Sango groaned as she heard the first sounds of the morning around her. She rubbed her tired eyes awake as she sat up and took in the scenery around herself. She scowled as she saw Miroku leaning against a tree several feet away from her, talking—flirting—with some other girl. [Back to his old self, I suppose… I figured it was too good to be true. Heh, can’t stop a bird from singing…]

Sango stretched as she stood and approached Miroku and the other woman. Her eyes flickered in contempt as her gaze met Miroku. "Ohayo, houshi-sama…"

Miroku nearly jumped as he heard Sango’s voice. He stepped back and held his hands in the air, as though to show his innocence in the situation. He was relieved to see that, instead of hitting him with all she had, Sango merely stepped closer to him and snaked her arm around his, interlocking the fingers of her right hand with those of his left hand. "Sango-chan, this is Sayaka… I found her wandering in the forest this morning, alone."

Sango smiled as her eyes bore deep into Miroku’s gaze, as though trying to make sure that he did not ‘try’ anything with Sayaka. Seeing no true fear in his eyes, Sango smiled and pulled herself closer to him. "I am surprised at you, Miroku. For once you have chosen to take care of a woman without having false intentions… or am I assuming too much?"

Miroku shook his head as he settled himself closer to Sango’s lithe form. "She was lost and alone…"

"As was I once…" purred Sango as she leaned her head on his shoulder.

Sayaka stared at the two for a moment as they began to make obvious their relationship. (No, it’s not what you’re thinking, they’re not doing that!) She turned and shifted her gaze towards the hanyou man sitting in a tree, staring out into the empty plain. "Inu Yasha, may I speak with you privately?"

Inu Yasha turned slowly and looked down at Sayaka in mild annoyance. "I suppose so… what do you want?"

Sayaka smiled as Inu Yasha dropped out of the tree and followed her into the forest. "I know that I already asked you about Sesshoumaru a little already, but I need to know something about him."

Inu Yasha shrugged as he began to pop his knuckles, one-by-one. "I don’t know everything about the guy, but I can try to help you out…"

Sayaka sighed as the questions that she had previously held in began to flow from her lips. "Would he ever kill a woman? Would he lie? How much does he hate hanyou? Is he really—?"

"Whoa, slow down…" Inu Yasha sighed as he began to explain his knowledge on the questions asked. "He would never kill a woman without due cause. By ‘due cause’, I mean that there would have to be no other options. Even though I may not always agree with him, to put it lightly, I do know that he is a man that prides himself within his honor, and would not lie. And as for the last question, I’m not sure exactly how much he hates hanyou. I know that right now he is traveling with a hanyou woman, but then again, he doesn’t like me because I’m a hanyou… why are you concerned about his likes and dislikes regarding hanyou, anyway?"

Sayaka began to answer with ‘Isn’t it obvious?’, but realized that she was still in her human form and it was nearly impossible to detect her mixed blood while she was in her human form. Her eyes downcast, she began to explain a little of her own story to Inu Yasha. "Many, many years ago, there was a woman who had been betrothed to Sesshoumaru, but when he had to leave for other business, she fell in love with a human man. She had a hanyou daughter by this human man, and when Sesshoumaru returned to find that his fiancé had a hanyou daughter, he was, needless to say, infuriated.

"Shortly thereafter, Sesshoumaru’s fiancé was found dead, with no explanation of her death to the human man she loved nor to her young hanyou daughter. For many, many years, the human father told the hanyou girl that her mother had been ruthlessly murdered by Sesshoumaru. She trained over many years in order to defeat Sesshoumaru and to avenge her mother, but when she finally found him, he did not seem to be who she thought she would be… The hanyou girl is a very close friend of mine, so I worry about her and her story… what do you think?"

Inu Yasha sighed as he took a long look at Sayaka. "Your friend is likely to have been misled. Sesshoumaru would not change his ways so easily or quickly that a true description would have varied much from who he actually is. Chances are, your friend’s father just believed that Sesshoumaru killed his own fiancé because that was the easiest thing for your friend’s father to believe. People do that a lot. They don’t do it to lie or to hurt anyone, but to make themselves feel better about how things happen."

Sayaka nodded slowly, seeing that Inu Yasha’s theory seemed to be logical enough for her purposes. [Well, I suppose that makes more sense than anything else…]

Inu Yasha cocked his head sideways as he watched Sayaka, deep in thought. "For someone merely concerned for a friend, you seem very deep in thought… Are you sure that this is a friend that you are asking about?"

Sayaka’s eyes widened as she looked up at Inu Yasha and then up to the sun, straight up in the sky, high noon. "I said I was asking for a friend, Inu Yasha."

Inu Yasha shrugged casually as he caught her gaze once more. "Yeah, well, I’m always on high alert when I’m in my human form, too."

~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~

Kagome stretched as she followed shortly behind Sesshoumaru, watching Rin dash through the field, occasionally returning with a bouquet of wildflowers and weeds. She noted, though, that Sesshoumaru seemed especially quiet today. She had not said anything just yet, because she knew that he, like anyone else, needed solitude every so often.

Sesshoumaru let out a long, deep sigh. He took a quick look back at Kagome and then played it off as though he had been watching Rin. He had been rather busy thinking, and that wasn’t all solely about Sayaka, either. However, Sayaka’s words to Kagome did have much to do with his reflections. ‘You only speak in his defense because such is your duty!’ The words did strike Sesshoumaru as a possible truth, but one he was not sure whether or not he wanted to believe that explanation.

"What’s the matter, Sesshou-kun?" Kagome smiled brightly as she stood next to Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru paused, the deep conflict within his heart was nearly visible in his eyes. "Kana, why did you not hesitate to come to my defense when Sayaka was attacking me, both physically and verbally?"

Kagome sighed, glad to know that nothing more complicated had been the source of his silence. "Sesshoumaru, I would do the same for any of my other friends, there is no reason for you to be excluded. Why do you ask?"

Sesshoumaru shook his head slowly, a thin smile overcame his lips. "I was only hoping that you would not say that you felt it was your duty to do so…"

Kagome stifled a giggle as she continued walking, now a few feet in front of Sesshoumaru. She absent-mindedly brushed her hair out of her face, throwing her silver locks upwards to the mercy of the wind.

Sesshoumaru watched her quietly, considering the future that lay ahead of them. [No matter how attractive I find this form to be, I know that she will return to her human form… I know, she is rather striking as a human, but, human or hanyou, neither are a specie that I intend to fall for. Given, her personality is more than enough to peak my… interest, but I vowed long ago that I will only love a yokai woman. That isn’t to say that I love her, but I continually find myself watching and wondering more about her… Perhaps this is normal for people that travel together… after all, it was not very long before I had to ask Rin what became of her family… but, for some reason, this feels… very different.]

~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~

Sayaka stretched lazily as she watched Sango, Miroku and Inu Yasha gather and pack their possessions so that they would be able to move on from their campsite. Though some of the items seemed rather peculiar to Sayaka, she dared not to comment on such.

It had only been an hour previously, that Miroku explained the backgrounds of himself and the other two. Sango was the last remaining taijiya from her village and she found Kirara, her neko yokai, Miroku and Inu Yasha to be her only remaining companions. Sayaka knew from… experience that taijiya were known to travel with odd equipment.

Miroku’s own story was rather basic, but in contrast was the remaining member of the group, Inu Yasha. His past was full of many complexities, some of which Sayaka knew Miroku kept from elaborating upon. However, among the most fascinating parts of his past was that he had been sealed to a tree for fifty years. Sayaka sighed as she considered what it would be like if the same had happened to her—she knew that she wouldn’t be nearly as trusting as Inu Yasha was.

Inu Yasha casually gazed over towards Sayaka as he pushed the last of the futuristic tools that Kagome had left with him in the small bag that he now carried with him. He shuddered, though, when he felt an all-too-familiar evil aura. He flattened his ears against his skull, dropped the tote bag, and reached for his Tetsusaiga. "Naraku…"

Upon hearing Inu Yasha utter the accursed hanyou’s name, Sango and Miroku also dropped what they were doing and assumed more defensive stances. Sango scowled as she tightened her grip on Hiraikotsu. "Inu Yasha, how close is he?"

Inu Yasha’s lip curled upward in disgust and a low growl came from the depths of his throat. "About a mile…"

Sayaka paled as she watched the three prepare themselves for the quick-to-come battle. She slowly shifted her gaze to the position of the sun, now on the Western horizon, pulling itself down for the night. "Who’s Naraku?"

Sango sighed as she gestured for Kirara to change in its larger and more fierce form. "Naraku is, in few words, our worst enemy."

"Are you going to fight him now?"

Inu Yasha nodded. [We can’t possibly leave her here, alone with Naraku around… but then again, I’d hate to bring her along in battle.]

Miroku stepped forward, his staff in hand. "Sayaka, perhaps you should stay near us, lest an undesirable fate befall you."

Sayaka paused, took one last glance at the rapidly setting sun, and then nodded. [I’ll do it… I’ll go with them and even see what type of person this Naraku is… I’ve heard rumors about him, but they were so horrific, they could have been only rumors.]

Inu Yasha nodded as he gestured to Sango and Miroku. "I’ll carry her."

Sayaka hesitated as she approached Inu Yasha, whom was now kneeling so that she could be carried on his back. She finally drew in a deep breath and leaned onto his back, allowing him to pick her up and begin carrying her as he ran through the forest, shortly behind Sango and Miroku. "Inu Yasha, I need to tell you something."

"Now?"

"Yes…"

~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~

A.N. Well, school’s out… exams are over… all stress is nearly over… I now (finally) have a (temporary) job—working on a horseradish farm! First day and my muscles are already shot…

Ja ne,

Ryoko Yuy / V Shape Otaku