Forever Young

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, unfortunately... Someday, though, I will own my own anime and then when Rumiko Takahashi wants to write a fanfiction on it, she'll have to slap a disclaimer on it. Hah!

This fanfic is inspired by a fanart by Druihd at druihd. staze. org (take out the spaces) featuring chibified Miroku and Sango in a forest, surrounded by mushrooms. I found it so cute that I just had to write a fanfic of it. Druihd says her inspiration was Detective Conan. Cool, ne? Anyway, I don't know how long this will be. It will be a multichapter fic, but I don't know whether I'll try and keep it short (3-7 chapters), medium (10-20), or long (25-40). Well, all I can say is just sit back and enjoy the ride.

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Sango sighed contently, standing up. "Kirara, if Houshi-sama tries to follow me, drag him back here," she announced, setting the small neko youkai down. She whispered, "Just don't hurt him too badly." Kirara nodded, fixing her gaze upon the monk. Sango glanced at him and headed off towards the hot springs.

She began feeling slightly giddy from a foul stench, nearing the hot springs. Her vision began to blur, and a sudden weakness jolted up her legs. She could no longer support her weight and dropped to the ground and collapsing into a bed of mushrooms.

Sango regained consciousness what seemed like days later - but in reality was only a few hours after she had fainted. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, noticing both the sickening stench and the mushroom bed had vanished. She pushed herself up, gasping. She realized her sleeves now passed far over her hands, and everything seemed bigger - much bigger. She held her breath, edging towards the hot springs. She leaped back in horror once she caught a glimpse of her reflection. "I'm a little kid..." she whispered.

===

Naraku cackled insanely, watching the newly shrunken Sango through Kanna's mirror.

"I really don't think this is going to work," Kagura mused. Naraku smirked, looking over at her.

"Leave the thinking to me, will you?" he asked her. She let out a light, 'hmph' and exited, leaving him to his plan. She didn't plan to listen to him gloat, let alone listen to him curse his plan once it got fumbled.

===

Sango carefully tore an opening on either side of her apron and wrapped it around herself, sliding her arms through the torn part of the fabric. She ripped one of the sleeves from her yukata and fastened it around her waist as a sash. Yanking the ribbon from her hair she pulled a section of her long auburn locks into a low ponytail. She caught a glimpse of her reflection, smirking. She couldn't help but wonder if she should tell the others, but in the end decided that if Naraku found out who she was - assuming that he didn't have something to do with her sudden change in stature in the first place - she would be an easy target. She would simply have to take her chances and hope they wouldn't recognize her.

"She's been gone far too long," Sango heard a voice say as she made her way back to where they had set up camp. "I'm going to check on her."

"I don't think so, Miroku," another voice snapped, "if she's not back by tomorrow, then we can look for her. She probably went for a walk or to sulk over Kohaku - she does that a lot." She crawled closed to the group, but stepped on a stick in the process. At the sound of the crunch Inuyasha whirled around, picking her up by her arm. "What the heck are you doing here, brat?" She growled, kicking him in the stomach and landing on her feet as he dropped her.

"I have just as much right to be here as you do," she pointed out, folding her arms across her chest, "but if you must know the rest of my family was destroyed by a horrible demon calling itself 'Naraku', and I don't have anywhere to go." Kagome glared coldly at Inuyasha.

"Forgive him, he can be really rude at times," Kagome told her, "I'm Kagome, the rude one is Inuyasha, that's Miroku over there, and the kitsune is Shippou. What's your name?" Sango closed her eyes and said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Houko," she announced. "My name is Houko."

"Houko," Miroku began, "you didn't happen to see a woman around, did you? She's slightly taller then Lady Kagome and was wearing a pink yukata. Her name is Sango." Sango, newly dubbed Houko, thought hard. There was only one thing she could do.

"Yeah, I did," she told him, "she was leaving the hot springs. She asked me to tell you that she had something important to take care of. She said she would meet up with you at Kaede's hut once she'd finished, but she didn't know how long she would be."

"Damnit, what could be more important than killing Naraku?!" Inuyasha exclaimed, picking her up by her collar.

"I don't know, I didn't want to pry!" she exclaimed. "Now put me down, would you?" Inuyasha snorted, dropping her into the dirt.

"You'll get used to it," Shippou told her, helping her up. She brushed her hair from her face, glaring at Inuyasha.

"What strikes me as odd is that she didn't tell us herself," Miroku told them, "and she didn't take Kirara, or even Hiraikotsu." Kagome nodded.

"It is a bit strange," she admitted, "we'll have to ask her about it when we next meet up with her."

"What I wanna know is what we're gonna do with that," Inuyasha grumbled, pointing at Sango.

"I'm not a 'that'," she corrected bitterly, "my name is Houko, and I'm a living, breathing person."

"A little low on the food chain to be shooting off the mouth like that, aren't you?" Inuyasha snapped at her. Miroku swiped his shakujou across the back of Inuyasha's head, leaving a giant knot to verify it.

"Inuyasha, you act like more of a child than Houko or even Shippou," Miroku sighed.

"You said you were after Naraku," Sango began, "I want to come with you. He slaughtered my entire family because we possessed a Shikon jewel shard, and I want my vengeance." Kagome shook her head.

"It would be too dangerous to have you along," she told her. Sango growled, looking away.

"I don't care," she affirmed.

"We should leave you at a nearby village," Kagome told her.

"I'll only run away and seek out Naraku on my own," she debated.

"You'll be killed," Kagome pointed out.

"If fate shall have it, then so be it," Sango stated firmly. A burning determination lit up her eyes as she watched Kagome. Inuyasha suddenly noticed a strong familiarity in her scent, but couldn't pinpoint why. He simply shrugged it off, assuming it was nothing important. "I don't care what could happen to me, I will witness Naraku's death. I have nothing to lose." Kagome looked to Inuyasha and Miroku, sighing in defeat.

"If she comes, she's not my responsibility," Inuyasha grumbled.

As Miroku studied over the young girl absorbedly he couldn't help but be reminded of Sango. "I'll take care of her," he volunteered. "She seems like a strong child, and since she's suffered at Naraku's hands she deserves to get revenge. Further more, she says if we leave her that she'll only run off and hunt down Naraku on her own. I would imagine her odds of survival being greater if she stays with us."

"Then she gets to come with us?" Shippou questioned, looking at Inuyasha and Kagome.

"Whatever," Inuyasha snorted.

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Okay, this was short. Most of my chapters will probably be longer than this, but this was more of a prologue or intro than part of the story. It will actually start to become interesting in future chapters.