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 14

No Such Thing As...

Kazuo and Kaori were sitting next to each other on the couch in the Yukimura living room. Taji was standing up, propped against a door frame and Yasuo and Sumiko were sitting on the floor. Shippou had taken a position on the armchair, but he had already stated that he knew what was going on. Even Sora had shown up for the meeting and was lounging in a chair, fanning herself almost lazily, but she had been paying attention to every word Sesshoumaru had said. Strangely enough, none of the others could take their eyes off of him either.

They had all received a phone call earlier that day from Sesshoumaru telling them to be home as promptly as possible, they had urgent matters to discuss. It had taken them only thirty minutes to get home (they had to stop and kill their youkai d'jour of course) and when they arrived there was no time for formalities.

The four junior high students walked through the door, looking a little weary and beaten. No sooner had they removed their shoes, and received a glare from Sesshoumaru due to their tardy, than the story and their dilemma started.

"I have received an invitation to Furugawa, a Taiyoukai of the Eastern river's, wedding. He is marrying a hanyou named Nishiko who is a practicing Shinto. She has requested that the ceremony take place at a Shinto Shrine here in the city." He pulled out a stack of papers and shook his head sadly. "The shrine that was chosen was-"

Taji put his head into his hands. "Oh no, don't say it," he pleaded.

"-Higurashi Shrine," Sesshoumaru finished. There was only a moment of shock, which was quickly followed by several groans and the sound of someone hitting their head against a wall. Repeatedly. "My sentiments exactly. Normally, this would not be a problem, and it should not be. I was going to send my apologies to Furugawa and a large wedding gift to make up for my absence."

"Not being there is the best gift of all," Taji muttered.

Sesshoumaru continued; ignoring Taji as was his habit. "Information was passed to me today that a group of youkai are planning to attack the Higurashi shrine as a political stance on Furugawa and his politics when it comes to dealing with humans and hanyou's. Or so they say."

"You think differently?" Sora wondered.

"A wedding at that particular shrine and someone chooses that particular topic of discourse? It's a cover up in order to search for the Shikon no Tama."

Yasuo sat up straighter, a frown on his face. "I thought the Youkai community was more tolerant of hanyou's as a whole now?" he inquired, puzzled by the confliction information. "Without hanyou the entire population may have died off years ago. Right?"

"That is correct. Some still follow the view that a hanyou is disgusting and humans are beneath youkai. True as both of those facts are, one must consider that they are also essential to survival at this point in time." Sesshoumaru folded his arms, and ignored the swearing that Taji was sending his way.

Kazuo felt as though he was in a class that he had actually studied for. Probably because the only thing he seemed to know anymore was youkai and their habits. "Not every marriage ceremony has taken place at the last known site of the Shikon no Tama, has it?"

"Again, correct."

Sora snapped her fan shut, which made most of the people in the room jump. "So, they're hoping to get their hands on the Shikon? Fools. I think we can head them off from that." Sora grinned while she opened and closed her fan. Truth was, she was almost itching to fight, though she had little training and no powers to do so in this era.

"You will be coming as my consort to this event, Sora," Sesshoumaru informed her. "We will allow the others to dispense with the renegade youkai as they normally would."

This time, Sora sat up and smiled wickedly. "And when were you planning to ask me this? I don't recall agreeing to go with you."

Kaori squeezed her eyes shut. 'Please don't say anything about bed or being naked...please don't say it!' She repeated it over in her head, like a prayer, while waiting for the response.

Sesshoumaru frowned at her and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I was going to ask you at tonight's dinner. I assumed you would say yes."

Sora began to fan herself again. "I guess it all depends on how good desert is."

Despite himself, Sesshoumaru did have to shift his weight and glared at the woman sitting in the chair.

Kaori wanted to start screaming, as she was now certain she wouldn't sleep for a week because of that. Taji, himself, was feeling slightly nauseous. "Gods, the thought of my brother having a sex life makes me want to impale myself on Tetsusaiga - rusted and all," he announced.

Shippou grinned at the remark. "Oh? I even had a sex life, more so than Inuyasha ever did." That caught everyone's attention, even Sesshoumaru's. "Poor Inuyasha," he sighed, not even bothering to hide the evil gleam in his eyes. "He died a virgin."

Kazuo and Kaori exchanged glances and leaned over so they were looking Taji in the face. Taji, himself, was sputtering out a remark that sounded something like 'asshole' but couldn't quite form the word.

"What a terrible, terrible fate," Kazuo sighed. "It is one to die young, another to die needlessly, but to die a virgin? There are simply no words for such a horror!" He finished his speech with a melodramatic sigh and flopped back into the couch.

Sumiko blinked and looked at her older brother, completely confused. "Onii-chan, what's a virgin? Is it a bad thing?"

Silence.

Taji cracked his knuckles and grit his teeth. "KA-ZU-O!" he managed to yell out. "My mother is going to fucking kill me!" He jumped up and grabbed his friend by the collar of his shirt.

"Hey, it's your fault for bringing it up!" Kaori responded, defending Kazuo despite the fact she was going to chew him out after the meeting.

The group broke out into several small conversations filled with yelling and general insults that continued on. Meanwhile, Yasuo was trying to explain to Sumiko that it was best if she talked to someone else about it when Sora took control of the situation.

"SHUT UP!" she screamed over the commotion. Again, there was silence. "Thank you."

Sesshoumaru turned towards Sumiko. "Rin, you and I shall discuss what a virgin is after this. In the mean time, can we stay on subject?" he requested in a scathing tone.

"Which one?" Shippou asked. "The first was important but the second one was interesting."

A few moments later, they continued, Shippou sporting a lump on his head from Taji's fist.

"As I said, Kagura will be coming with me, Rin will be staying here as she is too young. Shippou was also invited to the wedding, he will be a guest. You four," he pointed to the junior high students, "will be the ones hunting for the youkai. You must not be seen." He met their eyes, trying to stress the urgency that was in this mission.

Kazuo touched his chin, looking thoughtful. "What about Kagome-sama? She will recognize us from school, at least. And I have no doubt that you will stick out like a sore thumb to her," he pointed out. Sesshoumaru had a way of making sure his image stuck with people throughout history.

Taji shook his head. "Nah," he replied. "She's fighting the Shichinintai right now. She'll be gone for a while longer." He crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. He knew what was coming next and gazed out the window.

"What about Higurashi-san?" Yasuo put in. "She could help us, couldn't she?"

Shippou furrowed his brow. "Yeah, she might. She always wants to be kept in the loop, and I doubt how all of us showing up would help her after all she's done for us."

"Don't want to put her in the middle of what could be an all out war," Taji mumbled.

"Then make it your business to keep our business out of the shrine," Sesshoumaru said, standing up and offering his arm to Sora who greedily took it. "You have a week to prepare."

"A WEEK?!"

Sesshoumaru and Sora were already gone.

However, perhaps luckily, before a war could break out between them, Sumiko approached her brother and tugged on his sleeve to get his attention. Taji looked down at her and she smiled at him. "Onii-chan, Sesshoumaru-sama said he would tell me what a virgin was, but now he's gone. Will you tell me?"

"My mother is going to murder me."

OoOoO

Shippou walked solemnly to the Higurashi Shrine a few days later, grumbling under his breath as he did so. The wedding was on the coming Sunday and it was now Thursday, that left them with little time to do anything but come up with a hopeful way to salvage the wedding, and the Higurashi family's sanity as well.

Of course, there were times he had serious doubts about the latter's...

Sesshoumaru had said the day before that he would be speaking with Higurashi Kasumi about the wedding. This morning, while Shippou was finishing up some errands before going into the office to get started on the cover up that was going to be needed in the coming weeks, he got a call from Sesshoumaru. He told him that instead of doing his normal work he would be going to the shrine to be discussing the wedding.

He had ended the call and Shippou, with centuries of experience, simply plotted his revenge in the form of some multi-million dollar corporate scandal. It was nothing, really, because he and Kouga had done it several times before. Those internet companies that were starting to spring up, many with Sesshoumaru's funding in them somehow, were going to be in for a real shock in the next few years.

Despite himself, Shippou had to smirk and relax. The walk to the Shrine was uneventful and there was nothing for him to be worried about. Kasumi wasn't expecting him, and Kagome wouldn't be home for a few days after the wedding. He had an easy day off work, as far as he could see.

Climbing the steps, Shippou considered how he was going to propose the problem to Kasumi. It wasn't unusual, she probably wouldn't even be that surprised about it and they'd have free reign to do what was needed and everything would be just fine.

Of course, that was in a perfect world. Shippou was pretty sure he'd actually have to work over time next week having to cover up a whole mess of things he never thought about.

He saw her carrying some laundry in a hamper to dry outside and he held back for just a moment. Sighing, he approached and called out to her. "Higurashi-san!"

Higurashi Kasumi stopped in her tracks and faced Shippou. She recognized him immediately and smiled. "Good morning, Shippou. What brings you here today? I haven't seen you since this all started..." she suddenly trailed off and sucked in a deep breath. "Kagome's been gone a long time, did something happen? Taji and the others, are they okay?" She suddenly seemed fearful and Shippou cringed a bit.

"No no!" he exclaimed while waving his arms about. "Kagome's fine, just fine, she'll be home soon, actually!" He neglected to mention the couple of incidents that were going on right now that would make her possibly NOT fine, of course. "I'm here because of the wedding the shrine is hosting this Sunday. There's-" He stopped short when some visitors passed by. Both he and Kasumi bowed to them and waited until they were well out of earshot before continuing. "Is there somewhere else we can talk?"

Kasumi nodded and pivoted. She lead the way back towards the house and Shippou noticed that she was still carrying the laundry and snatched it from her. She smiled gratefully and opened the door for him to come into the house. Both of them pulled their shoes off and headed towards the kitchen.

"Tea?" Kasumi offered, but Shippou firmly declined it. Knowing this wasn't a social call, Kasumi didn't press and took a seat at the table with Shippou, who spilled the whole story, their main problem, and the dangers as fast as he could.

"Feh," Shippou muttered under his breath, which caused Kasumi to giggle. He returned the smile and got to his point. "Well, I need your permission to use Taji, Kaori, Kasuo, and Yasuo as body guards during the ceremony. They're going to need to protect the shrine, and the wedding party, so they'll need to be discreet and have access to the entire shrine. And don't worry," he added, "Sesshoumaru's promising to pay for any damages that happen during the ceremony."

Kasumi remembered a few of the times Inuyasha had been over and knew that it was for the best if Sesshoumaru just promised the money now. "That will be fine, Shippou. I'll arrange for separate meals for them and everything."

"About that," Shippou laughed very lightly, "I think it's best if you don't stay at the shrine that day. Humans are too easy of a target and so-"

"I'M HOME!"

Shippou knew that voice. Sadly, it took almost a full three seconds for him to register one simple fact. He was most certainly DEAD.

Even Kasumi had to wince. "Oh dear, why don't you go out back, she won't be here for a few-"

The words weren't even fully out of her mouth when Kagome ran into the kitchen, her yellow bag slung over her shoulder and looking genuinely exhausted. "Mama, I'm home!"

Kasumi put on her biggest smile. "Welcome home, Kagome. Do you have time for breakfast?" she inquired as she stood up and helped her with her backpack.

Shaking her head, Kagome sat down in the chair her mother had occupied. It was then that she noticed there was someone else in the kitchen. Someone she didn't know. Immediately, she jumped up and bowed to Shippou. "I'm sorry! I didn't realize we had a guest!"

Shippou, still in shock, didn't open his mouth. Kasumi, very good at covering these types of things up, took the opportunity. "Yes, this is Hiruma-san. He and I were just discussing the wedding that is going to take place this weekend."

"Ah, Hiruma-san, you're getting married? Congratulations!" Kagome smiled at him, and Shippou tried very hard to smile back.

"Oh no, it's one of his friends who is getting married. Hiruma-san was just tying up some loose ends," Kasumi filled in without missing a beat. "But you should hurry, Kagome! You'll be late."

Kagome's eyes became wide as saucers and she stood and bolted towards the door. "I need to run!" She stopped at the door, bowed to Shippou again and then was gone.

Shippou only let out his breath when he heard her yell "I'm off!" one more time and the sound of the door closing. He took that moment to fall over onto the table and hit his head once.

"Oh my," Kasumi sighed. "That could be bad."

OoOoO

Taji spit his food out, completely ignoring the fact that someone was sitting across from him as he ate his dinner. Unfortunately for Kazuo. Taji coughed for several moments afterwards. He chugged down his tea, and barely managed to keep that off of Kazuo as well.

Kaori just stared at the two as they got into an argument over whose fault it was and then looked back at Shippou and Kouga, completely unfazed. "Kagome-chan, huh?"

"Yeah," Shippou responded, still sounding a little shaky. "Do you know what it's like to see your existence flash before your eyes? Life I've seen, but this was just freaky."

Kouga snorted. "You mean it was short."

"Shuddup," Shippou growled.

Ignoring the fact that the boys were on the verge of exchanging blows, Kouga continued to address Kaori. "It seems that Higurashi-san is willing to help us out, though. She's going to try to get Kagome out of the house and failing that, get someone to keep her busy over there."

"Oh, I'm sure Taji would be more than happy to keep Kagome-sama busy!" Kazuo interjected too cheerfully.

Taji grabbed Kazuo by the shirt. "Shut up, you bouzu!"

"What, you don't want to keep her busy?" Kazuo asked, almost innocently. Almost.

Blushing, Taji dropped Kazuo and sat on the ground. He crossed his arms, tossed his head and said, "Feh!"

Shippou rolled his eyes. "Ya know, you really shouldn't try to bring the Inuyasha part of him out right now. It's going to be hard enough to keep him out of control of Taji's body. Adding the possibility of sex isn't going to help."

"THAT'S IT!" Taji yelled as he sprung from his place on the ground and tackled Shippou to the floor, his hands around his neck. "I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

Kazuo jumped up and attempted to pry Taji off, but ended up getting punch in the face by a struggling Shippou. "Ah! Kaori, help!"

Kouga and Kaori exchanged looks and then glanced back at the boys. "Out side?" Kaori jerked her head to the door.

"Yeah," Kouga agreed while standing up. They had only made it about halfway to the door when somehow Shippou managed to throw some of his Kitsune bi and hit Kouga square in the butt. Jumping and yipping, Kouga saw the power struggle between the three and made the smartest decision of his life.

He called Ayame to break it up and went outside with Kaori to discuss the plans for Sunday.

OoOoO

Ayame stormed out of her home angry and annoyed in a way that only her husband could do. She had gotten the call from him saying that she had to come down and break up the fight, he said he couldn't do it (which she knew was odd, but whatever). She came down, broke up the fight and found that not only had Kouga not tried to stop the fight, he hadn't really tried to avoid it either.

She found him and Kaori talking out on the lawn about the coming weekend. It wasn't a discussion of the plan, but more of a gossip session from what she could hear. Kaori was basically getting caught up on the several different youkai who still lived in Japan. She, of course, knew most of them from before, but it was interesting to hear what people she had once considered murders were doing now as law abiding citizens.

Ayame listened as they talked back and forth and even shared a couple of laughs about different things that had changed. She clutched her fist and cleared her throat.

Nothing happened.

She cleared her throat again, but still, no reaction.

"Kouga," she growed under her breath.

The three stopped and looked up at Ayame. "Oh, Ayame! How did it go?"

"'Oh, Ayame!' MY ASS! Trust me, you're going to pay for this." She turned and walked back towards her house, which Taji and the rest were now sitting outside of and nursing their various wounds, and slammed the door.

The boys exchanged knowing looks, but Kouga just looked confused. "WHAT?!"

OoOoO

Later that night, after explaining to Kouga that him being lazy was what spawned his torment, Taji met with Kazuo, Kaori, and Yasuo to go over what they would be doing for the weekend. They were meeting at the Yukimura home right before bedtime.

"Okay, I called Higurashi-san today," Taji began in an overly grand manner that made him appear more in control than he was, "she said that Kagome'll be staying through Monday for the test we've got. After that, she's going back, so she'll probably be at the temple all day studying."

"She should be out of the way than," Yasuo put in. "That'll make it easier for us." He blinked and then groaned. "I forgot we had tests on Monday..."

Taji nodded his agreement. "Yeah, she probably will be but with that many youkai in one place? She'll probably be worried and stick around downstairs just to make sure it's for real and that the shrine isn't being attacked." He smirked. "Thank God her grandfather isn't able to sense youki."

Kaori could remember some of the different stories that Kagome had told Sango about her grandfather. They had nothing to worry about on his end, and Souta was pretty good at keeping quiet, apparently, so that really did just leave them with Kagome to deal with. She'd know. "Kagome will probably be on our tails the whole day. We'll have to be extra careful."

"Feh, luckily we know her as well as we do," Taji responded, "cause we'll be able to stay away from her."

Kazuo snorted. "That only works in theory. And besides, I've already put my money on you managing to make an ass of yourself and give us away within an hour of our arrival at the shrine," he stated very matter of factly.

Kaori looked shocked. "Kazuo!"

"What? It's true!" Kazuo protested. "He'll trip all over himself with Kagome right there." He ignored Taji's sputtering protest. "If he makes it into the house without screwing up, I'll consider myself beaten."

"I'm just saying, I only gave him thirty minutes," Kaori said with a shrug.

Still sputtering with indignant rage, Taji faced Yasuo, who seemed to have withdrawn from the conversation. Taji fixed his eyes upon Yasuo which only caused him to shrink back more. He continued to stare until finally Yasuo spoke. "I-I bet on him freaking out at the bottom of the stairs and us having to carry him up there."

"Well," Kaori began with a thoughtful look on her face, "I bet on him freaking out at the bottom of the stairs and Sesshoumaru kicking his ass all the way up them."

The vein in Taji's forehead ticked and he scratched his head. "You guys all think that I'm gonna lose it just cause the girl that my past self was in love with is there?"

"Yes."

"Of course."

"Umm...yeah."

Taji reached over and bopped both Kazuo and Yasuo on the heads, hard, but when he reached Kaori she had her eyebrows raised with a look that Taji knew quite well. He hit Kazuo again and sat down in a huff.

Kazuo rubbed his head and glared at Taji. "Why didn't you hit Kaori?! She did it, too!"

"Cause, you're the fucking retard!"

"This is the second time you've hit me in her place!"

"Feh!"

OoOoO

The days rolled by and soon Sunday was upon them. The youkai who were attending, Sesshoumaru, Kouga, Ayame, Shippou, and the one human, Sora, were busy readying themselves for the big wedding. Similarly, the humans, those who would join the youkai defense, were getting ready in the weapons room.

They had been supplied special uniforms for this job. In addition to wearing their pens on their shirts they had several openings where they could put different weapons. Daggers, ofuda, wakizashi, each of them was carrying something extra as a weapon. How much real damage they could do if they were put in that position.

When Yasuo had returned home the other day and spoken with Kazuo casually about going to battle, their mother had overheard. And she had pleaded with him, begged that he not go on this mission. That he be Yasuo as Yasuo had always been. Yasuo was forced to tell her that he couldn't do that anymore, he had regained his memory and he now knew how to fight. It was his job as a former taijiya to do everything in his power to help. He had to protect Kagome, he had to protect the wedding party, and anything else that was in his power.

Kaori was the last one to finish dressing. She smoothed her uniform out, tied her hair up in a ponytail and joined the boys in the Higurashi living room. Right now, Kagome was studying at a friends house because of the wedding. They had all breathed a sigh of relief when Kasumi came in and told them that she had left earlier that day. She did tend to dislike gatherings at the shrine when she was trying to study. But as she was probably the intended target in this case, well, it was much easier to protect her if she had the Shikon no Tama with her, away from the danger.

"Well, guess there's just one thing left for us to do," Taji said while cracking his knuckles. "I haven't had a good fight in a few days, so I'm looking forward to this."

Kazuo sighed. "We could die, but you're excited about a possible beating."

"Don't look into it too much, Kazuo, just turn around and start walking towards the door."

To be continued…

I'll get the next chapter up quicker than this one, that's a promise. Holidays and what not have kept me busy!