There was something about that monk... Something so effectively charming and disarming that Sango just kept falling for the act. The first time she let Miroku slip past her defenses, she had been angry but had considered it a simple mistake. But this second time left her feeling disheartened. She had let her guard down. She had let him dupe her. A Taijiya warrior should know better than to be taken so easily, especially when it was the second time. Had she really lost so much of her training along with the rest of her people?

As they left Mushin's temple, Kagome was well aware of Sango's bad mood. She didn't comment when Sango insisted on walking well away from Miroku, and she kept her chatter to a minimum, at least until Sango's temper had cooled a bit.

For the most part, the entire group was subdued. It seemed none of them was quite ready to talk about what had happened back at the temple yet. The threat to Miroku's life had worried them all, and now they were all shocked at the power Inuyasha had released from his sword in order to save Miroku from the youkai.

While they walked, while dusk settled over the land, Sango found herself wondering just how much she didn't know about her traveling companions. It seemed like they all had their secrets...

As dusk turned to dark, Miroku said, "The camp site I know about is a little way ahead."

With their destination at hand, Inuyasha dropped back to walk beside Miroku, muttering angrily all the while. Sango ignored him, focusing instead on finding the camp site Miroku had mentioned. The sooner she could get to bed, the sooner she could put this day behind her and move on to the next.

The monk was right; it was only a little while later that they found a small path leading off the main road. The path meandered a bit before ending at a clearing in the forest that was big enough for a sizeable campsite. There was an old fire pit in the middle of it, indicating that it had been used quite often in the past, though it was empty now. She could hear the faint sound of moving water, and there was a certain warmth and humidity to the air that told her a hot spring was nearby. Kagome noticed it, too, and nudged her gently. "I think we aren't far from a hot spring," Kagome whispered.

Sango nodded.

"If they keep talking like that," Kagome went on, motioning conspiratorially at Inuyasha and Miroku, who were still in deep conversation, "we should try for a bath."

After the past few days, a soak in a hot spring sounded heavenly. "Someone needs to keep an eye on the monk," Sango said bluntly. Miroku had already been far too forward with her. She was not going to give him another chance to take advantage.

Kagome nodded. "We'll ask Shippou once we get camp set up."

And that was exactly what they did. They remained quiet while Inuyasha and Miroku continued their conversation, apparently oblivious to their female companions' plans. After waiting a few minute, Sango and Kagome were able to slip away unnoticed, taking Shippou with them and leaving Kirara to stand guard.

It was easy to find the spring, even in the dark. A well-worn path led the way from the campsite.

"Are they still busy?" Kagome asked once Sango had scouted the spring for intruders or dangerous animals.

Shippou slipped off through the trees only to return a few moments later. "Looks like it," he reported happily.

"Good, then let's get in the water," Kagome said.

While Kagome got undressed and slipped into the hot spring, Sango thought of something. "It's obvious that the monk would try to peep, but Inuyasha does, too?"

"He won't look," Kagome said, her tone tense with displeasure. "He acts like he doesn't even care."

Do you want him to look? Sango bit back the words, knowing they would only cause trouble. But still, she wondered. She knew that Kagome and Inuyasha had some sort of a connection, however strange it seemed to her, but she had not really thought that they had that sort of relationship...

Time was wasting, so she decided Kagome and Inuyasha's romantic relationship - or lack thereof - was something she could worry about later on. She hurried out of her clothes and carefully made her way into the steaming hot water.

It was only when Kagome gasped that she realized her hair had fallen to one side, revealing the mass of scar tissue that crossed her upper back. Unpleasant memories shocked through her, but she did her best to push them away. She was getting quite good at that - keeping the memories at bay. But she could tell that Kagome was still bothered by the sight, so in a noncommittal way she said, "Oh, the scar."

"From a youkai?" Kagome guessed.

Sango sat down on a submerged rock that wasn't too far from where she had been standing. She felt better having something solid and stable beneath her, rather than searching for safe footing in the depths of the spring. "No, it was my brother, before he died," she explained falteringly, realizing that while the others kept their secrets from her, she was keeping her own from them.

- Kohaku's chain scythe, slicing through the air, piercing effortlessly through her armor to puncture her back -

"Naraku laid a trap at his castle."

- Kohaku's face covered in blood, her blood, Father's blood, blood dripping from the blade of the chain scythe -

"Kohaku was controlled by a youkai. He killed our friends. He killed our father..."

- Kohaku, at the very end, staring at her with wide, sad eyes. Her little brother... -

"In the end, though..." She trailed off, struggled to set her thoughts back on their proper path. "He was always a timid and kind child."

"Ane-ue... I'm scared..."

"The youkai changed him into a killer... but before he died, he returned to being my little brother again."

She could not bring herself to tell Kagome how the guards had fired arrows at Kohaku, how they had fired at her, how she had been buried alive with the bodies of the other Taijiya... It was too painful a memory to share, and it would only upset Kagome more.

If only the water from the hot spring could soothe the wounds in her heart the way it eased her sore body.

"I'm sorry," Kagome said. Her voice was gentle and earnest, as if Sango needed confirmation that she had meant no harm. "I never meant to bring up such a sad story."

"It's okay," Sango assured her. "I mean, everyone that deals with Naraku seems to have some sort of tragic story, don't they?" Like the monk and his curse.

Once again, there was Miroku, intruding on her thoughts. And, she thought upon hearing the telltale rustle of dead vegetation underfoot, there he was, intruding on her bath, too. "Besides," she went on warningly, glad to see Kagome turn to follow her gaze, "they did too come to peek." And with that she swept her arm across the top of the spring, hurling water into the darkness at the other side of the spring.

When no alarm was raised, Sango motioned for Kagome to stay where she was while she went to investigate. Of course, Kagome did no such thing, so they both crept over to where the noises had been coming from, only to find nothing more than a stunned - and sopping wet - monkey lying in the brush. Sango frowned. "Only a monkey?"

She'd been so sure it was Miroku lurking in the bushes, she was almost disappointed to find out it wasn't.

And then to her horror, as if her thoughts had summoned them, Inuyasha and Miroku stepped out of the gloom right in front of her.