I do not own InuYasha, and I do not profit from this fanfic.

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Miroku Nishimura was twenty eight, and ready for a fresh start. He'd been an inner city high school science teacher for six years, but he was ready to get out. Now, he was heading back home to his late Grandfather's ranch. Despite the sad occasion, he was sure this was the change he'd been waiting for. The inheritance of the ranch would open up the world to him.

His grandpa Mushin had mentioned leaving it to him years ago and he now just had to go there and over-see it, or that's what he assumed. His Grandpa's death had come as a shock. Miroku still didn't fully understand the details, and he'd missed the funeral. He had been in the middle of state testing and hadn't been able to get away in time. His Grandfather's main ranch foreman was named Sannie Hamasaki, and from the letters his Grandpa had sent him over the years, Sannie was an exceptional foreman, and he couldn't have asked for better help.

Grandpa had always vague on the details on where the foreman had come from, but his Grandpa had gushed so much about his skills, and intelligence, that Miroku almost felt inadequate coming there to take over. He hoped this Sannie would stick around and help him keep the ranch going. The lawyer on the phone said he had to read the will with both of them there, so Miroku assumed that his grandfather had left something to the foreman, and that was okay. He didn't begrudge him anything, figuring he had earned after years of loyal service.

From what Miroku knew, Sannie had worked there for ten years, and took good care of his Grandpa when he was sick, even until the end. If anything, Miroku was so grateful that he had been there for his Grandpa, that he'd have rewarded him personally, even if his Grandpa hadn't let him anything. No one deserves to die alone, and Sannie had been there for him.

Miroku wondered if he'd miss teaching; his degree had been in science with a minor in philosophy, not breeding cows and growing hay. Still, he was excited about his new life. A life where he got to make decisions about what he did each day. He'd do what he could to learn about running a ranch, but honestly, he'd rather open up a meditation retreat, and leave the ranching to the cowboys. The ranch made plenty of money, and if his grandfather had left him even a quarter of the fortune he'd acclimated over the years, he could pay to keep the ranch going and the salaries of the help for the rest of everyone's life with money left over.

Money wasn't everything though, Miroku knew this. A man sometimes had to make a name for himself on his own. The ranch was nice, but he still needed to do something for himself. Having achieved a respectable degree that his family could be proud of, he felt he deserved it. He hoped once he had the ranch affairs in order to begin searching for the perfect acreage. He hoped to find something nearby, so that he could be available to the ranch, and help fix a fence or two here and there. He wanted to be a hands on owner.

He drove his nondescript sedan down the highway, following the GPS to his Grandpa's ranch. He'd spent many summers here as a boy growing up, and had a lot of happy memories. It had been in his family four generations, and he really cared about keeping the ranch in the family, even if he didn't know much about it.

Turning off the highway onto a local road, it took another twenty miles before he finally found the long driveway that turned off to the ranch house. He drove beneath the sign that read Bar N Ranch and was glad to see it neatly painted and the fences in good condition. He glanced at the time and realized he was cutting it close. He was expected to be there to see the lawyer in five minutes.

He finally pulled up in the yard of the ranch house, looking past the two story home to the various outbuildings and on to distant mountains. It was truly beautiful, a world away from the city he'd left behind. Miroku closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, appreciating the fresh air, that only smelled this clean out in the middle of nowhere.

He saw a kid's bike lying at the base of the porch steps and was confused. When had there been a kid in the family? Who'd been out here recently? Did someone come in for the funeral that he didn't know about?

He jogged up the stairs and heard laughter through the screen door, and though it was technically supposed to end up being his house, he rang the doorbell anyway. The housekeeper had aged quite a bit in the last fifteen years since he'd been here. She smiled when she saw him and gave him a big bear hug.

"Oh! Miroku, we've missed your face around here, it's about time you came home, boy," Kaede told him. "It's been far too long."

"Where is everyone?" he asked.

"In the dining room, they're waiting for you," she said, pulling him inside. "When you're done in there, come to the kitchen and catch up with me, I've missed you!"

"Always Kaede," he replied and leaned over to press a kiss to her cheek.

It had been nearly 8 years since he'd last visited, and he had missed this. He forgot what it had been like to grow up with all the laughter on the ranch, the fun times, the horses. This was a good place to settle down now that he was done with the city. Miroku walked down the hallway of the house and stepped into the formal dining room.

He halted in his tracks, shocked. There was a woman in a plaid shirt studying a pile of paperwork in front of her, while an older man sat next to her in a suit. Miroku was quite certain that this had to be his grandfather's lawyer, as he watched him was point out things to her on the papers. From what he could see, the woman was very beautiful, but he had no idea who she was, or why she was there.

"Hello, are you some cousin I didn't know I had?" he joked.

Her head came up. "No, I-" the woman started to say, when a boy ran into the room, running into Miroku hard enough to stagger him.

"Careful," Miroku said, grabbing the boy by his shoulders and steadying the both of them.

"Sorry,!" the kid said, grinning. He looked to be about fourteen or so. The boy looked at the woman and pleaded. " Ban says I can go out today with him and help him fix some of the fences on the back pasture, can I? Please?"

"All right, just be back by dark, and make sure you follow Ban's directions," the woman said nodding at the boy, then added, "And please don't come home covered in mud head to toe. Kaede had a time getting your stuff clean last time. "

Miroku stood there in shock and watched the boy leave the way he'd come in, all gangly arms and legs. The kid was familiar with the ranch, like he'd spent a lot of time there, or even lived there. The woman also seemed to know a great deal about the people on the ranch, and Miroku wondered why and how that was.

He walked over to the table and sat down across from the woman and got a good look at her. Her dark brown hair set off her lovely cinnamon eyes. Her skin was tanned a warm, golden color and from what he could tell, she was in excellent shape. She finally noticed his perusal and looked up, but she didn't smile at him. If anything, her frown got bigger and she glanced up at the lawyer with a questioning look in her eyes.

"I know, I'll explain everything," the lawyer sighed.