Disclaimer: Takahashi Rumiko owns all characters, including Inu-kun. I'm just using them for fun right now. Cover art is by dA's Ebony-of-the-Moon.

Note: This story is an alternate everything for just after episode 97 'Kirara Come Home!'. Some later facts may be mixed in by accident, forgive me if there are.

A Miko's Secret Heart

Kyuubi Tenshi

Chapter 1- The Broken Identity

The afternoon was dark, and the clouds hung low in the sky, heavy with rain. Inuyasha and the others were speeding towards Kaede's hut with Kagome clinging to Inuyasha's neck and Sango, Miroku, and Shippou on Kirara's back. Not a single droplet had fallen yet, but the hanyou's nose insisted that it wouldn't hold for much longer. Suddenly a scream ripped forth from Kagome's lungs, and she let go of Inuyasha's haori. Falling to the ground, she clutched her head in severe pain.

Stopping immediately to examine the gasping miko, Inuyasha signaled the others to continue on to Kaede's without them.

"Kagome? Come on, we've got to get to the village before the storm breaks! What's wrong with you?" he asked with half-masked worry as he helped her to her feet. Standing, Kagome once again felt pain flood through her head. Moaning and rubbing her head once more she turned to Inuyasha.

"I don't know what happened, Inuyasha, I just know it hurt!" Gasping, she dropped to one knee once again beneath the pain. This time it had spread to her eyes, ears and fingers. Again, a scream ripped forth from her lungs as she held herself in pain. Inuyasha was now truly worried.

Even when she's hurt badly she never complains. This time it's like a female dog with a bad wound: she snaps at the very person who is trying to help her out of pain. This is really bad, he thought. Deciding on his course of action, he helped Kagome up, wrapped one arm around her waist and the other around her thighs, picked her up, and started for the well.

"What are you doing?!" she managed to gasp out before her body was once again racked with pain. He glanced down at her as he once as he took another giant leap into the air.

"I'm taking you home. If it hurts enough for you of all people to complain then it must be bad enough to take you home until you're better," he said as he landed softly next to the one connection through time that they had. The Bone Eater's Well was the reason that Kagome was in the Feudal Era in the first place, and Inuyasha was forever thankful to it and the Goshinboku for bringing her to him. Noticing that the pain had gotten to where she could only whimper and cling to him as if for dear life, he hurriedly jumped down the well and was met with the familiar blue and violet lights of the time portal.

Once arriving on the other side, he immediately exited and started running towards her home. Unfortunately, he didn't manage to get there without being seen as it just so happened that Eri, Ayumi, Yuka, and Hojo had been there trying to drop off some chicken soup and a few other things for Kagome's little 'flu bug' that she had supposedly acquired.

"Hey you! What're you doing with Kagome?!" yelled Eri when she spotted him. Not bothering to waste any time trying to make a quick exit, he pushed straight through the four of them yelling for Ms. Higurashi to come quickly.

"What is the matter Inuyasha? Why are you carrying Kagome? I though she wasn't supposed to come back for another few days!" she said as she escorted them inside with Kagome's schoolmates close behind, curious about this strange silver-haired newcomer.

"Wait a minute," said Ayumi as they followed Ms. Higurashi and Inuyasha up the stairs, "are those dog ears on top of your head?!"

"Your point? Can I just get Kagome comfortable without a hassle? Then you can pet my ears all you want to, ok?" he replied irritably. Stepping through Kagome's open doorway and walking over to her bed he gently began to set her down, but the first thing she did was to pull him closer.

"Please don't leave! I want you here… with me… I need you…" she managed to whisper into his shoulder through the pain. Understanding that she was not only in pain, but also in fear, he obliged by covering her up and then letting her curl against him between his legs as he leaned against the headboard of her bed. This position that he was in was one that succeeded very well in making Hojo super jealous.

Ayumi wandered over to the stranger and gently touched one of his ears. The light stroke succeeded in tickling said ear, and made it flick against the annoyance. "They are real!" she quietly exclaimed to no one in particular.

"Higurashi-san, who is this guy, and why is he holding Kagome like that?" Hojo asked in a rather strained voice. He seriously did not appreciate Inuyasha coming on to his girl at all. Ms. Higurashi had gone into the bathroom to retrieve a bowl of water and a wet washcloth, and after hearing this upon her return realized that he was referring to Inuyasha. Well this is going to be a sticky situation. I'll explain to them what's happening with Kagome, and then when she wakes up she can explain the situation with the Feudal Era, she thought to herself as she folded the cloth onto her daughter's forehead.

"His name is Inuyasha," she began calmly, "and he is a very close friend of Kagome's. In fact, there's no telling how many times this young man has probably saved her life. Inuyasha, have you met Kagome's schoolmates? This is Hojo, that's Eri, this one is Yuka, and the one that petted you ear was Ayumi."

"Why does he have dog ears?" Ayumi asked with obvious interest. Yuka looked at the rest of them in disgust.

"Here we are talking about dog-boy when we should really be asking about Kagome! Higurashi-san, do you have any inkling as to what is wrong with her? I mean she's having convulsions like a snake bit her or something!" and then, as if on a sudden thought, she turned to look at Inuyasha with an evil glare. "Did you do this to her?!" she screeched.

Angered that one of Kagome's peers would even suggest such a thing, a low growl flowed forth from deep within the chest of the haninu, and upon hearing the noise, each of the teens backed away from the enraged boy. After a moment, though, the growl stopped abruptly, and the scowl on his face was transformed into a look of surprise. Everyone's attention focused on the pained girl in the red-clad teen's lap, for she was whispering something so softly that no one could hear save for the man that she was holding close to her at that very moment. Ayumi managed to whisper the question to Ms. Higurashi as to what Kagome was saying, but Inuyasha was the only one who could answer.

"She's singing," he whispered, "I know this song. She sings it to Shippou sometimes when he can't sleep, or to Sango when she has the nightmares about Kohaku:"

Even when your dreams have shattered,

And hope exists in another realm,

The Dark side of the moon.

Cry to him, the Master,

The Lion, the Rock;

He can even heal the

Dark side of the Moon.

(A/N: I own. You steal, you die. I have friends in three different parts of the Military.)

The whole while that she had been singing, and he had been repeating, the ailing miko had been gently stroking the silvery locks that had fallen about her. Inuyasha could hear the strain in her voice, though, and understood that the singing was supposed to calm him down. To show her that he understood, he gently pushed her bangs aside and ran his claws through her hair. Looking to Ms. Higurashi for an explanation, he said, "I agree with Yuka. The attention should be on Kagome. But I bet you know exactly what's going on with her, don't you?"

"Yes, I do," she said, nodding her head in confirmation. "Inuyasha, do you know in what part of the cycle the moon is tonight?"

"Yeah, the new moon. That was one reason I was in such a hurry to get to Kaede-baba's. Why do you ask?" he queried in a confused tone.

"I ask because it is most likely that the others do not know. What they do know is that Kagome's 16th birthday was three days ago. Now is the time to explain what is happening to her," she said, pausing to take a breath before beginning the story.

"To get one thing out of the way, Kagome is not a human. She's a hanyou. Both she and Souta. They're inu hanyou, to be perfectly precise. Their father was an inu youkai named Tetsuya no Inu. He and I fell in love when I was 17, and we were married about a year later. When I became pregnant with Kagome, he told me about how everyone had always rejected those that were neither youkai nor ningen. So he insisted that I use my inherited miko powers to place a spell over her while she was still in my womb that would make her appear to be a human until the first new moon after her 16th birthday.

"Unfortunately, we cast the spell too early and her body didn't develop as it would've normally. So the process of becoming her true form hurts more because the of the youkai blood trying to assert itself quickly and bring out her hanyou features. We didn't make the same mistake with Souta, but my powers had been so used up on the spell with Kagome that I couldn't maintain the ability to have the spell terminate in the same way that Kagome's would. So the power was passed to her, only she can remove the spell, and only after the spell on she, herself, had been removed. Thus, this night is her transformation. Tonight she must finish growing up."

Everyone was silent, save for the light moans from the teenage priestess that lay in the arms of her fellow hanyou, unknowing as to what had just been explained. Inuyasha gently soothed the resting girl as she whimpered in her sleep. Looking to him, Yuka spoke.

"Well, I only feel a little bit more friendly towards you, hanyou, so don't press your luck. And since Higurashi-san just told us about Kags being a hanyou, and you being one too, that means that both of you had youkai fathers and human mothers, correct?" Inuyasha nodded a yes. "I guess that explains Ayumi's question as to the dog ears thing," she finished.

"So, Inuyasha is it? Well, I was just wondering… how did you meet Kagome? I mean where would she dig up a guy like you?" asked Eri, giving him the once-over, taking in the extra comfortable/heavy duty style of his fire-rat kimono, the hilt and saya of his Tetsusaiga, and his mid-rear length silver-white hair.

"Try the Sengoku Jidai. Ask Kagome to explain the whole deal, ok? But right now she's trying to sleep, so can we keep the noise to a minimum? She just got back from hunting a snake youkai, and now she transforming into her true self. I believe she would probably like to have a peaceful, uninterrupted, rest!" he said, a low growl accenting the sentence to where they would be sure to understand its finalistic nature. Scooting the others out the doors, Ms. Higurashi turned to Inuyasha.

"When she wakes up, I want you to be the one to tell her everything, alright? I think she might take it fairly well if you tell her rather than me," she told him with a confident smile. "Get some rest." Inuyasha then decided to oblige her. In a matter of hours, he would be human.

AN: Just so you know, even I am disappointed in this chapter, now that I go back and read it. So sue me; this was when I was still pretty much a newbie. Like... when I was 14. Meaning I had about three months experience. I'm older and wiser now. BWAHAHAHAHA! I AM 16 YEARS OLD! FEAR ME, VERMIN! (coughs) No, not really. Okay, yeah, I'm 16, but the rest of that you can ignore. Either way, don't judge my writing by this, since I've improved a hundred fold. And continue reading, 'cause about the 10th chapter the quality level skyrockets from where it is right now. Ja!

REVIEW, ONEGAI!