Disclaimer: Well if it's not obvious that I don't own Inu-Yasha…. Maybe you need some professional help. Like me… we could have a club called "The Psychedelic Kangaroo's" or " The Orange Shoe's". What do you say how about it? Lol I was just kidding. Anyway R&R! Arigato!

Shades of Tyme

Chapter 1: My Life as a Millionaire

By: Bara-Chan (a.k.a Boss-Lady)

Sometimes you think nothing in the world could make you unhappy. There was a time when I believed this to be true, a time when everything in my world was perfect. Six years ago, my life was as splendid as anyone could ever imagine. I had a loving mother and father, a brand new baby brother, anything I wanted, and a beautiful home. My father was the owner of a major fashion department store chain, and my mother was a famous designer. People today compared her with such big names as Ralph Lauren, and Tommy Hilfigure.

I was 10 at the time, a beautiful "princess", and I was treated like royalty. I had as many dresses as I could wear, I had all the toys I could ever imagine, and I had a beautiful room that any girl my age would sell their soul to the devil for. Even if my parents spoiled me, I wasn't selfish. I tried to reason and get them to stop buying me things. But, alas, I was their princess. They loved me and to show me they loved me, they bought me things. My father was never around, and when he was, he was always doing business or sleeping. My mother was around almost as often as my father was, so I had nobody to talk to growing up. The only friend I ever had was my maid Sango.

Sango was my age, and my mother highered her to pick out my clothing each morning and feed me three times a day. My nanny was in charge of everything else such as cleaning up my messes and making sure I didn't get into to much trouble. Sango would stop by my room each morning with a beautiful dress, and when I grew older and tiered of girly dresses, she would bring me whatever I asked for. Sango, although she was my maid, was seen as an equal in my eyes. Every day when she would stop by my room to give me my outfit and my breakfast, I would beg her to let me get my outfits on my own. I hated the fact that my best friend was like my personal slave.

Sango and I grew up together, from the day she was hired when we were 8. My mother adored Sango because, unlike me, she had a great fashion sense. Me being the daughter of a fashion designer, and not having much fashion sense myself, made me the laughing stock of my family. Only they knew that I had a maid to pick my clothing out for me each morning.

My life was always filled with lavish parties for the fun of it and splendid celebrations when they were needed. From the day I was born, until the day I was introduced into society, my life was as fine as I ever thought it would be. I had everything any girl my age would want, except the freedom to be normal. I hated not being able to have friends who weren't rich, and I hated not being able to do things normal girls do, like see movies and bowl. But, one of the biggest bummers as I grew older, was that I was not aloud to date! From the minute I was conceived inside my mother's womb, I was betrothed to a rich man who could offer me my hearts desire, and also offer my mother and father the comfort of knowing their rich legacy would be carried on into their grandchildren.

When I was 14, and going through changes all normal girls go through, I was forced to be schooled by a private tutor, and I could only leave the house to take a stroll through the rose gardens with my "rich and socially acceptable" friends. But, at the same time as this was happening to me, Sango was going to a normal public school, dating on weekend nights, and hanging out everyday after school with her friends. Everyday when Sango came to my room to feed me my dinner and then get me ready for bed (as in hand me my dinner, and then talk till the wee hours of the morning), she would tell me all about her day, and the world in which she lived and I did not. She would tell me all the latest gossip about her friends and her boy friend, and she would tell me about all the awful things that normal kids had to go through, like being laughed at in "gym" because you couldn't play "baseball" well. Everything she said was foreign to me, and I so wished I could live a normal life. But, for me, all the awful things I had to go through were things like hopping that the rich bitch girls, (a.k.a. he girls who were spoiled because of their "important" role in the rich society) weren't going to be at a party I was going to. Yea I still went through normal teenage things like mood-swings and zits, but I just wanted to be a normal mood-swingy, zit filled teenager. Not one with 3 million dollars in pocket change!

Now, because I was so rich, I was also never aloud to make normal friends. All of my "friends" were high-class girls who gossiped about their new 80,000.00 car, and how much their implants cost compared to their friends. I hated girls like them, and even though I could afford what they could, I didn't like to brag about it, and actually use the money. Anyway, there is only one person in my life that I've met that was normal. It was many years ago when I was about 7, and my family was at a high-class resort. I remember it as if it were just yesterday… how cliché is that? Mind you, this was before my life became sheer hell. My father was taking a break from his business (which meant he was only on the computer 5 hours a day and the rest was devoted to "relaxation"), and my mother was taking a class on aromatherapy. So, my nanny Kaede took me to play in the pool. But, as usual, she fell asleep leaving me to wander around by myself. Since I was seven, Sango hadn't been hired yet, so I was bored out of my mind. I mean a girl of seven with no friends is like an elephant without a trunk! Because of the happenings of that day, my mother decided getting me a "normal" girl my age to pick out my cloths might make me stop hallucinating. But, I wasn't hallucinating! Everybody in my household thought I was crazy, and Sango was the only one who ever believed me. The happenings of that day were some of the weirdest in my life, but they wouldn't compare anything to the ones I would experience later. And, all because of this day! Why, you ask would she believe me. The answer, she came from a family line of demon slayers and knew what happened was not my imagination, but life.

I played in the pool for a while, but like all little girls of seven years old; I got board and went for a walk. I walked all over the place and saw things I didn't think I'd ever see again. For instance, a group of people who had entered a contest, that the soul purpose was to see who could shove as many hotdogs into their mouths as possible. It fascinated me, and I knew my mother would be disappointed. So, I moved on. Rounding a corner I spotted children building sandcastles on the beach, and I longed to join them, but I knew my mother's keen eye for cleanliness would spot specks of sand on me, so I just choose to walk along the beach and admire all the "normal" people.

I must have wandered around the beach for only a few minutes, but to a child my age, it seemed like eternity. I saw so many things that caught my interest, such as children holding onto long pieces of string that were attacked to a piece of clothe high up in the air. I asked somebody what it was, and they told me it was called a "kite". I noticed that somewhere way down the beach there was a large portion of land that nobody was playing on. It seemed a little rockier then the rest of the beach, and just behind it there was a large line of boulders blocking off another section of beach, where nobody was either. The point that there were a few more rocks there shouldn't have stopped people from playing in that area, so like any curious child, I ran to check out why it was so barren. Approaching the empty beach I noticed a sign that read "DANGER! DUE TO SRTONGER CURRENT BEACH OFF LIMITS! NO TRESSPASSING! That's why nobody was over here then, because the water was too violent and could sweep people out to sea? Oh well, what a waste of land.

"BEEP…BEEP!" sounded the neon-pink watch on my wrist. Looking down I noticed that it was now 11:00a.m, two hours after I had left the hotel! Keade would be so furious with me when I returned! Turning to run back across the beach, something on the water's edge caught me eye. It was an orange piece of fabric floating near the boulders, and I just had to check it out being the curious person that I was. A few minutes delay wouldn't hurt would it? Approaching the edge of the water, I traced my way across the beach to where the fabric lay, and as I got closer I realized it wasn't just a piece of fabric! It was the body of a boy! He looked to be about my age, a year or two older at the most. He had on bright orange swimming trunks, and sandals made of brown leather. He had tan skin, and a swarm of silver hair surrounded his head. But, what captured my attention the most were the two dog-ears situated on top of his head. As I drew closer, they twitched in my direction, and the boy's eyes snapped open to reveal two beautiful amber eyes. I will never forget, to this day, what a spectacularly stare he gave, a stare that seemed to penetrate my very soul. But, the minute I looked into them, he turned his gaze away from me, and pulled himself up out of the water.

"Um… hi?" I said cautiously stepping over the rocks to reach the boy. "My names Kagome, are you alright?" As I continued cautiously onward, the boy turned to look at me again, and I saw in his eyes sheer terror.

"I'm fine, please let me be!" He hissed and turned around as if to run away from me.

" Oh, but you looked like you were hurt?" I said calmly wondering what was going on. How could he be lying in the water that way, and not be?

" I'm Fine okay! I don't need your help; I've never needed any body's help before!" He growled. I swear it, he growled at me! Now I really began to wonder. Who was this boy?

"Okay, but will you tell me who you are? I don't often get to meet other children. And, if I do they're all girls with assets! They're so not fun to talk to!" I said trying to get the boy talking. I mean, what kind of boy has dog ears and growls? Could he be a demon? No, demons in human form looked almost completely human. They didn't have such obvious things like dog-ears sticking out of their head! I might have been 7 years old, but I had the knowledge of someone twice my age. That was one bonus of being home schooled. All I ever got to do at home was read books. Plus, I had never met anyone outside of the rich social status before, so why not make a friend with somebody I wanted to for once?

" My names Inu-Yasha, but I can't talk to you! I… I have to go!" With that, the boy took off at full speed, and all I could do was stand there completely stunned! He just ran off, hair blowing behind him in the wind, as if he didn't have a care in the world! How rude! Maybe my parents were right in only letting me play with those proper girls. Boys were such idiots, I learned that lesson very early!

No matter, I would never forget that experience. It was the first boy besides papa and his rich businessmen that I ever met! I mean I had met boys before very briefly at fancy dinners, but it was always "Hello, and Good day," never "Hi my names Inu-Yasha!" I mean I don't think I knew one boy's name besides Mr. Something-or-other. I was such a looser then. No matter, it would all end soon after that.

Arriving back at the hotel half-an-hour later, I found my room in utter chaos as Keade and my other butler Myoga where running around throwing things out of drawers and closets searching for me. Frantically, I even saw Myoga lift up the toilet lid. Myoga was Keade's younger brother and they were bot born in Kyoto. Keade was short and a little on the heavy side, with long gray hair and one eye. I had asked her many times previous how she lost her other eye, but all she would say was, ' I'll tell you one day when you can understand such matters."

Myoga was very small (about 4'3") and had curly gray hair, and he too, was a little fat. But, with the food Keade cooked… it was no wonder. Her food was the richest tastiest food in the world! My mother offers Keade a job every week in the kitchen, but Keade always refuses stating that she loves children too much. To that I say, Whatever!

"What you guys looking for?" I questioned innocently as Myoga tripped over a stuffed animal. He fell comically flat on his face, but was back on his feet again in seconds. Myoga might have been a little fat man, but Keade and him sure could move!

" Kagome!" Keade and Myoga sighed happily in unison. " Where have you been?" they questioned again. They did they unison thing a lot and it got to be really nerve stretching. Like to the point of snapping mentally at an age way to young to have problems like that. Let's just say I've had four psychologists this month alone! Keade rushed to grasp me in a generous huge, as Myoga rushed to shut the door. That was not a good sign! A shut door always meant a blow up!

"KAGOME! Where were you? We were so worried about you! Wait till your mother hears about this!" Keade shouted stepping back from me. Her eyes had a very angry look in them, and her face had a stern tone to it. " You can't just keep wandering off like that you hear me?" She finished. She let go of my shoulders and un-stooped herself. Placing her hands on her hips in a mother-ready-for-action look, she waited for my reply.

"I'm sorry Keade-Chan, I was so bored, and being shut up in an only rich society gets really tiring. I just wanted to see what the world outside looks like! I just wanted to meet people who weren't like me!" I put on a fake pout that I knew they would buy, and I felt terrible. I never pretended to be sad to get my way with things! Was I becoming a rich spoiled girl like the ones I so despised?

" Very well, but next time don't go wandering without somebody okay?" Myoga chipped in trying to take all the responsibility of his sister's shoulders.

"Okay, I promise!" I shouted gleefully. " I did see some amazing things though! Like there was this old lady who was playing with something called a "Kite"! It was sooooooo awesome!" I started to explain to Keade. I knew she would listen, she was more of a mother to me in many was, than my biological mother was.

"That's nice dear, but go get cleaned up, your father wishes for your presence." Keade said sweetly nudging my shoulders toward the bathroom. Opening the door for me to show that she was serious, I dragged my feet behind me as I went in to get cleaned up, knowing that when I opened the door Keade would be standing there waiting to hand me a beautiful dress. One that was either pink or white, and had a bazillion bunches of lace on it! I loved dresses like those, and so did my mother. Now I know, the only reason I ever wanted to wear them was to please my mother, and I fooled myself into believing I loved them.

"Okay Keade," I said grumpily taking the final step over the threshold of the bathroom. I turned around and slowly closed the door, reminding myself that I would soon be free to play again. You know how all little children are, they love the dirt, but washing up is like enslavement!

Anyway, I turned to the left and pulled a little stool up to the counter so that I could reach the sink. Stepping up onto the intricately worked white stool, I faced myself in the mirror, and noticed how knotted my hair had gotten from the windy beach. But, just as I was about to reach for my brush in the cabinet behind it, I saw something in the reflection that shouldn't have been there. Turning around on my stool I looked behind me to make sure what I saw wasn't just an imagination. But, turning I saw nothing but the wall behind me. Turning back around to look in the mirror again, I saw it again, something I am sure of to this day! Staring back at me in the mirror was not only my sweet little face, but also the face of the boy I had seen that day!

So, how'd you like it? Ye, Ne? Please review I hate my old stories and might delete them; this story is my redemption for my sucky old ones. Sorry for such a short chapter it's just I have to save some stuff to put in the next chapter. Please review and tell me anything wrong with this story like I want to do when people spell things wrong or put something like kag and inu did something when they were four and then the author later says it happened when they were 13? What's up with that? Anyway thanks for reading this story the next chapter should be posted really soon!

Chapter 2: The Shade of my Shadow!