Secrets of A Family

Disclaimer: I have yet to successfully steal Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, or Naruto, who are all still owned by other people. One day I will succeed and …you have heard nothing…

Summary: How long can you keep a secret from those you love? What about yourself? Kagome Higurashi, Keiko Yukimura, and Sakura Haruno all have something in common, they share a family secret. Now that secret threatens to destroy them and their friends with the coming of a new Gathering.

Chapter Two

"Keiko, what-" she cut her husband off. "I don't know what Koenma thinks, but from what Botan told me you're dealing with something similar to a legend that's been in my family for…about 700 years. Right Kirara?"

The blonde neko closed her eyes and nodded.

Everyone was listening attentively to the woman they all thought they knew. Kurama glanced at Yusuke; who was strangely silent while watching his wife with unhidden confusion. He doesn't understand why Keiko knows this cat demon and neither does Kurama. Everyone has secrets, some more than others, what could this little ningen onna possibly have kept from them for all these years? From her oldest friend and husband to rest of them, her friends.

Kurama switched his calculating gaze back to Keiko as she walked forward until she was before Koenma's desk and the young ruler himself. She pulled something out of her coat pocket. A…scroll? Glancing back at Hiei and Kuronue, they all seemed to be sharing the same confused looks. This wasn't good. None of the aforementioned demons liked not knowing, and if the spiritual power coming from the Higurashi boy was anything to go by…

Keiko looked at all of them. "First off, I have quite a bit to tell you guys for you to understand this legend. First is that you guys only met my father's side of the family at the wedding. My mother's side of the family is distant; in fact I've only seen some of my cousins once. My mom had three sisters; the oldest one I don't know much about but I heard she never married or had children, the second oldest married a ninja- and yes shinobi do still exist…somewhere- as far as I know she only had one daughter. My favorite aunt is the next oldest, her name is Kun-Loon, she married a lawyer who died in a gang drive by shooting, but she already had two children; Souta," she gestured to him, "and his older sister, Kagome. Mama was the youngest one."

Keiko took a deep breath at this point. She was a little frazzled. She knew she would have to talk about this at some point, but didn't think it would be so soon. She felt really guilty not having told Yusuke first. That was how it was supposed to be, but…everything was moving too quickly and in ways she hadn't anticipated. None of them anticipated what was going to happen.

Deciding she couldn't back down now she continued. "My family is different." Souta snorted. Keiko turned on him glaring. "And you mister had no excuse for not being at the wedding, so you owe me big time. At least Kagome had a good reason, you on the other hand… I'm disappointed. You could have at least tried lying better." She smiled wryly.

Koenma cleared his throat hoping to get her back on track. Keiko rolled her eyes. "Anyway, we're different I guess because, well for one thing we descend from a powerful priestess named Midoriko, it was she that began the teachings of demon slaying to taijiya and it was from her heart that the Shikon no Tama was created. And her lover was a mortal descendent of Amaterasu, the sun goddess. Both were great warriors and their teachings continue even today through our family."

Opening up the scroll she realized that she had the attention of everyone in the room, although you really couldn't tell with most of the demons. Carefully unrolling the fragile paper because it had already undergone some damage, she explained what the scroll was.

"Yusuke, do you remember when we were little and my grandpa visited us? Remember he told us a story about a priestess who battled a horde of demons for seven days." She looked at each person individually, still feeling guilt towards her best friend.

Hiei was still skeptic, "How could a ningen onna have the power to defeat an army of demons. Priestess or not, that seems more legend than truth."

" She defeated them in the end by using her soul to contain them and herself within a jewel." Kuronue looked up in surprise, he knew where this was going. "That jewel was wanted by humans and demons alike because it gave an intense amount of power to demons, and had the ability to grant a single wish. If the wish was pure, then the jewel would disappear, but if the wish were selfish then chaos would ensue and darkness cover the land. Blah. Blah. Blah." Koenma glared at her his eye twitching and tick marks on his forehead.

"Keiko, evil being unleashed in the world is not something to joke about, story or not."

"Well it's not my fault that these legends have all the same plots…Anyway, that's not what's important, what is important is that that legend is very true and continues some 200 years later (an I don't know the exact time Midoriko was alive in comparison to the Inuyasha timeline, if ne one knows plz let me know! thnx) the jewel was given to another priestess named Kikyo…"(insert the betrayal of Inuyasha and Kikyo)

"About- what was it Souta, six years ago?" He nodded allowing his cousin to continue. "Well, six years ago, on my cousin Kagome's 15th birthday, she fell through a well."

Kurama spoke up, "Pardon Keiko, but don't you mean 'fell into' not fell through."

"Oh she fell through all right." Souta said matter-of-factly, "Keiko, I think I better take over from here on out, 'kay?" Mrs. Urimeshi nodded her consent.

Nodding in reply Souta took his cue to continue with the shortened, much more vague version of his big sister's life these last six years.

"You see Kagome is not a "normal" (finger quotes) girl. woman. Whatever. There was always something different; something about her no one quite knew what it was. (he shook his head smirking) I don't think even she knows what it is."

"Moving on, Kagome fell through the well to 500 years in the past, (Souta stops for dramatic pause) where she was captured by local villagers who believed her to be a demon (certain males-guess who- snort in laughter) yeah, well humans were extremely superstitious and untrustworthy. Nee-chan told me that one of the women thought she was a kitsune in disguise. She wasn't that far from the truth. (Insert the Inuyasha story- parts where Kagome and Inuyasha start/ are all in love become brother-sister moments, if you do not know the Inuyasha plot line or Yu Yu Hakusho plz go to their respective sites and look up that info, or watch a few episodes –they are available via internet you know). For the last few years Kagome has been pretty much living like an almost normal teenager: graduating high school- she made salutatorian-, doing odd jobs here and there for extra cash, and now going to college, all while helping at the shrine where we live…Umm, that's pretty much it, any questions?"

Everyone was silent, this young boy's tale seemed so far-fetched and yet…they had all been through so much, too much of it like this Kagome's life-story. Kuronue furrowed his brow in confusion; something about the story didn't make sense. Where had he heard that legend before, that name, Kagome, or the Shikon no Tama? Why did those two girls, Rin and Kirara look so familiar, and so unfamiliar to him? Something was missing from the puzzle. Damn, he was starting to sound like the fox.

Just as Kuronue was about to ask a question Yusuke spoke up. "So, is this it Koenma? No questions or nothing. Cause I'd like to go back home; seems I need to talk with my wife." The dark look on Yusuke's face frightened Koenma. Botan, standing near Kuronue, opened her mouth to lecture Yusuke about how he needs to be more understanding in his relationship, but a hand on her shoulder caused her to stop. Looking behind herself at the usually smiling, perverted bat, Kuronue, she was surprised to see him look so serious as he minutely shook his head. Hearing Koenma say it was all right, she opened the portal to inside the Urimeshi residence, from which everyone would travel to his or her own place of residence.

They went through one after another. Keiko looked at Yusuke, guilt written clearly on her features before going through the portal. Yusuke followed soon after her. Kurama and Hiei followed suit with the Higurashi boy, Kuronue after him, and Kuwabara after him, and so on so forth. Before Botan herself went through the portal Nekito Kirara and Saiga Rin jumped through.

Botan lifted her head when she was inside of the house. She saw everyone looking at something in front of them. Moving Kuwabara out of the way, she saw what they were looking at. It was…a girl.

Kurama observed the girl he saw standing in the middle of Keiko and Yusuke's living room, with her back to him. She was beautiful and familiar. She had long, inky black hair. Her legs were long and shapely, and covered by her dark jeans. She was wearing sandals and had her hands resting on her hips.

Kurama continued to critically look the young woman over as she turned around to face the crowd. The first thing he noticed was that she had stunning blue eyes, and part of her face was covered by her side-swept bangs. The second thing he noticed was that she looked good in her red tank top that had a white rose imprinted on it. She also had a lithe athletic build, but still was very…feminine.

'What a goddess-like vixen. Come on Red, introduce us.' Why did Yoko choose the worst times to be annoying?

'I heard that kit. And I am not annoying, I merely wish to indulge in the womanly attributes of this heavenly vixen.'

'Yoko, please. This is no time to be thinking of seducing a stranger, no matter how beautiful she is.'

'Hah, so you do think she's lovely. And who said anything about her being a stranger. I know that aura anywhere. Her name is Tsukiko Kagome. She is a Black Ice Kitsune of the Night clans. Very dangerous and very…pure.'

'Yoko, she is not a kitsune. She is human, surely you can see that.'

'If you don't believe what I say maybe I should just show you.'

'Yoko, what do you-' Kurama was cut off as his mind was thrust into a void of blurred color. Grays and blues swam past making way for greens and browns. Suddenly he stopped moving. Kurama noticed that though he had stopped moving he was still running.

Yoko had said that he was going to show him how he knew the girl, so then is this a memory of Yoko's? He must be experiencing it from Yoko's point of view. That was the only logical explanation he could think of. Hearing some of Yoko's thoughts in the memory forced Kurama to just sit back and watch the show, figuratively speaking.

Yoko was running. He was running away from the demon he stole from. He had miscalculated the strength of the thunder demon, and was now running so his lighting attacks wouldn't fry him.

Running through an old forest on the edge of the Western lands, Yoko was alone. Kuronue was off on a personal mission on the far side of the Eastern Mountains. Yoko went on this mission alone thinking that it would be a piece of cake (A.N. not that he knew what cake was. They didn't have cake back then in Feudal Japan, did they?). He was wrong though, the demon guarding the moon amulet was much stronger than Yoko anticipated, and therefore he was not prepared when the hideously scarred demon nearly electrocuted him.

He was starting to tire and knew that he would have to find a way to either incapacitate the demon chasing him, or hide in the forest that the thunder demon could burn down with his lightning attacks. Fighting sounded like a much better option than burning alive.

Yoko saw a clearing just ahead. That would be where he would make his stand.

Yoko turned around in the center of the clearing. He pulled a seed from his hair, and used his energy to make it grow into a blooming rose. His weapon of choice.

As the thunder demon "thundered" (AN yeah I know, bad pun right) its way towards the clearing and the silver fox within it, Yoko's heart beat wildly. He knew that under normal circumstances he would have been able to defeat such an opponent, but as it was this demon seemed to be unnaturally powerful. And did not appear to be tired at all from unleashing all his lightning attacks upon the fox.

Just as the thunder demon entered the clearing and was about to attack, it froze. Not just stopping, it was quite literally frozen in place by shadow like ice engulfing the demon from his feet up. Yoko moved forward to see what had frozen this behemoth in place, when a dark figure flipped down from the other side of the demon, a mere fifty or so meters from him. The female, he could now see that she was, was facing the icicle demon and slowly lifting her hand up. Extending her forefinger, she poked the icy creature with her claw and turned, walking towards Yoko. When she stopped walking, the ice sculpture shattered into little pieces, but Yoko only barely noticed the change. He was wary of this stranger. Strong demons, particularly females did not do anything for other demons unless they had something to gain from it.

Yoko was even more anxious by this female when he saw what she was, a Black Night kitsune, and what she held, the moon amulet.

As the dark vixen continued to walk towards him, Yoko quickly assessed her appearance. She was very beautiful. He had seen, and slept with, many just as beautiful as she. She was definitely a warrior, and one of noble class, judging by her markings and the fox ears topping her head, or she was in high favor with a noble family. Her kimono was gray and decorated with images of snowflakes and stars. Tied around her middle with a dark blue and white sash, which most likely held a weapon of some sort in it. Her hair was long and blacker than shadow; a possible weakness to exploit. From what he knew of kitsune clans he knew that the Black Night clans rarely shared secrets and were split into two factions. One that specialized in using shadows and the other ice, like how silvers used plants. Sometimes there were kits born in the clans who could use both. It would be just his luck if she could.

The vixen stopped. She wasn't close to Yoko, but she was just close enough to be able to attack him. She smiled. Yoko noticed she has silver eyes.

"Hello," she gently said. "My name is Tsukiko Kagome, Black Snow of the Night clan. I am currently doing work for the young lord of the Western Lands, Sesshomaru. The thunder demon, Rokuro, was in the way of my goal and would not move, so to speak. He had this amulet, wouldn't give it back, so I destroyed him. So, who are you?"

Well this wasn't what he expected.

A. be continued…hopefully soon:-) I'm sorry that's it, I just felt it was time for me to update already. I just want to get this part out of the way right now. Next chapter I'll finish the flashback and officially introduce the main part of the story! maybe...or maybe not- plz read and review it's only polite to do so, and thank you to those who added me to their alert list, favorites, reviewed etc. I really appreciate it.

RoseGlass