A/N: Relatively short chapter, this time.  Long wait, I know.  Some developments in this one, and I've already started on chapter 12 so hopefully it won't take as long to update.  I've got most of the fic planned out now so chapters should be coming faster.  Somewhat.  And if you have questions you'd like answered, your best bet is to email me rather than leaving it in a review.  Thanks for the reviews so far.  One thing I'd like to point out is this fic has many plot holes and I execute artistic license with some things so not everything is accurate.  But I digress.  Anyway, enjoy.

            Chapter 11

            Not again, Sango thought as she watched the perverted monk once again strike up the same old conversation with the newest pretty girl, and once again he asked the same old question.

            “Will you bear my child?”

            It was rather funny to watch Kuwabara’s eyes nearly pop out of his head.  Kurama really didn’t pay him much attention, a shadow of a smirk dancing across his lips.  She didn’t think it was funny.  Not in the least. 

            Shippou also noticed the expression on Kuwabara’s face and said, “He does this all the time.”

            Kuwabara couldn’t reply immediately; he was still shocked.  “I thought that he…and Sango were…”

            Sango shot him a particularly nasty look.  “He and Sango were what?” she asked pointedly.

            If Kuwabara could have made himself shrink, that would have been the perfect time.  “N-nothing,” he mumbled.

            The group had come across another village, much to their delight.  The nights had been slightly colder and a warm bed was ideal for all of them.  Plus they had wanted to do some investigating after finding a village burned to the ground.  They still weren’t sure that it was the same demon tribe that Jinenji had spoken of, but they wanted to find out if it involved a shard of the Shikon jewel.

            Sango watched as the girl laughed that same clueless laugh…the laugh that indicated that she really thought he was joking…and walked off, Miroku laughing as well, that stupid laugh that indicated that he really didn’t care whether he was turned down or not but had hoped, nonetheless.  She walked up to him and stood next to him, her eyes averted, but her posture stiff as though she wanted desperately to swing her boomerang straight for his head.

            “If you’re finished, let’s find a place to sleep,” she said curtly.

            And then she promptly slapped him.  Hard.

            Miroku blinked, surprise.  “What?  I kept my hands to myself, didn’t I?”

            “You didn’t have to!” she yelled, and stormed off.  Miroku noted that she was going in the direction of the wealthiest house there, and smiled.  She was learning.

            “Wait, Sango!” he cried, and followed her.  The remainder of the group exchanged confused glances and followed along, as well.

            ***

            “You’ll please excuse me if I find it hard to trust people nowadays,” the old gentleman apologized to them.  “I do hate to turn down travelers.  Even if you say my house is possessed by a demon, I must say the demon has done us no harm lately…at least not as much harm as the others.”

            Miroku frowned.  “Others?”

            “Indeed,” the man nodded.  “Three times in the last month have I been robbed by a group of demons that have been stealing from villages, sometimes burning them.”

            They all exchanged knowing looks.  “Burning villages?”

            “Sometimes.  I consider our village lucky not to have been burned.  That is why I do not confront the thieves, even if I could…at night I find myself asleep before I realize it, and when I awake there are things missing.  It is troublesome, but I am fortunate to have my life and a roof over my head.  Mostly they steal food, and food is abundant here.  I also keep in mind that they may have young ones to feed.”

            Kurama smiled.  “You are compassionate towards demons that steal from you.”

            The man shrugged. “Demons or not, they are living things.”

            “And how are you sure that the thieves are demons?” Sango asked, surprised at the mentality of this man.  It was certainly not common.

            “I am not.  But I have heard of a group of fox demons around here that have had a tendency to steal in the past.  I am not sure if it is them or not, because no one has seen them for several years.”

            “Fox demons,” Kurama repeated to himself.  The tone of his voice caused everyone to look at him.

            “Do you know them?” Shippou asked.

            Kurama seemed to hesitate before answering.  “How would I know them?” he asked with a strained smile.

            It was the look on Kurama’s face that stopped Shippou from asking any more questions.  Miroku and Sango were not convinced, but did not push the issue, either.

            Kurama noticed the suspicious looks on their faces and didn’t blame them.  Still, he couldn’t say anything.  Not yet.  He had yet to see if his own suspicions were correct.

            ***

            As it turned out, he didn’t have to wait long.

            They had found sleeping space in a small cabin located at the edge of the village.  The kind man and his wife had trusted them and had even cooked for them, so they had lucked out, after all.  After eating, it hadn’t taken long for the rest of them to fall asleep, but Kurama could not seem to find that same peace.  He had a tendency to think too much as it were, but lately he hadn’t been able to turn off the thoughts in his head.

            I wonder if it’s her, he thought. I don’t suppose she would know me even if I were correct.  But…

            He sighed.  This is silly. 

            Staring at the ceiling, he wished he could close his eyes and somehow make himself forget those unpleasant memories that wanted to rise to the surface.

            And that’s when he heard soft footsteps moving around in the house.  His first instinct was to get up and see who it was, but something made him lie still, pretending to sleep.  He didn’t know why, but something also told him to not question it.  So he didn’t.  However, as he lay there listening to the intruder pilfer through the house, his mind began to formulate a plan.

            He then heard the front door open and then close.  The intruder had left.  He stood quietly and followed.

            ***

            Shippou had also been lying awake.  He hadn’t noticed that Kurama was also awake; he was too preoccupied with his own thoughts.

            He liked Kurama.  Even if the other fox demon hadn’t said much to him and barely acknowledged his existence, Shippou was in awe.  It could’ve been that ‘rose whip’ that Kurama used in battle most of the time, or the fact that Kurama was just a good fighter.  Or it could have been that it seemed such a long time since Shippou had met any other fox demons, and he missed his parents.

            Kurama didn’t look like any other fox demons Shippou had known before, but apparently he was a silver fox.  Shippou hadn’t met any silver fox demons either in his short life, though he had heard about them.  He wanted to ask Kurama all sorts of questions, such as why he didn’t want to talk about his past. 

Pasts were something that no one liked to talk about, it seemed.  Even at his young age, Shippou realized this, and understood it to some extent.  He didn’t talk about his parents much because it was painful to think about them, but at the same time he remembered good things about them and wanted to keep remembering them.  He didn’t want to forget their faces, or those times when his mother would sing to him.  He didn’t want to forget his father’s laugh.

He knew they would never be back.  Perhaps that was the hardest part of remembering.

Shippou was pondering these things when he heard footsteps out in the house.  Alarmed, he lay still, wondering if the others heard it.  Maybe it was the head of the household wandering around, but somehow he guessed differently.  What if it was that thief that had been stealing from the village people?  Shippou thought about waking up the others but even as he debated it in his head, he heard the footsteps leave the house and the front door slide shut.

Not long after that, Kurama rose to his feet and exited the room, also leaving the house.  Shippou was even more alarmed.  Why didn’t Kurama wake the others before following the thief?  What was he thinking?  It was suspicious to Shippou, who didn’t want to admit that it was suspicious but nevertheless wanted to know what was going on.  He decided to wake Sango.

***

Kurama could sense the intruder’s presence in the distance, and also had the feeling that he was being watched, and followed, himself.  That didn’t surprise him.  Thieves often traveled in packs, while one did the stealing.  He, of course, having been one in the past.  The very, very distant past.

He was almost certain now that his intuitions were correct, and that made him hurry faster, all the while unable to keep from thinking unpleasant thoughts.  Had fate given him a chance to correct something that he had always wanted to correct?  Or was he too late, and she was unreachable?  Was he simply to get a better glimpse of what was inevitably to come?

He eventually came to a clearing, where he could see her standing there.  So he was right.  He knew she had already sensed him, and he stood at ready.  To be killed by her now was not acceptable, not when he had been given this moment. 

            She turned to face him, and he felt his heart clench in his throat.  All the things that he had always wanted to say simply faded away and he could say nothing.  He could do nothing.

She studied him, sensing that he wasn’t human though his form told otherwise.  He could see that she was making a decision to kill him or find out why he’d followed her first.  Luckily for him, she chose the latter.

“I realize why you slipped through that sleep spell,” she said.  “An honest mistake on my part, having not realized there was a demon in the house.  I suppose I should ask why you didn’t bother waking your companions to follow me here.”

“I didn’t need them involved,” he replied.

She smirked.  “So, you plan to take me on by yourself?  Not very bright, are you?”

“I don’t intend to fight you.  I…” he stopped, once again at a loss as to what to say.  “I want to know why you’re doing this.  Why are you stealing from people?”

“Why not?” she asked, seemingly amazed that he’d even ask such a question.

“But you weren’t always that way,” he said, and her expression turned from amused to confused.  “You didn’t always steal.  You didn’t have to.  You don’t now.”

“I don’t know you,” she replied coldly.  “I have never seen you before and you profess to know me in any way.  That makes me angry.”

Kurama gritted his teeth.  This was foolish of him.  How could he talk to her when, as she said, she didn’t know him?  But he had to try.

“The Silvers never lived like that before you started it,” he said.  “They kept to themselves, like the Red clan.  You’ll bring destruction upon them all if you continue this.  I can’t explain it, just listen to me.  I know you don’t know me.  But I know you…”

“How do you know me?” she retorted.  “As I said, I have never met you.  I can’t even believe I’m bothering with this talk.  It’s madness.” 

Her tone of voice was disturbed, he could tell.  He could also tell that she was getting to the breaking point, and he had to get out of there, fast.  But he couldn’t…he had suddenly found the words.

“The only madness is you leading the Silver clan into thievery and violence.”  His eyes softened as he said, “Amoyo never would have accepted that.”

Her eyes widened and it was as though an explosion had gone off in her head.  “Amoyo would never have accepted being killed by that witch, either!” she roared.  “But he was, and that is why these pitiful humans deserve to have everything taken from them, as well.  If I so choose I could take their very lives from them!  But I am the generous one.  How dare you…HOW DARE YOU…”

“You cannot bring him back!” he shouted in reply.  “Taking revenge for something that you cannot change will only cause more pain.  Do you…do you want to endanger your son’s life?”

She stopped and stared at him.  “Who are you?”

“I can’t tell you that,” he replied and looked away.

She laughed bitterly.  “But you can stand there and tell me what to do.  You sound very much like Amoyo…” Her voice grew wistful, but her eyes remained hard and calculating.

And then with a flip of her hair, she took off without another word.  Kurama watched her leave, knowing that if he followed her, she would kill him.  His legs felt weak, and he had to sit to keep himself from collapsing.  He felt very tired.

***

“What do you think it means?”

Sango glanced at Shippou and shook her head.  “I don’t know…it’s obviously someone he knew before.”

Shippou looked disturbed.  “She was a silver fox demon.  They used to keep to themselves but they’ve developed a reputation for being violent thieves.  Does that mean that Kurama was once a thief?”

“Probably,” Sango replied.  “But there’s a story there that only he knows.  Let’s not bother him about it right now.  Maybe we can get some answers later.”

That seemed to work for Shippou, who nodded and began to head back to the village, but Sango felt troubled.  It didn’t look good for someone who was already suspicious to do something like follow an intruder without waking the group.  And it was someone he knew.  She had heard most of the conversation, and had developed her own theory, but she couldn’t test it until later.  She had to wait.