a/n: Hey y'all! I got the next chapter up within a day so you should all be proud of me! I'm off to work on lesson plans for next semester so Chapter 5 won't be up quite so quick. Hope y'all enjoy.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu... ;[

Mending the Broken

Chapter 4- A Mysterious Happening

Upon waking the next morning Sango found that the storm had finally moved on and the sun was shining on a beautiful new day. She and Inuyasha had wasted no time in gathering the supplies they needed from the old slayer storage before heading out in the direction of her village. It only took them an hour and a half to reach her village at top speed and as they approached the crumbling walls she braced herself for the ever-present ache that came with seeing the decay of her village.

As the three of them passed through the opening that used to contain the drawbridge style gate Sango got a good look at her village for the first time in over a year. The few buildings that had withstood Naraku's repeated attacks were now falling down as well. The elements and pillaging by bandits had scattered debris and weapons across the entire compound. Without thinking she broke into a run heading for the graves to ensure that they were undisturbed. If someone had pillaged her family's graves she didn't know what she would do.

Coming to the back of the complex where the graves were located she was surprised to see that not only were the graves undisturbed but looked like they had been attended fairly recently. She knew Inuyasha and Miroku had brought Kohaku back and buried him four months ago while her injuries from the battle with Naraku were healing but she never imagined that they had taken the time to tend the graves of every one of her people. Turning to look at Inuyasha tears welled in her eyes and began to fall down her cheeks.

"Oh Inuyasha.."

Breaking down she rushed to him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. How could she have asked for a better friend? Truthfully she'd been quite afraid of seeing the state of her families' graves but seeing them well kept and respected was more than she could have ever wished for.

"It's nothing Sango. Your people deserved better than what happened to them in this life and it's the least we could do to respect them in the next life."

For what seemed like hours she clung to him as she cried. His arms wrapped around her comfortingly and she didn't have to worry about him groping her, as the monk would have done in this situation. She finally managed to pull herself together and pull herself from his protective grasp and realized only a few minutes had passed. Wiping her eyes and sniffling she was ashamed that she had allowed herself to break down in front of him in that way.

"I-I'm sorry Inuyasha…"

"Don't apologize Sango. You have nothing to apologize for. Grieve for your loved ones and take the time to tend their graves and show your respects. If it's ok with you I'm going to try to find us a suitable place to sleep for the night and if I can't find one then I'm going to start building one while it's still early. Ok?"

For a moment she couldn't comprehend what he'd just told her. Her mind was so wrapped up on the graves of her people and the tragedy that had occurred in her village that she hadn't even thought of where they would sleep for the night. She reminded herself that she was coming back home to stay and rebuild this time not just to pay her respects and leave, as she had become accustomed to in the last few years they had been hunting Naraku. She was once again reminded of how grateful she was that Inuyasha had accompanied her to her village.

Internally shaking herself she brought her mind back to the situation at hand. She wasn't about to let Inuyasha build an entire hut without her, much less have him do all the work while she moped about.

"Thank you Inuyasha but all I need is an hour or so to tend to the graves and pay my respect and then I will work with you on repairing and rebuilding. It is my village after all and there's no way that you are going to be doing all the work when you came here just to help me."

Her hanyou companion merely grinned a crooked grin and nodded before turning to leave her to her people. She set about her work cleaning around the graves with a quicker pace than normal, intent on being thorough but not wasting time while Inuyasha was already hard at work. As she returned weapons to their rightful places and placed flowers on each grave she hear lumber being breaking and falling as he pulled some of the irreparable huts to the ground. Feeling guilty that she wasn't helping she hastened through the last few things she needed to finish before pausing in front of the graves of her father and brother. Kneeling, she bowed her head and said a prayer for the souls of her people and for her father and brother in particular. Someday she would join them in the afterlife but for now she would dedicate her life to returning the slayers to their former glory.

Deciding that she'd spent enough times at their graves for the day she stood and began walking towards the noise that Inuyasha was making with his demolitions. As she approached the hut Inuyasha was currently tearing down she looked down to Kirara who had been silently standing vigil at her side and raised an eyebrow in interest. Her neko companion mewed lightly and they both returned to watching Inuyasha at work.

From the looks of it their half demon companion had already torn down three buildings that were beyond repair and was working on the fourth. These had all been supply sheds or weapon storage buildings from what she could recall. She hadn't spent much time in this half of the village, as she preferred to spend all her time training or out slaying demons. She idly wondered if the main house that her family had lived in as the head of the clan could be repaired or if they would have to rebuild that from scratch as well.

"How is it coming Inuyasha?"

As she called out to him her silver haired friend grabbed a large support beam at the bottom of the wall he'd been demolishing. With a hard yank he managed to rip the beam from its place on the ground. As he did so the ground around the beam started to collapse and everything around him, including himself, fell into the ever-widening hole. As he fell she could hear his voice over the rubble yell out a loud "CRAP!"

"Inuyasha!"

She couldn't believe what she'd just seen. One minute he'd been pulling down another hut and the next he'd vanished into the ground with the beam he'd been holding.

'Please be ok, please be ok,' she chanted to herself as the sprinted the rest of the distance between them and slid to a stop on the edge of the monstrous hole that had opened in the ground.

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha are you ok?"

Without waiting for a reply she jumped into the darkness and landed with an awkward roll down an embankment. Rubbing her slightly sore ankle she stood and tried to locate her half demon friend. The only light was coming from the sun above them and past the edges of the hole was utter darkness. She couldn't see the walls of the hole so she assumed this was more of a tunnel than a hole. Deciding that she'd figure out why there was a giant hole under her village later she began searching for her friend. Digging through dirt and tossing wood and support beams left and right she was beginning to really worry since he hadn't responded to her calls.

After tossing a particularly large beam aside she caught side of the edge of his fire rat haori. Frantically she began to dig through the dirt and toss aside all objects that got in her way. When she caught sight of silver hair she focused her efforts on freeing his upper body and pulling him from the rubble. He was unconscious but alright much to her relief; though he did have a rather big knot on his head from one of the support beams.

"Kirara!"

Her neko companion who had been helping her dig through the rubble in her smaller form to avoid crushing Inuyasha beneath her weight transformed and helped her master slide Inuyasha's unconscious form onto her back. Flying them out of the hole Kirara took them back to the hut she and her master stayed in when returning to the village for a few days during their travels. The roof was half caved in and one of the walls badly burnt but Sango laid Inuyasha down on the futon she had set up in the corner furthest from the destruction. Once her master had their hanyou friend comfortably lying on the futon Kirara transformed back into her small self and mewed worriedly to Sango.

"I'm going to get some water Kirara. Stay here with Inuyasha and make sure nothing else happens."

"Mew!"

With that Sango set out to the stream to get some water for her friend whenever he woke up. She couldn't believe that he'd come to help her and had a giant hole open up beneath him and a building collapsed on him. She was incredibly grateful that he wasn't injured and was reminded that his half demon side really did come in handy at times. A thought flashed through her mind that if she had fallen in the hole and been buried beneath all that rubble alone in her village that she most likely would have died there.

'How much more am I going to owe Inuyasha by the time we finish all this,' she wondered idly as she filled her water pouch from the stream closest to the village.

She already owed him her life many times over from the battles they'd fought in together but he could also say the same about himself. They'd put their lives on the line for each other many times and now it really hit her that he was giving up his own life yet again to help her. She'd really have to tell him how much she appreciated everything he had done and still is doing for her when he woke up.

As she walked back to the hut she had placed Inuyasha in she passed by the hole in the ground and curiosity started to rise within her. Her father had never mentioned any tunnels underneath their village or any underground storage areas so she had no idea why such a large hole would be there. Whenever Inuyasha woke up she wanted to find out what was down there.

Arriving back at their half falling down hut she set the water pouch down near the futon and went to retrieve their packs from the area near the gate where they had set them upon entering the village. Returning from there she used the supplies they'd brought with them from the storage cave and started making a light lunch. They would need to hunt for more meat and she would have to travel to the nearest village to buy seeds for a garden as soon as possible as well. The to-do list in her mind grew larger and larger as she thought about everything they would need to rebuild her village.

'At least it'll give me something to do to keep my mind off everything that has happened,' she thought as she poked at the fire she'd made.

"Awwww…. What the hell hit me?"

Inuyasha moaned as he sat up rubbing his head where the large knot was located. It had already started to bruise and she felt awful for getting him into this situation.

"Are you ok Inuyasha? It's not everyday you fall into a giant hole and have a building collapse on you."

"Well hell Sango I didn't expect the ground to open up under me," he said with an annoyed look while gently touching the bump on his head.

Her hanyou friend leaned against the wall rubbing his head while his dog-like ears twitched in annoyance every time he hit the sore spot on his forehead. She busied herself finishing the stew she'd made out of the remaining deer meat and some seasoning she'd found in the supplies that hadn't gone bad over the years.

"Whatcha' cooking Sango? Smells good."

She laughed lightly as he quickly forgot about his aches at the smell of food. Her friend always had been more interested in food than anything else. With Kirara sitting on the bed next to him the demon and half demon both sniffed the air appreciatively.

"It's just venison stew Inuyasha. If we want some decent food I'm going to have to travel to the nearest village and get us some supplies soon."

Sango ladled the stew into three bowls and handed one to Inuyasha before setting one in front of Kirara and returning to her own bowl. Breaking apart the chopsticks they'd brought from the old storage cave they all dug in. After chowing down his entire bowl Inuyasha spoke as he stood and ladled him another bowl full.

"Is this the only hut left in the village that is half usable Sango?"

"I'm not entirely sure Inuyasha. This is the hut Kirara and I have always stayed in on our trips back. I couldn't bring myself to look in the main house and see if it was live-able. We will have to walk through the village and see Inuyasha."

Inuyasha furrowed his brows in anger and she told him she'd stayed in this half fallen down hut for the entire time they'd hunted Naraku. He always thought that there was at least one hut that had remained standing after the attacks and that was what she'd slept in on her trips to her village. In all honesty he hadn't put much thought into what Sango had been doing when she left their group to travel home. He'd been so wrapped up in Kagome and her constant need to travel back and forth between her time and the feudal era that as long as Sango had returned by the time he was ready to set out on the trail of the Shikon no Tama he didn't care what she did in her free time. A stab of guilt shot through him as he thought of Sango and Kirara trying to wait out bad storms and cold winter weather in this ramshackle hut.

"Well Inuyasha, I'd very much like to see why there is a giant hold beneath my village. If you'd like to stay here and rest a bit that's fine but I'm getting too antsy sitting around waiting to find out."

"You're crazy if you think I'm letting you explore some giant hole alone. Whenever you are ready I'm going in with you."

"Ok Inuyasha," she said with a smile, "I'm going to change into my slayer's suit and then I'll be ready."

With that Inuyasha stood and walked outside so she could have privacy to change. Excitement built within her as she quickly changed out of her old traveling kimono and into her slayer's suit. Giving herself a once over to ensure everything was fastened correctly she looked down at Kirara and grinned.

"Let's go exploring Kirara."

"Mew!"

a/n: Well there you go... What's up with the hole? Is this part of the bigger plot? (cough...yes...cough).. Anyway READ AND REVIEW!