Chapter 9-1/29/12

A/N: I have made it a new goal of mine to at least try and make my A/Ns relevant and/or shorter.

AHHH! I am so sorry! I released the wrong chapter. Here is the one I meant to let out.

Disclaimer: I do not own the show InuYasha or any characters from said show. Freaking Rumiko Takahashi does. If you are a true 'Yasha fan, you would know that, and I would not have to constantly reiterate the fact. But the characters in this chapter are mine. Yay?

I'd like to apologize now that, in this chapter, I switch from using meters to feet, but honestly, I believe it gets the point across when I use the American measuring system when relating great distances, no?

Oh yeah! I've decided to call the first character 'Q' (for questioner) and the other one 'A' (for answerer). The letters are not related to their real identities.

Enough talkie, time for the show!

End A/N.

He stopped at the edge of the forest, as far as he could get from the youkai, without being out of his area. He was meeting with him, and was sure he would not be betrayed by A, but he couldn't afford any possible watchers.

So Q paused and sniffed the air, inhaling deeply, for several moments. He could only smell his scent all over the woods, causing his ears to twitch in irritation. A should be here by now, but obviously he wasn't. Where was he? Didn't he know that Q was on duty and couldn't just sit around and wait for him?

Unsure of what to do, Q huffed and leaned against the nearest tree. Turning his head to survey the surrounding area, Q received a shock when A seemed to materialize from nowhere.

Chuckling at his spy's reaction, A told him, "You know, you really should try to be quieter. I'm only human, and yet I could pinpoint your location from fifty feet away. What would your master have to say?" He tsked at Q.

Unsettled by A's presence, the demon said, "He matters not. I am betraying him, so why should I care what he thinks of me?"

A stepped closer before commenting. "But you do care," he whispered, knowing the youkai would be able to hear him. "How could you not? Your kind spouts all kind of nonsense about fealty, and you yourself probably have had the 'importance' of loyalty shoved down your throat since you were young." In his normal voice, he asked, "Now, what is it that made you call me here, Suran?"

Hesistantly, the lion youkai informed him that Sesshomaru-sama was planning to do something with Lady Rin's body. "I do not know exactly what his plan is, but you told me to report anything dealing with the human, no?"

Nodding, A turned around and muttered, "Yes, I did. You did a good job, Suran. I wonder what the dog plans on doing with her."

"Well, I do not think Lord Sesshomaru quite knows what is going to happen either. It's his mother, Lady Inukimi, who is in charge. The servants say she is going to do some kind of ceremony, and it apparently involves a dead inu demon."

A whirled around upon hearing this and exclaimed, "What in the hell would need a dead body?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," Suran answered, only half-telling the truth. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew what Lady Mother was going to attempt, but he didn't have to tell absolutely everthing, did he? That's what he thought: No.

Suddenly, he heard a stick snap several meters away and a female calling his name. Worried he would be caught, he whispered, "You need to go! Eran will be able to smell you, so I need to meet her halfway."

A started to sneak away, but returned to Suran after only a moment or so to tell him, "Thwart the dog's plans in whatever way you can. Your weekly fee will be doubled if you succeed."

Suran simply made an wordless gesture of understanding before hurrying away towards Eran, who told him that Lady Inukimi had more or less requested his presence.

Ending his reminscing, Suran looked around himself and realized that he, Jaken, and Ah-Un were some several hundred feet in the air now. Better not fall off, he warned himself. Suran knew the green youkai would soon let him off at the upcoming human village before continuing on to Lady Mother's manor.

He had a vague plan now of how to muddle up his errand. His employer, A, for some reason did not want Rin to be revived, and Suran was determined to every yen that he was paid, even if it involved betraying the demon that seemed to trust him.

While thinking of Rin, he truly did hope that Inukimi could do something about the human's foul smell. Rotting bodies had an awful stench.

A/N: Wow, I just realized a lot of my scenes take place 'at the edge of the forest'. But when I picture the earth, especially Japan, five centuries ago, I see lots of trees and underdeveloped areas.

Okay, I was going to leave it a mystery as to who the meeting was between, but then that just seemed incomplete. FYI, I decided last weekend that I was going to (somehow) intertwine this story with Rin's Past, Present, & Future, which, I must say, was not my original intent when I started writing these two stories. I had meant for them to be completely independent of one another, but I wanted some of the story from Rin's... and came up with the decision to combine them. So, it looks like it'd be a good idea to start reading the prequel, yes? And please excuse the bad writing of it. It was my very first fanfic, and my writing abilities were worse than now. Also, I didn't really know how to get the ball rolling for the story, so I just kind of jumped in.

This chapter was way shorter than I'd originally thought! TT_TT

Remember: you don't have to log in to leave a comment/review. I have anonymous reviews turned on. ^_^

End A/N.