Author's note: Sorry for the long update. Actually, all my other fics are also under –hiatus-. Enough of that, here's the new chapter.

Chapter 3 – The memories

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My heart to you no longer matters
and I can't live alone with memories
into the fire those dreams you've shattered
and when the smoke is gone, I'll be free..
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"Kikyou-neechan, are these the herbs you want?" a pure, innocent voice of a child asked. She looked lovingly at her beautiful sister kneeling in front of her, examining the herbs she just collected. Her sister, Kikyou, was her lifetime idol. The woman before her nodded and smiled.

"Yes, Kaede. Let's pick some more, okay?"

"Okay!" Kaede answered eagerly.

She tossed the herbs in her hand into the basket and hurriedly picked up the herbs in sight. Kikyou just smiled watching her little sister. In her mind though, she was worried about Kaede's future. Will Kaede be a miko too? Will she have to marry a person.. or youkai just for an assignment's sake? Even though Kikyou was a miko herself, she was not really fond of the idea of having her favorite sister being a miko and risked her dear life for the Elders and villagers.

Suddenly, a few villagers came towards her and knelt down on their knees. "Kikyou-sama..," one of them started.

"What are you doing? Please, my fellow villagers, stand up," Kikyou directed. Kaede, seeing this, ran back to her sister. "My dear friends, why are you kneeling to me?"

"Kikyou-sama, the fate of us and our next generations depends on you. Please kill the western youkai lord," a villager begged as he bowed his head to the ground repeatedly. The others began to do the same. "We're counting on you,"; "Kikyou-sama, help us!"; "You're the only one who could kill him," the villagers muttered at the same time.

Kikyou, on the other hand, lowered her head and puckered her eyebrows as the villagers continuously bowing at her. "I will," she whispered softly. Kaede looked up at her sister confusingly. A moment later, Kikyou raised her head and said in much pride and confidence in her voice, "I will kill the western youkai lord."

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The sun slowly disappeared over the horizon as a woman pondered on her thoughts, losing track of time. Suddenly a soft sigh emerged from her pink lips. 'Counting on me? Heh.. that damn youkai fought so proficiently, I might be dead before I could even touch him. Inuyasha.. if only back then you..'

"Would it be okay if I sit here?"

Kikyou brought her head up to see a dark-haired guy smiling down at her. Kikyou was at loss of words and weirdly enough, she somewhat felt nervous. "Uhh.. Sure."

He was on his knees besides Kikyou… too close. Being in an awkward situation, Kikyou tried to compose herself and start a conversation. However, the guy made the first move, "It's a very nice place to relax, isn't it? You seem to be deep in thought."

"Aahh.."

The stranger besides her just smiled at her short replies. Kikyou being an anti-social person was a much known fact by everyone in the village. "Worry about your marriage.. Kikyou-sama?" Kikyou snapped her head towards him; at last she gave him some attention.

"Hmmphh.. Who are you?" Kikyou replied sternly, her eyes gave away nothing.

However, the guy chuckled as he clasped his hand together apologetically, "Ahahah.. Sorry.. I forgot to mention my name. I'm Naraku." Kikyou waited for him to finish his name but seeing that he didn't continue, Kikyou looked at him suspiciously.

"Nar..aku? Are you son of one of the elders?"

His eyes seemed to darken briefly but were gone before Kikyou could even blink. He gave a serene smile before answering, "Not quite." There was a tense moment as Kikyou kept eyeing him guardedly. 'He's hiding something.'

Naraku stood up and brushed off his hakama before bowing politely at Kikyou. "Well then, I'm going now. Nice meeting you, Miko-sama."

Kikyou got up on her knees too and returned his bow. "You too," the maiden whispered as she gave him a small smile. He called out her name once again. "Yes, Naraku-san?"

"I just want to say, you don't have to worry. I know you can do it. Even if you can't, we will not turn our back on you. I'll always support you no matter what, Kikyou-sama," Naraku smiled, yet his eyes glinted with something unknown to Kikyou.

Kikyou nodded and looked on as the mysterious guy she just met disappeared into the darkness of the night. "Arigato," she whispered once again. Her heart seemed to be at ease after hearing his words. 'Maybe he's not a bad person I thought he was.'

How wrong she was.

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"Inuyasha! Stop running! Inuyasha!" A girl stopped running and stomped her feet in fury. She could never catch that stupid hanyou who is now sticking out his tongue at her. Kagome was furious than ever. "OSUWARI! OSUWARI! OSUWARI!"

Inuyasha's head was now dug deep into the ground. He tried to get his head out by pushing his hands on the ground… and finally he succeeded. "Gaaaahhh! Oii Kagome! Do you want me to die!" Kagome wasn't listening however, she continued stroking the rabbit she found earlier. "Stupid woman.." Inuyasha growled softly.

He cleared his throat to get her attention and said roughly, "Oii.. Where were you yesterday when I called you? You came very late. That arrogant, cold bastard came again."

Kagome sighed and let go of the rabbit. She watched it ran away before turning back to the fuming boy. "Inuyasha. Don't call Sesshoumaru that. He's your brother," Kagome tried to calm Inuyasha down but her blood began to boil too as she remembered, "Even though he also keep calling me wench and disrespect me as a woman."

Inuyasha jumped swiftly from where he stood to in front of Kagome. "Hehe.. I didn't know you're a woman."

"Inuyasha.. Osuwari!"

Kagome sat in front of Inuyasha and was looking down at him with a hand on her chin, while he was hugging the ground again. "But really, Sesshoumaru is a bastard! He called me imprudent, undignified, nauseating, ignominious hanyou! How more cold can he be!" Inuyasha yelled, remembering his initial topic.

"Woww.. Sesshoumaru really is a highly-ranked prince, ne? He uses such good and very high standard vocabulary. Very impressive," Kagome rubbed her chin in amazement. Meanwhile, Inuyasha was getting more pissed off.

"KAGOME!"

The cheerful girl dismissed his cry. "Maa maa..," Kagome smiled brightly and took Inuyasha's hand, lifting him up. "I was helping a beautiful lady yesterday. She's so cool and very pretty too! I so want to be like her."

Inuyasha moved his head from side to side and a crack sound could be heard. "Fehh.. No one is more beautiful than you," Inuyasha told unconsciously as he exercised his body due to the several 'osuwaris' Kagome gave him.

Kagome's face colored instantly and she began to stutter, "M.. M.. Mou.. Inu.. Inuyasha."

Inuyasha looked at her closely and examined her pink face, "Oi.. Are you alright? Did you bite your tongue or something?"

'Insensitive baka!' Kagome rolled her eyes and smacked Inuyasha's head. "Anyway, yesterday I was with your future sister-in-law."

Inuyasha's mouth dropped and his eyes widened. "No way! You mean that bastard is getting married?" As Kagome nodded seriously, Inuyasha dropped to his knees as he laughed uncontrollably. "Hahhaha… Sesshoumaru... marry? Who's that foolish girl who fall in love with a jerk like him!"

"Kikyou-sama is definitely not a fool! She's a strong, independent, cool, calm.. Inuyasha?" Kagome was puzzled when Inuyasha quieted down at an instant. "Inuyasha, are you okay?"

"Who.. Who did you say was it?" He was staring right at Kagome with a pained look on his face.

"Kikyou-sama."

'Kik.. you?' His head started pumping in pain and he was sweating heavily. 'Who is kikyou?' Inuyasha pulled his hair in an attempt to stop the aching pain. "My.. head hurts.. so much. AGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome went straight to Inuyasha, "Inuyasha! Hang on. Inuyasha, can you hear me? Inu.." Her voice began to fade away to Inuyasha's hearing. He could no longer hear her.. nor see her. Everything had become so blurry, it scared him.

Inuyasha blinked once, twice to clear his sight but he couldn't. Through his hazy eyes, he noticed that he was in another place.. with an arrow embedded in his heart. 'Where am I?'

"Inuyasha.." A smooth and light woman voice whistled into his ears.

Inuyasha looked upwards and saw an unclear figure standing a few meters away from him. He could make out her clothing though, white hakui and red hakama. Inuyasha tried to reach out his hand to touch her and whispered, "Who are you?"

"You can become human.. We can live together," the figure stepped closer to him. "Die! Inuyasha!"

"Who are you?" Inuyasha squinted to get a better view of her but it seemed the closer she was, the more formless she became. "What do you want from me!"

A purple light flowed and shimmered everywhere, making it very difficult to see anything. And Inuyasha shuttered his eyes slowly as he fell into darkness.

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Sesshoumaru roamed around the house with a vacant expression on his face. He spotted Kagome running towards him and she looked somewhat terrified. "Sesshoumaru, please help Inuyasha!" Yet, Sesshoumaru ignored her and walked past her. "SESSHOUMARU!"

Sesshoumaru stopped but he didn't turn to look at her, "What does that sickening hanyou want from me?"

"He.. He's in pain! He was clutching his head fervently before he fainted!" Kagome talked up to Sesshoumaru (she was at his chest height), while he looked down at her. His disinterested eyes lingered on Kagome before he moved on. Kagome had expected this though, so she shouted, "He acted that way right after I mentioned Kikyou-sama's name! Please don't say it's none of your business."

Once again, Sesshoumare halted, but this time he turned to meet her pleading eyes. 'Hmm.. Maybe Inuyasha's memory of that Miko is coming back. Interesting.' He held her eyes with his disdainful gaze causing Kagome to wince. "I, Lord of West, have no connection whatsoever with that Miko. She or Inuyasha's problems are none of my concern. Simply putting it, it's none of my business. So, stop bothering me, wench."

Kagome was about to retort but she bit back her hasty reply for it would cost her, her life. Kagome turned the other way and decided to get help from the Inutaisho himself. Sesshoumaru, on the other hand, was looking forward on what would happen on his wedding day if Inuyasha happened to recall back his memory about Kikyou. 'My so-called future wife and my disgusting half-brother will try to cut each other's heads off.'

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Honeyz-Rinoa: First up, sorry for the long wait. I'm not a good updater. Also, sorry for the short chapter. This chapter is simply just about Kikyou's first meeting with Naraku and Inuyasha started having his memory back, others are simply fillers. And maybe some of you might be confused; Sesshoumaru doesn't know that Kikyou and Inuyasha had a love relationship before. He only knew the 'Kikyou trying to kill Inuyasha' part. Anyway, leave me a review aytez.