AUTHOR'S NOTE: That right peeps! 2 for one night! Yippie! SO first of I'd like to thank the lovely Emsky3177 for the follows! YAY, cookie for you!

"Ow….my back…."

"Your back? What about mine?! Get off!"

"I'd love to but Sessh has to get off of me first…"

"Hnn."

Sesshomaru pushed off himself off of his siblings and started looking around their surroundings. Sakura groaned as she got up, turning to help Inuyasha, who was face first on the stone floor as if Kagome sat him. Inuyasha ignored her offered hand in favor of just pushing himself up into a sitting position, attempting to stretch out his back from the impact caused by his siblings landing on him.

"Where are we?"

"In a cave, woman."

"Inuyasha…"

"He is correct."

Sakura glared at Inuyasha's smug expression at their eldest sibling's confirmation.

"A cave carved with poison claws. Father's no doubt."

Turning to the far side of the cave, Sesshomaru spotted the faint outline of an archway.

"That appears to be our exit."

The others turned toward where he pointed. Hesitantly, Sakura took a step toward the near-invisible arch. Then another, and another. When she was about a foot from the entrance, torches started to ignite and light the way deeper into ground. Sakura squeaked in surprised and backpedaled in to Inuyasha, causing another surprise squeak from her. She became off balance and he grabbed her around the waist, steadying her.

"I gottcha."

Sakura turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. She noticed that he was only a few inches taller than her; the top of her head reaching just within his line of sight. She nodded her thanks and stepped from his embrace.

"Well, boys, let's find out where this goes and get out of this creepy place."

"Have you forgotten, Imouto that it was you who wanted to be down here in the first place?"

"Oh stuff it, Sesshomaru."

Sakura stormed off down the passage, her progression further down making more torches flare. Sesshomaru turned to his younger brother, eyebrow raised.

"Aniki, she's mad at you for teasing her."

With that Inuyasha followed the girl, leaving Sesshomaru to ponder first off why Inuyasha knows she's mad at him, it was not apparent in her scent, and two why he was suddenly 'aniki'. Shaking his head clear of the questions, he followed his only family out of the darkness.

"INUYASHA!"

Kagome screamed at the loss of her mate. He had disappeared just like Sakura and Sesshomaru had. The Sakura stepping stone appearing once again back in its place. Rin seemed to be taking her lords disappearance well. Or at least she did not appear to be in a panic like she was.

"How could you be so calm, Rin?"

Rin turned to her friend. That's when Kagome noticed that Rin was not as calm as she thought. Her eyes swirled with worry, but confidence that her lord would come back to her. After all he always had in the past.

"I do worry for Sesshomaru-sama, however he has always came back to me. So I am confident that he will be back with us soon."

Kagome groaned. Inuyasha didn't always have the best timing in disappearing or showing back up.

"Don't worry Kagome, Sesshomaru's with them. They should be fine."

"Sango, thanks for trying to help, but it's not calming me down. How many times has Sesshomaru tried to kill Inuyasha?"

"How many times has he not killed him? Think about it Kagome, Sesshomaru's been a lot nicer to him, to us, since Naraku's fall."

Blinking, Kagome realized the older woman was right. He was being nicer. He even offered to assist them on their journey when she felt the dark presence near his borders and had gone to enlighten him about it.

"You're right. But why is he being so cordial now? What's changed?"

"I think I can assist with that."

All three turned to Miroku, who had lain out under the near-by magnolia.

"I believe that Sesshomaru may actually like Inuyasha. I think that he sees his previous obsession over Tessaiga to have been childish and now wants to have a proper relationship with his brother. After all Inuyasha is the only family he has left, besides the lovely Sakura that is. Besides, he never took the opportunity to actually kill Inuyasha, given all the times that said opportunities presented themselves.

"It was Sesshomaru that taught him how to sense the Windscar. How about when Sesshomaru, the killing perfection, thrust his hand through Inuyasha; missing every vital organ and not ripping out his spine nor did he poison him. Or when he pushed Inuyasha from the path of Sounga's Dragon Twister?

"I truly do not believe that Sesshomaru is as opposed to Inuyasha as he would have us think. These are just a few examples."

Everyone sat stunned by Miroku's observations. Rin was the only one not shocked. She knew her lord was kind and gentle under that cold and indifferent mask he always wore. She was glad that they were now seeing what she saw that fateful day that she met him. She fell in love with him then, a child's love for her protector or father figure at first but it steadily grew to a love that one would have for a romantic interest. It was a secret she would never tell, she had decided a long time ago that she would never reveal her feelings to him or anyone nor would she take a husband or mate.

"It's a never ending tunnel… Ugh. How long have we been walking for?"

Both of her brothers pointedly ignored her. This apparently was normal for Sesshomaru but not normal for Inuyasha from her understanding in her talks with Kagome and the girls. Taking a leaf from her younger brother's handbook she decided to annoy her newfound elder brothers.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"SHUT UP WOMAN!"

Inuyasha had developed a slight twitch in her constant question; he couldn't take it anymore and lashed out at her, his rage getting the better of him. As he turned to berate her more he discovered a very Sesshomaru-like smirk on her lips. The wench was teasing him?! He glanced up at Sesshomaru, he was clearly irritated as well, though not to the point that he himself was. He must have the patience of a saint to put up with that. Then again he did practically raise Rin, and that child had a lot of questions. Spying the flabbergasted look on her brother's face Sakura started to giggle.

"Calm down 'Yasha. I'm only employing my sisterly right to annoy the crap out of you. Just as you and Sessh have the right to annoy me and be near psychotically over protective of me as well.

It's that way with my younger brothers, Rikuto and Haru. They antagonize me, I teach them a lesson by getting them back, and they pout. Someone at school decides to push one of them around, they tell me, and I squish the brat torturing them. Occasionally they have defended each other but seriously, no one is allowed to harm or torment my brothers save for me. There have times when they watch a scary movie and it gives them nightmares, they wind up in my bed looking for comfort and protection from their hyperactive imaginations. "

Sakura smiled to herself at the memories of her adoptive siblings.

"Are they your half siblings as well?"

"Oh no, no blood relation at all, they're adopted. Though the boys are truly brothers, their mother was incapable of caring for them so they were taken from her. I was twelve at the time, Rikuto was one and Haru was barley a new born. "

Both of them looked at her curiously.

"Why adoption?"

"They both wanted more children, but Dad was incapable of fathering them and Mom vehemently refused to birth another. She said going through child-birth once was more than enough. It's kinda how they met. Dad was an Obgyn and Mom was a few months along with me; she had gone in for an ultrasound and he was her doctor. Three months later they were married and a month after that I arrived."

"Sounds like you have a good relationship with them. "

"I love them with everything I have. Before coming here, they were all the family I had."

Sesshomaru's curiosity was winning and he could tell Inuyasha's was as well.

"Why do you say that?"

Sakura stopped walking.

"They died. Dad had to go to the hospital to help one of his patients. We were supposed to meet in a field behind the house then go on a family vacation. The boys and I were chasing each other around. He got into an accident, dead on impact. I was nineteen. "

Tears were starting to fill her eyes; she blinked, not letting her grief pull her in. Inuyasha smelled the tears.

"You never got to grieve for him did you?"

She shook her head no, but continued with her story.

"After that Mom got really sick. I had to take over not only Dad's clinic, but Mom's tea house empire. I was able to get one of Dad's partners to take over the clinic for me. I still checked in from time to time making sure it was properly maintained, but I devoted my time to the tea houses. Mom kept getting worse and worse, no matter how many doctors I took her to no one could tell me what was wrong with her. She was fading, I was losing her. After a year I couldn't take it anymore. It was like she lost the will to live. I threw myself in to managing her empire, got up early came home late, just to escape the pain of losing another parent. I couldn't even give attention to the boys, it hurt me to look at them and know there was no way to bring mom or dad back. I separated myself from them, shoving my emotions down until there was nothing to feel. I became cold, heartless. Then 3 years after dad died, mom left too. I didn't feel the pain of her loss but the boys did. That's where I was before being brought here; I was at her funeral. "

With that she fell to her knees, finally letting out all the pain and grief she held in her heart for three years. Tears fell freely, heart-wrenching sobs coming from the depths of her soul.

"The boys….. I'm supposed to be their guardian. Who's going to protect them now?"

Both males, unaccustomed to having to console a female, were unsure of what to do. Inuyasha went to his knees by the broken girl and awkwardly tried patting her back in a sad attempt to calm her. She however had other ideas and wrapped her arms around him burying her face into his shoulder. He instantly wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. He looked up at Sesshomaru, and saw an unknown emotion run across his features before he too kneeled down beside his sister, wrapping his arms around both siblings and laid his head on her shoulder, eyes closed. A still sobbing Sakura took one of her arms from around Inuyasha and placed her hand on her eldest brother's neck, trying to hug him back. Taking a que from both of his siblings, Inuyasha for the first time took an arm from around Sakura and placed it around Sesshomaru, pulling the three of them closer still.

I can't be crying like this. I don't have the time. Later, I'll morn later.

Stuffing down her grief again, she started pulling away from her brothers.

"Hey, you okay?"

Inuyasha looked truly concerned when she looked at him. She gave him a small smile. Then she noticed that both Inus were sitting extremely close had their arms still wrapped around her back. She let out a small huff at her own breakdown, and wiped the tears from her eyes and face.

"Yeah, I'm fine. We don't have time for my breakdowns right now. The rest of my tears will have to wait until later. Thank you for trying to comfort me."

She pushed herself back up and started walking again, leaving two stunned males behind her. They quickly got up and once again followed their sister.

It wasn't much longer until they came to the end of the tunnel. A dead end.

Sakura sighed then let out a growl of agitation.

"Great. Now what?"

"Now, you deal with me, musume."

The voice while rich and soothing had shocked them all. Sakura turned around looking for the source, only to catch Sesshomaru's eyes. She voiced the question that she knew was already in her eyes.

"Father?"

The light inclination of his head confirmed her thoughts.