Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha or any of the other characters from the series.

D i s c o v e r i e s

Chapter 1: The Betrayal

Kagome sat cross-legged across from the campfire, gently resting her elbows on her knees, her eyes closed and with her hand held palm up at about eye level. The gentle serenity that that emanated from her slender body was offset by the hard look of concentration that was displayed across her face. Sitting in the moonlight, her body let off an almost ethereal glow and if looking upon her from the right angles, she would appear as though she was a goddess that had been bestowed upon earth to protect the people that resided on it. If a traveler had happened to stumble across her clearing, what they would have seen would have knocked them breathless.

A girl of about the age of 20 or 21, her coal black waist length hair falling down her back in waves, seemingly creating a curtain of darkness around her pure white form. The moonlight danced across her pale flesh as if it was happy to have the chance to touch a creature of such innocence. Her features are delicate and soft while appearing to never have been touched by age or the cruel hands of nature. The girl sat, motionless, as if waiting for some sort of sign for quite some time before slowly relaxing her tensed up frame. She slowly returned her hand to her lap before lazily opening up her eyes.

Her eyes are a deep blue, like the color of the sky in the middle of a cloudless summer day, but looking onto those eyes would cause the looker to become despairingly sad, because those eyes are a window to the girls soul, and by looking at them, you could tell the girls soul was recipient of a pain that caused the receiver obvious distress. When drowning in her eyes, you could sense, practically smell the pressure of responsibility and pain that constantly hung around her aura. And in this state of my mind was how a little girl that would change her life forever found her…

~~~*~~~

Kagome sat across from the fire, concentrating intently on her hand, attempting to practice her miko powers, but, as usual, nothing was forthcoming from this particular chore. She had started practicing her powers about 1 month ago and the most she had been able to accomplish so far was to cause a small bluish/white flame to come out of her index finger. Each time that she got it to work, it increased slightly in length, and Kagome was beginning to believe that it slightly resembles a whip. A small, 6 inch whip, but a whip nonetheless. 'How strange, and to think that I didn't even know that I had these powers until 5 years ago.' This train of thought led her to thinking of when she met Inu-Yasha, which led her to thinking about her. 'Kikyou', she thought with disgust. 'It's her fault that Inuyasha left. It's her fault that he broke my heart. Why, Inuyasha, why? Was I really just a shard detector to you?' She thought, a tear falling unnoticed down her cheek.

'This is all her fault.' she thought morosely, her thoughts once again turning towards the dead miko that was currently traveling with Inuyasha in the opposite direction of the rest of the group. She could remember as if it was just moments ago that Inu-Yasha had left the group to be with Kikyou.

~~~Flashback~~~

Kagome, Sango, Miroku, and Shippou were all sitting around the fire, eating the fruit and meat that they had picked up from the last village that they had visited, chatting away about the rumors of where the next location of a shard was going to be. Inuyasha was no where to be found and the members of the small group were just beginning to worry when they heard a small rustle from the bushes around the clearing that they were staying in.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome called out to the bushes, wondering if some Youkai that was after the shards had come after them, but her worries were put to rest when Inuyasha stepped out from between two tree trunks. "Oh good Inuyasha, its just you. I was worried that it might be some sort of Youkai that was coming after the shards…" Her voice drifted off into nothingness as they all looked at whom Inuyasha had with him.

Kikyou.

They all jumped to their feet at the same time, getting ready to defend themselves and all the while bombarding Inuyasha with questions about his dead miko companion.

"Inuyasha!! What is she doing here?! You know that she is just using you so that she can steal Kagome's soul!!" Sango screeched at him, while at the same time pulling the large boomerang off her back and preparing to throw it at Kikyou. She opened her mouth to add to her previous comment but was cut off by Miroku jumping in front of her to add his comment.

"Kikyou!! I will rid this Earth of your evil aura so that we will be able to continue our quest in peace!" Miroku stated while lifting his cursed hand in front of him and beginning to untie the rosary that held his air rip in check.

"QUIET!!" Inuyasha bellowed, getting the attention of every person within the vicinity of his voice. "Kikyou will be helping us gather the shards-"

"But-"

"No buts!" he screamed before continuing with his speech. "As I have already said, Kikyou will be traveling with us and you will treat her with the respect that she deserves. Kikyou has changed. You don't know her like I do." he stated, his voice softening towards the end of his speech. He then took Kikyou's hand and pulled her down to sit by him at the fire.

Everyone just stood and watched as Inuyasha held Kikyou beside him until Sango voiced the thoughts that were going through almost everyone's head.

"I refuse to travel with this, this, imitation." She hissed before standing up and walking back towards the last village that they had passed.

Miroku just simply stared at Inuyasha before standing up and following Sango to the edge of the clearing. This is where Sango stopped and turned back to the fire and said, "Kagome, Shippou, are you two coming?"

Kagome, who, up to this point, hadn't said nor done anything about the situation, decided to intervene.

"Sango, you know that the shards are my responsibility and I have to stay and search for them." She pointed out in a monotonous voice. Surprise registered on everyone's face at how dead and defeated Kagome's voice sounded. It was as if all of her emotions had just died out, and the fact that Kagome, the spunky girl from the future, was acting this way, worried almost everyone. "I would however, like to keep my soul intact and so therefore agree with you on traveling without the corpse." She spit out 'corpse' as if just thinking about the word made her want to heave.

Sango sat, contemplating Kagome's words before replying in an unhappy voice, "Alright, Kagome. We will help you search for the Shikon." She stressed the word 'you' when she was talking to Kagome but it was obviously meant for Inuyasha.

Inuyasha, it seemed, had also picked up on how Sango had dismissed him and barked out, "What do you mean by that, you little-"

Kagome cut him off before he got any farther by turning and staring at him with her cold and emotionless eyes and stating, "Inuyasha." His head turned towards her and she continued in a dead voice. "We will still search for the shards, but we will not travel with you. I would suggest that you leave now and don't come back. I am going to take a walk. Be gone by the time I return." And with that, Kagome left them all in the clearing, staring at her back with a stunned look on their faces.

~~~End Flasback~~~

That was two months ago, and in the short time that Kagome, Sango, Miroku, and Shippou had been traveling without Inuyasha, they had only managed to get two shards.

'I shouldn't have made him leave', she thought, 'if I hadn't then we would have way more shards now'. The thought of Inuyasha and Kikyou still stung a little bit but the thoughts didn't make her want to fall into depression anymore.

At the moment, Kagome was sitting in front of the fire and trying to relax. Under the usual circumstances, she would either be talking to Sango and Miroku, or cuddling Shippou, but they had all gone into the nearest village to pick up supplies and to check if there were any rumors about the Shikon shards. She would have gone with them, but she had wanted some alone time and this was the perfect time to take advantage of it.

She stood; raising her arms above her head and stretching towards the sky, before unrolling her sleeping bag and lying down to go to sleep. She had just zipped up her sleeping back when she heard a muffled sound coming from the bushes on the opposite side of the camp. 'Why would a Youkai attack in the middle of the night…' her thoughts wandered of as she silently got out of her sleeping bag and picked up her bow and arrows. Stringing one of her arrows, she proceeded to call out, "Who's there?" When no one answered she decided to investigate. She slowly stalked over to the bushes and pushed them aside. What she found amazed and surprised her.

It was a small girl, about the age of 4 or 5 with shoulder length black hair that was tied into a ponytail on the side of her head. She was curled into a ball and was shaking with silent sobs.

"What's wrong?" Kagome asked, kneeling down by the girl. Not getting an answer, she knelt down by the little girl and picked her up. She walked back to the campfire and sat down, settling the girl into her lap.

"Where are your parents?" The girl, having quieted down quite a bit, rubbed her eyes and looked up at Kagome before answering.

"Rin's parents were killed by wolf Youkai. Rin lives with her Sesshoumaru-sama." She stated proudly, puffing outer chest when mentioning Sesshoumaru.

'Sesshoumaru!' she involuntarily gasped when Rin mentioned his name. 'Why would Sesshoumaru be traveling with a child?" she wondered, pondering the thought in her mind. She was shaken out of her reverie by the inquisitive voice of Rin asking her a question.

"What's your name?" She looked up at Kagome with innocent brown eyes and waited for the answer.

"My name is Kagome and I take it that yours is Rin?" She asked.

"Yes." Rin answered shyly.

"Will Kagome-chan help Rin to find Rin's Sesshoumaru-sama?" She asked, barley getting it out before a yawn escaped from her mouth.

'I really don't know if I should get involved in this. Sesshoumaru can be very dangerous.' Kagome felt tendrils of doubt crawling up her spine, but when she looked into Rin's eyes they all vanished as if they had never been there.

"Yes Rin, I will help you find Sesshoumaru, but first I think that you should get some sleep." Kagome watched as Rin stifled another yawn.

"Ok. We can look for him in the morning. Goodnight." Rin agreed, before rolling into a ball on Kagome's lap and falling asleep.

Kagome then proceeded to pick Rin up and put her down in her sleeping bag, before lying down next to her and following her into darkness.

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