Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and favorited the story. 3 It means so much to me!

IMPORTANT NOTE: I revised the scene of Inuyasha's death in chapter 10. It's not a huge difference, but now things said later on will make more sense.

Figure it's time to update this!

Yukimura Taji - Inuyasha

Yukimura Sumiko - Rin

Miyamoto Kaori - Sango

Miyamoto Sora - Kagura

Kiyoraka Kazuo - Miroku

Kiyoraka Yasuo - Kohaku

Parents (They don't have connections to the past, these are just them):

Higurashi Kasumi

Yukimura Naoko

Miyamoto Ami

Miyamoto Kenji

Kiyoraka Yukiko

Kiyoraka Daichi

The Path of Destiny

Chapter 11

Shit, You Think I Know?

Kazuo stretched in the morning light, shaking off the last remnants of sleep in his mind he waited for Kaori to come out of her house so they could walk to school together. The past few days had been difficult, very difficult, and neither he nor Kaori had gone to school. They had spent the days and nights helping Inuyasha adapt to the era as best as they could while simultaneously trying to find a way to revert his consciousness back to Taji. So far there had been no success. Continuing to be out of school would only raise suspicion, and Taji obviously wouldn't be returning until they found a way to restore him.

He pondered the nature of these past few days and what they meant to him. Along with having to deal with a very stubborn reborn hanyou there was the unsettled matter of his and Kaori's blossoming feelings for each other. Taji had witnessed them kissing outside, which now made things a little awkward between Kasuo and Kaori even if Inuyasha had no recollection of what Taji saw earlier that day.

Kaori was right, he acted more like Miroku around her, it was something that he felt was naturally drawn out by her. But her reactions were uncanny, they were replaying their former lives over again. And while he was comfortable with their relationship being at least started and lightly based on their past, she wasn't.

Sighing, Kazuo checked his watch and began to wonder if he should go in and get Kaori before the door opened and Kaori came tumbling out, a piece of toast in her mouth and hopping as she shoved a shoe on one foot. She jogged over to him and through a mouthful of bread greeted him, as though nothing had happened. But as they began to walk the tension between them mounted through their conversation.

"So, Inuyasha still in town?" Kazuo asked.

"Yeah," Kaori replied tersely. "They've tried everything. Medicine, magic, meditation, beating it out of him, nothing seems to be working. He's being so...stubborn. Just like himself. Both of himselves."

"Huh. It's the same with Kohaku, nothing's worked and the best minds in both youkai lore and human medicine think we should just let what will happen happen naturally."

"Hmmm…" was all that Kaori replied.

"Maybe it'll clear up on the new moon?" Kazuo suggested.

"Hmmm…"

"I hear that it's a health benefit to stick peanut butter and banana sandwiches in your pants all day."

"Hmmm…"

Kazuo sighed. Kohaku was awaked, Inuyasha was causing trouble, and they had their own issues to sort through. He was surprised Kaori even managed to notice that he talked at all.

OoOoO

Inuyasha, once Taji, took Tetsusaiga and faced off against Kirara. Even as a human he still managed to look as cocky as ever despite not being able to use the sword. But he wanted to try, and everyone else he could try against had their day jobs to do, from own half the known and unknown world to keeping relations between humans and youkai running smoothly.

Kirara charged at Inuyasha and he avoided her easily, once more gracious that his reincarnation kept in shape. The body was familiar enough that he didn't feel alienated in it, and it had apparently made rounds the entire property what had happened and they left him well enough alone.

He had heard that his sister, Sumiko, suffered from constant illness and it had only been recently that through a youkai doctor she was up and around and back at school all the time. He supposed that he would owe him gratitude, but he knew Sesshoumaru well enough to know not to give it. Sumi herself was untouched by her brother's transformation to Inuyasha, now that it had passed. He didn't know what to say to her about his reentering the world as he did, and she seemed perfectly content to ignore it and call him "Onii-chan".

Other than using Kirara to try and test his strength and possibly dip into his hanyou powers the same way Kagome was a miko he spent a lot of time with Kohaku. Kohaku, who he had found out was named Yasuo and was Kazuo's younger brother in this era, was having as much of a difficult time as he was trying to unify himself with his other, modern, self. Just like with him, they had tried everything imaginable, but there was something tying him to this mortal coil.

Inuyasha took one last swing and then sheathed his sword. "Feh, let's go find Kohaku, Kirara. I can't concentrate on a damn thing."

Kirara shrunk to her smaller size and ran to catch up with Inuyasha as he made his way towards the Kiyoraka home where Kohaku had finally managed to make peace with staying, though it was questionable if his parents had done the same. Inuyasha was lucky, Taji's mother, while upset, was genuinely a good host to him while they were in the predicament. A good mother. She insisted he call her "Naoko-mama", but he stuck with just plain "Naoko" or "You".

He came upon Kohaku kicking a ball across the yard and he watched him for a bit, noticing this wasn't anything like he'd seen Kohaku do in the past. He mostly stuck to weapons, especially his chain and sickle. He seemed proficient in the game he was playing and noticed Inuyasha had come forward. With a smile he kicked the ball towards him and Inuyasha caught it expertly.

"No, that's not what you do!" Kohaku exclaimed, coming closer. "You can only use your feet and head to hit the ball. It's better when there's more than one person around."

Inuyasha looked down at the black and white ball, clearly vexed by it and Kohaku's enthusiasm. "What's the point?" he asked, tossing it back and watching Kohaku dribble it.

Kohaku's eyes lit up and he explained some of the ins and outs of football, which brought a thought to Inuyasha.

"You don't sound like yourself, kid," he observed. "You sound a lot happier, that's for sure."

Kohaku stopped dribbling and picked the ball up, a sad smile on his face. "It's weird, I woke up this morning with all this knowledge on football, I'd never heard of it before. But I had a strong desire to play, I had to play, and so I did. Like I'd been playing all my life."

"Yasuo is coming back...isn't he?"

"I don't know! It's all so confusing!" he cried out. "One day I'm fighting Naraku and the next...you know the next."

Inuyasha looked at the ball and the way he clutched it closely. "There's been more though."

Kohaku nodded once. "I can feel it coming. I'm losing myself and he's fighting his way back. Not just the football, but memories from when he was younger are flashing through my mind all the time. I don't feel like I can be close to ane-ue or onii-chan, neither of them is my sibling anymore because I'm not Kohaku or Yasuo anymore! I don't know what to do! Inuyasha, I don't want to die again! Please tell me I don't have to die for Yasuo to live!"

The words hung in the air like the scent of blood that often followed both of them in their previous lives. Inuyasha found himself speechless at first. The boy had put into words his own greatest fear and he felt chilled by it as he watched tears trail down Kohaku's face. But he couldn't lie to the kid about it, either.

"I can't promise you that, Kohaku. You, me, fuck, neither of us belong here. We're supposed to be dead and dust for centuries. I let myself die with some hope of being here, as Taji, and even that I managed to fuck up." He realized he wasn't helping and ran a hand through his tangled mess of hair. "Look, you woke up because everyone else was waking up, right? But the things that happened to you were so intense and so horrible that the naive and pure person you were in this life couldn't process it. Your memories aren't dribbling in like everyone else's so the best you're gonna be able to do is come to a understanding about who's in charge."

"How do I do that?"

"Shit, you think I know? If I did don't you think I'd have already done it?"

OoOoO

Hidden off to the side of the small row of houses was Sora, fanning herself lazily. Hmmmm...They're taking this more seriously than Sesshoumaru gives them credit for. And certainly more than Kouga.

"Well," she snapped her fan closed and took the back route to the main house so she wouldn't be seen by the two boys. "The least I can do is tell Sesshoumaru that they're considering this a problem." She smiled, her red lips pressing together firmly. "Maybe I'll be able to take him from his work a little early today…"

She strolled across the path, not paying any particular attention to what was going on around her, her thoughts wrapped up in the dance so many of them were performing as reincarnations. Her own little sister had been her forced enemy. Her sister's best friend was her worst enemy. His sister was the ward of a taiyoukai she had found herself inexplicably attracted to and frustrated with. They were friends with another enemy and a boy who the creature that gave birth to her had used for months to play with the heart of her sister.

It was a tangled web.

Everyone had different degrees of remembering, she remembered everything (as far as she could tell) up until the day she knelt in the field of flowers after saving Kohaku's life and said her goodbye to Sesshoumaru. She knew that Kaori remembered the least, preferring to rely on her connections to this time and this place to work in life. But, as she stepped into the main house and waved at Ayame, she knew that Kaori would have to give in eventually.

Sora entered the meeting room Sesshoumaru was in without knocking, interrupting a meeting between him and several other associates. He raised an eyebrow at her, but she merely pulled up an empty chair and sat around the table with the others. "I can wait," she said offhandedly.

Sesshoumaru nodded and continued with the meeting as though there had been no interruption. Several of the other youkai in the room were offended that this woman, this human, was allowed to sit down with them, as an equal. But they continued as Sesshoumaru did for he was the most powerful one there.

When the meeting was over, and after receiving a scathing look from a particularly attractive lemur youkai, Sora snapped her fan closed and smirked at Sesshoumaru. "Hope I didn't interrupt anything too important. Corporate take over? Espionage?"

"Board meeting," Sesshoumaru replied while getting his papers together. "Two of the members of the board will be missing at the next one. Unfortunate. You have news?"

"Nothing much," she replied. "There is something in having so much time in spying in your past life. No one tends to notice you when you don't want them to."

"Ho...So, how is my pathetic half-brother and Kohaku?"

She smirked. "Smarter than you give either of them credit for. Yasuo is breaking through Kohaku's consciousness and Inuyasha has the solution to what they need to do, he just doesn't know how."

"Indeed."

"Indeed," Sora mocked him, standing up and walking to where he was standing and collecting his papers. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you cared about Inuyasha, or Taji's, fate." She smiled at him and put her arms around his neck, noticing when his eye ticked just a little bit. "The great Sesshoumaru-sama, worried about puny humans and his brother's reincarnation."

"You overreach, woman," he growled.

Still smirking, Sora kissed him softly and then pulled back. If a person didn't know Sesshoumaru, as Sora did, they wouldn't know that he had suddenly relaxed. "And to think, I once accused you of not being a man. Inuyasha's idea is that they need to tap into their other halves' consciousness and come to some sort of agreement about which person in their head is in charge."

They began to walk down to his office, still talking about the rather large thorn in their side. "An easy suggestion," Sesshoumaru agreed, "but how to bring forth the weaker personality and have it take back over?"

"Don't ask me. That's what Inuyasha didn't know."

"Perhaps it is time to call a group meeting and see if anyone has ideas," Sesshoumaru mused.

Sora looked surprised. "Oh. Kouga and Inuyasha in the same room together? That's something I don't get the pleasure of seeing everyday."

"Ayako," Sesshoumaru stopped in front of his secretary's desk. She looked up from her paperwork, her large blue eyes fixated on him. "Call everyone on the Association list, tell them there will be a meeting at eight tonight and I will not tolerate tardiness."

"Yes, Sesshoumaru-sama," Ayako said while bowing her head.

OoOoO

Lunch time came around as it does everyday and Kaori and Kazuo met on the roof of their school with Kaori having a lunch for Kazuo as she tended to do these days. Unlike she had before, today she blushed when his hand brushed hers when he took the lunch from her. Somehow today, after sharing their feelings a few days ago, it was more embarrassing than when Taji was around.

They ate in silence at first, the unease for that morning still hanging over their head like a dark cloud. Kazuo finished eating first and looked over to Kaori to study her as she finished her lunch.

Her cheeks were red as she pretended not to notice Kazuo's attention. She was different today, and not just in her silence. Her hair was being held back by a shimmering purple scarf that matched the make up she had on for the day. That took Kazuo aback; Kaori didn't wear make up. He thought that, perhaps, it was Sora's influence on her, she had bought enough for her the other day. It never crossed his mind it might be for his benefit.

"Kazuo," Kaori began, her lunch set aside, her face now pale under her make up. "You are Kazuo, aren't you?"

Looking affronted, Kazuo jumped up and didn't hide the shock on his face. "Who else would I be?" They paused. "Miroku? You think my consciousness has been taken over?"

She shrunk back down, laying her head on her folded knees. "It was a thought. It's a popular thing to do these days."

"And neither of them are happy! Kohaku remembers his life as a puppet murderer for Naraku and Inuyasha is far more miserable without Kagome than Taji was. I may remember much of my life as Miroku, both the good times and the bad, but I am not him."

"Then why do you act like him so much when we're around. I know there's no helping the perverseness within you, that shone through before you got your memories back," Sango muttered darkly. "But you aren't a monk, you don't have to act like one."

Miroku averted his gaze. "Sometimes I feel as though I must, and I have minor spiritual powers again."

"That doesn't mean you must be a monk. Just like I don't have to be a taijiya. I'm doing what I'm doing right now because if we don't the Shikon no Tama and Kagome-chan could be in grave danger. When this is over I have other dreams I want to chase."

"Really?" Kazuo asked, sitting again, genuine interest on his face. "Like what?"

"I want to be a teacher, a wife, and a mother." Kaori mumbled, once again blushing. She looked over to Kazuo. "You must have something you always wanted to do?"

"Well yes, I always wanted to be a chef to be honest with you," he told her, his voice a little far away. "I'm not half bad if I do say so myself."

Kaori narrowed her eyes at him. "So why is it I'm always the one making lunch!"

"I thought it was just because you liked me," Kazuo said innocently. "Well, I have a feeling I won't be doing that anymore. I think I'm being pulled into the youkai underworld."

"You don't have to be," Kaori responded frantically. "It's only short lived, a few more months. We can cut ties - "

"How do you expect to cut ties?" Kazuo snapped. "My brother, our brother, could forever be stuck in his bloody past, Sumi-chan will never leave 'Sesshoumaru-sama', Sora-san and Sesshoumaru have something that I don't want to think about going on, and then there's Taji. Inuyasha. Once Kagome-sama, Kagome," he corrected himself, "stays in this time she's going to find that some of her friends made it to this time. And are we really going to abandon all of this?"

Kaori felt tears fill her eyes but she looked down and didn't bother swipping them away. She couldn't just leave Shippou and Kirara. If Kohaku never reverted back to Yasuo, what would she do? Just abandon him to a life he couldn't possibly understand? The same with Taji...her best friend. There were too many people involved now.

The bell rang and Kazuo got to his feet. "Ya know," he said, "it's a good day for ditching class."

Kaori laughed. "We just got back."

"That's what makes it such a good day! We don't want to overwhelm our brains on our first day back." He held his hand out to the girl who had blinked back her tears, though there were still traces of them on her cheeks. "Well, let's go! To the mall for icecream!"

Smiling, a true smile, Kaori took his hand and allowed herself to be pulled up and then lead down stairs to the gate, not caring that they were leaving their books behind. Or that someone saw them sneaking off. Right now all either of them cared about was the warmth in the hand they were holding.

OoOoO

Inuyasha, shoes off and wearing the baggiest clothes that he could find in his room, (Sesshoumaru had refused to give him the Fire Rat armour) followed Naoko and Sumi down the too-white hallways of Sesshoumaru's home. Sumi was practically skipping as they made their way towards the largest meeting room in the house that doubled as an office building, she hadn't seen Sesshoumaru in an entire day and was eager, as always, to see him. She held both Inuyasha and Naoko's hands as they moved along, allowing Sumi to lead them to where they were going.

Naoko tried to remain as calm and collected as possible about this meeting, one hadn't been called since all of this began. Out of the corner of her eye she caught her son's, no Inuyasha's profile, and noticed the changes in him. How he stood up straighter and was constantly checking around them for potential threats. The slight change in his voice and vocabulary was...tolerable. She smiled, she'd been warned about that, actually.

But, as a mother, she had to wonder how much of this had come about by visiting the Higurashi Shrine that day. Sesshounaru's spies had seen him there and reported the visit. It had been long enough, but mostly filled with questions about what they had dealt with until now and how it had affected Kagome. Taji had finally just told Higurashi Kasumi not to underestimate her daughter: she was stronger than anyone else on the team, which brought her pride.

They reached the double doors and allowed Sumi to throw them open with a cry of "Sesshoumaru-sama!"

"Rin, be quiet and take your seat," Sesshoumaru said without looking up from his paperwork.

"Okay!" Rin chirped taking her seat on Sesshoumaru's left hand side, Sora would be occupying the right.

Inuyasha sat next to Sumi and Naoko took a seat beside him. They were the first ones to arrive, even beating the youkai and their friends to the meeting. Kohaku was waiting for his parents to get home to come with them, and Sora was waiting for Kazuo and Kaori up at their school so they would be their quickly. All of their parents had arranged to be off early for this meeting. Ayame, Kouga, and Shippou were on their way.

It wasn't long before everyone one arrived. Fights broke out (Kouga and Inuyasha started the first one, of course) more happy greetings were exchanged, but eventually Sesshoumaru lost his temper in a way that only Sesshoumaru can.

Sumi stood up on her chair and called out over the din of the room. "Everyone, Sesshoumaru-sama wants to start the meeting!"

Her small, but firm, voice was enough to cause both Inuyasha and Kouga to stop in the middle of their first fist fight. Instead they glared at each other and sat back in their own respective seats, frowns on their faces and promises of finishing this later under their breath. Shippou, meanwhile, simply sat back and wiped his brow. He was almost ready to step in and that wouldn't have been a pretty sight for him.

"Thank you, Rin," Sesshoumaru said, no change in his voice to suggest that he was at all grateful. "We have two members of our reincarnation group who have taken over the bodies of their hosts."

"You make it sound like we WANTED to do it, asshole," Inuyasha snapped.

Sesshoumaru continued on, still far too used to dealing with his younger half-brother. "Those who have examined these two have all come to the same conclusion: the longer they linger, the more likely you are to stay in this world, in those bodies. Bodies that do not belong to you anymore than Kagome's soul belonged in Kikyou's false body."

At the mention of the name Kikyou, Inuyasha flinched. Kikyou had passed as peacefully as anyone could have hoped given her circumstances. Though deep down he knew that he had hurt Kagome by kissing her and then he never got the chance to…to...He sighed and tried not to think about it. He'd been reborn, he had a long time to try this again.

Suddenly the door opened again and a woman with short curly brown hair and a yellow jacket on entered the room. "I'm so sorry, everyone, that I was late! My father-in-law didn't give me the message until an hour ago because he thought consorting with youkai was, well, anyway," she trailed off. "It won't be repeated!"

"Ah, so you're Higurashi Kasumi!" Sora acknowledged with praise in her voice. "You put up with so much from Inuyasha, I hear."

"I can confirm it and I wasn't even there for it," Kaori mused.

Kazuo sighed. "It was just as bad for us."

"Would you lot just shut up?!" Inuyasha barked. He then collected himself. "Kasumi-san, I didn't know you were invited." He glared at Sesshoumaru and bowed his head at her. "They said we've met before."

"We have, Taji-kun. Oh," her hand flew to her mouth. "I'm sorry, would you prefer I call you Inuyasha-kun until this is all straightened out?"

"Either one is fine," he muttered.

She took her seat at the back of the table and smiled. "Shippou-kun told me that calling you by your real name would probably help bring forth Taji-kun, so I'll call you that if you don't mind, and I also brought some of the tea we drank the other night when we were together. There is nothing more powerful than smell and taste. Maybe after this you can have some."

"Okay, so we've got one idea to get inukoro's mind going, tea," Kouga said with mild disgust, which caused almost everyone in the room to glare at him for at all suggesting that the tea would not be a good stimulant.

"It's a good start," Yasuo's father input. "There's a lot of research about taste and touch being the most powerful memories we have."

"Well what about me?" Kohaku asked. "What does Yasuo have that was so important that it might trigger his life again?"

Ayame pulled a tuft of a fur that had been in her family for generations and hed it up. "Sometimes we're the only ones who know."

Naoko turned to Sumi. "Sumi, have you noticed anything different with Kohaku?"

Sumi shook her head but Inuyasha jumped in. "You were playing that game earlier! Football or something! You tried to get me to play and I thought it was boring."

Yukiko's head snapped up and she said, "That's Yasuo's favorite game. Did you know how to play it? Were you good at it?"

Kohaku looked taken aback and smiled at his two 'parents' before exchanging glances with his brother. "I knew every rule in the game and all I wanted to do was play it."

Kaori's eyes lit up. "Yasuo is coming forth."

"Thank the heavens," Kazuo breathed softly.

"So basically we just have to wait and this will blow over?" Naoko asked with some enthusism in her voice. "Taji will be back?"

Shippou folded his arms. "We won't know for sure until Kohaku and Yasuo truly make the switch or come to a compromise. And Inuyasha is a lot stronger of a personality than Kohaku, no offense, I did live with him for a century."

Some fighting began to break out, especially amongh the Kiyoraka's, who weren't happy with where they were in life, and the Miyamoto's who had taken right to their daughter's destinys, no matter how bizarre. Naoko stayed out of the arguements because of her families ties to Sesshoumaru, though she still didn't fully understand Sumi and Sesshoumaru's bond.

The youkai sat out, let the humans argue as though they had choices in the matter. This had all happened before, and it would all happen again, that was just the way that time travel worked. And right now they were spending too much time squabbling and struggling while other youkai got closer to the shrine.

Kasumi interrupted the arguments and took the floor for a moment. "I may not be as involved as you are in many things, but my daughter is charged with going down a well and finding the shikon no kakera. Sometimes I don't see her for weeks and at first I worried, even with Shippou's explanation that everything would work out. But he told me that in the end they wouldn't be together, that it was pretty obvious they wanted to be together and it just didn't happen.

"Kagome is home for a couple of days to get caught up for the mock test. Maybe you can arrange a way to bump into her, just spill a drink or something, and see her, talk to her briefly, be satisfied that she really is alive. I think that with that, you will be able to be at peace and Taji-kun can come back to us. It's the best I can do until the end of the journey."

"This is probably the best idea we can come up with," Shippou agreed. "As long as Inuyasha isn't making his visits at the same time."

Sesshoumaru took the floor again. "I believe it would be best to send Kohaku to a football club where he may be able to regain more memories. Someone must always be with him in cause this does happen. Are there any other means you've noticed that call upon Yasuo?"

"He really likes cats, and his favorite food is okonomiyaki," Kohaku told him. "Nothing else really."

"It is a start. As for you, my worthless half-brother, I would take Higurashi-san's suggestion and see if the tea she has would bring your memories back. And while I hold some, many, reservations, about you seeing Kagome if that is what it will do to put you back into your rest, than so it must be. I don't want you alone when you decide to do this. Kouga," he called.

Startled, Kouga sat up a little straighter. "Yeah?"

"I want you to shadow Inuyasha while he attempts to contact Kagome. Should the contact become at all beyond our orders you are to get him out of the situation, by force if need be. The same goes for Kazuo and Kaori should they be accompanying Inuyasha at the time."

Kouga, finally having the authority over his beloved inukoro did his best to look nonchalant. His wife could see the joy though and stomped on his foot with a glare.

Inuyasha snorted. "This is all a bunch of bullshit."

Naoko frowned at Inuyasha, because as much as she loved her son she never got used to his vocabulary. "Taji, watch your language!"

"I ain't gonna watch my fuckin' language. I'm sick of listening to you people, especially you two assholes," he pointed at Kouga and Sesshoumaru. "I have my reasons for waking up, even if I do only have this mortal body. I know my way around this city, don't even try and stop me."

Kaori jumped up and grabbed his shirt, but was shrugged off. "Please, Inuyasha, please, don't let Kagome see you."

He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Well, if there was ever a doubt that he was Inuyasha…" Kazuo mumbled as he squeezed Kohaku's shoulder.

"Don't worry," Ayame said with a shrug. "We've had plans for this situation, believe it or not. Higurashi-san, we'll need your help."

Kasumi nodded, ready to help the boy who had given his heart away a long time ago.

To Be Continued…

Thank you for reading! Until next week!