lostmoonchild: I'll just get this chapter started so nobody gets worried I'm gonna ramble on and on. Just a quick ramble though: I don't own Inuyasha, YYH, or any of the songs unless I say otherwise. Ya'll know who's mine.

CHAPTER TEN

Kagome's eyes darted around the castle as she carefully looked for any familiar auras inside Naraku's castle. Slowly, she allowed her demon form to drop until the only signs of her having ever changed form was blue jagged streaks in her hair and her eyes a soft golden color. "That was great, mama!" Shippo shouted jumping up into his foster mother's arms.

"Kagome-chan?" Sango questioned putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.

Kagome jumped a little and said quietly, "Somebody's inside."

"Lets go. It might be Naraku!" Inuyasha said as they rushed into the castle.

They searched for almost ten minutes until they saw Kagura standing near a door. "You're looking for that little brat, I assume?" Kagura questioned staring at Kagome.

"What'd you do to her?" Kagome shouted feeling her demon blood starting to rise again.

Kagura smiled a little and said, "I did nothing to the child other than made sure she received some food. You realize by the time the first full moon came, Naraku was fully aware of her demonic heritage."

"And if she's dead, I can promise that Naraku and whoever else ensured her death will be aware of MY heritage." Kagome said, a growl clear in her voice.

"Believe me, I have no intentions of seeing a child suffer without her mother." Kagura said grabbing her feather. "Just so you know, your child is barely alive so I'd suggest getting to her. The door behind me is where she is. Don't worry, its unlocked so you'd better hurry."

Before anybody could say or do anything, Kagura flew off. Testing her words, Miroku opened the door and everybody covered their noses when a terrible stench reached their noses. "Ugh, disgusting!" Inuyasha shouted looking disgusted.

Kagome walked quietly into the room and allowed her eyes to adjust to the little light before gasping when she saw a small child wearing a large t-shirt that had blood stains on the front and back and said "I'm obviously in hell… because you're here" lying on the floor. "Hana!" Kagome shouted forcing herself to calmly walk towards the small child.

The small child, Hana, moaned and struggled to sit up but was severely weakened because of the lack of food. "Its okay, sweetie, its okay. Mama's here now." Kagome said carefully picking the small child up. "I'm here now, nobody's going to hurt you again."

Hana weakly clung to Kagome's shirt and shivered a little at her older cousin/foster mother's touch. The only time she had ever been touched by anybody was if they were going to hurt her, it had been so long since she felt a gentle touch that she almost forgot what it was like. "Lady Kagome, is that her?" A voice asked. Hana liked the sound of that voice, the owner was clearly male and had a good heart.

"Yeah. This is Hana." Kagome answered sounding like she wanted nothing more than to leave.

"Naraku's not around here, is he?" Another voice asked. Also male, but a little rougher and was clearly used to living a hard life.

There was silence for a minute before Kagome answered. "No, he's not. I can't even feel the Shikon no Tama." Kagome answered before there was movement showing Kagome was leaving the room.

"She needs a bath, mama." A voice pointed out. A child, no older than eight maybe.

"I know." Why'd Kagome answer? Did she end up having the child or was the child adopted? She couldn't have had the child since Hana was only gone a year, that would mean the child would be about nine months old and unable to talk. So that meant Kagome had adopted.

Inuyasha looked at the young girl in Kagome's arms and saw how thin she was. The child obviously hadn't eaten in a while and from how unfocused she looked, she hadn't had water in some time. "Hey, bitch, stop for a minute." Inuyasha said.

Kagome stopped and felt him going through her backpack. "What're you looking for?" Kagome asked looking confused.

"Your pup needs water." Inuyasha said taking a water bottle out of Kagome's backpack.

Kagome looked at Hana and saw she was thirsty. "Here we go, Hana." Kagome said taking the water bottle from Inuyasha.

Hana smiled a little and drank the water, careful not to spill a single drop. She never knew water could taste so good…when it was clean that is. A whimper nearly escaped her lips when Kagome took the water bottle away saying something about how Hana shouldn't fill her stomach up too much since they were going to eat.

Food…

Just the thought made Hana's stomach growl loudly. Maybe this time she wouldn't have to try feeling for any rotten parts of any kind of food and wouldn't have to put up with food poisoning every time she got desperate enough to eat halfway rotted food. "I know, you're hungry. We have to get you cleaned up though since you are absolutely filthy." Kagome said sounding amused.

Hana nodded weakly and listened quietly as Kagome talked to her friends. After about half an hour, Hana felt Kagome set her down and started sneezing when she smelt a fire being started. Every once and a while she had gotten whiffs of fresh air so the fresh air didn't bother her as much but the scent of a fire… that was one scent she wasn't too familiar with anymore.

A few minutes later she felt Kagome pick her up and heard somebody following. A silent gasp escaped Hana's lips as she felt her pajamas being taken off from her body and felt the warm water rising until it was around her chest. She shivered a little when she felt Kagome get into the water and felt herself being cleaned of the dirt and everything. "She looks happy." A woman's voice said sounding somewhat surprised.

Kagome nodded a little and calmly told Hana to hold her breath. Hana took a deep breath and felt Kagome dunk her underwater, before bringing her back up. "Alright, my little monster, get ready for the shampoo and conditioner." Kagome said gently.

Sango watched as Kagome gently rubbed shampoo in the girl's hair and smiled when Kagome dunked the small child under water before pulling her back up. Hana smiled a little revealing several missing teeth and looked as if she was enjoying be clean. "She's so thin…" Sango whispered looking sympathetic towards the young child.

Kagome nodded in agreement and gently washed Hana making sure that all of the dirt and dried blood was off of the small girl's back before gently taking her out of the water and wrapping a towel around the child so she wouldn't get too cold. "Uh…ugh!" Hana protested loudly.

"Why isn't she talking?" Sango asked.

"I don't know…" Kagome said trailing off as she sat down behind her cousin and started rubbing a towel against Hana's head.

Hana giggled in obvious delight and started making more noises, her voice jumping every time her head moved suddenly. She giggled and attempted to grab Kagome's arms but found she couldn't even lift her arms. A small frown appeared on her face but quickly vanished when Kagome set her against a rock, reassuring Hana that she and Sango were going to get dressed before they went back to camp.

Within a few minutes, Hana felt herself being picked up and looked slightly confused when she realized that the person carrying her wasn't Kagome. "This is Sango." Kagome's voice said sounding completely calm.

Carefully, Hana breathed in the woman's scent and rested her head on Sango's shoulder showing she was okay with being carried by somebody else. Whimpers escaped her lips when she felt Sango set her down on something that felt like a sleeping bag. "I need to wash her clothes." Kagome explained going through her bag trying to find a shirt for Hana to wear.

Inuyasha took off his haori and carefully wrapped it around the small ten year old, looking surprised when Hana's eyes lit up and she started babbling nonstop. Kagome laughed as she walked to a nearby stream and started washing Hana's clothes but fell silent when Hana started screaming. Sighing, Kagome put the wet clothes on a rock before sitting down behind Hana. "Shh…" Kagome said with a soothing voice. "Its okay."
Hana protested and weakly started moving her fingers which attracted everybody's attention. "What's she doing, mama?" Shippo asked.

"Talking." Kagome answered.

"With her hands?"

"Yep."

They didn't understand entirely how anybody could talk with their hands but it was obvious that Hana was since Kagome had started talking gently. "What's wrong with her?" Miroku asked.

"She's afraid. In the past year, she's seen Naraku almost exactly like her father. Because of that, memories of her father resurfaced along with the promise he'd take her away from me by any means possible. Right now, Hana thinks that her father is going to come here and take her away." Kagome explained before gently kissing Hana's cheek. "Its okay. Your dad's not coming here, I promise."

Hana quieted down some and remained quiet until Kagome had finished cleaning her clothes and was letting them dry off. "Now, who's hungry?" Kagome questioned.

lostmoonchild: okay, there's chapter ten! read and review, flames are accepted.