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.

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Chapter Thirty

Day Before the War

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Kikyo paced the width of her small room with short, clipped steps. Her arms hung at her sides, her hands fisted so tightly that her knuckles had gone white. She kicked her skirts with every stride, the strength behind the blows resulting in a quiet thudding noise.

While anyone looking in would have thought her the picture of stressed annoyance, that image couldn't have been farther from the truth. She had just received a visit from her captor that allowed her to determine that everything was going according to the plan. As she had thought, his determination to find her and bring her back had been merely the first step of his attempts to solidify his claim. He had told her about the wedding himself, making it clear that she was to be given no choice in the matter.

Little did he know that he was playing right into her hands.

When the demon exterminator had turned down her offer for a job, she had been forced to pursue other avenues. Meeting up with Naraku had been a most opportune occurrence. It had been his plan to attack the brother and implicate the hanyou for it. He had seen it carried out perfectly, right down to the last detail, obtaining the desired result in far less time than it would have taken her alone. He had also been the one to warn her that Inuyasha had sent his best scouts to find her and take her back. That's when he had proposed another plan.

Even with his earlier successes, she had been leery when she'd learned the first step was to allow herself to get caught. His calm explanation had been enough to convince her that she had nothing to fear. She would be in the animal's clutches for no longer than was absolutely necessary. Her short time of sacrifice and suffering would quickly be repaid with the elimination of her adversary and the restoration of her position and power.

Her doubts had returned once more at his use of the word marriage. The very thought of being so near the silver haired fiend as would be necessary made her stomach turn and her anger flare. It had taken Naraku considerably longer to gain her acceptance of that. In the end, the benefits outweighed the faults and she had agreed to go along with his scheme.

Every detail had been finalized just before her "capture". Since she was secluded from everyone except Inuyasha and the guard who brought her meals, she had no means of knowing if the other stages were being carried out. She was looking forward to the time when her waiting was over and the time for her to take action arrived. For the moment, she had to be content with going over the timetable she had memorized and hoping each step was being carried out without a problem.

Her pacing slowed to a stop and a cold smile came to her lips. In just a few short hours, it would all be over. The visit she had just received from Inuyasha had filled her with an anticipatory sense of delight. His declaration that the wedding would be held just after dawn the next day was exactly what she had been waiting to hear. It was the action that would set everything into motion.

Her time was fast approaching.

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Sango sat at Kohaku's bedside, his small, bruised hand held between both of her own. It was the position she always took upon her arrival, and on this day, she had yet to move an inch. Her concentration was turned inward, her thoughts focused on Miroku's earlier tale and the questions it had raised within her own mind. Was it possible that Kikyo had been the woman who had attempted to hire her? If so, had she been the one behind the attack on Kohaku? Both were entirely possible, since the second accomplished what the first had not, maneuvering everyone into the desired positions.

Looking down at her little brother's battered face, Sango felt a burning wave of anger swell in her chest. Kohaku had never committed an unkind act in his short life. It had been easy to see early on that his gentle nature would preclude him from taking part in the family business. The knowledge that someone had taken advantage of that to further their own cause infuriated her. She knew that if the time ever came when she could get her hands on them, there would be hell to pay.

Forcing herself to take a calming breath, Sango focused on the more immediate events. It was now clear to her that Inuyasha was not the one to assault Kohaku. Too many people had confirmed his whereabouts for the time in question. Unless he could somehow manage to be in two places at once, he simply couldn't be the one responsible. Even without the word of Miroku and the others he had asked, she could no longer see Inuyasha as capable of such a crime. It had less to do with anything he himself had done than it did with Kagome's staunch defense of his character. Something in the other girl's words had just rung too true to ignore.

Kagome. Sango felt truly bad for her, knowing what she did. She had been taken advantage of in the lowest possible way, put into a situation that she had no choice but to agree to for the sake of her family's well being. But even knowing how much she had to lose, Kagome had obviously developed strong feelings for the resident hanyou. And, if Miroku were to be believed, Inuyasha had returned those feelings.

The crime against her own family aside, Kikyo was certainly guilty of other sins. Falling in love should be a special thing, but she had turned it into a situation to be mourned rather than celebrated. Knowing what she did, she could almost understand Inuyasha's reaction. Not only had he been fooled and had everything he had gained put into jeopardy, but he'd suffered a blow to the heart in the process. Being the kind of person that he was, he'd decided to deal with it by denying that such feelings had ever existed.

The news that his wedding to Kikyo would be in the morning had come to her straight from his own lips. The comment had been directed towards Kaede, who was sitting with her as usual. Inuyasha had burst into the room, pointing a finger in the old woman's direction. "The wedding's tomorrow at dawn. Get it ready." He had stomped from the room without another word.

Kaede had excused herself to do his bidding, looking none too happy about it. Sango shook her head. Everyone around him could see the mistake that he was making by marrying Kikyo, but he refused to be swayed. He saw it as the only way to get what he wanted and maintain his dignity. The only question was whether or not he'd find the price he'd paid too high in the end.

A small noise reached her ears, drawing her attention from her thoughts and onto Kohaku. As she watched, his brow furrowed. A moment later, his eyelashes fluttered and his eyes drifted open. Sango kept her gaze locked on his face and fought to avoid getting her hopes up. While he had woken like this before, he had yet to manage anything more than a few simple words. Her many questions about the day of his attack had had to be put on hold until he had regained a bit more of his strength.

"Water," he mumbled thickly. Sango quickly turned to the pitcher resting at her elbow and poured the liquid into a cup. With an arm beneath his neck to support his head, she raised the cup to Kohaku's lips. Swallowing thirstily, he managed to down half the glass before stopping. He fell back onto the pillow, panting slightly from the exertion.

"Thank you," he managed moments later, turning his eyes up to her face. A smile curved his lips when he saw who had helped him. "Sango!"

Sango smiled back, brushing his hair off his forehead with a gentle hand. "Hey there. Feeling better?" she asked, just as she had every other day. Normally she received a slight nod before his eyes would drift shut and he'd fall back to sleep. Today, she got an actual answer.

"Everything hurts, but not so much as before. What happened to me?"

Sango felt her eyes widen at his continued conversation. Though his voice was hoarse and his speech a bit halting, it was still a far cry from the single word answers of even just the day before. Struggling to hide her happiness, she replied as calmly as she could manage under the circumstances. "I was kind of hoping that you could tell me."

Kohaku frowned, obviously thinking back. "I remember you leaving . . .for a job in another village. You said you'd be back in about a week. A couple of days after that . . .I can't remember exactly when . . .someone came to the house, asking about how to hire you. They wanted to know how good you were, how long it took . . .for each job, when you'd be back. I told them you were the best." He smiled again, momentarily lightening the dark cloud that had settled on his face. "I turned around for something and the next thing I knew . . .I was flying across the room." He grimaced. "It's strange . . ."

"What's strange?"

"While he was attacking me, I could swear he . . .changed."

"What do you mean, he changed?" Sango asked, confused.

"One minute, he looked like he had when I opened the door. Then . . .he looked like someone else. He was . . .destroying the room, laughing." Kohaku shook his head. "I'm sorry. It was after he hit me. I was probably imagining things."

Taking his hands, Sango looked him in the eye. "This is very important, Kohaku. I need you to try and remember some things. You said he looked like someone else while he was trashing the room?"

A nod.

"What things about him were different, that made him seem like another person?"

"His hair. It went from dark to really light. Straight, from kind of wavy. His ears changed, too. They got bigger, lighter. They moved." Kohaku was sweating now, his breathing ragged. Sango laid a hand on his arm.

"It's okay. That's enough. You should rest now." He nodded in agreement, settling back down onto his bed. His eyes closed and she assumed that he had fallen back to sleep. Smoothing his blankets, she then settled in her chair to think. Since Kohaku had described his attacker as a man, that left Kikyo out. Of course, that wasn't to say that she wasn't behind it all. There were plenty of men willing to hire out for almost any task if the price were right. She would have had no problem finding someone to carry out her bidding.

As for the man himself, she was now almost certain he wasn't human. She knew that some demons had the ability to take on forms besides their own. It sounded like it was one of those that had attacked Kohaku. Whoever it was had taken Inuyasha's form in order to make it look like he had been the one to blame.

'And I fell for it,' she thought to herself. 'I should have known better! Dad always said not to take anything as it seemed. To always question. And there I went, chasing after the obvious without realizing that it was too obvious. What if I had killed him?' She shuddered at the thought. As abrasive as he was, he was still innocent of what she had accused him of doing. She had come so close to having his blood on her hands for the rest of her life. If Kagome hadn't come and distracted her . . .

She tilted her head to look at the ceiling. 'I guess I owe her one. I hope that our paths cross again someday so I can thank her.'

"Sango?"

She jumped, then turned an inquiring look onto Kohaku. "What is it?"

"I remembered something else. There was someone else with the man. They stayed outside, but I heard their voice once." He stopped to swallow, wincing slightly as it aggravated his bruised throat.

"It's okay, you can tell me this tomorrow . . ."

"No! I want to tell you now, before I forget. The other person was a woman, and she called the man by name." He stopped, twitching as though reliving the moment. Sango kept her eyes locked onto his face, a strange feeling of dread growing in her stomach as she waited for his next word.

"She called him . . .Naraku."

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