Thank you all you reviewers! Thank you for lightening my sprits just for that day.

But I would like to thank Wheezambu (I hope I spelled it right) for taking your time out of your busy schedule to review my story. I just love your story writing.

Everyone go read Wheezambu's Fics! They're so good!

Concrete Rose

Chapter 3 11 years from then.

11 years ago.

11 years ago, her mom was accused of poisoning her baby cousin.

11 years ago, she said goodbye to the best friend that had thought her so much.

11 years ago, she left the only life she knew. The life of riches, of vast gardens, and of getting what she wanted. And entered a world of working from dawn to dusk, just to keep food on her table.

But that was 11 years ago. And Kagome, now a qualified priestess, a master archer, and a stunningly beautiful woman was back. But the town seems to have forgotten her, for she could walk through the streets, starting a bit skittish a first, but keeping her confidence, without any type of disguises. Had she really grown that much over the past 11 years? Or was it just because people recognize her, but just don't want to have anything to do with her? Rather forget her? Or was it because people were asked to never mention her?

But now life seems to have settled down for her. She was beginning to get used to waking up at dawn and going down to the dock. Wheeling a cart full of fish to the army grounds as her job. The army is setting up a camp in the borders of the king's (her father's) land. She knew Inuyasha would be there. She had seen him how many times. But even with Sango's urging. She can't disobey her mother. She can't disobey her anymore. She even purposely missed out on the day she was suppose to meet Inuyasha in the field where kids would lit firecrackers.

But she knew she couldn't go. She couldn't see him. Not after the incident with Hiromi's son.

Then there was Kikyo, her cousin, Kikyo. Inuyasha had been in her company everywhere. Was she, Kagome, the Purified Priestess, not at all so pure, and had let the green eyed monster of jealousy and hate enter her? Nope, not this priestess.

She had convinced herself, many, many times that Inuyasha was merely working with her lookalike for military purposes. But maybe, maybe… Inuyasha would forget her? He had not recognized her on the many, many occasions that she had smiled at him. He on the other hand, had known her since last year as 'Lilly'. Lilly. Simple enough, mysterious, Lilly. He hasn't a clue! Dimwit.

"Oh, Kagome. Please pull your head out of La La land? Your cart is ready, it's already filled with fish, get a move on already!" Kagome looked up from her pool of thoughts. Sango laughed from behind her. Sango. Her friend, Sango. Her best friend, Sango, best friend after Inuyasha, of course.

Ok, let's talk about Sango. She is a demon slayer. One of the best demon slayers in the world, according to Kagome, a very confident Sango, her brother Kohaku, his best friend (Kagome's brother), Kagome's best bud Inuyasha, and Sango's childhood friend (some butt name Miroku). She knows not to call Kagome, well, Kagome, but she claims she loves that name. Something very sad happened to her while she was here, in the village across the river slaying demons. Her whole family was killed in a battle with a demon, she, and her kid brother, Kohaku, survived.

At that time, Sango was only 12, (that's 2 years after I left Inuyasha) she and her brother stumbled onto Kagome's doorstep, Kagome's mother recalls after her Kagome's first night back. Kagome's grandpa had refused to let the poor child and her (at that time) 5 year old brother die. Even though it happened was 9 years ago, Kagome stills feels for the no-longer-orphan girl, and her no-longer-orphan brother (who's now 15. Sango always complains about how he gets into her business. Otherwise always butting in and finding out who fancies his sister and who wants her dead).

Kagome looked at Sango as seriously as she can possibly get. But the look of amusement creasing her friend pretty features was really cracking her up. At last, she gave up and pushed her cart full of fish (Pushing stinking barrels of fish from the docks at the one end of the town, to the army ground 30 miles east AND back (30 miles) to the dock and then she gets paid, along with Sango of course. The job didn't, in her opinion, suit a princess) shakily though the docks, crowed of buyers and sellers buying and selling their fish.

"By the Lord of the Skies, Sango, do you honestly think that the army will be able to eat this much fish? Don't you think we should take just a few fishes? You know, a special treat just for me you and Kohaku for lunch?" Kagome looked at the gleaming fishes just waiting there to be de-scaled, fried and eaten.

"I know you may want to do that but you know it's the wrong thing to do. And besides, you'll finally get to meet that butt named Miroku, you love to say that. Anyway, he's gonna get us into that new noodle shop that just opened near the temple. He said something about charmed the owner's daughter or something like that. I wonder what that means…" Sango went on a full blabber about almost everything and anything that she lay her eyes to. Kagome found herself tuning in and out. Sango went on for about 25 miles (I wonder if she works her mouth as much as she works her body? Kagome couldn't help but think to herself.)

Then she saw something that truly amazed her. Her tree. No, no, no, not her tree. It was same tree that she and Inuyasha had taking care of when it was still a seedling. Kagome's grandma had taught her some nice spells that help the tree magically grow. And it did! It did magically grow.

Before she could stop herself, a full-speed flow of memories played before her eyes. Inuyasha and she were begging their teacher for a piece of the magic tree so they can take care of it themselves. She and Inuyasha rushing their dinners to water the tree or watch it grow… Kagome felt a tear slip down her cheek.

Kagome remembered the last time she had seen the tree. It barley touched her shoulder. Now, now it was as high as the sky. It was to reach the Lord of the Skies; it was to grant the wishes of those who gave oranges attached to the yellow paper used for praying. It was used for granting wishes… just as she and Inuyasha would have wanted it to be used for. She smiled and wiped away her tears. Now it shall light hearts with hope. Now it shall touch the Lord… the Lord…

Kagome was so enveloped in her thoughts that she didn't even notice her steps towards the monk with the yellow praying paper, and the oranges. She hardly noticed that she had paid a yen for a piece of paper. Then she was snapped out of her thoughts when something came out of nowhere and rubbed her ass.

She screamed like there was no tomorrow.

She screamed and screamed until everybody around the tree went quiet. She screamed until Sango's reassuring voiced said: "It all right Kagome. It's only the monk giving you a pat on the bum to make sure you're not under-loved. Oh did I say monk? I meant hentai." She sounded casual, looking up at her, Kagome smiled back, and she glared at all the passer-by until they had all stopped staring at her like she's crazy. Then she laughed her head off as she watched the hentai monk get hit by the boomerang babe.

"This is Miroku. I think I've asked you like a thousand times to quit your perverted ways. Exspeailly around me." Sango looked at the monk with complete disgust on her pretty face.

"Some butt named Miroku?" Kagome asked with a smile at the monk, whose new made bump you can practically watch grow bigger and redder.

"Butt…?" Miroku's eyes wandered to Kagome's and Sango's backsides, earning him another big, red, bump on top of the first one.

"Sango, now my bump has bumps. Kiss it, it'll become better. Come on girls…" Sango was about to hit him one more time, but Kagome caught her hand as it went to her boomerang and stopped her from hitting the poor man again.

"Hey shouldn't we better get going?" Sango looked at one last time at Miroku with such disgust that one might think that she wants nothing better than to drag her boomerang across his neck and cleanly chop it off.

"Yea, we should." And with that they went along their way with Miroku tagging behind. Before long, they were in the army grounds. Kagome has never been so close to the palace than this time of the day. She always gets so nervous. Without fail. Then her mind would immediately be hit with questions. What if Kagome sees her father? What if she would be recognized and she was banned or else? What if Hiromi sees her? What if…

"Kagome, come. We have to go and get away from Mr.Hentai," said Sango, waving her arms.

"Ok, coming." My Gosh…

So they walked through the wooden palisade gate. So at the sight of the usual two girls with the food, the big door guy let them in. So they wheel the carts of fish in. they walked and talked to the people in the army ground. First was the old man, Todtaside, who was fixing weapons with the help of his fire breath. They said hi to him but left as fast as hell, cause they knew the old man has a HUGE appetite. They dropped of their fish in kitchens. And since they still had time, they stayed to grabbed a free lunch (like always) and the walked and talked throughout the whole army grounds. At last they walked themselves straight to the commanders tent (actually they didn't accidentally walked themselves here. Kagome accidentally on purpose walked them here. She wanted to see Inuyasha. Tee Hee.)

Suddenly, a man with silver hair came out of the tent. Inuyasha. Kagome's heartbeat quickened; she stopped breathing; the butterflies in her stomach gave her stomachaches. Inuyasha, she mentally told herself, I am so glad you are well. I've missed you. LOOK at me! Right he can't. Cause I'm Lilly. Plain old Lilly. Sigh.

Then Inuyasha looked at her.

"Oh, Sango and… how are you again?" Inuyasha looked at her, confusion creasing his face. "Oh you must Lilly… you look a bit like my best friend… no, I must miss her way too much… so, I take it that lunch is here?" Sango, who had been laughing her ass off, nodded. Kagome smiled. So Inuyasha had NOT forgotten her. That made her feel so happy.

"So Inuyasha," Kagome said as they made it together for the kitchen tent, "tell me about this friend of yours. It had better not be boy" Inuyasha laughed.

"No, it not a boy. It a girl actually. She left like 11 years ago. It was so long. We met each other in school and well we started hanging together ever since we got this tree from the teacher."

"The tree? What tree?" Kagome knew exactly what tree he was talking about but it felt so good to hear Inuyasha talk about her that she couldn't resist.

"The tree down in the center of the town of course. The one everyone used for pray. The girl, Kagome, her ancestor was Midoriku, you know Midoriku right?" Kagome nodded, quite satisfied, Inuyasha went on. "Well, Kagome came from this whole line of powerful Mikos, so her grandma helped us with the tree that it grew so tall now. Everyone use it for praying, I feel so good about it. And if Kagome was here, she would feel that way as well." Kagome nodded. Great minds really do think alike.

"So what happened to the girl? What happened to Kagome?" Sango popped in.

Inuyasha's eyes darkened. "One night," he began, "on Kagome's 10th birthday, something bad happed. You know Hiromi?" Kagome and Sango both nodded furiously. "Well she had this son. Kagome said that a few hours after it was born, it died." Sango gasped dramatically. "It was killed by Black Magic. And you know that Black Magic has a Youkai core, right? Well Kagome didn't tell me this, but I figured that the only reason Kagome got blamed was that she hangs around me. But her mom got blamed cause there was no proof that Kagome did it, so Hiromi pinned it on her mom. But this time there was proof. Her mom brings Hiromi her meals and everyone knows that it's true. So because Kagome's mom was convicted of using black magic, she was exiled. And Kagome with her."

"That's such a sad story." Sango said finally. Kagome had refused to ever speak of the day she was exiled. It was too painful to speak of; Kagome had said countless times. Now Sango can finally hear it.

They walked in silence for a few minutes until an old man, cut across them walking as fast as he could on a walking stick.

"Oh, Inuyasha, who are they?" he turned to face them, and pointing his walking stick threateningly at them.

"Myouga, are you sure you should be walking all around the camp like that?" Inuyasha asked in mock concern.

"Why would you care Lord Inuyasha? Anyway, I came here to ask you if I could put an order to make more poisoned arrows… So can I?"

"Yeah, Yeah, whatever."

"Are you two girls in the army?" Myouga turned on the girls suddenly.

"No, Myouga, they're the food people they bring in food. They can't - " but Inuyasha was cut off by the wrinkly prune.

"Nonsense! These girls can work finely! See! This girl wears the garments of the demon slayers! She'll do fine! And this girl can help in the kitchens! Will you help us? We have a -er- problem today and we need as many people just to be on the safe side." Myouga gave a strange look in Inuyasha's direction, as if afraid of what Inuyasha would do.

"Um…" Kagome began, but Sango cut into her with quick 'sure!'

Kagome really couldn't resist. But she didn't ponder hard enough to notice the miserable look on Inuyasha's face. He really didn't want Sango and her to stay the night.

I wonder why?

Well . :sigh:. Another chapter finished. Did you guys like it?

Well I really don't have anything to say.

So leave a review. It'll be appreciated.

and thnx to hely for reviewin i kno u couln't get in bfor i wonder why?