A/N: Hello again, and welcome to Spring Break. Yes, that means no school, and since I have no money, that also means lots of time at the computer, and that means more than just a weekly update. ^^ I will still be kind of busy though, my school is doing a multicultural fair and my anime club volunteered to do a booth on Japan and I am doing a Judo demo that I need to practice for. And Tuesday I am cutting off all of my long auburn curls to send it to the locks of love! I was going to cut it anyway, but my friends were like "noooooooo!" so I decided that if I donate it then they can't be so mad at me! ^^ hehehe. Anyway, you are in for a surprise now, so please review and tell me what you think!

Part three: Secrets and Stories

They stopped for the night in a fancy inn (no trouble getting a room this time) and settled down. The strange girl was sleeping on the bed, and Miroku was taking a bath. He hummed as he scrubbed, playing with the splashy bubbles. Shippo watched in amusement, but most of his focus was on the half demon.

"Miroku, do you know anything about healing salves?" he asked

"Nope." Miroku continued playing with the bubbles, oblivious to any worries. Shippo sighed. Twelve year olds could do that.

He gently rubbed her face with a wet cloth, cleaning the wound on her cheek. He would have checked for other injuries, but somehow got all shy all of a sudden. She looked like the sort who might slap him for something like that. He did check her for sign of what kind of demon she was, looking through her hair for pointed ears or something.

There, where normally there were human ears, were the small pointed ones like what Shippo had. And there, in her mouth, fangs. Another sign of demonic heritage. Shippo inspected her hands, finding long nails, not quite claws though.still no hints. Then Shippo noticed that where the slash was on her cheek, were two pale pink stripes. He rubbed lightly with the cloth and they became darker, as if some sort of make up had concealed them. He rubbed the other cheek to the same effect, two blood red stripes.

The only demon that Shippo had seen was Sesshomaru. Curious, he began rubbing her forehead, looking for any trace of a blue crescent moon.

"Aaugh!" The girl sat up with a shriek, throwing Shippo away from her, and crouching to spring. Miroku paused in his scrubbing and peered at her over the rim of the tub. Shippo approached her calmly.

"Listen, we won't hurt you. My name is Shippo, and that there is Miroku. We brought you here to tend your wounds and to help you." The girl raised her head and stared, a cold golden eyed stare. She breathed in and sat back down on the bed, facing them.

"Thank you." She said. Her stare softened a bit, but was still wary and unwelcoming. Shippo grinned.

"So, are you a half demon?" he asked. The girl looked him over as if noticing his tail and feet for the first time.

"Yes."

"And your name?"

"."

Shippo nodded. "Alright, be that way. But I know more about you than you think."

"Oh?" the girl smiled now, for the first time. Shippo relaxed a bit, and approached her.

"Yes. I knew your father, and his brother." The girl slapped him across the face. "What the...?" Shippo clutched his cheek. Miroku giggled.

"My father abandoned me to those tormentors. I want nothing to do with him, or anyone acquainted with him." Shippo nodded.

"Never said he was a friend. I fought against him many times, with his half brother. There was a good guy."

Miroku laughed. "What are you talking about Shippo, I never knew you knew any half demons."

"Yeah, and you've known me for about a whole week." He said, turning back to the girl. "Ignore him, he's just a monk."

"Hey!"

The girl laughed at Miroku's indignation. It was a nice laugh, not mean at all. This caused Miroku to be even more offended.

"I'm sorry demon, but I haven't many fond memories of my father." She sighed. "Thank you for helping me, my name is Sasuke."

"Nice to meet you. I told you, my name is Shippo."

"And I am Miroku II." Miroku added. He was still in the tub.

"Miroku, go get dressed," Shippo added, throwing him a towel. The boy wrapped himself and ran off to the next room.

"Sasuke, would you mind telling me why you cover your face markings?" Shippo asked. He was very curious as to why a half demon would conceal such powerful parentage. The girl frowned deeply, obviously remembering things that she didn't like.

"My father is the reason. He is hated by so many humans, that I feared they would associate me with him if they saw." She touched her forehead gently, and added, in a whisper, "He would be angry if he knew."

Shippo nodded. There was more to it than that, surely, but he didn't wish to pry too much yet. One thing was certain; she would be a great help to their quest for the priestess. Assuming, of course, that she wasn't like her father.

****

She was a lot like her father.

The next morning, when Miroku awoke from his place on the floor, she was gone, and so was the jewel half.

"AHHHHHHH SHIPPO SHE TOOK IT!!!" Miroku screamed in the fox demon's sensitive ears, waking him with a start.

"Took what? Who?" Shippo sat up and glanced around the room. The bed was made, light blue covers folded neatly, and there wasn't a trace of the half demon to be found anywhere.

"That girl took my jewel! I need it! It was my dad's!" Miroku looked like he was about to burst into tears, but Shippo shushed him.

"Don't worry, I can track her. She can't be too far away with her wounds either. Even half demons can't heal that quick."

Miroku looked up at Shippo and nodded, all of his faith in the strange older boy that he had known for little more than a week. If Shippo said they could track her, then they would.

Shippo, on the other hand, was not nearly so optimistic. It was likely that Sasuke was indeed working with her father to get the jewel. If not to make her fully demon, then to make her father more powerful. Sesshomaru was not one to be trusted with something like that.

"Alright Miroku, get your stuff together, so we can go. We don't have much time."

****

Sasuke clutched the jewel in her hands and smiled, feeling the warm, pure power on her face. She did not want to corrupt it in any way before she absolutely had to, and forced herself to feel sorry about the theft. Those boys were too nice for her to fully carry out the plan. Sesshomaru had ordered her to kill them both, but Sasuke was not only too wounded to take on the sharp young fox demon, but she couldn't understand her father's motives at all. He seemed like he really wanted to help her.

She shrugged, tossing the jewel into the air and catching it in her shirt. Her father would understand. He'd always been lenient to his only daughter, half human or not. Besides, she would soon be one like him. It was all she had ever wanted.

Sasuke was walking at quite a leisurely pace toward the castle where her father lived. It was a few days walk, but at night she would speed away on the wind if the weather permitted, and if it happened to not permit, she would work a spell to make it obey her. She wasn't dressed for travel, torn white dress , dainty leather boots, and the markings on her face fully visible, but it really didn't matter. No one would bother her.

But someone did.

"You there, girl!" a voice called out.

Sasuke swore and turned quickly. It was impossible that the fox demon had caught up to her already. But there he was!

"What do you want with me?" she asked. Sasuke clasped her hands and drew them to her chest. She smiled when the fox demon's grim expression faltered. The little monk poked his head out from behind his companion, eyes wide.

"I want the jewel back in the hands of its rightful owner." Shippo was only a few steps away. "The hands of the legendary priestess Kagome."

Sasuke frowned.

"I have no jewel," she said.

"Please give it back." Shippo reached out and quick as a flash, grabbed her arm and held her to him. Their faces were inches apart.

"You don't know what its capable of." He whispered.

"You are a fool." She said. Then, "OH!" a small hand had just squeezed her breast, and then she caught sight of the little monk running away laughing.

"Hahahah! Teaches you to mess with Shippo and Miroku!" Miroku called out. Shippo grinned, still holding her close. She smelled like strawberries, and her blue eyes cut through him. His shaggy red hair touched the crescent moon on her forehead.

"I will hunt you." She whispered. "And I will get the jewel back."

Shippo didn't waver his grin, but leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the lips. His eyes never left hers, but when he finally pulled away, he let her go and watched as she stared at him disoriented.

In a flash, she was gone.

"Yay for us Shippo!" Miroku ran back to where Shippo was standing, waving the jewel around and laughing. "We sure tricked her! Sucker!" Shippo was annoyed and cuffed the monk on the back of the head.

"Shut up and put that thing out of sight. She'll still track us, so we have to be careful. Besides, we're almost to where we need to be for some clues."

Miroku moped around, but hid the jewel in his cloak, following the fox demon obediently.

"Where do we need to go for clues?" Miroku asked.

"To a village. Hopefully the flea Myoga will be there to give us some info. Now, I better tell you a little story."

"Okay." Miroku brightened at the prospect of a story, walking alongside Shippo and looking up at him intently. None of the old monks ever told stories, or were so much fun to travel with. Shippo had saved him more than once, and was powerful and wise. Miroku decided that he would always be friends with this demon, no matter what his ideas of demons had been in the past.

Shippo stared up at the clear skies, remembering, and sighed. There really wasn't a beginning to this story. That only made it so much more difficult to tell. But this boy needed to know, if he was to trust him at all.

"A lot of things happened to me when I was young, younger than you even, that turned me into the demon I am today." He sounded like he was making a speech to a crowd of men in business suits, very nervous.

"And some of them are happy and some are sad. I was actually a lot like you, orphaned, raised by friends, wanted revenge for my parent's death, stupid."

"Hey!"

"Heh, just kidding Miroku. Anyway, when I was young, I had some friends. I'll tell you about them some other time. But there was a huge battle in this village that we're going to, and it was burned to the ground. Almost all of the humans there died, it was so terrible.

Well, the good guys ended up winning, but at a horrible price. It was really bad, but it included splitting the jewel. It's like a curse in itself, you know. Who ever has it is cursed with having to take care of it and guard it. They were trying to destroy it when it broke, but when we- they figured out that it couldn't be destroyed, we-they entrusted half of it to the priestess and half of it to a monk."

Miroku looked at me sadly. "Was that monk my dad?" he asked.

"Yeah." Shippo gave him some privacy and pretended not to see his eyes water.

"Did you know him?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah. He was noble."

Miroku nodded. So now this jewel was his curse. He would bear it nobly like his father. Then another thought occurred to him.

"Did you know my mother too?"

"If I knew your dad at all, then yes. They loved each other in strange ways."

Miroku wasn't surprised. From what he remembered, they were good people.

Shippo was a bit uncomfortable. He wasn't sure how the kid would react to that, but he seemed ok. But then, Inu-yasha had always seemed alright too, no matter his pain.

****

Well? How is it so far? ^^