SANGO'S DILLEMA

Chapter 1: The Child That Sango Saved:

It was a normal day for the group, everything was going as normal as it could be for feudal Japan. Inuyasha and Kagome had gotten into another argument which, of course, ended with Inuyasha being sat and Kagome giving him the silent treatment. Miroku and Sango had given up trying to get them to talk to one another over an hour ago. Shippo who, as usual, had sided with Kagome and was now sitting in the basket of her bike while she walked with Sango and Kirara near the back. Miroku walked closer to the center of the group, and like always Inuyasha was at the front, making him the first to see the smoke and hear the cries off in the distance. Inuyasha immediately stopped, which caused everyone else to stop in their tracks and look up at the smoke that was coming from off in the distance, Inuyasha growled and clenched his fists.

"Damn, I smell human blood, something bad is happening over there." He said. Kagome, who was now at the front of the group, suddenly turned pale as she looked at the smoke and uttered the words. "I sense a whole bunch of Sacred Jewel shards in that direction!" Miroku ran up to the front, closely followed by Sango. Miroku scowled and looked at the orange glow that was growing near the smoke. "I bet this is Naraku's doing, let's hurry and see what's going on!" Kirara transformed and Sango mounted her back, Shippou hopped on with her and they took off into the air.

Kagome was peddling furiously on her bike in an effort to keep up with Inuyasha, Miroku was also sprinting closely behind. By the time they got there, over half the village was consumed in flames, and the all too familiar sounds of Kagura's cackling was heard echoing through the air. Inuyasha gripped the Tetsusaiga tightly and looked around. Not being able to see Kagura, he angrily shouted. "Kagura, show yourself, come out and fight!" Miroku had run to the few huts that were not completely consumed by flames and had begun hurrying villagers from them.

Kagome and Sango where doing their best to try and put out some of the flames with Kirara's help, but it was in vain, the huts were soon consumed in the flames and burned to the ground. Sango was about to turn and run back to help Inuyasha and Miroku, when she heard a faint cry coming from a behind her. She turned to see a hut that was not yet completely consumed in flames, and coming from inside was the cry of a frightened baby. She quickly ran over to the hut, running through the flames near the door and began frantically searching for where the cries of terror were coming from. She ran into a room that had been blackened with smoke and ash and saw a small rocking cradle. Near the cradle, two adults, a man and a woman, lay motionless on the ground, their faces red from the heat of the flames and their eyes completely void of any life.

Sango's face paled as she saw the child that was screaming in fear, it was a small infant, looking no more then a little over a week old. "It's parent's must have suffocated from the smoke." She said to herself. She was surprised by a loud cracking sound, she looked up to see a block of wood hanging loosely over the child's crib, her face paled as she saw that it was about to fall and crush the child. She rushed to the child and quickly grabbed it, wrapping the blanket it was covered in around it's body, all except his face was covered. She quickly ran back through the hut and out of it, just before the hut collapsed and burst into no more then a giant, burning pile of wood and flames.

Mean while, Inuyasha and Miroku had been locked in a fierce battle with Kagura. Kagome had been knocked unconscious earlier, when Kagura's winds had sent a piece of a broken wood pillar flying at her head, it had hit her directly in the temple and she had fallen limp. Inuyasha, enraged by seeing Kagome fall limp and motionless, had assumed the worst and was now fighting in a blind rage, slashing at Kagura with the Tetsusaiga. Kagura was able to easily predict his moves and dodge, since Inuyasha was fighting in a blind rage and not concentrating, he had lost his train of thought and was now making his moves obvious. With Inuyasha attacking blindly and refusing to shy away from his attacks, Miroku was unable to use his wind tunnel to try and defeat her, which he wasn't honestly sure would work on her even if he could use it.

Kagura was, after all, a wind sorceress, he wasn't sure if she would be sucked in by the wind tunnel, or if she would merely turn it back on himself. Either way, it did not matter right now. Inuyasha was fighting blindly, and that was almost never a good thing for anyone, including Inuyasha himself. All Miroku was able to do for the time being, was to stand idly by, and watch, as Inuyasha made his strategic less and blind attacks. Inuyasha growled in an fierce rage and dove at Kagura, slashing at her with the Tetsusaiga, he had missed again, this time Kagura had come up with a stomach to Inuyasha's knee, momentarily knocking the wind from him,

Inuyasha gasped, his eyes widening in pain and he stopped in mid slice, gasping and trying to breath as he dropped the Tetsusaiga and clenched his stomach. It was all he could do to mutter through clenched teeth as he glared at Kagura. "Damn you...w-wench, I-I'll kill you." Kagura smirked some, bringing her fan up in front of her face, she giggled in her normal evil, taunting tone. "Such a foolish little puppy, aren't you. You're attacking blindly, you'll never defeat me like this." She raised her fan into the air, ready to deliver the final blow and finish Inuyasha, when from no where she was struck in the ribs by Sango's boomerang, which was followed by the echo of her cry, "Hiraikotsu!" Kagura fell to the ground, then stood up and looked over to Sango.

Seeing that Sango held a bundle in her arms, which was squirming and crying as it was held. Kagura grinned behind her fan, then reached to her hair and removed one of the feathers which were pinned to her hair, she then looked to Inuyasha, her eyes gleaming as she smirked at him while he was struggling back to his feet. "Well, Inuyasha. I'm afraid that as much fun as I'm having with you, I must take my leave, but don't worry, little puppy. I will be back, to claim your head." She then tossed the feather, which grew to a large size. Kagura climbed onto the feather and took off into the sky, soon disappearing over the horizon. Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku, all ran over to Kagome's side, where Shippo was already attempting to wake her. Inuyasha knelt down next to Kagome and lifted her head off the ground.

"Kagome, Kagome! Wake up, open your eyes Kagome, please!" Inuyasha shouted, shaking her gently. Kagome groaned in pain, but slowly her eyes began to open. She looked up at Inuyasha through blurred eyes, she squinted for a bit, but soon her vision returned to normal and she could see clearly again. She reached her hand up slowly to touch her head, but quickly pulled it away when her touch was met with a throbbing pain in her fore head. "I-Inu..yasha...what happened?" Inuyasha held her tightly to him and sighed in relief, he looked down at her and said as quietly and clearly as he could, so as not to cause her anymore head pains. "Kagura attacked us, you were knocked unconscious but everything is ok now, we defeated her and she left."

Miroku, mean while, had been in deep thought. Something didn't seem right to him, but he couldn't quite place what it was that was bugging him about the battle. 'Kagura had the upper hand, why did she leave so quickly when she could have easily finished us off? Granted, Sango's interference did seem to catch her off guard, but it wouldn't have done anymore then buy us a few more minutes before defeat. So why did she leave?' He thought to himself. He was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard a loud cry, he turned his head and looked to Sango, and the bundle she was holding her arms. He hadn't noticed it earlier, when Sango had attacked Kagura. He walked over to her and looked at the bundle. "What have you got there, Sango?" He asked.

Sango turned her attention from the bundle to the rest of the group, who were now standing around her and looking at the bundle wrapped in her arms. She looked back down at the infant which she was cradling in her arms and holding close to her chest. "It's a baby, I found it in one of the huts before it burned down. It's parents had suffocated from the smoke, I couldn't just leave it there to die, so I took him from his crib and ran out of the hut before it collapsed." The others stood gathered around her and the child, watching as it squirmed and cooed in it's sleep. Inuyasha blinked a bit and sniffed at the child, his eyes widened slightly in shock and he pulled quickly away from it. "Sango, get ride of that thing, now!" Everyone turned to Inuyasha and looked at him in shock, Sango scowled and looked angrily at Inuyasha. "And why should I? It's only a child, I'm not going to abandon it and just leave it here to die!"

Kagome looked half ready to sit Inuyasha into the ground, but before she could, Inuyasha shouted back at Sango. "That 'Infant' is carrying the scent of a demon! It's a Hanyou!" Everyone turned and looked at the child in Sango's arms. Sango looked skeptical, but she had never had any reason to doubt Inuyasha's word before, she reached her hand up slowly to the part of the blanket which had been covering the child's head, and gently pulled the part of the blanket away from it's head. Everyone looked at the child in shock, starring in disbelief at the child, who's head was covered in a thin shroud of white hair, and had two little, white, pointed, dog-like ears on top of it's head, making it look like an exact double of Inuyasha.