The Northern Gates

" Anybody got any idea as to where we are?" InuYasha snapped. No one answered him. He was ticked at many different things at the moment.

Earlier that day, a message had arrived by hawk for Lady Kaede who had accompanied them. It said that a disease had broken out in the village and the wolf demons had taken advantage of it. She was needed immediately in the village for curing and barriers. She had taken Kirura and flown back to the village at once. Now, it was just the original group with a few extras. Sakura, now the size of a human five-year old, but with the expertise of the world of a sixteen year-old, walked alone outside the group. She had dressed herself in a red kimono with a black and green sash and a sheath that held a long battle knife. She sometimes walked with her cousin, Saaya. She was naturally cautious of Naraku, but unlike her father, she didn't shun him out completely.

" We'll find Sesshomaru." She said confidently to Saaya. Saaya could only smile weakly.

Saeka was the worst. She was gradually slipping into her own world from fatigue and worry. She was worried that Sesshomaru might have gotten in trouble by leaving the western lands. She was worried that her baby might be born while they were in danger. She was worried that they wouldn't find him in time for its birth. She was worried about everything, basically.

Kagome understood this perfectly. She knew what it felt like when your whole world was falling apart all around you and you could nothing but sit and watch it crumble. But she also knew that the journey Saeka had to make to repair her world had to be done alone.

InuYasha fell in step with Kagome. " Hey. How's Saeka doing?" he asked, glancing back at the healer. Saeka was walking with one hand poking out from within the cloak, clutching the neck of it absently. A glazed look had fallen in her eyes and she seemed out of touch with everything going on around her.

" Okay for now." Kagome said. " She still can't get over it."

" I can't believe him." InuYasha snarled under his breath. " That guy can be so stupid sometimes."

Miroku, Sango and Kirara who was carrying Rona sighed. Sango glanced at Miroku. " I wonder how all of this started." She said quietly.

" I'm not entirely sure." Miroku responded.

They both sighed and faced forward. Before them, in the distance, they could see a misty valley surrounded by mountains. This was possible because they were on top of a large mountain. InuYasha stared at it gravely. " I'm pretty sure he came this way."

Naraku came up nearby. " If I'm not mistaken, InuYasha, then that large jagged rock at the base of the valley is The Northern Gate."

" The Northern Gate?" InuYasha said. Naraku nodded. " Yes. The gate once guarded by the Northern Dragon Clan and their leader, Golgiroth. But there are no dragons left. Except one."

They both turned. Saeka was standing still, gazing at the valley blankly, her eyes dull and listless.

" How do you know all of this?" InuYasha demanded, skepticism high in his voice.

" I've recently regained some memory of my human life. Before I became a bandit, I was a minor historian. I studied the northern domains for years, trying to understand their dark secrets, such as why all the dragons disappeared, why the land is always shrouded in mist and why no explorer to visit the northern domains has ever returned alive."

At the last part, almost all of them whipped around to gawk at him. " No one has ever returned alive from such an expedition?" Kagome exclaimed. He nodded. " I'm afraid so. The last people to ever attempt to discover what lies within the mists were a man and a woman named Daisuke and Heicha. The man vanished. But the woman's body was found just outside the border of the northern gates. She was unharmed, but she was stone dead. No one ever found out what happened to the man and what killed the woman."

" That's strange." Miroku said. " I always thought there were people living in the north."

" There are." Naraku said. " Though human and even demon populations thin as you go farther. But there are supposed to be hermits and recluses living past the gate, people who gave themselves to worship and meditation. Only they survive in there, at peace with the powerful demons and mountain creatures who thrive in the misty conditions."

Kagome shivered and Sango shook her head. " Normally, I never back down, but I'm starting to have second thoughts about going in there." She said.

Saaya, standing beside Naraku shuddered fearfully. He put his arm around her shoulders. InuYasha started growling, but said nothing.

" Let's go." He grumbled. They started forward into the misty canyon.

Koga and Ayame stood in the forest trying to pick up the scent of the group. Kisho stood nearby, watching and growling to himself. " Come on, aren't you finding anything yet?" he yelled. Koga threw him a dirty look. " If you don't like it, lump it!" he replied angrily. He resumed tracking. Ayame waited patiently with one of her white wolves and tried to ignore Kisho's angry looks in both hers and Koga's directions.

" Ayame, they've headed north. We can still catch 'em if we hurry." Koga called. Ayame nodded. Koga and his brown wolves took off running. Ayame hurried after him with Kisho running behind.

Ayame matched paces with Koga. " Koga, how much longer do we have to put up with him? He's driving me insane!"

" Not too long, Ayame. He only wants Tetsuaiga. Once we get it and give it to him, we can ditch him." Koga mumbled to her. Ayame sighed and rolled her eyes. She was quickly getting sick of Kisho. But there was nothing they could do about him.

" We'd better be getting there soon! I want to get the Tetsuaiga!" Kisho yelled. Ayame snarled back at him.

" We'll get there when we get there! Shut up!" she shrieked.

That quieted him. Koga smiled admirably.

The group slowly made their way through the rocky pass, all the while gaining knowledge of the northern domain from Naraku, whose memory was returning faster each minute.

" The Northern Gates were originally set up as a barrier to protect the humans from the world's most ferocious demons. Aside from the Dog Demon of the west, the dragons were some of the most powerful demons to have ever existed. This is why they had to be separated from the humans. These demons who resided in the north were too incredibly powerful and would easily annihilate any humans."

" So why did they all disappear?" Miroku asked. " The dragons, I mean."

" The people living further south in the northern lands found the dragons distasteful. They wanted them gone. However, whether the humans drove them out, or whether the dragons left of their own accord, nobody is entirely sure. There are so many stories, that the true facts have been mixed in and lost forever.

" There were other problems concerning these demons as well. As you well know, half-demons are looked upon with scorn in our world. But while it is rare, it does happen, where a demon falls in love with a human and vice versa. Just because the barrier existed, doesn't mean that it prevented this from happening with the northern demons who came across humans in their area. I suppose the northern demons were driven away to prevent such crossings."

" So you're saying that a powerful northern demon could fall in love with a human, resulting in an abnormally powerful half-demon?" Sango said skeptically. Naraku nodded. " Exactly. Unlike half-demons from other parts of the world, a northern half-demon would be extremely powerful. This is why such a mixing was forbidden. A half-demon such as that would possess power enough to obliterate many villages and kill thousands. There is only one known northern half-demon in existence."

" That's Saeka." InuYasha said quietly. " Her father was a northern dragon."

" I know. My golem was following you that day. It was destroyed when her father knocked down a small section of forest and crushed it." He said with a wry smile. However, I had no idea who she was until Kagura and Attar captured her."

" Wait, what about Attar?" Kagome asked. " Wasn't he a northern half-demon?"

" No." Naraku said. " I could sense it in him when he came to see me. His father died before his mother met the dragon many years later. Attar's father was actually a wolf deity in human form. But because the woman known as Lady Saaya was a powerful sage, Attar was messed up and turned out to be a hellhound, rather than a wolf as he should have been. Also, his human blood was abnormally strong and by the time he came to me, he was already dead. It was only the demonic blood within him keeping his corpse alive and whole. When Kagome's sacred arrow was fired into his heart, it finally stopped beating."

Naraku sighed. " Now, Saeka is different than her brother was, because she isn't part human, at least, ordinary part human. She's half sage as well. This makes her all the more powerful, and applies the same concept to her children. Her first child, Miharu and yes, I know of her, was immensely powerful even before she was returned to her parents. Miharu had a true form, as does her mother. Saaya does as well, I'm sure, but she still has to unlock it before it can work for her."

" That's right." Saeka said suddenly, making them all jump. They hadn't been sure she was paying attention.

" Anyway," Naraku said. " Saeka is a forbidden northern half-demon. She shouldn't exist and neither should her children. Yet she does exist. Why is that?"

No one said anything so he went on.

" She exists because of InuYasha's and Sesshomaru's father." He said.

" Huh? Oh right, the old man rescued her a while back." InuYasha said. Naraku nodded. " Yes. I heard that much before my golem was destroyed. I thought about that a lot. I came to the conclusion with stuff I remembered that The Great Dog Demon knew what he was doing when he rescued Saeka that day. He knew what she was and that she was going to become a horribly fierce demon that he might one day have to fight if she remained around other demons. He didn't like the idea of one day battling the same young demon whose life he saved, which is probably why he left her in the valley where she grew up. That way, her powers remained dimmed by humans. She will never reach her full potential now, unfortunately, but she doesn't really need to."

" I see what you're saying." Miroku said thoughtfully. " So Saeka and her children are all northern half-demons. Well sort of. Saeka is the only half-demon. Miharu and Saaya were and are both like one-third demons, or something like that. I don't know. My point is, they aren't true half-demons."

Naraku nodded. " That's right. They have neither full, nor half blood so they are a different breed altogether. But her children give her a problem." He said gravely.

" What do you mean?" Sango asked.

" Because her children are neither full-blooded, nor half-blooded, this means that depending on who they choose for a mate one day, determines how far their blood will go with each generation."

" So you're saying that the demon blood within Saaya and Saeka's unborn child will gradually thin through each generation until there is nothing left?" Miroku said, bewildered. " Then that means her line will eventually die out."

" Only if one of her descendants mates with a human or something like that. In order for their blood to be preserved, a few generations would need to mate with a full-blooded demon to prevent that from happening. But the likelihood of perfect preservation is small. This knowledge would have to be passed down perfectly by either paper or word of mouth for Saeka's descendants to know how to keep their demonic heritage intact." Naraku explained. " This is why half-demons often have problems coping in the world. Very few are capable of mating anyway, because there is something wrong with them in their genetic aspects. I know absolutely nothing in this subject, so I can't tell you more than that. But some half-demons, like Saeka and InuYasha were lucky. Others aren't unfortunately."

He let this sink in amongst them and he knew that Kagome was thinking of her young daughter, Sakura, who was neither full human, nor full half-demon. Naraku knew that Sakura was even worse off than her cousin because her mother was human, and her father was a half-demon, while Saaya's father was a full-demon. Sakura would have to one day mate with another half-demon, or a full-demon in order to keep her demonic blood strong through her descendants. But that was a long ways off yet, despite Sakura's abnormal growth pattern. She didn't have to worry yet.

The group fell silent now. Naraku had temporarily exhausted his knowledge of his memories and didn't say any more.

He glanced at Saaya. She had a peculiar look on her face and he knew abruptly that what he had just said was on her mind. He knew what she was thinking about.

Saaya had already chosen him, as he had her. Yet he was more human than demon, while she seemed to be more demon than human. But he knew that this was so in his case because all of his power had been stripped away from him nine years ago. He'd only have to regain it in order to become a true half-demon once more. However, if that didn't happen in time, he knew what could become of it.

He did love Saaya more than anything, and he knew that one day, they might have a child of their own. He knew that if this should happen, it could go either way. Technically, he was still a half-demon and Saaya had stronger demon blood than human, so it would possibly work out. But he'd just have to wait and see.

He looked up at the gate before them. They'd gotten closer to it than he'd realized. His face darkened and he sighed. " We're almost there." He announced. He heard Saaya sigh shakily beside him and purposely let both her and himself fall back behind the group a bit. He saw InuYasha smirk and realized the pesky half-breed thought he was being a coward. Naraku resisted the urge to laugh. He was being anything but.

He turned to Saaya. " Are you all right?" he whispered. She looked at him.

" I heard what you said." She mumbled. " I don't want my bloodline to die out." She said, pulling her arms close to her body. He put his arm around her shoulders. " Saaya, you know that demons are going to die out eventually. There's nothing we can do about that. But yours will last a long time, I'm sure of it." He said comfortingly. She shrugged. " I understand, I guess. But it's still an unsettling thought, to know that your own descendants will be the death of your bloodline." She murmured.

" Nothing will go wrong." He said. He almost promised, but remembered what she'd said before.

Promises are made to be broken.

He recalled that, the day she found out her father had left. He'd promised her that they would find him. He knew that she didn't want him to promise, but he would anyway. He promised her inside his head that they would find Sesshomaru.

" Hey everyone! I think we're at The Northern Gate!" InuYasha called, startling Naraku from his thoughts. Saaya looked up. InuYasha was standing and facing all of them with his Tetsuaiga out. He was staring at a large rock face covered in jagged spikes that ran some ninety, to a hundred feet up before coming to a point at the top. At the base, the rock was smooth and flat. The whole thing itself was part of an enormous wall of rock that ran both ways, right and left, out of sight to the eye. But it wasn't the gate itself that held their attentions.

It was what was guarding the gate.

Previously, in the chamber of Golgiroth and his dragon clan, Golgiroth is speaking to something.

" Those are my orders. You are to at least attempt to bring her to this place and convince her to lead us. This is what you were born for. This is why you are different from the others. Your destiny lies with that girl, my granddaughter. Do you understand?"

" Yes, Golgiroth." The new one said, bowing low. " I will go immediately to the gates and wait for them, as you have ordered."

" Good. Be quick about it."

Golgiroth watched as the new one left and then turned to Crin. " Place a guard at the demon's cave. He must remain asleep." He commanded. Crin nodded and left to find someone. Golgiroth nodded. Everything was going smoothly.

Something approached his platform in the darkness. He looked down to see Saysuku standing there in dragon form. She was glaring at him and her green eyes were ever brighter green from all the tears welling up in them.

" Granddaughter Saysuku." Golgiroth said. " How may I help you?"

" How could you!" she cried bitterly. " How could you force me to do this? He wasn't our enemy! How could you do that to him?"

" He will serve our purpose soon. The minute Lady Saeka agrees to lead us to freedom in the northern lands once more I will free him. I keep my promises, Saysuku." He said sternly. Saysuku snarled and bared her fangs menacingly. " I hate you." She hissed. She turned and dashed away, toward the cave of jewels. Golgiroth sighed and shook his head. She was going to try to find a jewel to reverse the demon's condition. She was in for a shock. None of the jewels would work. The emerald that Crin had had the demon take was powerful. So long as the emerald remained in his sleeve pocket where he'd placed it, the charter would remain intact. There was nothing to be done until Golgiroth ordered Yukoto to break the charter and the emerald. Saysuku could do nothing.

Golgiroth glanced again at the demon's cave.

This had to be done. The western lord would one day go free once more.

A/N: Here we are. Sorry it took so long to update. The laptop got taken away by my stepdad and I just got it back a couple of days ago. Plus I spent the whole of yesterday reorganizing my room, so I had no time to work on it. Please forgive me for taking so long. I have so much work to do on this thing and for some reason, I keep smelling that stuff you use to wax the strings of a violin. I have no idea where it's coming from. Oh well. R&R!