Inu-Yasha, a demon, a half demon with white hair and a destiny entwined with Kagome; a Japanese school girl who has traveled unto the past and now has come along for the adventure.

At present, their fortunes have been misleading them to a path unknown. Everything around them gave them the feeling of an inexplicable warning. The atmosphere thins into a suffocating silence, the sounds of nature fading into the gloominess of their reality.

Kagome, a fifteen year old with long dark hair and an uncanny resemblance of the great love of Inu-Yasha's late Kikyo who betrayed him in the final act before sending him to a prolonged state of unconscious purgatory.

The girl beside him skips along the rocky upgrading cliff, avoiding little potholes that were caused by last night's rain. Her mind was on other things besides the changing mood of their situation. The math exam she had missed again made her worry incessantly and wonders if her teachers would be able to extend her another time to retake it. Sighing, she stops dead, confronting the back of her half demon companions back.

"Inu-Yasha, what are you doing?"

"Kagome. Do you hear that? Can you not sense something is amiss?" he glances around, noting the rustling of the trees, and leaves falling around them like a perfumed blanket, vaporizing their peripheral spot.

"Hear what?" Kagome looks at him as if he were paranoid. She saw nothing different in their situation. She was really very tired and the fact that they had been walking for awhile to get to the next village made her awfully aware of her feet throbbing.

A voice came from behind them, terrifying really because they both perk up at the sound. Remembering the last time they had stumbled upon him. It was a bit too soon to see him again but Inu-Yasha, quick, with the reflexes he was born with stands in front of his companion telling her to stay back.

"If it isn't the little half breed and his tag along princess." The voice mocks towards his enemies, and out of the shadow of the cliffs, Sesshoumaru stands there with all his awesome glory. A treacherous demon with a vengeance and a hatred for his Halfling sibling, coming slowly with a glint in his eye and a lazy laugh, this time, he thinks, he won't lose.

"Come to try at it again, Sesshoumaru?" Inu-Yasha holds on to his Tetsusanga, still in its old common form. "Well come on then. It's nice to reminisce of old times, eh?"

"By all means." The smile his full demon brother bore had a very iniquitous shine, really, like some snake about to pounce upon his unsuspecting little gopher or the glassy eight eyes of a spider who has webbed her dinner around her eight legs, spinning into a asphyxiated state of appetizing fare.

Their fights were always ambitious, apocalyptic in a sense. With clouds threatening to consume them both and the flat atmosphere turning into a vivacious firework of flaunting explosions, they sway to the perfect steadiness of their attack.

Sway, clank, shhhhp, klak, kang, thonk, and the noises begin before Kagome could find a hiding spot and they begin; a hsssshhhh, clank of swords, swerving into their battle, heated in the day of naked sky and two demons meet together, and only one would be the weaker.

Inu-Yasha's sword had already transformed into its most powerful form. And a delighted Sesshoumaru widens his eyes to their father's last legacy.

With deliberate ease, his fully developed demon brother tries without thinking to grab the sword, burning himself at the touch. A string of curses follow and he backs up. His face an unmask expression of hate and loathing. How could he, how could he, the words rang true in his mind, afraid of the consequence of why and how and the answers.

Was there a tear in his eye? Did Inu-Yasha see his brother in his moment of Achilles' heel? The opening didn't give our half demon to consider the result and annihilation would only be the response. The Tetsusanga came at his opponent, downward swipe, cutting into the air and the noise of it making a stinging sound to a human's ear.

Kagome, hides behind the Cliffside where rocks and partial bush weeds were easy to blend herself in watches in anticipation and worries for her friend. Her eyes wide, she blinks away the pain that the noise causes, and waits for the moment of finality.

With Sesshoumaru nothing was final.

A sound behind Kagome came at full speed, rushing like a dangerous river, and passing at deadly speed and hits at its intended target.

It was the sound of an arrow, the very same ones Kagome held behind her back.

Oh god, Kagome sees Inu-Yasha fall, tumbling over the invisible layers of bumps in the sky and hitting the ground with a mighty thud, a sort of slow motion bounce seems to imprint in Kagome. Oh god, she thinks. No.

The fifteen year old girl turns slowly, seeing her nemesis and her rival; Kikyo, the one who looks so much like her.

"Noooooo" Kagome screams.

She runs towards the fallen half demon. An arrow stuck to his heart made her fraught with blind distress and the tears ran unheeded in Kagome's cheeks. Not this time, she thinks and not a moment too soon, another arrow makes a dizzy startling blast and heads for her own heart.

Kikyo grits her teeth, "Stupid of you to leave yourself open like that."

Kagome lays there, not five feet away from Inu-Yasha and her hands were outstretched before she fell into a slumberous unconscious state.

Kikyo and Sesshoumaru walk up towards each other. Both nod at the casual greeting. Facing the two laying there the demon glances over at the priestess, not easily impressed but mildly feels admiration at her skillful archery and the magic behind those weapons she wielded.

"You have done well, Kikyo." Smirking at her, he reaches out to touch her face. Soft she was, he thought, and beautiful too. It is no wonder his brother had loved her before. Still, she was human. He would not make the same mistake as his father or his scrawny half brother.

Kikyo pushes his hands away, but with a kinder gesture, but in doing so, makes sure she smiles politely, knowing his lethal temper. "My pleasure, Sesshoumaru. I would however exact my payment."

"Just like a girl." He laughs unkindly.

Kikyo walks up to Inu-Yasha's lifeless body and remembers faintly—a priestess come back to life has her melancholies for sure. "Take your prize, Sesshoumaru before he wakes."

"Wakes?" he inquires with a slight jerk of his head. "I thought you said you'd kill him with your poison arrow?" then a look of disgust forms in his facade, "You're still in love with him?"

"Hardly. Let's just say I have my uses for him alive."

The demon takes a chance and whispers a fatal warning in her ear, "Just you remember. We made a bargain and no slip ups, Kikyo. I'm not a patient demon. You'd do well to remember that."

With that, he closes his fist on the handle of Tetsusanga. The feel of it; uncomfortable in his fingers, as if burning from the mere touch but he clamps even tighter like a mad possession. "You'll get used to me." He promises the blade, in a silent caress like a lover.

Kikyo shakes her head, "Boys and their swords." Then quickly glances over at Kagome. "What about this one?"

"Do what you want with her. You two have a lot in common." Then in swift formality, as from whence he came, he backs up into the skies. His presence an ominous unnatural existence, hair floating outward and his clothing, adorns in an expensive detailed design layered upon silk, strong webbed like fabric and bonded fibers that suited his strong frame.

And disappears with the Tetsusanga.

Kikyo sighs. The uneven beats of her heart impatient. She closes her eyes.

Oh, Inu-Yasha, she quietly laments. This was not a time to become a weakling, she scolds herself but her unliving self denies her the human part of what she was once.

The part of her, the one that was once alive and human remembers the strength of love—and yet the other side; threatens to take a hold of her--dark and ancient wanting to kill him for his betrayal.

With a slow touch, she rakes the forehead of the half demon, brushes aside his white long hair and brings her lips to where her fingers touched.

"Wake now, my tormentor."

Inu-Yasha's eyes snaps open and the vision he saw knocks him to a full unrestive position. Impulsive and angry, he holds her with strong hands, his fingers digging into her shoulders.

"What are you doing? You sick b-tch!"

"No, no, I merely saved your life and Kagome. See--look for yourself. Kagome is alive. I didn't kill any of you. This was planned."

Sneering he replies in animosity, "Like I believe you?" then pushes her away, "Psaafff" retorting in disgust. He reaches over to Kagome, concern written all over his face. "Come on, girl, get up. This is no time to be sleeping on the job."

Kagome wakes up slowly, and upon seeing Kikyo, she grabs instinctively for her arrows. It mattered not if they would work against a more skillful opponent but she was wary, definitely wary of her.

Kikyo holds up her hand. "Don't worry about me. I'm leaving."

Kagome looks over at Inu-Yasha, distrustful of the other.

"Why-why did you do what you just did? Don't tell me it's because you wanted to protect us? If that's so, it's a crock! Don't believe her, Inu-Yasha in whatever she has to say! She's a liar and manipulator!"

Inu-Yasha looks around for his weapon. "Where's…" then jerks his head towards the priestess. "You gave it to him?" the last words a biting sneer.

"I'm sorry. I had made a bargain with him. He said he would leave you in my hands as long as I allowed him the Tetsusanga."

"That just takes the cake, Kikyo. Not only have you left me in a limbo of non existence bonded to that tree with an arrow in my heart, betrayed me, taken everything important from me, you even gave him my sword!"

A suspicious Kagome whispers, "What was your end of the deal?"

Silence answers the other girl who mirrors her eyes.

Inu-Yasha takes Kagome's hand in his and leads her away, speaking in a hush tone, "Come on, and let's find him. I can find a way to track him."

Kikyo watches the two run and leave her there. Inu-Yasha has changed, the priestess ponders, and especially now that he has the modern version of herself or what looked like her.

When Kikyo was out of sight, Kagome breathes in a hurried reply, trying to catch up with her travel companion, "What about Kikyo? Shouldn't we do something?"

"Not right now, Kagome. We have to deal with Sesshoumaru and get my sword back."

Kagome complies but a nagging feeling tugs at the back of her mind, and the feeling of foreboding couldn't make the emotions vanish. Kikyo was up to something. She always was. Now is not the time to think about it as she races along to catch up with Inu-Yasha.

~~~~~~~~~~~

continued?

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A/N: Now tell me what you think? It's my first Inu-Yasha fanfiction. Do you like it? Should I post my next installment?

Well EVERYTHING is my first this past month. More to come if you guys likey likey! ^_^