Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or its affiliates. I do own the characters I created for this story and the ideas in this story.

Chapter One: In the Future

She closed her eyes as the tears slid down her cheeks. She remembered the terrible event that had sent her through the well. Something even more horrible then what had sent her mother through the well before she had even been born. Her mother had been betrayed by someone she loved, something like that had happened to Saphira too. Except the betrayal of her mate and lover had ripped her heart from her chest. In one foul swoop her mother had been taken from her. He had killed her baby brother too, but because of the unborn children she had been carrying in her womb she was able to harness the life-giving powers of Tensaiga and choose one of the two members of her family to save. It had broken her already shredded heart to choose between her mother and her brother, but she had to choose, so she did. Inumaru was still a baby while her mother had lived a long life; a long life for a human anyway. Saphira still didn't know what became of Inuyasha. She had been too terrified to dig into the history books when she had returned to the future.

She sighed leaning against the door frame of their summer home as the sun rose over the ocean. They always traveled to Florida in the winter and then back up north in the summer. She had left Japan before her own children had been born.

"Do you really have to leave?" Saphira's aunt Karen pleaded tearfully. Her niece had just returned from the past battered and heart broken, and she feared that her niece wasn't thinking logically.

"There is too much pain for me here," Saphira answered sadly. "Anywhere I go, I see him out of the corner of my eye, but when I turn to look I see no one."

Karen looked at her niece sympathetically, they knew that her mother had been killed. Finding out what had happened had taken a lot of coaxing on Karen's part, but none of them had been prepared for the gruesome story Saphira told them.

Saphira had told them, with an emotionless face, that her mother and brother, who was playing quietly at their feet, had been murdered by her mate. She didn't know what became of her mate or Inumaru's father, Inuyasha, and had told all of them she had no desire to know their fates. Karen had cried quietly, mourning the death of the sister she would never know. Souta left abruptly and shortly after they could smell smoke. One of the children came in to tell them that their father had set the well house on fire.

Grandmother had sat still not moving. She only looked at Saphira, then stood up and patted Saphira's shoulders. "Let forgiveness wash away the pain, my child."

"Please, don't tell the children what happened," Saphira had begged. "I don't want them to know that their father is responsible."

They had all nodded in agreement. The children, both Inumaru and the unborn twins, had already suffered enough pain.

"I still don't know why she has to leave. We are her only family," Karen had said to Souta when she thought Saphira was out of hearing distance.

"No one really knows what they are searching for," Souta answered. "Saphira has to find a way to heal, and if leaving here is the only way she can do it then it is what she has to do."

"But Inumaru is an orphan, she is his only family," Karen protested.

"I'm sure she plans on taking him with her, she is his mother now," Souta had assured his wife.

Saphira's memories faded from her mind as she heard life stir in the house behind her.

"Mom, what's for breakfast?" A yawning voice asked her.

She turned to see her eldest son clamoring down the stairs.

"Bacon, eggs, ham," Saphira answered trying to remember what else was in the refrigerator. "Are Nakia and Maruchi awake yet?"

"Yes!" Called a voice from the second floor. "Nakia won't get out of the bathroom!"

"Use mine!" Saphira shouted at her son. "And don't miss the toilet!"

"Want some help with breakfast?" Inumaru asked.

Saphira nodded and smiled. Inumaru had always helped her out whether she asked him or not. As they were preparing breakfast, Saphira wondered if she had done right by her children. Had hauling them halfway around the world been fair? Although those hair raising moments when she thought Sesshoumaru had come to the future to haunt her followed her where ever she moved, she had never really seen him except in her dreams and out of the corner of her eye. But, the mind did play tricks on the senses didn't it? In the modern era her nose wasn't very useful because of all the other smells assaulting it, it made it harder for her to pin point one particular scent. In the moments where she would swear on the lives of all her children that he was near her, she never found him.

She looked at her eldest son, he looked a lot like Sesshoumaru. She supposed it was their grandfather that Inumaru took after rather than Sesshoumaru. Inumaru had the long, silvery hair and often wore it up in a pony-tail. He had those purple markings on his cheeks, humans often thought the markings were tattoos. That was normal for human children his age, Inumaru was only twenty.

"What is it, Mom?" Inumaru asked noticing his mother glancing his way.

"Oh, nothing," she sighed but Inumaru only raised his brows at her. "Well, it's just that I've been feeling guilty about moving around so much when you and the twins were younger. I should have stayed in Japan with Souta, Karen and Grandma rather than moving to America."

Inumaru only smiled sweetly like he did when he was a toddler. "I don't think I ever minded, Mom, and I don't think Nakia or Maruchi noticed or cared either."

"That's very nice of you to say, honey, but don't you miss your cousins?" Saphira asked, but before Inumaru could answer the phone rang. Saphira picked it up. "Hello?"

"Saphira?" Karen's voice was small and frightened.

"Karen, what's wrong?" Saphira asked immediately knowing something was wrong.

"It's Grandmother," Karen said and Saphira could her the tears hitting the phone. "We think she's dying, Saphira."

Saphira stood very still. "What?"

"It caught us all off guard, the doctors say its cancer," Karen was now crying and her voice was becoming scratchy.

"When did this happen?" Saphira almost demanded.

"Well, she had been feeling more and more tired the past few months and we thought it was just old age," Karen explained. "But then she started having these high fevers, so we took her to the hospital. They did all sorts of tests, they even took some marrow from her bones to test. And they found out she has stage four Hodgkin's disease. It's in her organs, Saphira, and so far the chemo hasn't stopped it."

"We'll be on the next plane for Japan," Saphira said. "We'll call you when we get there."

"What's happened?" Inumaru asked after Saphira hung up the phone.

"Grandma's sick," Saphira said leaving the kitchen. "Get upstairs and tell your brother and sister to pack enough clothes for a few weeks."

Inumaru nodded and hurried out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

Saphira clicked the phone and then off again. She went to the counter for her purse and began to rummage through it. She then found what she was looking for and clicked the phone and dialed a long number. Her credit card gave her air miles and she was overdue for free flights.

She hit different numbers on the phone trying to get out of the automated system.

"This is American Airlines customer service, how may I help you?" A woman said.

"Yes, I need to collect my miles for a trip," Saphira said then gave the women her card number.

"You qualify for three, first class, round trip tickets to anywhere worldwide," the customer service representative chirped. "Where is your destination?"

"Tokyo, Japan," Saphira answered.

"You have your passports, correct ma'am?" The woman asked.

"Yes, and so do my children," Saphira answered.

"No one in your party is pregnant?"

"No."

"When do you want to leave?"

"Today if possible," Saphira said.

"We have a departing, non-stop flight to Tokyo leaving at noon at Miami International Airport," the customer representative replied.

"Excellent," Saphira said pleased.

"Would you like transportation to be waiting for your arrival at the airport in Tokyo, Ms. Ryuji?" The woman asked.

"A stretch limousine, please," Saphira answered after thinking for a moment.

Her father, Doragon Ryuji, had accumulated a great amount of wealth in the centuries before Saphira had been born. Saphira had contributed to that amount when she returned from the Feudal Era and began investing her inheritance. After her children had started attending school, Saphira went to law school and became a lawyer. She was currently one of the wealthiest woman in the States, and had law firms from coast to coast.

"Alright, ma'am, you're all set. You just need to pick up your boarding passes at the customer service desk at the airport," the woman said.

"Thank you," Saphira said then hung up the phone. She turned to see her daughter coming into the kitchen. Nakia was wearing a white tank top, with cut off jean shorts and Converse low top sneakers. It was a warm day for the end of February. Nakia was wearing her long, wavy, strawberry blond in a sloppy bun. On her cheeks were the faint crimson, parallel markings she inherited from her father. Saphira had the same markings, so the children assumed they inherited it from her. But, Nakia's eyes belonged to her father, and were amber colored.

"Please tell me that you're changing before we leave," Saphira sighed. "You know it will much colder there."

"Yeah," Nakia said after looking at herself in the reflection of the window. "So, why are we leaving?"

"Grandma's sick," Saphira answered. "It's serious, Karen called crying saying all sorts of things."

Nakia frowned. "Is she dying?"

"Maybe. Are you're brothers packed yet?" Saphira asked.

"I am," Maruchi came into the kitchen lugging behind him a huge suitcase. He was the spitting image of Sesshoumaru, complete with facial markings. The only thing he had inherited from his mother was her brilliant, dark sapphire eyes. He wore his silver, white blond, hair short. It curled up with ringlets falling into his eyes.

"Is that yours?" Saphira asked skeptically.

"Nope," Maruchi smiled eying his twin.

"Nakia," Saphira sighed.

"What?" Nakia asked shrugging innocently. "A girl needs a variety of clothes."

"Yeah, but this is just her shoes," Maruchi laughed.

"Well, the plane leaves at noon, so if you guys hurry we'll stop and get breakfast on the way," Saphira said heading out of the kitchen and up the stairs to pack her own bags. She packed her warmer clothes: pants, sweaters, jackets. She knew that weather would be in the fifties or possibly lower when they got there.

"Hey Mom," Nakia called coming into the room.

"What?"

Unsure of how to begin and uncomfortable to boot, Nakia looked out the window quietly.

"What!" Saphira said getting slightly irritated with her daughter.

"Well, I have this report in one of my classes," Nakia began slowly.

"Yes?"

"It's about tracing our linage," Nakia said softly. "I have no trouble with you or Grandma's family, but I don't know anything about...my Dad's family."

Saphira stiffened. She knew that her children had always assumed that she had separated from their father before they were born. The faded scar on her neck had never been recognized as a mating mark. They didn't know what had happened to their mother.

"Please, Mom, don't cry," Nakia whispered.

Saphira reached up and touched her wet cheeks.

"Don't worry about it, Mom, I'll make something up," Nakia said turning to leave.

"Sesshoumaru," Saphira whispered.

"What?" Nakia said pausing in the doorway.

Saphira cleared her throat. "You're father's name was Sesshoumaru."

"Was?"

Saphira looked away from her daughter's face. "He died, Nakia, a long time ago."

Nakia quickly left the room to find her brothers.

"Why is Mom crying?" Maruchi demanded when he caught sight of his twin.

"I didn't mean to make her upset," Nakia said reluctantly.

"So? What did you do?" Asked Inumaru.

"I sorta asked her about Dad," Nakia admitted.

Both boys looked at her angrily.

"Why do you insist on digging up what has already past?" Inumaru asked.

"Don't you know that it hurts her to think about it?" Demanded Maruchi.

"His name is Sesshoumaru!" Nakia said quickly to distract them. The distraction worked catching them both off guard.

"You mean like the ancient taiyoukai Sesshoumaru?" Maruchi asked in amazement.

"I don't know about that, but maybe he was a descendant of the taiyoukai," Nakia said. "It explains why we transform into a inuyoukai or a dragon."

"My father was a inuyoukai," Inumaru said thoughtfully. "Maybe they were related!"

The twins regarded Inumaru skeptically. "Like our mom and your mom would fall for a relative of our father."

"What if he wasn't a relative," Nakia said, her imagination beginning to work overtime. "What if our father and your father were the same person."

"That's kinda gross," Inumaru said. "But might explain why my real mom died."

"Are you guys ready yet!" Saphira yelled from the first floor.

"Yes!" They yelled in unison.


"I call window seat!" Nakia exclaimed as they boarded the plane.

"Why? So you can claim that there's something on the wing?" Maruchi asked sitting in the aisle seat next to his twin's. There were only two seats to a row, and the seats were big and comfortable.

Saphira sighed and looked at Inumaru.

"You can have the window," he said letting her slip in.

"You're such a sweet kid," Saphira said gratefully.

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard that before," he said grudgingly.

Saphira sat down, smoothing her blouse. She was wearing dress pants and a blazer. The kids were wearing khaki pants and polo shirts, except for Nakia who was wearing a mini-skirt and blouse.

The flight was long and uneventful, something Saphira was grateful for. When they got off the plane they found the limousine driver waiting for them at the gate. The poor man got stuck with all of Nakia's luggage.

As the sliding glass doors opened, a blast of icy air whipped by them.

"Jesus! It's freezing!" Nakia chattered.

"I told you it would be cold," Saphira said.

"I want to go back to Florida!" Nakia wailed.

"It is warm in limousine," the driver said in broken English. Saphira had made sure her children learned Japanese, but the twins were lazy and would rather use their native tongue.

"Thank God!" Nakia said jumping into the limo. They all piled in after her.

"Where to, Ma'am?" The driver asked when he was done loading their luggage and had gotten back into the car.

"Higurashi Shrine, please," Saphira said pulling out her cell phone and dialing numbers quickly.

"Can you get a signal out here?" Maruchi asked when his mother hung up the phone and threw it into her purse.

"No," she answered sourly. "They're probably eating dinner."

"I'm sure someone will be looking out for us, you called them and told them what time we would be there right?" Inumaru asked.

"Yes."

The top of the hill where the Shrine sat was ablaze with the light pouring out from the house.

As Saphira and the children got out of the limo, voices floated down the stairwell.

"Saphira! Is that you?" Came Souta's voice from the top of the stairs.

"Yes!" Saphira called back. "Send the kids down to help with the luggage!"

Saphira heard rather than saw the dim figures racing down the stairs.

"Cousin Nakia!" Souta's youngest daughter shrieked tackling Nakia. They were about the same age, Nakia was only a year older.

"Hana!" Nakia squealed, the two boys screwed up their faces in displeasure.

"Girls, girls! Settle down!" Saphira commanded with her own ears still ringing. They only giggled and stumbled up the stairs carrying nothing.

"Hello, Cousin Saphira," said Souta's eldest child, a boy, and offered her a hug. He had been six or seven when she had returned from the Feudal Era.

"It's so good to see you, Akio," Saphira said hugging her cousin tightly.

"Hey Akio!" Maruchi said grabbing his second cousin's hand and shaking it. "How have you been?"

"Fine, fine and you, Tomo?" Akio asked calling Maruchi by the nickname he had given as an infant. Tomo meant 'a twin'.

Maruchi only grinned. "Glad to know some things never change."

"Hey Inumaru, you look like a girl with your long hair and pony-tail!" Akio said teasing his eldest second cousin.

"I will not dignify that comment with a response," Inumaru said smiling.

"Come on, boys, lets get into the house!" Saphira ordered, then turned to pay the driver. "Thank you so much."

"No problem, ma'am," he said and returned to the limo.

Saphira followed the boys up the steep stairwell lugging her bags all the way to the top. Once she reached the top she paused to catch her breath.

"Man, I'm out of shape!" She muttered to herself, suddenly the treetops exploded as a flock of birds took off.

"That's weird," Akio said turning around. "Something must have scared them."

Saphira felt the hair raise on the back of her neck and arms. The feeling that had haunted her years before returned. She felt as if someone was watching her.