Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, although I wish I did…*plays with his puppy ears*

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Key:

~*~*~*~ = scene change

~~~~~~~ = same scene, time passed

"Example" = spoken words

'Example' = thoughts

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Chapter 3: Confrontation

The entire group was shocked. About ten feet before them on the path was a female inu-hanyou, who had just referred to Inuyasha as her brother. Kagome was about to ask Inuyasha what the hell was going on, until she heard him speak in a very soft, questioning voice.

"Sister?"

'Did he just call her sister? I guess that answers my question.' Kagome thought. The girl was an inu-hanyou, there was no doubt about that from the start. The pointed dog ears on her head were a dead give away. However, as Kagome looked more closely at the girl standing in front of them all of her doubts about her being Inuyasha's sister were put to rest. The hanyou looked exactly like Inuyasha. She had the same ears, the same eyes, the same face, the same hair. The only differences were that her features were obviously feminine, and her hair reached down to her knees.

"Keh, who else but your twin sister looks exactly like you, baka."

And she also seemed to have Inuyasha's charming personality.

Kagome was then jolted from her thoughts.

"Inuyasha, she's the one who has the four Shikon shards that I was sensing!" she exclaimed.

"Nani? But how…" Inuyasha didn't even have time to finish his question, as he found himself grabbing onto Kagome as dodged to the right, keeping them both out of the reach of Inukigo's razor sharp claws. He was shocked, to say the least. His own sister had just took a swipe at him, and he could tell from the force with which her hand hit the ground where he was standing just moments before, that she had meant to do him serious physical harm, if not kill him. 'No way, she couldn't have been trying to do that. Could she?' he thought to himself as recovered from his jump. He let Kagome go beside him, not once taking his eyes off Inukigo as he gazed at her warily.

"Inuyasha," Kagome said quietly, "what's going on? Isn't she you're sister? Why is she attacking you?"

"I have no idea. But I do intend to get to the bottom of this. Stay here. She might hurt you if you get in the way." he replied, but not once looking away from his sister, who by now was crouching in preparation to attack him again.

"Hai." 'This is so confusing. If she's really Inuyasha's sister, why would she be attacking him? I don't know for sure, but it seemed as if she really wanted to hit him with that last strike.' Kagome thought to herself.

"Inukigo! What's going on, and why the hell are you attacking me?" Inuyasha questioned, very eager to get some sort of explanation out of the sister he hadn't seen in 51 years.

"What's the matter, didn't think that I would be able to come after you so soon?"

"Huh?" was everyone's response.

"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha asked.

He was then forced to quickly un-sheath Tetsusaiga to shield himself as Inukigo jumped at him, too fast for him to avoid, with her claws slashing.

"Don't. play. dumb. with. me. you. traitorous. bastard!" Inukigo yelled at him angrily between swipes.

"Traitor? What's going on Inukigo? I've never betrayed you!" Inuyasha yelled back as he put his weight behind the Tetsusaiga and used it to forcefully throw Inukigo away from him. She quickly righted herself, landing only a few feet away, ready to strike again.

Only a short distance away, Naraku was hiding in the shadows, watching as the confrontation between the twin hanyous took place. 'This is going very well. Inuyasha will surely not attack his own sister. And thanks to my influence and the Shikon shards that I gave her, Inukigo is acting on her amplified feelings of betrayal and anger, causing her to feel hate and attack Inuyasha in a way that she would never have been able to before. At this rate, Inuyasha will be dead by his sister's hand, and I'll easily be able to control Inukigo's mind with the Shikon shards then. I can have her kill Inuyasha's friends and steal the rest of the shards from them easily.' He smirked evilly, proud at himself for coming up with such a devious plan. He was then snapped out of his thoughts as Inu and Inuyasha began talking again, and happily turned his attention back to the fight playing out in front of him.

"Oh really? And I suppose the things you said to me last night don't count as betrayal?"

"Nani? I never said anything to you last night, I haven't seen you in 51 years!"

"Don't bother lying to me Inuyasha, I'll make you pay for everything that I've endured over the past 51 years because of you!!"

"Inuyasha, what in the world is she talking about?" Kagome asked.

"I have no idea Kagome. Ooi, Inukigo! I'm not lying, and what do you mean 'what you've endured because of me.' What happened to you in the past 51 years that was so horrible?"

Inukigo smirked and took a step closer. "Do you really want to know? I guess that I could tell you. But first I have a question for you, brother. In the 50 years that you were sealed to that tree, did you have any nightmares?"

"Nightmares? No, there was nothing but darkness everywhere. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Hmm…no nightmares huh? I guess that I just wasn't as lucky as you were. I didn't get the luxury of peaceful sleep for 51 years, that's for sure."

"Nani?! Don't tell me that…you were sealed away too Inukigo."

"Yes, Inuyasha, I too was sealed to a tree for 51 years. And every minute, of every day for those 51 years I had to endure one particular nightmare. And do you know what that nightmare was? It was the day that you were sealed, when I found you pinned against that tree with an arrow in your heart. I thought that you were dead, stolen from me. And I have been reliving those feelings ever since in my nightmares."

The hot, stinging tears that had threatened to fall the night before while she was still pinned to the tree were back in Inukigo's eyes, but she willed them back, still refusing to let them fall.

"Oh my gosh, that's horrible. What an awful thing that must have been to keep experiencing over and over again." said Kagome sympathetically.

"Really? You think so? Don't sympathize with me miko. It's highly unlikely that you have ever experienced what I have, or ever will for that matter." Inukigo spat out coldly. 'She looks like Kikyou, but it's definitely not her. Lucky for her that I have no business with her then.' Inukigo thought to herself as she regarded Kagome.

"Inukigo, that's enough!! Leave Kagome out of this. I want to know, why the hell were you sealed 51 years ago?!" Inuyasha shouted.

"Forget it Inuyasha! I'm not going to bother explaining it to you. It won't do you any good to know anyway, because you're about to die!" Inukigo yelled as she again began to lash out at her brother.

Inuyasha was having a hard time blocking Inukigo's strikes. Unfortunately for him, her female frame made her a lot less bulky than him, allowing her to be faster and more agile. She was almost as strong as him to begin with, and now she had four Shikon shards along with the pure rage that she was fighting with, more than making up for the small difference in physical power.

'What am I supposed to do? I can't keep fighting Inukigo like this.' Inuyasha thought. Then a plan came to mind. If he could some how manage to restrain her, he might be able to calm her down just enough to figure out the reason she had come to think that he had betrayed her. But he would need the other's help. Keeping his eyes on Inukigo, he proceeded to jump to Kagome's side and quickly explain his plan to her.

"Ok, Kagome here's the plan. Me, you, Sango, and Kirara are going to distract Inukigo, but not hurt her, long enough for Miroku to get some restraining ofudas around her wrists and ankles so I can talk to her. Got it?" Inuyasha asked. Kagome nodded her head. "Good. Now, you go tell the others the plan while I keep her busy." With that Inuyasha ran off towards his sister.

Kagome made it to the others and was explaining the plan as quickly as she could, when she was interrupted by a pain-filled scream. 'Oh no, that was Inuyasha!' she screamed mentally as she turned around. She was right, it had been Inuyasha. "Inuyasha!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Kagome, stay there!!" Inuyasha yelled back at her from his place on the ground. Much to his surprise, Inukigo had managed to get a hit in, and a good one at that. She had almost shoved her hand completely through his stomach, and now she was standing over him, her right hand dripping with his blood. She then began to raise her hand, preparing to strike a fatal blow. He looked up at her, and for the first time since he couldn't remember how long, he feared for his life. His own sister was actually going to kill him.

Then Inukigo began to lunge forward, aiming for her brother's heart. As she was barrelling down on him she looked at his face and locked her eyes with his. And then she froze, wide-eyed, with her claws just an inch away from his chest. 'Fear? He's afraid of me? Why is he afraid?' she thought to herself. She then looked at the hand poised over Inuyasha heart and was horrified by the sight of his blood on her hand.

"Inukigo?"

Inuyasha's voice saying her name snapped her back to reality and she sat back on her knees. She just sat there, still staring unblinking at her hand. She had hurt Inuyasha. She had hurt her brother. What had she become?

Inuyasha breathed a sigh of relief when Inukigo backed away from him. He slowly sat up, half because he didn't want to startle her, half because he had a rather large gaping wound in his stomach. He looked at her warily, still dumbstruck as to what had happened. 'What made her stop?' he wondered.

"Inukigo?" he said again, softly, hoping to catch her attention, "Daijoubou ka?"

Inukigo shifted her gaze from her hand to his face, locking onto his eyes again. She looked at him questioningly. 'He looks so worried about me. After what I did to him, and what I was about to do, he's still worried about me?' Tears started to well in her eyes, and she threw herself at Inuyasha's chest, grabbing onto his haori. She didn't try to stop herself from crying, she knew that it was pointless.

Inuyasha was a little shocked at seeing his sister's face flying into his chest, but was quick to recover from it and wrapped his arms around her tightly. 'This is the same as when

Mother died.' he thought to himself. 'We were only seven then. She cried so hard and I held her just like this.'

"Inukigo?" he said, trying to get her to look up at him. He was disappointed when she refused to meet his gaze, but then he heard her voice, muffled by his haori.

"Inuyasha, gomen nasai. I-I don't know what I was doing. I was angry with you, but it got out of control. I was so overcome with rage that I lost myself in it. I couldn't stop. I…" Inuyasha cut her off with a soothing 'shhh'.

"Inukigo, it's ok. Don't worry about it alright." he then turned his head to see his friends walking towards them. Kagome knelt down behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Inuyasha, are the both of you ok? Is everything over now?" she asked.

"Aa." he replied.

"Good. I think that I should probably take the Shikon shards out of her body now before they cause any more problems."

"That's a good idea. Inukigo, can you sit back for a minute and let Kagome take out the shards?"

Inukigo nodded into his chest, her sobbing pretty much gone, then leaned back from him and turned to face Kagome. Kagome proceeded to take the shards from Inukigo's neck and forehead, but ran into difficulty with the two in her shoulders. She moved to untie the front of Inukigo's top, turning to Sango as she did, giving her a familiar look. Sango caught on and in an instant one hentai monk was lying unconscious on the ground. Kagome didn't bother to look at Inuyasha, since she knew that he would turn away out of respect for his sister. After she had removed the shards in Inukigo's shoulders Kagome quickly pulled the girl's shirt back up and tied it. Just as she finished, Inukigo started to feel drained from the loss of the power of the Shikon shards, and slipped into unconsciousness, gently falling forward onto Kagome. Inuyasha became alarmed when his sister collapsed, but Kagome shushed and reassured him that she had fallen asleep from exhaustion. Inuyasha breathed a sigh of relief and carefully lifted Inukigo off of Kagome. Then, with Kagome's help, he managed to manoeuvre her onto his back.

"C'mon. We're going to go look for a safe place to camp." he announced.

No one argued with him, and they all set off to find a place where they could rest and find out exactly what had happened that day.

Still in the shadows, Naraku was seething with anger. They had ruined his plan and gotten four of his Shikon shards. Keeping in mind that he still had to hide his scent and youki from the group that was walking away from him, he calmed himself. He would come up with something else, and make them pay for being such a nuisance to him.