Inuyasha scaled the steep incline along the river's edge in two long bounds. "What happened to her?" he asked, crossing the bridge to look at the girl who held so much power over him.

"Kaori-sama has lost too much blood. I fear if I do not treat her soon, she will perish," Kaede replied, propping up Kaori's torso slightly, just enough to get her head above her wound. "You, Inuyasha, must carry her back to my hut while I travel by horse."

"What?!" shouted Inuyasha indignantly. "You've gotta be nuts if you think I'm gonna do anything to help this wench, babaa!"

Kaede narrowed her one good eye at Inuyasha. "Please Inuyasha, there is a greater price at stake than one girl's life," at this, Inuyasha snorted. "There is a reason why she carries the Shikon Jewel and why she was able to free you from the Sacred Tree."

Inuyasha crossed his arms defensively. "There's no way in hell I'm helping her," He nodded tersely at Kaori. "As far as I'm concerned, she was there just to transport the jewel and get in my way. It's just one girl! You humans die every day and there's nothing we can do to stop it. How important can the cost of one life be?"

"Ye do not yet understand, nor do I, the bond the two of ye share already. Your destiny is as linked to her as her destiny is linked to ye."

"Feh," Inuyasha glanced at Kaori on the ground, feeling his stomach clench at the paleness of her cheeks and lips; his eyes trailed to the edge of what he knew to be a really horrible, bleeding bite mark starting at the bottom of her collarbone.

She was dying.

"Alright, I'll carry her back!" He growled, scooping up the thin girl bridal style. "Just to get things straight, I'm not doing this because you convinced me." With that, he shot off like a bullet through the trees. His sensitive ears picked up Kaede's parting words just before the old woman was out of earshot.

"I thank ye, Inuyasha."

As he deftly sprinted through the mass of foliage, easily dodging the low hanging branches, his attention split between his destination and the unconscious girl in his arms. He could feel each slow beat of her heart, and hear every one of her shallow breaths. Every time Kaori's breathing faltered, so did his running.

'Don't you dare die on me, wench. I'm not gonna let you give up that easily.'

Inuyasha put on a burst of speed, rocketing out of the trees and down the hill behind the village. His nose pointed him in the correct direction, leading him to the solitary hut on the other end of the community. He ignored the wide-eyes stares or the shocked whispers that followed him as he ran.

With one more massive leap, he landed directly in front of Kaede's door. Pushing the bamboo curtain aside, Inuyasha gently deposited Kaori on the futon, and then sat guard by her head. The old priestess wouldn't think twice to hit him with a sacred arrow if he let anything happen to Kaori.

Inuyasha's amber eyes focused on the only other living occupant in the room. Her jet black hair was splayed out around her like a fan, filling the small hut with her scent. Inuyasha sniffed at the air several times, familiarizing himself.

'She smells interesting, like jasmine and honey. It's kinda nice.' Inuyasha mentally slapped himself out of his daze. Did he seriously just think that she smelled…nice?!

A few moments later, Inuyasha picked up the sound of thundering hooves approaching. He shot up from the floor, growling low in his chest and flexing his claws. Seconds after the hooves stopped outside of the door, Kaede rushed in, not paying much attention to Inuyasha's defensive stance. The elderly priestess began rummaging around her hut, picking up seemingly random herbs and berries.

"Inuyasha, remove her clothes so that I may get a better look at the wound," ordered Kaede. Her back was to the stunned hanyou, so she missed the bright red of his cheeks.

'She wants me to do WHAT?'

Inuyasha glanced down at the Kaori, feeling his cheeks continue to burn. Whimpering internally, he reached down and grabbed at the flimsy purple fabric before swiftly, but carefully removing Kaori's top garment. His embarrassment died down a little when he saw that she wasn't bare underneath like most women. Instead, she wore some strange thing covering her breasts. Whatever it was, Inuyasha was immensely thankful for it.

"Now what?"

Kaede turned around, holding a wet piece of cloth out to him. "Begin washing off the blood, but do not touch the bite yet," she began mashing up some of the herbs with a pestle.

Inuyasha did as instructed and started cleansing the skin as best as he could. The blood ran down almost the entire length of Kaori's torso in the front and it ran down over her shoulder blades. The punctures themselves started at her right collarbone down to just above her breast.

'She wouldn't have lasted the night.' He grimaced at the sight and smell of all the blood she had lost.

Just as he was finishing cleaning, Kaede knelt down on the floor by Kaori. "Put her head up in your lap. Make sure it is raised above the wound,"

In one fluid motion, Inuyasha was sitting at the top of the futon with Kaori's head placed securely in his lap. He pulled her hair up, getting it out of Kaede's way and out of the blood.

Kaede began applying the poultice directly to the deep teeth marks. Even passed out, Kaori flinched and whimpered pitifully.

Just before dawn, Kaori's injuries had just finished being wrapped in a soft, clean cloth. "She will need to change these every day until it stops bleeding, but I feel that she will make a full recovery," Kaede stated, rising shakily from the wooden floor.

"Except that she'll carry those scars forever." scoffed Inuyasha. He had already risen and was staring out the window with his arms folded tightly against his chest. "How the hell did she even get the Shikon Jewel in the first place?"

"That is something we will have to ask her once she awakens, Inuyasha," Kaede hobbled over to the water basin and began scrubbing off the dried blood. "Tell me, do ye still intend to use the Shikon no Tama to become a full demon? Are ye that disgusted by your half demon blood?"

Inuyasha growled loudly then punched a fairly large sized hole through the wall. He glared murderously at her over his shoulder. "How the hell do you know that? I'm getting sick of hearing some dried up witch I just met talk like she knows me."

"So ye do not remember me; I thought as much," Kaede dried off her hands, not bothering to look at Inuyasha. She slowly walked over to the stove and threw a few more pieces of wood in. "I am younger sister to Kikyo; she who bound ye to the tree."

"You're Kaede?" Inuyasha asked in astonishment. His mind flashed back to memories with Kikyo. Most were of them were of her either helping people, or with him, but in a few, he could remember a short little girl with black hair, trying to hold onto her taller sister's bow. "So you're the brat."

"Fifty years have passed, Inuyasha. And I have grown old."

"If you're this old, Kikyo must be pushing a hundred," Inuyasha smirked and sat down. "Sure glad I don't gotta worry about being old; least not for a while."

"Kikyo didn't worry either," Kaede twisted her head around, staring intently at the smirking hanyou. "Kikyo died."

"Kikyo died. Kikyo died. Kikyo died" These words echoed around in Inuyasha's mind. His smirk slid from his face.

"It was on the same day she shot ye with the arrow."

Inuyasha wiped the grief from his mind and face, substituting it with a look of indifference. "Gee, sorry to hear it. Not that I care or nothin'," He stretched out until he was laying flat across his back."Guess that's one less thing I have to worry about, huh?"

"Do not be so sure of that, Inuyasha. For I have come to realize that Kaori is the reincarnation of my sister Kikyo."

The hanyou's eyes flashed over to the sleeping girl. 'Reincarnation? So is she Kikyo or just someone who has her soul?'

A flicker of movement off to his right caught the young hanyou's attention. Kaori shifted again in her sleep, moaning quietly. Inuyasha's sensitive dog ears twitched in her direction.

"Ow…" She groaned groggily. She tried sitting up, but was forced down when Kaede's gentle hand rested on her shoulder.

"Rest, child. Ye are not yet strong enough to move."

"So…it wasn't a dream?" Kaori noticed Inuyasha staring at her, but the second she looked at him, he quickly turned away.

"Not unless you count a centipede nearly biting your shoulder off, a dream," snorted Inuyasha.

"There's no need to be a jerk, dog-breath," Kaori grumbled. "It's not like fighting demons, and getting chased by someone who was previously dead is a regular occurrence for me. Where I come from, there aren't any demons." This time when she sat up, she didn't let Kaede's firm hand stop her.

"Tell me, where did you come from, Kaori-sama?"

Kaori sighed heavily. This was going to be a long story.


Inuyasha sat on top of Kaede's roof, staring out over the village. Kaori had been under the constant care of Kaede for four days and was able to walk around on her own without nearly passing out.

Kaede had been explaining the basics about the responsibilities and powers of a priestess when she had been called away to go treat some kid's broken leg.

'Feh. How can anyone want to be mortal? They're too fragile.'

Inuyasha hopped down from the roof and walked into the priestess' hut where Kaori was propped up against the wall, eating a nashi. Her shredded purple shirt had been roughly patched up by a few of the women, but the bloodstain wouldn't come out at all.

"How long are you gonna stay here before you go back to To…Toyoki?" He asked a bit snappishly.

"It's Tokyo and I'll leave when I can," Kaori said not acting the least bit annoyed. She'd actually gotten fairly used to his rudeness. "I miss my home and I don't want to stay any longer than necessary."

"What's so great about your time? Seems to me that that place would be kinda backwards," Inuyasha shrugged, losing some of his hostility. "I mean, why would you want to live in a place that makes women wear something weird under their shirts like that?"

Kaori's grip on the nashi slipped while her mouth dropped open. "W-what?"

"Y'know, that weird thing you wear over your chest underneath your shirt. What is that thing anyway? Ouch!" He rubbed the spot in his head where the fruit struck. "What'd ya do that for? I was only asking a question!"

'When did he see my bra?! I think I would've remembered that!' Kaori's cheeks flushed an angry red as she glared at the hanyou still rubbing his head.

"It's a piece of clothing from my time that helps protect and cover a woman's breasts," She said through clenched teeth trying to keep her cool.

"How can something that flimsy protect anything? All I'd have to do it run my claw along it, and it'd shred to pieces."

Kaori balled her hands into fists at her sides. "Sit boy!"

Inuyasha yelped as his face came into contact with the wooden floorboards on Kaede's hut. "I'm really starting to hate that word," he groaned. His ears picked up on the sound of Kaori's footsteps storming away from him.

'What a pervert!' Kaori fumed as she marched through the village. She barely paid any attention to the gossiping of the townspeople as she passed. They murmured things of how she was the reincarnation of their deceased priestess or of how they knew it was her all along. As she passed, several of the villagers bowed respectfully to her, as if she had saved them from something evil.

'Still…I guess I can't fault him that much. Women in these times didn't wear bras or anything like that.'

"Kaori-sama!" A voice called, breaking her from her thoughts. She turned and saw a middle aged man jogging towards her, his arms laden down with a large basket of fruits, vegetables, and bread. "Kaori-sama, on behalf of the entire village, we would like to give these to you," he said, swooping into a low bow.

Kaori accepted the basket with a forced smile. The strain it put on her healing shoulder wasn't pleasant, but she ignored it.

'I seriously haven't done anything to deserve these gifts! All I did was try not to die from a random demon attack.'

"Thank you," Kaori and the villager bowed to each other before he ran off, probably to tell the others that she had accepted it.

'Well, there's no way I can eat all of this by myself,' She thought, looking down at the large basket. 'I guess I should try to apologize to Inuyasha for being so snippy earlier.'

While Kaori decided to make amends with Inuyasha, that same hanyou was currently sitting up in an Angelica Tree, staring out over the landscape.

"Kikyo is dead. She died and I never even knew."He propped his arm up on his knee while his other leg hung limply over the side of the branch. 'Did she die because of me? Of course she did! Why else would she have died on the exact day she killed me?'

Inuyasha's golden eyes fixed on a few children playing in the shallows of the river. No one played with him as a child. Everyone avoided him like the plague; everyone except his mother.

'Half-breed.' Inuyasha scoffed, suppressing unwanted childhood memories.

His ears twitched, catching the slight sound of lightweight footsteps behind him. A quick sniff told him that the Jewel Protector was the one approaching. "What do you want? Coming to slam my face into the ground again?" Inuyasha grumbled snidely.

"Actually, I was coming to see if you wanted some food," his hand caught the peach flying above his head before his brain could fully register what had happened. The perturbed hanyou turned around halfway to glance down at the strange girl.

'One minute she's shouting at me and the next she's offering me food. What the hell is up with this girl?!'

"Keh, no thanks. I don't really enjoy spending time with temperamental bitches," The hanyou turned his back around, ignoring the girl below him. His rebellion was short lived when a split second later, he was getting a sore nose and a mouthful of dirt.

"Would you quit saying that?!" Inuyasha growled, jumping up from the ground.

"Saying what?" Kaori asked coolly. "Sit boy?" Inwardly, she smirked at seeing him do yet another face plant. "I'll stop for now if you will stop insulting me. If not, then we'll just have a dog-shaped crater right about where you're standing."

Reluctantly, Inuyasha sat down underneath the tree beside Kaori. "Where'd you get all that stuff, anyway?"

"The villagers gave it to me for some reason," Kaori shrugged, pulling out a long loaf of bread and handed it to the surly hanyou. "Back home, we don't have food this fresh. It's all been cooked already or it's food that just tastes like something different."

Inuyasha stayed silent, just scrutinizing Kaori's movements with his intense golden gaze.

"Papa absolutely loves that stuff; the fake tasting foods." The smaller girl picked up a mikan and began peeling it. The boy crouched beside her, continued to stare, as if he were trying to decipher her thoughts just by staring hard enough.

"Whatever you're up to, I ain't buyin it."

"Buying what, pup?" Kaori asked, lazily popping a piece of mikan in her mouth. "Listen up; it's fair to say that you don't like me, right?"

"Waaaaaay more than fair. That's giving you too much credit," scoffed Inuyasha, who was squinting at the irritated miko beside him.

"Control that mouth and I won't have to injure that pretty little face of yours," Kaori snipped, closing her eyes."You aren't even mad at me, though. You're mad at Kikyo because she pinned you to that tree for fifty years."

Inuyasha made a low grumbling sound then silently soared up from his spot on the ground, back to his perch on the branches above. He sprawled out, propping his head p on his hand, deliberately turning his back.

"Guess what? I'm not Kikyo! I'm Kaori and whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me. Why can't we just have a truce so we don't end up killing each other?"

"HAH!" Inuyasha laughed, springing up, jabbing a pointed claw at Kaori. "I knew it! What you don't get is that I'm only after the jewel! You're just trying to lure me into a false sense of security!"

'Sheesh, paranoid much?'

"False sense of security? Like I'd need to do that. All I have to do to get you to obey is say one word…" Kaori glared up at him; taking in a bit of pride when she saw his face pale. "Sit!"

Inuyasha smashed into the dirt for the third time that day with his nose and chin protesting under their assault on the earth floor. "Stop that!"


Fire crackled invitingly behind Kaori as she climbed into the second futon at Kaede's hut. Over the last several days, she had done nothing but get an earful each morning from Kaede, then put up with Inuyasha's temper until she went to bed.

"Tomorrow, I'm going home. Papa, Maeko, and Raiden must be worried out of their minds. Knowing Papa, he'll have the entire police force out searching for me," a few tears sprung to her eyes.

'What if I never get back? What then? Do I just put up with Inuyasha forever and hope I don't get eaten by a demon one day?'

Shivers rolled down her spine as thunder rolled overhead. Kaori pulled the covers up to her chin, and then closed her eyes, preparing for a restless night.

Inuyasha sat sentinel on top of Kaede's hut, his usual spot. The wind was blustering, whipping branches together and rustling every leaf close by. He was just about to nod off when an unpleasant odor reached his sensitive nose.

Death and crows.

Jumping up, the wide awake hanyou flexed his claws, setting his sights on the horde of demon birds roosting in a nearby tree.

'Just what I needed to deal with,' Inuyasha sardonically thought. Silently, he leapt up, landing squarely in the middle of their flock, and began slashing at them. He managed to slice a few in half, but most took off before he could react.

"They've all come just 'cause they can smell the jewel. Stinking vultures," Just as the birds flew from sight, rain began to pour from the rolling thunderclouds. Inuyasha leaned back under the canopy of leaves, not really bothered by his soaked haori. Closing his eyes, he let his ears twitch to every little sound. For the second time that night, just as he was about to doze off, he was abruptly awakened again. But this time it was for an odd, high pitched sound, but it wasn't very loud.

Inuyasha growled quietly for his interrupted sleep and slid out of the tree, following his ears. They led him to the edge of Kaede's hut where he paused to listen.

A soft whimpering sound was coming from inside.

Pushing the curtain aside, Inuyasha strode in silently. On the futon closest to him was the soundly sleeping priestess, but the one at the farthest end of the room, held the whimpering girl.

The tired hanyou cautiously crept to the other side of the room and knelt down by Kaori's head. Thanks to his enhanced hearing, he picked up on a few words that were whispered from Kaori's lips.

"I'm ok…don't leave…my fault…"

Inuyasha could hear her elevated heartbeat and smell the tears rolling down her flushed cheeks.

Completely unsure of what to do, Inuyasha poked Kaori's uninjured shoulder a few times. "Yo, wake up. C'mon." After a few more nudges, Kaori's brilliant blue eyes fluttered open. Tears clung to her eyelashes, urging the hanyou to brush them away.

'What the hell?! She means nothing to me!' Inuyasha shouted internally.

"Inu…Inuyasha?" Kaori whispered groggily. She wiped at the tears quickly, hoping the boy in front of her hadn't noticed them yet.

"You were…uh," Inuyasha cleared his throat uncomfortably. "You were making a lot of annoying sounds in your sleep and you were keeping me up," 'Liar'

Kaori's cheeks turned bright red. "I'm sorry I woke you up," She whispered, looking down.

"Feh, I don't need that much sleep, but the sounds were beginning to annoy me. Go back to sleep and try to stay quiet this time," the half youkai said, rising from his crouch. He walked over to the edge of the doorway and sank back down, leaning against the wall with his arms and legs crossed and his head bent forward.

'Now that I'm awake, I won't be able to go back to sleep,' Kaori thought, listening to the thunderstorm outside. A flash of lightning arced across the night sky, illuminating the world briefly before plunging it back into darkness. 'I wish I could forget everything and say it was just a dream, but it wasn't.' Fresh tears rolled down Kaori's cheeks; she didn't bother to wipe them.


Japanese Vocabulary!

Nashi: a Japanese pear

Mikan: a mandarin orange

Miko: a priestess