Disclaimer: Inuyasha is not mine.

Written for the April 2006 round of iyflashfic on livejournal for AmaraAnon!

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Inuyasha drifted awake to find himself starting at the ceiling of a small hut with no memory of how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was running as fast as he could, and then she'd screamed his name.

'That's right,' he thought as he tried to sit up, and fell back to the mat as a sharp lance of pain shot from his shoulder quickly, almost knocking the breath out of him, 'she betrayed me.'

He lay there for a moment, testing out his limbs gently, noting that his left shoulder seemed to be the only injury he'd sustained.

'She only shot once?' he mused, noting that she had once before pinned him to a tree with a handful of arrows in a matter of seconds. Frankly, he was surprised that he was still alive. Bringing up his right hand to inspect his wound, he noticed something amiss.

There were no claws on his right hand. He turned his head as much as he was able without aggravating his shoulder. His long black hair was draped neatly to his right. Black. He quickly counted the days in his head since the last new moon, and found that he had either been sleeping for almost three weeks, or…

"Inuyasha?" a small voice said from somewhere beyond his field of vision, "Are you awake?" the voice sounded familiar, but Inuyasha couldn't place the voice to a face until she leaned over him cautiously, prodding at his bandages and wincing at his sharp intake of breath as she did so.

"Kaede?" Inuyasha muttered, as the twelve-year-old gently peeled back his bandages revealing a crudely stitched wound. Kikyo's sister? But…Kikyo was the one who had given him the wound, why would her little sister be helping him? He searched the girl's face for answers, but she wouldn't meet his gaze. At the sound of him speaking her name she jerked back for a moment, but quickly composed herself.

"Inuyasha, your wound is healing, but you've still got a long way to go," she said, applying a poultice to the wound and then wrapping it back up, "I've made you some rice if you're hungry, and then you should try to rest." She sounded very sure of herself, but Inuyasha couldn't help but notice the slight shake in her hands as she gingerly lifted his left arm to secure the bandages.

"How long have I been out?" he asked quietly, still searching her face, and finding nothing but a tiny glimmer of fear.

"Three days,' she answered simply, adjusting the bandages once more before pulling a blanket over his shoulders.

"Three days?" he asked, frowning, "Then, why am I still…and…what exactly happened? Where's Kikyo?" Kaede turned away from Inuyasha quickly, and began to fidget with the rice that was cooking over the meager fire.

"Kikyo-onee-sama is dead," she said into the cooking pot, "she died three days ago."

"What?" Inuyasha shouted, sitting up quickly, sending pain shooting from his shoulder, but he forced himself to remain seated, "What the hell happened? Why am I human? That…that doesn't make sense, she's the one who…" the pain suddenly became unbearable, and he lay down again as bright spots clouded his vision.

"Be careful!" Kaede shouted, rushing to his side and wringing her hands together nervously, "you'll open up the wound again!"

"Just tell me what happened, please," he said through clenched teeth, inwardly cursing. If he were in hanyou form he knew that he would be completely healed by now. Kaede quickly unwrapped the bandages again, applying another poultice, hands shaking even worse than before.

"K-Kikyo-onee-sama shot you with a purification arrow," she began, voice shaking almost as much as her hands, "I…I suppose that because you are hanyou it merely turned you human instead of killing you, but the wound was very serious anyway. I dragged you here before any of the other villagers realized who you were and have been caring for you here."

"And Kikyo?" Inuyasha probed, wincing slightly when she applied pressure to the wound, "How did she die?" Kaede left his side again and headed for the fire.

"You did it, didn't you?" She spoke slowly, as if the words might break him if she said them too quickly, "you…you slashed her with your claws and then you told her that you were just trying to take the jewel, and stole it from her, and ran away…you…" She trailed off, staring onto the cooking pot once more and turning her body away from him.

"What?" he whispered, confusion and rage bubbling to the surface, "She said that I…? but she…she's the one who betrayed me, she led me on, she told me…we were supposed to…" he turned his face toward the fire and took a deep breath. She wasn't even listening to him, was she? He took a deep breath, and said louder, "Why did you save me then, if you believed that I had killed your sister?"

"You were kind to me once," she said softly with a slight frown, "and I am a miko…I could not just let you die."

"But I am hanyou…miko kill youkai all the time," he said, still trying to reconcile what had happened. It just didn't make any sense.

"You aren't a youkai right now," she pointed out with an air of finality, ladling a large portion of rice into a bowl and bringing it over to Inuyasha, who struggled to sit again, this time managing to remain seated without nearly passing out from pain. He took the rice from her and wolfed it down hungrily. Kaede couldn't help but to let a small smile pass her lips. When he had finished she gently pressed his shoulders back, urging him to lie down.

"Don't worry about me, brat," he said, eyes fluttering sleepily. All that exertion earlier really had paid its toll on him, "I'll be back to normal in no time, and then I'm out of here." It wasn't long before he was asleep.

'That's what I'm afraid of,' Kaede thought, pulling the blanket up to his chin, 'I need to know what really happened before you run away again.' She watched him for several minutes, noting the way his brow furrowed into a frown not too long after he fell asleep and stayed that way for the rest of the night. She'd been watching him often over the past few days, and his face always seemed to be contorted into a frown as he slept. Kaede sighed and rose, many duties to complete before she could retire for the evening.

'What are you dreaming about?' she wondered.

---

The next morning Inuyasha woke from a particularly unpleasant dream involving a spidery looking Kikyo shooting him with arrows to find three unfamiliar faces looming over him. With a jerk he sat up, causing the children to scramble for the door. His shoulder twinged slightly less than the previous night, but was still quite painful. Quickly noting that he was still human, he turned to the children.

"Who are you?" he asked rudely, "and where's Kaede?" the children clung to the door frame, but the tallest, a boy, spoke up first.

"Kaede-sama is performing her morning duties, Yuudai-san," the child began tentatively, "She told us to tell you that there's something on the fire for you and that she'll be back soon." The child's eyes flickered to his two companions and then back to Inuyasha, "She…she told us to watch you and make sure you don't get into trouble." Inuyasha scowled, but had to admit that he understood Kaede's reluctance to leave him alone in her home.

Kaede was gone for several hours, and over that time a wide array of villagers who all called him 'Yuudai-san' (to Inuyasha's confusion and amusement) trailed through the small hut, each one telling him that Kaede was busy, and that she'd be back soon. Some of the villagers, attempted to engage him in small talk, but Inuyasha wasn't quite sure how to deal with it, as he hadn't ever had to actually talk to any humans (or youkai for that matter) for any length of time. After the third woman with a small child had gone on and on about how he should be more careful during hunting season, he decided to pretend to be sleeping whenever anyone else came by.

Finally, in the late evening, Kaede finally came back, looking worried and exhausted.

"I'm sorry, Inuyasha, there was more to do today than I originally thought," she said quickly, rushing to the fire to see that it was half full of something that smelled delicious. "Did Hirata-san make this for you?"

"Was that the woman with the three brats that wouldn't leave her alone?" Inuyasha said, sitting up carefully. Kaede nodded and served him and then herself. They ate in awkward silence for a few long minutes, until Inuyasha finally broke the silence.

"Yuudai, eh?" he said, unable to conceal his smile, "Why'd you choose that name? 'Great hero'?" Kaede blushed for a moment but didn't say anything, and Inuyasha realized that she'd been fidgeting nervously for the past several minutes. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," she said, shifting her position awkwardly, but she felt him watching her, and eventually confessed, "it's not important at all, there was just…there was just this man, in a cave that Kikyo-onee-sama was taking care of, and I just went to check on him, and he's gone. The whole cave is burned out and he's not there anymore, not even a trace. It just…seemed strange. I got a bad feeling about it. It definitely wasn't human." Inuyasha shivered, for some reason her story made him suddenly very cold and he wrapped the blanket tighter around his shoulders. They were silent for another long moment before Inuyasha spoke again.

"What…what do you think really happened?" he said softly, "With Kikyo and I, I mean."

"I don't know," Kaede sighed, "I don't believe that you're lying, but there's no way that Kikyo-onee-sama could have done what you said she did…I knew…that you were going to use the jewel to become human, right?"

"How did you…it doesn't matter…yes. I told her I would use the jewel to become human, and then it would be gone and we could live together." Inuyasha blushed. He had never talked to anyone about such matters before. Even with Kikyo it had always been in an almost cryptic language, always dancing around what they really meant to say. "I guess she got her wish anyway," he laughed, "I'm human anyway."

"I think it's temporary," she shrugged, "The purity arrow purified your youki, but not completely, I can still feel it, although it's very weak. It might take some time, but you'll probably be back to normal within the next month." Inuyasha nodded slowly, examining his human hands.

"I guess it's not too bad for now," he said, "as long as I'm here I don't have to worry about protecting myself or anything, and most of the people here are pretty nice, even if they are really chatty." Kaede couldn't help but smile, even though her heart was still beating faster than it should have been because of what she'd encountered earlier.

"I can't help but think that Onigumo's disappearance has something to do with Kikyo-onee-sama's death," she said after a moment, "Onee-sama said that the wound on her shoulder was inflicted by you, but the youki I felt then…it was different. It felt like…that cave."

"Do you think," he began slowly, "that you could take me to that cave tomorrow? I don't know if it will do any good, but I need to know what really happened." Kaede nodded slowly, and then gathered their bowls, ready to head to bed. Before she could lay out her futon on the opposite side of the fire from where Inuyasha lay, he stopped her one last time. "Kaede?" he said softly.

"Mmhm?" she replied. Glancing over her shoulder nervously. Last night when she'd gone to bed Inuyasha was already asleep. For some reason having him awake as she prepared for bed felt different, and she found her heart racing for another reason. She found that her mind was wandering slightly and that she'd missed what Inuyasha had said in return. "Sorry, what was that?" she said, wringing her hands together nervously.

"I said, what did you do with the jewel?" Inuyasha asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, "are you protecting it now?" Kaede snapped back to attention, and laid out her futon nervously.

"N-no," she said with a blush, "Kikyo-onee-sama insisted that we burn the jewel with her body, so that it might not fall into the hands of evil again."

"Oh," Inuyasha sighed, unable to hide the disappointment in his voice, "I suppose she meant me by that, then?"

"I'm sorry, Inuyasha." Kaede didn't know quite what else to say, and Inuyasha had turned his back to her, so she quickly crawled under her own covers and fell asleep.

---

The next day when Inuyasha woke, he found that Kaede was gone once again, and that the steady stream of nosy neighbors hadn't let up at all. Since he was feeling much better that day, the sleep excuse didn't seem like it would work, so he endured long explanations of how the fields were prospering, who was marrying whom, and news from the wars in the south. Though Inuyasha didn't know any of the people involved in these people's stories, he found their idle chatter to be a bit more tolerable than it had seemed yesterday. The people were actually quite nice, if he stopped and thought about it, and it was the first time he'd been able to actually talk to people without them starting at his ears or chasing after him with sticks since he was a child. It was actually rather pleasant, just sitting and talking.

That evening Kaede returned earlier than the previous night to take Inuyasha to the cave where Onigumo had been. Standing up had been a bit of a chore, since he'd been in bed for the past four days, but he somehow managed to get to his feet and followed Kaede to the outskirts of the village.

When they reached the cave, the hairs in the back of Inuyasha's neck stood up, and he noticed that Kaede wouldn't even step inside. There was a large scorch mark on the ground, in the shape of a man.

"So this is where he was?" he whispered back to Kaede, somehow feeling that talking any louder would wake something up.

"Yes," she said softly, taking another step back, "can't you feel that?" Without his youkai senses, Inuyasha was having trouble sensing anything like he normally would, but as he stepped further into the cave a tingle crawled up his spine like a spider.

"Yes," he whispered, "but I can't tell what it is in this form. It's definitely not human." He took another step forward, towards the scorch mark on the ground, and the tingles multiplied, as though hundreds of tiny spiders were crawling up his back and down his arms. His heart started racing, and he realized that he was backing away, almost automatically. "Let's leave," he whispered to Kaede, "I don't like this at all. I don't know what that is, but I have a feeling whoever that man was had something to do with Kikyo's death." Kaede nodded, hugging herself tightly. Not wanting to stay in that awful place any longer than necessary, they headed back to the village in complete silence.

---

Inuyasha spent the next few weeks recovering quickly, passing the time by doing odd jobs for the neighbors, such as transporting wood for building new houses and helping to till the fields. The villagers were all quite agreeable people, and welcomed Inuyasha's help. Everyone was talking about the wonderful Yuudai-san, whom the young miko had found dying in the woods.

Some days the farmers would idly gossip while working in the fields, and more than once the conversation had swayed towards the events that had taken place a few weeks earlier. It seemed that the entire village believed that it had been Inuyasha's fault that their precious miko-sama had been brutally murdered, and all of them were on guard in case he should come back to finish off her poor younger sister.

Sometimes they worried after Kaede, speaking of their concern of her ability, especially as an archer with only one eye. Inuyasha knew that Kaede was trying her very hardest. After she'd returned back to the hut they shared very late several nights in a row, looking especially exhausted, Inuyasha had asked where she went those evenings, and she told him that she'd been training with the miko of a nearby village. Inuyasha was angry at the farmers for having such little faith in the girl, as he'd seen her determination and effort firsthand.

In the evenings, when Kaede was not training, the two of them would talk, most of the time of nothing important, he told her what he knew of the youkai of the forests, so that she might be better prepared in case of an attack, and she told him stories about her training, or the sick people she had treated that day. From time to time their chatter would drift to Kikyo, and the man who had disappeared from the cave, but whenever it did Inuyasha just ended up getting frustrated and went to bed angry. Every time they talked it seemed to be more and more apparent that Onigumo had something to do with Kikyo's death, but they weren't making any progress, and Inuyasha was still human. He felt helpless.

---

One night, about a month after Kikyo's death, Inuyasha woke up in the middle of the night when he suddenly felt a surge of familiar youki. Having been quite asleep, it took him a moment to realize that the youki he felt was his own, and that he had finally transformed back into his hanyou form. Wiggling puppy-dog ears and running his tongue over familiar fangs, Inuyasha pondered what to do next.

It wasn't as if he hadn't been preparing for this eventuality all along, but now that the day had actually arrived he had to plan a course of action. Inuyasha stood and pulled on his fire-rat robe, preparing to leave. He'd spent enough time in the village to know that if anyone in the entire village found out he was there, he'd be hunted down and murdered before he had a chance to explain himself.

Plus, right now his main objective was to find out who had killed Kikyo, and kill them. Simple enough now that he had his youkai strength, right? He leaned over to pick up a few leftover onigiri that one of the kind neighbor women had dropped of the night before, and saw Kaede out of the corner of his eye. She was awake, and sitting up in bed, staring at him.

"I'd forgotten," she whispered, "that you would have to leave soon," her hands were clasped together tightly, her face downturned. "Where will you go?"

"I have to find out what really happened that day," he began, crouching down next to the girl, "now that I'm back to normal I can sniff him out. I'll kill him. I'll avenge her. Okay?" He nudged her lightly on the shoulder, and was surprised when she lifted her face and there were tears streaming down it.

"Will I ever see you again?" she whispered, reaching out a shaking hand to cling to a sleeve of his fire-rat robe.

"Okay," Inuyasha said with a smile, "I can't come back in hanyou form, or the villagers will kill me, but I'll be back here on the next new moon, okay?" Kaede smiled and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"The new moon," she replied.