I AM SOOOOOOO SORRY! I have to let you guys know that I am terribly sorry for taking so much time in getting in the next chapter. I had started to write it the day I had put up Chapter 16 and was half-way done with it when I let it sit there to contemplate where I wanted to go with it. It took me a while to figure out where I wanted to go with it and when I finally was going to write more for it, the place where I stored the sacred story… broke. I had it stored on a portable hard-drive and had completely forgotten to back up the story to my computer… I lost all my work on the chapter and the story itself. Now that has been said it has taken me even longer because of school and because I have completely forgotten where I wanted this chapter to leave you guys. –sigh-

Once again, I apologize and move on with the DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha… if only… if only…

Chapter Seventeen: Kagome.

A man plainly dressed, his hand holding up a jacket which was slung over his shoulder, walked through the exuberant field, making his way towards an unknown destination (or so it looked). He kept his head down, his face almost completely covered due to an old beat up hat. He continued to walk down the invisible path, looking as if he was not paying attention in the least.

"DADDY!"

The man's head snapped up, a bright smile on his face as he heard a familiar call. His face was now visible in the mid-day sun. His eyes, though brown, had a sparkle to them, a kind of life of their own, his face masculine but fair. He was a handsome man, indeed. His eyes met with a small girl, about the age of four, running towards him with her arms wide open and her hair flowing behind her. He couldn't help but smile at the antics of the small child, his smile reaching all the way to his eyes. He knelt down on one knee; his arms now open, waiting for the coming embrace. The girl jumped into the air and was caught in the embrace of her father. He held her in his arms for a moment which seemed to last, softly petting the girl's soft brown waves.

"What no love for the new one in the family?"

The man looked up to find the woman he loves, a bundle in her arms. His eyes widened in surprise.

"Mommy!" The little girl cried running up to her mother, hugging her legs.

"You just saw me a few moments ago, Kagome."

"I know." The girl known as Kagome giggled.

The man walked over to 'mommy' and took a peak at the bundle in the woman's arms. It was a little baby boy, looking barely a year old. He looked up into the face of the woman he loves, a surprised, yet joyous expression on his face. He leaned in and kissed her on the lips softly.

"Eww!" Kagome muttered, the adults breaking apart with a smile on their face looking to the little girl.

The man, known as Father, carefully took the bundle from the woman, known as Mother, and held it close to him.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Couldn't write."

"What's his name?"

"I was hoping you would name him since I named Kagome."

The man thought for a moment.

"Souta. His name shall be Souta." Father concluded.

Kagome walked silently back onto the ship. She could walk on her own, but with her slipping in and out of daydreams Souta still had to keep her on track. When she snapped back into reality she looked up to find Inuyasha and his father, InuTaisho, looking at her. InuTaisho had an expression of curiosity on his face, while Inuyasha had the look of curiosity; he also held another emotion, guilt? She gave him a questioning look, then looked to InuTaisho as he walked over to her. He took her hand and started to lead her over to a chair and sit her down.

"I want to apologize ahead of time, before I tell you what I have done wrong." Inuyasha started.

Kagome was about to open her mouth to question, but he spoke again.

"I sent Ginta to shadow you, without you knowing it." He admitted, then flinched back, waiting for the yelling to start.

"You… sent… Ginta… to… shadow… me…?" Kagome asked.

"Uh… yeah… I was curious as to why you didn't want someone to escort you to your friend's house… or should I say your mother's house."

"Did you ever hear that curiosity killed the dog?" Kagome snipped.

"I thought it was the cat?"

"Sit." A loud thump could be heard as a certain hanyō captain hit the deck.

"Kagooommeeeee….." Inuyasha wined, trying to stand up again.

"Since you were so curious, yes that was my real mother, Souta's too. She lives in an old shrine with our grandfather. I should also tell you, my parents weren't exactly… royalty… or of nobility… at least not born nobility…"

"What!?"

Kagome sighed. This is going to be a long story…

Two years time a girl, the age of six, could be seen on the bow of the ship, over-looking the ocean. Her father had asked her mother if she would like to sail with him on the seven seas, and she just couldn't refuse. Souta was of a traveling age, three, and mother wanted to travel the world anyways, looking for all different kinds of plants and spices. She was a famous herbologist, who was known for making a antidote to the most formidable of poisons. She was a great cook as well, using the herbs to her advantage, when it came to flavor. With her on board, the crew always had something very flavorful to eat.

Kagome loved to look at the ocean as she thought; it was very relaxing. Sometime her father would even join her and they would just enjoy each other's company in silence. He would sometimes tell her stories of his adventures, knowing full well he exaggerated on a few details (but she didn't care or call him out on it). He even told the story of how he met her mother. In the end, Kagome loved her dad and wished she could always stay with him on the ship.

But… not all can stay as it seems…

A year and a half later, Kagome now being eight and her brother five, Kagome was with her father in his cabin, listening to another one of his stories when a commotion came from the deck. Kagome looked to the door, waiting for it to open. Her father told Kagome to go hid under his bed while he checked it out. She looked to her father for a moment, about to argue, but the serious face her father had made her do what she was told. She crawled under his bed, while he got up off the floor and started walking towards the door.

SLAM!

The door burst open under the force of a powerful kick and a few pirates walked in. From Kagome's position she could only see the feet of the people in the room. She recognized her father's boots right away and watched as they had started to walk backwards, and run into the desk in the middle of the room. A bang was soon heard and she saw as her father fell to the floor, a pool of blood slowly forming. His face was turned away from Kagome. She was about to scream, but covered her mouth with her hands, scooting back farther into the darkness under the bed. She shut her eyes, praying they didn't look under the bed as they started their search of treasure in her father's cabins. She saw as a pair of dirty boots came over to the side of the bed and was about to check, but a bright light entered the room, engulfing everyone in it. Kagome watched as every single one of the men dropped to the floor and saw as a pair of bare feet ran over to the bed and looked under it. It was her mother!

"Mommy!"

"Come on, baby, we have to go." Her mother cooed to her, reaching her hand towards Kagome.

Kagome took her mother's hand and felt as she was pulled from under the bed and into the arms of her mom. Her mother quickly took off out of the room and to the deck where the rest of the crew was fighting. She could tell she was searching for Souta. A few of the crew, who was setting up an escape boat were calling to her to get in the boat while they searched for Souta, and the mother reluctantly agreed. She sat Kagome on her lap, while she sat in the middle of the boat.

"Mommy, where's Souta? Is he coming too?"

"Yes of course, hon." Her mother answered, looking for an signs of the men who went to look for Souta for her.

It was a few minutes before she actually saw one man running with Souta in his arms. He reached the escape boat and handed Souta off to his mother before climbing into the boat himself. They let the boat down carefully and hit the water with a harsh splash. They detached the ropes from the ship and the men started to row away. Kagome just watched as fires of the ship spread and the boat slowly sink into the dark unforgiving waters. She even saw the ship that carried the pirates to their ship. It was also sinking. She couldn't help but wonder why it was sinking. She figured some of her father's crew had gotten aboard the ship and put holes in it, to pay back for killing their captain and sinking their ship. This brought Kagome's thoughts to her father and how his body would be resting cold on the ocean floor. Silent tears went down her face as she continued to stare at the spot where her father's ship used to be. She could her Souta starting to cry, and then looked to her mother to find her trying to keep a smile on her face, but tears trailing down her cheeks.

"It'll be alright, darlings. We will make it on our own. We'll go to another town and start a new life or we'll go live with your grandfather. I'm sure he wouldn't mind having us." Her mother stated soothingly, wrapping her arms around the both of us.

I nodded my head and just cried silently, Souta had calmed down. I couldn't tell if he was still crying, but just crying silently or if he had stopped crying all together. She didn't really care at the moment, she just wanted to be left alone and comforted by her mother. She wanted to know everything will turn out alright.

They did exactly what their mother said. They ended up in Ch'ongjin, staying at their grandfather's house for a while. In that time, Kagome kept to herself, reading any and every book she could on a pirate's life. She read every adventure book her grandfather owned and ended up in town, swiping a few books from the market. This was the start of her adventurous life of causing trouble. It wasn't until Kagome was sixteen when she and Souta left their grandfather's to go to another town. They had promised their mother they would come and visit sometime. When they had arrived in Tokyo, they arrived as nobility. They had dressed the part and had the money to play the part. They ended up taking the house that was isolated from everyone in an 'enchanted' forest. The towns people thought the woods were enchanted. Kagome had tried being the one who could rule over the small portion of town, but after a year of that, she handed the job over to Souta. She only wanted to live and have fun. She would have her fun, but she wouldn't do it in Souta's part of town. This was around the time she met Sango, and unfortunately Kikyo. This was the time she discovered the Navy and how many pricks were in the uniforms. She ended up meeting Sesshomaru only a few months after she had actually arrived in Tokyo. They had run into each other in the streets and then he would continue to catch her on her little escapades.

Inuyasha (and InuTaisho) sat there with his jaw dropped and a blank disbelieving look on his face. Souta had stood behind his sister while she told the story of her past. Some of the crew (Kouga, Ginta, Hakkaku, Miroku, Shippou, Myoga, and Sango) had came up from under the deck to hear the tell and all were equally speechless (except Sango). Kouga looked over to Souta.

"How the fuck are you running a portion of a town? You're what, thirteen?" He asked.

"I was fourteen when I took over and I'm now sixteen. It's not that hard and I have advisors who help me." He stated with a smirk.

Kouga just looked shocked. Inuyasha still couldn't think of anything to say. Everyone remained silent for a while.

"I am sorry to hear of your losses, Kagome. I hope my baka of a son didn't offend you too much." InuTaisho finally spoke up. He got a glare from Inuyasha

"No, it's alright. The only people who knew were Sango, Souta, and Sesshomaru. I guess it was time you all should know as I have been with you for a while…" she said quietly.

"Why don't you go get some sleep for now?"

"I think I will. Souta?"

"Okay." He said holding out his hand for Kagome to take, which she gracefully did.

"No, I'll take her." Inuyasha butt in.

"Um… alright." Souta said, passing Kagome's hand over to Inuyasha, who took it gently.

He lead her away from the group and down to the hallway where all the rooms were and opened the door to hers. He quietly brought her over to her bed and set her down on it. He then crossed his legs and dropped down to the floor, ending up in the Indian style sitting position. He had his head resting on his fists, his elbows resting on his knees; he looked to be deep in thought.

"Inu… yasha?" she asked looking to him for a moment.

"Why didn't you tell me the truth from the beginning?"

"Would you tell someone who kidnapped you for ransom the truth about your parents?" Kagome asked giving him an 'are you serious' look.

"Well, why not later after that, when we got to know each other better, when we trusted each other?"

"I… don't know… it never came up… plus I didn't think it was too important…"

"Kagome… anything about you is important to me." Inuyasha stated before he thought about it. His eyes widened when he registered what he had said. He looked up to find Kagome's eyes just as wide and her mouth slightly ajar.

"Inuyasha… that was… the sweetest thing… anyone has ever said to me…" Kagome stated before she pulled him up and embraced him around the waist.

Inuyasha was slightly surprised at her actions, but didn't care. He wrapped his arms around her, slightly petting her hair. He let one of his hands slip from her hair to her jaw line, to under her chin. A single finger lifter her chin up to let him look at her face. Her hazel eyes shone with brilliance and he leaned in.

"Kagome… I love you…" He whispered before he kissed her lips softly, pouring all his emotions he had towards her into the kiss.

Inuyasha…

Kagome…

Alrighty then, youse guys there is chapter seventeen for you! I know fluffy goodness at the end and now we all know about Kagome's past. I have to say this chapter is pretty short, but I think it turned out just fine. I know there is a ton of emotions in this chapter as well, if you have cried then I apologize for making you cry for any reason shape or form. Or if I made you hurl with all the fluffy goodness, then I don't apologize for that because you know you liked it :D

Alrighty, so more trouble is on the way for our gang. Don't worry I haven't forgotten about Sesshomaru! As a matter of fact, I do believe I am going to have Inuyasha save him… whoops I said too much.

Next time: Sesshy! Where are thou!?

Peace and Love
-Pnkrockninja