Aljan Moonfire does not own Inuyasha in any way, shape, or form.

"Speaking."

'Thinking.'

.-. - scene break and/or POV change

Prologue: Grief and Resolve

Kagome fell through time, her long dark hair billowing with the power inherent in the well that she always trusted to take her home. As always, she landed gently, the soft caress of swirling blue power setting her lightly on her feet. She looked up to check her location, purely out of habit, and was unsurprised to see the roof of the well-house blocking out the sky.

Hitching her old yellow back-pack up on her shoulders, she quickly began to climb the side of the well. Lately she had been spending more and more time in the past, and she was grateful that Inuyasha had promised to give her a week and a half to spend some time with her biological family.

Lately she'd felt like she'd been neglecting them in favor of the strange family she had formed five hundred years in the past. Of course, she also knew that the only reason Inuyasha had conceded so easily was that he'd been distracted by the soul-stealers that had been floating around the forest lately.

It had also been almost three years since she had first been pulled through the well. She'd be turning eighteen over the next week. It had been over a year ago now since she and her companions had had that final confrontation with Naraku at Mt. Hakurei. It didn't help that they hadn't even gotten a glimpse of the foul hanyou since.

Every once and a while they'd be on the foul end of one the monster's cowardly plots, but Inuyasha hadn't managed to get the former human at sword point in a very long time. She knew very well that the Inu-hanyou had gotten far beyond frustrated with the lack of progress in the past year. These days almost all he did was sulk and push her to find more jewel shards.

Not that she could really blame him, but it would be a relief to get away from him for a while. Either way, she had gotten a bit off topic with her thoughts. She sighed and, opening the door a crack to check for witnesses, breathed a sigh of relief when she saw no one there. Feeling free to continue with her reminiscing, she did so.

It hadn't been long after their confrontation with that creepy baby and Kagura that they'd head rumors of a priestess with strong powers traveling through the area. Inuyasha had immediately drawn parallels with his dead lover and had, almost desperately, pushed them all to look for her.

Many different things had happened, things that she didn't really feel like going into right now, but eventually it turned out that the dog-boy had been right. It had indeed been Kikyo that had been the wandering priestess. However, the undead woman had been working through shikigami because she had been badly injured by Naraku's attacks.

Of course, when the woman's disciples had come to Kagome for assistance with purifying the miasma that had slowly been corrupting and destroying Kikyo's clay body, she had immediately agreed to help. It had taken a lot out of her, but she had managed to heal the woman.

When she had woken Kikyo had been gone, but she had just smiled, feeling tired and accomplished. As Kikyo had soon found out, when she had purified the deadly poison she hadn't just healed Kikyo's body, but her very soul.

She had taken away as much hatred and betrayal as she could from her incarnation's heart, and given up at little bit more of her own soul in return. As a result Kikyo could once again feel love, and happiness, and all the positive emotions that made life worth living.

Of course, because Kikyo was dead, no matter how fiercely she clung to life, the emotions were muffled. Despite this, when the woman now thought of Inuyasha it was no longer with unbearable hatred and sadness, but joy and love. She was now able to appreciate the beauty of the world around her again, and instead of simply going through the motions of her duty, she was able to enjoy it.

Astonished, Kikyo had immediately sought out her reincarnation and asked her about it. After that rather enlightening conversation, one which untangled much that had much muddled and misunderstood between them, the two incarnations of the same soul had declared a truce, one that had lasted ever since.

Kagome shook her head to rid it of the introspective thoughts, and pushed open the front door of the house, calling as she did so, "Mama! I'm home!"

Higurashi Nodoka* stuck her head out of the kitchen to welcome home her daughter, "Welcome back, Kagome." The kind woman said with a soft smile.

"It's good to be back." The girl replied with a soft smile as she dropped her large bag in the walkway. After toeing off her shoes the teenager joined her mother in the kitchen.

"We weren't expecting you back so soon," Nodoka told Kagome as she gave her daughter a welcoming hug.

"I managed to convince Inuyasha that letting me back early was a good thing." She replied and then grinned, "You don't mind do you?"

"Of course not, sweetheart." Was her response. "Why don't you go take a bath while I finish up diner?" the woman suggested.

"Sure!" Kagome replied enthusiastically. One of the things she missed the most about the future when she was in the past was the convenience of daily baths and/or showers. She quickly dashed back out the foyer to grab her bag and then made her way upstairs. After dropping her things off in her room and grabbing a clean towel she began to run her bath.

Ten minutes later when she sunk down into the water and relaxed she smiled. "It's good to be home…" she muttered to herself.

.-.

It was less than a week later that Kagome found herself wandering around the mall that was only a short train ride from her family's shrine. Taking an empty table that was small enough to fit only a couple of people at a nearby café, she sat down and quickly ordered something to drink and a pastry.**

When her warm drink arrived she raised it to her lips and took a sip, slowly inhaling the familiar fumes. Whenever she had time to relax like this in her time she was always struck by the paradox that was her own existence. That she was able to feel so at home in such different worlds (for that's what they may as well be) always astonished her.

She loved the past. Despite the dangers that prowled the lands of the Sengoku Jidai, she always found something there to make it worth it. Whether it was her friends, or her adoptive son, or the simple pleasure she was able to take in seeing every star in the sky when she looked up at night, the past never failed to settle something restless in her soul.

But here, in the future… It was where she was raised, where her family was, where she had spent the first fifteen years of her life, unknowing of the immense power nestled in her body and soul. And sometimes, when she sat in a place like this, nibbling away at something sweet in an anonymous coffee shop, she could forget.

Forget about battles and blood and the incessant pulling on her soul that dragged her here and there across the countryside. Forget about pain and screams and death and an innocence she'd never realized she had being ever so slowly stripped away from her. And she'd close her eyes and smile.

But then she would open her eyes and stare down at the hard calluses that had been slowly built up over the years she'd spent wielding a bow and arrow, the small occasional scar marring the smooth skin. And she'd remember. And still, she would smile.

As she smiled she glanced out the clear window of the small shop and her eyes widened as she saw three familiar faces, laughing together like the best friends that they were. Her eyes softened with sadness as she remembered a time when she was one of them.

It had been over two years ago now that she and her three friends had finally graduated from middle school. She had somehow managed to convince her stubborn hanyou friend to let her come for the graduation ceremony.

Afterwards, when the four girls had managed to escape from the throngs of people wishing them well, she had had to listen with sadness as Yuka and Ayumi began to exchange their plans for high school and cheer excitedly about passing the exam to go to the same school. When Eri had turned to her to ask about her plans, she'd had to explain to them how her illnesses were getting worse and that she would have to be home schooled.

They had all been very sympathetic, and promised to keep in touch, promising that they would always be the best of friends, and it had almost made her want to cry. Here her best friends were, trying to comfort her, and here she was, lying straight to their faces. She hadn't seen them since.

Not because they didn't want to see her, or hadn't tried to call and ask how she was and if she wanted to hang out sometime. She was the one avoiding them. She knew that if she met them it would somehow lead to a conversation about Inuyasha, or how she was feeling, and she'd have to lie to them again. She hated lying. And while at the time she had seen the necessity in the stories, when she had graduated she had no longer felt the need to lie to an entirely new student body.

It had hurt, and made her feel like she was abandoning her future for the past, but she had also seen the necessity in the action. She had a responsibility, a duty, to gather the jewel shards and to guard the jewel once it was whole. With her and her group ranging farther and farther out from the village of Edo in their seemingly endless search for Naraku and jewel shards, she just couldn't keep up with two such separate and straining lives. The home schooling was the only compromise she could see.

She ducked down as far as she could in her chair without drawing even more attention to herself and pulled her long dark hair from its clasp; letting it fall forward to shield her face from sight as her former best friends made their way into the coffee shop.

Kagome stiffened as they somehow chose the table right behind her and listened to their on going conversation with one ear. Sipping at her cooling drink, she focused on listening and frowned as she did so. The people and places that they were talking about were entirely unfamiliar to her, their voices lower and smoother with an unfamiliar maturity she'd never heard in them before.

They stayed and spoke for a good hour and even when they finally left they never recognized they person they had sat so close to. Once she was sure they were gone she sat upright again and tucked her hair behind her ears, leaving it loose. She stared slightly mournfully into the pooled remains of the formerly warm drink that nestled loosely in her hand.

Kagome twisted her lips into a slight grimace and swiftly knocked back the last of the beverage. As she carefully set it back down and picked up the tab a waitress had left there almost half an hour ago, she pondered what had just happened, and what it meant.

Her friends had moved on. They hadn't replaced her, or gone out of their way to forget her; but they had moved on all the same. They were growing up, probably getting ready to enter university, and however much they may have disliked it, they were leaving behind the people they had been. They were leaving her behind too.

Suddenly pausing in the process of leaving a tip, the young woman gave a slight shake of her head and continued in her action. No, they hadn't left her behind; they'd left each other behind. And she also knew that it was her fault, not theirs. She had no right to sulk about it.

She gave a slight smile. She was happy for them; really and truly. And she supposed it was time she moved on too. She had two families waiting for her after all. She quickly pulled on the light sweater she had removed when she'd entered the shop an hour and a half ago, paid, and left.

What should she bring back for Shippo this time?

.-.

Two hours later Kagome hummed a happy tune she couldn't quite recall the words to under her breath as the stepped off the train, full shopping bags hanging from each of her hands. Suddenly she stopped and blinked lightly, a strange and foreboding feeling clutching at her heart.

She quickly shook it off and tried to begin humming again but her upbeat mood was long lost now. She shrugged and, readjusting her grip on the bags as she did so, swiftly made her way down the sidewalk, weaving through the other pedestrians with the practiced ease a city dweller never forgets.

Suddenly, multiple sirens wailed through the air as two fire trucks and a police car raced by her in the same direction she had been going. She heard someone near her comment, "Isn't that the direction of the Higurashi Shrine?" he asked.

Kagome's eyes widened and she was suddenly pushing her way through the crowd, all grace gone as she raced her way down the last few blocks left of her journey, that foreboding feeling quickly securing a new and tighter grip on her suddenly heavy heart.

When she saw the smoke and fire rising above the familiar tori gates that led to her family's shrine she suddenly felt as though she was moving through water, unable to move fast enough to escape the desperate fear dragging at her straining limbs.

.-.

The next few days passed in a blur of horror and grief, her eyes unbearably dry as arrangements were made and funerals given. As there were no other surviving relatives and she had recently turned eighteen, the deed to the remains of the Higurashi Shrine was handed over to her, along with anything that had once belonged to her family

She knew she was in shock, knew that as soon as their deaths finally sunk in she'd break, so, for now at least, she clung desperately to the numbness that had enveloped her ever since she had heard the news. Her mind, sharp with pain and grief that, even when numbed by shock, almost drowned her, flew through temporary solutions to her problems and then her body followed through.

Using the money she had inherited, she rented a nearby storage facility and everything that had been salvaged from the remains of the shrine was stored there. Numbly, she packed the new bag she had bought on her trip to the mall on that day that seemed so long ago now, but was really only three days, with the supplies she had also bought then.

Her eyes darkened by the pent up onslaught of emotions she was so carefully keeping under lock and key, Kagome stepped back onto the shrine grounds, carefully avoiding looking at the ash covered remains of what had been her home. The unshakable Goshinboku still stood there; tall and proud as ever despite the persistent scorch marks that were etched into the earth around it. However, her attention was centered on the well house that somehow still stood on shaky legs, guarding what lied within.

She didn't even remember opening the door or jumping into the well, and the next thing she knew, she was collapsed on the ground beside it, five hundred years into the past, sobbing uncontrollably and incoherently into a shoulder the same size as her own as cool arms encircled her in a sympathetic embrace.

.-.

Kikyo had been in the area for awhile, wandering through the forest and occasionally visiting Inuyasha. She had watched as her reincarnation had jumped down the Bone Eater's Well, smiling at the chance to visit her family.

So, she was quite surprised when the girl emerged from the well over three days early. The undead priestess quickly set up a light barrier so Inuyasha wouldn't notice their presence, and moved out of the trees to greet the other miko as she clambered out of the dry well.

She was even more shocked when, on sighting her, the younger girl immediately latched onto the normally stoic woman and began to sob, unintelligible words pouring out of her mouth between harsh breaths. She quickly strengthened the barrier so that the sounds of Kagome's sorrow couldn't escape, and hesitantly returned the embrace in hopes of comforting the clearly distraught girl.

Ever so slowly Kagome's tears softened and eventually died off all together. Kagome suddenly thought to wonder who it had been that had held her through the out pouring of her grief and stiffened in embarrassment, slowly drawing away.

She was slightly surprised that it had been her previous incarnation, but slightly relieved as well. Though Sango could probably relate to her loss the best, it was Kikyo that understood her personally the most.

Perhaps it was because the two young women were two parts of the same soul, but once they'd had a chance to work out their differences they had become very close. They both admired parts of the other and could relate very well to the sadness that occupied the darkest parts of their hearts. They had come to realize that they understood each other very well, despite their early enmity.

"What happened, Kagome?" Kikyo asked gently, curious and wanting to help her friend as best she could.

Kagome's eyes grew darker in their grief once again, and Kikyo inwardly worried that the other girl might begin to cry once more. But Kagome just shut her eyes softly as a single tear trailed down her cheek and explained.

She told Kikyo about her trip to the mall and how she had returned to find almost nothing left of her family's shrine when she returned. Her entire house had burnt to the ground with her mother, little brother, and grandfather inside. Before the firefighters could get there, the fires had spread, encroaching on even the main shrine and the forest to the back as well.

There had been no survivors.

She gave a half sob as she finally accepted it. Her family, the family she had grown up surrounded by, the family that she had loved with her whole being, the family that had loved her back, the family that had supported her through all of her trips into the past… They were gone. And they would never come back.

As Kikyo waited patiently for her reincarnation to calm down again, wrapping a single arm around the younger girl in comfort as she did; Kagome thought, and grieved, and realized that she never wanted something like this to happen again.

Just as she had reflected in the coffee shop, she had had two families, one in the past and one in the future. Now that her 'future' family was gone she would protect her 'past'. And there was only one way that she could think of to do it. Now she just had to gather the courage to ask.

Then she blinked in realization. "Where is Inuyasha?" she wondered out loud to her previous incarnation. She knew just how keen her hanyou friend's nose was and normally he'd have been here as soon as he scented her appearance in the past.

Smiling slightly in amusement at the sudden change in subject, Kikyo replied, "I would assume somewhere near the village. I have placed a strong enough barrier around us that he shouldn't be able to sense us." She explained.

Kagome nodded in understanding and slight relief, glad that the inu-hanyou would be unable to interrupt this conversation. Then she spoke, "Kikyo?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes?" the young woman replied, slightly surprised at the other girl's uncharacteristic nervousness.

Kagome firmed her resolve and asked strongly, raising her head to look the other in the eye, "Will you train me?"

"Train you?" Kikyo repeated.

"Yes." Kagome confirmed. "I don't want to lose anybody like this ever again, and in order to protect Shippo and Sango and Miroku; Kirara, and even Inuyasha, I want to be stronger. Will you teach me how to control my powers?" she asked again. "How to be a real miko?"

Her eyes widening slightly, Kikyo nodded in understanding. She considered for moment and then replied. "Yes, I will."

Kagome hugged her previous incarnation in thanks, but it wasn't long before the young woman pushed the other off her gently. "We have a few days before Inuyasha expects you, right?" She continued when Kagome nodded.

"Well then; we might as well begin right now."

* - In the actual series Kagome's mother is never actually given a name. I chose to call her Nodoka for two reasons; the first is that Nodoka can mean calm, serene, quiet, and/or peaceful, which I think really outlines her character, brief as her appearance in this story is. I also chose it because she physically resembles Saotome Nodoka from Ranma ½ to a certain degree.

** - I'm too lazy right now to choose what she orders. Just imagine that she's eating some of your favorites.

~ Author's Note ~

I know that I probably shouldn't be starting another story right now, especially as I have two others in the works right now (both of which will probably end up eventually being of smoewhat epic length), but I really couldn't resist.

As mentioned in the summary, this is a rewrite of night flame miko's Disowned. As I was rereading it a week or two ago I was hit with an onslaught of inspiration (In fact, I already have the next few chapters in the works) and I immediately asked said miko if I could adopt it for my own.

If you have read night flame miko's version of the story before, I'm sure you've noticed the many differences between this story and that. But, I assure you, that even though it has started differently and the writing style is completely different as well, it will still follow the basic plot of the original and only diverge once I get to the point where night flame miko discontinued her version. Obviously though, I will tell it in a different way.

I hope you like it so far, and if you have any other questions feel free to review, and I'll answer as best I can. You should review anyway though you know…

~ Aljan Moonfire ~