A/N: Thank you very much for all of those lovely reviews. They were greatly appreciated and I definitely love them. To answer the questions of my guest readers:

Right now, I'm somewhat unsure. Technically was Naraku a human turned Hanyō. I suppose Chiharu could be considered a hanyō (although not completely) so any child of them (and I'm speculating right now, so it might change when we're further into the story because I haven't written that part yet) would not be fully yōkai, yet not a hanyō either. And yes, Sesshōmaru would definitely scoff at Inuyasha's teaching style. He scoffs at everything Inuyasha-related.

o.O.o

Either way enjoy this new chapter.

Chapter Nine, A face like mine

The sun had progressively climbed up in the air, yet the warm light was mostly shielded by dark, ominous clouds that had rolled in. The large tree with the human heads as fruit was veiled in the lightest of mist and the trunk a sombre brown with slight cracks that gnarled into the bark. It wasn't really all that bothering to Chiharu but as she gazed at her older sister, she realised the girl shivered and blinked rapidly.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Chiharu slowly asked, reiki and youki twirling around her. She felt somewhat jittery and rubbed her hands together. The two powers were for once not hostile against the other, although not complete either, circling around her, making her limbs tingle. "You fell a long way down and wasn't your arm broken?"

"Feh, just a scratch! I'm already healed." Inuyasha snapped. "I told you lot not to fucking worry about me."

"Yeah, sure," Chiharu muttered. "Don't worry. It's not like you were slowly bleeding out in a human form or anything."

"Sarcasm doesn't fit you, Chiharu-sama."

"I don't agree."

The monk stared at her for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and walking forward. Kagome wriggled her hips as she tugged her skirt lower, trying to keep some decency and Chiharu realised she still wasn't wearing any underwear, or socks for that matter.

"Erm, Onee-chan?" she asked slowly stepping up next to her. "Your bag is over there, don't you have spare clothes?"

The girl's eyes widened almost comically, as if she hadn't even considered that possibility and inched away. She shouldn't have bothered as both men in their group were otherwise engaged. Inuyasha was rolling his shoulders and crackling his joints while Miroku peered at him.

"You probably should have a bath, Inuyasha." Miroku piped up, eyes flitting over his form. "You're covered in more than just your blood, aren't you?"

Inuyasha glared at Miroku before crossing his arms over his chest. Miroku shrugged smiling as Shippou jumped on his shoulder. The adorable fox-child smiled widely when they slowly started to move.

"Where are we going?" Kagome asked slowly.

Inuyasha sighed. "A hot spring. There is one this way."

The girl squealed When they finally left, they were shocked into silence when Tōkajin's body dissolved and the heads up in the tree transformed into normal looking fruit under a loud hissing sound. Miroku, the ever knowing Miroku, explained that with the death of the Sennin, his spell had been broken and all of the cursed spirits had been released. She watched the dust fill the air and the fog slowly dissipate. It was rather strange. At least with the Sennin gone, the sounds of birdsong from the high trees in the forest was once again audible.

They followed the river down the gentle slope of the mountain and Chiharu watched the rocky mountain stone change into high grass and eventually stretch out in large trees. The light of the sun fell in streaks through the boughs in both brilliant and shadowy beams. The trunks of fallen trees lay on their sides and now and then bushes rustled by the movement of mammals. Her footsteps were swallowed by the coat of leaves that had fallen the past few weeks, resembling an old painting rather than the nature she was used to back at home.

The unusual group passed several villages with large rice pads, fields full of cows and sheep and eventually stopped near a large hot spring, surrounded by hight boulders and soft swaying trees. From the distance she heard the water flow quietly and she smiled. She smelled the scent of what she supposed was magma and what had been around almost all the springs she had encountered so far.

"This way," Inuyasha explained. They followed the white-haired boy down a path until he stopped next to some boulders. Kagome squealed, clapping her hands together, and slowly scrambled closer.

"There's really a hot spring!" she cried out and Chiharu rubbed her hands together.

She hadn't had a hot bath in weeks. To get clean, she dipped into the cold water of rivers and relatively clean ponds. It hadn't been pleasant, almost freezing to death and washing herself swiftly. There hadn't been much modesty in bathing in a river or a pond.

"I can't believe it!" Chiharu whispered, "A hot spring."

"Yeah, yeah," Inyasha muttered, rolling his shoulders. "Go ahead and soak already!"

Kagome nodded. She was already getting her bathing supplies from her monstrous yellow bag, Inuyasha headed into the forest.

"Where's he going?" Shippou asked shrugging out of his fur vest.

"Probably cleaning himself up." Miroku said, undoing the knot of his robes on his neck and both the Higruashi sisters stared at him.

"What are you doing?" Chiharu slowly asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Getting ready to bathe with you beautiful ladies!" He grinned lecherously.

"If you do as much as peek I'll shoot you." Kagome promised him darkly and Chiharu gave her an amused look. "I mean it Miroku!"

He raised his hands in defence and Miroku slowly inched away. Kagome rolled her eyes and cradled her bathing supplies into her arms. Chiharu climbed up the tumble of rocks, scratching Shippou behind his ears, and they entered the hot water slowly. She sighed as a shiver ran up her spine and slowly and carefully stepped over the mossy stones. The water swallowed her up to her chest and inclined her head to the side, running her fingers through her damp hair.

She went under, wetting her hair and swimming around, touching the bottom of the hot spring, until she had to come up for air. Shippou weaved through the water, childishly splattering around and yelping happily. Chiharu hadn't seen him act this child-like before and she smiled when he got out of the water only to jump in with a war cry again.

"Chiharu-chan?"

"Hm?"

She had settled against a boulder and sighed contently. It felt so good as her muscles relaxed and the tension that had built there slowly fell away.

"How are you feeling?"

Chiharu curled and uncurled her toes and sunk deeper into the water. "I'm feeling fine," she answered, "I'm not sure for how long but I'm really feeling all right!"

"That's good," Kagome breathed, her eyebrows furrowing together. "I'm sorry this had to happen to you."

"What?"

"I—"

"It's not your fault," Chiharu slowly whispered, "I know you frequently like to blame yourself for all that goes wrong in this world, but it is not your fault."

"Inuyasha thought you came to take the Tetsusaiga for him." Kagome suddenly blurted, her cheeks flushing red and hand clasping over her mouth as she realised what she'd said. "I— I mean—"

"I considered it,"

"What?" Shippou stopped swimming aimlessly through the hot spring and paddled towards her. "What do you mean?"

"He cornered me, almost a week ago. Could make the pain so much worse and— well, I didn't think I could handle it anymore."

"What changed?"

"I don't know," Chiharu admitted. "At first it constantly attacked my body, settled in my limbs and felt like it set every nerve ending on fire. But then, when I had to travel to look for you and I was distracted, had to be, it was manageable. And that was when I realised the grip these pains had on me were slipping. That I could fight it. I decided that that insane Daiyōkai could kiss my bum and that if he wants the bloody sword so much he'll have to get it himself."

"But if he can harm you—" Kagome started, pursing her lips as she thought about the best word.

"I think it was mostly illusionary." Chiharu whispered. "I'm sure this mark isn't as it should be. I overheard Myoga-jij as well, but I think as much as being a Miko made it all so much harder, it might have saved me as well."

"I'm not sure if that thinking is right," Shippou piped up.

"Why not Shippou-chan?" Kagome asked, massaging the shampoo into her scalp.

"Because it's not a full mark."

"A— Right, like being a fiancé for humans I know," Chiharu said, trailing her fingers absentmindedly over the red mark on her throat.

"No, it's not like that." Shippou shook his head biting his lip as he tried to get things straight. "When a mark is incomplete it is dangerous. I think pain is only a phase."

"I don't really understand, Shippou-chan."

He gave her a helpless look as if to say, he didn't either and bit his lower lip. "That mark is incomplete. My Otou-san said that some Yōkai use it to see if a possible mate is worthy enough. If the chosen is strong enough to survive the pains, survive the initial phase, a female is deemed worthy. Then the Yōkai completes it. When the mark is complete or returned or I don't know there are different marks— Well than the mate's youki protects the female— I think."

"But Shippou, this youki isn't mine. Wouldn't that mean this mark is already complete for that?"

"No, that's only the connection." Shippou shook his head. "I suppose you really are strong, but it is still incomplete and that's still dangerous. What will we eat later?"

"Ramen," Kagome answered absentmindedly and rinsed her hair in the warm water. The scent of her shampoo sharp into the air.

Chiharu sunk deeper into the water, bubbles of air escaping from her nose and she watched them pop up on the water surface. Words couldn't express how much she hated Sesshomaru right about now. With a sigh and a tired shake of her head, she emerged from the water, rubbed her body dry with one of Kagome's towels and slipped her Miko tunic back on. She wrinkled her nose at the bright sun and surveyed over the boulders and returned to their campsite. Miroku was on his own, peering at the crackling fire he, or perhaps even Inuyasha, had started.

"Chiharu-sama, you look a bit upset." He observed quietly and she slowly lowered herself on the ground.

"It's nothing," she answered softly, running her fingers through her damp hair, "I'm just a bit tired and annoyed, not with you though, so it's fine! Where did Inuyasha go?"

"Erm," Miroku looked troubled glancing at the boulders that hid the hot spring from view and rubbed his hands together. "I think— he went— hunting."

"I'm sure that is not what he went to do." She answered dryly. "Come on Miroku, where is Inuyasha? His arm was badly broken, I'm not sure if he should skive off this soon by himself."

"Did Kagome-sama tell you about Kikyo?" the Houshi whispered and Chiharu raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, she was Inuyasha's girlfriend before he got sealed to the Go-Shin-Boku." She answered. "She died fifty years ago."

"Yes, and she got resurrected. Even tried to drag Inuyasha off to hell, but now she's hellbent, well, on doing just that actually."

"And Inuyasha went to visit her?" Chiharu whispered back, finally understanding why they had to whisper. Kagome would get upset. She was rather obviously smitten with the Hanyō — no matter how much she liked to deny it — and if Shippou overheard them talking about Inuyasha's past love, she would definitely get upset.

"That's one way to put it."

She stood, instinctively reaching for her bow and arrows and bound her hair together with a red ribbon. "Where are you going?"

"Isn't it obvious, I want to see this woman!" she whispered back. "And it is a good way to try tracking. You know, fight the inevitable."

He gave her a blank look before shaking his head. "What am I supposed to say you are doing?"

"Collecting herbs?"

"Do you even know which herbs you are supposed to collect?" Miroku asked sceptically and once again Chiharu wondered why Kagome didn't try to adapt to this time more than she did.

"Yes," she answered, "I stayed with Kaede-baba for weeks, I know at least a few plants that could come in handy by flues and against aches. Yeah, I definitely know the one that helps against aches."

Before Miroku could comment on that, she took off into the thick foliage. She could hear Miroku mutter to himself — 'If Kagome-sama finds out I let them both go and didn't tell her, she's going to kill me' — and closed her eyes, inhaling slow and deep. Inuyasha had the distinct scent of pines and man and something she couldn't really name and soon she was following that scent — no longer tainted by blood and some disgusting medicine — deeper into the woods. The birds above her head were calling, twittering and pecking. They were loud, bustling around in the last few hours of daylight they had left.

The reddish streaks on the Western horizon signalled the rapid approach of dusk soon long shadows stretched across the path as the sunk sank lower and lower and the forest became denser and denser. Inuyasha's scent had grown the strongest here. Voices were getting clearer and clearer and as she strained her ears a yōkai, long, with eel and insect-like features, passed by.

She later what they were as they barely even looked at her, but shouldn't have wondered, because a moment longer a clear ringing voice answered Chiharu's unanswered question:

"—They're my Shindamachū," a woman's voice explained, Chiharu pulled herself up in a tree and settled on a thick brach gazing out at the firecat-clad Hanyou and a girl who looked a lot like Kagome and Chiharu. Although she did share a strong resemblance to the Higurashi sisters, Chiharu was sure she'd never seen such a stoic expression on either her or Kagome's face.

"Your what?" Inuyasha asked. Even from the distance she recognised the unmasked longing on the boy's face.

"I need them to roam the land of the living." She explained simply. Several of the serpent-like creatures stooped down, bringing with them bright glowing orbs. As the resurrected Miko talked about the land of the living and Kagome's explanation that they shared a soul and that the ties binding Kikyō to this world were unstable at best, she supposed that the serpent-like creatures collected souls to sustain her body.

Chiharu frowned. According to Kagome-oneechan that woman tried to drag Inuyasha to hell the last time they'd seen her, she'd tried to drag him to hell. It seemed that was no longer the goal, now that she knew about the circumstances behind her death. The wind lifted her hair and Chiharu adjusted herself to sit back more comfortable.

"I met him," she whispered, and Inuyasha cocked his head to the side in confusion. "I met Naraku."

The Hanyō bristled visibly and his face turned a tinge pinker. "You met the Bastard? Where is he?"

"Far away, Inuyasha." She whispered. "And just as I suspected, Onigumo is still in there."

"I don't understand."

"He is reluctant to admit it, but I am certain that he has a lingering desire for me. And in an effort to ease that feeling, he's trying to get rid of me." Kikyō whispered. Chiharu lent her arms on her knees and frowned. If he attempted to get rid of her, then he wasn't doing an awesome job.

The words seemed to rile Inuyasha only further up and the death priestess suddenly found herself in the Hanyō's arm. "I can't bare the idea of him touching even a hair on your head." He whispered and Kikyō sighed, returning the embrace.

"Inuyasha, after meeting you I renounced my position as a shrine priestess. I became an ordinary woman. I longed to embrace you like this when I was alive." She whispered, reaching up on her tiptoes to place a chaste kiss on his lips. "We are unable to turn back the hands of time. But let me embrace you like this a little longer."

Chiharu felt like she was intruding and quietly started to turn away. There was a light thud as she landed on the forest floor followed by the barely audible crunch of fallen leaves under sandals and she carefully peeked around the tree. Inuyasha's ears had twitched in her direction and but it was not him who was gazing directly at her. She frowned slightly as she met Kikyō's gaze. The other woman gave her a haughty look and Chiharu realised she must have noticed her earlier. As she made her way down the path, leaving the two lovers to their own devices, she wondered how much of that display of affection was genuine or just for Chiharu's benefit.

She had gotten so used to the influx of power that was the youki swirling around her, she almost missed the other presence. Almost. The hairs on her neck stood on end and she felt a tingle run up her spine. Inhaling softly, she frowned. Except for the strange aura she felt, the scent was strange. Impure, like when blood dripped into water. The air still carried the metallic tang, yet the scent was less sharp. Straining her ears, she jumped up in a different tree.

Ahead the forest trees were thinner. As she used the branches of another tree, she noticed the firm ground gave way to a marsh of tall reeds. The soil was submersed in the water, cackling fondly and the sunlight fell directly onto a trunk.

She wasn't sure what she was looking for in the first place, but as she got into one of the tree, trying to keep her body close to the rough bark of the tree she peered through the leaves. At the base of the large river, surrounded by inauspicious bushes and tall grass, sat a figure, wearing an inconspicuous pelt of baboon. Carefully she inched closer. The bark of the tree branch beneath her feet was damp and covered with a smattering of moss. It didn't feel to slippery, but Chiharu wasn't really used to jumping from tree to tree. She felt her feet slip, her sandal caught by a small notch in the branch and she barely caught herself. His face, hidden by a mask turned her way, but before he could really see her, Inuyasha's voice thundered through the forest.

He didn't seem to notice her and yet when Inuyasha's voice grew louder he took to the air, vanishing in a whirl of miasma. His scent incomplete and impure, yet she stored it to memory. She didn't think his arrival, whatever or whoever he was, was a good thing.

"Chiharu!"

Inuyasha jumped down next to her and she dug her nails in the bark of the tree to keep her balance. His face was flushed and she realised the moment she started following the baboon-wearing stranger's scent Inuyasha must have caught her scent. Rightly deducting that she might have seen him and Kikyō.

"Erm, hello Inuyasha…"

"What do you think ye doing here, Wench!" He snapped, immediately in the defences.

She rolled her eyes and peered at the boy. He looked ruffled, slightly horrified and then his face took on a strange serious expression. His muscles tensed and his pupils dilated before he hissed. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on.

"Naraku!"

"What?"

"He was here," he snapped at her and she suddenly understood.

"The baboon-wearing stranger?"

"Yes, you idiot!" he snapped.

"Now listen here, you two-timing-jerk, he is gone. How was I supposed to know that was Naraku?" She asked exasperated, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Inuyasha's eyes flitted over the tree tops and the water almost frantically. When Naraku didn't jump them from the bushes he slowly hunched his shoulders.

"Where's Kagome?" He asked slowly.

"At camp," she answered, "listen, I'm not going to discuss this with her. You should do that yourself, but don't you think you should be honest with her?"

"She's not my wench." He snapped childishly and Chiharu exhaled loudly.

"You're such a child."

He huffed — very much like a child, thank you very much — and stomped after her as she turned towards the hot spring. She didn't bother telling him it was despicable to string both her older sister and the undead Miko along, but somehow considering that both Kagome and Inuyasha refused to admit they were involved she didn't think any of them could fault him. When they arrived back, Kagome, red-faced and bright eyed, was tying her red scarf in a knot and brushed down the plates of her green skirt. When they were away they had built a fire and a pan of ramen stood steaming on one of the boulders.

Apparently, Inuyasha liked his ramen and even muttered a close affirmative to 'thank you' when Kagome asked him if he wanted some. She sat down next a red-faced Miroku and she frowned.

"What happened to you?" she mumbled.

"My idea to distract Kagome-sama wasn't appreciated." He muttered back and she snorted.

"You mean you tried to grope her?"

At this he nodded slowly and Chiharu accepted a bowl of ramen as well. It was the first dish she had that reminded her of home and she sighed wishfully almost forgetting what she had been talking about. "Why did you try to grope her?"

"She asked me where you two where…" he whispered softly and she nodded.

"Where have you two been?" Kagome asked. There was no way she could have overheard them, but she felt Miroku stiffen. Kagome eyed her younger sister suspiciously.

Chiharu shrugged. "We had a lover rendezvous." She answered sarcastically and Inuyasha chocked on his ramen and his bowl clattered to the ground. Kagome didn't even react and kept her gaze firmly locked on her sister's.

"I see," she simply said before huffily stalking to the other side of the fire and scratched Shippou behind the ears. Covered in spittle and a face so red it matched his robes, Inuyasha glanced at Chiharu and then at Kagome. She laughed. He obviously had no idea how twin girls from the future really acted around each other and, judging by his face, he was in for a bumpy ride.

To be continued...

A/N: And this is chapter nine. It was a more light-hearted one, and I liked it. There isn't much Sesshomaru in it, but obviously he'll come back. Anyway, I decided to centre this chapter about Kikyou and Inuyasha's relationship (if you can even call it that).

Right, Chiharu (and mostly me) doesn't think Inuyasha is betraying Kagome, because quite frankly they are not in a relationship. To be honest, I never really understood when they decided to start 'dating' each other, and definitely missed it. Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

Please leave a review. They are greatly appreciated.

InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.