A/N: LAAAATE~ latelatelate… But at least its here, right? Meh. School has been nuts. Oh, well. I'd like to thank you guys for delivering on the reviews. ^^ You're seriously the very best. Like no one ever was. To capture them is your real test. To train them is your cause~ … Yeah, gonna stop now. Anyway, behold! Answers to the questions left by last chapter! Action-wise this is kinda slow. But I thought it was funny and we have some good interaction. Within the next two things are gonna start to get crazy. And about that mini-fic? I'll get to it when school is over. XP

Disclaimer: Do I look like I own multi-million dollar movie/anime franchises? Good. Because I don't.

The inky blackness surrounded them completely, broken only by the dim sunlight that trickled in through the opening above them. Everything smelled musty and oddly dry, like the bindings of older books.

"Did anyone think to bring a torch?" Miroku asked.

"You were in charge of the supplies, dumbass," Inuyasha growled.

"Hold on, I've got it!" Shippo exclaimed before shouting, "Fox Fire!"

A small, teal blue flame floated in the middle of the group. Now that there was a little more light in the room, Kagome walked off to one side and swept cobwebs off another large mirror and adjusted it with a squeak. The light reflecting off of the mirror above shot down to the one below and jumped to the dozen or so mirrors that were strategically placed around the room.

"And then there was light," she half-whispered.

"Nice trick," Inuyasha said, mildly impressed.

"Kagome," Miroku whispered, looking around the room, "Is this what I think it is?"

"My god… It's a Sar-Net-Jer!" she exclaimed.

"It's a what-now?"

The Higurashi brother settled a hand on the hanyou's shoulder.

"It's a preparation room. This, my friend, is where they made the mummies."

"M-m-mummies?!" Shippo whimpered, clinging desperately to Kagome's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Shippo. If there are any mummies here, they've been dead for thousands of years," she reassured.

The room was filled with stone tables, no doubt used as prepping stations for the bodies to be entombed. Everything was in surprisingly good condition, but Kagome supposed that it made sense, considering that everything here was below ground and thus hidden away from the harsh elements. She reached for a torch on the wall and lifted it from its sconce.

"Shippo? Could you light this for me?" she asked.

"Sure thing, Kagome!"

With a little flash of teal blue, the torch began to burn. Fortunately, once it was lit, the fire returned to a more normal yellow-orange that flickered merrily. Following her example, the two men each took a torch of their own and lit it from hers.

"Well then, care to lead the way, Inuyasha?"

"Feh," the hanyou huffed, treading through the darkness and cobwebs, forward through a corridor that smelt of millennium-old dust and mold.

A skittering sound, almost like falling pebbles or trickling water, echoed down and around the walls. Shippo flinched from his seat on the Miko.

"W-what was that?" he warbled.

Inuyasha just shrugged. "Probably just some bugs. Maybe Jaken is finding himself a snack."

Miroku shuddered. "I hate bugs. Fell into a wasps' nest when I was a kid, and never liked anything with six legs ever since. Or eight for that matter. I tried to squish a spider once, only the damn thing was pregnant and all of those thousands of teeny weeny spiders just crawled up my-"

"'Roku!" his sister exclaimed.

"What?"

"Do we really want to talk about your emotionally scarring events with insects right this second? If poor Shippo here gets any more freaked out, I may have little puncture marks from his claws in my shoulder!"

Inuyasha turned his head and rolled his eyes at the crew behind him. "Don't really know why you insisted on bringing the little bugger. Annoying little coward."

"What do you expect, I'm just a kid!" the kitsune whined.

"Shut up."

"Inuya-!"

"No. Shh!" he spat, pausing with his ears twitching forwards and around. "You hear that?"

They all stilled, listening to what should be the quiet of an empty tomb, but was instead an echoing murmur that whispered through the stone walls. The sound wove its way closer, and Inuyasha tensed, thumbing the revolver out of his shoulder holster and cocking it with a surprisingly quiet click. They crept towards the end of the hall, where it turned at a sharp corner to the right. He waited for a moment, poising on the balls of his feet, ready to pounce upon whatever threat awaited them on the other side. Miroku stood ready at his side, his diminutive pistol seeming even smaller in his long-fingered hands. Inuyasha faced him and counted silently.

One.

Two.

Three.

"Yah!" they cried, leaping around the corner and coming face to face with-

"Mutt-face?"

…..

Jaken waddled through the shadowy hall, holding up a torch with his small, three-fingered hand. His bug-eyed stare wandered up the walls, tracing the faded, but surprisingly still fairly vibrant, murals. Some of the men depicted had their hands raised to the sky, their mouths open in wordless cries. He peered closer, noticing something sparkling in the firelight on the walls.

Stretching his whole three-and-a-half-foot body upwards, his free hand plucked some shimmering thing off the stone. He turned the object over in his hand. It appeared to be some sort of beetle, like a dung beetle, except with fierce pincers and slightly shorter legs. Jaken's froggy tongue flicked out to taste the surface of the wall decoration.

"Hmm. Blue gold. That'll fetch a fair price, now won't it?"

He plucked a hand few more from their place ensconced in the mural, but, given his height, was unable to reach the rest. Satisfied with his new hoard, he stuffed the trinkets into his pockets and continued forward. The narrow hall opened, leading to a dilapidated walkway that ran along and high above a gushing underground river. The Kappa youkai leaned forward, looking over the edge. Being a rather small creature, such heights made him downright woozy. He gulped, his adam's apple bobbing in his thin neck.

Jaken edged tentatively along the walkway, keeping his back pressed against the wall. His buggy, yellow eyes darted between his feet, the edge of the cavern, and the opening to another corridor at the far end. If his species were capable of sweating, he'd be sopping wet. Slowly he went, creeping step by step to his destination. He scrambled inside the entrance, and turned to face the walk that had given him so much grief. The little green youkai thrust his long, pink tongue out in mocking defiance of his foe, and turned away from it with a mocking laugh.

Unfortunately, Jaken was unaware of a certain phenomena known as "Murphy's Law", by which it is stated, "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

What Jaken was suddenly aware of, was the slick surface of a mildew-slimed stone and the forces of gravity pulling his body off the edge of the ledge and toward the rushing waters of the river.

"AAAAAHHH~!" he cried, clenching his eyes tight and flailing his limbs in an attempt to find a solid surface. He fell away from the edge, into the open air above the cavern. The Kappa continued to scream, certain that he was facing the last moments of his life.

"Cease your pathetic cries at once, you foolish creature."

Wait, what?

Jaken opened his right eye, then his left. He was suspended; floating above what he was sure was going to be the cause of his demise. He looked behind him, to the source of the voice, to his savior.

Before the little green toad, holding him by the back of his vest, was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. The being was perfect, each feature achingly lovely, but so cold. This youkai was a marble statue brought to life by the hand of a god. His flowing white hair flickered like a banner in the gust from the rushing water. When some of it brushed Jaken's skin, he thought he would faint from awe.

The magnificent creature arched one eyebrow disdainfully and dropped the Kappa onto the stone before turning oh-so-gracefully and walking away. Jaken scrambled up after, following in his wake.

"Are you alright, mister?" another voice asked.

Jaken turned, seeing a young human woman with long, dark hair and smiling eyes peering down at him with concern. She was an American, and was daring enough to wear men's trousers. His disdain for her immediately tripled what it normally would have been, just for her attire.

"Yes, I'm just fine, thank you! What's it to you, girl?" he spat.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, sticking her hand out for an American handshake. "My name is Rin. Rin Tanaka. I'm Lord Sesshomaru's assistant."

…

Inuyasha snarled, "What the FUCK, wolf-shit?! What's the big idea, creeping through here like some kinda boogey-man? You were liable to scare Miroku here to death!"

Miroku rounded on Inuyasha with a frown. "Now, that's just not true! If they're going to frighten anyone around here, it'd be Kagome!"

"Hey!" she cried indignantly.

"Well, it's true, sis. If I could give you near heart attacks by sneaking up on you in the library, imagine how you'd react to a wolf youkai just popping out of the darkness!"

Seeing that it was only the group that they knew, the wolves relaxed, all four of them lowering their weapons and sighing.

Hakkaku removed his glasses and polished them absently on his sleeve. "I tell you what," he grumbled, "It wasn't just Kagome who had a fright there. This place is creepy."

"I was not scared!" she huffed.

Shippo turned on her shoulder and murmured, "That's ok, Kagome. I'm pretty sure that I was scared enough for the both of us."

The miko smiled at him endearingly. The hanyou coughed something that suspiciously sounded like "wimp".

Ayame tipped her hat back and looked closer at the two, swaggering over to Kagome's side. "Is that a Kitsune kit?" she asked.

"Yeah," Kagome replied, "his name is Shippo."

"Can… Can I-" the redhead asked haltingly, blushing slightly, "Can I hold him?"

The miko looked up at her charge, asking his permission. When he shrugged, she plucked him off her shoulder and into the arms of the she-wolf, who soon started cooing at how fluffy his tail was and how his little paws were just the cutest things she ever did see.

Koga rolled his eyes at the display, but chose to ignore it in favor of frowning at Inuyasha. "What are you guys even doing here?" he asked.

"Um…" the hanyou paused. "Miroku, what the hell are we doing here?"

The Higurashi brother's purple eyes lit strangely, and Inuyasha began to wonder at the what he may have unleashed.

"We are here," Miroku said, "to increase the knowledge of the past, for the good of mankind, for the prosperity of future generations. Through the knowledge of the past, through the mistakes of the past, we can invent a new future, one founded on new principles. Principles of honor, principles of justice. We come, not to increase our own material wealth, but to add to the wealth of information that the whole of man can draw from. For we are explorers, traversing the new worlds of times gone by. And-"

"What?" Inuyasha cut him off, mid-rant. "Seriously. Just. What?"

Looking about him, Miroku realized that his little speech had garnered him several looks of confusion, some of boredom, and some of a little trepidation. He sighed.

"To collect artifacts, sell them to museums, get rich, and pick up women. Or, in my sister's case, to increase her credentials and get into some society for spinsters."

"Do not compare the Grand Sisterhood of Mikos to a knitting group or a bridge club, Miroku! They are the most-"

"Esteemed women in blabidy blah blah blah."

She shot him a dry look. "Just for that, I think I'll tell mother exactly how many towns you're banned from because of your philandering."

Miroku looked offended. "I do not philander. I just… touch."

Ayame, who until this point remained wrapped up in the cuteness of one certain kitsune, yelped and leapt into the air because something, or rather someone, had just grabbed her ass. She shortly handed Shippo back to Kagome and grabbed the all too smug looking Miroku by his shirt collar.

"Oh, I am gonna-"

"Enough."

The she-wolf turned, snarling, but came up short when she realized that it was none other than Sesshomaru who had come upon them. The rest of the wolves followed her example and took submissive postures, averting their eyes while leaving their necks unguarded. The dog taiyoukai turned, looking at what everyone else in the room had not cared to acknowledge. Outside, there was a statue of a man with the head of a Jackal, and time had sunk most of his body beneath the sands. Here, in this chamber, were his feet perched on top of a rectangular dais. A clawed, white hand with magenta striped-wrists settled on the black-stained stone of the statue's leg.

"I do believe that this is my excavation site, little brother."

Awww, yeah~ Cliffhanger. Kinda. Anyways, I know you were all wanting to see Sango, and I promise she IS COMING! So fear not, taijiya fans! Your fearless leader in the black and pink catsuit with her two-tailed friend is on her way! Also, some of you wanted Rin, and here she is! Did any of you see this one coming? Tell me what you think! Anything you think needs improvement or if there's something you're curious about, just leave a review! ^^