Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or any of its characters. Suing would be pointless anyway as I'm so broke, I can't afford working speakers for my computer.

Wow, for some reason the italics didn't work for this chapters causing some mass confusion (and by mass, I mean probably the three people who bothered to look at this mess.)  I'm going to use little ~*~*~*~ to offset the flashbacks.  Sorry.

From her seat on Kirara's back, Sango's eyes swept over the forest below them. Miroku sat behind her, his hands for once remaining buried in the cat youkai's thick fur as he too scanned the scenery below. Sango did not know whether to be reassured or worried that they saw no trace of Kagome and Inuyasha. She shuddered unexpectedly as yesterday's events came back to her.

~*~*~*~

Kagome stopped suddenly in the path. It was midmorning and the group had been walking in companionable silence since dawn. Sango stopped too, surprised by her friend's sudden action. Kagome's eyes had gone wide just as she looked up at Sango. The youkai exterminator saw fear written all over the younger woman's face.

"Shikon shards," she said very quietly as her head snapped around to where Inuyasha had just stopped to look back at them. There was a sudden crash from overhead at the exact moment Kagome yelled, "It's Naraku!"

Sango moved mostly on instinct as she grabbed Kagome around the waist and pulled the two of them back away from the main force of the blast. She saw Inuyasha do the same with Shippo, and Miroku stumbled less gracefully out of the way as dark swirls of Naraku's magic swirled over head.

At her side, Kagome was already notching her arrow and taking aim at something within the dark swirls of magic. Although Sango could see nothing to aim at, she was sure Kagome could sense the location of the Shikon shards well enough to aim for them.

The younger woman loosed the arrow quickly and with a white flash it, cut through the Naraku's dark magic. Kagome, however, was no longer watching the path of her arrow, but had turned her head upward. Sango followed her gaze just in time to see a figure wrapped in a white baboon pelt descending towards them.

~*~*~*~

Sango shuddered as she thought of how close his attack had come to slicing the two of them in half. It was only thanks to Inuyasha's extreme speed that they had been saved.

"Are you ok?" Miroku asked from behind her. He could not see the youkai exterminator's face, but he was sure she must look as bad as he felt. Neither of them had gotten much sleep the previous night and after an intense battle with Naraku and his youkai, he felt pretty numb.

"I wish we could find some trace of them," she said softly.

Miroku sighed heavily behind her and Sango immediately knew he, too, was very worried. Only Shippo was not bothered as he sleep heavily just in front of Sango. He must be exhausted, to sleep when Kagome and Inuyasha were in some unknown danger.

"Perhaps," Miroku said after a silent pause, "We should be grateful that Kagome is skilled enough to move so far without being detected. I'm sure she is headed back to Inuyasha's forest. All we can do is keep an eye open and pray they make it on their own." His voice, however, betrayed him with a slight quiver.

There was another moment of silence. Sango closed her eyes briefly with a tired sigh.

~*~*~*~

Sango held her hiraikotsu in one hand, her stance ready at any moment to loose her weapon. However, just as Miroku was prevented from using his air void by the poisonous bees, Sango could not attack as she lacked a target.

She glanced back quickly at Kagome. She stood a few feet behind Sango with one hand raised to cover her mouth. The air was thick with dark magic, making it hard to breathe. Kagome's bow lay on the road perhaps sixty feet back. Naraku had been herding them like cattle, moving Kagome, his only real threat here, away from her weapon.

Sango looked over to Inuyasha, just as he drew Tetsusaiga slowly from its sheath. The transformed blade shimmered dangerously, and Sango recognized the look of concentration on the hanyou's face. He's going to us the Wound of the Winds, she thought. He can cut through Naraku's miasma with that.

Suddenly though, just as he raised the sword, a long tentacle shot out, almost faster than Sango could follow with her eye. Inuyasha, in mid-swing, attempted a futile dodge from his awkward stance as the tentacle snaked around his bare ankle.

"Damn it," he cursed so softly that Sango almost could not hear him. Then he crumpled silently and lay on the ground motionless.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed from behind her, and before Sango could do anything, the girl was running toward the still hanyou. A white aura shimmered around the miko, pushing Naraku's miasma back. When she reached Inuyasha, the tentacle still wrapped around his ankle hastily withdrew from her purifying presence.

"Kagome!" Sango heard Shippo yell from Miroku's shoulder. The small fox kit looked very frightened even to Sango so far away from him.

Kagome glanced down at Inuyasha, but Sango still did not see Inuyasha stir. Kagome looked up fiercely into the dark swirls of magic and yelled, "What did you do?"

The miasma seemed to thin enough that Sango could see the Naraku's silhouette. Without a second thought, she ran forward and used her weight to launch her massive weapon. Sango was experienced enough with Naraku not to be terribly surprised when the weapon snapped back off of his barrier harmlessly and landed several yards to her left.

"Don't be stupid, my dear Sango," he said with a smile that could be heard through his voice. "Tetsusaiga may be capable of cutting through my miasma, but your clumsy over-grown boomerang won't do it."

Sango gripped the hilt of her sword cautiously, waiting for his next move. His voice continued on, although now it was definitely directed towards Kagome.

"Try shaking him; it won't help. Once again, my dear Kikyou gave me a fabulous idea. Now that that annoying hanyou is sealed once more, I won't have to deal with him," Naraku said poisonously. He turned slowly. "I hope you don't mind if I leave it to some friends to entertain you."

~*~*~*~

Sango could only remember seeing such a large host of youkai on few other occasions, but she and Miroku had always been the ones backing up Inuyasha. This time the two of them had almost been overwhelmed.

Now perhaps in retrospect, sending Kagome off with Inuyasha and only a sword to protect them had not been the best idea. However, at the time, when the youkai seemed to have divided their attention so evenly, all Sango could think was that they could not protect Inuyasha and Kagome and try to defeat the swarm around them.

~*~*~*~

"Take this," Sango said quickly shoving her sword into Kagome's belt. She quickly hefted their unconscious friend onto Kagome's back. "Now run! We'll keep them from following you as we are able, but go as fast as you can!"

~*~*~*~

That had been all the exterminator had been able to say to Kagome before she was interrupted by another attacking youkai. She had barely been able to glance her way to see that the girl was indeed escaping.

In the end, the entire thing had proved futile. She and Miroku had been so badly winded after a short period that they too had had to abandon the fight. Sango had barely had time to grab Tetsusaiga from where it had fallen. Now Kagome was even more vulnerable and it was Sango's fault. If they had all just escaped together, they might all be safe.

"Don't blame yourself," Miroku said from behind her. As usual, his ability to read people proved accurate. "If we had tried to run with them, we would have been slowed by Inuyasha, and perhaps we would not have made it. This way at least we were able to cover Kagome's escape."

"What if they're attacked though?" Sango said softly.

"Kagome is more resourceful than even she knows, I'm willing to bet," Miroku said with a smile. ''I'm sure we'll meet up with them back at Kaede's village."

Sango nodded and turned back to forest below, continuing to look for signs of her friends.

A/N: Hurray, another chapter! That didn't take too horribly long. Ok, it was a bit long. Let me know what you think of the story so far and if anything is unclear. Some things, of course, are supposed to be unclear at this point, but others, due to my crappy writing, are not supposed to be confusing. And don't think that this is going to be an Inuyasha-less story; he's definitely playing a more active role in future chapters. It'll be fun, just you wait. Thank you for reading my story!