I thought I would mention that (surprise, surprise!) I do not own InuYasha. And don't forget… Read and Review! ~Sango1157

The Hojo Family Tree

"Death will saturate the air if the demon blade awakens once again. Then, only purity can cause their mighty reign to end."

Hojo Akitoki gave up on escape, and spun around to face the moth demon. To this point, his only advantage had been the moth's large wingspan which had slightly hindered the moth's progression through the forest. Despite this, the moth was much faster than him. He had no choice but to fight.

Fighting wasn't truly in his nature, but he had come accustomed to it. His father had always told him his true calling was to be a priest. Whether or not that was true, fate had not allowed that wish to be granted.

In a quick deft movement, he pulled out a dulled steel sword at his hip, despite a sword wrapped in fine silk cloth that was slug across his back.

He tried to analyze his situation. The moth would be too strong for him, so he would have to make the first move. His battle cry filled the air as he lunged toward the moth, aiming for its wing.

Adrenaline pumped through his veins; he would fight and win. This moth was the least of his problems.

In the last second before the sword met the scaly wings, the creature jumped out of the way.

Frustrated, he made a reckless swing towards its abdomen that was easily avoided. In retaliation, the moth swung its head toward him, just managing to clip the side of his jaw with a short horn that jutted out of its head. With a yell he jumped backwards a couple steps and touched his jaw to check its condition. It was bleeding.

The moth wasn't about to give him time to recuperate. It charged at him, one of its jagged legs missing his throat by inches.

He continued to stumble back, until his back ran into a tree. He could have turned around and ran, but that would have put him in the same predicament he had been in before.

He thrust his blade forward with all his strength towards the heart of the creature. But instead of the blade meeting the moth's scaly hide, one of its legs came out of nowhere and knocked the sword from his grasp. Backed up against a tree, he was defenseless and cornered.

He looked around wildly, refusing to allow this to be the end. He swallowed his pride and yelled, "Help!"

In his last attempts he tried to kick the moth, but the impact did no good. The moth hovered over him and slowly brought a jagged leg across his chest. It was almost playing with him, savoring the kill.

As he cried out in pain, he thought he heard something move through the air. "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" He saw a flash of red, and then the moth was in pieces on the floor of the forest. He sank to his knee, trying to will his adrenaline to settle down. He only knew one person with that attack.

"InuYasha?" he asked.

"You're still around? To be honest I'm kind of surprised you haven't been killed off yet."

Akitoki closed his eyes in relief as he tried to regain his breath. It was definitely InuYasha. "I'm still around," he assured InuYasha as he picked up his head. "Thanks."

"Yeah yeah." InuYasha could tell Akitoki was losing a lot of blood. Besides, if Kagome found out he had left Akitoki half dead in the forest, it would probably be hours before she stopped repeating his least favorite word. And believe me, it might just be three letters long, but it involved a lot of pain.

"Let's get you some help." He suggested as he picked Akitoki in his arms. Akitoki's kimono was torn and bloody, and his chest was still bleeding. To say the least, he was not in good shape. Without waiting for a reply, InuYasha broke out in a sprint towards what he considered his home village.

"Do you know of a Kaede?" Akitoki weakly asked as they practically flew across the ground.

InuYasha looked down at Akitoki in wonder. "Yeah I know her alright."

"Is she far?" Akitoki asked, barely choking out the last word.

"Not at all," InuYasha assured him as Akitoki slipped out of consciousness. "Not at all."

O.O.O.O.O

"Hey Kagome, I was looking at my family tree, and I saw the weirdest thing!" I couldn't help it. As I peered over Hojo's shoulder, my jaw nearly hit the ground. Connected to the name Hogo Akitoki, was the name Kagome. "It was five hundred years ago, but I thought it was kind of funny that I have an ancestor named Kagome! See, she's married to somebody named Akitoki!" I swallowed nervously. For me, leaping through a distance of five hundred years only took a couple seconds.

"Oh," I said trying to pull off a smile, "That's neat Hojo!" To be honest it was not neat at all; it was kind of alarming. I had met Akitoki before when I was in the past, and he wasn't married then. Actually, he had just been a boy, somewhere around my age. I shook my head playfully and laughed along with the Hojo I knew from the present era. It was a silly coincidence. There was definitely nothing to make of it.

O.O.O.O.O

I plopped my stuff out of the well, as InuYasha helped me over the edge. "Took you long enough," he grumbled.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, missed you too," I said sarcastically.

"Kagome!"

"Hey Shippo!" I said in a bright tone. At least somebody was happy to see me.

Shippo jumped up into my arms and I gave him a little squeeze. He was only the cutest little fox demon of all time.

"Guess what Kagome!" Shippo exclaimed.

"What?" I asked confused. I glanced over to InuYasha for an answer, but to no avail.

Sighing I turned my attention back to Shippo. "So what happened Shippo?"

"Akitoki is here!"

My heart stopped for a second. Akitoki was there? "As in Hojo Akitoki?" I asked, hoping to be denied.

"Yeah, but he's really hurt. InuYasha found him in the forest pretty beat up."

"Oh no! Is he okay?"

"Yeah, Kaede says he's going to be fine. He's been here a couple days."

As much as my heart reached out for the poor guy, what I saw on Hojo's family tree freaked me out a little bit. Just my luck that the same day I saw the Hojo family tree, Akitoki showed up. I knew it was probably coincidence, but honestly! There are only so many Kagomes in the world. I took a deep breath of reassurance. If I did end up marrying Akitoki, I would have to consent to it first, right?

"He's not married yet is he?" I blurted out.

That got InuYasha's attention. I blushed. That sentence came out really wrong.

"Are you okay Kagome?" InuYasha asked, "You haven't hit your head on anything lately, right?"

"No, I'm fine. It's nothing."

InuYasha looked at me suspiciously for a second, and then tore his eyes away from me to gaze at the village. "Come on, let's go."

I picked up my big yellow backpack and slung it over my shoulder. I couldn't help but be a little nervous. Me marry Hojo's ancestor? That would be the day.

"Guess what Kagome!" Shippo started as we neared the village. "Akitoki has these pickle things, and he say's eating them helps with stomach aches!"

"He said that, did he?" I asked knowingly. Sounded a lot like the Hojo I knew from the present.

Akitoki looked different from the last time I had seen him. The silly smirk had been wiped off his face, and his hair had grown longer and was tied back in a low pony tail. His chin boar a lengthy scar and he seemed thinner than the last time I had seen him, as though he was in need of food. But he looked far from the helpless boy I once had viewed him as, his muscles were harder and leaner, and his skin slightly darker from being in the sun. He was a lot taller, and a lot older. "Kagome," Akitoki's face lightly smiled in surprise "I didn't realize you lived around here."

"Yep," I said, smiling. "You look so much older, but it hasn't even been a year since the last time we met, has it?"

"It feels like it's been ages, so much has happened." I didn't doubt it for a second. That goofy smirk he used to have seemed to have been permanently wiped off his face. "I just turned seventeen a little bit ago."

I had to look away. I'm not going to marry him, so I don't need to freak out when he's nice to me. It's all coincidence. I just have to pretend I never saw his family tree.

"I heard you were injured, but it seems you're doing fine," I noticed.

"Believe me; it is all thanks to tremendous hospitality shown by your friends. If it wasn't for InuYasha and Kaede I would probably be dead."

"Indeed," added Kaede "his wounds are great, but nothing that won't be healed with time."

Shippo balled up his little fists, "I wish I had been there. I would have given that moth a beating he would never forget!"

"Huh? So it was a demon moth that attacked you?" I asked Akitoki. "I don't think I've actually seen one of those before."

InuYasha rolled his eyes. "It's not like it matters, it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. What I want to know, is what brought you all the way out here in the first place."

Akitoki sighed. "It's a long story, believe me."

InuYasha narrowed his eyes, "We'll wait."

Akitoki raised his eyebrows as we all settled down waiting for the story, and Shippo jumped into my lap.

"It all began generations ago, when my great-great-great-great grandfather found a demon sword at the side of a mountain, a sword with the name Kon. The moment he touched the sword, as sayings go, he felt a mighty presence around him, one that only Budda himself could rival. In that moment he heard these words, or rather felt them inside of him; 'Death will saturate the air if the demon blade awakens once again. Then, only purity can cause their mighty reign to end.' Here is what my ancestors gathered from it: if the sword is to somehow awaken, it is crucial that we purify it, or doom will come to us all.

"After our family obtained the sword, horrible things started happening to our family. The first tragedy occurred when my great -great-great-great grandfather, the same one who had found the sword, was wrongfully accused and put to trial only to be beheaded. Other worse things have followed still. My family members have been the victims of pointless murders, even horrible feuds that have been triggered by misunderstandings. My own father and mother disappeared one morning, never to return. That was only four months ago."

My eyes widened and I gave a Shippo a little squeeze, but Akitoki pressed through the detail as though it held no anguish for him.

"These misfortunes have left our once noble name for a name of peasants. Now, only my sister and I remain, but she now has a family of her own under a different name. She is expecting her first child soon, and I refused to let the curse last long enough to touch her child.

"Two weeks ago, the cursed sword began to vibrate, releasing an enormous demonic aura. Now it is my duty to purify the sword, thus allowing my family to be relieved of our burden. Purifying it seemed a simple enough task, all I had to do was travel to Mt. Hakurei, a mountain known for its sacred aura. But you see, Mt. Hakurei has been destroyed, only days before I arrived, in some freak accident. Now I have no clue of where to go to purify the sword. I heard of a priestess Kaede who was wise in the realm of such things, so I have traveled to your lands."

I glanced at InuYasha in hopes to exchange a smirk, after all we only knew too well about Mt. Hakurei's 'freak accident.' My heart clenched as I saw InuYasha's eyes sadden and slip the floor. I had forgotten; it was the day of Mt. Hakurei collapsed that Kikyo died.

"So ye need somewhere to purify the sword?" asked Kaede. "Has an exorcism not worked?" Intrigued by the sword, Shippo got off my lap and started creeping toward it.

"No, believe me," answered Akitoki, "we have tried and tried again. Exorcisms are not strong enough to purge the sword of its evil spirit."

"Hmm, let me see this sword ye speak of."

Akitoki took the sword off his back and placed it in front of him. It was covered by a fine purple cloth, and it bore an air of majesty. I had to hold my breath as he started to slip the sword out of its covering.

As soon as the silver surface of the blade was exposed to the air, InuYasha, out of nowhere, stood up and almost drunkenly started to make his way toward the sword.

"Quick!" demanded Kaede, "put the sword back into the sheath!"

As Akitoki quickly slide the blade back into its covering, I placed my hand on InuYasha's shoulder to try to keep him in place. He was completely oblivious to my hand until the sword was safely hidden inside the cloth. "You okay?" I whispered in his ear.

"Huh?" was the response I got as he brushed off my hand.

"You weren't kidding about the aura of the sword, Akitoki," Kaede said thoughtfully. "Had you left it exposed, no doubt InuYasha would have fallen captive to the Kon's demonic aura. Even Shippo seems to have been effected," she added with a smile.

I looked around the room to see Shippo rubbing his head and looking around all confused and cute.

I should be used to all the weirdness by now, but I had to ask. "So let me get this straight, a sword just tried to posses the only two demons in the room?"

I shivered in the night air and scooted a little closer to the fire, so that the sparks landed just in front of my feet.

"Yes," said Miroku, "the sword's demonic aura was incredibly strong. It could probably take hold of the soul of any demon, save Naraku himself."

"Plus, the legacy Akitoki told us about seemed pretty serious," Sango said gravely.

"So, I don't get it. The words said "their mighty reign will end." Who is "their?" asked Shippo, pleased about being a contributing factor in the conversation.

Miroku looked grave. "I wish I could answer that Shippo, I wondered that myself."

"So I guess the question is, should we help out or not?" asked Sango. We all kind of glanced at InuYasha, who was carefully staying out of the conversation.

"InuYasha," I sighed "You're going to have to weigh in eventually."

He looked up and kind of glared at me. "Here's how I see it. It's his quest for his family, so he should take care of it. That or he should just throw the stupid sword away, which would probably solve everything anyway."

I rolled my eyes. "If I have to explain that to you, then there's no way you'd get it anyway."

"Get what?" he asked snidely.

"Why he can't just throw away the sword!" I said, my voice rising in frustration.

"Look you two," Sango said pointedly, "I get what InuYasha means about Akitoki completing this on his own because, after all, it's his own burden. It just seems wrong to let a wounded guy go through more trails because of the mountain we collapsed."

"She's got a point," put in Miroku, "Plus, we hardly want death to saturate the air."

"You don't have to convince me," I murmered. "Look InuYasha, it won't even take long. We'll be on the lookout for shards the whole way, so it will be like killing two birds with one stone." Kaede had informed us of a place called the Furae Shine, where we could take the sword to purge it of its evil spirits. It wouldn't be that hard or take that long, so I don't know what his deal was. He was being more difficult than normal, which is definitely saying something.

"Yeah whatever," he muttered and walked away. I watched him leave, too exhausted to figure out what was up with him. And they say teenage girls are moody.

O.O.O.O.O

Thanks for reading!