Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. I do not own "Glory of Life".

Xxxxx

A/N: HI! Thank you again for the reviews… A bit more than last time. Yay!

Oh goodness you guys really must check out this site… www(dot)smosh(dot)com ! They're so funny, I love the Smosh Short 1: Dolls.

Yay! On to the chapter! OHH! But if you get really grossed out by stuff… then you shouldn't read some of this. Because I go into some detail…

Xxxxx

Glory of Life

Chapter Three

Xxxxx

We can stand up and sing

The love that's within us will conquer, in some way

Now we're fighting to win

So hold on to this dream for the glory of life

"You girls are to get rid of any jewelry, makeup, hoop-skirts, and anything that might attract attention to yourselves. You are all to look similar -- plain, middle-aged women."

Sango huffed. 'Middle-aged? I'm not even 25 yet!' The bitchy old woman walked down the line of women who all wanted to help out in the Civil War by being nurses. Girls handed over all of their bracelets and earrings, and the ones with makeup on were ordered to go over to the bathroom and wash it all off.

You see, if you looked all flashy and stuff then the men being treated would be more interested in you. If everyone looked plain, then it wouldn't necessarily be about who looked the best, but who was the nicest. They would care more about how they were treated. Nurses were meant to treat people, not to look good.

Once the old hag was satisfied with the transformation, she led the women through the small field hospital to show them where supplies were. After their small tour, the woman in charge counted them off by ones and twos, ones being the nurses who stayed in the hospital and twos being the battlefield nurses. Sango couldn't believe that this was how they were divided, but she was a two.

Being a battlefield nurse sucked, Sango learned. She was in a lot of danger while she was helping the injured soldiers. Bullets never stopped flying, so she would have to dodge a few while working. There were bodies everywhere, and sometimes it sickened Sango. So many people died, but the people fighting almost didn't notice. They were too busy trying to keep themselves alive. It was awful.

Xxxxx

A few weeks into her battlefield experience, the woman who had given her the job asked Sango to switch being a battlefield nurse to becoming a nurse who stayed in the hospital. Sango was more than happy to switch… it was much safer, and much cleaner. Everyday in the battlefield, she'd have to wring out her long skirt because it would get soaked with blood.

But in the field hospital, it was okay because there wasn't as much blood on the ground. The only thing she could complain about was the smell. There were so many open wounds on the many soldiers lying around, blood was on the ground, and sickness was multiplying like rabbits. It smelled like the most awful thing she'd ever smelled in her life. It couldn't be put into words. But she was happy, or at least, the happiest she'd get in this living hell.

Xxxxx

Sango wanted to badly to find Miroku. That had been one of the main reasons why she became a nurse. But she was working here for four months, and still had yet to see him. She wanted to know if he had sent a letter to her… Or maybe if he had come home. But she was stuck here until God knew when, and she'd never find out if he had tried to reach her.

"Sango, we need you to treat this patient quickly!" called in another nurse, Kagome, from the waiting room. Kagome was nice. A little too perky for this sort of place, but nice. Patients were treated according to the severity of their wounds. Like in the Emergency Room. Sango felt bad for the ones who had to stay, waiting in agonizing pain for hours on end.

Sango didn't look out into the waiting room, she just called "bring him in" while she got out my bucket of cold water and sponge. (a/n: there was no sanitation until almost the 1900's. There was no sanitation during the Civil War. Ewww…) With Sango's back turned toward the patient, her heart stopped cold by the two syllables that came out of his mouth.

"Sango…"

She whipped around, and came face to face with a bloody Naraku. His face was mangled, with teeth missing and a mass of bruises. She let her eyes trail downwards, to see he had a humongous gash in his left leg, not to mention the shards of bone coming out of his skin. She opened her mouth to say something, but she couldn't find the words. Here was her "husband", almost bleeding to death in front of her.

She hesitated, not taking her eyes off of his bloody leg, but called, "Surgeon!"

Doctor Inuyasha, the main surgeon of the small hospital rushed over and got out his own supplies to clean up the wound. "Sango, I'm going to need a lot of things to soak up blood. We're going to perform an amputation, he's been hit with a Minie Ball… It shatters the bone…" Inuyasha just kept on talking but Sango didn't want to hear it, she just rushed off and grabbed a few towels.

Sango closed her eyes when she saw Inuyasha pull out a long saw - The Capitol Saw. But closing her eyes didn't help. She could still hear it, Naraku's muffled screams, and the saw slicing through each layer of skin until it cut through the cracking bone. Sango felt the screams crawling up her throat too, but she swallowed them. She saw this stuff everyday, why was it hitting her like this now? Was it because it was Naraku? But why? She hated him. She shouldn't be feeling like this for him.

"Scissors," Inuyasha ordered. But Sango was too dazed to hear it. "Scissors! Hurry up, god dammit or he's gonna bleed even more!" Sango fumbled around the table, and clumsily grabbed the scissors before plopping them into Doctor Inuyasha's hands. He snipped veins here, skin there, tied some loose ends together clumsily, and voila! His work was done. He wiped his ungloved hands on his apron, soaking it with fresh blood before walking away.

Shaking, Sango wrapped the bandages around Naraku's leg, which was now cut off at the knee. The bandages were already being soaked by blood, and dripping onto her grey dress. She decided to let them soak while she caught her breath.

She slowly and silently wrapped the bandages around him, then left without saying a word.

Xxxxx

A week had passed. No words came out of Naraku's mouth. Especially not now. Kagome had told Sango that Naraku died overnight. Sango didn't know what the feeling she had was called, but it felt awful. It turned out that the infection from the amputation spread through his body, and he died. It was a typical death, but the first death that truly affected Nurse Sango.

Days, weeks, months passed in the blink of an eye. The sky was always the sad color of grey, with splatters of red wounding the nurses' spirits. When would people stop dying? When would this end? It had almost been a year since Sango made this her profession, but every day never seemed to end. Each day was just strung to the other, a never ending cycle of cleaning and dressing wounds.

And then there was the ray of light.

"Come in, please," Sango called from her place. She heard feet shuffling, and she heard someone sit down softly on the cot. She sighed. 'Okay, time to act cheerful. Gotta get these soldiers' spirits up! Can't bring them down with the rest of us.' She turned around and scanned her eyes over the man's body. "So, what have we got here?"

The man grunted and hesitated. "… Just a, umm, knife wound to the shoulder…"

"Alright."

"What happened to you?"

Sango's eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Look at you now… You've lost your glow."

Sango kept her back turned to the man, trying not to listen to his crazy stories. He was probably delusional… Sometimes injuries did that to you. "Look pal, I don't know what you're talking about…"

"Mmm…" the man sighed, and then Sango felt it. Right there. On her bottom. A hand. Squeezing. She knew that hand. It had to be…

"Miroku!"

Sango turned around and wrapped her arms tightly around him, almost crying from all the happiness that swelled inside her heart.

"Ow, ow, ow!"

"Aah… I'm sorry. I'm just so happy to see you!" Sango wiped the tears from her eyes as she looked into Miroku's. He had changed. He was much tanner now, and his face looked older. His smile had more happiness to it, though. And with it, much more smile lines. "Wow, you look so different."

"You too. Why so plain?"

Sango frowned. "I have to look this way. It's part of the requirements," she stated as she went to work on his shoulder. "You know, you're lucky this isn't fatal. It didn't even hit a bone. All you need to do is rest for a little while, then you'll be fine."

"My my… Aren't we the expert?"

Sango smirked. "Shut up."

They were quiet for a while after Sango started putting Miroku's shirt back on. He finally spoke up. "What brings you all the way out here?"

Sango shifted, not sure what to tell him. But she decided to tell him the truth. "I actually came out here looking for you… Kind of… And I noticed how good I was at taking care of my bruises…"

"Wait, what?"

"I came out here looking for you!"

"No. Your bruises?"

Sango sat down beside Miroku and told him what happened when he was gone. About Naraku. Miroku couldn't stop staying sorry for leaving. He felt so terrible.

"Why didn't you write me? You promised to. I was so worried!"

"I'm sorry!" Miroku said for the thousandth time. "My regiment didn't have anymore paper. We had to sell things because we needed new shoes. I'm really sorry, Sango. You know I would keep my promise."

"I know. I was just so worried. I was afraid you died."

Nurse Kagome (ooh sounds so kinky… KINKome… that's for you, Shannon!) popped her head into the room and said, "It's almost time for lights out."

Sango smiled (fake of course) and thought, 'What is this, pre-school?' "Well I guess I should get going… I don't want to get in trouble!" Sango said with sarcasm in her tone.

"Yeah… Guess this is good night then."

"Yeah… Guess it is." But Sango didn't get up. She quickly wrapped her arms around Miroku's waist, not his shoulder this time, and sighed into his neck when she felt him wrap his arms around her body. Sango looked into his navy blue eyes for a moment before softly pressing her lips against his.

Before she started blushing, she walked out of the room with a quiet "good night." She giggled to herself when she got into her bed. Sweet dreams of Miroku filled her head.

Xxxxx

A/N: YAY! Ooh I worked SO hard on this chapter. It's 4 pages instead of 3. Yay! Ooh and people are taking notice to the fic! I'm so happy! Keep up your support! I love you guys!

MUY, MUY IMPORTANTE! I'm going to be updating every 2 weeks from here on out. I have an art class for 3 days, and also I got a job. So I won't have a lot of free time to update anymore, but I'm still going to try. Maybe once school starts and the job dies down I'll go back to updating every week, but please be patient! Thank you!