Another's Name, But My Heart
By Lady of the Ink
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, but you knew that. I hope. But I do own this plot and all the twists that it takes.

General Reminder: All references to Kikyo mean Kagome unless that section is in Kaede, Kagome, or the real Kikyo's POV.

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Chapter Ten

No More Drama

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Sesshomaru had quickly tired of the small castle and the scent of humans that permeated it. While the pitiful dwelling was perfect for his half-breed brother, it was far beneath what he, a powerful full demon, deserved. When Inuyasha vanished soon after his new human wife fled the room, he wasted no time in removing himself from the offensive surroundings.

Since the nearby courtyards were just as bad as inside, he turned himself towards the thick stand of trees off to the left. It was the beginning of the dividing forest between the human village and the Western Lands. He was soon surrounded by the fresh scent of nature and nothing else, proving that this was an area the villagers obviously avoided. It was probably the only evidence of wisdom he had seen them display yet.

Although there was something of an uneasy truce between the two areas, demons had been known to cross the unofficial divider and make a meal of the unsuspecting travelers who ventured too near. Every time it happened, there was the threat of a battle and action had to be taken by both sides to prevent it.

It was one of the biggest factors that had his father pushing Inuyasha into his marriage with the human woman. There had been other reasons, of course, but Sesshomaru wasn't going to waste his time dwelling on them. His father's request might keep him near his brother for the next several days, but that didn't mean he needed to spend all his time thinking about the worthless hanyou.

He moved around the base of a particularly old tree and paused. His brow furrowed just the slightest bit as he raised his chin several inches. For a moment, he remained exactly as he was, judging something that had drifted to him on the slight breeze. There was a scent there, so faint one of lesser ability might not have picked up on it.

Human.

He could smell a human.

Sesshomaru took a few steps and the odor intensified. It wasn't curiosity that moved him forward, he told himself. No mere human could inspire such a thing in him. It was merely a diversion, something somewhat less wearisome than the other options open to him at the moment.

The smell became the strongest in a small meadow hidden within the trees. Flowers bloomed in profusion, adding their fragrance into the mix. Whoever it was that dared live in the forest did so alone. There was only one scent layered on the air, proving that the human had come and gone many times in the past. The newest layer was only hours old, its freshness allowing him to tell that that it was a young female.

A moment passed as Sesshomaru questioned why such a person would be living alone in the forest. Did she have no family? Had she been abandoned?

Realizing what he was doing, Sesshomaru quickly called a halt to his wayward thoughts. Turning on his heel, he made his way back through the trees the way he had come. He was leaving because he was uninterested in the little amusement his discovery could offer. It had nothing to do with the knowledge that since the nameless, faceless human had already visited the meadow once, she would be unlikely to return that day.

And that wasn't disappointment he felt, either.

x

Inuyasha paced restlessly in the courtyard, his hands locked together behind his back and his eyes trained on the ground. His mind was running over Miroku's advice and still not liking it much. As he stalked, he argued with himself about whether or not he should give it a try.

On one hand, there was no real reason not to; whether he liked it or not, this marriage wasn't something he could just toss aside. It was only logical that a little effort would be needed to make such a union between strangers work. With nothing risked, there could be no reward.

On the other hand, he wasn't sure he could take spending a lot of time alone with Kikyo. Her eccentricities aside, his own reactions to her would make it a volatile meeting. She had managed to raise more emotion from him in a few brief encounters than many others had after years of trying.

He paused briefly in his pacing as he heard light footsteps approaching him. The wind shifted, bringing him the scent of the very person who had just inhabited his thoughts. Without looking up, he resumed his pacing, hoping she would take the hint and leave until he felt more prepared to deal with her.

She didn't, instead coming to a stop just a few feet away. The scent of the kitsune whelp his father had sent along clung to her, annoying him. He had heard them talking in the parlor as he passed it, seemingly having become fast friends. Why was it so easy for her to be open with the runt when she practically fainted whenever he was near?

Since she wasn't going away, Inuyasha knew he would have to face her, ready or not. Finally coming to a stop, he turned. She shifted slightly when he met her eyes, giving him the impression that she would have liked to step back. She stopped herself in time, hiking up her chin and returning his look. He silently questioned which tact she would take when she finally chose to talk.

"Inuyasha, I was wondering if you had a moment?"

Politeness, he thought. A safe move on her part. "What?" he snapped, deciding not to go easy on her. If he was going to have to spend time with her, it was better that she got used to his moods right from the start. No way was he going to tiptoe around to avoid hurting her feelings or scaring her off.

She swallowed hard, a sound that his ears easily picked up. She took a deep breath before a clearly rehearsed speech poured from her lips. "I don't know why your father sent Shippo here and neither does he. He said that you hadn't been expecting him so I can only assume that you don't have some specific task in mind for him yet. If it's not too much trouble, I was hoping that maybe you could spare him to be a sort of . . .companion to me?" Kikyo winced, apparently at the note of pleading that entered her voice at the end of request. She closed her eyes as though bracing for a quick refusal or argument.

Inuyasha found himself almost taken aback. Was she so lonely that even that whelp seemed like good company? The thought so unsettled him that he found himself actually reconsidering Miroku's advice. A little time with her here and there wouldn't be so bad, and it might help get their relationship to a more settled place.

But that wasn't the point of the moment. Putting the priest's words aside for more thought later, he quickly weighed her appeal. She had a point; he hadn't been expecting the cub and so he didn't know what to do with him.

Now that she had brought it up, however, Inuyasha found himself thinking that the whelp might actually come in handy. Miroku had said to speak with the people she spent a lot of time with. So far he had only seen her with her crone of an aunt. Since he highly doubted he'd get anything useful from her, maybe the best solution was to add in a new variable in the form of a young kitsune. She would get a new friend, and he'd have someone he could grill for answers when the time came.

Pleased with his solution, Inuyasha returned his attention to Kikyo. She was still nervous, as her clenching hands and the film of sweat dotting her brow clearly showed. But she met his eyes with a resolve that he couldn't help but admire. Giving a sharp nod of his head, he delivered his answer. "I don't have any other plans for the brat yet, so I guess it would be fine. But if I need him somewhere else, don't try to cry and change my mind, got it?"

"Got it." Kikyo agreed happily, a brilliant smile spreading across her face. She was obviously elated at the quick yes. "Thank you!" Apparently deciding to go before he changed his mind, she spun on her heel and vanished back into the hall. Inuyasha remained unmoving where she had left him for a long moment, several things running through his mind. The most prominent item was her attitude. He had just caught another glimpse of the sweet, caring side she had shown while tending his wound. Was that her true personality? Surprisingly enough, he found himself thinking that if it were, he wouldn't mind this marriage as much as he had before.

x

Sango made her way down the narrow path with her equipment strapped securely to her back. Although her body stung and throbbed from numerous cuts and bruises, she maintained a vigorous pace. The job she had just completed had kept her from home for almost two weeks and she was more than a little anxious to return. It was more than mere homesickness that had her quickening her steps, though. The events of the past several days had instilled a sense of foreboding in heart that she was hard pressed to ignore.

Soon after leaving the site of her task, Sango had run across a string of lower level demons that had made it a point to attack her. None had been particularly powerful and so she had defeated them all fairly easily, but something about the fights raised warning bells in the back of her mind. It was after the fifth such ambush that she began wondering if winning had never been their purpose at all. It was almost like they were sacrificing themselves to delay her return.

She spent several miles trying to convince herself that it was nothing more than overactive instincts that caused her to think something was wrong. A large part of her training had been to expect the unexpected and constantly be on guard. It stood to reason that she would occasionally see a threat where none really existed.

Even with all her self-directed arguments, her mind continued to play out the worst possible scenarios. It wasn't her own safety she feared for; she could hold her own in most any fight. But Kohaku, home alone, could boast no such skill. He was a gentle soul, never really taking to the training their father had tried to pass on to him. She knew he hated hurting any living thing, demon or not, and so she had allowed him to stay home while she took the jobs that kept them fed and clothed. He was happy, and she was happy.

But now she just kept thinking that Kohaku was all she had left in the world. It would be more than she could bear if something were to happen to him. Was it possible that someone who wanted to hurt would know that and target him?

A shiver darted up her spine and she lengthened her strides once more. All in her head or not, Sango knew her worries wouldn't be laid to rest until she saw for herself that Kohaku was as healthy and safe as when she had left him. Once her fears had been disproved, she would be able to settle in for a nice break. This last job had paid well, surprisingly well. With the extra money they would be free to do some relaxing, maybe hike to the lake their father used to take them to visit when they were young. Some fishing and swimming would be a nice change from all the traveling and demon exterminating.

She had managed to calm herself a little with pleasant thoughts like that by the time she turned the last corner towards home late in the afternoon. As the hut that she and Kohaku shared came into sight looking exactly the way it had when she'd left, a small part of her relaxed. The cozy building stood on its own, although the village was only a few hundred feet away, over a small rise. It was a small precaution to ensure the villagers' safety should some vengeful demon find its way to her door. The distance wasn't much, but it was enough that, should the alarm be raised, the villagers would have some warning and opportunity to flee to safety.

"Kohaku! I'm home!" she called as she dropped her bundles by the door. They would remain there until she had time to see everything meticulously cleaned and stored in its proper place.

Sango stepped into the dim interior of the hut but was stopped almost immediately when her knee slammed into something that was blocking her path. Dark as it was, she knew the layout of the hut like the back of her hand. The path she had taken should have been clear.

Something was very wrong.

Her earlier premonition returned with a vengeance and she leapt to the nearest window, wincing as something crunched underfoot. She grabbed the shade and pulled, ripping it completely from the wall. Dim rays from the setting sun filtered inside, illuminating dust motes and something much, much worse.

The table lay on the floor in several chunks, its pieces mixing with bits of shelves that had been pulled from the wall and smashed. Shards of dishes lay in small piles, the source of the crunching from moments before. Everything was covered with a fine film of flour from the now destroyed bag lying in a heap in the corner.

The moment seemed to stretch into an eternity as Sango's eyes swept over the destruction of her home. All the heat evaporated from her body, leaving her like a block of ice, unmoving.

The moment passed as quickly as it had come, releasing her all too swiftly from its numbness into a world of chest-tightening, breath-stealing fear. "Kohaku! Kohaku!" she screamed, knowing somehow as she did that there would be no answer.

It took only seconds of frantic searching to see that the house was empty. Kohaku was nowhere to be found. What she did find made the situation even more nightmarish. In the fading light, she made out signs of a struggle near the door. The floor was scuffed and on one side of the jamb was a streak of blood, as though something had brushed against it . . .or been rammed into it. The fact that it was at the same height as Kohaku's head was an upsetting detail that she didn't fail to notice.

The scream of anguish that poured from her felt as though it were being tore from her throat, its rough edged scrapping and burning as it went. Sango dropped to her knees, mindless of the debris poking harshly into her flesh. She wrapped her arms as tightly around herself as she could, she sobbed into the silent room.

Time passed before she was able to pull herself together enough to remember who and what she was. As the best demon exterminator around, there was almost no prey she couldn't track down. She wouldn't rest until she found the man or beast responsible for her brother's disappearance.

Shoving her pain aside was the hardest thing Sango had ever had to do, but she managed it. She knew she'd need a calm, clear mind to do what needed to be done. Since full dark had fallen, she knew she wasn't going to be able to start hunting until the sun came up again. That left an entire night to make it through, and she wasn't going to waste it. Lighting every lamp in the room, she began carefully searching for any clues Kohaku's attacker might have left behind.

Even though she knew agitation would only cause her to miss something vital, she couldn't help feeling a flash of mixed pain and anger when she found more blood under the mess on the floor. Firmly pushing the emotions aside, she continued her work. Until she had all the information she could gather, she would need to treat this like any other job. Personal feelings would have to wait.

Her methodical searching turned up not one but two pieces of evidence. On one of the larger chunks that had formerly been her table was a clear impression of four clawed fingers. The deep gouges they had left behind were almost an inch deep, clearing demonstrating the strength of the hand to which they belonged. Her expert eyes quickly noted the spacing between the marks, categorizing the demon as one with a human or near human form.

The second clue she found was so inconspicuous that she almost missed it. During a moment when her professionalism began to fail her, Sango's eyes drifted back to the streak of blood on the doorway. It was then that she noticed the hair snagged higher on the frame. Long and silver, it certainly hadn't come from her or her equally dark-haired brother.

The sun rose the next morning to find her equipment cleaned and her pack fully stocked for a long journey. Her weapons had been sharpened with the knowledge that she intended to use them soon. As she began looking for the enemy's trail, she made a promise to herself.

She wouldn't rest until she found out what had happened to her brother.