Kagome dodged as Naraku lunged for her several more times. She was rather surprised by her speed and agility now, but she also knew that Naraku was merely toying with her—he could have her at any time now. She slashed at him with her claws, making contact with his arm—leaving Naraku quite surprised.

Naraku stared at his severed arm in shock. Blood poured from the wound, causing Naraku’s playful mockery of Kagome to turn into a full-out rage. "Woman! I shall make you pay for your insolence!"

Kagome’s eyes widened in fear as she felt Naraku’s hand around her neck and he pinned her against a tree. She struggled to get away, but only caused him to tighten his grip.

A white light flashed between them, a energy of some sort had blasted through Naraku’s arm and left a burning feeling on Kagome’s bare chest. Both Naraku and Kagome shifted their gaze at the sound of an arrow hitting a tree.

A deep feminine voice roared from the opposite direction—the source of the arrow. "Naraku, why is it that you torment this woman? Have you not tortured enough women yet?"

Kagome’s jaw dropped when she saw that the source of the speaker was Kikyo. The miko’s ebony hair whirled about in the wind as she stood defiantly with her bow drawn.

"Leave this place, wretch. You do not belong in this world."

Naraku growled at Kikyo as he slowly regenerated the lost limb and his previously injured arm. He bowed his head in quick surrender as he fled in a cloud of dust.

Kagome panted as she watched Naraku disappear. She turned back to Kikyo, confused, but glad for once, of Kikyo’s presence. "Why did you not kill him?"

"He did not know of my presence. I am not one to enjoy killing in cold blood." Kikyo paused to study the nude hanyou woman before her. "That disguise may be enough to fool Naraku, but I know who you really are… Kagome."

Kagome felt a chill run down her spine as she nodded slowly. She knew that it was no use to try to lie to Kikyo. "Don’t tell anyone though… Naraku thinks he killed me."

"How did you end up like this?"

"Sesshoumaru… he revived me and paired his blood with one of my Shikon shards to make me into this form so that I am not recognized…"

"I see… does anyone else know of this?"

Kagome shook her head. "I haven’t seen anyone else since it happened. The only ones that know are you, me, and Sesshoumaru."

Kikyo nodded as she began to walk away.

"Wait…" Kagome tore her necklace from her neck and held it out to Kikyo. "Could you give these to Inu Yasha and tell him that I’m alright? I mean, don’t tell him where I am, just make sure that he knows that I’m fine."

Kikyo hesitated as she reached out to take the necklace. "And you trust me not to take these to Naraku like I did with the last shards I got from you?"

Kagome’s expression fell, but she nodded. "Last time you took the shards from me forcefully… I’m just hoping that we can try to be allies…"

Kikyo took the necklace, examining the shards within the jar. "I’ll take these to Inu Yasha… but I also have my own reasons…"

"Your own reasons?"

Kikyo chuckled as she looked at Kagome. "Are you really this dense? Or do you think that I am the dense one?"

"What?"

"If you have to stay with Sesshoumaru, then you aren’t exactly competition for me. I don’t have to worry… heh heh heh…" Watching Kagome’s pained expression, Kikyo laughed and walked away.

Tears began streaming down Kagome’s face when she thought about it—she was not going to see Inu Yasha. Kikyo would seduce him into forgetting completely about her. For that matter, maybe everyone would forget her. She slowly slinked into the cave and curled up into a ball, crying.

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

Sesshoumaru slowly approached the cave, catching scents that gave him a level of worry that his plan had already been put to ruins. He knew that Naraku and Kikyo had been there, their scent—Naraku’s blood, especially, loomed heavily on the damp evening air. However, it was the salty scent of Kagome’s tears and the fact that the girl was without any clothing that seemed even more unnerving. "What happened?" he growled at the girl, though he was careful not to seem too menacing—he did not want the girl to continue crying.

Kagome looked up slowly, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Naraku came… we got into a fight, but he doesn’t know who I am… and Kikyo saved me…"

"You had to have that undead wench save you?"

Kagome shook her head wildly, angry at the thought. She remembered that it was because of Kikyo that she had been mad at Inu Yasha before—that’s the reason she was in this mess. "I did not! I didn’t ask of her help … and I wouldn’t have. Whether or not you realize, I do have at least some pride."

"Is that why you are crying, because of your ‘pride’?" Sesshoumaru sneered as he awaited the girl’s response.

"That’s not it! I wasn’t scared either! I… just… I can’t go back home or see any of my friends or family until this is all over… it could be so long…"

Not wanting to listen to the girl’s list of complaints, Sesshoumaru decided to change the topic of conversation. "Why don’t you have your clothes on?"

Kagome blushed as she remembered once again that she was in front of someone—whom was effectively a stranger to her—without clothes on. "I burned them so Naraku wouldn’t recognize me."

Sesshoumaru nodded slowly as he handed her a box and urged her to open it. [She seems to be more intelligent than I thought… Perhaps she isn’t such lowly trash as I had thought her to be…]

Kagome peered into the box that Sesshoumaru had given her and a smile spread over her face. "Wow… Arigato… arigato, Sesshoumaru-sama…" she whispered as she pulled the kimono out of the box. She was quick to hurry towards the back of the cave, her hanyou eyes quickly adjusting to the dark. She pulled on her undergarments and then the kimono.

When she came back to the front of the cave, she smiled at Sesshoumaru before turning fully around, allowing him to see what she looked like in the new kimono. "What do you think?"

Sesshoumaru’s face hardened into indifference. "I suppose it suits you… At least it’s better than nothing."

Kagome rolled her eyes as she smoothed out inconspicuous wrinkles from the kimono. "I just had the feeling that Naraku hasn’t exactly been looking at the Victoria Secret catalog lately and might come to the conclusion that my clothes—all of them—were from another era."

[Talking about her era again, I suppose…] Sesshoumaru glared at Kagome in disgust as he nudged Jaken awake with his foot. "We need to leave here now."

Kagome cracked a smile as she reached for her backpack. "And to think that I was just getting used to the décor around here."

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

Inu Yasha paused as he entered the shrine. He let out a heavy sigh and turned to look at Kikyo. "Kikyo… do you have any idea of how long it will be until I can see Kagome again?"

"It’s been over five hundred years since any of this happened… Feel lucky that I remembered as much as I have."

Inu Yasha’s face reddened slightly as he grabbed a hold of Kikyo’s hand. "You have no idea how thankful I am… is there any way that I can possibly repay you?"

Kikyo sighed as she pushed Inu Yasha’s hand away. "Though it does not seem the same to you, it has been hundreds of years since I have had any type of feelings for you… You have been dead to me for so long… and I think that is how I’ve become the way I am now—don’t change that for me. Even when you’re in the past, don’t try to win my affections. If you meet up with my past self, you must explain that you do have feelings for Kagome…"

"But… what about my feelings for you? Kikyo, we were once together… We were willing to do anything to stay together, but—"

"Don’t you see, Inu Yasha? Fate has always kept us apart, don’t try to undo fate! When I bound you to the tree, Inu Yasha, that was when I knew that we could never achieve happiness. After I was revived, for a short time, I had the foolish thought that we might have had a chance, but then I also saw that you had a better chance with someone else—someone with real, living, flesh and blood! You must at least try to live a normal life, Inu Yasha—don’t you understand?"

"Kikyo…"

Kikyo shook her head angrily as she pushed Inu Yasha down the few steps in the shrine. "Don’t come back until Kagome is with you again." With that, she exited the shrine, slamming the doors behind herself.

Inu Yasha stared at the shrine doors in shock. [Even after all of that time… Kikyo still has some lingering feelings for me… she still cares enough that she seems to want me to have a better life… she wants me to choose Kagome…]

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

A.N. Kikyo is confusing, eh? ^_^;; Okay, quick thing, Inu Yasha means that Kikyo doesn’t care for him in a boyfriend/girlfriend manner, but in a friendly or sisterly manner. She cares for him enough that she wanted him to choose a life that would be easiest for him—not to mention that she didn’t want to lose her current identity because of him. {It’s something to do with all of the weird time parallels and whatnot, that her identity when she was speaking to him was based on the fact that he never came back—she doesn’t know what is going to happen after he goes back to the feudal era—she might just vanish or something!} ^_^ --I’m mean but not always that mean… <but this is Kikyo!>

Ja ne,

Ryoko Yuy