Hello Everyone,

I know I have not been very active on this story for a while, and for that I am truly sorry. But, I have resumed it and I will be giving it rapid updates as I rewrite it.

Normally I would not do this, but I have suffered a loss recently, a very personal loss, and this was her favorite story of mine, and I am using this time to rewrite it for her.

All of you do not know me, of this I am fairly certain, and I have been a disappointment to you guys a lot lately with the lack of updates, but I couldn't write this. I couldn't for a long time, but I feel that for the sake of personal closure I should do this, and I will be doing rapid, steady, thorough rewrites. So bear with me. Only times the rewrites will not be in progress is during midterms or finals, that's a reality we'll all have to accept. But I'm doing this, so please, bare with me.

The original Never Be the Same is the core of the rewrites. Nothing is changing, merely things are being rewritten to be stronger and better than they were originally. And hopefully, if I do this right, this story will be completed over the course of this year.

I Do Not Own InuYasha

Unmei no Akai Ito

運命の赤い糸

The red string or red string of fate.

...

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance

I: 1

Year 1504...

Somewhere in Kanagawa, Japan...

He couldn't remember her face, not clearly. He could remember aspects of her face, her sunny, carefree smile; her warm brown eyes and their endless love and devotion; her wild black hair which seemed to be forever free. There was a lilt to her voice, a teasing, playful note to it, which sang in his ears; even after centuries of not seeing her. He could remember the warmth of her petite body, which was always so fragile and yet so unyielding and strong.

There was something unforgettable about her, about her scent, her presence, her spirit. She smelled like rain, the clean rain of a hard storm. She felt like sunshine, so warm, everywhere around him. She was everywhere, nowhere, like the wind, and he could always feel her somewhere in his mind, just nagging notion.

Oh, the centuries had robbed him of the entirety of her face, but it hadn't taken her from him. Not from his minds' eye, even as he struggled to remember her finer details. He remembered her laugh, and the way her calloused hand fit in his own calloused hand.

Mostly he remembered her wild, fearlessness which made her his equal, and it was both exhilarating and terrifying, but if she was there it was freeing.

Standing in the clearing he stared at the battered wood his father had erected around the hole in the ground which was now called Honekui no Ido, it had yet to return what it had stolen from him so long ago. Still, his claws slid over the weathered wood as he looked down the well at the stones and vines lining it.

Where Was She!?

He wanted nothing more than to tear this well apart!

But it hadn't given her back to him yet, which had him refraining from that impulse. Instead he left it in the care of the humans who had overrun this territory.

Year 1520...

Somewhere in Akita, Japan...

Sesshōmaru had never attempted to be close to InuYasha, for numerous reasons of his own. Which was why when he heard about his idiotic brother's love affair with a miko of all things he had scoffed. Like father, like son it appeared, as their father, Tōga had also had an inappropriate love affair with a forbidden female. It would only end poorly for InuYasha. Sesshōmaru knew this, and it wasn't even the fact that the miko was human that predestined the catastrophe that would unfold for them, it was the fact that said miko was keeper of the Shikon no Tama.

Though he, personally, wanted nothing more than to rage on InuYasha for everything that had been stolen from him because of InuYasha's mere existence, he refrained, he wouldn't interfere with the hanyō's life. Sesshōmaru wanted nothing more than to tear InuYasha limb from limb though for what his sires had done to Sesshōmaru's own mate.

Tōga and Izayoi had caused his beloved's bloody disappearance, they were the reason Sesshōmaru had had to drop his dying love down Honekui no Ido, and he wanted to tear his hanyō brother apart for it. He couldn't hurt Tōga or Izayoi anymore, and Kami knew he wanted to. He had craved it, he still craved it, but watching InuYasha's yokai nature tear him apart slowly.

He left Honekui no Ido alone while the miko and his brother were meeting here. It was too painful to see them desecrating where his mate had vanished.

Year 1523...

Somewhere in Saga, Japan...

The word of InuYasha being killed by his miko lover reached Sesshōmaru's ears and he scoffed at the irony of InuYasha's fate. He foresaw it coming though, it was like watching a storm collide with a mountain. Still he traveled to Honekui no Ido to see if she had returned, if the situation had allowed her to return to him. Kami he hoped so, he craved her presence.

Instead he saw his brother bound to the tree, and he stared at the sight. His brother favored his mother, but there was a lot of Tōga visible too. The faint beat of a heart around the arrow had him snarling venomously as he glared at the hanyō. His claws itched to tear the hanyō apart, to inflict the pain InuYasha's mere existence inflicted upon Sesshōmaru every day.

But he refrained, she wouldn't want him to. She had been working to bring InuYasha into the world and she wouldn't want InuYasha to perish. Not yet. But Sesshōmaru would one day kill InuYasha, and when that day came he would end his brother. It would not matter what she wanted, she was gone because of this hanyō. He wanted the hanyō to know his pain.

Year 1527...

Somewhere Near Edo, Japan...

The battle raged, and he cursed his position and his status as he fought the Hyōneko Shiten'nō again to keep the well safe. They were after that accursed Shikon no Tama; so weak, so pathetic. He snarled as he intercepted Tōran's attack, the female cackled as she let her own icy powers roil.

"Not so tough without your precious little human!" she taunted. The light that spilled from his claws lashed through the ranks and cut her down as he snarled and unleashed his fury. They would never understand, they couldn't comprehend what it had cost him to let her go.

"I'm with you my lord," her voice whispered in his ear as the battle pulsed in his blood. He'd have sworn to feeling her beside him.

The panther yōkai stumbled under his wrath and eventually ran for their life as the inuyokai howled with victory. He just tilted his head back to the moon and wondered when it would be over finally.

"You want my lord you'll have to get through me!" her voice roared daringly in his memories as she attacked Tōran fearlessly.

Year 1543...

Tsuzuki Castle, Shikoku InuYōkai Territory, Japan...

"Do you fear them, my lord?" she asked one night sitting beside him. It was the night before battle. He merely gave her a slight frown before she giggled. "I'm sorry my lord for the ridiculous question," she mused.

"I fear nothing," he replied patiently as she stood, stretching her arms over her head.

"Of course not, my lord," she replied solemnly as she put hands on the fang she carried. "What do you think of Hoshiyomi and Tsukiyomi?" she asked, trying to glean some gossip. Of course he had scoffed at her inquiry.

He wondered why he hadn't replied as he lay there in the tree watching the moth flutter before his face. She had been there, fearless at the Ga Yōkai War, the first human he had had respect for. She was so bold, so relentless, she had fought to keep up with him, fought to stay by him, fought to be his equal. She was the first he had ever respected for that, and he craved her, even when they had been on a foreign continent campaigning in one of his father's many territorial fights.

She was so timeless, eternal, he missed her. Sesshōmaru looked down on Honekui no Ido and wondered when she would return to him, she should be back soon. It had been centuries since he had dropped her into the well on the faith and her promise she'd return to him. And if there was one thing she always fought to do it was return to him, even if it meant fighting to escape the ga yōkai scum which had tried to claim her.

Where the hell was she!?

His heart ached for her, he yearned for her to be here with him. Kami above did he miss her! Why couldn't he just perish already, he was ready, if it meant he could be with her again, he wanted nothing more than to be with her again.

"Not yet, my lord, but soon," he heard her murmur by his ear and he could almost swear he felt her curling around his mokomoko.

Year 1567...

Fujisan, Japan...

Rumors of death of Tsukuyomaru circulated through the lands, and Sesshōmaru felt a twinge of something for the hyakkimoumori general. Tsukuyomaru had been there for the Ryū Wars and had been something akin to a friend to Sesshōmaru's mate. He remembered how fond his mate had been of the hyakkimoumori, she had always spoken highly of Tsukuyomaru to him, he had been annoyed by this initially.

But even he realized the death of a valued general and friend.

If nothing else he would miss his and Tsukuyomaru's debates of how to lead a yōkai clan or a battle strategy. He had rarely found anyone to be as intellectually stimulating as his mate, but Tsukuyomaru had been very intelligent and very confident and had similar views as he did about the fate of their clans and lands if they were not careful with the coming future.

The irony of Tsukuyomaru dying for a human woman, after his adamant disdain for weak females was not lost to Sesshōmaru. Though unlike Tōga, Tsukuyomaru had not perished defending his hypocritical views, he had died for a woman he advocated for in the end. His father couldn't even do the same honor, Sesshōmaru despised hypocrites above all else and Tōga was the largest hypocrite.

Year 1572...

Edo, Japan...

A rage, an unrelenting fury burned in his blood the morning he scented someone in the well, no blood, just a scent of a human girl. A small spark within him had burned into a raging fire when he realized it wasn't the right girl he scented after centuries of waiting. He wanted to lunge through the tree line though when he saw her, and for a fleeting moment he saw what he yearned to see.

He could swear he saw her long black hair, her lively brown eyes, and a sunny smile.

But it all came shattering like a beautiful illusion when the girl who emerged was not the one he was waiting for.

Her blue eyes were wide and fearful and he wanted to tear her apart, she wasn't his! She did not belong! And yet she dare used Honekui no Ido! He wanted nothing more than to kill her, to eliminate the impostor, and he wanted to kill the hanyō who appeared to be connected to this human! She woke InuYasha and he wanted to destroy them both, to let them know how it felt to lose everything.

The anguish almost shattered him when it wasn't her, but that girl instead. He would give anything for it to have been her, even if he had to give his own life to see her alive once more.

Tenseiga wouldn't aid him, he would take Tetsusaiga and force it to yield to his command to take what he was waiting for. He would inflict his wrath upon those who had taken her, whether directly or by proxy, and no one would be spared. He was done waiting.

"Come and get me if you can," she giggled in his ear and he swore he could feel her fleeting from where he was.

Tetsusaiga was more elusive than he had originally anticipate. He had never thought his father particularly clever, it was difficult to think him clever when he had foolishly fallen for a weak human female who didn't have the courage to stand beside him as an equal. His father though had been a brilliant general and leader, and his brilliance in tactics showed now as Sesshōmaru hunted for a place he couldn't find without his brother's aid.

How. Dare. She. That Interloper! A human of no consequence who had stolen his mate from him, the impostor who had come to this land. She had dared to come through the well, and for his fucking brother no less! He would strike her down!

Especially now!

She had dared to pull that fang from it's pedestal, and now he wanted nothing more than to strike her down. He would watch her blood paint the bones of these puny humans here, he would watch her flesh melt from his venom, and he would force his brother to watch. Let the hanyō understand his pain of watching his mate perish without any way to defend her! Let his father's memory burn with the hanyō's anguish!

Tōga and Izayoi and InuYasha had stolen everything from him!

He would let them feel his agony for everything they stole from him.

Year 1572...

Somewhere in Fukui, Japan...

The sun filtered weakly down upon him, through the new leaves as he lay there, his body aching. The consequences of acting upon his emotions was throbbing through the stump of his left arm served as a reminder. There was also the annoying kappa who was fussing about him, and it was irksome, he didn't need this fuss. He didn't want to be fussed over, he didn't want to live, he wanted nothing more than to perish to be with her. But alas, no one appeared strong enough to do that favor for him.

Winds were dancing lightly through the forest and his ears twitched hearing it, light, elegant, whimsical and elusive. He heard the coming army, but he didn't care, even as Jakken squawked that they should get moving again.

He wanted to sit here and listen to this though.

She couldn't play an instrument to save her life, but she had a love of music.

There was a heavy thudding of weights and people surrounding him, he could feel their weapons aiming at him which had him closing his eyes. He should just let them end him now. It would save him a lot of agony of living.

"We should go my lord!" Jakken squawked.

"I knew you were coming for me, my lord, you always come for me," she said softly, her feet sinking into the sands of the ocean as a piper played a tune while Hōraijima disappeared into the mist. "You'll always come for me. And I'll always wait for you."

"Jaken," he harshly cut off the kappa as he heard the rifles level on him. The kappa tensed at his voice. "Move," he ordered.

"FIRE!" The humans shouted and light spilled from his fingers. He wasn't dying here, and not by humans, he wanted his mate.

He cursed his foolishness in this alliance. He should have never trusted that slimy little spider, he should've cut that hanyō down where he stood.

But he hadn't, he thought with fury as he threw that rotting arm away from him. He was so livid with himself for having the audacity to give into futile plans, to let his anger lead him to this! She would be disappointed in him, and he felt nothing but this devastating anguish which flooded the raging fire of rage.

What was he thinking?

Sesshōmaru didn't know anymore, he didn't know what he was thinking anymore, he didn't know what he was doing. There was no war, there was no home for him, and his father had taken everything from him. He just wanted her back.

That was all he wanted. It was all he wanted.

He just wanted her.

She was his partner, his equal, his mate, his friend, his confidant, she was the only one he wanted there all the time. He couldn't seem to even accomplish that, and no one could grasp his agony.

She was dying, and that interloper came through that well instead, and for his hanyō brother no less. The fates were mocking him, rewarding everyone who had stolen her from him.

He was tired, and he was alone, and she wasn't here.

Year 1572...

Somewhere in Iwate, Japan...

The autumn was a lovely red, not the red of his blood, but stunning all the same. He was exhausted, bloody, and injured; all the shame of his defeat to his brother was threatening to overwhelm him because this was not how she would've wanted him to act, so he had decided to do as she did and enjoy the little things for a moment. His body ached, his soul was tattered and torn apart, and he just wanted a little bit of peace. Where was she?

Why was the miko here but she wasn't? Why was everything handed to InuYasha on a silver platter and he was fighting for scraps which he might not even get? Why was Tōtōsai so reluctant and cryptic to aid him but would do whatever was needed to aid the bastard hanyō who had caused his father's downfall? Why was he alone?

Why was he always alone?

He was tired of this, tired of feeling angry for losing her, tired of the never ceasing ache in his heart because she was gone, and he was exhausted from the vain hope she would come back. That loving her was enough for her to come back, she should be his empress, she should be his mate, she should be the mother of his pups, and Kami did he ache to have that last encounter purged from his memory.

All the blood, the pain, her whimpered pleas for him to trust her, to put her in that well, to be willing to wait for her return when he could heal her.

There was a rustle of leaves, and something in his heart stirred, his hackles rose at the prospect of false hope in his heart. It wasn't her! He knew it wasn't her.

He couldn't die though, not yet, she was waiting for him, she needed him.

There was another rustle.

The air wafted with this familiar scent, like fresh rain, but it was hidden by the stench of mud and sewage, he wanted to revolt, his stomach churned at the scent of puss and infection. A snap of a twig as a bush parted had him springing to life to snarl, his yōkai free and defensive. His eyes were red, his fangs were elongated and he felt on the brink of shifting forms to tear apart this threat.

She gasped, startled; not fearful as she recoiled, and he found himself staring at a small human with large brown eyes and many bruises.

He stared at her as she stared curiously back, the small human wasn't a threat, he decided settling back down to close his eyes and leave her in peace.

He must have dozed off, blood loss and battle fatigue finally winning when there was a harsh splash on his head, which had his eyes snapping open as he was jolted awake to stare at the small human who looked determined after having dumped a bunch of water on him.

She looked so please, and he glared balefully at her, he was tempted to maim her but something in him revolted at the mere idea.