Relief flooded through Kagome as she sunk to the ground. She looked to the sky to see that the dark clouds that had summoned during the fight, finally started parting, showing the sun once again. Somewhat hysterical laughter broke out of her, they won. She couldn't believe it, they actually won. She glanced around the bloody and destroyed battlefield. Sango was clinging to Kohaku who was hugging her back just as desperately. With Naraku's death, his control over the boy was gone. Miroku hovered protectively behind the two crying siblings, giving them time to safely reunite. Shippo and Kirara were curled together near Miroku's feet, both completely exhausted. Koga and his wolves were collapsed in exhaustion a few meters away, wild smiles on their faces. Sesshomaru and his crew were at the edge of the field, getting ready to head out already. He had done what he came to do and now that he was finished, he could leave. Kikyo, looking slightly worse for wear, had also sat down to rest. They had become friends and allies half a year back, the two had become more like sisters recently. The bit of soul she had stolen from Kagome those few years back had blossomed into her own soul. Kikyo was once again alive, and her own person.
Kagome heard someone plop down behind her and she glanced back at Inuyasha as he laid down next to her. The rash lovable idiot had injuries all over but given some time to rest and heal he would be fine. Kagome wasn't without injury herself. One of Naraku's tentacles had gotten in a pretty good shot and she was sporting a pretty good gash going down her back. It started at her right shoulder and ended near her left hip; she had been trying to dive out of the way. Obviously, she had been a bit slow. Now that she was consciously thinking about it the pain flared and she realized she would have to get that wrapped up and healed as soon as possible if she didn't want to bleed out. That would be the worst way to go. Finally, win against the enemy only to die of blood loss. Yeah, that would suck.
"We finally did it." Inuyasha sighed in relief. He rolled what he had gotten from Naraku's corpse in his hand for a bit before handing it over to Kagome, "Here you go Kags."
Kagome took the portion of the Shikon jewel that Naraku had collected over the last two years. With her other hand, she grabbed the jar that held all of the shards they had collected. She made eye contact with Inuyasha and he nodded his head seriously. So, with a deep breath of determination, "Okay, let's do this."
She dumped the shards out of the jar into her hand and a new sense of stress started building within her. This was the first time she has held the entire jewel in her hand since the day she accidentally shattered it. Now she was going to finally fuse it back together. Kikyo had explained the specifics on how to go through with it a few months ago. She held the shards tight in her hand and directed the very last of her Ki into the jewel itself. A glow surrounded her hand and as her Ki nearly hit zero, she cut it off. With tense anticipation, she unclenched her fist and stared in awe at the complete Shikon jewel. She could already feel its increased power. For a few precious seconds, everything was perfect. The enemy was defeated, nobody from their side had died, and the jewel was once again complete.
So, of course, that is the moment everything went to shit. The jewel started glowing on its own and only a few feet away Midoriko started manifesting. As she became more solid and easier to see Kagome and Inuyasha could see the deranged look in her eyes. With the screech of an avenging spirit, she launched herself at Kagome. Kagome let out a screech of pain as the gash on her back met the ground.
"You shattered me! So, I shall shatter you." Midoriko shrieked at her as her hands wrapped around Kagome's throat.
Kagome clawed at Midoriko's arms desperately, she could already feel her oxygen being cut off. Inuyasha let out a snarl of anger as he dived at the person attacking his best friend. To his horror, he went right through her, though her grip around Kagome's didn't lessen. The ground underneath Kagome went from solid to wavering and she started sinking down. Kikyo started rushing towards the two struggling Mikos. If Midoriko truly was incorporeal to Inuyasha her mind came up with two possible scenarios. First, only Midoriko was able to touch Kagome and if that was true then her new friend was going to be lost to the newly opened up portal underneath her. Second, only those with spiritual powers were able to make contact. Kikyo hoped that was the one as she didn't want to lose Kagome. Kagome was important to Inuyasha, they were best friends, and she didn't want Inuyasha to lose someone else. Plus, she was starting to see the girl as a younger sister type figure. Kikyo lunged at the back of the vengeful spirit. A smirk appeared on her face as she was able to grab a fistful of hair. She pulled with all her might, trying to drag her off of Kagome.
An insane grin split Midoriko's face, "My pain was eternal as I was split, so I will see to it that your pain is far from finished as well. You shall be forever separated from family and friends with no possible way back. You will be alone and without help, as I had been. Your suffering is not over, it is only beginning." She screeched. If she couldn't slowly push the Miko that destroyed her soul into the portal to a new world, she would blast her. Midoriko charged up the last of the energy that made her up and released it all at once. It blasted Kagome far enough into the portal that she was passed the point of no return and it blasted the previously deceased Miko away so she could no longer interfere. With a hysterical laugh, she started dissipating. Her goal was complete, the girl would be pushed into a world that was not compatible with her body and would, in turn, kill her slowly. Midoriko disappeared with a smile on her face, she had easily just gotten her revenge.
As Kagome sunk into the portal, she heard the distressed screams and yells of all of her friends. Dread filled her as she realized that she was going to be unable to escape this. There would be no last-minute saves this time, she was on her own. She got one last look at Inuyasha and Kikyo before she was dragged into the toxic green portal.
As she tumbled uncontrollably through the portal, she could feel her body tearing itself apart. Was this how Midoriko felt the two years she was shattered? It was beyond painful and she was already starting to mentally lose focus. She felt herself slowing in her plummet, was she arriving wherever Midoriko was sending her or was this something else?
An old man dressed in white appeared in front of her, a concerned frown on his face. He looked down at her, his long beard swaying in the wind. She could feel the immense power flowing off of this man.
"You do not belong here young one." He said finally, "Your body composition is not compatible with the chakra of my world."
Kagome was in far too much pain to answer him so she merely looked at him with pain-filled eyes.
The man looked at her briefly before sighing, "You were sent to die it seems, such an unfortunate fate. Your soul is large and warm however, perhaps you deserve a second chance. My name is Hagoromo Otsutsuki, known as the sage of six paths where you are going. I shall give you a chance to live a new life in the world I am from. It is not a guarantee that you shall survive, however you shall at least not die from Chakra poisoning your body. Once you arrive you shall notice some changes to yourself, though they will be necessary. Within entering the world your body will be completely barren of chakra and having a smaller body to compensate will help keep you alive from the sudden rush of chakra absorbing into your body. I wish you luck young one, perhaps you may be the key to saving the future of my world."
With that final statement, Kagome was once again plummeting towards an entirely new world. As she finally crash lands she could feel that she was smaller, much smaller than she should be. She came to the realization a few minutes after she landed that the Sage's help wasn't going to mean anything at this point, she was still going to die. The gash on her back had not been taken care of and she was too tired to even move at this point. She had used up the rest of her Ki fusing the jewel back together so she couldn't even heal herself. She was going to pass out and die from blood loss. She felt tears streaming down her face as her eyes started to close. What a crappy way to die, she thought idly. Right before she closed her eyes, she saw bright blond hair and startling blue eyes, filled with concern. Something that would burn itself into her memory. A small sense of relief filled Kagome, not to be rescued though. No, they were in the middle of a forest and she couldn't sense any souls near to her besides the two that had appeared right next to her. No, she was just glad that she wouldn't be dying alone. Even if it was with total strangers. It was too late for her now. With that thought and one last glance at those blue eyes, Kagome succumbed to the beckoning darkness.
The next time Kagome opened up her eyes, confusion filled her, shouldn't she be dead? She clearly remembered passing out from blood loss in the middle of a forest. The blonde hair and blue eyes flashed in her mind once again. Did that guy save her? If he did, how did he do it? Her back was still really sore so she knew that the gash wasn't completely healed up, though it didn't hurt nearly as much as it should. That meant it had been healed up a bit. A frown pulled at her lips, how long has she been out? Kagome felt a sudden cramp in her hand and she looked down to see her hand fisted tightly. She flinched at the pain as she slowly straightened her fingers. She must have had her hand fisted for so long the muscles cramped up on her, which only added to the fact she must have been out for a while. Her eyes darkened in anger as she saw the Shikon innocently sitting in the middle of her palm. That's right, she had still had hold of the jewel as she got sucked down into the portal. She still wasn't free from the damned cursed jewel. She set the jewel on the bed next to her for now as she looked around. As she had said she was on a bed, a hospital bed by the looks of it. Yes, the room she was in was very similar to a hospital room in the future. Was that where she was? Back to her time? She looked for the little details and mentally shook her head. No, this wasn't the future. There was an entire forest outside of her window, there was no heart monitor or any other electronics for that matter. The hospital room she was in seemed to be somewhere between the feudal era and the future. So, that leads back to the main and most important question. Where was she?
Kagome was startled as she heard a gasp and she turned to see a girl dressed up in hospital scrubs, "Oh my gosh you're finally awake. I'll go grab doctor Hosho." And before Kagome could say a single thing she was gone.
Kagome felt the Shikon roll slightly and she quickly grabbed it and shoved it under her pillow. If someone else was coming she needed to try and limit the Shikon's dark pull. That was when she finally recognized the smallness of her hand. When she had opened her hand earlier, she was still a bit out of it from just waking up. She remembered that sage guy mentioning something about changes and she had felt smaller before. But, actually seeing it was an entirely different matter. Her hand was so small. She was still just staring at her hand when she heard someone enter her room.
"How are you feeling young one?" a man's voice asked.
Kagome turned to look at the man standing in the doorway of her room, he was wearing scrubs like the last girl only his seemed to cover everything but his face. He was a younger man, maybe eighteen at the most. She realized that she hadn't answered him yet, "My back hurts." She answered truthfully. She flinched slightly at the sound of her own voice. It was high pitched, so she was young enough to not have gone through puberty yet. That super sucked, she didn't want to have to go through that again.
The man nodded and stepped into the room, "My name is Doctor Hosho, and I shall be taking care of you. Your back hurting is to be expected, you have sustained quite the injury. Two of our Jonin found you on their way back from a mission and brought you back to our village."
There were a few things he had said that didn't make the most sense, but she figured it would probably be best if she didn't give away that she had no idea what he was talking about. The casual way he had said it made it seem like whatever Jonin was was common knowledge. She looked to the window again to hide her frown, "Where am I? And how long have I been out for?"
Hosho started at the child on the bed, she was digging for information. A civilian child would most likely ask where she was, but she wouldn't think to ask about how long she had been unconscious. The kid had at least some training. She didn't have much training as she probably would have tried to escape as soon as she woke up. Figures that she would wake up today, her daily visitor just got sent on a week-long mission this morning. He had already sent the nurse who got him to go inform the Hokage that their mystery guest had finally woken up, so he might at well entertain the girl for now.
"You are in Konoha village, the village hidden in the leaves. You have been in a coma type sleep for almost a month now. When our Jonin found you were on the verge of bleeding out and your chakra core was almost completely depleted. If they had found you even a minute later, you'd be dead kid. It took your core an extremely long time to refill and we assume that is the reason you were out so long." Hosho explained.
Kagome's eyes went wide, she's been out for almost a month? Well, maybe that did make some sense. From the way that he was talking about chakra, it was something needed for survival in this world. So, if her body was taking this chakra in for the first time ever then it would need time to... reboot, so to speak. Plus, it probably needed time getting used to her once again child body.
Also; Konoha, the village hidden in the leaves and Hagoromo Otsutsuki, the sage of six paths. What was with this place and their long-ass titles?
"Oh." She finally said, figuring that she should probably say something. The guy probably thought that she wasn't all there yet with the long pauses.
Hosho nodded solemnly before walking right next to her, "Alright then, let me start with the check-up."
Kagome let the man look with a huge blush upon her face. She knew that this shouldn't be awkward, it was just a hospital check-up. But it was still embarrassing having a man who would have been about her age before she was shrunk giving her a check-up. She however needed to act the age she looked like so she just sat there and did everything the man asked her to do. She was really hoping that she wouldn't have to do this again. They worked in relative silence until there was a knock on the door.
They both turned to see a middle-aged man in a white robe and hat walking into the room. Kagome watched as Hosho nodded his head in respect, "Lord Hokage." Kagome stared at the man; he was obviously important. Not only did Hosho call him Lord, he also bowed in respect to him as he entered. The leader of the village perhaps? He held himself with authority so it was probably a good guess.
"Hello little one, my name is Hiruzen Sarutobi and I am the Hokage. Are you feeling up to answering a few questions?" the man asked.
"I am finished up here for now. I will leave it to you, Lord Hokage." Hosho said and promptly left.
She could still feel that her Ki was extremely low, but she directed it to be able to see the Hokage's aura. His aura was warm, though clearly strong. She could practically feel the power rolling off of him. She nodded slowly to the Hokage, "I'll answer as best as I can, Sir."
The Hokage sat down next to her, "What is your name child?"
Kagome figured if she was going to be stuck here, she had better be as honest as possible. She probably shouldn't give anything away about her time traveling and portal jumping adventures though, they would lock her up in the looney bin with no evidence to prove she was telling the truth. She looked the Hokage in the eyes before saying, "My name is Kagome Higurashi."
"And where are you from Kagome-chan?" the Hokage asked kindly.
Kagome fidgeted slightly, unsure how to answer this one, "You probably wouldn't have heard of it, though it doesn't really matter anymore." Kagome lowered her head as tears sprung to her eyes, "It's gone now." She whispered sadly. It wasn't entirely untrue. While the place still technically existed, it was an entire dimension away. All of her friends may as well be dead to her, she would never get to see them again. Midoriko had made sure of that.
Hiruzen frowned, her village got destroyed? He put a calming hand on her leg and she sent him a watery smile, "I am sorry to hear that. However, I still would like to know the name of your village."
He said village; not city, not town, village. So, this place was leaning more toward the Feudal Era then modern Tokyo. She decided to go with her feudal home then, "it was called Edo." She paused slightly and decided to fabricate her town a small backstory as to hopefully explain why a seven-year-old was so ignorant about this world, "we were a small village, a few dozen people. Definitely less than a hundred people. We choose to keep ourselves isolated from everyone else, so we would hopefully stay peaceful. Not that it helped us in the end." She explained. She hoped that excuse would work. If the fake elders of her 'village' didn't want anything to do with things outside the village; then she would have grown up blissfully ignorant to anything outside of her village.
Hiruzen thought deeply for a moment, she was right. He had never heard of a small village called Edo. If she was somehow a spy, making up a village would be more suspicious than anything. Even having spent a short amount of time with her he was doubting she was a spy. She had this air of innocence to her like she wouldn't do something bad for badness' sake. He was Hokage however and he couldn't take any chances. The village's safety was always his top priority. After she was healed up more a Yamanaka clan member would be called in to perform a mind sweep. If she was cleared, she could then be put with a family as a trial run. If she wanted to stay within Konoha that is.
"Can you tell me what happened?" he finally asked.
Kagome hesitated for a few minutes, should she make up a story mixed between Naraku and Midoriko? She scrunched up her face so it would seem like her silence was building up the confidence to tell her traumatizing story. Once she got a general idea of what she wanted to say she started talking, "Like I said we kept ourselves separated from the rest of the world. We were a peaceful village." She suddenly remembered the jewel hidden under her pillow and realized she had to fit that into the story as well. If she as going to plan on staying here, at the very least the leader of the village deserved to know about the cursed jewel, "We were peaceful, however, we had many warriors in our village. Protectors, I guess you could call them. Our village was founded generations ago to protect a single cursed artifact." Kagome started mixing in details about Sango's original village to Edo, they had founded around the time the jewel was formed after all.
"We had holy people, monks, and priestess'. The cursed object's protection was passed down to the priestess with the highest amount of holy power to purify the darkness within it. My... sister, Kikyo, had been chosen as its most current protector. Though she wasn't very happy about it. I was also being trained by our grandma Kaede."
Hiruzen was frowning in concern about this supposedly cured object; however, "What does this have to do with the destruction of your village?"
Kagome pouted at the man's interruption. She was just getting into the flow of completely bullshitting this story while sticking as close to the truth as possible, "I was getting to that." She mumbled slightly before continuing.
"Kikyo found a man severely burned near the border of our village. Priestess' are healers at heart and she felt compelled to help the man. She moved him to a cave just within the borders of our village and started treating him. He somehow found out about the cursed object. To this day I'll never know if Kikyo told him about it, complaining about the duty she had been forced into. Or, if she had it on her and the darkness reached out to him, compelling him to try and obtain it." Okay, now she had to get a bit more creative. What she had told so far was simply an altered version of Kikyo's original story and Kagome's own traveling adventures. She didn't know if this world had demons or anything that would make up for what Naraku could do. She was so glad she had gotten so good at making up stories for Shippo, and later Rin. Kagome looked down and started playing with her blanket again, "Kikyo nursed the man, his name was Naraku, back to relative health. Then one day he attacked us. He was a monster, so strong and fast. We weren't nearly prepared for him. He slaughtered almost everyone, burning everything down around him. Then a group of our strongest protectors, my friends, rallied together and managed to kill him."
Kagome paused and anger built within her, "We were obviously sad about all of the ones that had died, but we were happy that the man had been killed, and the cursed object was still in our protection. Still mostly purified. What we didn't expect, however, was a second enemy. Midoriko came out of nowhere and killed everyone else except for my sister and myself. We ran for everything we were worth, but she was starting to catch up Kikyo shoved the cursed object at me and said it was my turn to protect it and to keep running. I didn't want to leave her behind, but in the end, I didn't have much choice. Kikyo wanted me to keep living, and I had to protect the object. Kikyo died protecting me, I'm not sure what happened to Midoriko. Hopefully, Kikyo took her down with her. she at least was too injured to keep following me. I ran as far as I could until I collapsed from exhaustion. I guess the wound on my back bleed too much and my body couldn't keep going anymore. That's when I'm guessing your Jonin found me." She finally finished and was absolutely proud of her faked masterpiece. She felt bad for killing her friends in the story, but she would never get to see them again here. They were the equivalent of dead to her. If any of her friends had been left alive in the story, she would have somewhere to go back to. Which, she obviously didn't.
Hiruzen looked at her with a serious look in his eyes. If everything she said was true, then there was possibly a dangerous kunoichi after the child to gain possession of a cursed object. So, if she was to stay with the village, she would have to go with at least a Chunin level ninja. If she was put with a civilian family, that would be putting that family at risk. That brought him to the question that needed to be asked next, "What is this cursed object your village protected, and where is it now?"
Kagome's face flushed red, had he actually believed her? was this going to work? She took a deep calming breath, "It is a small round jewel. Legend says that it was created by a priestess sacrificing her own soul to trap a very powerful demon with it with her. The two souls were then destined to fight each other for dominance of the jewel. If the jewel is a light pink, then it is pure and the least amount of threat to its surroundings. If it starts to dim; turning purple, or even black, then it is corrupt and it starts to pull people into its grasp."
Hiruzen slowly raised an eyebrow, "That does not answer what it does, or where it is?" she had expertly avoided both questions. The clone Hosho had sent to talk to him in the hall before he stepped in was correct. She was by no means a trained kunoichi. She had many tells as she told her story. He knew at least some of what she told was the truth, but he was assuming most of it was lies. There had been many short pauses, indicating the need to think about what she wanted to say next. She avoided direct eye contact, and she was constantly fiddling with her blanket. So, no, she definitely wasn't a trained kunoichi. She did, however, have at least some basic training. She had mentioned protectors of her village, perhaps they showed her some basic tricks of survival. He knew there was some truth to her story however, her eyes showed her pain.
"The jewel had a few different capabilities. It has the ability to grab onto a person's deepest desire and pull it towards the front. Take Naraku for example. At first, he started having feelings for my sister. Then he desired power, which the jewel could grant him." Kagome hesitated, should she tell him? What would the man do with the knowledge? Would he want to take it for himself, nor would he be able to resist the temptation? She looked to his aura once again and saw nothing but pure intentions. Well, there was really only one way to find out isn't there, "The jewel can increase a person's power and ability an astonishing amount. That isn't the truly dangerous part about it, however. The jewel is also capable of granting... wishes. The wish is always twisted beyond repair though. That's the twist. Anybody who wishes on it will always deeply regret making the wish in the first place. With each wish the jewel grants, the more twisted it becomes. Without a priestess keeping the jewel pure the demon soul within it will gain control and compel people to make a wish. If the jewel is corrupted and somebody touches it, they also become corrupted. The nicest and purest people can be twisted into becoming the cruelest and evil.
"It is said that a pure wish can make the jewel finally disappear. That's impossible, however. Making a wish is by definition selfish. Even if that wish was for someone else. The wish maker would always have some personal gain with the wish. Say I would simply wish for it to disappear, so it would no longer cause people harm. I would gain freedom from it however, so that would not truly be a pure wish." A melancholy look took over her face as she explained. She just now, truly, understood she would never be free from the jewel. The most she could do was protect it for her entire life and at the end pull a Kikyo. Take the jewel with her to the afterlife so her next reincarnation could continue its protection. She looked toward the Hokage and an embarrassed blush flushed across her cheeks, "Um, as to where it is now? Well... I hid it under my pillow before doctor Hosho came in. it was in my hand so I must have unconsciously purified it while I was asleep. I didn't have any better options at the time."
Hiruzen Sarutobi was completely baffled. This child claimed to have a wish-granting jewel. Not only that, but it was hidden under her pillow? The medic-nin had reported that she had been clutching something in her hand the whole time, but nothing they did made the girl unclench her fist. Once again, if this girl was telling the truth, then nobody could know about the jewel. It was simply far too dangerous. He needed to get a Yamanaka up here as soon as possible to do a mind walk. His gaze drifted to the girl as she dug her hand under her pillow, her face flinching slightly as her back pulled uncomfortably. When she pulled back, in her hand was a round pink jewel, the size of a large marble.
The jewel gleamed in the sun, "This, Hokage-sama, is the Shikon jewel."