Kagome coughed a few times as she waited for the smoke to clear. [Did he do it? Did Inu Yasha finally kill Naraku?]

Sesshoumaru stayed alert, but took a long, deep sample of the scents on the air. Death did not seem to be one of the scents, but it always took several minutes for that smell to be noticeable. No matter how much he tried, Sesshoumaru could not find Naraku’s scent nor could he sense Naraku’s jyaki in the area. He let out a small sigh of relief; he hadn’t approved of his younger brother’s method of attack, but he did not disapprove of the fact that their mutual enemy seemed to be dead.

Inu Yasha smiled as he stepped forward, Tetsusaiga still firmly in his grasp. [I—I did it!]

In elation, Sango leapt into Miroku’s arms. "It’s over!"

Miroku smiled, but released Sango as he began to remove the rosary beads from his right hand. [I have to check…]

Even though it had seemed as though everything was over with this… rather short battle, Sayaka couldn’t help but to feel that something wasn’t quite right. She tightened her grip on the sword as she heard someone approach.

Kagome ran through the smoke, following her nose and her ears, to find Inu Yasha. Finally, she passed through the still thick smoke and was able to see him. A smile spread over her lips as she paused, standing between him and Sayaka. She flashed a quick, innocent, friendly smile to Sayaka, as though to prove her innocence.

Miroku slowly opened his hand and closed his fingers over his hand just as quickly. He quickly replaced the rosary beads over his hand. "He’s not dead! I still have the Kazaana!"

No sooner than the words passed through Miroku’s mouth than a hand flew out of the smoke. Before any of them had the chance to react, the hand clasped over Sayaka’s neck and pulled her back into the smoke. Shortly thereafter, a swoosh of wind was heard and then the smoke cleared.

Inu Yasha’s previously elated expression altered into one of horror as he saw that the woman that he had offered to protect had disappeared. Inu Yasha gritted his teeth as he sheathed Tetsusaiga. "Kana-chan… this isn’t over with yet… Who knows what Naraku is going to do with her…" Inu Yasha clenched his fist as he looked down to the ground, his ears now flattened against the back of his skull. "I have to go help her—I don’t know if you and Sesshoumaru are planning on helping or not—the choice is yours."

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

Naraku scowled as he took a closer look at the woman he held, unconscious, in his arms. [What the hell was that? Hanyou dog convention? There were three of them—I just happened to get the wrong one… Either way, I’ll find a use for her…]

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

Kagura sighed as she realized that boredom had once again overtaken her mind. The mansion was empty for now. Naraku had not been doing much of anything before and she couldn’t leave until he could devise another scheme to either obtain more jewel shards or to cause pain and suffering among the masses. She considered herself lucky, though, seeing as Naraku had not held too much of a grudge over her since her previous rebellion. Admittedly, it was much more boring to be chained to a wall in the dungeon all day than to be able to walk around an empty castle.

After several more minutes had passed, Kagura felt the shift in the wind, meaning that Naraku was returning. Though her master was not someone she looked forward to meeting, Kagura was looking forward to hearing about what he had done. She made her way through the halls of the mansion and out the front door. She looked up, a look of perturbation over her features as she crossed her arms and leaned against one of the wooden supports for the roof. "Bring home a friend, eh?"

Naraku chuckled as he landed a few feet in front of Kagura. He held out the hanyou woman in his arms so that Kagura could see the woman. "She wasn’t the one I intended to get, but I’m sure that she will have some use."

Kagura nodded in understanding. "I suppose you want me to tend to her, then?"

Naraku hesitated as he handed the woman to his servant. "You could say that, yes… Take her down to the dungeon—I suppose you remember well how prisoners are to be held."

Kagura’s expression fell as she nodded and bowed lightly before turning to take the hanyou woman to the dungeon room.

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

Sesshoumaru hesitated to speak as he watched his younger brother begin heading in the direction from which Naraku had left. "Inu Yasha… Was that girl’s name Sayaka, by any chance?"

Inu Yasha stopped in his tracks and spun around, giving a heated glare to Sesshoumaru before regaining his composure and approaching his elder sibling. "Yes. Tell me, brother, why is she so interested in hearing about you?"

Sesshoumaru shrugged nonchalantly. "She thinks I killed her mother."

"Did you?" Inu Yasha inquired pointedly.

Sesshoumaru’s proud expression fell, though only momentarily. "She was my fiancé. I could never have laid a finger on her. Perhaps you remember seeing her from when you were a child…"

Inu Yasha paused as he recalled memories of the woman with the beautiful long silver hair, sparkling amber eyes, and a soft, kind voice. "I suppose I do…"

Kagome stepped in front of Sesshoumaru, as though to shield an argument from beginning between the brothers. "Memories or not, I was Naraku’s target and I feel obligated to save Sayaka."

Sesshoumaru looked down into Kagome’s hopeful amber orbs. She smiled lightly, pleadingly, as she felt his hand upon her shoulder. "Perhaps…"

Sango nodded as she stepped forward, picking her sword up from where Sayaka had dropped it. "She never even had the chance to defend herself…"

Miroku took a long look at his right hand as he too nodded. "If we can save her and take out Naraku in the process—I’m all for it."

Inu Yasha stared at Sesshoumaru and Kagome, feeling his blood come to a boil. Even after he had promised to wait for Kagome, after he had cut off all of his ties with Kikyo—there was Kagome, shamelessly flirting with Sesshoumaru, and right in front of him, to boot! He suppressed a growl that had arisen from the back of his throat and turned around, facing the direction that he intended to take to look for Naraku.

Miroku watched Inu Yasha’s infuriated expression and looked back to the hanyou woman giggling at Sesshoumaru. "I do not believe that I have met you…" he offered as he stepped closer to the woman.

Kagome looked up for a moment to see Miroku holding his hand out as a salutatory gesture. "I am Kana."

[She didn’t say that she was Kagome—but why else would Inu Yasha be reacting as he is?] Miroku took her hand in his and bowed his head to her as a courtesy. "Pleased to meet you… I am Miroku."

Kagome took Miroku’s gesture in order to humor him, as she knew that he did not suspect her identity in this form. At least, not yet.

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

Sayaka groaned as she first awoke from her induced sleep, courtesy of Naraku. She had not even opened her eyes yet, but she knew that she was imprisoned in a basement, a dungeon, somewhere underground. She felt cold air around her, cold shackles on each of her wrists and ankles, and the whole place stank with mildew and decay. She gradually opened her eyes, seeing the cold, void room that she had been sentenced to; her only cell mates were the spiders and other lowly creatures of the underground. [What did I ever do? Why am I here?]

A rustling was heard from the far corner of the room and then a bamboo door opened down, revealing a little more light and a yokai woman. Sayaka growled at the woman as she approached—she reeked of Naraku’s stench. The woman merely chuckled at Sayaka as she stood only a few feet away. "It’s about time you woke up."

Sayaka lunged forward, but found that she was too restrained by her shackles to move more than a foot or two. An animalistic roar rose from her throat as she struggled to escape her bonds.

"Lively, aren’t you?" The yokai woman inquired primly. "Perhaps you can begin acting civilly and I can then speak with you."

"You reek of the man who did this to me! Why should I wish to speak with you?"

Kagura leaned forward as Sayaka continued thrashing against her restraints. "Because, I want his death as much as you do."

Sayaka stopped as she looked at Kagura in disbelief. "Why is it then, that you smell like him?"

Kagura rolled her eyes as she stepped back from Sayaka, allowing the hanyou woman to get a good look at her. "I am Kagura, wind sorceress—a being created and enslaved by Naraku. He holds my life in his hands and my only chance at freedom is to see to his death."

Sayaka nodded slowly, in brief understanding. "Kagura… do you know why he brought me here?"

"It’s hard telling. He doesn’t tell me much of anything anymore—I tried to escape from him not long ago. I have yet to prove my… loyalty to him enough that he will tell me more than I need to know." Kagura paused as she took a long look at the distressed hanyou woman. "Who are you, anyhow? And… who were you with when he took you?"

"My name is Sayaka. I have no noble blood or any of that to my name—I was born as the illegitimate daughter of Aki, the late fiancé of Sesshoumaru, taiyokai of the West. I was with Sesshoumaru’s younger brother, Inu Yasha, at the time that we met and fought Naraku, thus ending in my capture."

Kagura nodded slowly. "Naraku despises Inu Yasha and craves for Sesshoumaru’s power. I can see where anyone around either of those two would be brought into Naraku’s web of deception and anguish. I’ll do what I can to help you, but realize that I am not the type to risk my life for anyone other than myself."

Sayaka nodded as she watched Kagura exit the room via the bamboo door through which she had previously entered. [It’s not much, but I may have a chance…]

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

A.N. Well, for those of you who seemed to think we were at an end—Not for a while! I mean, Naraku won’t just die that easily! I’m not about to end the life of everyone’s favorite person to hate—I won’t have anything exciting for the rest of the fanfic! ^_^ For those of you who want to know what’s going to happen to Sayaka by the end or who she’s gonna be paired with, if at all—I’m going to try to develop her character a little more before I start flinging her together with anyone.

*sighs * Last night was our high school’s graduation ceremony for class of 2004, so I was busy enough last night saying goodbye to my classmates that I didn’t get the chance to work on this too much last night.

To the person who alerted me to the misspelling of ‘Sankon Tessou’ and ‘Hiten Tessou’ from, like, chapter 5—words like that are spelled so many different ways, I used that particular spelling because that is the one that seems phonetically correct and is seen most often with other correctly spelled words. I am trying not to make too much of a big deal of this, though, because those are not English words and foreign words will always have a different ‘correct’ spelling.

Ja ne,

Ryoko Yuy/ V Shape Otaku