Four years ago, I began this story called "Returning Legacy"…

It sucked. Epically. Horrifyingly.

Crappy grammar. Blah writing. Epic plot holes that could swallow you whole. Unrealistic. Silly to the point of stupid. It was more than obvious that I didn't think this story out properly.

At least, that's what I thought when I read this story again – I'm fairly positive I shuddered at my atrocious noob skills as a writer, lol . Regardless, I fell in love with the idea all over again though, and I still believe this site needs some more Naru/Kag love. XD

So, I'm redid it. I'll use the same basic ideas, but it'll tone down a bit. I do hope you like and enjoy this version so much more.

Welcome to the new and improved "Facing Demons"! Enjoy, all!

Setting: AU. Only way I can explain without spoiling is that it's safe to assume everything is canon, until I state or change it to be otherwise. XD

Pairings: Major: Kagome/Naruto. Mentions and suggestions of other, minor pairings.

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor Inuyasha: they belong to their respective creators. I do, however, own my ideas ;)

—Prologue—

Twelve Years Ago

Like any other night in the sleepy village of the leaves, it was calm; a slight breeze was in the air as the village's inhabitants, from couples on a date, to friends on an outing, to families on a night out, enjoyed the usual, relaxed, evening ambiance.

It was peaceful.

Except - it wasn't like any other night.

And everyone – every civilian, every shinobi – knew it as a terror-inducing roar sliced the nighttime silence, shattering the peaceful scenery.

If one looked to the east, towards the moon, they'd see the outline of a massive beast, a monster, with its nine lengthy tails swaying languidly with the wind.

An alarm shrilled throughout the village, calling all available and able shinobi.

Kyuubi, the nine-tailed demon fox, was attacking Konahagakure and they needed everyone on hand if there was any chance for anyone to make it through this alive.

o.O.o

Shiro Higurashi was an elite shinobi of Konoha and member of a prestigious clan that was up in the ranks comparable to the Uchiha and Hyuuga Clans.

The Higurashi Clan was notorious for their kekkei genkai, the Seishigan, as well as for their affinity with elemental jutsu.

Now, in his late twenties, Shiro was a jounin, ex-ANBU, the Head of the Higurashi of two years, and most importantly, an expecting father.

When Shiro went to sleep that one, seemingly complacent October night, he did so relaxed and settled with his pregnant wife of seven and a half months, Kira, curled up against him.

However, he woke up tense and alert at the sharp, terrified gasp elicited from his wife.

"Kira?" he mumbled groggily, eyes blinking open. Shiro sat up quickly at the sight of her curled inwardly, arms tightly wrapped around her waist in pain. "Kira – what's wrong?" he pressed, worried.

"I-" Kira moaned. "The baby, Shiro. Something's wrong – something's happening…"

"W-what?" Shiro stammered, hands bracing his wife. He cradled Kira's face, swiping hair from her sweat-stained face.

"Not the baby – I can't – can't explain, but - something else. Something-" she groaned lowly, agony racking her body, "Something's here."

"What's here?" Shiro asked urgently, utterly befuddled. "Kira-"

He didn't need to finish.

The following, earth-rocking roar answered him efficiently enough. It was only moments later that the village alarm shrilled in the air.

"Shit," Shiro vaulted off the bed, getting dressed. As he pulled on his usual uniform, he glanced at his wife, who, thankfully, was only breathing heavily by then. "Kira, love – will you be alright?"

Kira nodded, swallowing thickly. "I think so," she whispered, breathless. "I – I think it was just a warning." Her hand curled into a fist against her engorged belly. "I – I don't understand, though. I don't know what's happening."

Shiro looked up from strapping on his kunai pouch, and he licked his lips, nervous. "We'll… we'll figure something out. We'll look into it, don't worry. You've come from a shrine, maybe…" he trailed off suggestively, alluding to complications due to their mix of bloodlines.

Kira rubbed at her, eyes. "I barely have any abilities. There's never been any record of any power that substantial for generations, but… yes, maybe," she murmured distracted, before looking up when she felt a faint tremor shake the manor.

She froze.

"Shiro!" Kira gasped, pushing up from the bed, eyes set on the window. Unconsciously, her hand wrapped around her belly protectively.

Shiro's head snapped up, hands in the air in mid-zip of his vest, and he sped over to check it out. "By the Kami…" he breathed out. "Demon…"

Kira whimpered as the tremors became more violent. "Shiro…" she said fearfully, her nerves tingling from the sheer ferocity of the demon's you-ki as it washed over her, overwhelming her. Faint screams, yells, and the explosions of ninjutsus echoed outside, becoming louder by the second.

Kyuubi was making its way further into the village.

The worst part was that the Higurashi district was next on its path of destruction.

Shiro looked between the two – between Kira, his pregnant wife, and Kyuubi, the approaching beast threatening to destroy their home. "I'm taking you to the hospital. Try to figure out what the hell's happening with the babe while I help," he said soothingly as he went to scoop her up. "Everything will be fine."

Kira didn't comment on the lack of confidence in his assurance. "It's close – will we make it?"

Grimly, Shiro remained silent. Her question was double-edged: would they make it to the hospital, or would both of them make it out of this alive?

He didn't quite know – not until he stepped outside to look, and even the latter question was touch and go. "There are many fighting the demon – it won't take long to run you to the hospital and come back," he said quietly.

He didn't like it, leaving his comrades alone to fight the demon, but there was no chance that he was going to leave his pregnant, non-shinobi wife in the house in the direct path of the Kyuubi when she was having trouble with the baby.

He strode to the window, pushing it open, and climbed through.

However, the moment he stepped out onto the roof, his wife bucked in his arms and pink glittered across her body.

"Kira!" Shiro exclaimed, eyes wide. "Wha-!"

His inquiry was cut short light burst from his wife's body, expanding out in a wall of shimmering light and leaving the woman panting for breath.

Stunned, Shiro stepped forward in a daze. The pink light transformed into a dome-like structure, encasing the manor and a twenty feet radius around it.

"What…?" he breathed out, taking in the immense structure.

Despite the chaos around them, members of the Higurashi clan stopped to stare. "Shiro-sama! What is this?" someone yelled. "I can't get through."

"I – I don't know," he called back out, smoothly leaping off the roof before approaching the wall. He reached out to touch the glittering wall of light that barred his way out, watched in amazement as his palm pressed flatly against it.

"The Kyuubi – it's coming closer! Prepare the defenses!"

It took only a second for the implication of that to weigh in, and his hand pressed against it harder. His face paled as his hand slammed against the infallible wall. "It won't let me out either!"

"It's a barrier, Shiro…" Kira breathed out in amazement. "It's a barrier of purification ki."

Shiro looked down at his wife, taking in her drawn appearance and the slight sheen of sweat upon her skin. "Purification ki? But you said you-"

"I never said I erected it, love," she interjected with an awed murmur, and a hand reached to grasp her belly. "But the babe… I think it channeled its energy, using my body to erect the barrier." She looked up at her husband with tearing eyes. "It sensed the danger – the demon. It's trying to protect us."

Shiro frowned, arms tightening around his wife. "Us, yes, but not the rest of the village…" he murmured under his breath.

Licking his lips, he looked over to one of the men waiting outside the barrier, his second in command and a close comrade of his. "Kenta!"

"Yes, sir!" he shouted, Shunshining to appear before Shiro to await his command.

Shino let out a sharp breath as he drilled out his orders. "Lead the defense. Find someone, preferably Sora-san, to evacuate the district of the children and elderly. Every available man and woman should remain here, to fight the Kyuubi."

Kenta blinked in a mixture of shock and concern, eyes flickering to the wall separating them. "Sir?"

Shiro clenched his jaw. "It seems as it won't let you in, it won't let me out either." His eyes tightened around his wife, in a mixture of concern, guilt, and underlying fear. "I'm stuck here – I can't do anything unless I figure out a way to break it down."

Kenta gave the man a steely look. "Sir, if you're stuck here, and the Kyuubi breaks through the defense, then-"

"I know, Kenta," Shiro cut the man off. "We don't know how strong this barrier is – and if Kyuubi broke through-"

Shiro stopped himself from finishing that, because he did not want to think that, much less say it in front of his heavily pregnant wife.

The attack of a dangerous and powerful demon like Kyuubi was stressful enough as it was without adding mortal peril and inevitable death to it. The last thing he needed was an impromptu birth on his hands in the middle of a crisis without a midwife or medic-nin on hand.

Kenta understood easily enough, regardless. "Understood sir. Stay safe."

"You as well, Kenta," Shiro murmured as his second nodded determinedly and left.

"It'll hold," Kira commented quietly, eyes still on the barrier.

"How do you know?" Shiro questioned, taking in the fight before his eyes.

Kyuubi had finally arrived at the gates of the Higurashi District, and now Shiro was left to watch as the beast destroyed his home and his people, unable to lift a hand to help, unable to take his rightful place leading his men and women in battle to defend their village, evading almost certain death at their sides.

"I… somehow, I just know. I've never felt anything so… so powerful Shiro," she murmured groggily, exhaustion threatening to overwhelm her.

Shiro nodded, taking his wife at her word. Though little in tangible power she held as a priestess, she did have a sort of sixth sense, of sensing things, knowing things that others didn't.

"I hope so," he murmured, and turned on his heel to take his wife inside. Seeing the fight with her own eyes would only stress her out even more, and she was already so spent from the baby erecting the barrier.

Watching inside or outside, it didn't really matter - it wasn't as if Shiro could do anything to actually help his clan.

o.O.o

Shiro couldn't describe how relieved he was in words when the Kyuubi approached the barrier, drawn to it like a moth to a flame, the demon screeched in an ear-piercing wail as a wave of purification energy washed over him and sent him running away after an angry swipe that left his paw burning.

His wife, his babe, and he were alive.

But one look outside his window told him that the people of his clan were not so lucky.

"This baby… he or she will be formidable in the purification arts. Who knows how it will affect their abilities as a shinobi…" Kira had said when the pulse from the barrier drove the Kyuubi away, wary of the threat of purification.

'Who knows, indeed,' Shiro thought, pride and worry battling within him. Of course he was happy to hear that his child would be a prodigy in his or her own right.

What troubled him was what the possession of purification abilities would mean for the baby's abilities as a shinobi? And what would the rest of his clan, his clan that was already buzzing with the roots of unrest, think, should they find out? Especially after tonight, when his unborn baby had the power to not only lock him safely inside a barrier while his men and women sacrificed their lives, but to scare the powerful beast itself into turning and running off with its tails between its legs?

Would they accept the babe? Reject the child should its purification abilities overshadow the Seishigan and elemental affinities, or, Kami forbid, dominate them?

Or would they fear him or her, should the child possess not only the strong purification abilities, but the Seishigan and elemental affinities as well?

Shiro needed to find out how the presence of the holy-ki would react with a kekkei genkai – he needed to find out more information that could explain how the child could channel such energy already, when not even born. It just didn't make sense, and he was determined to look into it, to find more information.

One thing was for certain, though: Kyuubi's attack on the village already set in motion a sequence of events that would change the life of a certain baby girl forever.

Shiro just didn't know it yet.

Words – 2,039

And, there we have it. Done, and done.

I liked it. Much better than the other prologue. And, if you're wondering, it's in italics because it's technically a flashback.

Next chapter will be the team assignments. Instead of a series of flashblacks as the story progress, like I did before, I'll be doing things a little bit differently. This way, it's less confusing and you guys get a better grasp on the background story.

I haven't completely rewritten everything to the point I was before, but I am up to Chapter Seven I think.

Anyway, tell me what you think, please?

Till next time,

RainLily^^