Chapter 3: another shard, another girl

A girl walked through the leaf village, she had black hair and white eyes, she was 15 and had set her mind on scolding her boyfriend for not organizing a party to celebrate the day. If she had to be honest, the girl had to admit the boy wasn't her boyfriend, he might not even know she liked him even though he had to be a complete idiot not to see it, but she knew the boy for most of her life, he had a tendency for not noticing anything, he also probably didn't know it was her birthday, Even though the previous mentioned facts she still believed he was ought to know and do something for her. But she knew quite well she won't scold him, she barely believed she would even talk to him, let alone tell him it was her birthday. The girl's mood was getting worse by the second, not only that she hadn't found him yet that day, he was also nowhere around the last day or the day before, when they were kids, she could easily find him anywhere, she decided to check again his favorite place in the village, she didn't think he would be there, but she didn't know where else to look. She was 200 meters from the place when she saw two teenagers, she knew them well, they were his closest friends and usually knew where he could be, but she could tell this wasn't the normal case of 'two friends eating together'.

"I can't believe we didn't see it, all the time…" it was his seven millionth time saying it, but Sasuke still couldn't shake the feeling from him, "I know, how could we be so blind…" Sakura said, most of the time they would think it was boring to speak to someone about the same topic for three days and not make any progress, but this case was different, during the whole conversation they couldn't say a thing, they tried to follow the events, but before they knew what happened it was all settled, leaving them without two teammates and without a clue about how to approach the new information. "Hey, Sasuke, Sakura, have you seen Naruto toady?" Hinata asked the two chunins, "he's training" "he's sick" they both answered quickly, Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other, there was no way to make Hinata believe them, but they had to protect Naruto's secret, and needed a good cover story, "a family member of his came by and took him somewhere" Sasuke said, it was close enough to the truth but it was suspicious when combined with Sakura's answer: "two girls requested him and Kohaku for a special mission!", Hinata looked at them, "I'm going to find him, where is he?" she asked, "Hinata, don't! there are things about Naruto you aren't aware of…" Sakura said, Hinata grabbed her necklace, she made it when she was 12, it contained a pink crystal she found at the genin training ground. Ever since she learned the byakougen she used it to spy on Naruto, she found that he had shards such as that one as well. She believed that as long as she wore it on her then that piece and Naruto's shards will call each other and bring them together, "no there isn't, I know everything about him, such as the fact he has no family anywhere, they all got eradicated by the Kyubi the day he was born, and no girl from the village will approach him on her own mind, they all hate him because… " she left the place, continuing the sentence in her mind, "because he carries the monster", if they wouldn't tell her, she would just look for him alone, she already had some jutsu that allowed her to follow him with the shard on her necklace.

Night came fast for the group, they planned to get to Keade's village before the end of the month, there Kagome will go back to her time, "just to do some tests" she promised Inuyasha, and Sango could try to remind Kohaku of his past, they quickly fell asleep, first Shippo, then Miroku, Kagome and Sango, the two shinobies agreed they could trust Inuyasha with the night shift, and left him alone, he was cuddled at his defensive sleeping position, both hands holding the sheath of the Tetsaeiga, he slept that way for as long as he could remember, for the past months, ever since Kagome entered his life, he always watched her while she was sleeping, he watched her until the sleep came to him as well, and at the morning he would pretend that he just happened to sleep in front of her, it was that way each night.

Kagome felt something move inside her shirt, hundreds of ideas formed inside her mind, none were pleasant: "Miroku-bugs-Demons!" were the most probable one. She got up fast, her hands ravaging through her shirt, she saw Miroku flipping on his mattress and felt no jacki around, it only left her with one option – BUGS. She was scared, she felt that the amount of bugs on her would be enormous, she decided the only way to find them all would be to take of her shirt, unfortunately for her, her leg hit a rock and caused her to release a small cry of pain, Inuyasha's heard it, and within a second was by her side, he put his hands around her naked body and asked "Kag, what's wrong, Kag!", just then did she realize she wasn't wearing her shirt, "Inuyasha…" she said, her eyes burning with rage, anger and embracement, "SIT!".

Everybody was woken up by the sound of Inuyasha crushing to the ground over and over again, "ahmm, Kagome-chan, would you bother perhaps, to, maybe, put the shirt back on?" Sango suggested, Kagome looked at herself and quickly pulled the shirt back, "well, was fun while it lasted, poor Inuyasha, must be quite a headache to wake up to" Miroku said, his hand groping Sango's behind, "it was worth it, what a wonderful night" he said, rubbing the red hand mark on his cheek. "yeah, really poor guy, he didn't even notice you were naked, he just tried to help you" a voice came from the trees, a small figurine appeared, she wore a ninja outfit like Kohaku, and held a shikon shard attached to her necklace, "Hinata chan!" a high pitched voice was heard.

"Hinata-chan? You know this girl, Naruto?" Kagome asked, she wasn't in a mood to look at Inuyasha, and Inuyasha wasn't in a physical condition to look anywhere but on the ground. "Who are you and what connection do you have to Naruto?" Hinata asked, she looked at the strange bunch of people: a teenage girl, a leachrous black dressed guy, an agile woman in black, a giant cat, a small kid, two leaf ninjas which were never accepted, and an over protective white haired guy with bad luck concerning the teenage girl. "it's Hinata chan! *Cough, Cough* she's also from our village *Cough, Cough*" Naruto answered, he tried to Cough away his high voice, he hated it, it made him sound like a 12 years old, Kohaku also woke up, for the first time in many years, he has slept soundly through the night, he looked at his partner and was shocked to see a 3 year younger version of Naruto. "Naruto, why the hell are you twelve again?" he shouted at his friend, they all turned their looks to the blond shinobi, "it can be one of those time rips again" Mirouku suggested, "but his clothes are smaller now and they fit him well" Kohaku mentioned, and then he heard his voice, he was a child again as well.

"Now this is a weird situation, it's best that everyone who's age has changed state it!" Kagome returned to her normal mood, she realized that at the moment Sango was too busy concentrating on Kohaku to think straight, and Inuyasha and Mirouku were just unfit to handle these situations; she was the one which needed to take responsibility and organize them into a thinking group. "I'm twelve!" Naruto shouted from the back of his lungs, "I'm ten… I think" Kohaku just whispered, "what about you? My lovely stealth woman?" Miroku asked the tree branch that Hinata was standing on, "I'm fifteen, my normal age" she tried to hide her blush, being called a lovely stealth woman wasn't something she was used to. "Can it be because of the shards?" Inuyasha asked, Kagome tried to catch the small glass can she used to keep the shards in, she then realized it wasn't on her body anymore, she looked down and saw the glimpse of light from them. Her mind started to work on high speed, the two kids reversed age, the lack of the glass bottle and the appearance of the sand on her body, it all combined into a single conclusion, the shards sent their containers condition a few years back, 15 to 12, glass to sand.

"Is this situation going to reverse itself?" Hinata asked, she could barely open herself to the 15 years old Naruto, and she knew that she probably won't be able to look at the 12 years old version of him, let alone talk to him. "it never happened before, so I don't really know, we can just hope that it'll work out someway"  Kagome said, she looked around, she couldn't spot nor Sango neither Miroku now.

"he looks the same, just like I last saw him…" Sango cried, Miroku dragged her away from the night camp in order to prevent her from making a scene, "you can't just hug him now, if you tell him too much he'll panic and run away, and it's the one thing you should do everything to avoid", Miroku knew exactly what Kohaku meant to Sango, he was her long-lost brother, if his grand goal\ambition in life was to get rid of the air void in his hand, then Sango's one would be to get Kohaku back.

"What's the planning for now? Just to travel and do what?" Naruto asked, "we're taking Kagome back to her time for a few days, and then we continue the search for Naroku and the shards" Inuyasha said, the night of the full moon was near, and he hated having people near him at that time, he knew that Kagome will stay at her time for a day or two and then comeback, and he believed that Miroku would use the time off to hit on every girl he sees and that Sango will either accompany him or go back to her village, and Shippo would just take the time and annoy the village people. Life used to be simple for the Hanyu Inuyasha, but now he had no idea what will happen with the new comrades in there quest for the shards and revenge against Naraku.

The rest of the night passed without interference, but when the noon came so did the troubles. "why did you stop?" Hinata asked, "Youkais, not too strong, but quite a bunch, you three should stay out of this fight, but if you're going to be hanging with us, then you'll need to get used to them" Inuyasha answered, he decided to think about Kohaku as an outsider for the time being, and Sango seemed to do the same. "youkais? You mean like demons and monsters? There's no way I'm keeping out of this, I'll show them who they're dealing with" Naruto shouted. Kagome looked at him with disbelief, she had a hard time believing that he was Inuyashas dad, but her line of thought was cut when the first demon made his appearance, she pulled the string of her bow and watched it dissolve to ashes. "Wow that was cool!" Naruto shouted again, his hand started to shake from anticipation.

"That was quick" Miroku stated, he never believed that three humans that haven't reach puberty yet could be so skilled in the art of killing, the three shinbies worked as a team together, even against the large demons they stayed cold and organized, Kohaku was silent as usual, his scythe cut through the demons as anticipated from a demon exterminator, Hinata should some signs of losing her self confident but she got it all back when she looked at Naruto, which danced loudly between the youkais, even if he was loud and tried to hog the spotlight, he was moving silently between his targets, and hit them with amazing accuracy. The three looked like they were capable of handling all the youkais by themselves until the acid spitting lizard appeared, Naruto almost lost his hand when he tried to attack, they were saved by Inuyasha claws at the end.

"I guess you need I weapon" Sango said and handed Naruto her sword, she sneaked a look at Kohaku, he was cleaning the scythe from blood at that moment, it reminded her of all the times he hurt himself while training, now he didn't even have a trace of blood on him, she felt as if she missed his whole process of growing up.

"It doesn't feel like metal, what is this sword made of?" Naruto asked.

"it's made of a frost fox claw, it isn't as strong as the tetsuiga but it can handle most youkais" Sango answered.

"fox claw? How fitting" Naruto whispered to himself, if he wasn't the victim he would laugh, the mark of the Kyubi just followed him around.

Well, the story is starting to revel itself, isn't it? the two next chapters will be an insight into the relationships of everybody, I still need help with ideas for the main plot, cuz I'm trying to do something which isn't "Naraku kidnaps X\ Does something evil" and I'm trying to keep this as un-marrysuse-ish as possible (damn, I must have spelled it wrong!), the Sesshomaru Naruto meeting wasn't written yet, it turned out to be quite a difficult part.

Well, Vash the Stampede reviewed after I uploaded chap2 but before it was shown, so I didn't get the chance to thank him 4 his review, so I'll use this space to do it… thanks!