Hey guys! As I've promised, I won't leave you in the dust! Here's another edition to "Her Fate, Their Mission" Enjoy!
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"Sota! Sota?!" A young woman called around a small forest cabin.
The woman had pure black hair, and bright brown eyes. Her kimono dress was white and orange and went all the way down to her ankles, just as old robes were worn in the past. Her milky-white face carried a worried look about it as she looked around the small clearing.
"Jaken, have you seen Sota?" The girl asked a small green imp, who carried the two-headed staff with him as he approached the small cottage.
"I haven't seen him since early this morning. Perhaps he's, once again, gone back to the old shrine to see if Kaede has returned," he replied.
The girl looked down with a heavy heart and said, "He's been so quiet lately, and it seems all he can do is run back to that shrine... I wish he would allow young Kaede the time she needs to complete her task without worrying so much..."
"Who's worrying?" a man's voice came out of nowhere as his image appeared from a small dirt path.
The woman smiled with great relief and said, "Sota! There you are! I have been looking for you for quite some time now! Where have you been?"
Sota looked to the girl and said, "Oh, just walking around I guess... Going back to some of the abandoned towns and thinking..."
The girl frowned with worry again and said, "You should have more faith in her..."
Sota stopped smiling the fake smile and looked away.
"I know, Rin... I guess I just can't help but wonder if it was a good idea... I mean, I promised myself that I wouldn't allow anything bad to happen to her, and then I was stupid enough to let her go back to the past alone!" he said, clamping his fists in anger.
Rin smiled and said, "Trust her... And she will not fail you! She has survived a great deal in her lifetime, as well as you have. She knows how to take care of herself!"
"Aye! Lord Sesshomaru trained her himself! If she remembers his wise training, then she'll do well in her battles!" the imp said as he sat down on a small log.
Rin looked to Jaken with tears starting to well up in her eyes.
"Jaken! Look what you've done!" Sota yelled at the imp for reminding Rin of her own pains.
"What?! All I said was that Lord Sesshomaru taught that girl everything she knew of how to fight, and he trained her well! I did not mention of the fact that he was killed!" The imp said without thinking.
Rin ran into the cottage bursting with tears.
Sota growled angrily at Jake and said, "Now do you see what you've done?! It's taken her so long to even show a smile and now this!"
Just then, the ground began to rumble and Sota's mind started to race.
"What is this?!" Jaken yelled, holding onto his staff for balance.
Rin ran from the cottage looking around for Sota and Jaken.
"Sota! What is this?!" Rin yelled as she approached the two.
"I'm not sure! Rin, take Jaken and hide in the caves!" Sota ordered.
"No one's going anywhere!" an evil and familiar voice cast upon the three as the demon showed itself.
"Naraku!" Jaken shouted.
"So this is where you have been hiding for so long!" he said as he rose above them.
"You have been wise to elude me for these years! But now that I have found you, I have a use for you!" the demon said with an evil grin.
Sota stepped forward, motioning for Rin and Jaken to leave quickly and said, "And what is it that you'll be using us for?!"
"I need to draw InuYasha's daughter out of hiding, and you'll be the perfect bait!"
Rin and Jaken took heade to Sota's motionings and they turned and ran from the clearing.
"Don't leave yet! The fun's just begun!" Naraku said going after them and ready to strike at them.
"IRON REAVER SOUL STEALER!" A woman's voice yelled from behind Naraku and slashed at him, tearing him apart.
Naraku disappeared and a small wooden shikigami doll fell from the sky and split apart when it landed on the ground.
The girl landed to the ground and stood back up from the landing position.
Sota turned and saw the woman as she put her hands on her hips for a job well done.
"K-Kaede?!" he didn't know what to think.
The woman turned and saw her uncle staring at her in disbelief.
"There you are, Uncle! We've been looking all over for you!" Kaede said with a wide smile.
Sota ran to her and looked her over.
"You made it back alive!...But... the future hasn't changed... What's happened?" he questioned her after making sure that she had arrived safely.
"Kaede! Kaede, where the hell are you?!" Shippo yelled as he caught onto her scent and found her among the others.
Shippo landed next to the girl and said, "I heard you yelling! What's going on?!" It was more than obvious that Shippo was furious.
"I told you that I thought I could smell Naraku..." Kaede said picking up the pieces of the wooden doll.
"Is that a Shikigami?" Shippo asked.
"Yes... Naraku was using this and was probably controlling it from far away... He might have even been using it as a way of finding Sota and Rin in order to bring them back to the past and use them as bait... I can smell him from the hair he used to enchant the doll..." Kaede said in a hateful tone.
Shippo stared at the pieces of the doll as the girl dropped them on the ground.
Breaking the moment of silence, Rin and Jaken had heard no battle proceeding Naraku trying to attack them and came out from their hiding spot.
"Kaede! Is that really you?!" Rin yelled happily as she ran to the three.
"Rin! And Jaken! You're both all right!" Kaede turned to see them with a smile on her face.
"You've made it back safe and sound! Did something happen on your quest?" Rin asked cautiously.
"Well, it's sort of a long story, but I needed to come back here momentarily to make sure that you guys were safe. And I'm glad that I did," Kaede replied.
Sota looked at the girl and he had a thousand questions to ask, but he needed an answer to only one of them to be satisfied.
"Is... Is Kagome..." he tried to start but didn't know how to finish.
Kaede looked to her uncle wondering what it was that he wanted to say but then she realized exactly what it was and she smiled.
"Yeah... Both of them are there... And they're good... They're really really good," she said in a small, but happy voice.
Shippo needed to intervene and let Sota know what was going on.
"Look, I'm sorry to interrupt this moment, but I think your uncle should know a few things about what's going on!" Shippo said in an upset tone.
Sota looked to the boy and said, "Why do you seem so familiar?"
Shippo then realized that he wasn't going to remember unless he told him who he was.
"My name's Shippo, Sota... You remember don't you? When Kaede was born, I was brought back with Kagome and InuYasha. You probably don't recognize me because I'm quite a bit more grown-up now than I was back then," he explained.
Sota's mind went back and forth for a moment before he remembered.
"Oh yeah! I remember you! You left after only being here with us for about three years right? Where have you been all this time?" Sota asked happy that he remembered the boy.
"I was in the past for a few years to train and I didn't come back until recently... But anyway, that's not the point that I was trying to say earlier! You need to know what's going on here!" Shippo started to explain what he wanted to explain earlier.
"What is it?" Sota asked.
"Kaede is in danger!" Shippo went straight to the point.
"Danger?" Sota asked looking to the girl and then back to Shippo, "What kind of danger?"
"From what I remember, she had told us that she needed to leave the past and go back to the future to do something important, and she never came back... And this is the time! Now I don't know what it is that kept her from returning to the past, but I'm sure that it wasn't for any good reason at all!" Shippo tattled on Kaede.
The girl gave Shippo a good punch to the arm and said, "Thanks a lot!"
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Chapter Teaser!
"...We should leave here soon..." Kaede said out of nowhere.
Shippo turned to her in surprise and she looked at him and smiled.
"I have to get back to the past so I can save all of this... Save all of you!" she said still smiling.
Shippo's worried looks turned into happy ones as he nodded and said, "Let's go now... I'd feel a lot better if we did."
Kaede understood his worry and said, "Sure. Let's get some lunch first and then we'll go, okay?"
Shippo smiled big and nodded. Before they left the quarry, they heard loud "booms" from the direction that Sota and the other two were.
"...Sota!" Kaede yelled as she sprinted off quickly, Shippo following her.
