I will only write the disclaimer once, but it applies to whole story. I really want to own Naruto and Inuyasha, but the authors won't give the up. Damn.

Priestess of the shinobi

1: Nightfall

Quietly it crept a new horror

insanity reigned…

"I wish for Kikyo to be brought back to life."

All of a sudden, a blinding light erupted from the small and seemingly innocuous pink bauble and surrounded the young priestess, hiding her from her friends' sight.

"Kagome!!" shouted both the youkai slayer and the small kitsune at the same time. They launched themselves where the miko had been standing, only to be repelled by the same force that was creating the light.

The usually composed monk stood still, his eyes wide open and his mouth agape as he watched helplessly while the body of his dear friend faded away among the bright flames of the purple fire, never to return.

The stoic Western Lord observed, his face expressionless as ever, as the troublesome pink bauble gave one last pulse of light, before disappearing into thin air. Despite his cold façade he inwardly mourned the loss of such a remarkable creature.

The loud, obnoxious, red clad hanyou could only stare, mouth opening and closing alternatively, as the soul ripped away from his best friend's body flew straight to the broken corpse of the undead priestess that laid nearby. There was only one word that escaped his dry, cracked lips.

"Kagome…"

The former members of the infamous team 7 of Konoha darted across the lush forests of the fire country, silent as only the most gifted shinobi were able to. Not a leaf, not a branch moved as they jumped from tree to tree, intent on finishing this mission as fast as possible.

"Oi! Kakashi-sensei! Where are we going to start looking for it?" Naruto asked, as loud as ever.

Kakashi repressed a sigh. It just wasn't worth reminding his former student that stealth was mandatory for ninja, if they wanted to keep their heats nice and beating, that is.

"We have already talked to the Kazekage, and he says that they have no idea about it. They haven't been affected yet, so they just don't know what we are up against. This thing seems to come from the East, so it's our best bet" he answered, giving the blond a happy eye crease that was meant to keep their spirits high. On the inside, however, he was anything but hopeful. This was the biggest disaster they had faced since the Kyuubi, and that time at least they had been able to fight back. But this epidemic… none of the medics had even heard about anything similar; much less had an idea about how to get rid of it. It was like poisoning, but there was no way to rid the victim of the toxin. Not even Tsunade-sama had been able to do anything for the ones affected, and all of them had died in a three day's time range. It was a frustrating situation, and most shinobi of the leaf had started to despair, since almost everyone had lost someone close. Shaking his head to get rid of such thoughts, he went on jumping through the trees. He was a shinobi on a mission, and failure was not an option. Not this time.

When night came it found four shinobi sitting around a small campfire. They were tired and frustrated and very worried about their friends and families back in the village. Kakashi for once didn't feel like reading his small dirty orange book, and that had the rest of his team worried.

"Umm, Kakashi-sensei, are you feeling alright?" Sakura's voice snapped him out of his reverie. A lazy grey eye focused on her green ones, before he asked:

"Of course I am, why do you ask?"

She arched an eyebrow, as if it were pretty obvious. Kakashi wondered if his face had turned green or something. Well, at least the small portion of it they were allowed to see.

"I think it's the first time I've seen you make camp without taking out your precious porn." she stated, matter-of-factly.

"Whoa! It's true, sensei, you sure you're okay?" Naruto asked, reaching over to touch Kakashi's brow, feeling for a fever. The copy-nin brushed him off, a little annoyed. There had been plenty of times in which he'd made camp without reading, he told himself, the fact that he couldn't seem to remember any in that very moment was just an unfortunate coincidence. He was about to tell them that when the putrid scent of rotting corpses and acid reached his nose. He shot up immediately, quickly picking up his gear.

"Hey, sensei, don't get all riled up, it's not like we mind or anything…" Naruto started, but the silver headed jounin cut him off.

"It's that black thing. Quickly! Pick everything up, and get ready to leave" he instructed. The three younger shinobi immediately went into battle mode and had it all ready in mere seconds' time.

"Let's go" Kakashi said, but as he was turning to leave he felt something coming at him from his left. His ninja instincts kicking in, he evaded a spiked tentacle that had been shot his way. Looking around he became aware of multiple eyes surrounding them. Without a second thought he lifted his headband and opened his sharingan eye. What he saw made him curse under his breath.

"We are surrounded" spoke the Uchiha from behind him. He too had activated his bloodline technique and was studying the creatures around them with cold, calculating eyes.

Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto were in the middle of their camp, standing back to back and with their kunai readily held in their hands.

'They make a good team' Kakashi mused to himself. Hand hovering over his own kunai holster, he imparted the orders.

"Stay close to each other and look for a way out. If we come in contact with the black thing we're done for, so don't fight any more than necessary." He instructed them. He didn't need to see their nods of agreement to know that they had heard him.

He readied himself to do the same thing, but his command was easier said than done. The nightmarish creatures had them completely surrounded, and the black poisonous mist hung around them like a sickening aura. He berated himself for not having noticed them earlier, but in truth, he had no way of doing so. The beasts didn't have any chakra to speak of, and that made them undetectable to Kakashi by any means but the usual, which weren't effective until they were too close.

The attackers began to move closer, randomly launching attacks at the shinobi that were repelled by well placed slashes of kunai, or the occasional shuriken. This, however, didn't deter the beasts as they closed in more and more. Kakashi's hands moved faster than the eye could follow as they formed seals.

"CHIDORI!!!" he screamed, as he charged against the vile creatures. They fell, at least twenty of them, but for each that fell three more took its place, their mouths dripping between razor sharp teeth. He fell back into a crouch again, his breathing laboured after the amount of chakra he'd just spent, but his kunai held firmly in front of him. That was when he heard the scream.

"AAAAAAAHH!!" Sakura screamed at the top of her lungs as a slimy but strong green limb wrapped around her, effectively binding both her arms to her body, and started dragging her to an enormous round mouth that was eagerly awaiting its treat. She was nearly there when Sasuke cut off the offending tentacle while Naruto watched their backs. They managed to bring her back to the centre of the camp.

"Are you okay, Sakura-chan?" the loud blond bellowed above the sounds of battle.

Sakura was looking dazedly at the long gash on her left arm, while she focused her chakra to try and suck the black poison that had gotten into it with the right one. To no avail.

"Kakashi, this is bad, Sakura's been poisoned, and I can find no way out!" Sasuke called, an undertone of concern in his usually cold voice.

"Dammit!" Kakashi muttered. This was bad indeed. If they tried to break through the creatures they'd all get poisoned and die, and if not those things were going to eat them alive. There had to be a fucking way out!

Suddenly, a purple light lit up the night around them, and he could swear he saw an arrow surrounded by purple fires that cut through the swarm of creatures on his left, instantly turning them to glowing silver ash. Several more arrows followed the first, and in less than five minutes all the dark creatures were gone, turned to ash by the glowing arrows. The ninjas couldn't help but gawk at the sight.

Naruto was the first to recover, startled out of it by the reaction of the Kyuubi, that as soon as the first arrow was shot had let out a loud growl in warning, but had retreated to a corner, as if afraid.

"Whoa, sensei, what the hell was that??!!" he asked, awe obvious in his loud comment.

Kakashi just made a shushing sound. There was someone there, presumably the one who had shot the arrows, and they still didn't know if it was friend or foe.

"Whoever is out there, show yourself!" He called, not really expecting an answer, but it was worth a try. However much to his surprise, he heard footsteps approaching. They were rather loud in his ears. Whoever this was, it was no shinobi. He couldn't feel any chakra either. At last, he could see movement behind some bushes, and a glimpse of red and white. Two hands, one of them holding a long bow, parted some low branches and a young woman made her appearance into the clearing. She was wearing the traditional miko haori and hakamas, strangely combined with…

'Sneakers? What the hell…' Kakashi thought. Shaking his head, he approached the newcomer, still unsure of whose side she was on. 'Well, certainly not on those creatures' one.'

"Who are you?" he asked, warily, but lowering his kunai as he approached her. If she tried anything, he'd have enough time to react anyway, and he didn't want to scare away a possible ally.

The woman's brown eyes fixed on him and he nearly stopped dead on his tracks. Even though she was probably younger than himself, those deep pools of brown held within them the wisdom of one that had seen everything in this life, and survived to tell the tale. Still, they weren't cold, but warm and welcoming. He could feel himself drowning in them, until her voice brought him out of his reverie.

"My name's Higurashi Kagome" she introduced herself in a clear voice. "Are all of you okay?" she asked then, as her gaze swept over the components of the team. She stopped when it reached Sakura, and her brow creased a little in a frown. Naruto confirmed her suspicions, even as Sasuke tried to silence him. They still didn't know if she was an enemy, and it wouldn't do to tell her if one of their team mates had been injured.

"Sakura-chan got that weird black stuff into her arm!" he said, tears pooling in his eyes. Another one. He had already lost Shino (though he didn't know him much) and Hanabi, and Hinata too had been poisoned the day before. And now he was going to loose Sakura-chan too! It was unfair, and the fact that he couldn't do a thing to prevent it only made it worse. Bitter tears started running down his marred cheeks, as he slammed his fists into the ground. Sakura was barely conscious by then.

Kagome made a beeline to where the pink haired girl was laying, ignoring the threatening glare the black haired boy was giving her. He could glare his eyes out for all she cared, she was not going to let the poor girl die because of him. Besides, after being at the receiving end of Sesshoumaru's glares on several occasions, well… let's just say that the boy wasn't in the least bit intimidating.

"Let me see" she told Naruto as she fell to her knees on the side of the girl that the blond wasn't currently occupying and she took her injured arm in her hands. She grimaced slightly at the amount of miasma the girl had managed to get into herself.

'This is going to hurt' she thought as she placed her right hand over the wound. Taking a deep breath, she concentrated her purification powers on the palm of her hand and started drawing the miasma into her own body, where she would be able to purify it.

"Hold her down, this isn't going to be pretty" she muttered under her breath, as the purple flames surged from her hand and dragged the black poison that had covered the girl's arm in dark veins up to her shoulder.

When the sickening black substance started coming out of her body, Sakura released an anguished scream, thrashing her head from side to side while Naruto held her shoulders, trying not to hurt her. Kakashi and Sasuke had come close, and a good thing they did too, for they would have struck the odd woman down hadn't it been for the fact that they could see the poison leaking out from their team mate. Still, they cringed with every scream, sob and whimper the girl released.

Kagome wasn't much better off, either. Bringing the miasma to her body was as painful an experience as having it drawn out, but she bit her lip in order to keep from calling out herself. She could feel the filthy substance flowing into her system, her arms cramping painfully with every inch it advanced into her flesh, as she directed the powers that were itching to purify it to suck more out of the girl's body instead. Sweat beads formed on her brow as she concentrated on her task, and a couple of minutes later she had drawn it all into her body, so she backed up a bit before raising her aura to purify it all.

The three shinobi watched in awe as the woman released Sakura's now poison free arm and, after distancing herself a little, summoned raging purple flames that surrounded her small frame, burning away the black toxin she had drawn into her own body. Finally, the flames died down and Kagome was left panting on the forest ground, her brow coated in sweat and feeling more exhausted than she had since she left the feudal era. She laid sprawled on the ground for a moment, trying to calm her breathing and forget the pain. That miasma was certainly a nasty thing. She had thought she'd never have to deal with it again, but it seemed that she had been wrong. She sat up slowly again and looked at her audience.

"Is she alright?" she asked tiredly, bracing on her arms.

"She is coming to it" the silver headed jounin answered her question. "You know how to cure that thing?" he asked needlessly, his tone urgent. He fought back the urge to shake the answer out of her when she didn't answer right away.

Kagome was tired, sleepy, and had just undergone one hell of a painful experience, so she felt like she deserved to be a little cranky.

"Of course I can, you have just seen it" she huffed, crossing her arms in a childish manner. Then she thought better of it and, picking herself up, she hung her bow across her shoulder and prepared to leave. She still had quite the walk to her small cottage and she had to carry back the fish she had caught. Hopefully no greedy animal had taken them away while she was fighting off youkai. She started walking off when the one that seemed to be the leader called her.

"You need to come with us, Kagome-san" he spoke, matter of factly.

Kagome stopped on her tracks, starting to get angry. 'The nerve of that one!' Spinning around, she walked up to the masked guy with the silver hair (What was it with silver hair and being bossy?) until her upturned nose was inches away from his chin.

"Look buddy, I don't know who you think you are, but I don't know you and I most definitely do not abide by your orders, so just be grateful that I saved your sorry asses and I'll be on my way" she spat at him, growing more angry with every word. She spun around once again only to have the man grab her arm with his glove clad hand. She was about to give him a piece of her mind when she heard the blond talking to her. She was lost the moment she turned to look at him.

Naruto had his best puppy eyes trained on the young miko, slightly wet big blue sincere eyes that could possibly rival Shippo's. It was a lost battle and she knew it the moment she saw them. However, even without the eyes, Naruto's next words would have probably made her go with them either way.

"Please, Kagome-chan? A lot of people in our village have been poisoned with that thing and some have already died. Our friends, our families…" the moisture in his blue eyes concentrated on the rims as he fought the tears back. "My girlfriend is dying too, Kagome-chan. Please, come with us" he pleaded.

Kagome couldn't possibly deny him and still call herself a priestess, so she relented. She couldn't let innocent people die if she could do something to avoid it. Releasing a long, suffering sigh, she hung her head in defeat. Clearly, there wouldn't be a moment of peace for her in the next days.

"If that's the case, then I'll go with you. Just let me get my backpack and we'll be on our way" she said.

A quick run to her cottage later, Kagome found herself clinging for dear life to the silver haired shinobi's back, as he carried her from tree to tree back to their village, the way Inuyasha had used to. However, this ninja didn't inspire her as much confidence as the gruff hanyou had. The shy black haired boy carried the girl, who was still too weak to keep the pace by herself, while the loud blonde had ended up with everyone's packs. He didn't seem to mind, though.

"So you are a real miko then?" he asked her confused "I thought that mikos just burned incense at temples and said prayers and that boring stuff" he mused out loud "Hey Kagome-chan, could you teach me?" he asked hopefully.

Kagome laughed at that one. The boy was hilarious in his curiosity, and she had missed the company lately.

"Sorry, Naruto-kun, either you're born with them or not. I didn't choose to have my powers" she said, sadly remembering everything she'd given up because of them. "Anyway, I don't think you could be a priest while being a half demon"

She snickered at the though of Inuyasha wearing Miroku's robes and throwing ofuda. It just didn't seem right. It was a while before she realized that they had stopped and that everyone was looking at her with suspicion. Well, except for Naruto, who was gawking at her.

"What?" she asked, her eyes darting from one to another. Just what had she done this time?

"How… How do you know about the Kyuubi?" Naruto stuttered.

"Huh? The Kyuubi? What's that?" she asked in confusion.

She was suddenly dropped on a tree branch (a very high tree branch) and the masked ninja that had been carrying her spun to face her, his one visible eye piercing her as if he was trying to read her mind. What was wrong with these people?

"The Kyuubi" the black haired ninja stated, landing near her, "is the demon Naruto has inside of him. The one you just referred to. And the one you shouldn't have known about if you were as innocent as you make yourself look" he told her rather harshly. "Speak up, woman! Who are you, who do you work for and which are your orders?"

Kagome felt her anger rising once again. Honestly! One would think that after saving them from being eaten alive they would be a little more grateful!

"Okay, stop there, little guy, don't get your panties in a tie! My name, as I told you, is Higurashi Kagome, I work for no one, and so I have no orders. And the only reason I know about his demon is because I am a friggin priestess, which means that I can feel the auras, especially demonic ones. Does that answer your question?" she spoke, rather mockingly. It still amused her that the boy tried to intimidate her.

"Why would we believe your word?" Kakashi asked her. He was still confused by this woman. Reason told him that they should be suspicious, that nobody gave that much without a reason, but… each time she looked at her in the eyes he saw so much warmth and friendliness that he couldn't help but believe that this was a creature of good a purity, so very different from what they were used to see. He just didn't know which one he should heed.

"You don't have to, that's entirely up to you. But if what he said about your village is true, then you should make up your minds damn fast, 'cause miasma poisoning takes three days at most to reach the heart and kill the victim, so as we speak, your friends will be dying out there" she told him, shrugging. She was tired of trying to convince them to let her help. If they didn't want to then why had they asked? "Look, if it'll make you feel better, you can blindfold me so I won't know the secret location of your village, but I won't let you tie me up. If youkai attack us you'll be needing my arrows" she bargained.

Kakashi made up his mind. Even if it was a trap, they'd probably all die from poisoning sooner or later, so it was worth a shot. They'd just have to keep her watched at all times.

"Very well, we'll blindfold you, then depart" he announced.

"Peachy, now let's get going. The more we wait the more people that'll die, and I'd like to avoid that" she said as Kakashi tied a strip of cloth around her head, still wondering if he'd made the right decision.

They had been running for hours (Kagome had lost count of just how many, as she had fallen asleep for a while), and she was wondering just how far that village of theirs was when she felt a huge demonic aura. Well, not a big one, more like thousands of small ones. They seemed to be headed to the same place as them, but from a different direction and she didn't like it one bit. These bunches of lower youkai all herded together brought her rather unpleasant memories, and she prayed she wouldn't have to face anything similar ever again. She had seen too much bloodshed, pain and despair to last ten lifetimes already, she didn't need to add to that count. Tightening her hold on the ninja carrying her (Kakashi, was it?) she leaned close to where she supposed his ear was and proceeded to warn him of what they had coming.

"Hmm… Kakashi? I hate to disturb you, but there's a rather big bunch of nasty lower youkai up ahead, about one and two miles away, I'd say. I thought you might want to know" she told him, half mockingly. It didn't sit well with her that the people she was helping would have such little confidence in her.

She felt a vacuum in her stomach as the copy-nin jumped to the ground, then she was lowered once again, this time more gently. She blinked a couple of times when the blindfold was removed from her eyes and she popped her arms and legs, working the stiffness out of them. It felt good to be on solid ground once again. Clinging to a near stranger's back, blindfolded, while he jumped from tree to tree was not on the top of her fun things to do chart. She beamed happily at the masked face of her personal carrier.

Kakashi couldn't help the small smile that formed on his face when she looked at him like that. She looked positively angelic. However, that would have to wait until they'd made it back in one piece to Konoha. He held high hopes that they would.

The remaining three nins landed quietly beside them, waiting for an explanation to the interruption. Kagome told them what she had felt.

"But that means Konoha is under attack!" Naruto all but shouted, making Sasuke grit his teeth at his loudness. He would never understand how he had managed to stay alive that long with all the noise he made.

"So it seems" Kakashi agreed "We should hurry back, the creatures… youkai, they can fend off, but they have no way to defend themselves from that miasma"

"Let's go then, before we're too late" Kagome intervened, heading in the direction of the youkai. The four shinobi nodded in agreement, and quickly took off after her, Kakashi picking her up without breaking his stride, ignoring Kagome's loud protests with a happy eye crease. They were in a hurry, and it would only be a couple of minutes anyway.

They arrived at the huge clearing in which the village stood just in time to see a large swarm of low level youkai, not unlike the ones Naraku used to command, breaking into the same clearing from their right. There was no time to make strategy, so Kagome did the only thing she could think of. Running like a bat out of hell, she charged at the approaching youkai, bow in hand. She was too far for her shots to be effective. Once she was about a hundred feet away she drew an arrow and tensed, feeling her power charge it. The shot she released wiped away the first three lines of youkai entirely, but there were too many of them. She wouldn't be able to finish them before they reached the village.

"Dammit!" she swore.

She looked behind her, only to see that the four shinobi had taken positions surrounding her, in case any stray youkai came at her from her back. She smiled gratefully at them. She had to find a way to help them, but how… If only she could keep the miasma from reaching the village, then she'd have no problem wiping that vermin from the face of the planet. Then her face lit up, as an idea began to take form in her mind. It could work…

"Hey guys!" she called even as she shot another glowing arrow at the mindless youkai. "I can't hold them all off at the same time. I'm going to place a barrier around the village so I can concentrate on killing them" they nodded in understanding. "Naruto, you need to go into the village, the barrier won't let you through with the youkai you have inside. Take Sakura with you, she's still too weak from the poisoning." When he nodded she directed her gaze at the two remaining shinobi. "I'll need you two to watch my back while I do it, I won't be able to defend myself for a while" they nodded too, though Sasuke didn't seem too thrilled to be at her command. However, he understood that she knew what she was doing more than anyone here, so he swallowed his pride and complied.

Kagome shot another arrow, covering Naruto and Sakura's mad dash for the village, then dropped her bow and concentrated. She had only once made a barrier that big, and this one would need to stand for a while. If there were poisoned people in there then it would be her priority to heal them first. Taking a deep breath, she searched in her soul for the glowing white source of her powers. She mentally formed it into a fountain, in which she dipped her spiritual hands, cupping them so she could draw the glowing liquid that were her powers and let them rain on the village in front of her, forming a glittering barrier that slowly dulled to the usual purple glow.

Kakashi watched, once again awe struck as a glittering rain solidified into a barrier around Konoha. Just in time too, for moments later the most advanced youkai slammed against it, only to be thrown back with a jolt of purity that turned the weakest of them to dust. 'Just how powerful is this woman?' he wondered.

He watched her sway slightly as she finished the barrier, momentarily spent, but that moment of distraction would cost him, for he was too slow noticing a stray spear thrown her way. Sasuke had his back to it, as he was guarding her other side, so he hadn't seen it. He barely had the time to push her out of the way and take the spear to his left shoulder. He fell to the ground and pulled it out instantly, but he could feel the dark miasma entering his system, slowly flowing though his veins. He had to bite back a scream of agony, and wondered how she had born it earlier. The burning poison made him feel like his flesh was being melted away. 'Ibiki would love it' he thought off-handedly, his consciousness slipping away.

Meanwhile, Kagome had managed to recover from the strain of building the barrier and had picked her bow again, this time to clear their way to the village. She wouldn't be able to hold on much longer, the barrier had taken more energy than expected. Having Kakashi injured would only handicap them further, they needed to make it back right then.

"Sasuke!" she called. He turned immediately, only to find his captain injured on the ground. His eyes widened slightly. "Sasuke, we need to make it to the village, can you carry Kakashi? I'll cover us" Kagome urged, worried about Kakashi. His wound was too close to his heart for comfort.

Sasuke nodded and picked him up, just as Kagome shot another arrow that cleared their path of both youkai and miasma. When she reached for yet another one, Kagome noticed that it was her last arrow. Cursing in a way that actually made Sasuke look back at her, wondering where a priestess would have learned such language (if he only knew…), she notched it on her bow and ran after the young shinobi, praying to the Kami that it would be enough.

They were scarce fifty feet from the barrier when youkai began closing in once again. Kagome panted heavily, the strain on her powers and the overwhelming youki wearing her down to her limits. She raised her bow one last time with shaky hands before releasing the arrow that would clear their path to the barrier, then fell to her knees, exhausted.

Sasuke saw her fall and turned back, muttering under his breath as he picked her up too, then infused chakra into his feet and ran for the barrier. He barely made it in time to avoid loosing his foot to the sharp claws of a vicious looking youkai. He left his charges on the ground as he pounded the closed doors of the village walls.

Kagome, barely conscious as she was, crawled over to Kakashi's still form. His breath was laboured and irregular, and his face was contorted in a grimace of barely restrained agony. Opening his shirt to inspect the wound, she found that the dark tendrils had almost made it to his heart. She had to do something and she had to do it now, or he would certainly die. Well, she wasn't about to let that happen, not if she had a say in it.

She placed her hand on the wound and once again concentrated on drawing out the miasma. He didn't have as much as Sakura had before, but the location was far worse. She needed to hurry. She bit her lip until she bled when the searing pain shot through her palm and into her body, but fought to keep conscious. This man's life depended on it. In an enormous display of willpower she managed to get it all out and purify it from her body just as the doors were opened for them to come in. Then, she allowed herself to fall into unconsciousness for a well deserved nap.