Hello! This is my second story and first ever crossover fanfiction. I hope I did it justice! I'm not an amazing writer, but I love writing and I just HAD to write this. Sorry if there are any typos or inconsistencies in the story. Please review and let me know what you liked, hated, or any advice.

This story for Gaara takes place after Yashamaru explained pain to him and after he tried to give the boy he injured medicine. I think it's like half-way through episode 76. Yashamaru hasn't betrayed him yet, basically. And for Kagome, it doesn't really have a certain place. The only major plot point I can think of is that it is after Tsubaki is introduced.

WARNING: This story is M because it is a bit graphic in violence. I don't really think it's M, but I'm not taking any chances just in case people think it is too bloody!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Naruto.

000000000000000

Subjecting to Tyranny

"I spy with my little eye something white!" Shippo exclaimed while he skipped contentedly at Kagome's side.

His exuberance was met with heavy sighs and a poorly veiled glare at Kagome—the latter contributed solely from Inuyasha.

They were heading towards a village in the north where giant, flying, wasp-like creatures were rumored to have been spotted. The creatures were most probably Naraku's Saimyosho and after three weeks without so much as a scent of Naraku, it seemed like a blessing to finally have a lead to his whereabouts.

However, when they found out the news, they were quite a ways south and the journey would take at least four days' worth of traveling.

The first day was fine. Inuyasha marched determinedly ahead, barking complaints about how slow everyone was, Kirara and Shippo were walking together a ways behind Inuyasha, Kagome and Sango were walking together and talking animatedly about this and that, and Miroku walked behind the two women, smiling mischievously at having the perfect opportunity to ogle their lovely backsides as he brought up the rear.

The second day was okay. After waking everyone up early with a loud shout about how Naraku was probably already gone because they were taking so long—which was followed by a sit and a fallen hanyou—Inuyasha led the front again. Shippo, Kagome, and Sango walked behind Inuyasha and loudly complained about the slave-driving hanyou, which earned them many heated glares from said half-demon. And poor Miroku's unmoving form lay slumped across Kirara's back after Sango found out about why Miroku always travelled behind them and decided to resolve herself and Kagome of the annoyance.

The third day was absolutely horrid. Woken up by thunder and rain this time instead of Inuyasha, the group grumpily packed up their belongings and sought shelter quickly with Inuyasha carrying Kagome upon his back and the rest flying upon Kirara.

The fourth day was even worse than the third day. Inuyasha picked up the pace drastically to make up for lost time the day before and everyone's leg muscles were aching, Shippo was complaining, Kagome was trying to placate him, Miroku was fondling Sango, and Sango was beating up Miroku. Even Kirara looked exhausted.

And on the fifth day, today, a few minutes ago Kagome tried to relieve the tension and bad energy her group was emitting by suggesting they play a game from her time, 'I spy.'

And it wasn't long until everyone's spirits were lifted and they were enjoying the journey. They were almost at their destination too, which made the hanyou extremely excited.

And then everyone was back to being annoyed.

Kagome, in hindsight, realized that she probably should have kept quiet. She knew the game would only entertain her companions for so long.

What she didn't expect was for Shippo to be so taken with the game.

And for him to be so terrible at it.

"Inuyasha's hair" everyone replied exasperatedly in unison, causing the fox demon to mumble grumpily, accuse them of cheating, and proclaim he would stump them the next time.

The same thing he'd been saying each time he lost.

And he always lost.

Kagome saw Inuyasha's right fist clench and decided that it was time to intervene before there were punches being thrown.

"Shippo, I think we should take a little break from the game for a bit," she said as nicely as she could because she too was ready for it to stop.

"But Kagome!" Shippo whined and gave her those cute little puppy dog eyes. Why a fox demon could make puppy eyes so perfectly, she was at a loss, but her resolve was slipping the longer she had to look—

"You're right Kagome," Sango helped out, sensing her friend was about to break, "We should start preparing ourselves for whatever awaits us at that village. It can't be good if Naraku's Saimyosho are being spotted. There has to be several of them if mere villagers are noticing Naraku's spies."

Even though Kagome knew Sango was partly saying that to help her out, she also knew that Sango had a good point. They did need to start preparing themselves. The village could only be about a couple miles away and they needed to be ready when they got there in case Naraku was luring them into another trap.

And this time she would be ready.

She knew that she was mostly a burden to her companions in the past, which is why she had taken it upon herself to go to a local dojo anytime she was in the present. This past year, she had also sought out Sango and asked her to train her in the ways of demon slaying. Kagome wasn't really good at it and even though Sango was always kind and patient with her, she couldn't help but feel like she was disappointing her friend.

Miroku also helped Kagome with her miko abilities by teaching her new ways to meditate and have better control over her powers. She was now able to consciously channel her powers into her hands or any other weapon. Miroku even commented that she was probably more powerful than Kikyou now, which irritated Inuyasha and overjoyed Kagome.

Miroku's lessons paid off a lot better than Sango's training did, which irked the demon slayer a bit. But Kagome explained to Sango that she felt bad about not grasping Sango's art and wasn't as talented as Sango was at demon slaying, one day while they were bathing. Sango immediately got rid of those ridiculous feelings of jealousy as she listened to her friend and became even more determined to help Kagome any way she could.

Even Inuyasha, in his own unique way, put an effort into helping her with her growth. He would travel faster and farther and wouldn't carry her as often, encouraging her to run and strengthen her stamina. He also taught her how to be strong and not let the words of others defeat her by belittling her more and more. Sometimes he would go too far and she would sit him, but the more he called her names and commented on how weak she was, the stronger she felt and the more she appreciated the painful words of the hanyou she loved.

She was also pretty sure she was turning into a masochist.

Kagome's inner musings were cut off as she watched Inuyasha's ear twitch and saw his body tense. A second later, Kagome heard the sound of heavy, uneven footfalls, as if someone was limping. These soon were accompanied by heavy breathing and up ahead a figure could be made out.

"I smell blood," Inuyasha stated and rushed towards the figure, everyone else following. The figure swayed before collapsing onto the road with a groan. It was a village man she guessed and as Kagome got closer, her eyes watered over as she located the source of the blood. His entire arm was completely crushed and blood was oozing out of it, as well as his foot which appeared to have received the same treatment as his arm.

She heard Shippo gasp from her side and she instinctively covered his eyes to spare him his innocence.

"Kagome," Inuyasha firmly stated, locking eyes with Kagome and she knew he wanted her to uncover Shippo's eyes. It would make him stronger and in this era, innocence for demons was lost at an early age.

Begrudgingly, she let go of her little boy and instead tried to channel her powers into her hands and use them to attempt a healing like Miroku taught her.

When a pink light encased her hands, she lightly touched the mangled appendage, tears freely and rapidly flowing down her pink cheeks.

"Kagome," Inuyasha said softly again, wanting her to stop prolonging the inevitable. But she would be dammed if she didn't at least try to save this man's life. So with determination in her eyes, she placed her hands on the man's arm and closed her eyes, concentrating on her miko abilities.

She felt the arm begin to take shape as she allowed her powers to reconstruct the bone which was completely pulverized. She heard her companions gasp at the power she displayed and her control wavered a bit as she was distracted, but she regained control quickly and continued working.

Sweat formed on her brow as she meticulously started to work on rebuilding his veins, nerves, and muscles. She felt her energy wavering, but she clamped down and exerted more effort to finish quickly because she was almost done.

With a tired sigh, she slumped over a bit and opened her eyes to see her work.

Perfect.

His arm was perfectly put back together without any signs that he had a previous injury to it. She was shocked. She felt like she could save his arm, but she did not expect that it would be back to perfection. She expected scarring, or at the very least, a scratch.

Looking around to take in her companions shocked expressions, she allowed herself to peruse his right foot. She tried to channel her miko energy back into her hands, but the pink light only trickled down to her elbows before completely evaporating

"I can't fix his foot, I've exhausted my resources." Kagome uttered in defeat.

Her statement seemed to snap everyone out of their stupor and Inuyasha wasted no time in starting a tirade.

"You exhausted your miko powers? Do you know how stupid that was? Naraku is probably what caused this guy's injuries and we needed you to purify him at the village! How are you supposed to do that when you have no power left?" Inuyasha yelled in her face.

Kagome felt a little guilty because he did have a point. How was she supposed to help defeat Naraku when her miko powers weren't working? "I couldn't just let him die, Inuyasha! I had to try to help him somehow!"

Inuyasha was about to retort when the man groaned loudly, calling everyone's attention.

"M-my arm. Help." The man mumbled as he opened his eyes a bit. Kagome realized that he couldn't have been more than sixteen and felt even more confident in her decision to heal him.

Approaching closer to the man's line of vision, Kagome spoke softly, "M name is Kagome and I am a miko from a village south of yours. I am sorry, but I could only stabilize my powers long enough to fix your arm. Your foot remains in its previous condition."

The man looked shocked and turned his head slowly to the side to see his arm lying there, unharmed. He clenched his fist and lifted his arm and moved it around, testing it, before his shocked eyes met hers.

"Thank you. I don't think I will ever be able to repay you," he mumbled out in awe before he winced at the pain in his foot, she presumed.

"Nonsense," Kagome responded as she helped him into a sitting position, "I'm just sorry that I couldn't fix your other injury."

"Okay, enough of this. What happened?" Inuyasha demanded grumpily, peeved at all of the attention this unknown villager was receiving from Kagome.

The man apparently hadn't noticed Inuyasha before and began trembling in fear as the hanyou glared angrily at him.

"Inuyasha, you aren't helping," Kagome grit out between her teeth. "What's your name?" She asked sweetly to the man.

"S-Shiro," he said, still scared.

"Don't worry Shiro-san, Inuyasha won't hurt you. He's my friend. Can you please help us out by telling us what happened to you?" Kagome inquired.

Shiro paled and his trembling doubled severely. "H-he killed them. Everyone. Man, woman, ch-child, it made no difference."

"Who killed who?" Kagome patiently asked.

"The villagers, everyone, m-my f-family, killed. By a monster." He cried and slumped onto Kagome's shoulder. "He showed up and attacked one of the village boys viciously and unprovoked. The rest of the village retaliated and that was when h-he…"

Rubbing his back soothingly and shooting a glance at Inuyasha, Kagome pressed on, "What did he do, Shiro-san?"

She felt Shiro tightly grip onto her rapidly wet shirt. "It was everywhere…" he started before a choke cut him off. She continued to rub his back as she waited for him to pick up where he left off.

After a couple deep breaths, Shiro continued. "Sand. He controlled the sand. His eyes became so eerie as the sand wrapped around all the villagers a-and completely crushed them. I was coming back to the village and some of his sand latched on and crushed my arm and foot before I managed to get away. B-but not before I saw everyone in the village die by his sand."

"Who was he?" Inuyasha demanded. He was only met with more crying from the man and he had to wait for the villager to quiet down again.

"Shiro-san?" Kagome prompted.

She got no response and felt Shiro completely slump against her as he lost consciousness, most likely from the pain of his foot and the emotional stress he was under. She carefully placed him down and looked at her companions. "Do you think the monster he talked about is another detachment of Naraku's?"

"I was coming to the same conclusion, Lady Kagome," Miroku said, "But I find it odd that Naraku would attack a village boy first before destroying everyone in the village at the same time. It doesn't add up. And Naraku has never had the ability to control sand before."

"Keh," Inuyasha flexed his claws, "Naraku loves toying with people and showing others how powerful he is. He started with the kid to get the rest of the villagers to fight. And then he showed his dominance by slaughtering them all. And the sand thing is strange, but so is Naraku. He could have talked with that dark miko again," he paused as he watched Kagome shudder, "or maybe he absorbed a demon that controlled sand."

"But if it was Naraku, wouldn't I have sensed jewel shards by now?" Kagome wondered aloud.

"Whoever or whatever he is just killed an entire village. We must act quickly and cautiously as we approach the village. Even if it is a detachment of Naraku, we still don't know what we are up against and we need to be ready." Sango said, ever the warrior.

"Kagome, get the villager to the nearest villa—" Inuyasha began.

"No. There is no way I am letting you guys risk your life while I travel some more. And besides, the 'nearest village' just got completely destroyed," Kagome huffed.

"You're not strong enough, wench! You just wasted you power on him and there is no way in hell I am going to waste my time in battle saving your ass every time!" Inuyasha argued. Kagome knew his coarse words just meant he was worried about her and that he cared for her, but she wasn't weak anymore.

"My powers are back!" She lied.

"Oh yeah? Prove it." Inuyasha countered smugly.

Crap. Think Kagome, think! Do you want to sit out on another battle and let everyone else risk their lives? Then the answer hit her. "While we talked, some of my powers came back. Not all of them, but enough so I can fight. I am not going to use them in some display to prove to you anything when I need to be saving them to defeat whoever destroyed that village." Kagome haughtily responded, which only infuriated Inuyasha more.

"Are you sure you are able to fight, Kagome?" Miroku questioned before Inuyasha had a chance to argue some more. Miroku's eyes pierced hers and she felt like he could see into her soul. No! I can't! I'm lying through my teeth! She screamed in her mind, but somehow managed to nod her head in yes. His eyes evaluated hers one last time before he sighed in resignation.

"Shippo," Sango called, seeing that Kagome was apparently going to be fighting after all. Said orange fur ball appeared and pouted, already sensing that he would be missing out on another battle. "Please transform and take Shiro-san to get help for his foot as fast as you can."

"But—" Shippo started.

"Shippo-kun, can you please do this for us? I couldn't carry him there by myself and you are such a strong demon, I'm sure you'd have no problem with it at all," Kagome pleaded.

When in doubt, inflate the ego.

Shippo's chest puffed up and he transformed into a giant bubble thing before Sango placed the villager upon him. "Can I have some pocky too Kagome?" he asked.

"Certainly Shippo!" Kagome responded.

Of course, bribery worked just as well as ego fanning.

The group waited until Shippo was out of sight before springing into action. Sango got her boomerang ready, Inuyasha unsheathed the Tessaiga, Miroku grasped onto his prayer beads, and Kagome got her bow and arrow in hand.

Nodding to each other, they all started to advance upon the village, Inuyasha leading. They saw the first signs of the attack as they approached some crop fields.

Blood.

It was everywhere.

It reminded Kagome of the time when she was a little girl and decided that painting would be more fun if she could paint outside of just a piece of paper. When her mother came home, there was pink paint covering all the walls, globs of it on the floor, the furniture had splotches of pink here and there, and upon a previously crème couch sat a pink splotched girl.

Except here, it wasn't paint.

It was blood.

Kagome gulped as she took in the fields that had blood splattered graciously as if it was some kind of fertilizer. Actually, there were even white specks in the blood, making it look even more like fertilizer. White flecks? What are those—

Kagome felt the bile work its way up her throat as she realized what the white flecks were. She had to close her eyes for a few moments before opening them again so she wouldn't throw up.

Bone.

The white was bone.

Shiro-san was telling the truth when he said people were crushed completely. Only thing left was bits of bone and blood.

Lots and lots of blood.

"Kagome," Inuyasha was suddenly in front of her. He gazed worriedly into her eyes and brought his hand up to squeeze her shoulder comfortingly. It wasn't a lot for anyone else, but Kagome knew that it took a lot for Inuyasha to show affection, especially in front of other people, and that alone made Kagome put on a weak smile and deliver an affectionate squeeze upon his hand on her arm before continuing to follow Miroku and Sango.

She tried to avoid stepping on the remains of villagers, but when she said it was everywhere, it was everywhere and impossible to avoid walking on.

Kagome was instantly thankful that Shippo took Shiro-san instead of her. If she was having a hard time with this, there was no way Shippo would be able to handle it.

As they approached some of the compounds, the gruesome sight was made even worse. Blood splattered the huts and ran thickly down the side of roofs and walls. It seemed to seep out of the homes as if it were the huts that were injured and bleeding.

Silent tears made the way down her face as they pressed on. The terror these people went through… Kagome gulped and held in the sobs she wanted to deliver. She needed to be strong.

She saw Sango tense and motion them over with her hand. Looking down, Kagome saw what had caught her attention. There, scattered in blood at the base of one hut, was a thin piece of yellow and a bit of a transparent wing.

"Saimyosho," Inuyasha whispered. He gave them a hard look and took the lead again. Kagome noticed his knuckles turn white as his grip on the Tessaiga tightened. He was just as nervous as the rest of them.

The further they went into the village, the more blood there was and the more destroyed Saimyosho they would see. It was really getting to Kagome, and she suspected from Sango's teary eyes and Miroku's restless twiddling of his prayer beads, it was taking its toll on everyone else.

Inuyasha's ears twitched again and he tensed.

He slowly made his way to the center of the village, being careful to remain hidden as he did so. Kagome, Miroku, and Sango all followed. And soon they heard what Inuyasha heard.

Crying.

Not just crying, though. Sobbing. Heart wrenching, uncontrollable sobbing.

Inuyasha eventually stopped in shock a couple of houses in front of them. Catching up to him, Kagome peered around the hut and promptly froze too.

There, crumpled on the ground facing away from them was a small boy, still a child. He was emitting the deep sobs and mumbling 'sorry' over and over again.

Kagome thought of her paint incident and thought of how she was splashed with pink paint everywhere. And this boy was splashed too. Just as she was.

"Inuyasha," she whispered brokenly, making sure to be as quiet as physically possible so not to give away their position. "Do you think h-he, that little boy, did all of this?"

She watched Inuyasha shift uncomfortably, "I can't be sure, but I think so. Do you hear him? He keeps apologizing. He had to have done something bad."

"Despite the Saimyosho, I do not see any other signs of Naraku. That, however, doesn't mean he couldn't be controlling this boy," Sango growled lowly. Tears were coating her cheeks now. Kagome knew this one hit too close for home for the young slayer. Sango's brother Kohaku was controlled by Naraku via a jewel shard lodged in his back and Naraku forced Kohaku to do horrible things. Things as bad as even this.

Miroku put a hand on Sango's shoulder and reasoned, "I am not so sure it is Naraku's doing. Kagome surely would have sensed a jewel shard if the child was being controlled."

"Yashamaru!" the cry from the boy startled the group out of their thinking and they instantly refocused back on the small red-headed child.

"Yashamaru! It hurts! It hurts so much!" he cried out and grasped his chest. Kagome inched forward to help the child but Inuyasha latched onto her wrist and shoved her back behind him.

"He's still dangerous," Inuyasha growled out.

"I didn't mean to! I didn't mean to kill them! He did it, Yashamaru! Make the pain go away. I don't know how to fix it. Are you sure it's been given to me? Because it hurts so bad, Yashamaru!" the boy continued to sob.

Inuyasha grabbed Kagome and pulled her back behind the hut. Miroku and Sango stopped peering around and joined them.

"Well, we know the kid is definitely behind all of this," Inuyasha muttered, deeming it okay to release Kagome. She rubbed her wrist and could make out the light blue color of bruising already.

"Yes, but the question is, what do we do about it?" Miroku asked.

"Keh, that's easy. We kill him," Inuyasha brought his sword up.

Kagome was completely disgusted by Inuyasha. "He's a child Inuyasha! You want us to kill a child?" she yelled.

She felt Sango grab onto her arm, "we've killed young before Kagome. We have to kill younger demons sometimes, in order to protect innocent lives."

"Younger demons, maybe," Kagome regretfully consented, "but not human children."

"I was meaning to ask Inuyasha about that. Not meaning to contradict you, Lady Kagome, but I do not believe the child is human. If he has the ability to control sand, it is much more likely that he is a demon. However, I must admit that I have never heard of a demon being able to control such an element in my travels before. Inuyasha, do you smell any demon in him?" Miroku asked.

"The smell of blood is too strong, I can't smell anything except it," Inuyasha responded, sniffing slightly.

"What should we do?" Sango asked while shifting her weight from side to side, obviously anxious for some kind of decision.

"I still think we should kill it." Inuyasha insisted.

"No," Kagome responded, just as insistently. "Didn't you hear how sad he was? He obviously didn't mean to do any of this. He is hurt and doesn't know what to do and no one is there to help him!"

"So you think if you just go up and hug him, you will be able to fix the kid of all his problems? It doesn't work like that, Kagome!"

"Who's there?" The scared voice of the boy sounded. Inuyasha didn't realize how loud his own voice had gotten while he was trying to talk Kagome out of another one of her stupid and reckless plans. Apparently their target had found out he was being watched.

The sand around them started to rustle and after it was too late they realized that sand had wrapped around them painfully and they were being dragged towards the boy.

0000000000

Gaara was so confused. His uncle, Yashamaru, explained to him that the only way to fix the pain inside of him was love. And Yashamaru said that his mother loved him.

So why did he still feel the pain? Why didn't it go away?

He tried to give the boy he hurt medicine to help, but the boy refused and called him a monster.

You are a monster, Gaara. A demon.

"Shut up!" Gaara cried. That voice that would suddenly appear in his head, the reason why he didn't sleep, the reason why people were afraid of him.

The reason why he killed.

You enjoy the kill as much as I.

"That's a lie!" Gaara shouted, walking farther and farther away from home. The farther he was, the less likely he would hurt anyone else.

He hated to hurt other people, especially Yashamaru.

Gaara hugged himself tighter as the cool night wind of the desert whipped around him. He didn't know where he was going, but he needed to get away. And it was okay, too.

Because nobody would miss him.

Yashamaru, maybe, but even he would eventually get over it. Everyone in Suna feared and hated him. His father hated him the most.

Not for the first time, Gaara wondered what it would have been like if his mother was still alive. Would his father have still hated him, or would he have loved him? Would Gaara have grown up with tons of friends? Would this voice still taunt him, or would he have never heard it?

You could have never escaped me. I am you.

"Stop it! Please just stop it!" Gaara collapsed on the ground, crying. It hurt. It hurts so much. Why can't I be just like everyone else?

"Why am I always alone?" He whispered to himself.

He received no answer, not from the sky, not from the voice in his head. He truly was alone.

Gaara curled up and continued to cry a bit. Seeking comfort from another person and receiving none, he imagined that his arms that wrapped around him were actually someone else's, like Yashamaru or his father. And they were comforting him.

But his imagination could only bring him so far, for when the tears stopped and he stood up, there was no one comforting him. There was only a pitiful little boy, hugging himself.

Gaara turned further away from his home and walked out of the gates of Sunagakure, the ninja guarding the village letting him pass through without any confrontation. They were terrified of the boy after he tried to pass through the gates a week ago and a ninja attempted to stop him.

And the kid killed the ninja without lifting a finger.

Gaara wasn't sure where he was going, but he knew he needed to get away from his village. He would never completely leave his village, he was loyal, but he needed to get away from the stares and shivers he always evoked in others.

At least for a little while.

So he allowed himself to wander across the dunes and gaze up at the stars. If he could never seek comfort from another, at least he could from nature. The sand around him was being softly picked up by the wind and settled upon new dunes. The stars were bright in the sky. The unbearable heat of the desert was a sharp chill in the night.

It was…peaceful.

Gaara focused back on the ground as he noticed the sand around him twitch agitatedly. He wasn't doing it, at least not consciously. It started to wind up his arms and tug him forward.

What was happening?

He struggled against it, but it responded only by tightening and tugging him harsher forward. His sand had never reacted like this before. It was completely out of his control, so he did the only thing he could think of.

He followed.

00000000000000000

So I think that's where I want to stop this chapter at, even though I want to write more! My friend told me not to make the first chapter too long…so blame her.

The next chapter will continue where this one left off and be told from Gaara's perspective at the beginning. And just so no one is confused, Gaara isn't in Sengoku Jidai yet, so his confrontation with Kagome and the gang will resume in the next chapter.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I love Gaara so much and I'd been toying around with this idea for quite some time before finally growing a pair and deciding to write it down. I just hoped you liked reading it as much as I loved writing it.

Please review! You've made it this far, all you have to do now is press one little button and express your thoughts in a review for me!

Thank you.

Kitkatattack