A/N: Alright, everyone! I have returned for another round! I apologize if the names confuse you, but the story was originally titled Jaded Deceit and I didn't have the heart to change it when I began posting the story. This chapter is centered mainly on someone else, but close to the middle Sesshomaru will return, I promise!!

Disclaimer: Again, I must inform you that I do NOT own the anime/manga Inuyasha or any of the characters or merchadise thereof. I am simply here to fulfill my own twisted views of what I think should be happening!

Jaded Deciet

Chapter One: A Happy Soul; Shattered

The blue-eyed girl smiled as she tied the last thread to her package, absently tucking a strand of ebony hair behind her ear. She had made one of her close friends a new kimono for the upcoming festival to celebrate the coming of a new year. The girl-though a priestess of high ranking-made her living making fine kimonos, sending her younger brother on small errands like hunting and fishing, and using her powers to better serve the people in the village that she'd grown up in. Most of her work was for the unfortunate villagers who couldn't afford silk robes and meat. She wasn't born in the village, but was raised there after she and her younger brother managed to escape a youkai attack. A teenaged boy impatiently poked his head into the doorway, a slight look of annoyance playing over his features.

"Hey, Kagome," he greeted her with a sigh, "are you done yet?"

She shook herself slightly and lifted up the package, ruffling the teen's dark brown hair as she spoke, "Yep, and be sure to tell Sango to come and visit me soon, okay, Kohaku?"

"Will do," the teen said as he smiled and turned to go. "Ja ne!"

"Oh, Kohaku?"

He poked his head back in the door, "Yes?"

"If you see Souta," she started.

"Don't worry," he said with a reassuring smile, knowing that the girl was getting worried about her little brother-who had gone hunting early that morning and had not yet returned. "I'll tell him to hurry home, if I see him."

"Thanks."

--

An hour passed by and Kagome was beginning to become a little bit fidgety. Her little brother had been gone far too long and she was beginning to worry. He was always on time when it came to things like food and training, and the sixteen-year-old absolutely hated the dark for some unexplainable reason, so his sister sent him out to hut for lunch and dinner in the morning so as not to trouble him at night. She sat down on a tatami mat by the door and twiddled her thumbs for another hour. Worry started to grip at her chest and scratch at her throat when the unmistakable sound of footsteps and a human aura approached.

"Kagome..." She lifted her eyes from her wringing hands and caught the worried face of her childhood friend, Jin. He was the headmaster of the village and a dear friend to everyone in it. Jin was a handsome young man with long black hair and violet eyes, and he was one of the kindest people that Kagome had ever met in her life.

"Oh, hi, Jin..." She stood up with a brilliant smile, though worry was indeed evident in her voice. "Have you seen Souta anywhere? He hasn't gotten home yet and I'm really very worried."

Jin hesitantly averted his gaze, his hypnotizing eyes falling to the tatami mat under her feet. "... that's why I'm here, Kagome..."

Her face brightened, "You know where Souta is?!" She laughed lightly, relief filling her and suppressing the tightening feeling in her chest. "Please, send him a message that it will be dark soon and that he should be on his way home..." She trailed off in confusion and suprise when Jin shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Kagome..." he looked at her with pained violet eyes, but tore them away after a few moments. "A hunter came to the village just earlier today and said he saw a young messanger getting attacked by a demon... We told the hunter that there are no teenaged messangers in the village, but, " he held up an amulet that Souta had from their mother. The amulet had specks of blood littering the crystal blue jewel that was it's centerpiece, "when he showed me this... I sent out a search party... and noone can find him..."

Kagome's eyes had widened in the short time it took for him to explain the situation, and she was now desperately trying to swallow the lump deep in her throat and the burning sensation at the corners of her eyes and the bridge of her nose. She gently touched the amulet, "A-are you telling me... what I think you're telling me?"

"I'm not for sure, Kagome... but I think little Souta might very well be... um..."

She cut him off, "Dead..?"

"We aren't yet sure, Kagome," he reassured her. "Maybe he was knocked unconsious and taken off somewhere, or-perhaps-he accidentally dropped the amulet while chasing an illusive animal."

Kagome's body shook uncontrollably. The only family she had left... presumed dead? It was far too much for her to bear. She lifted her thumb and forefinger to the bridge of her nose, pinching it slightly to hold back the tears. But-to spite this-a tear made it's way down her cheek and seeped into the cloth of her miko robes. She suddenly felt a rush of anger. Why hadn't the hunter tried to save him? If he'd seen the attack take place, why did he just pick up the amulet and run off when he could have helped him escape!!

"Did the hunter see the demon?!" Kagome bit out, straining to keep her voice calm.

Jin was suprised at the anger in her voice. He thought she would start crying uncontrollably in his arms, telling him it was the only family she had left. Yet she stood strong, her body shaking slightly as she held back the tears and a mixture of sadness and anger twinkled in her deep blue eyes.

Kagome grew annoyed when he said nothing, and grabbed the front of his haori angrily.

"Well?!"

"The hunter said the demon was in the guise of a human man with silver hair and blood red clothes!" Jin hurriedly spoke of what little he knew.

"Where is he?!"

He quickly sputtered that he was in the village's inn and was suprised when Kagome pushed him aside and walked out of the hut.

"Where are you going?"

"To get some answers!"

--

Sesshomaru could smell the blood from a nearby clearing. He'd been following his brother's putrid hanyou scent and it had led him to the smell of a young boy's blood. Apparently, I am not the only one that Inuyasha seeks to destroy, he thought as he moved closer.

He stopped in the clearing to find that indeed, there was a young boy's body, marred with claws and covered in his own blood. He looked the boy over, noticing that he was close to, if not the same age Rin had been when she was killed. His chest clutched painfully at the sight, but he didn't move away. His brother's scent was staling; he'd been gone from the area for at least an hour. The boy's soul clung to him though, and refused to depart. He could faintly see it hovering over his body, afraid of what to do. The boy indeed looked strong, and he noticed from the appearance of the clearing that he had fought off his brother as well as he could. He would probably have defeated him if he were properly trained... he trailed off when he noticed something familiar in the boy's scent. He couldn't put his finger on it, but the boy's scent reminded him of Rin. He stepped back slightly, looking over the boy's face and staring at it in complete curiousity, though his face remained an emotionless mask. Nostalgia began to grip him, and he wondered if this boy would act as she had when she had first been brought back to the land of the living. Sesshomaru suddenly recognized that he had unsheathed his Tenseiga of his own accord, the Death Dealer's of the underworld had gathered around the boy, englufing him with an eerie blue light.

Sesshomaru stood there for a moment, not really sure why he wanted this. It was only a mere human, after all. Rin... He closed his eyes, thinking about the girl he would have married. His eyes snapped open in determination, and he made one swift movement with the sword.

Brown eyes opened.

--

"Why didn't you protect the boy?!" she snarled, her hands clutching the hunter's haori in a brutal death grip.

"And be killed by a demon?!" The hunter scoffed at this, "There is no way that I would do something so brash! I'd rather the boy die than me!"

Kagome hit him. Hard. She felt his nose break under her knuckles, and he went flying into the wall next to a desk. "You are no more a human than the one that took my brother from me," she spat, eyes becoming empty as she sighed, her head hanging low. "Get out of this village and never return. If I see you again," she stopped there, allowing all kinds of thoughts to seep into the hunter's head as he moaned on the floor, his hand covered his nose in his best attempt to stop the bleeding. He stood and ran-as fast as he could-out into the night, haunted by the miko's icy blue eyes...

She now paced her hut in an enraged manner. How could anyone have the conscience not to help at young boy in the hands of death? It's not fair... What ever happened to honor? Kagome sighed, I should have killed him! She gasped at that. Never in her entire existence had she ever wished death upon another. She was becoming frightened of herself. Tears welled up in her eyes. What am I becoming? She jumped slightly when Jin put his hands on her shoulders to comfort her.

"Calm down, Kagome," his voice was soft, yet demanding. "Souta wouldn't be happy if he saw you like this, now, would he?"

That did it. All of the anger that she had felt so strongly seeped away and was replaced with an overwhelming lonliness. Her shoulders shook, tears spilling over her cheeks as she finally let the grief hit her. She fell to her knees, causing Jin to sit in front of her an pull her to his chest.

"Shhh," he spoke soothingly, rubbing small circles into her back, "It's alright."

"I shouldn't have sent him out there!" She cried, her voice muffled by his haori. Jin sighed, he knew Kagome all too well.

A/N: Well, that's chapter one!! I'm sorry I couldn't update sooner, and I'm sorry that it's so short, but school is cutting majorly into my writing... Please, read and review.