S-S: Sorry that this one took a bit longer to get out than some of the previous chapters. And that this one is pretty short… it just ended. I was like 'nooooo! Be longer!' but it just stopped.

I don't own thy most elusive show InuYasha.

Light sheets of rain pattered onto the ground, spreading ripples and puddles across the concrete ground. The sky was overcast and dark, heavy clouds desperate to drop their water and become light again. A chill blew though the rain, scattering the drops just before they hit the ground. The rain ran down a high roof, pooled at the base of the gargoyles, and hit the ground lazily in front of the church doors. The tall building sat forebodingly, like some creature that would offer either salvation or destruction depending on its mood.

Only a few feet behind the church's back were the graves. Tall and short stones, worn by weather or newer, the names and dates clearer and far fresher. Under the meager protection of a few sparse trees, there was a service going on. A preacher dressed in the black robes of the clergy, holding both hands on the open bible, bending his head slightly so that rain did not fall on the book. The preacher was a strange one, for his ears were covered in dark feathers and there were two blocky tattoo's of some sort above his eyes. Actually, all of the few people gathered were of a similar look. Clawed hands, pointy ears, sharper than normal teeth.

The coffin was closed, but had it been open more visual oddities might have been on display. But the dark wood remained shut, the rain pouring smoothly over the wood and leaving not a single stain on the polish. A few damp flowers resided on the surface of the coffin, white lily petals collecting the water like bowls. A pale stone tombstone marked without a birth date, and the name 'Miyoga'.

Four figures stood to the back of the tiny crowd of mourners. A woman with dark hair pulled into a bun dressed in a black blouse and skirt stood next to a taller man in a suit with long white hair. The man was the only one holding an umbrella, the two stood close enough so that the woman was dry as well. There was a second pair, a girl dressed in a large dark overcoat, her long hair falling damply over her shoulders. She held an umbrella in her hand, but her companion had dropped his to the ground, not really caring enough to pick it up. The rain didn't affect him, it just fell off of his leather jacket. He had silvery hair that was messy, a red hat put on backwards.

"I don't understand," InuYasha muttered, staring at the ground, "What's the point?" he sounded sad, dejected, like he was a child who simply couldn't comprehend the strangeness of the world, "Why kill everyone? It doesn't make sense."

Sesshomaru shrugged, "Vengeance," he said quietly.

Finally glancing up, InuYasha asked, "Who the hell would want vengeance?"

His brother gave him a serious look, "Our other allies from the wars aren't dead. Only those that we knew from five hundred years ago. That means that whoever's done this not only knew of us back then, but desires revenge," InuYasha's eyes widened as he realized what his brother meant, "Who do we know like that?" Sesshomaru finished.

"Do you mean…" Kagome asked, "Are you talking about Naraku?" That didn't make sense. She had thought that they said he was dead. Were they wrong? Were they deadly wrong?

Kagura frowned, her brow furrowing in confusion and fear, "But why? How? He can't be alive, he just can't be!"

"Kagome never saw him die," Sesshomaru murmured to the distressed Kagura, "I'm not saying that it is him, I'm just saying that it's a possibility."

Her dream. What happened? What had exactly happened in the dream? "I shot an arrow," Kagome said, her voice sounding strange and off, even to herself, like she was reading aloud or like she wasn't aware that she was speaking, "And it hit someone. Someone… someone I hated. I was… there was a lot of blood. And screaming. There was screaming. Who was screaming?"

InuYasha was looking at her strangely, "Who did you shoot?" he prompted.

"Don't know. Didn't see him in the dream," she muttered, trying to dive into the memories like they were a forbidden lake.

Breach the surface, remember. Think back. Don't remember about InuYasha and the voices. Just remember the dream. Breach the surface, just enough to see. The rain fell pitter-patter on her umbrella, the droning voice of the clergy, sounds were fading like vanishing into the distance. She looked past what she saw. No rain, no people, no InuYasha.

There was darkness.

There was darkness.

She was standing, blood under her feet, horrible stench of the dead like iron, filled with something else like darkness.

A sea of darkness. Moving, twisting, curling like something living.

"Darkness. Blood."

A high-pitched scream, like that of a woman's crying, for someone dead and long gone and not coming back not ever but had come back before so it wasn't so hard to believe that if the woman just sat there and held the body and hoped then the dead one would come back to live once again. The scream morphed into one of fear and then is gone as fast as it reached Kagome's ears. A flash of black hair and then a hand's caught in the darkness and then nothing.

The darkness shifts in its never ending swirl, trying to touch Kagome, but it can't touch her because it is foul and she pure, and those two are opposites, always opposites.

And opposites will always fight.

Then there's another scream, this time a man's. A cry, like yelling 'no', pointless but you have to try because to deny it might stop it from being true because the truth is unbearable. Then there's wind. So very very much wind that Kagome thinks that the entire world might get pulled in by the wind. Then there's buzzing, sinister and evil and then the wind ends. A few beads fall.

There!

"Someone."

She must hate him because her hands have drawn what she now knows as a bow back so that the string is taunt, and she aims.

"I hate him."

She let go, the arrow fires.

Where!? Where did it hit!? That is so important, and Kagome can barely see through the darkness, but for some reason the arrow she shot had cleared a path through the darkness, a path of purple light, and so she thought she could see someone.

All she can see is the someone moving as if to dodge before the arrow striking a neck before her vision fills with silver and pain and silver and red and silver.

"He moved. I shot him in the neck."

"Shit." InuYasha swore, dragging Kagome back to the surface of her metaphorical memory lake.

She blinked twice, clearing her unusually clear mind so that it was once again foggy, "What?" she asked, bewildered by his reaction. Surely shooting someone in the neck was a good thing if one wanted to kill them, no? What was wrong?

InuYasha stared at her, "To kill Naraku, you have to destroy his heart. Kagome, he moved and… you just trapped him there!"

Oh god. She had no idea now. She had thought that Naraku was dead so there wasn't a villain to fight. She had been wrong and now she had no idea what she was supposed to do. "So he's…" the words wouldn't come, her throat stuck and tying itself into knots that choke her breath.

"He would have been trapped though, so how did he free-" Sesshomaru began to ask.

Kagura interrupted in a hollow voice, "Kanna never returned that day," she was staring off at the preacher, not really paying attention to the ceremony, merely directing her gaze that way, "I'd assumed that she had abandoned the castle as I had when Naraku died. But… he attacked you, it was an ambush. He would have planned it. The bastard always had a back-up plan. He must have instructed Kanna to return to the scene after the battle, in case things didn't go his way."

"So Naraku is alive," InuYasha muttered darkly, "And he's picking off everyone that was either against him, or on our side. The wolf tribes… even Jinenji… and now Miyoga. So when's the bastard going to come for us...?"

Kagome was thinking, and she found herself in the unique position that none of the other three were in. Ignoring her past, she currently had no emotional attachment to anyone that they were discussing. Thus, she was able to see more objectively and without emotional hindrance, "Miyoga was burnt to death as well, right? Maybe Naraku is working with the Higures," she shrugged, "If so, then his goal might be revenge, but he's been whittling away our allies so that we're easier to kill."

InuYasha blinked, like he was struggling to hear those words come out of Kagome's mouth. He frowned contemplatively, "Yeah… that does sound like him. Get someone else to do the dirty work and watch and wait from the sidelines," his frown turned into a scowl, "This fight is going to be the one that the bastard won't survive. We're going to find him first, and then we're gonna get our own revenge."

It made sense. It did.

Everything that InuYasha was saying made perfect logical sense to Kagome. But there was one thing that she was struggling with. She wasn't a killer. She would fight, oh yes, she would fight like a lion when needed but she wasn't a killer. She knew that Naraku deserved it and more, and if there was anyone in the world who needed death, then it was him. But she still wished that there was another way. One that didn't involve killing. There was a side of her that was simply opposed to death, and it was in conflict with the side of her that called for the bastard to pay. Two opposites in her. Opposites will always fight.

A figure stood in the shadows of the high church walls, resting their back against a pillar. They were hiding in the alcove, as if afraid to step out for fear of being seen. The cold stone was soaking up any heat that the figure might have radiated, and the damp and wet rain outside wasn't making them any drier. But the figure didn't care, just stood there and watched. They saw the coffin lowered into the damp ground, and their eyes followed the dark wood all the way into the soil.

The figure stood watch as dirt was shoveled over the grave, the preacher said his last words, and mourners left. And their eyes followed a girl in a black dress, her long brown hair spilling over her face and her eyes sad, place a bouquet of flowers on the tombstone. They saw how the boy next to her, with the shaggy silver hair and the out-of-place red hat was trying not to cry, needing the help from the girl to approach the grave.

It was strange, how the figure was attending this funeral. By all rights, it was a horrible idea for the figure to be here, if any of the gathering demons caught sight or scent or even the faintest hint of the figure's aura, the figure would be immediately under attack. Fortunately, the shadows did an excellent job of hiding the figure's appearance, and as for other ways of being detected… well… those were being kept hidden well.

The figure reached into a pocket and pulled out a small fragment of a pretty stone. Thank god they had it, or else they would be under attack. It was the only god thing about the figure's current situation. This shard of stone kept away the trouble that the figure had yet to attract. Fuyouheki… the perfect way to hide.

There was more than that, though. There was another odd reason for the figure to be attending the funeral.

Why would the killer see their victim laid to rest?

That answer was simple.

Redemption.

And then the figure turned and vanished because they had spent far too much time here as it was already, and they did have somewhere they desperately needed to be.

Kagome didn't know why InuYasha had brought her here. He had taken her to this other part of the graveyard, leaving Miyoga's tombstone far behind. Ahead of her, he turned and stopped, standing in front of the gravestone. This one was older, far far older, the stone worn and weathered by many years. InuYasha smiled at the stone, like he was saying hello to whoever was there, "Kagome," he said softly, "I know that you have doubts about killing. You always were way too soft, even back then. You have to kill Naraku."

She looked down at the ground, staring at the raindrops that poured over the cobblestones, "I know…" she muttered, feeling sorry for her weakness.

"You have to," InuYasha titled his head to the grave, "Out of our friends that fought Naraku, this was the only one we could bury. That's what he's done Kagome. There was nothing left of the others to lay to rest. You have to know what he's done and that he will try and do this to us."

Kagome knelt in front of the tombstone and ran her hands over the cold wet rock, feeling out the indentation of a name, "Who was Shippo?" she asked in an almost silent voice, "I know the name," she muttered painfully, "I know it. The name makes my head burst and my heart ache. InuYasha… was he the one that drew pictures with crayons?"

"Yeah. Yeah he was."

"Who ate all those lollipops?"

"He loved sweets."

"I found a disposable camera in my room."

"…Print out the photos."