AN: Don't even ask why I haven't updated in like…2 months…just read, and enjoy life, why don't ya? ^_^;

Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah, Inuyasha, blah, blah, blah… (That's basically what a disclaimer is…yap, yap, yap)

~*~

The Life of a Devil

Curse to the Cure

~*~

*Flashback Mode*

"Ow."

"I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?"

The girl in question looked up, her seductive smile making him nearly melt. "No, Dr. Miroku, I'm just fi~ne."

The 'doctor' didn't loose his composure, though.

"Alright then. It seems your ankle is as good as it can be." He patted her slightly swollen ankle. "Just a bit twisted, that's all."

"Oh thank you doctor." She smiled (again). "I just love it when you do your…'magic'."

"Yes well, I've been doing this for quite some time." He smiled back, charming as it could have been.

"I wish there's someway I could repay you…" She pouted. "And I don't think I'm paying you enough…"

"Well, you have been paying me triple the normal amount of payment."

"Maybe you can come over for dinner tonight?" She rubbed his hand on her feet lovingly. "At my place…"

*Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring~*

"Oh, I should be getting that." Miroku quickly stood up and pulled away from her very tight grip on his hand. Without a word he made his way away from his patient and got to the phone on the front counter. Not surprisingly, everyone in the waiting room was a female who all smiled when they saw Miroku.

"Yes?"

"Oh, don't even say 'yes?' to me." Snapped the other voice on line.

"Dear lord, thank god I have you as my receptionist." Miroku sighed heavily. "I'm glad you called."

"That's my job, isn't it?" her voice was completely dull. "Excuse myself into the bathroom and watch from the hallway to see if your 'patients' get out of hand…"

"I'm just glad you installed a phone in the bathroom."

"You just better be doubling my salary. You have enough patients tripling their required payment."

"I don't know about that…" He smiled as the patient he had left on the chair walked passed him without any trouble and smiled at him.

He smiled back.

"Miroku…as your receptionist and as your longtime friend…I demand to have a raise." He hinted some smugness in the next sentence. "Or I'll have to gossip around with your patients and 'accidentally' tell them all of your dirty little secrets…"

"Alright, alright…I'll give you a raise…" He hung up as he rubbed his temple. "Yeesh…blackmailing their boss for their raise…maybe I should have given her to the police a long time ago…"

He looked up and noticed that all the females in the waiting room (of all ages) were watching him (and not to mention staring at his body up and down with adoring eyes).

"Err…whose next again?"

Every hand in the waiting room went up.

The typical, everyday life of you perverted doctor…

*7 hours later*

"Ow…" Miroku rubbed his sore shoulder. "Man, for once in my life I'd like to not worry about getting my butt slapped when I'm walking to the bathroom…"

He muttered to himself as he locked up his office. All the lights were now off with a just a little light from the window, showing the quickly setting sun. Miroku pocketed his keys and quickly walked away from his office, now wearing his long green jacket and holding a brown suitcase.

"Oh gee…" He cracked his neck. "I really need to hire a chiropractor."

The first picture that flashed into his head was a blonde woman, dressed in the same doctor jacket as him, her gorgeous hair reaching just to her thighs…

Miroku was this close to just smiling at his own perverted thoughts.

If he was paying attention, he would have noticed the lone figure, standing in the distance under a streetlight.

As he closed in near his lone car in the deserted parking lot, a sudden shiver of disturbance ran down his spine. His eyes immediately narrowed.

The gloved hand that was just about closing in on his neck suddenly stopped as Miroku brought his leg down to the ground. Miroku looked behind him and watched as the man covered in black crumpled to the cement ground, clutching his *manly* area.

Miroku just had to wince. "I feel your pain, my friend."

"Bravo, Kazaana." The lone figure under the streetlight clapped as Miroku whirled around. "Or as you call yourself; Miroku."

Miroku sneered. "Nice to see that you finally found me…Naraku."

"On the contrary, my dear old friend." He smirked. "I've known where you were hiding for quite awhile."

"Oh? Then you wouldn't mind me saying that you must have grown quite old after the last we saw of each other."

Naraku's smile didn't falter. "My friend. You haven't changed at all."

Miroku's eyes widened as he realized what he should have the moment he stepped out of his office.

He was surrounded.

Dropping his suitcase as the sun settled beneath the ground, enveloping all of them in darkness, he whirled around and punched the man that was about to attack him in the abdominal region, immediately knocking him out. Then he grabbed two men out from the shadows and grabbed each of their heads in each of his hand, then did what anyone would have done with two heads in their hands.

//Crack//

Miroku frowned. That never happened before…

Of course, unlike the movies, the two men didn't pass out as they were supposed to and just stumbled around like couple of drunken guys on the weekends. Miroku shrugged and pushed them hard with his hands, both loosing their balance and falling on the ground like a dog told to do so.

He began to step back, wanting nothing more to do with this than he already was, but Miroku sensed a sudden forwarning feeling to his right and pulled his right wrist up for defense, just as a dart flew by and nicked his bandaged wrist. Miroku cringed.

Because he was too consumed in pain, he didn't realize there was another man, incredibly large might I add, that came behind him and grabbed both his arms before he could realize what was happening.

Miroku's ears were met by Naraku's malicious laughter.

"So, Miroku, you haven't lost your humor and your skills in Karate and Kung-Fu." Naraku's smile deepened. "But it doesn't help if I know your weak point on your right hand. It's too bad the 'curse' has to pass down from generations to generations like that."

Miroku's eyes twitched as he felt his own mind beginning to wander. "You…bastard…"

But before his eyes dropped, before he could realize he was about to fall into deep unconsciousness, he saw a figure standing in the shadows. A slim figure with a dart.

And that was all before he fell asleep.

*2 Days Later*

"I just can not believe you guys waited this long to tell me."

Inuyasha growled. "We only got the information on Friday, Fox, just chill out."

Sango eyed him maliciously. "You could have told me this on Saturday, and I would have gotten all the fine prints by today."

Kagome and Kouga only sat in silence, eating their Sushi like they had done so for the past week. This was just a great morning quality time…

"Yeah, well…at least we still have some time…"

Kagome leaned towards Kouga. "Do you guys procrastinate this often?"

"Nah…" Kouga shook his head, "Inuyasha's usually straight to the point…but ever since she died…well, his mind's been wandering around lately."

Kagome bit her food off her chopstick a little too hard. Always with the she.

They were still at Sesshoumaru's place, knowing that they probably had their apartments bugged by now. Not to mention that this mansion had one of the most complicated systems of security traps in the world…that was Sango's words of wisdom when she had suggested staying where they were now.

"This is Naraku we're talking about!" Sango's growl interrupted Kagome's thoughts. "You'd think we were just going to raid some helpless gals in the hot springs by the way you're acting."

…For some reason, Kagome couldn't help but wonder if they had actually done just that before…

"Okay, now you're way over the line here." Inuyasha said with a dull face. "And why the hell are you reminding me about that particular mission…?"

…so, Kagome regretted being so paranoid…or maybe it was her wounded leg that was making her a bit woozy this morning…

"Ahh…good memories…" Kouga ate his fish with a very queer smile.

…oh, what a fine day it was…

~*~

"Kagura."

The woman in black stopped on her tracks as she acknowledged the presence of her fellow 'worker', holding a tray of some western style foods. The voice was firm, but not harsh. At least it didn't set her already bad mood up.

"What?" Kagura snapped. "Best not talk to me unless you want a hole in your head."

The ever familiar giggle erupted from the girl's dainty lips. "Oh yes Kagura, I can't forget that you're not the morning person."

"What do you want now, Yura?" She said, her jaws tight set tight in a grim line, trying not to snap back.

Yura was a very feminine girl – like how Hebi had been. But unlike the now deceased-snake gal, Yura was more well balance in Yin and Yang. One moment, she can be such an innocent little girl with the brightest personality you could imagine, and the next, she could be shoving about five to twelve knives down your throat. Even if Yura was the third best in her line of work, after Kagome and Kagura, she had no particular grudge against anyone. She was apparently the well-suited gal to ever work for Naraku, oddly enough.

"Oh, well Naraku wanted me to make sure you gave the drug to that cute, little girl." She said this as she reached for the slice of bread on the tray Kagura was holding, though she shifted the tray just as Yura reached for it.

Cute, little girl…?

…yes…she was very suitable as being an assassin…

"Yeah, I gave it to her…"

"Alright then, I guess I should go back to guarding then…" She sighed sadly with her most sweetest look. As sweet as she could possibly look in such a dainty outfit.

"Guarding?" This definitely caught Kagura's attention.

"Yeah, Naraku says that some people are going to get Naraku back in Tokyo." She yawned. "Didn't catch their names, though…"

Kagura looked at her quizzically. "How the hell did you ever get here?"

"Hmm?"

"Erg, never mind…" She turned back to her destination down the hallway. "Just tell Naraku that I've did my part."

"Okie, dokie." Was the cheerful reply she got as Yura turned around, but not before she bit down on the bread she had gotten from the tray, and how she had gotten it, Kagura would never know.

As Yura walked down with her happy-go-lucky attitude, Kagura immediately stopped and waited until Yura's footsteps died down, indicating that she was gone.

Kagura snorted. Yeah, she really had done her job.

Naraku was sick, she already knew, but she didn't think he was so sick as to order her to inject whatever liquid into children's small veins (she didn't exactly have a PHD) that caused a lasting Amnesia. This just proved that people can be more wretched in the inside, since almost everyone around here knew that she had a soft spot for kids…

Luckily enough, she had some of those leftover drugs in her pocket that was given to Kohaku the first time round…

Going through the same routine, Kagura opened the heavy metal door and was greeted by a very odd sight…

Kohaku crashed down to the ground as Rin stood up. "I win! I'm the champion of twisters! Nyahahahahahahahaha!"

"No fair…" Kohaku grumbled. "Rematch!!!"

"So, I see that you guys finally found the secret stash of board games in the shelves."

Kohaku and Rin looked up to see a fairly bored looking Kagura with the most delicious looking tray of food they had seen.

"Oolala! Breakfast!" Rin cheeped.

"Wow, I never ate these before…" Kohaku awed as he pointed at some funny looking sauce on the plates.

Kagura sighed and laid the tray on the desk. "We just got some few dozen new shipments of food from Russia. And also, you guys are going to have to split the last toast in half. Yura took one in the hallway."

"You mean Yura with the Kodachi?"

"Kodachi? What's a Kodachi?" Rin asked. "Is that food?"

"Nooo!" Kohaku smacked his hand on his forehead while he took a slice of bread from the tray with his other hand. "It's like a sword…it's a cross between a sword and a dagger. It's great for defense, but it's smaller than a sword and bigger than a dagger."

"…so…it's not food?"

Kagura watched in utter silence…

…maybe she shouldn't have used that temporary amnesia drug after all…

~*~

"Miroku."

The boy kept on bouncing the basketball around in the basketball court.

"Miroku." The man repeated, rubbing his right wrist.

The bouncing stopped, but the boy didn't reply.

"You're going to have to listen to me eventually."

"I don't want to talk to you." The boy said; he's bangs covering his usually bright eyes.

"Look, Miroku." The aging man side, still standing in the shadows. "It's not my fault this had to happen-"

"Not your fault?!" Miroku threw the ball into the trees. "Not your fault you never come home and see me? Not your fault you're always fighting with that stupid rival? Not your fault that you never told me my mom was killed by her stepbrother?!"

"Miroku!"

"No! You listen to me for once! I'm your son and you always call me by my first name. I don't even know what you or my mom look like, and you are always absorbed in defeating your own stepbrother-in-law!" He abruptly turned and roundhouse kicked the cold metal bar of the basketball stand. He felt the bone and his muscle crack in his leg, but that didn't matter. He had to unleash his anger on something.

"I hate you dad! I hated you for never being there when I did something right, I hate you now for not understanding what I have to go through, and I promise you that I'll always, always hate you!!!"

Hate you…

Hate you…

…hate you…

Miroku abruptly woke up. Talk about a bad, bad nightmare…

Groaning, he leaned forward as he felt his mind flood with confusion, his right wrist stinging worse than it ever had. It could have been because he had been exposed to a new kind of drug too abruptly, or it could have been because his wrists were because tied rather tightly together behind the chair he was forced to sit on…all to his analysis on his rather troubling situation.

"Oh…dear lord…my head…"

"Ooooh…you're cuter than the picture…"

Miroku snapped his head to the form that came out of the shadows.

A female in a rather revealing outfit, with a Kodachi bound to her waist and her bangs separated by a red ribbon. She was near her twenties and the texture of her skin was quite inquisitive to…

Miroku groaned, all this analyzing getting to his head…he tried to lean his head, but something stinged his cheek and he immediately pulled away, though he couldn't prevent the trail of blood oozing down his cheek.

"Oops, should have pulled my strings back." the odd woman cooed and took out her comb. The moment she had revealed the comb, Miroku heard odd sounds close to his ears, like strings untangling by itself…

…another groan escaped him from too much thinking…

"Oh, poor you." She said, somehow getting close to him without him noticing how quickly she had made the trip across the room. "Don't worry, Naraku will end your misery tonight, though I say it is a bit of a waste."

Naraku…

…his step-uncle…

"Dad!"

The younger Miroku yelled in tears as he ran across the bloody rooms, ignoring the servant's orders to stay outside.

"Dad!"

Another shot rang; another bullet in his father's chest.

"No! Stop it! Dad!"

There was a momentary pause of silence as the little boy ran to his fallen father, the enemies and the allies both watching the tragic scene in silence.

"Miroku…" The man spattered blood. "Miroku…"

"Dad, no, don't talk…please…" Miroku chocked on a sob, holding his head with his bad wrist; like father like son.

His father didn't listen.

"I'm so sorry…I never…I never was there…for you…" He wheezed and coughed blood in between.

"No, don't say that. Please, I forgive you for everything…just don't go…don't…"

"I just wanted you to say that…that you'll always…always be…my…" As the dieing man coughed more blood and held up his right wrist, also in the purple bandage identical to Miroku's, and rubbed Miroku's tearstained cheek, he mouthed the last word in a distinct and father-like fashion, his voice lost forever-

'Son.'

Then the man's hand dropped, his eyes closed and his breathing stopped.

The man Miroku knew as his father, was no more.

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!" The little boy screamed in dismay. "No! Dad! Don't go! I can't go on like this! I need you!"

But suddenly, the shooting had started again as bullets flew and were exchanged by one another, and one wheezed by his head dangerously close. He didn't care though. He only cared about his father, not wanting to believe he was dead; gone forever.

But a rough hand took Miroku's forearm and harshly pulled him towards the exit, roughly pulling him away from his deceased father's body.

As speechless as Miroku was, he had caught a glimpse of the man he knew was the killer, he knew was his dear old 'uncle'…the man standing in the very back in the shadows, exchanging looks with Miroku as their eyes caught a hold of each other's.

Shearing madness boiled inside him when he smirked.

Naraku…

Miroku had promised that day that he, at the age of 13, was going to destroy Naraku, whether it was the last thing he did or not…

AN: *Clears throat* Well, that wasn't exactly supposed to happen until the next chapter, but I guess I'll have to just…toss around all this a bit…anyway, after going through tough time, death threats; including many, 'I know where you live'-ones, it got sort of ridiculous. -.-; Anyway, it's summer. So more time to write…hopefully…

Next chapter – In the Middle of the Hair (oh yes, what clever title…guess who stars in there…)