Disclaimer: In which I disclaim all rights to Inuyasha and constituents...

A/N: oo My. God. Shoot me now. It's been way too long. It's just that it was nearing the end of the school year, and I had to do LOTS of stuff preparing for graduation. Yep. My high school career's over, you guys – I'm officially a college student. Not that you all care. You probably wish that I would just shut up and get on with the story. (does so)

Chapter 17: In

Her heart in her throat, Sango looked up at Naraku's mansion. It was an utterly forbidding place, seemingly sable in the pale, watery light of the moon. There were no external adornments; judging by the high hedges, Sango had been expecting to see fountains, gardens that may or may not have housed poisonous flora, and wrought-metal statues in complex designs. Once she set eyes on the house, she was stricken by its... normality.

It would have been nothing more than an ordinary home (albeit a huge one) if it weren't for the feel of the place. The thick curtains were all drawn, leaving anyone observing from outside ignorant as to whether any lights were on or not. There were no exterior lights, and darkness seemed to drip from the windows like an ichor. There was a cloying scent on the air, like that of fruit, that hinted at the nature of the trees around them.

Sango rubbed her arms, though it was a fairly warm night. "What's next?" she asked of the males, who had been taking in the environment in the same way that she had. They were standing beneath a particularly large tree, the shadows serving to protect them from prying eyes. They could see nothing moving besides themselves and a few tree branches swaying in the wind.

Kouga turned to her with a grin, and she suddenly wanted to stomp on his foot or something equally painful. It was as if she had been able to hear what he was thinking, since his next words were, "You could always lure out a few more guards for us."

Sango glowered, but Miroku spoke over the signs of her imminent wrath. "How many more guards are we talking?"

Sesshoumaru was the one who responded; being the one among them most acquainted with Naraku, he had the means to respond. "I would estimate that there are about two guards at each door. A few may be patrolling the grounds as well."

"So we're talking… around ten?" Miroku surmised, brushing his hair from his face with an offhanded motion before putting both hands in the pockets of his jeans. He looked for all the world like he was loitering in a mall parking lot.

Sesshoumaru nodded curtly. "It has been five minutes. Kikyou's group should be circling around about now. Our task consists of nothing but staying put for a while and dispatching any guards who make themselves known."

Sango blinked at him. "You mean, we're just going to stand here?" she asked, slightly put out. She wondered what the others were doing, even as they spoke.

The beginning of the mission had been… unconventional, at best. She'd never had to work with others before, and she'd definitely never been a decoy. But now, standing outside a foreboding home and knowing that her objective was inside was something familiar, something real. The situation dredged up the latent sense of responsibility that she'd abandoned ever since she'd begun to let Miroku get too close to her.

"I'm not going to hang around and do nothing," she decided aloud, glaring at Sesshoumaru as if anticipating a challenge.

"You will not be allowed to jeopardize this operation," Sesshoumaru replied, just as curtly. "As far as I am concerned, this is not your mission."

Sango's eyes narrowed. Her FBI demeanor was rapidly returning, and she wouldn't be doing it service if she just rolled over and allowed another operative to take the reins. "As far as I'm concerned, any mission that I'm a part of is mine, so back the hell off. Stay here if you want. I'm going in."

Her service revolver was cross-holstered at her left side, but a small tranquilizer gun was strapped to her right. It was the smaller gun that she drew now, fitting it into her right hand easily. It had been given to her in the van on the way over, and at the time, she'd thought it was an unnecessary addition. If there were a reason to shoot, she reasoned at first, she'd need something with a lot more stopping power. But now, she realized, it would be quite useful for infiltration.

She was actually striding away from the three men toward the open yard when a hand closed around her upper left arm gently. "And what are you going to do if you get in?" Miroku asked reasonably, releasing her as she turned to face him.

"What I do best," Sango answered with a secretive smile. "I'll take as many guards down as possible. If I happen upon the other group, all the better, but I plan to make our escape as seamless as possible. And to do that, we need as few guards as possible." She nodded to Kouga and Sesshoumaru. "I'm a professional. I'll be fine."

She turned once more and began to walk out into the yard. Her trained eyes were scanning the grounds for any movement; luckily, they'd adjusted to the dark surrounding Naraku's home by then. As she walked, she took quick inventory. The front door was at a diagonal to her position (judging from where they'd jumped the hedge), but even though she could see fairly well in the darkness, she couldn't make out if there was anyone stationed at the door. Unfortunately, there was no cover – no bushes, no trees, no walls – leading up to the door, meaning that her approach would be glaringly obvious if a guard were looking in the right direction.

Looking away from the door, she scanned the entire side of the house that was facing her. As far as she could tell, there were no more doors – no more places where stationary guards would be posted. Knowing this, she crouched low and began to move in a half-circle trajectory, planning to keep as far away from the guards as she could until she reached the side of the house. Once there, she would creep along the side of the house, dispatch them as silently as possible, and she'd have an in.

A shuffling from behind her drew her attention, and she immediately whirled, pointing the tranquilizer gun… directly between Miroku's eyes.

"Nice," he said after swallowing past the lump in his throat. Kouga and Sesshoumaru were behind him, and all seemed to have adopted the same pose as Sango had.

"Why are you following me?" she snapped. "I thought you were all just content to sit there under the apple tree and reminisce about old times."

"And leave you unattended?" Sesshoumaru said derisively.

Sango's eyes switched to him. "I'm not some little girl that needs constant supervision," she hissed. "Now, if you're going to follow me, you could at least keep it down. You're all making enough noise to wake the dead."

She began to move again, aware that one person was a lot easier to miss than four. It was more important than ever to get to the relative safety of the house before they were noticed. It seemed forever until their backs were pressed against the wall of the house, and they were edging toward the door where the guards stood.

"Did you hear that?" one of the guards asked his partner. The reply that was given was unintelligible, and the four held their breaths and pressed their bodies as close to the wall as possible, hoping to stay of sight for as long as possible if one of the guards chose to investigate. Luckily, nothing of the sort was to happen; the first guard with the obnoxiously loud and carrying voice replied with a laugh. "Yeah, you're right. That rat Naraku's bound to have some of his own kind running around."

Sango exhaled in relief, but there wasn't much time for relaxation. There was still the matter of the two guards, and getting rid of them without being conspicuous. It would appear that luck was again on the group's side, however; the first guard said something about completing his 'circuit' and stepped from in front of the door, apparently bound for the other side of the house. He passed just in front of the bushes in which Sango and the others were hidden, and the female agent wasted no time in dispatching him. With a 'pssht', a dart was shot from her expertly aimed gun and sank into the flesh of his neck.

He staggered for a moment, pulling the dart free and tossing it aside in apparent irritation, rubbing at his neck. Sango exchanged glances with Miroku, who was looking just as anxious as she was. She was hoping that the tranquilizer was fast-acting, and wouldn't give the guard time to call for help. Apparently, it was – when she looked back at him from meeting Miroku's gaze, the guard was facedown and unmoving.

Guard number two called out to the fallen man a couple of times, his voice increasingly urgent. Sango held her gun at the ready, prepared for him to come around the corner to check the other man's vitals, but he did nothing of the sort. Instead, there was a brief crackle of static, followed by a few words from the guard that were clearly picked up by the intruders. "Hey, we've got trouble out here. There's-"

He was then cut off by a very rash action from Miroku. Upon hearing that the man was about to divulge their location, he'd stepped around the corner to keep the man from saying anything else. The guard stared at him for a moment, his mouth working soundlessly, then demanded, "Who the hell're you?" Miroku, not feeling very conversational at that moment, shot him with his own tranq gun. His aim wasn't quite as practiced as Sango's, however, and the dart nicked his side, probably not even delivering enough chemical to knock him out.

The guard cried out in alarm, then dropped his handheld radio in favor of groping for his gun. By this time, the other three had rounded the corner, and there was another 'pssht' as Sesshoumaru duplicated Sango's earlier shot, pegging the guard in the neck. He went down like a bag of rice.

"Shit," Kouga commented suddenly. "Shit shit shit shit." He'd noticed an intermittently flickering light on the black box that the guard had dropped, and picked it up to find his fear confirmed. The radio was still on. Seemingly absently, he clipped the radio to his side. "We're caught. Every guard in this place will be on high alert, now." He patted the radio. "We're going to need to know what's going on, now that they know we're here."

"It's not over 'till it's over, Kouga," Sango said wryly, moving toward the door. Her adrenaline was really pumping now, and she was using the crouched posture that helped her to walk almost soundlessly. "We have to hope that we drew the guards' attention, and that they won't get to the others before they get that casebook." She turned the doorknob with her free hand and found it unlocked. Typical. Naraku was probably too arrogant to believe that his defenses could ever be infiltrated.

"All right, gang," Miroku said cheerily. "Let's go do something stupid!"

Sango rolled her eyes at him, leaning her weight into the door and pushing it open, her gun hand immediately snapping out to point into the darkened room. Despite her reaction, though, she was fairly sure that he'd made a correct observation about what they were about to do.

Kikyou's group was faring well – since they'd breached Naraku's borders and reached the overhang of his house, they hadn't seen a single guard. Even when Kagura pushed open the door that they'd all expected to be deadbolted, there was nobody inside; the hall was dark, deserted, and forbidden. "It's… quiet," Kanna murmured softly.

"…too quiet," Inuyasha returned, and Kagura rolled her eyes and punched him between the shoulder blades.

"If we're done being cliché here, let's move on," she said, folding her arms. She was the only one of them who wasn't holding a weapon ready in her hand. Apparently, she figured that she was really in no immediate danger; besides, anyone who happened upon them would most likely try to take out Inuyasha first, him being the male of the group. Inuyasha getting shot at would afford her plenty of time to draw her gun.

They entered the back hallway, walking slowly and attempting to be soundless. Kikyou had stayed out of the others' banter since they'd climbed the fence, but now, she opened her mouth to say, "It's that way." She pointed at a door ahead and to their left. No further communication was needed. Inuyasha took the forefront, striding just past the door and pressing his back to the wall right beside it. Kikyou did the same on the other side of the door.

Finally drawing her gun, Kagura walked to the door, dropped to one knee, and reached for the doorknob. She looked up at first Kikyou, then Inuyasha, and when each favored her with a nod, she twisted the knob and shoved the door inward. To the casual observer, it would have appeared that all of this precaution was completely unnecessary since the back part of the mansion seemed deserted. The three, however, knew what to expect; Naraku had a calculating mind, and there was no telling what could be awaiting them on the other side. Kanna watched them from a few feet away, standing near the wall and out of the line of any possible fire.

It was lucky that she did. When the door swung open, there was a resounding 'whoof' of a discharging shotgun, and Kagura threw herself flat as the bullets scattered in the area where her chest would have been, had she been standing up. Moving quickly, before the attacker could snap more ammo into the chamber, Inuyasha and Kikyou turned to stand in the open doorway. There was a beat, then the guard who'd shot at them found himself three tranquilizer darts richer. His eyes glazed as they watched, the gun slipping from his fingers to clatter harmlessly on the floor.

Once he was down and out for the count, Kikyou looked around furtively. "They know we're here," she said bluntly. She raised her hand, brushing her hair aside and revealing something that the other's hadn't noticed until then – there was a small black device curled around her ear, protruding just a bit toward her chin at the bottom. As they watched, she pressed the body of the device, which was inside her ear. "We need a distraction," she snapped, then immediately removed her hand and let her hair swing forward again to hide the mini-radio.

No one needed to ask to whom she'd been speaking. Kanna moved silently into the room, now showing fear clearly on her face. She was, if possible, paler than usual, and she held her small gun in a death grip. Hers wasn't a tranq gun, however – it was a small revolver. If a situation ever arose where the girl would have to shoot, she wouldn't be aiming to knock someone out.

Kikyou pointed with two fingers to a door on the other side of the room, then began to walk toward it, stepping over the unconscious guard. The others followed quickly, crouched and ready for anything.

Sesshoumaru stopped suddenly, and the others went on a few paces before noticing this fact. Kouga turned to him, gesturing to the next door. "What's the holdup?" he hissed.

"The guards are surrounding the other group. We must provide a… distraction." There was a look of mild distaste on his face at this admission. It was as if he loathed the thought of being anyone's 'distraction'… as if he'd rather be the one in the midst of murderous watchmen.

"How do you propose we do that?" Miroku asked, already answering the question in his mind. It would appear that his earlier prediction was coming true a lot swifter than he'd imagined.

Sesshoumaru didn't respond. Instead, he holstered the small tranquilizer gun and drew out his service revolver. "Hey, Sesshoumaru – what're you-" Sango cut off as the answer to her question became glaringly clear. Sesshoumaru aimed the gun at the ceiling – the light fixture, to be precise – and fired four times. The glass shattered with the first, the second demolished the chain that held the decorative fixture up. The remaining two made mincemeat of the light bulb as the light fixture crashed to the ground.

"Now, we move," Sesshoumaru said calmly, as if he hadn't done anything close to shooting down someone's private property. In mere moments, all four had gone through a nearby unidentified door. Kouga pushed the door shut behind him and everyone turned to face the door that led to hall, waiting for… something.

It was only a few seconds before signs of movement became evident. Hurried footsteps were audible through the door, and a clear, "What the hell happened here?" was exclaimed by one of the guards. There was much unintelligible mumbling, then, one voice rose above the others. "They can't have gone far. Let's go." The footsteps began again, growing fainter until they disappeared altogether.

Sango was the first to sigh in relief. "Do you know how stupid that was, Sesshoumaru?" she bit out, furious. "Elementary rule – infiltration means stealth. Stealth means not shooting down chandeliers!"

Sesshoumaru merely looked at her, unconcerned, and opened his mouth to deliver some scathing bit of wisdom. Another voice responded, however, and it wasn't that of Miroku or Kouga. "You shot down my chandelier, Sesshoumaru? Shame. I really liked it."

There, in an armchair, sat Naraku, each hand pointing a pistol directly at their group.