Disclaimer and warning: I don't own anything from this story but the plotline. Inuyasha and Naruto characters belong to other people, not me. I write for the fun of it and if you don't like my work just remember that I'm not making you read this. Please keep flames to yourself. Compliments are welcome. Criticism is a little pointless because I'm not going to go back and edit anything in this.

Please enjoy the fruits of my labour.


Chapter 12

Five Hundred Years Ago

Kagome absently shook the pre-prepared bottle of formula for Nishiko. She had been recounting her adventures for over an hour now. Tsunade and Naruto kept interrupting her with questions which slowed down the storytelling exponentially. She was just getting to the final showdown when there was a knock on the door. Tsunade swore and called the knocker in.

"Hokage-sama--" a hapless, and foolish, shinobi stepped in, blinking in surprise when he saw that there were already people talking to the Hokage.

"What?" Tsunade growled. She was not pleased that someone had interrupted the tale of the century.

"We have been trying to get a message to Kakashi-san but no one can seem to find him," he explained hesitantly, nervous under the combined stares of his Hokage, a put out jinchuuriki and a strangely emotionless miko.

"Kakashi has been sent out of the Village on a mission," Tsunade lied, "It was last minute which is why no one knew beforehand,"

"Oh. Alright then," and he backed meekly out of the office.

Once the door was closed firmly behind him Tsunade asked Kagome to continue. Kagome checked how far Nishiko had gotten on her bottle before she took a deep fortifying breath and continued.

"Sesshoumaru-sama had joined us just before we reached Naraku's castle. We found a skeleton just as the castle came into view. Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha identified it as Kohaku's. Sango was broken. Naraku had reclaimed the shard in Kohaku's back and then destroyed his corpse until not even Sesshoumaru could bring him back to life. It was terrible, but what could we do? We were so close. Inuyasha managed to talk Sango into fighting even if it was just for revenge. Naraku had now killed her entire village with the exception of her," Kagome looked down and settled Nishiko over her shoulder and started patting the child's back, "Sango agreed to continue and I don't think I had ever seen her so focused. Even Sesshoumaru seemed to be wary of her. The closer we got the stronger Naraku's miasma got and I had to take point with Sesshoumaru so I could purify it before it affected anyone. It didn't seem to bother Sesshoumaru. Inuyasha hated that but what could he do? We had just reached someone on the middle of the road down to the valley when the first wave of low-level youkai swarmed us. Miroku could not use his wind tunnel because there were saimyosho flying amongst the youkai. Inuyasha used the wind scar and Sesshoumaru used tokijin. You have never seen anything so frightening and beautiful until you have seen those two actually fighting together rather than each other," she cracked a small smile at the memory, "If only I had had a camera. No, scratch that. It wouldn't have survived."

"Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha fought together?" Naruto grinned, "The Taisho brothers together. Must have been something,"

"Sesshoumaru hadn't adopted that name at that time," Kagome pointed out, "In fact back then they didn't even have family names. Those came later. No, Sesshoumaru was Sesshoumaru, Lord of the Western Lands and Inuyasha was just Inuyasha,"

"Why was that?" Tsunade asked.

"Sesshoumaru disowned Inuyasha after the death of their father. He was bitter but his reasons were and are his business and his alone. Back to the battle. I was fighting in the back with Shippou. The only weapon I had been trained with at the time was the bow so there was no point in me even trying to fight close-range. So I'd take out as many as I could with my haja-ya. I had found that if I put enough power in them they could take out nearly as much youkai as the wind scar." She smiled proudly and cooed something to Nishiko who had just belched loud and without shame. "Anyways, the first wave wasn't too bad. We managed to clear our way through it without any injuries. Next came a couple mid-level oniyoukai. Sesshoumaru took them out before Inuyasha could even lift tessaiga. He complained about that but, like always, Sesshoumaru didn't listen. And why should he? Anyways, next came Kagura and Kanna."

"They're the sisters, right? The wind user and the nihility?" Naruto asked, making sure he had his facts straight.

Kagome nodded. "Kagura took on Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru at the same time while Kanna kept the rest of us busy. She tried to take my soul again. Not a pleasant experience if you ever want to know. Not something I want to have happen to me again. It's one reason I hate going up against Kanna. Anyways, back to what happened, Kagura had Inuyasha locked up with her Dance of the Dragon and Sesshoumaru was cutting his way through her army of puppet corpses. He wasn't all that impressed. After all, he's a Taiyoukai and though he was much younger then and not as powerful as he is now he was still a force to be reckoned with,"

"Of course," Naruto nodded agreeing, "Else he wouldn't be able to hold his position as a Taiyoukai,"

"That's right. You guys have no idea how much of a warlord a youkai has to be in order to keep the rank of Taiyoukai,"

"Strongest runs the world kinda deal, right?" Tsunade observed.

Kagome smiled benignly, "Much like how your Villages are run, Tsunade-sama. But back to the story. What we didn't know at that moment was that Kagura and Kanna were being used as disposable – very disposable – distractions by Naraku. Kagura, we knew, was only working with Naraku because he had her heart but while I was fighting against Kaana's mirror I could sense something from her. Mind you, that's nearly unheard of, being able to sense a nihility youkai. They are naturally invisible to every sense – including youkai senses – with the exception of sight and sound. So when I sensed Kanna's aura I was kinda surprised. But I think what got me the most was what I sensed from her," Kagome looked down, her eyes reflecting the emotions she had felt from the young void, "Kanna was terrified. She was just like Kagura only without her sister's independence. In the moment I was in her aura I saw that no matter what happened her fate would be inextricably tied to Naraku's if there was no intervention. Either she would die as a pawn in the battle or she would liver the rest of her existence out as a puppet and like Kagura that was not what she wanted."

"Poor girl," Tsunade murmured.

"Tell me about it," Kagome agreed, "I was in her head for that one second but when I got out I had another problem on my plate. Inuyasha kept telling me I was an idiot for going through with it and he's probably right. Even Sesshoumaru wouldn't stop glaring at me for the rest of the week. Yeesh, you'd think I had committed a crime or something. Men!" she huffed indignantly.

"What'd you do?"

"All I did was drop my bow and arrows,"

Naruto winced. Kagome's eyes twinkled as she read his thoughts as they were written on his face. Obviously he agreed with everyone of her friends that that had been a BAD idea.

"Yes, I dropped my weapons and built up my powers as much as I could while giving into the pull of her mirror,"

Both Tsunade and Naruto were grimacing. Yup, they thought she was insane too. Bet hey, Kagome wasn't disagreeing.

"Since that was what Kanna was trying to do in the first place, lure my soul out of my body that is, she wasn't complaining. I think she would have rather died by purification than have her soul crushed by Naraku when she became useless to him. anyways, I didn't let my soul be taken completely from my body and I dragged myself as close as I could. Now, if you ask anyone who came up against Kanna's mirror and survived they can tell you that having your soul slowly sucked out is a draining experience and by the time I was within reaching distance of her I was all but crawling. Her mirror was shaking pretty badly and she was having a hard time holding it. So I took care of her problem and purified the thing. When I was done with it, it was nothing more than a normal, everyday mirror. Nicer frame than most but that was about it. I got my soul back and slapped a paralyzing sutra on Kanna. Poor girl probably thought I was going to finish her off right then."

"Did you?" asked Naruto, still frowning.

"Of course not!" Kagome was offended, "I put another seal on her so that no one without holy powers could touch her. I just took her out of danger and made sure she wasn't left unprotected. You think I would really kill a little girl who wanted nothing of what was going on around her? Maybe some miko would but not me. Anyways, I had just placed the protecting sutra on her when I was clipped with the edge of Kagura's Dance of the Dragon. Gotta hand it to the girl, she knew how to multitask at this point. Anyways, that got me a nice scar on my back that's only just healed up so it's not all angry red. Sesshoumaru got fed up with the corpse army and unleashed a nasty little attack of his, the Dragon Strike. And I though a thousand little lightning bolts was scary, you should see the dragon that tokijin called up. Needless to say that took Kagura out. She wasn't dead but I managed to get to her before Inuyasha could finish her off and gave her the same treatment as Kanna. All Kagura wanted was to find someplace quite and be free, like the wind should be. Inuyasha was a little angry at me for saving her and I guess I can't really blame him," she shrugged ruefully and set Nishiko on the floor at her feet so the child could play a bit and her arms could get a brief moment of respite. The child cooed and gurgled most adorably.

Kagome stretched her arms out in front of her and rotated her shoulders trying to relieve some of the built up stress. "So Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru were less than pleased with me at that moment. Can't blame them, I was doing some pretty reckless stuff and I probably would have been pretty upset at me too if I wasn't chasing after Sango who had decided to take off on her own and extract revenge without waiting for everyone else. She almost took off Inuyasha's hand when he tried to catch her arm to slow her down. She should have listened…" Kagome slowed her recitation and her voice dimmed to a mere whisper and the life faded from her eyes momentarily, "Naraku killed her first. Miroku lost all sense and tried to suck Naraku into his Wind Tunnel. Naraku just laughed at him and expanded it until it… until Miroku was sucked in himself. He ended up taking Sango and a good chunk of the castle but Naraku hadn't budged an inch."

"Kagome--" Tsunade looked stricken as silent tears welled up in Kagome's eyes. Naruto passed over a stained handkerchief, feeling a little out of his element. He never had been good around tears. They brought back too many childhood memories.

"Just like that. There was no way Sesshoumaru could raise them now. He needed the body for that. Now it was just Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru and me. I had left Shippou with Kagura and Kanna to watch out for them. He wasn't happy but I couldn't let him come up against Naraku. What if he ended up like Kohaku?" she sobbed, "Shippou-kun was the only thing I had left there. Inuyasha would love Kikyou until the day he died and Sesshoumaru would only ever be a friend, and a distant one at that. Shippou was my son! I had to make sure he would be safe,"

"Like any good mother," Naruto whispered, longing stabbing his heart. That was one thing he had lacked growing up, one thing he had dreamed of. A mother. Any mother. Someone who would have loved him even just a little.

"Naraku… Inuyasha charged him first. I had barely remembered to bring my bow. I tried to catch him with my arrows and I actually did manage to land a couple of shots but he had three quarters of the jewel and my arrows didn't do much. He just yanked them out and gloated as he healed almost instantly." Now she was scowling, furious at the evil hanyou, "Sesshoumaru, pretty much ignoring the fact that Inuyasha was in the way, unleashed his Dragon Strike that nearly leveled the castle. But Naraku had a shield up. Inuyasha took care of that only to get a tentacle through his shoulder. Sesshoumaru called up another Dragon Strike and this time managed to push Naraku back. I got him with a haja-ya in the chest just as the Dragon Strike hit in full force. It was almost like what happens when I work with the Wind Scar only a little more explosive. It was a good minute or three before rocks stopped falling. I think I got clipped with more shrapnel from that stunt than in the entire battle," she snorted and rolled her eyes, "Just figures you know. Then again I shouldn't have been surprised, one of my favorite proverbs that I picked up was 'friendly fire isn't.' Describes that situation just perfectly. Anyhow, by the time the smoke settled – man does that ever sound cliché – Naraku was just a little more than a floating head and a shoulder. I have seen some pretty gross things in my life but that just took the cake. Inuyasha was back up by now. Yelling at Sesshoumaru for taking all the glory but at least he was on his feet. And he was mad. So he decided, thankfully, to take it out on what was left of Naraku. Seemed we all had the same idea because Inuyasha did a Wind Scar, Sesshoumaru preformed another Dragon Strike and I fired my last arrow,"

Now Kagome was grinning madly, feeling an unholy amount of satisfaction at the memory. "If I had thought that the last explosion was a whopper this one took the cake home, hands down without even a vote. I think that all that's left of that particular castle and the valley it was in is an even deeper valley. It had taken two exceptionally powerful youkai and myself working together to kill Naraku. I found the shards and repaired the jewel that day. I had thought that would be the end of it. Kagura and Kanna were released with their hearts and they left to find somewhere very remote where they could live on their own. I don't know what happened to them after that but at least they were their own people," she smiled fondly down at Nishiko. There was only a hint of sadness in her smile now, "Inuyasha decided to go with Kikyou and Sesshoumaru had to get back to Rin. He took Shippou-kun and me as far as Kaede's village and offered to train me in defense and whatnot. I knew I still had to look after the jewel so that we didn't end up with another Naraku on our hands so I agreed." She grimaced, "Note: never train under a Taiyoukai if you can get out of it. They have no concept of human limits or even what exhaustion is. It's just not fair. And Sesshoumaru was the worst! He's got effortless effort down to an art!"

"Effortless effort?" Tsunade grinned a little, "Isn't that a contradiction?"

"You've never seen Sesshoumaru fight," Kagome shook her head, "If you think he looks pretty now you should see him in his element. I'm fairly sure there's a healthy dose of toushin blood in his veins because there is nothing more hauntingly beautiful than Sesshoumaru in the heat of a bloody battle,"

"Toushin?" Tsunade asked.

"War Gods, they call themselves," Naruto explained, "They live for nothing but the battle and are the dictionary definition of bloodlust."

"Not nice to fight against. Especially if they're working in groups…" Kagome shuddered at another memory, "but back on topic. Sesshoumaru trained me for a year. A year of pure torture with brief intermissions when I talked him into letting me go home for a week at a time. When I went back through the well at the beginning of this year it sealed itself behind me. I couldn't go through anymore. I had left Shippou behind. And Rin too. I had been helping Sesshoumaru raise her, since he was hopeless when it came to little human girls. Little girls period. Men. Youkai men. They're worse, more stuck up and too proud to say they care." She smiled for a scant second before her expression dropped again, "but I had left them. I didn't know what to do. My entire life was five hundred years in the past. I hadn't even finished school. The only thing I could do was take over the duties of shrine keeper,"

"Then why are you here?" Tsunade asked after Kagome paused for longer than she wanted.

"Because even though Naraku was killed the Shikon still drew power-hungry youkai to it like a magnet." Kagome sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "You imagine trying to fight off a hoard of a couple hundred low-level in the middle of a city and what I had to do to keep it a secret. I gave up. It would be easier, I thought, if I went to ground and moved into a smaller community. Less people in danger and it's easier to get out of the village and head off the swarm before innocents were victimized. And my distance keeps my family safe,"

Tsunade nodded. Her reasons were understandable, laudable even. The girl had as much courage as the best of Konoha's seasoned jounins and then some. Most of the older generation still had nightmares from facing one low high-level youkai and this little miko had faced off against what went down in select histories as the most evil and corrupt hanyou in written records.

"But why Konoha?" Naruto asked, tilting his head to the side.

Kagome sighed wryly, "Momma didn't want me moving completely away from family. Lee-kun's my cousin on my father's side and that's the only reason why she consented to me moving here," she laughed, "She worries that I wouldn't be able to take care of myself. I never did tell her everything that happened in the past. I could just imagine her reaction and I don't want her in the hospital with a heart attack,"

Suddenly, without an ounce of warning, Kagome stiffened and stared out the west windows. Tsunade and Naruto shared an alarmed glance. Kagome's expression was a bizarre mixture between confusion, relief and fear.

"Kagome-san?" Naruto started, "What's wrong?"

Kagome frowned a little, "I don't quite know. But I feel Hogosha pulling at me,"

"Hogosha?"

"The sword Sesshoumaru gave me forged from one of his own fangs," she explained absently, "He had it made a couple months after I started training under him. He even had a specialized seal put on it. I was never able to draw it. The seal would only release for the one person I chose as my protector…"

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto coughed, eyes wide, "You gave it to Kakashi-sensei?"

"Naruto told me that Kyuubi sensed more power in that one sword than he had before he attacked this Village," Tsunade frowned.

Kagome shrugged fluidly, "What do you expect? It's made form the fang of a greatly feared and respected Taiyoukai. Totosai may have been old but his talent hadn't diminished. If anything he outdid himself forging Hogosha. It's probably the only youkai sword that a human can wield,"

"And you gave it to Kakashi-sensei," Naruto wondered out loud, sounding quite impressed, "Does that mean you and he are going to get together?"

Kagome blushed bright red and stammered, "What? What makes you think that we, that I, that…"

"Kagome likes Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto teased. Tsunade laughed as Kagome blushed even harder. "Good thing too. He's practically given up everything that made him so annoying ever since he met you,"

"He's on time now," Tsunade agreed.

"And he hasn't been reading those books of his," Naruto pointed out.

"Books?" Kagome asked innocently, blinking her big sapphire eyes at them in confusion.

Naruto grinned at Kagome's innocent question. Should he tell? Oh, the possibilities!


AN: a rather lengthy explanation of what happened way back when. I figured i had to have it hashed out if not for you then for me. Chapter 12/17