NEWS: I've got a new story called "Forever Until This Day" and it's a one shot. Check it out!

IKUTO'S MEMORY: Okay, you guys are all freaking out. Naraku didn't erase them. It's just that he tried to hard to remember Inuyasha's that he kind of forgot his own. He can't really remember much of anything now.

WARNINAG! School starts next week for me, so if I slip up on my weekly update, then you will know why.

Chapter 40

I do not own Inuyasha

"What do you mean?" Inuyasha was becoming angrier with Ikuto's plea. He still wanted to punish him for how Ikuto betrayed him. "You're lying! You just don't want me to kill you!"

"Kill me?" Ikuto asked. "What did I do?"

"Stop it Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha dropped Ikuto and noticed the fear he had in his eyes. 'Ikuto's not afraid of me, even though he should be. This kid may be telling the truth. He really doesn't remember anything.' "What did Naraku do to you?" Ikuto didn't understand what he was asking, and it only angered Inuyasha. "You don't remember anything, not even what just happened?"

Ikuto answered with a shake of his head. 'I feel so strange' he admitted to himself. He felt his stomach, feeling that he hadn't properly digested something. He felt odd, or was that how he always felt? 'Who am I?'

Kagome bent down and got eye level with him. "Don't you remember me?" she asked so sadly. They had been through so much. He was her first real boyfriend. Now all of that was suddenly gone? When Ikuto shook his head, Kagome was so disappointed with the answer. 'It's all gone' she was still so tired and was now just restless. "What are we going to do?" she was mostly just asking herself than her friends. "Ikuto's life is a lot different than mine. He's constantly being watched by everyone. He's rich and famous and has a very important job. His brother is going to freak out, and if anyone shouldn't be pulled into our affairs, it's Suno Kazasami!"

"I'm really…all of that?" Ikuto asked. It hurt him to see Kagome so worried. "I'm sorry, this is all my fault."

"It sure is!" Inuyasha blurted out.

"You remember?" Miroku asked.

Ikuto shook his head. "It's just obvious that it is."

"Naraku might come back for him" Sango added in. "It's best to get him and Kagome back home."

Kagome had no argument with that. She never wanted Ikuto to go into the Feudal Era again. Now look what happened! 'If I wouldn't have gotten sick, then he wouldn't be in this mess.' "He should go home" she admitted. "Let's go now."

"But we still don't know what he told Naraku!" Inuyasha barked.

"And he doesn't remember!" Kagome snapped back and gave Inuyasha a death glare. It actually frightened him. He decided to back off of Kagome at the moment. He hated Ikuto and honestly wanted to snap at him some more, but let it go at the moment.

'I'm going to find out that truth about this kid if it's the last thing I do!'

"Mommy" Rina asked while they were eating dinner together. Suno hadn't come home yet so it was just the two of them. Rina saw that her mother was nervous and seemed to be very worried. "Mommy, what's bothering you?"

"Nothing honey, it'll be alright. Don't worry about it." Suno had called home from the office asking if Ikuto was there. When she said she had no idea where he was, Suno was indeed very angry. She feared what might happen once Ikuto and Suno both came home. 'They were getting along and now it's all ruined.' Sarah had even sent home all of the workers in fear of what would happen once the brother's paths crossed. She didn't want them to see the fireworks.

"Mommy" Rina heard the doorbell go off "somebody's here."

Sarah thought it strange, especially since if it was Suno or Ikuto, they had a key. "Alright, I'll get it." Once she opened it, she was surprised to see that it was indeed Ikuto, with Kagome by his side. Sarah knew this wasn't going to be good. "Kagome, what happened? Do you know how furious Suno is with Ikuto? He's been out all day and didn't go to work today." She noticed Ikuto was peering in instead of just entering. It was raining outside, and the two of them were just standing out in the rain. "Come in before you catch a cold."

Ikuto hesitated, but stepped in. "This is my house?" he asked.

"Of course it is" Sarah insisted. "What happened today?"

Ikuto looked to Kagome for assistance, but before she said anything, she peeked her head outside and made a motion for Inuyasha, who was far off on the lawn, to come inside. Inuyasha hesitated to do so, but he walked in. He had to stop himself from shaking himself dry. Kagome thought it was hilarious when he did that, but he knew she'd be angry if she did it now. He'd get the house all wet. "Oh my" Sarah said. She reached out to touch Inuyasha's ears, but he slapped them away quickly.

"I don't want anyone else to do that!"

"So you're Inuyasha?" she asked. "This is interesting."

"Is Mr. Kazasami home?" Kagome asked. "It's really important that I talk to him."

She shook her head and noticed that Ikuto was still looking around, as if in shock and confusion. "What happened today?"

"You should sit down" Kagome instructed her.

"I think I'd like to stand." She crossed her arms and waited for the news. Before Kagome could say anything, Rina ran from the dinning room and to her mother's side.

"Hi doggy man!"

Inuyasha grunted at the name. Kagome would have laughed at him if she wasn't so upset and worried about what would become of Ikuto. "Uh…" Kagome began to say "this is Inuyasha, Rina."

"Wanna play with me, Kagome?"

"Not right now, Rina. I've gotta talk to your mom and dad right now. It's very serious." Rina nodded and Kagome sighed heavily, not wanting to say what she knew she needed to say. 'Here goes nothing.' "I got sick…and Ikuto took me into Inuyasha's time so I would get better."

"Our hospitals weren't sufficient, Kagome?" Sarah asked with a slight attitude, not being too pleased with Kagome. She knew that something was wrong with Ikuto and she knew it was Kagome's fault, just by the expression she had on her face. Besides, her mood swings were kicking in.

"I was cursed" Kagome told her. "I'm very sorry" she confessed. "While I was getting better a demon attacked Ikuto and…well…when I found him-"

"The kid can't remember anything" Inuyasha blurted out, not liking Kagome's long explanation of the situation. "The kid can't remember a thing."

"You're not serious!" Sarah asked. "You don't remember me?" she said directly to Ikuto. He replied with a shake of his head. "You don't remember me? You don't remember that when we met you told me that I was either insane for being with your brother or I had balls of steal? You don't remember that?" she was a bit hysterical, her hormones going out of whack. "You seriously don't remember me or Rina?"

"You don't remember us?" Rina tugged on his pants leg. "You're my only uncle!"

Ikuto knitted his eyebrows together in frustration. "I'm sorry. I don't remember." He looked worried. "Is my brother really that bad?" he asked.

"You two haven't really ever gotten along too well" Sarah said honestly "but you two finally were able to resolve some of the issues you had." She wouldn't look at Kagome and she soon began to cry. "Sorry, it's my hormones. They're all out of whack." She didn't want any of them to see her like that. "I'm so sorry that I'm breaking down like this, I'm not even the one who lost their memory. I just need to go…" she breathed in and out heavily, trying to get a hold of herself "I'll be back in a minute."

When she left out, Inuyasha asked "What's her problem?"

"She's very emotional because she's pregnant. When women are going to have children, their emotions get a little crazy. She just needs a minute."

Rina grabbed Ikuto's hand. "Come here!" She led them all upstairs with her small and soft hand clasping on tightly to Ikuto's hand. Ikuto was still looking around like he didn't belong or had just never been there before. Inuyasha felt uncomfortable and really wanted to leave, but he didn't trust Ikuto. He never did and now it was even less so.

'He's not totally innocent. I can't let Kagome stay here alone with him.' "Where are we going?"

Rina led them all into Ikuto's room, but he couldn't remember anything at all. Rina started jumping on his bed happily. "I always jump on it and you tell me to get off because it makes you mad! You don't remember?"

Ikuto shook his head. "Sorry, I really don't really remember anything about you or my life." She stopped jumping and he sat down on the bed.

Rina frowned and walked over to his pile of books he had in a corner. "You can be so sloppy sometimes. Even though you're practically grown up, my daddy has to tell you to clean up sometimes, even though we got maids who can do that, but I guess you don't remember that either." She looked through his books and picked up the smallest and thinnest one he had. She knew what it was by the cover. "Ah ha! You've got to remember this! You were mad at Kagome until she gave you this! It's your favorite book in the whole wide world, but I can't read it, cuze it's in English." She handed it to him and he hesitantly took it from her.

"Why would a children's book be my favorite? How old am I?"

"Seventeen, silly!" Rina pointed to his sheets. "Red is your favorite color! You don't remember that?"

"I don't remember anything!" he finally snapped. Rina jumped back and began to whimper. She usually wasn't yelled at. She was only trying to help.

"Ikuto!" Kagome snapped. "She was only trying to help you." She gave Rina a hug and held her in her arms. "He didn't mean to, sweetheart."

"Look what you did?" Inuyasha knocked Ikuto upside his head. "You didn't need to make the brat cry!"

"That hurt!" Ikuto yelled. He rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't mean to yell, it's just hard trying to remember all of this. I can't remember anything about who I was, what I do, and who you all are. I'm sorry for causing so much trouble, but I really honestly don't know anything. I wish I could, and I promise that I'm trying, but I can't remember anything." 'This is all so strange. This place, these people, I can't remember anything. The dog guy doesn't trust me, but why? What did I do?' "I apologize. I didn't mean to snap."

Rina dried her tears. "Let's go back downstairs. My daddy's coming home soon."

Kagome felt a chill go down her spine. 'Suno's going to kill me!' Reluctantly, they followed Rina downstairs into the living room.

Sarah was already sitting on the couch with tons of photo albums on the coffee table. She was looking through one. "Pick one up, Ikuto. Something may jog your memory." Sarah was smiling, looking at one photo in particular when she was at the beach with her daughter. Rina ran over to her mother hopped on the couch with her. She enjoyed looking at photos. She had a real family now.

Ikuto picked up one of the albums and sat down on another couch. Kagome took a seat next to him and ordered him to open it up. Once he did, Kagome's mouth opened wide with happiness. There were pictures of Ikuto as a baby on the front page. Some of the pictures were of him just lying in a crib sleeping. "Oh, you were so cute!" Inuyasha's ears slumped down with jealousy. There were other pictures of him just learning to walk. One of them, he had nothing on but his diaper and a red toy car in his mouth. In another, his back was facing the camera and he was completely naked. Kagome began cracking up. "Oh, this is so adorable! I can't believe they'd put that out in the open to see!" Inuyasha began laughing at the blushing Ikuto. There were others. In one, he was in a long T-Shirt with a baseball bat in his hand. He must have been around three. "These are so cute, Ikuto!"

"But I…" 'I can't remember.' Ikuto frowned.

Inuyasha tried to ignore Kagome and Ikuto. 'This stupid kid claims he can't remember, and maybe it's true, but maybe that's all because of Naraku. Maybe he wants it that way. He's planning something…'

Ikuto turned the page. On this page, there was a picture of Ikuto's mother holding him in a swimming pool. He was terrified and holding on to his mother for dear life. His mother was laughing at him. Kagome couldn't blame her. It looked hysterical. Kagome struggled not to laugh at Ikuto beside her, who looked so depressed and uncomfortable. "Don't remember that either?" She pointed to a picture of a man who she had only seen only a few times, of course not in person, but in pictures. "This is your father, Iryoku Kazasami." Ikuto was being held by his father. Ikuto was just a baby. It looked like Iryoku was trying to hide his smile, but he had too much pride in his young son to. "It's said that your dad was a really great man."

"Where is he?" Ikuto asked. "Where are my parents?"

"Ikuto…" Kagome hated to be the bearer of bad news, so she looked to Sarah, who didn't want to tell him either. Rina certainly wasn't going to say anything. 'The poor guy, he can't even remember their faces and now I have to tell him he's an orphan?' "Ikuto…I hate to say this, but both of your parents died in a fire when you were a boy." She was waiting for him to act in denial, and then accept it and be heartbroken so she'd have to comfort him, but that didn't happen. Ikuto just looked so frustrated. "It's alright, Ikuto."

"Alright? I don't even remember their faces! How can it be alright?"

"Ikuto, I know it's hard but-"

"No, you don't know how it feels Kagome! How can you?"

"Stop snapping at her!" Inuyasha yelled. "You're the one who got tricked, not Kagome. It's your fault, so just be a man about it." Ikuto wasn't himself, so he didn't pick a fight with Inuyasha. He let it go, but wouldn't look at Kagome. Inuyasha was standing behind the couch, trying to mind his own business, but he looked over their shoulders to see what the fuss was about and saw the pictures with Ikuto's parents. "Hey Kagome" he began to ask "if these are his parents, then how come neither of them have the same skin color as Ikuto."

Kagome's mouth dropped and looked at Ikuto, who would usually be offended, but he didn't care. She looked over to Sarah who had begun laughing and Rina who was just shaking her head. "I can't believe you of all people would ask such a stupid question, Inuyasha! Isn't it obvious how it happened? Do you look exactly like a full blooded demon?"

"No."

"And do you look exactly like a full blooded human?"

"No" Inuyasha felt a little foolish. "Ah, it was only a question! His parents are both human. I was just curious to know how it would work."

"Well, you should have!" Kagome turned the next page in the photo album. "It's Suno." It was so strange to Kagome, seeing him as a child, outside playing, swimming, in some adorable position, but what was so strange to her was the happy expression he had on his face. Even Inuyasha looked at Suno's pictures and was deathly surprised by what he was seeing. "This is so weird." She turned the page and realized that Ikuto had gone back to actually looking at the pages. The page was Suno with some other people. In the first picture, he was with a woman Kagome had never seen before.

Rina ran over and sat next to Ikuto on the couch on his other side, hearing that the page was full of her father's pictures. One was a family picture at what appeared to be a festival. It looked like Suno's father, a young Suno, maybe four, and a woman. "That's my grandmother who passed away before I was born."

"She's beautiful." She indeed was. She was dressed in a light blue kimono and her eyes were such a dark brown, Kagome thought they were black for a moment. Her hair was pinned up in a bun that day and her skin was fair, but she had the sweetest and brightest smile. She was holding Suno, who was also dressed in a kimono, but a white one with a few designs on it. His father was simply dressed in a business suit. Kagome assumed that they were at the festival they put on each year. What shocked her the most was, Suno actually looked happy. "His mom is really pretty." As they continued through the photo album, there were various pictures, but Kagome noticed that by the time Suno reached around the age of eight, he wasn't so happy anymore. He was in less pictures and he wasn't smiling much, if at all. 'Poor kid, what happened to him?' Kagome saw one picture when he was smiling when he looked around twelve or the thirteen. Ikuto was two or three and Suno was giving Ikuto a bath. "This one is really cute."

"I think it's kind of weird" Inuyasha admitted. Seeing Ikuto and Suno together so happy was strange. 'Sesshoumaru and I could never be that way.'

Once they had finished through that album, Kagome reached for another, but heard the front door open and grew extremely pale. 'He's here!' Kagome closed her eyes as if she was already being scolded.

Suno had indeed come home and started searching around for his brother until he found him in the living room. Seeing Inuyasha, he knew it had to do something with the Feudal Era and knew his idiotic brother must have gone back there with Kagome, even though Kagome had promised that she had no intention of ever doing so. That ticked him off. "Ikuto." He was standing right night to Inuyasha, hovering over his little brother.

Kagome and Ikuto stood to their feet, and Sarah did as well. "Daddy!" Rina tried to run to her father in excitement, but he sternly held her back.

"Not now, Rina." She pouted and sat back down on the couch.

"Suno, calm down" Sarah pleaded.

"You have no say in the matter either" he told her sternly. She sat down too, seeing there was no reasoning with him.

"I'm very sorry" Kagome began to say.

"We'll talk later Kagome, but right now I've got something to say to Ikuto, and only Ikuto." Kagome wanted to speak, but she held her tongue and Inuyasha sure wasn't going to stand in the way of Ikuto getting a good lashing, so Suno began. "I thought for once in your life, you could be responsible. I decided to push away my doubts and actually have faith in you, and I'm ashamed to say that I did, Ikuto. I actually for a moment thought that you could be responsible and could actually do your job. I stuck up for you and went against all of my head executives and told them that it didn't matter what they thought, because I knew you could do the job, but you had to screw up on the first chance you get, didn't you? Well, I'm not giving you another, Ikuto. You're fired."

Everyone's eyes were on Ikuto, who didn't know what to say to Suno. Should he apologize? He wasn't even sure who he was. "Is this him?" Ikuto asked Kagome. "Is this my brother?"

Suno was shocked for a moment, certainly not expecting that of all responses. 'He doesn't remember me?' The way Ikuto turned to Kagome for comfort made him just know it was her fault, somehow, someway. "Kagome, what did you do?"

"Hey!" Inuyasha stepped in. "It's not Kagome's fault, it's your stupid brother's fault for being so stupid and blindly charging into one of Naraku's attacks!"

"Naraku?" Suno questioned angrily. "The same demon that hurt him before?"

Kagome nodded and began to speak. She began to tell him everything, about what had happened. She explained how she got sick because Naraku had put some kind of curse on her and Ikuto bravely took her to the Feudal Era so she could get better. She told him everything she knew, since she wasn't sure what Naraku had done to him. "That's all." She was still expecting fireworks.

"Kagome" Suno was trying to remain calm, but it was hard to, now knowing that his brother had no memories at all. "I thought you weren't going back there. Never go back there again!"

"Hey" Inuyasha finally stepped in. "Don't you dare tell Kagome what to do!"

"Inuyasha, no one asked for your opinion. Stay out of this. Do not interfere."

"She doesn't have to listen to you! Your rules don't apply to her. She can do what she wants."

"Not when she endangers the life of my little brother. You have no right to even be speaking to me this way in my house, even in this time frame. Why don't you go home?"

"Because Kagome needs me."

"Interesting, because it appears to me that it's the other way around, you twit."

Kagome began to pull on Inuyasha's arm. "I thought I told you to remember that he's Ikuto's brother, not yours! Calm down, Inuyasha, he has a right to be angry with me. It is my fault."

"Don't take the fall for that fool!"

Suno grunted at the insult towards his brother. "Dogs should be outside in the rain."

"And black hearted jackals should die, but you're still here!"

Kagome gasped. "What are you doing? Stop it, Inuyasha. This is not Sesshoumaru, this is Suno. This is Ikuto's brother, not yours! He's a human, not a demon! This isn't your affair!"

'Sesshoumaru?' Suno told himself that this wasn't the time to ask about him. "You should listen to the girl, Inuyasha. This isn't your affair." He narrowed his eyes in on Kagome, and Kagome was a bit scared, as if she was afraid he was going to use a light whip or poison claws. She had to remind herself that he was human, and not Sesshoumaru. "Kagome, this is important. You should not go back there, no matter what. I understand that you were dying and my brother went to save you, but I assumed that after he was severely hurt the first time, you would decide not to go back there at all. You spent the whole summer there, despite how dangerous it was. You have to be a little more grown up on the matter and realize that you are not affecting just yourself, but Ikuto, and everyone else you know, not to mention the very fabric of time and space."

Kagome nodded. "I'm very sorry. I hadn't planned on going back but…" 'Ikuto left for the U.S. and I knew Inuyasha needed my help…' "It won't happen again. I promise to you."

"Well, sometimes apologizing isn't enough, Kagome. You've got to stay true to your words. Actions speak louder than words Kagome."

"I know, and I promise I'll be more responsible the next time."

"Excuse me" Inuyasha said "we still don't know what Naraku did to the kid, so we can't trust him and we can't just exactly let our guards down. Kagome's got to finish what she started."

"Yeah daddy!" Rina yelled. "It's just like that Jumanji movie with that Robin guy, who had to finish the dangerous game he started, even though he almost got killed in the process! It's the only way to make things right!"

"Rina, this isn't the time" Suno warned. "This isn't some movie, this is real life. This isn't some action packed book, some interesting fairy tale, its real life and there are no other chances. Once you're gone, you're gone." He sighed. "Now if you don't mind Kagome, I think its best you leave. I've got work to do concerning my brother and his forgotten memories. Arrangements have to be made."

"I want her to stay" Ikuto practically shouted, but lowered his voice once he saw Kagome blush and Suno and Inuyasha began to grumble. "I want Kagome to stay with me. Is that alright?" he asked Kagome.

"I'll stay if it's okay with your brother" Kagome told him. "I don't want to be any more of a bother."

"I like Kagome!" Rina pleaded with her father with those giant and beautiful eyes of hers. "Please let her stay! She can even sleep in my room with me!"

"We've got extra rooms" Sarah told her daughter. "Besides, your father hasn't said yes."

"I don't mind if she stays, but Inuyasha is going to cause too much of a commotion. He has to leave, and I mean that."

"I don't want to stay in your stupid house anyway, but I'm not leaving Kagome!" He was once again going to charge in Suno's face and start an argument, but Kagome grabbed a hold of him before he did any damage.

"You need to find Naraku and find out what he might be doing. You need to find out what he did to Ikuto and the best way is to pound the information out of Naraku. We're counting on you, Inuyasha!"

"But what if the kid goes crazy and tries to hurt you?"

"He won't hurt me, Inuyasha. You need to back off and worry about the demon who we know is dangerous. I can take care of myself. We'll be fine."

Inuyasha glared at Ikuto. "I'm not leaving."

"Fine then" Suno said "we could always tie you up in the back."

"What was that?" Inuyasha asked.

"You smell like wet dog. Go get yourself cleaned up or leave my house. I don't need your foul scent damaging my home."

"You think you can talk to me like that?" Inuyasha clenched his fists and prepared himself for a fight, but he was caught off guard once Rina took his hand.

"I can show you where you can bathe and sleep. We've got a lot of guest rooms, even though we really don't use them." She began to lead him off, while he was still trying to pick a fight. She ignored him and pulled him away. 'I like this man, he's funny!'

"He could sleep outside."

"In the rain?" Sarah asked. "You don't even leave a dog out in the rain, Suno."

"He's worse than a dog isn't he? Isn't he a dog demon? He can take it." 'I don't even want him here, but something odd is probably going on and he should be here to clean up his mess. Besides, I don't need the public looking at my lawn and spotting him.'

'Man, this is a switch' Kagome thought to herself. 'Suno has a problem with Inuyasha being a demon! I wonder what would happen if Suno and Sesshoumaru met each other. It's a good thing that they can't. It's impossible, but if they did, it would be totally awkward. Maybe Suno wouldn't mind much, but Sesshoumaru would probably go ballistic with the thought.' "Maybe we should talk, just the two of us, Ikuto."

Suno had no problem leaving them alone. He wasn't in the mood to hear about all of the minor details Kagome was about to give him. 'I have a feeling that I'm the one who's going to fix this mess. They shouldn't try to sugarcoat anything about his life, no matter how unfair it is.' "I have to find out some excuse for him and make preparations."

"I'll get you two something to drink" Sarah told Ikuto and Kagome, so Sarah and Suno decided to leave them alone.

"Is what we have to talk about that serious that everyone had to leave us alone, Kagome?"

Kagome nodded. "Yeah Ikuto, we really need to talk and it's all very important."

To be continued…

A/N: Check out my new story "Forever Until This Day." It's only a one shot. Oh, and make sure that you review!