A/N: Konichiwa minna-san! Hey look, I'm ahead of schedule! Aren't you proud of me?^^ Well, for those of you who have wanted to see Kagome back in the picture, it's your lucky chapter! I hope you like it! Tanoshii omoi o suru!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.


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Chapter 7

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Kagura stood with her arms crossed in Naraku's office as the CEO himself reviewed the latest financial reports. He had been quietly reviewing, and subsequently glaring a hole through them for the past fifteen minutes without dismissing his vice president. Finally, he looked up over the top of the print-out at the board looking woman. "Kagura…" he stared, his voice eerily calm, "why do I only see twenty-one major investors listed? There were twenty-two as of last Friday." The dangerously suave, though oily looking man had every appearance of being nonplused, but Kagura knew, from experience, that his rage was just beneath the surface. This would be the twelfth major investor to leave in the last three years, and more were voicing their discontent with every passing week. TH Inc. was plummeting, and fast.

"Yamaguchi Industries of Kyoto announced they were pulling out this morning, Naraku-sama."

The man's strong hand tightened on the sheet of paper. "Why." he demanded.

Kagura sighed. "I don't know, Naraku-sama. That's Public Relation's territory."

Naraku reached over to press the switch on his intercom, having it crackle to life. "Kanna. Send Izayoi up here immediately."

The device crackled again. "Hai, Naraku-sama." came the cool voice.

"I think it's time you admit that this company won't last much longer." Kagura said after a minute of silence.

"Shut up!" The CEO's calm mask broke momentarily. "We just need to market more, we just don't have the money to do that right now." He knew he sounded like a madman, but that didn't matter in just the presence of his VP. He had worked too hard for this. He had his large, plush office, stolen from the cold fingers of his rival. He controlled the company that should have been his years before. He would not let it fail now! He saw the scowl on Kagura's face deepen and her mouth begin to open to put in another terse comment, but a knock on the door cut her off. "Come in Izayoi."

A tired looking woman in her early forties, her hair streaked with more gray than there should have been for her age, stepped into the room, shutting the door behind her. Her lips were set in a thin line as she stood strait and smoothed out her dark blue pantsuit before clasping her hands in front of her, so as to look presentable. "You wished to see me, Naraku-san?"

The man's eyes narrowed slightly. "How many times must I insist you address me properly, Izayoi?" He did not receive an answer. "No matter." He waved it off, "I was reviewing the financial report and found there to be one less investor reported than last week."

The proud woman looked strait ahead, passed the man who had taken her husband's position, out the wall of windows as she gave her answer. "The Yamaguchi Industries have announced their withdrawal."

"Yes. So I've heard. Why?" His voice was like that of a serpent. He folded his hands on the desk in front of him.

"Yamaguchi-sama has seen how our stocks have steadily fallen over the last six years and does not trust the company to stay afloat." The proper suffix did not go unnoticed.

Naraku let loose a small growl. "Yamaguchi has been a steadfast supporter for the last six decades, why would his loyalties change now?!" His temper was getting the better of him.

"Yamaguchi-sama trusted my husband-"

"Why does he not trust me?!" He pounded his fist on the desk in a rage and stood so quickly, the chair he'd been sitting in fell to the floor.

"You ruined this company!" The older woman's hands were clenched at her sides and her mask of indifference had broken, matching Naraku's rage. "My husband built this company from the ground up over almost two centuries of hard work! You were able to tear that all down in under a decade! You abused your authority, and squandered the company's money! If InuTaisho was alive-!"

"But he is not alive, now is he?! I am the owner of this company! I will do what I wish with it and everything that is a part of it! I allowed you to stay in your position out of the sympathy I gave you for your losses. Do not make me ask you to find a new place of work." It had such an air of finality to it that it forced Izayoi to close her mouth and hold in her rage, though she was far from contrite. "The Yamaguchi relations. Fix it." He glared.

The wife and mate of his late rival glared right back, and then turned on her heal, without bowing, and stormed from the room. Kagura watched her go with detachment and silently wondered what Naraku had gotten himself in to.

-

A slender twenty year old woman sat at her desk going between furiously typing and frustratedly going over various reports. Her raven locks had been swept up into a messy bun to keep it out of her way. She didn't know how much longer she could take this. Each day was exactly like the last. Dealing with investors withdrawing, bad press, tremendous loss of funds, the public's opinion of them plummeting more and more. The campus was nothing like the beautiful environment of her childhood. It made her heart constrict to see her second home literally falling apart. Damn Naraku! Damn the day he took over the company and gave almost all the high up positions to his ruthless lackeys. Nothing had been right since that day. The day of her best friend's funeral… The young woman shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts, there wasn't time. Finally she threw up her hands before burying her head in her arms on her desk, giving an aggravated sigh. She didn't hear the heeled footsteps coming toward her on the carpet.

"Kagome?" The girl simply grunted in response to the older woman's prompt. "Oh, Kagome, don't be like that. You know as well as anyone the world won't end if you can't come up with a new strategy right now." Kagome sat back in her chair at Izayoi's kind tone.

"I just don't know what to do anymore, Izayoi-san. I can't do my job if Naraku won't do his. I'm a public relations rep., not a magician!" She was just so tired.

"Hush, love, you'll draw attention. But I know how you feel. Everything will work out in the end, you'll see."

Kagome turned to look at the gently smiling woman in the doorway of her cubical. She could remember a time when Izayoi had practically glowed with youthful energy and a kind of modest beauty. Time had in no way been unkind to her, but there were just things that made her look much too old. Her hair, now pulled back in a tight bun, was speckled with gray and white, her dark eyes had lost their luster, her skin was beginning to show faint creases of stress and age. Kagome really didn't know how she did it. How she went on after such a tragic life. Loosing her only son and loving mate in one instant, and then having to watch as her husband's beloved company fell into ruin. "How?" It sounded defeated even to her own ears.

The older woman gave a quick glance around before leaning in close to her surrogate daughter. "I want you to listen to me very closely, Kagome. You cannot discus what I'm going to tell you anywhere it may get back to Naraku, understand?" the girl nodded warily, "Yamaguchi-sama has pulled his investments, and Naraku is not happy about it. He told me to 'fix it'. I'm going to send you to Kyoto to speak with him."

Kagome's eyes widened. "But Izayoi-san! You have been close with Yamaguchi-sama for years. Surely your influence would be stronger than mine?"

Izayoi nodded. "Yes, that would be true if I was sending you there to discus finances." This confused the younger woman. What else was there to discus? "I have spoken to him about getting you a job there."

Kagome's eyes shot wide. "A job?! But why?" Izayoi wanted her to leave the only place she had ever really known? It would be trying to put her past behind her…

"Hush, Kagome, please. This place isn't going to last much longer, and if I know Naraku the way I think I do, he'll black-list us all when it does go down. We need to get you a new job before that happens. Please, just trust me. We'll talk about particulars later. For now, I'm sending you to 'deal' with the Yamaguchi relations."

Kagome nodded and Izayoi took her leave. What was going on? Kagome knew it wouldn't take much for Naraku to black-list anyone, but this? What would happen to Mama and Souta? How would Izayoi herself get out from under everything? She hoped the older woman knew what she was doing.

-

The wind was blowing a little cold for the time of year. It was the first week of April and, if it had been ten years ago, the sakura trees all over the campus would be in bloom. Kagome closed her eyes and could almost imagine the beautiful scene with the delicate fragrance wafting everywhere around here. Wait a minute… Deep brown eyes opened wide to see a sprig of sakura held right in front of her nose by a clawed hand. She turned, startled. "Kouga!"

The devilishly handsome 24 year old pulled back his hand and gave her a fanged grin. "Daydreaming again, love?"

Kagome's look of surprise dropped to one of distaste. "Kouga, please," she sighed, "Would you stop calling me that. We aren't together." Why did he always have to do this?

He leaned in close and rested a couple of clawed fingers under her chin. "But we could be." he whispered darkly.

Kagome glared and gave an impressive growl for a human, something she'd learned from InuYasha years ago, while deftly swatting away the wolf demon's hand. "Yes, you've made that quite clear. But, as I've tried to make clear to you, I hardly see you that way. Now please, I don't have time for this. I have a train to catch." She raised a hand to wave him off and turned away, but was startled when Kouga gave a growl of his own, a far more impressive one at that, and grabbed her raised wrist and pulled her back so hard she almost collided with him.

"You listen here, love. I am much higher on the totem pole than you are-"

"Only because you sided with Naraku and let the company fall to ruin!" she was ignored.

"I'm sure you wouldn't want your mother's nice, secure job to suddenly disappear, would you?" A clear, rumbled threat.

"You wouldn't." She bit out disdainfully. She cringed as his smooth, otherwise sultry lips came in contact with her soft cheek.

"I'll just let you think about it, love. Perhaps you'll just be a bit more complacent when you come back from your little business trip." It disgusted her to know he thought he was being sexy, the jerk. Before she could react, he gave her a quick, hard kiss on the lips and turned to walk away. "Sayonara, love. I'll be waiting for you." He lifted his hand in a backwards wave.

If looks could kill, Kouga would have found himself quite a bit more than six feet under right then. Kagome spat and wiped her lips with the back of her hand to try and get rid of the feeling of his mouth on hers. 'Ruthless bastard.' she thought as she watched his receding back. Both he and Kikyou had found people of like mind after the takeover, and had fit right in. They were even worse now than they had been before. Finally prying her fiery blue eyes from the wolf-demon, she checked her watch and then turned to head to the train station. She had to get to Kyoto.

-

It had been a long day. The Sakura Festival had just started and all of Kyoto was in a frenzy. Sure he didn't like the crowds, especially when a lot of the people weren't actually from Kyoto, but they brought business and business brought money. It had been ten years and no one had recognized him yet, but he still worried sometimes. He was a lot older now, but he couldn't deny that he had a couple of very distinct Takahashi traits. He still kept a wary eye on any police men that came into the eatery, just incase his mother had never let them give up the search.

He loosed his abnormally long hair from the braid he kept it in at work and sighed as he stepped up to the door of his apartment building. Stupid managerial duties keeping him till after dark. He started for the top floor of the five story walk-up. Sango and Miroku had gotten to come home two hours before, but he didn't hear them on the other side of their apartment door. He unlocked it and stepped in, taking a deep breath through his nose. The lights were on but they hadn't been in the place for some time. His ear twitched as he heard soft murmuring from out the window. He strode over and listened more intently. They were in the roof. Throwing his keys on the coffee table, he went to his room and quickly changed into his favorite red sweatpants and a gray undershirt. He let out a grunt of annoyance as he switched off the lights and began climbing the fire-escape out the window to the roof. The murmuring and laughing got louder until he found his two room mates relaxing on the couches they (he more like it) had scrounged out of the trash and dragged up to the roof.

"Oi, just because I'm payin' utilities this month doesn't mean you two can leave the lights on for however long you damn well please." he growled.

"Oh, come on Yash. They weren't on that long. I went down to get the beers twenty minutes ago and forgot to hit the switch. Here, looks like you could use one." Miroku threw him a glass bottle. Catching it in midair, the hanyou flopped onto the open couch and opened the beverage with a claw. Judging from the amount of liquor he smelled on those two, it had been far more than twenty minutes since the beers had come into play.

He snorted and took a swig before asking, "What'd I miss?"

Sango chuckled. "Nothing really. Just talking about the old days." She downed the last of her drink before popping open another. InuYasha grunted. They knew he didn't like talking about his past unless it was absolutely necessary. The less you talk, the less you think, the less of a problem it is. Miroku had taught him that.

"What's so funny?" the hanyou asked, referring to the laughing he'd heard when he came up.

Getting ahold of her self, Sango answered. "When he was little," she stopped to laugh again, "Miroku was…afraid of aliens!" Both she and Miroku cracked up this time.

"I would stay up late and watch Scifi flicks. S'not like my parents cared. But, when I finally decided to go to bed, I was too afraid a little green man was going to fly through my window and abduct me to go to sleep!" the human man related through his hysterics. "Tell him yours Sango."

She tried to get herself under control again. "Ok, ok. Before I lived on the streets, I always, always, had to sleep with a nightlight on because when it was dark I would hear weird sounds coming from the dumpster in the ally out my window. And then, when I was on the streets…I was the one going out at night and making noise searching through dumpsters! Oh, the irony!" They both cracked up yet again. After a good five minutes or so they calmed down, but couldn't wipe the stupid grins off their faces.

InuYasha had only been half listening. The past. He always tried not to think about it. But the problem was, he did think about it. Every time he would force it away. It wasn't his problem anymore. He shifted and put one of his arms under his head as he got more comfortable in his laid out position. He stared at the night sky. The few stars he could see through the city's haze and lights reminded him of something. Without really thinking, he spoke allowed.

"When I was young…" the other two got quiet, surprised that he would speak voluntarily about his past, "someone told me that no matter what, I could look up at the night sky and take comfort in the fact that the people I love are looking at the same stars, the same moon. Even if they aren't around anymore."

The rooftop was quiet for a moment and he figured they wouldn't respond, but then…

The two more-than-tipsy humans cracked up, once more laughing hysterically. "Oh, Kami! How sappy can you get?!" Miroku guffawed.

"Duh, you're looking at the same sky, if you're even looking at the sky at the same time. And what do you mean 'even if they aren't around any more'? Dead people ain't lookin' at anything but the inside of a coffin!" Sango took another drink of her beer.

InuYasha tensed his muscles and narrowed his amber eyes. 'Damn them.' He rolled off the couch, finished his beer, and threw it over the side of the roof, listening to the satisfying crash of it hitting the dumpster as he walked over to the fire-escape and swung back into the apartment. He heard them quiet down, no doubt wondering what they'd done. With a frustrated sight the inu-hanyou racked his clawed hand through his silver-white locks and paced aimlessly in his room for a moment. He turned and opened his window wide and leaned out, bracing himself on the sill and stared at the sky again. He should have left well enough alone. He raked his hand through his hair again, pulling away with a few long, thick strands tangled in his fingers. 'Fuckin' shedding.' He dropped them out the window and watched them flutter downwards before a redbird flew past and snatched them out of the air. He watched it fly off. 'Kaa-san always liked redbirds.'

-

Totosai sat in his cave eating breakfast by the light of the fire pit. The early morning air was hard on his old bones. He looked over and shook his head at the half-finished sword he would be working on that day. It was a pity. His creations, every inch ready and willing to go into battle, would simply be hung on a wall in this day and age. A twitter drew his attention to the entrance of the cave. There, looking at him expectantly and hopping from side to side, was a little redbird. Annoying thing. He sneered. "Shoo!" He waved his hand at it. "I don't have any food for you, ya little pest. So shoo!" It didn't move, just kept looking at him keenly. "Fine, mangy thing. We'll do it my way. Don't say I didn't warn you." He took a deep breath and blew a stream of fire in the bird's direction.

The bird flew up and dodged the blast, but took the hint and flew out of the cave and on its way, but not without dropping its small cargo. "Bah, good riddance. Not like I need bird droppings in my living space." He watched the long, wispy things the bird had dropped flutter to the ground without much interest until he felt a very faint youki. "Hm? What's this? Calling card from Yura? No, she always uses crows." He lumbered over and picked up the silver-white hairs with a wizened hand and scratched his dandruff laden scalp with a cracked, grimy fingernail. He sniffed. "Hm, dog. And the color…could it be Sesshomaru?" He looked more closely. "Split ends. Not Sesshomaru." Out of the corner of his eye he became aware of something. A sword he had forged to decades before hanging on one of the cave walls. It had never been used, never even presented to its rightful owner. His brows drew together as a suspicion came to him. "Hm, could it be…?"

He hobbled over to the sword's place on the wall and gently placed the hairs on the hilt of the Tetsuaiga. If he was correct, then the slight youki of the hairs should cause the sword to…yes! There! It was faint, but the sword gave a small pulse of power. Totosai's already bulbous eyes widened just a fraction more. "Well I'll be damned." He walked over to his wall of names and found the one he needed. With a small chisel and mallet, he re-carved the three characters to make them stand out over the simple line he'd crossed them out with. InuYasha. "Hn. I told him that boy was going to be a handful." He grabbed the sword off the wall and headed out of the cave. "Come on Tetsuaiga."

-

'Damn Sango.' Since when did grocery shopping become this difficult? It was Sango's turn to pay for food, so of course Miroku had this new need to follow the woman everywhere she went, forcing him to go so that he could keep the lecherous idiot our of trouble. The hanyou snorted. 'Just my luck.' It was late in the afternoon, just between the lunch and dinner rushes so there weren't as many people as there could have been, but there were still plenty due to the Sakura Festival. And of course the just had to take the rout that went past the main branch of the Kyoto Train Station. 'Too many damn people.' "Hey Sango! Did ya have to take us this way?!" he growled over the noise.

"Can it Yash! It was either this way or right next to the festival proper. I know you don't like crowds, but it's the inner city on a festival day. Get used to it." He hated it when she was right. He just wished she wasn't so pissy. Stupid Miroku for grabbing her ass again. "Just grab Miroku and hurry up!"

He glared at her back. "Come on, Letch…" He turned only to find that the over eager man was no longer behind him. Damn. "Sango, wait up!" The crowd had thinned, but still he could not see the human he called his friend.

Smack! "Hentai!"

Then again, sight wasn't usually necessary. InuYasha looked toward where he heard the commotion. An overly feminine scream followed the exclamation, hinting that Miroku had gotten himself in more trouble than he bargained for. Now the hanyou was quickly able to distinguish his room mate as the purple-shirted idiot running scared towards him and Sango with an enraged woman in a green skirt-suit speeding after him. She was doing remarkably well considering her black pumps. Miroku dodged behind Sango as the woman ran up, blue eyes sparking, looking intent on getting a few punches in on the letch. InuYasha, actually fearing for his friends safety, shot out a hand and grabbed the young woman's arm, dragging her into him before taking hold of her other arm to fully restrain her. Despite his hanyou grip, she still struggled against him. Due to her flailing, the clip holing up her hair smacked him in the face causing it to come loose and fall to the ground.

"Oi, bitch! Calm down already!" he growled angrily.

Without missing a beat, her anger seemed to divert from Miroku and lock on to him. Faster than he would have thought possible for someone like her, she elbowed him in the gut, forcing him to release his hold. She then dropped down, balancing herself with her hands and swept his legs out from under him. Before he knew what was happening, InuYasha was on his back with a black, healed shoe pressing into the center of his chest. The utter shock registered on his face. "Don't you dare call me that!" she yelled.

The hanyou lay there looking up at the woman who had felled him so quickly. Her deep blue eyes sparkling dangerously, her mid-length black hair loose and falling over her shoulders. Suddenly a new wave of shock flooded over him. He knew this girl. And he knew the move she'd used on him…because he had taught it to her.

"Kagome?"

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A/N: There you go! I know, evil little me for ending it on a cliffy. Well you'll just have to wait. Next up: Can you feel the love tonight?^^ I know, I can't wait either. Tell me what you think!