Whee! New chappie! This one's dedicated to Kappei Lover, my latest Pet Author. (A pet author is when I find someone reaaaaaly good and systematically read everything they've ever written. It cuts down on the crappage intake.)

"It can't follow us anymore. Spill."

"There's nothing to tell."

"Yes, there is too. How can you kind of be someone's daughter?"

"We're not so much offspring as… well… incarnations."

"So you're part of him?"

"We were. See, as close as I can figure out, he's made up of a bunch of demons which can form and reform themselves. We're some of the reformations. Maybe. He wasn't really into the tell- Kagura- what's- going-on thing."

"So that's why you can't fight him? You're part of his body?"

"We are our own, separate entities," Kanna monotoned. "But he holds my sister's heart in his hands. Dare she betray him, he shall crush it."

"Probably never even think twice, cold bastard," Kagura exclaimed. "Thank you Kanna, that was lovely."

Kanna said nothing.

"I don't think she even hears sarcasm. It's too subtle for her," Kagura explained.

"So you can't even run away for long, can you?"

"I… I don't know. I've never tried. Eventually… I think I'll have to go back. I'll have to go back and serve him again. Dammit! I wasn't made for this!"

"But if he were to be killed… you wouldn't have to anymore? You'd be free?"

"Yeah, but there's no one to kill him. I can't, Kanna's too busy being neutral, and there's no one else!"

"But he said he was sealed for over 500 years. When did that happen?"

"Never, apparently. He was sealed only a few months ago. I thought he'd be gone for a long, long time, but apparently he broke free of it, because, surprise! He's back."

"No, you don't get it. Right now, there are two Narakus."

"What? When exactly did this happen? Damn, I had enough of a problem, what am I going to do about this?"

"It happened five hundred years from now, that's when. Now listen carefully. I grew up on sci- fi movies and I still barely understand this myself. Five hundred years from now, the seal placed a few months ago is broken, and Naraku is released. He's in my time- the twenty first century. But there's this portal to this time form that one. He comes back from the future and ends up here."

"So he's still sealed?"

"Exactly."

"Perfect! Now all I've gotta do is destroy him inside the seal and he'll cease to exist! Ha! That bastard'll never know what hit him!"

Kagura punched the air, no doubt envisioning Naraku's head floating in it.

"So how will you find him?"

"Just me? Aren't you coming?"

"This isn't my fight. My fight is with the Naraku from my time. I'll kill him on my own."

"But they're the same person!"

"You think? No, I think a person can completely change. Probably in less than a day, too."

He thought of himself only a few days ago. A regular teenager upset about being grounded Friday night. Not he was a daiyoukai, the son of one of the most powerful demons of the time.

He started. If this was so far in the past… then his father was still alive… somewhere…

He shook his head. He had run away in the first place because he didn't care. If he went sneaking back now, to a father who didn't know he would ever exist… no. Not worth it.

"Well, I wish I could tell you I think we'll meet again. Soppy hero parting and all that, but I kinda get the feeling we'll never see each other again," Kagura told him.

"Then good luck."

"You too."

Parting ways for the last time, they disappeared from each other's sight. Kagura headed off towards god knows where, and Sesshoumaru trying to track down the demon puppet they had just seen. That would lead him to Naraku.

"Is this it?" Inuyasha asked eagerly.

"How can it not be?" Sango replied

"It's a huge, wall- surrounded, completely isolated town, surrounded by sentries in matching armor," Miroku observed. "If this isn't the taijiya village, I say we ditch them and take our chances with these guys."

"Hey, those are my ancestors you're talking about!" Sango exclaimed, defending her family.

"Yeah, and if you go back far enough we're related to monkeys, too."

"We're related to monkeys?" Inuyahsa gasped. This was news to him. "I bet it's Uncle Patch. He's really hairy, but Mom always said not to say anything."

Miroku and Sango bit back giggles. Said giggled were cut off rather abruptly when a squad of the taijiya approached them from the back.

"Who goes there?"

"We're just kids, could you, um, lay off the weapons a little?"

The taijiya took a once- over of Miroku's jeans, Sango's elbow- pad armor, and Inuyasha's ears, and decided not to comply.

"State your business."

"We're looking for a demon named Naraku," Sango explained.

"Be you his comrades? You'll not free him, we've bound him well!"

"Quite the opposite, actually," Miroku added. "We're trying to destroy him."

"He's killed all of our parents," Inuyasha piped up, his little face set in a mask of something almost like hate. "If we kill him, they'll come back to life."

The taijiya exchanged looks.

"Um, look kids. We're real sorry about your parents and all, but that's not really how it works…"

"It does for us," Sango snapped. "There's an explaination, but if we complete our mission you'll forget you ever heard it. Now, do you know where he is or not?"

"Naraku's been sealed for near half a year," A brave tijiya piped up.

"But we need to know," Miroku asked, "Why did all of you simply seal him instead of killing him now? Had you done so, it would have saved us a lot of trouble."

"A demon that powerful cannot simply be killed. He must be purified," the same taijiya went on. The others were starting to give him dirty looks.

"Can't you get a preist or priestess to do it? It can't be that hard."

"Nor is it that simple."

"Oh, come on. If you're gonna blab the whole thing we might as well take them in!"

"That'd be nice of you. We've been walking for a while now," Miroku explained.

"We'll have to take you to the village Miko."

"Who's she?"

"This is Kaede. She's the priestess for our village."

The three children bowed politely.

"It's nice to meet you," Sango almost whispered. It occurred to her that she might be descended from this woman. She very much hoped so. The woman in front of her was dressed in traditional priestess robes, but the way she carried herself added more to them than any makeup could. She was maybe twenty- five, with dark brown eyes and pure white hair.

"I have heard that you children are looking for Naraku," she stated. No beating around the bush here. "I'm going to encourage you from here on to give up this quest. He's a dangerous demon, and battle is not a place for children such as you."

"We have no other place to go to," Sango countered. "By destroying the demon we can bring back our parents, and so we're going to do it!"

"Do you really think you're capable of it?" Kaede questioned.

"If we're not, then what?"

"Hmm. An interesting answer. Haven't heard that one yet."

"Huh?"

"You think you're the first? Naraku had an affinity for making enemies that almost bordered on talent. They've been showing up in droves, trying to destroy him within his stone prison. The lucky ones have given up and gone home."

"And the others?"

"Have been killed."

"By a sealed demon?"

"Maybe you should see him."

Something was killing off the demon puppets. Systematically. Something fast, and powerful, and pissed.

It also looked dangerously like Sesshoumaru, and that was precisely where Naraku was having a problem.

Somehow the daiyoukai was using one to find another, killing the first, and repeating the process. How?

He had no idea, and it was scaring him. He was running out of puppets and Sesshoumaru was getting closer and closer to his hiding place.

Not that he couldn't fight the little brat off, but he wasn't used to fighting his own battles. If he could only find Kagura…

But that would never happen if he couldn't keep the things out looking for her. Conjuring up a half dozen more and sending them on their way, Naraku focused his energy on Sesshoumaru's progress, and things that could be done to limit said progress.

"That's the biggest rock ever!" Inuyasha exclaimed, running circles around the huge crystal. It was shaped like a regular quartz point, but it was easily as wide as he was tall, and twice as tall. It was also pure black, but not so much in color as feeling. It was the black that fills your vision when you're awakened at midnight to hear heavy footsteps crossing your empty apartment.

"It's freaking me out just looking at it!" Sango cried.

"Unless it's purified, he will remain inside forever, never dying," Keade told them.

"How can we purify it?" Miroku queried. "There has to be a way."

"There is. But you'd have to find someone completely innocent. Incarnated somehow, that innocence could destroy Naraku's evil, But it would itself be destroyed in the process."

"How exactly do you incarnate innocence?" Sango puzzled.

"We don't know, or we would have done it."

"Come on, this is like one of those old fairy tales, isn't it? You have to say, 'oh, yes, but no one has seen it in a bazillion years,' or maybe 'yes, but it is guarded by Hellfire the Dragon at the top of Pointy- rock mountain' or something like that."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but no. Like I said, if there was a way, we would have done it already."

Miroku kicked at a rock.

"This sucks."

"If I could tell you how many of you say that…"

Annd… CUT! That's a wrap, take five people.

Sorry it's so short, I'm just trying to get SOMETHING Up here…