakened woman inside, looking back at his granddaughter and InuYasha as he did.

InuYasha took it as a motion to enter the house with them.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When Kagome's mother regained her senses, the first person she wanted to see was the girl. She hoped that what she was only a dream, or a misunderstanding. But when her son and father brought her before the lifeless form of her daughter, whose face was so pale and quiet, and the flesh below her neck gory and stained, those hopes were torn from her and dashed against the rocks so violently that she swore her heart was going to burst.

InuYasha sat quietly beside Kagome, his gaze trained down at her. He had taken the time for her mother to revive to find some way of explaining the turn of events, but all he succeeded in doing was brooding.

The woman knelt down by her other side and wiped vigorously at her eyes as she fought to keep control. "I'm okay. Please explain everything to me."

He scrounged up all his courage before explaining the event from beginning to end. How they faced Naraku and how she fought bravely to the very end. He found himself giving Kagome praise on her strength and her mother praise on raising her so well, offering them in honesty rather than just trying to comfort her.

There was some silence afterwards before asked a question. "Did she suffer much?"

InuYasha sighed and shook his head. "It was so sudden."

She looked down at her daughter while everything swarmed around in her head, but she tried to sort them out and think logically. "We'll have to prepare an otsuya and her ososhiki. Since she's obviously gotten so many friends over in your side, you should hold a wake, too. You can hold yours first, since people of this era have so many schedule conflicts and it'll take some time to prepare it."

Her words continued to flow shakily from her. "Since she didn't die at a hospital, her body has to be washed. I'll do that immediately. I'll call a mortuary tomorrow, to pick out some osenko and the altar… we'll get two urns, and one will be for the Sengoku Jidai. And… everyone will be wearing kamibana…" That finally broke her, and she sobbed heavily with her face in her hands. "Kamibana for my own daughter…A parent shouldn't have kamibana for their child!"

InuYasha bit his lip and he stood. "I should leave." He had barely made three steps before a small hand had taken hold of the sleeve of his kimono.

"Nee-san wouldn't want you to go yet," Souta said sadly, "Please stay a while."

The dog demon's limbs shook horribly. His very being seemed to cry out for revenge, for action. Something in him shouted that there had to be something he can do. He looked down at Souta. "I'll be back soon."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

InuYasha leaped out of the well, immediately surrounded by his friends who had been waiting for him to come back. They had kept a slim hope that Kagome's time had technology to bring her back to life somehow, but InuYasha's saddened, determined look told them otherwise. They all decided to keep silent, waiting for him to say something first.

A whirlwind appeared in the distance before he could say anything, and only a few seconds passed before Kouga's lithe form emerged in front of them. The wolf's eyes immediately scanned the group then locked onto InuYasha. He sniffed the air lightly before him and growled, advancing a few steps. "That smell all over you… it'd better be some sort of sick joke."

InuYasha's tired eyes narrowed. "What do you think it is?"

"Where is my Kagome!" Kouga demanded, "I smell her on you. Her sweat, her blood, her… Where is she?"

"Her body is in her own time right now."

"'Her…body'?" No sooner were those words uttered than had the front of InuYasha's kimono been gathered into Kouga's closed fists. The full demon sneered in the hanyou's face. "How could you let this happen to her! Do you just like getting the women in your life killed by Naraku!"

The words cut into him, adding to the self-loathing that seemed strong enough to punish his physical being. "I… couldn't do anything. I was helpless."

"You fucking piece of dog shit! I would never have let her die like that!" He threw InuYasha aside and pulled away from the group, visibly shaking in anger already. "How could you… damn half-breed… How can she be dead!" He screamed out.

Ginta and Hakaku, who were just coming into view, heard their leader's shout and stopped dead in their tracks, looking as if they would fall over from a combination of exhaustion and shock. But they resolved to start the pace again and soon flanked their superior on both sides, looking up at him in concern. "Kouga. Nee-san is…?"

He shoved the both of them away and walked forward slowly, halting, and turning back to the group, specifically to glare back at InuYasha. "I'm going to continue hunting Naraku down. If I ever see you again, I'll fucking rip your useless heart out of that weakling chest of yours." And he took off.

But his followers didn't take chase immediately. In stead, they looked back and approached Miroku. "Houshi-sama…" Ginta said, "Is there going to be a ceremony held for Nee-san?"

Miroku nodded. "Yes. We intend to hold it here in the village with her body. But she will not be burned here, and I doubt her ashes will be stored anywhere else other than her own country.

They bowed their heads. "We'll tell Kouga." Hakaku said in turn. "He'll want to come, even if InuYasha's there. He just needs to cool off for now…"

"We'll take note of it."

They both smiled, albeit gloomily, and set off running after Kouga, shouting out his name in the almost comical fashion they always had.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

InuYasha did what he always did when emotional matters pressed him such: he ran. He went as far away from life as possible before clambering into a tree to brood. But as heavy his efforts were to make himself alone, a low, clear voice spoke below him.

"You really are a failure, InuYasha."

The hanyou looked down at the unwanted visitor, scowling. "Sesshoumaru… you're the last person I want to hear talk right now. Get the fuck out of my sight before I blast you into oblivion."

"Like you had such power to destroy this Sesshoumaru." The demon scoffed. "You can't even keep your women from getting killed. You're an unfit and inadequate protector and demon. Such a waste of our father's genes…"

He remembered Tenseiga. "If I took that sword from you, I could bring her back."

"Humph! Even if you could take it from me, you couldn't figure out how to use it. Besides, even if I wanted to bring her back with it, it's impossible. Tenseiga cannot help her."

"What?"

"Naraku's poison might be a trifle to me, but Tenseiga cannot heal the damage that it deals. It's a sword of healing, not purification. So even if I did manage to resurrect her, she would only die again, this time perhaps more slowly and painfully, from his corruption." An amused sound came from his throat. "You're welcome to try, but I guarantee those would be your results."

InuYasha shot down with his fist flying towards his brother. But the stoic thing had already left, and his knuckles only succeeded in hitting the dirt that he had been standing on. He looked around for Sesshoumaru, but found nothing, and cursed.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It was decided by the village that there will only be a funeral for Kagome, and it was held before the wake and the funeral in her own time. Miroku and Kaede took care of the tradition themselves, and not only did every person come in respect to Kagome-sama, but people and beings that they have met and befriended came as well. Many brought gifts as tribute, and with the numbers including various youkai and people of status, the outcome was quite amazing. InuYasha grudgingly agreed to carry these over to her family.

Kouga came, as to be expected, and he did not inflict the violence he had promised in his earlier state of fury. He was not even in as passionate mood as most were used to; his features were solemn, and his normally brilliant blue eyes were rendered listless. When he approached her body, he took her stiff hand, quickly mumbled something incoherent, and replaced it before walking (not running) back to his den, Ginta and Hakaku right behind him.

InuYasha did not want to attend even the first funeral at first, but Shippou wouldn't leave him alone until he agreed. After that, he found himself going to the other time to see the wake and funeral provided by her family (hiding his ears under a scarf). He talked little during all of it, barely acknowledging Kagome's friends or Houjou as they tried to speak to him, and remained quiet as he helped Kagome's mother and grandfather prepare and clean up afterwards.

When it came time for the Nobe no Okuri, everyone was politely ushered into a line, including InuYasha himself, and Kagome's coffin was brought out to be seen once more. It was opened partially, exposing the body from waist up. First, the mother went to her, placed a kamibana on her, and went to the back, then Souta, then the grandfather. But instead of continuing down into Kagome's external family, InuYasha was the fourth up (by her mother's suggestion; she originally wanted him to go first, but he declined).

InuYasha held before him the kamibana and pulled out a small bottle with his free hand from his red kimono. The small bottle contained a few Shikon no Kakera, which shined and gleamed with the power they possessed. When Kikyou died, she had the Shikon no Tama burned along with her, he thought, It's best that we burn these along with Kagome as well. Then Naraku can't possibly get a hold of them. He brought the bottle into the other hand, and was about to lay them both on the corpse.

A thought crossed his mind, and his actions stilled. But it only takes one shard to bring someone back to life.

Kamibana – Paper flowers used in a funeral.
Ostuya – Wake.
Ososhiki – Funeral.
Osenko – Incense sticks.
Kaimyo – Posthumous name; a different name given to the person after death (said to keep them from coming back every time they hear their name).
Nobe no Okuri – "Putting out to Pasture" ceremony; the last viewing of the body before cremation.