Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. I wish... oh, well I like doing the fanfics, anyway.
Author Notes: Thankyou all for the reviews and the support...I'm glad you like. Sorry, it took so long to add to it. I was busy with the other story, A Second Chance at Love, that popped in my head at 4 a.m (of all times, to have an inspiration!!*_*). Not to mention, work and school. My last year!! YAY, Me!! Okay, on with the story...
Author Note: There is one flashback, thats from Breath in the Pages by profiler120. If you haven't read it, I recommend it completely. Its a great read. Also, this Chapter begins with the end of Ch.3 but from Inuyasha's P.O.V.
Chapter 4: A 'Nice' Surprise
Inuyasha had smelled her scent on the air. It was a mixture of sakura blossoms, and her own f eminine scent. It was coming from the direction of the well was at. He knew it had to be her... but how? The well was broke, for lack of a better word, so how could this be, he thought to himself as he took off in the direction of the well.
Inuyasha slowed down when the well was coming into sight. He came to an abrupt halt when he saw the girl sitting on the edge of the well. Who was she? She smelled like his Kagome but she didn't look like her, at least not from the back.
For instance, she was taller and her hair was all wrong he thought to himself. It was the same blue-black color as Kagome's, but it was much longer, all the way down to her waist in fact. He noticed that the ends of her hair were almost lying atop the edge off the well behind her back. The power he sensed off this girl was very high as well, yet he could fell Kagome's aura. He also could sense the shikon jewel, but it was so mixed in with her aura, that if he hadn't known the shikon jewels power already he would have mistaken it for just her. Was she another incarnation? Kami-sama, he hoped not.
He didn't think he could handle it. If it was, it seemed each incarnation was stronger then the one before, which would make this girl very strong, he thought remembering Kagome's power level. Kagome couldn't be dead though, it had only been two years since that fateful battle. Unless time moved different in her time, but he doubted that, it was the future world, not some other world. Inuyasha didn't think the girl had enemies in her time. No, everyone seemed to love Kagome alot, everyone.
There was only one way to find out. Inuyasha took a couple of steps closer to the girl sitting on the well. 'Doesn't she sense me? Why doesn't she turn around?' he asked himself. Then he called out to the girl.
"Kagome?"
He watched the girl jump and turn around at the sound of his voice. He noted, that she looked like Kagome. That didn't mean anything though. He remembered when he met Kagome and he thought she was Kikyo because she'd looked like her. He wasn't about to make that mistake again. Least he knew she wasn't Kikyo, she was dead. Whether she was in Hell or somewhere else, he didn't know and didn't really want to know. He wanted to see Kagome, but the well was broke. She was looking at him with the strangest look in her eyes... like she was seeing a ghost. Not quite scared, but more like a mixture of shock, and disbelief. Why didn't she say something? He tilted his head to the left in wonder as he asked his question again.
"Kagome... it is you, isn't it?"
He watched the familiar face go pale.
"Kagome? You smell like Kagome. Even after all this time, but how did you get here? The Bone Eaters Well is broke," he asked the pale girl in front of him. He stared at the silent girl. Her mouth kept opening and closing, but nothing was coming out. Lord this was a one-sided conversation and irritating. He was getting angry. Widening his eyes he yelled, "WHATS WRONG WITH YOU. WHY ARE YOU STARING AT ME LIKE THAT?"
"Inu...yasha?
At that he realized it was Kagome. He watched her eye's go wide with shock. Then before he knew it, they rolled back into the back of her head. He watched in disbelief as Kagome's body crumpled to the ground.
"What tha..." he trailed off as he moved forward to make sure she hadn't just died. He grabbed her chin to turn her head to him. Inuyasha lowered his face to hers to see if she still breathed. When he realized she was he picked the girl up in his arms and got to his. He decided he liked her new look as he felt the generous curves of her body against his.
Inuyasha turned and headed back towards the village. Maybe the priestess, Yuki, who took Kaede's place as the village priestess when she died, could help her, he thought as he realized what had happened to the girl.
Inuyasha snorted in disgust as he said aloud to himself, "The Wench actually fainted." He wouldn't have believed it, if hadn't seen it with his own eyes.
************************************
Mirouku was resting beneath a tree when he sensed the hanyou returning to the village. He heard Sango arrive from somewhere behind him. He figured she was finish with her bath at the hot spring. That was quick, he thought to himself. He'd only just left from his spot behind the huge bolder a few minutes ago. He loved that spot, it had a great view of the hot spring. He smiled at his thought as he got to his feet beside the Taijiya.
"It seems Inuyasha has returned," he stated aloud.
"Yes. Who's that in his arms?" asked Sango, not that she expected the houshi to know.
"Hm. I have no idea," responded Mirouku. Then with a grin on his face he continued, "I think I'll go see if Inuyasha could use some help with that."
Sango saw the look on the young Monks face and narrowed her eyes. She knew exactly what that, look meant and she was not about to let the innocent girl get violated while she was, obviously unconscious. And she was unconscious, Sango could tell by the way the girl's head was hanging over Inuyasha's arm.
"I'll go with you." She said with a smile and walked towards the hanyou.
Mirouku's smile broadened as he watched the girl walk away. 'Yeah, she wants me,' he said to himself as he followed behind her. He almost laughed out loud at how good the thought of her wanting him, made him feel. Could this day get any better, he wondered.
Mirouku was still smiling when he joined Inuyasha and Sango in the middle of the village. "Hey, Inuyasha? Who's the lovely... Sango what's wrong?" He'd been staring at Taijiya while he was asking Inuyasha his question, when he saw the girl's face go pale.
"Kagome?" Sango breathed the name. Yet she dared not to hope, she knew it was impossible.
Mirouku finally gave the unconscious girl in Inuyasha's arms his undivided attention when he realized what Sango was saying. Mirouku stared at the familiar face for a while before trailing down the rest of the young girl's body. The body held more curves and the legs were longer. 'From the look of those legs, she has to be as tall as Sango,' he thought to himself. He moved his eyes back up to the girl's head and noted the hair was longer too, but the face... the face was all Kagome. A bit narrower then he remembered but, still it was Kagome's face, but how could she be back here in this time?
"Inuyasha, is that-", he began only to be cut off by the hanyou.
"Of course its Kagome. Who does it look like!" yelled the irritated hanyou.
"But, how?"
"What happened to her?"
Both questions came at the hanyou at once. Inuyasha sighed. He knew he'd have to answer their questions now or he'd never get Kagome to Yuki.
"I don't know how she got here. At first I wasn't even sure it was Kagome. She looked different and her power level has grown alot. I tried to ask her, but she fainted before I could get any answers."
Inuyasha frowned down at the girl in his arms.
"She fainted?" repeated Sango in disbelief.
"Yeah," said Inuyasha mirroring the exterminator's feeling.
"Well, it has been a little over two years. So that would warrant some kind of change. I'm sure we all have changed a little, except for you Inuyasha, since then. As for her fainting, true it is not a Kagome thing to do, but if memory serves me the last time she was here Inuyasha was dead. It was probably seeing him alive that caused such a reaction," explained the Monk eloquently.
"I thought of that myself, but didn't she know I was back?"
"Yeah, Mirouku. After all, wasn't she the one who brought him back?" asked Sango
"I always figured the same thing, but obviously she didn't know if she fainted at the sight of him," replied Mirouku with a shrug. He looked back down at Kagome. "Either she didn't think her wish worked or..." Mirouku trailed off as he lifted his head to look the hanyou in the eyes.
Inuyasha squinted his eyes at the houshi. The Monk was looking at him with a strange expression on his face. He looked at Sango to see if she knew what Mirouku was getting at, but she looked to be as baffled as he was. What the hell was going on, he thought to himself.
"Or what, Mirouku," asked Inuyasha irritatedly.
"Or she isn't the one who brought you back," said the Monk quietly.
**A while later. At Yuki's home**
"Will she be alright Yuki?"
Sango was worried about her friend. She wished the girl would wake up. Sango had many questions for her.
"Yes, she will be fine Sango," replied Yuki. After a moment she continued,"You need not worry, her aura is very strong. I sense great power within her. I also sense the power of the Shikon no Tama, but it is very faint. It's heavily mixed with her own power and aura. This is very strange."
Yuki was puzzled. She remembered the girl from a couple of years ago. She did not interact with the girl much, but she remembered when she'd come. Many of the villagers like to tell the story to there children at bedtime. They called it 'The Story of the Miko From the Future'. It was her daughter, Ayeka's favorite story. The thing that was bothering her was the power. She didn't remember there being so much. There was a lot of power in the girl before, and she knew that power would grow tremendously, but this was more then she imagined. This was more then any miko she knew or ever heard of. Then there was the Shikon no Tama. How come she could sense it, when the jewel had disappeared two years ago? This was very strange indeed and the girl was the only one who could answer any of her questions.
"Hey Mirouku? If Kagome didn't bring Inuyasha back, then who did?"
"That is the question," Mirouku replied quietly.
Everyone was sitting around quietly. All of them lost in there own thoughts and all of those thoughts having to do with the girl lying in the next room.
"Umm..."
They all jumped and looked around at each other when they heard the sound coming from the other room.
"Umm... my head..."
"She is awake," stated Yuki to the room at large.
At that, they all moved simultaneously to get to the waking girl.
**In the other room**
Kagome lifted her hand to her head. Lord, she had a headache. She needed to ask her mother for some aspirin. She blinked her eyes a few times to clear her vision. Where was she? This was not her... room. Kagome gasped, causing a sharp pain to run through her head, with the realization of where she was. 'Oh, yeah... I'm back the feudal era. Did I really see Inuyasha? He's alive?' she asked herself.
"Kagome?"
Kagome turned her head gingerly, as to not cause anymore pain, at the sound of her name. Lord, she was hearing her name called an awful lot these pass few days, she thought. Kagome recognized her friend and smiled.
"Hi, Mirouku Hello, Sango."
"So, it is you. I like your new look. Very becoming, not that I didn't like your other look."
"Shut up Mirouku," said Inuyasha with a frown.
Kagome started at the sound of his voice. Which caused another shot of pain through her head.
"Inuyasha... but, how? I saw you die." Kagome breathed in disbelief. "Did you not die, after all?" She didn't understand.
"Well, I guess that answers our question. She didn't do it," Sango stated emphatically.
"Yes... it does," Mirouku agreed with a nod and continued, "but it leaves one question glaringly open and brings up another: Who did and why?"
"What the hell do you mean 'why'? What the hell are you trying to say Mirouku," yelled Inuyasha angrily.
Mirouku sighed heavily and turned to look at the angry hanyou. He stared at the hanyou for a moment and then nodded in understanding. "What I'm saying is: We always assumed Kagome brought you back for obvious reasons, but now we know she didn't. So, the question is why did, whoever did it, bring you back."
'Who cared about Inuyasha that much to bring him back from the dead. Could have been Kikyo, but she didn't have the shikon jewel... since Kagome has it now. Or it could have been an enemy, but for what purpose?' said the houshi to himself. He was not about to voice his thoughts aloud. They could worry about all that later. First, they worry about Kagome.
Kagome looked back and forth between her two friends trying to understand. It seemed to her that, they thought she was the one who brought Inuyasha back. 'But, I didn't,' she said to herself interrupting her own thoughts. She could tell that the rest of them had figured that out, as well. Perhaps judging from her reaction to seeing Inuyasha, she thought ruefully. And from all accounts, if she understood, they had no idea who brought the hanyou back.
There was only three things that Kagome knew of, that could bring Inuyasha back. One: the witch who brought back Kikyo, but Inuyasha's body was not made of clay, she sensed. Two, and the one she doubted the most, Sesshoumaru and his Tensaiga. And lastly, three: the Shikon no Tama.
She thought back on the time Inuyasha had went to Hell with Kikyo. The shikon jewel had returned to her body. It had lain dormant inside her for a while. Until the moment she used it to make her wish. Her last wish, she'd thought. The wish that would purify the jewel and finally end it all, but that wasn't to be. She'd since then learned that in purifying the jewel, she'd given it new life and destroyed all the turmoil that was going on inside it between Midoriko and the demons. The jewel had later sought her out and now it lay, once again, within her body. This time it was apart of her though and could never be removed.
Kagome brought her hand up to rub her chest above her heart. She could still feel the jewel within her heart. It felt like a quiet tickle with heat to it. It wasn't painful or anything, but she knew the jewel was doing something. She could feel it all through her body, this slight tingling. It was as if the jewel wasn't just fusing with her, but fusing its powers with her soul. It was strange and confusing, but for some reason all she felt was peace. A calmness that was weird in its stillness, as if she knew that whatever the jewel was doing, it would be fine.
Kagome thought of the last wish she'd made. The wish, that sent Inuyasha's older brother, Sesshoumaru home. She missed him when he left. Her heart had grown fond of him in the time that he was with her and her family. She wasn't sure how much her fondness had grown though, because when she was starting to realize it she'd given him the offer of sending him back... and he'd accepted. Kagome thought about that wish in its entirety.
**FLASHBACK**
"I have to... its my fault. I wish to correct a wrong and make it right again. It is an unselfish wish please let me have it." She'd said to Midoriko.
"An unselfish wish, you say? Perhaps you simply want this wish to annul your own guilt. Is that unselfish?"
Kagome hadn't cared. She wanted the wish... she needed it to be right for him. "Maybe you are right, but it does not change my mind. Please."
"You are the chosen one, the only miko that may purify the jewel and cease this useless struggle I am forced to fight. Make your wish if you believe in it whole-heartedly. Drain this jewel of its power and let us all go to our graves in peace."
The miko warrior had been telling her something else then too, but Kagome had not realized at the time. So she'd made her wish... whole-heartedly.
"I wish that Sesshoumaru be returned to his righful time period, with Rin and Jaken. Let his injuries be soothed and most importantly, let this time here with me... be forgotten."
"This wish..." Midoriko replied, her image glittering, "will be granted as you have decreed. Thank you."
**END FLASHBACK**
Kagome sighed at the memory...
"I wish that Sesshoumaru be returned to his righful time period, with Rin and Jaken. Let his injuries be soothed and most importantly, let this time here with me... be forgotten."
That was her wish. Kagome thought these words over in her head. She remembered something Midoriko had said to her recently. Right before she'd jumped down the well in fact.
" Kagome. Be careful of what you wish for. Be sure that your heart and mind are one. For if they're not, the jewel will change your wish to what your heart desires... and still hold true to what you say. When you get there, remember your last wish and you will understand," Midoriko had said to her. Then she was gone.
Kagome thought about these words and about her wish. There was something she was missing. Kagome tuned out the cacophony going on around her, as she thought it through some more.
"Oh my, Kami-sama," Kagome gasped in realization.
Everyone turned to look at her.
"Kagome whats wrong?" asked Inuyasha with worry.
"Sesshoumaru..." she exhaled quietly.
"Sesshoumaru?" repeated Sango. Then went on and asked, "What about Inuyasha's brother?"
"Yeah. What's Sesshoumaru have to do with anything? We haven't even seen him," Inuyasha added in irritation. Could he never get away from his brother, he wondered darkly.
Kagome looked at each one of them, one by one, before returning her eyes to Inuyasha. She knew the hanyou was not going to like what she was about to say. It couldn't be helped though. It had to be said and that was that.
Kagome sighed in resignation at the argument that was going to erupt when she finished saying what she was about to say.
"Sesshoumaru is the one who brought you back."
Then... all hell broke loose.