Disclaimer: I do not own either Inuyasha or Rurouni Kenshin.

Chapter 16.

The trip had been arduous, and Misao thought she could have been mistaken, but Aoshi seemed to be growing more and more restless as they neared their destination. When the wooden palisade finally came into view he was practically fidgeting, which for Aoshi constituted looking around and shaking his head in disbelief.

"Sango, you say this was YOUR village?" Aoshi asked in almost disbelief.

"Yes, my family and the other demon slayers have lived here for generations." Sango said with pride. "Why is something the matter?"

"I know this place." Aoshi said simply.

Everyone turned to look at Aoshi. Misao couldn't imagine how Aoshi could know something about a village that existed several hundred years before he was born.

"How can this be, Aoshi-san?" Miroku was asking. "You are from a different time. Are you saying this place exists in your era as well?"

"Yes, it is the Oniwaban base camp. It is the training ground where Okina and I were trained. All of the Oniwaban have made a trip here for training at some point. It is rumored that this village existed for centuries before the Shogunate and that it was the birthplace of the Oniwaban ninjas." Aoshi was saying seriously. He turned to look at Sango. "Your people may have been one of the predecessors of the modern Oniwaban group."

Misao thought back to watching Sango fight. It was true, her style of fighting was indeed similar to her own. The idea though that she might be one of their ancestors was almost ridiculous.

"Surely you can't be serious Aoshi." Sango was saying.

Hiko however was nodding. "It may very well be. Alanor left those books of his. Why don't we look in them and see if there is a link between you. We need to make certain that we won't be altering anything by staying here."

"I thought Alanor said we weren't supposed to go looking into our futures." Aoshi said coldly.

"WE aren't. Since my new apprentice is from a time much further in the future than any of us she is going to look at them so that it doesn't disturb anything. For her, it's already history. Anyway, I'm not intending to look directly into the future. Alanor said he could look at how history worked out in other dimensions, if we can look at those as an example we might have an idea of what we're doing." Hiko said looking around the village. "It appears everything is in order with the village. We'll need to start gathering food to keep us since we don't know how long we're going to have to be here. Aside from that I suggest we all get together tonight around a good fire and have a good old fashioned fortune telling."

Misao was a bundle of nerves for the rest of the day. Even to see a shadow of the future was a thrill. She had to admit she liked going to see the fortunetellers, but she had always believed that it was all some sort of hoax. This was going to be the real thing.

Dinner that night consisted of a double portion of their remaining food that had been brought with them. Since the men were getting ready to get more food it was safe to splurge a little on a feast. Everyone was settling down around the fire and Tae had even let Hiko have some sake. Everyone was chatting happily, but everyone's eyes would eventually stray to Kagome.

Finally, Hiko brought everyone to order and looked over at Kagome. Misao settled down next to Soujiro and hoped she wasn't going to be disappointed.

Kagome, who had been studying from the book, pulled out the little orb that Alanor had packed with it and placed it over the open pages. The lights within began to dance and it floated before her as she looked at it.

"Hiko-sama, what is it I'm supposed to be looking for?" Kagome asked.

"Look for a connection between Sango and Misao and Aoshi. We need to know if they are relations. It should be the same as when you looked for the information about the villagers back in the village, only this time we need more detail." Hiko said looking around at the small gathering.

Kagome opened the book and Misao could see Sango's image on the page in front of her. Kagome looked at the orb and then quickly pulled her eyes away. "I can't do this." She said shortly.

"What's wrong Kagome?" Sango said reassuringly.

"I'm seeing you grow old and die. Some of the scenes are pretty violent." Kagome said looking down.

"I'm sure they will be." Hiko said managing to sound sympathetic. "Remember though that these are only things that have happened in other dimensions and that this is no guarantee of how this dimension should be. We are still free beings with the ability to choose our own destinies. We simply need to be aware of any pitfalls."

Kagome nodded and went back to watching the orb. Misao could see her flinch occasionally. She did not envy her the task of seeing what was in that orb. When she was finally done she looked haunted and looked around at everyone else there. One by one she looked into the orb after turning to everyone's page. It took quite a while.

"So Kagome, is there anything we need to be made aware of?" Hiko asked.

"It's hard to say, but in the majority of scenarios that get played out there is some connection that flows from Sango to Aoshi and Misao. She is not their descendant, but her descendants do teach their descendants their martial arts styles." Kagome said meekly.

"My descendants?" Sango said quietly. "You mean that I will have children?"

Miroku seemed to perk up at this and was grinning as if he were getting ready to say something perverted, but a look from Kagome brought him up short. She looked disturbed and everyone could see it.

"Well, I suppose that we should all retire to our huts then." Hiko was saying to no one in particular. "Now that we know this we need to make sure Sango keeps safe. It might change our own history."

Aoshi looked at Kagome and said something that shocked every one. "Are any of us YOUR ancestors Kagome?"

Kagome looked a little startled, but nodded. "I can't tell you who, but yes one of you is my ancestor."

Tae was the next to speak. "Kagome, honey you look shaken. Come with us." Tae gathered up Kagome and managed a scathing look at Hiko. "We ladies are going to go comfort Kagome. This has obviously been a trial for her, you men stay out here tonight and keep an eye out."

Some of the men looked like they might argue, but Hiko shook his head at them. "You are right. I'm sorry Kagome, we had to know."

Misao got up and went into the largest hut with the rest of the women. She moved up beside Sango as they closed the doors to make sure the men weren't listening in. "I guess you're the beginning of our clan of ninjas. She said seriously."

"I guess I'm doomed." Sango said miserably. "I know Miroku is more than likely going to be the father of my children. I guess it means I'm just going to have to suffer his womanizing."

"He won't." Kagome said near to tears.

"What?" Sango said wide-eyed. "I thought you said seeing the future couldn't be that exact."

"In most cases it isn't. However, in some ways the future will always be the same. It was horrible, Sango." Kagome said breaking into tears as she hugged her friends close. All the women gathered around as Kagome sat down amongst them.

"I had to watch you die a hundred times over. Disease, demons, old age, it was all in their. I even saw you burned alive in one of the dimensions." Kagome said crying.

Sango hugged Kagome close and tried to comfort her. "It's OK Kagome. Nothing is ever certain. I could have died any number of times while we were traveling together. Nothing has changed. We live with the possibility of dying every day."

Kagome finally managed to regain her composure. "I can tell you one thing though. In all the times I watched you marry Miroku and bear his children, I never saw him be unfaithful. Even after you died, he would sit by your grave and waste away until he joined you. He loves you Sango, more deeply than anything I've ever seen. His eyes might wander, but he never betrayed your trust in him."

Misao looked at Sango with a bit of envy. That type of love was hard to come by and it was usually only born out of adversity. She had to admit she was a little jealous.

"Thank you Kagome, you don't have to say anything else about my future." Sango said trying to soothe her friends frayed nerves. Everyone could see that a sense of peace had fallen over Sango though.

"No Sango, please. It helps to talk about the good things. That way I can try to forget all the terrible things I saw." Kagome said shakily.

Kagome looked to the rest of the women. Misao was ashamed to say it, but the rest of them were burning to know what she had to say too. None of them wanted to admit it though.

Finally, Kagome smiled. "It was strange. In other dimensions some of you end up loving different men, some more than others."

Megumi chirped in to try to lighten the mood at Kaoru's expense. "So did I ever steal Ken-san from the raccoon?" Megumi said casually.

Kagome looked a little pained, which was usually a good sign that she was about to be honest and brutal. "No, actually. Very rarely do you end up with Kenshin."

Megumi was obviously hurt. She hid it well though. "Great, so she gets the swordsman and I end up with a rooster."

"Actually, in most cases you never marry." Kagome says sadly. "There are a few dimensions in which you and Sanosuke fall in love, and you are pretty happy too, but in most he ends up heading off to Mongolia and you go back to Aizu."

Misao could tell Megumi didn't really like that idea, but she held her peace. "So what about Kaoru and Kenshin?"

Kagome looked even sadder. "In most cases, Kaoru ends up marrying Kenshin. Sometimes it's a happy marriage, and sometimes it isn't. Kenshin seems to die young in a lot of the dimensions, and occasionally Kaoru dies with him in his arms either by plague or…" Kagome stopped looking over at Kaoru. "I'm sorry I've said too much."

Kaoru had a distant look in her eyes and Misao couldn't really tell what she was thinking. "I've considered that as much myself." Kaoru said finally. "If I were to die, I'd want it to be with Kenshin. No matter how soon or late in life it comes. Tell me, do we have children?" Kaoru asked finally.

"Yes, in most cases you have a son. I must warn you though, that you'll be happier if it is a daughter. A son will tend to grow up in opposition to Kenshin while daughters will tend to bring happiness to your family."

Kaoru actually smiled. "I will look forward to it then. You said 'most of the time', is there someone else I tend to marry?"

Kagome actually blushed. "It's a bit hard to explain. For some reason men are drawn to you Kaoru, don't ask me why. I saw dimensions were you ended up marrying any number of men; Soujiro, Sano, I even saw one with you marrying Saitoh. Though I must admit these were very rare cases."

"Thankfully." Kaoru said blushing. Misao noticed most of the women were giving her pretty distrustful looks now.

Tokio was next to speak. "Saitoh doesn't kill Kenshin does he?"

Kagome actually smiled. "You'll be pleased to know that Saitoh's future is pretty well locked in from this point on. Get ready for old age, and expect grandchildren from your adopted son soon, he's going to be getting interested in girls early. You've nothing else to worry about. Saitoh never gets the chance to challenge Kenshin, and you don't have to worry about Sano either."

Tokio looked rather dumbfounded. "Why would I be worried about Sano?"

Kagome's face immediately went white and then started blushing furiously. "Saitoh never has been much of a lady's man has he?" Kagome said slowly. "If he hadn't met you and become your husband it is exceedingly rare that any other woman has anything to do with him."

Tokio nodded. "I can see that, no other woman would have him, but what has that got to do with Sano?"

"Weeeellllll," Kagome said slowly, "if it weren't for you, he would have been driven to homosexuality by this point in his life, and I saw a few cases of him and Sano…"

The roar of laughter from all the women was deafening. The very idea sent them all into all out laughter. No one was surprised to see Soujiro come running in to make sure everything was OK. He stood there for a few moments until Misao finally caught her breath.

"Everything's OK Sou-chan, Tokio just told us the most thrilling joke to try to cheer up Kagome." Misao said with tears in her eyes. Tokio was still rolling on the floor pounding it for all she was worth. Megumi was right beside her.

"That would explain the animosity between the two of them." Megumi said laughing still.

Soujiro looked confused, but just nodded and let himself out.

After everyone quieted down Kagome turned to Kamatari. "Would you like to know anything?"

"No, I think I'm going to opt for the thrill of discovery. Most of you are pretty settled in your relationships while I'm just starting to embark on mine." Kamatari said uneasily.

Kagome was actually smiling. "Suit yourself, I didn't see that much anyway. You'll be in pretty uncertain waters anyway."

"What about Misao, Kagome?" Kaoru said looking over at Misao.

Misao felt butterflies rise in her stomach. She hadn't really had the courage to ask, but now she was committed.

Kagome's expression turned grave. "You've already crossed a few hurdles, but a lot still remains. In many of the outcomes you ended up finally seducing Aoshi, but it occasionally didn't happen when you met Soujiro. Misao, I feel like I need to tell you this, it won't change the future much and it will make you happier in the long run. Be very careful about having children. In some of the cases I saw, you died in childbirth. The end result was that Aoshi tended to blame Soujiro and then they ended up killing each other in battle or else having a lot of animosity between them. I don't think that they will have much animosity between them in this dimension, but please make sure you have someone there with you when you have your first child."

Misao looked down. The temperature in the room had apparently dropped because she was shivering. "So Soujiro loves me?"

"Yes he does, and so does Aoshi after a fashion. Aoshi's love is more that of a brother or even a father. I see strife between him and Soujiro if anything should happen to you."

Misao bounced back immediately and was putting on her perkiest face for the rest of them. "Well, I guess I get to beat on Soujiro then." She said smiling. The other women were smiling too, but Misao could tell she didn't have them fooled much with her outer guise. She simply wasn't as good at disguising her emotions like Soujiro or Aoshi. "Well, we know what's in store for Tsubame." Misao said brightly, which caused Tsubame to blush harder than normal. "How about Tae."

Tae started to object, but Kagome only smiled. "I'm afraid I can't tell you anything."

"Why not?" Misao asked sincerely. The other women looked disappointed too.

"I never saw Tae with any men, and I hate to say it but she only met Hiko because of my interference. According to what I've seen, if it hadn't been for my meddling, she and Hiko would have never met."

"And what makes you think I'd be interested in what role that drunken jerk might have in my future?" Tae said haughtily. The rest of the women were already grinning though. Hiko might be older, but he had a powerful frame and dashing good looks. Misao also heard Tae kept paintings of handsome swordsmen. She'd be surprised to find that there were a few of Hiko around the Aoiya in the hands of her more amorous sister ninjas.

There was one last question everyone was dying to ask, but no on really knew how to ask it. Finally, it was Tsubame who blurted it out. "Who is your ancestor, Kagome?"

Kagome sighed and looked around the room. "I can't really tell you except to say it isn't Sango. One of you ladies here is my great great grandmother. I can't say who, but now that I've seen it I can scarcely believe it. I have a picture of that person in my home in the future. It is a very old photograph of her holding my grandfather."

"So one of our grandchildren, is going to be your grandfather?" Kaoru was saying nervously.

Kagome was nodding quietly. The rest of the women looked around at each other wondering who it could be. Misao couldn't help but think about Soujiro. For it to be her that meant she would have to bear Soujiro children. It wasn't an unpleasant thought.

"Well, I think that's all for me tonight. You girls try to keep warm." Tokio said as she stood up. "Someone needs to go guard Hajime's masculinity."

The rest of the women broke out into new fits of laughter, blushing, or in Tsubame's case fainting. Misao laughed as best she could and resolved to get started on Soujiro the very next day. For better or for worse, her path was chosen now. "Sango, can I ask you something…"