A/N: Thank you to innocentanimefan for their review on chapter 10. :)

And also a Happy New Year to you all! I hope that the new year brings many blessings and good fortunes to everyone out there! ;)

Please R&R! ;D

Timeless

Chapter 11 - The abandoned village

"Why?" Inuyasha whined out of nowhere, causing Kagome to jump slightly at the sudden noise. Ever since they had left the burned down village a couple of days ago, they had all kept quiet, not saying much, each left in their own thoughts. Even Shippo had stayed quiet.

"Why what?" Sango looked slightly annoyed at being broken out of her silent reverie.

"I have to agree, it is a pretty ambiguous word to just throw into the air." Miroku looked over at his friend, wondering what was going on in his head.

"Why way Sesshomaru there?" Inuyasha whined again and they all felt a small sweatdrop forming at the back of their heads. That was what he was worried and wondering about?

"Because he's trying to find Naraku like we are." Kagome pointed out ever-so helpfully.

"But why was he in the same area as us?" Inuyasha didn't seem to be very content with just that explanation. He and Sesshomaru might get along better now than three years ago but that didn't mean that a fair amount of competition still remained between the two brothers.

And by getting along better it merely meant that they didn't try to slit each other's throats each time they met. Not much more and not much less.

"Because he's also looking for Naraku and unless Naraku can split up and be in two seperate places at once, then Sesshomaru will also be in the same area as us." Sango said rather sarcastically.

"And we cannot be ahead of them since they started looking before us." Kagome quickly interjected before Inuyasha could ask that. Sometimes he could really act like a kid.

"But we will catch up." Miroku said soothingly. "And we met up at the same time in the same area, so we probably already have. So calm down a bit Inuyasha, we'll reach the slayer's village soon and then we can start looking for Naraku. It won't be long after that that we will find him and beat him like we beat him last time."

"Okay?" Kagome asked and touched him slightly on the arm to calm him down. A small blush began to make its way across Inuyasha's face and he mumbled a quick 'okay' before turning away so that nobody could see the blush that was now gracing his face.

Shippo found that Inuyasha was way too easy to read at times. Kirara silently agreed.

~.~.~.~.~

"We're closing into the old slayer's village." Yukari took a look around herself as she peered at the countryside around her. In her time with the former Lady of the West, Lady Satomi, she hadn't spent all that much time outside of the estates. Yes, they had spent some time travelling from one castle or manor to the next, but other than that they had remained pretty firm in one place.

There had been a time when she had travelled around the country a lot, but that had been a good five hundred years back. It had been just after she got picked up by Lady Satomi and taken in. It had been a time of great unrest and wars, therefore they could never really remain in one place for a very long time. Lord Inutaisho had left Sesshomaru with Lady Satomi and told her to make sure that they weren't found while he went off and battled the various demons attacking the lands.

She did not have a very clear recollection of what her life had been like before she had been taken in by the inu taiyoukai. There were just glimpses from here and there and none of them were particularly nice memories. Most of them were of her being chased out of one village or another because of her inability to age normally like the rest of them. And while as an adult you may be able to get away with looking the same for a good twenty or maybe even thirty years if you were lucky, you could not remain looking like a three year-old for more than a year, maybe two.

Sesshomaru had been a bit different then. More open than he was now. She and him used to get along pretty well but something along the way had changed. She couldn't for the life of her figure out what exactly it was though.

Sesshomaru was thinking along similar lines as he calmly walked down the road alongside Yukari. When he had first met her, a good five hundred years ago, he had thought that she was just another annoying human, another one of his mother's many toys. What none of them had realised at the time was that Yukari was about as much a human as they were. Namingly, not at all.

After being with them for ten years she still looked three years old and roughly fifty years later she looked fourish, maybe five. She aged as fast as he did and by that time they all knew that she wasn't human. But she wasn't a demon either. To this day nobody had really figured out what she was. She had never said what she was, in a way it was almost like that in itself was a mystery to her too.

But they had gotten along well. They had played together as children, she had become more of a playmate to him on their long journeys than a servant to his mother. And that seemed to suit her just fine. She seemed to be happy that she didn't have to worry about him being bored, he always had Yukari to play with.

They had started to drift apart though, even before his father had died. He wasn't sure exactly why though, it was as if his brain locked down when it thought of that, almost like he didn't want to remember to an extent. And after his father had died he began to take over those duties and travelled on different roads than his mother and her entourage did. His mother pulled back into the castles, rarely wishing to leave them, especially the main castle that he was actually supposed to inhibit, while he travelled around the country, feeling more comfortable that way.

And due to the overbearing ways of his mother (and her many attempts to get him together with another woman) he stayed as far away from them as possible, thus also never really seeing her. In fact, it had been the first time in about one hundred years that he had seen her, and despite her only having aged as much as he had (which wasn't really all that much) he had noted that she had changed in many ways.

But he decided not to let his mind go down that road and decided to focus more on his surroundings and their quest to find Naraku.

~.~.~.~.~

"It doesn't look like it's changed all that much." Kagome looked around herself as she peered around the abandoned village of the slayers. It still looked like it was falling apart and the deserted and mysterious air was still present.

"Yeah, it looks like they haven't actually touched the village." Sango looked extremely relieved as she said that, softly brushing her hand against the headstone of the grave that her father lay beneath.

"They've probably just used the rumours of it being haunted as a cover. Everyone in the area is absolutely terrified of the village and the 'curses' it holds." Miroku also looked around, being a bit more careful than the women though since he and Inuyasha had made quite a bad experience with a sneaky demon a couple of months back.

"Probably. They don't seem like the types that would get their hands dirty unless they had to." Inuyasha also never let down his guard, thinking of the same demon that Miroku was thinking of.

"I still don't like it. I agree with the other villagers, it's creepy here." Shippo shivered, whether from the atmosphere of the village or the glare that Sango was sending him couldn't be determined.

Suddenly they heard a rustle behind them and spun around, all of them ready to attack whatever was coming towards them. The frightened face of a woman appeared from the shadows and she gave out a small shriek when she saw them and collapsed on the ground, holding her hand over her heart.

Miroku immediately rushed over to assist her.

"Are you okay madam? We're sorry if we gave you a fright, you surprised us there." He said while slowly rubbing circles on her back. Sango glared at his former 'cursed' hand, remembering such scenarios from the past.

"Yes, I'm alright, I just thought that you were demons there for a second." The woman whispered, finally catching her voice.

"Well, technically speaking, some of us are." Shippo said, earning himself a glare from Miroku and Kagome for his lack of tact. The woman swallowed heavily.

"Don't worry, none of us will hurt you. We're just visiting the graves of this village." Kagome said quickly, attempting to reassure the already frightened woman.

"My family lies here, they were killed in the massacre three years back." Sango said as she herself swallowed heavily. It was still a difficult topic for her to talk about. Looking at her state though, the woman realised that they were speaking the truth. Sango did after all look even more pregnant after the last one and a half months of travelling and she was standing there, now clutching the headstone of her father's grave.

"I'm Airi, and I was looking for my daughter. She's only three years old and she went missing two or three months ago. My husband said that she was probably already devoured by some demon and that it is stupid of me to still continue looking for her but I can't shake the feeling that she's alive somewhere out there." Tears began to form in her eyes as she said that, her head bowing lower.

"I'm sorry, we haven't seen a small girl on our travels through this area." Miroku uttered, knowing that the woman was heartbroken at the apparent loss of her daughter.

"I thought she might be in this abandoned village because she always loved listening to the tales of the slayers that I told her and of the heroes that this village produced." A small smile formed on her features. "She and my friend's son, Naraku, always came and played near here, they said that the best wild blueberries could be found here."

Everyone stiffened as they heard the name.

"Madam, did you just say Naraku?" Miroku managed to choke out, not wanting to believe his ears.

"Yes." Airi nodded. "He was just as old as she was. In fact, they were born on the same day nearly three years back. They were the best of friends and both of them also went missing on the same day. The other children said that they went out to find some wild berries, our families are poor so we never have much to eat, but that they never returned. Some people in the village say that they ran away but I can't believe that. No matter what happened they always came home at the end of the day. And both are such sweet children, they would never do something that might worry us." The until now unshed tears spilled over as she remembered the two children she held so dear in her heart.

"We shall keep our eyes and ears open in case we hear something. Can you tell us what they looked like and which village you live in so that we may be able to find you should we hear something?" Miroku said softly, not really trusting himself to say much more. The others still felt flabbergasted at what they had just heard.

"My daughter Aimi has short black hair and the most gorgeous of brown eyes, so large and endearing. You remind me a bit of her sweety." She said to Kagome who gasped when she heard that. "You look exactly the way that I would imagine her to look when she was older. Naraku has dark brown hair that was just as long as Aimi's for some reason, don't ask me why though and he also has brown eyes. They could appear to be slightly cold at times, and he even gave off quite an intimidating air for a three-year old when he was angry but he is such a sweet boy. He has an enormous heart. Personally I think that he was a bit smitten with my Aimi." She said with a soft smile gracing her features, the flow of her tears now having ceased.

"And we live in that village over there, the one that you can see on the other mountain, about an hour to two hours walk away if you walk down the road briskly. I would be delighted if you heard or saw anything dear monk." She looked at him with a small ray of hope gleaming in her eyes.

"It is no problem, we love to be of help to others." Miroku gave her a charming smile and she walked off, back towards her village and waved them goodbye. As soon as she was gone from sight they all turned to each other, a mixture of dismay and knowing on their faces.

"These Naraku and Aimi people are probably the reincarnations of the Naraku that we knew and the Kikyo that we knew." Sango said bluntly and straight-to-the-point.

"When she said that I reminded her of her daughter I was pretty sure of that too." Kagome said quietly, looking worried.

"And this Naraku boy. He may sound different than the Naraku that we do but I don't really believe in coincidences." Inuyasha's face looked grim.

"Neither do I." Miroku agreed, somehow knowing that the dissappearance of the two children had something to do with Naraku reappearing. The others nodded in agreement.

"But doesn't that mean, that if this Aimi girl also dissappeared, that Kikyo is also back?" Shippo looked at Kirara and then at the others, feeling the need to point out what seemed to be the most obvious thing. The others froze.

"This could be bad. Really bad." Miroku wasn't liking the way things were heading.

"Naraku's one thing, but Kikyo too?" Sango looked at Inuyasha when she said that and Kagome felt a pang in her heart as she heard that. This couldn't be happening, history couldn't seriously be repeating itself again.

"We'll just have to send her back to the realm of the dead, where she belongs, just like Naraku." Inuyasha stated, surprising them all.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome looked confused, was something wrong with him?

"She's died three times, and come back again each time. I decided last time that I would stick to the living and that doesn't change just because she's back. I think that she should stay in the realm of the dead, her time in this world was up a long time ago." Inuyasha looked grim as he said that, but they all saw the honesty in his eyes, as well as the conviction that went with them.

Kagome smiled softly and hugged him, causing Inuyasha to grow all red and splutter, much to their joint amusement.

Turning away from the scene in front of them as Shippo began to tease Inuyasha and Kagome, who was by now also blushing, Miroku and Sango looked down the road that the distressed woman had just left them.

"I feel sorry for her though. She will probably never see those children again." Miroku looked contrite, feeling truly sorry for the woman and her sorrow.

"Yeah." Sango said softly as she leaned against him and he wrapped his arm around her waist.