Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
Summary: Sango finally gets sick of Miroku's lecherous ways, and she storms off. On her own, she fights a giant bear demon and loses. She goes and collapses in the woods, badly injured. Guess who finds her? Sesshoumaru, Rin and Jaken. Rin pleads with Sesshoumaru to help Sango, and he (grudgingly) agrees. One thing leads to another, and suddenly Sango and Sesshoumaru are at each other's throats.
Notes: This is the recently edited version, yay.

Heart Of Darkness
chapter one

“HIRAIKOTSU!” Sango bellowed as she threw her weapon with as much force as she could muster. At the same moment as when the giant bone flew through the air, Sango leapt up and delivered a mighty kick to the bear youkai's forehead. It stumbled, but did not fall. Instead, it whipped out its hand and caught Sango in mid air. Moving with terrible speed, it flung the taiji-ya down toward the ground with astonishing force.

Far below her, Miroku yelped in surprise and ran to catch her. She landed safely in his arms, but under the weight, the monk crashed to the ground.

“Thank you, houshi-sama,” Sango said gratefully.

“It’s quite fine, Sango,” Miroku said pleasantly. His hand was stretching toward her butt as he said this, but Sango noticed.

SMACK!

“Thank you, houshi-sama,” Sango said pointedly, standing up and getting ready to attack again.

“Kaze no Kizu!” Inuyasha roared, and the attack promptly obliterated the youkai with its demonic wind. The dust scattered, and floating peacefully to the ground was yet another shard of the Shikon-no-Tama.

“Yay!” From the side, Kagome and Shippo energetically jumped up and down in celebration of the victory.

Grinning despite himself, Inuyasha snatched the shard out of the dirt and brought it to Kagome. Sango and Miroku followed after a moment; the taiji-ya had been examining the youkai corpse to see if there was anything she could make a weapon out of, and Miroku had waited for her.

“Good job, guys!” Shippo chirped once the five were gathered again.

“Let’s set up camp,” Kagome suggested, smiling. “I bet you guys are exhausted.”

Inuyasha simply shrugged, but Sango and Miroku offered grateful smiles.

“Where shall we set up camp?” Kagome asked, and as soon as the words had left her mouth Inuyasha began to lead them into the woods, into a clearing where you could no longer smell the scent of death. Once there, he leapt up into the nearest tree and sat there stubbornly.

“Okay then,” Kagome said amiably, looking around the site, “we’ll sleep here.” She got out her sleeping bag from her backpack, and dropped to the ground. Shippo cuddled next to her, obviously content, and it was a moment before anything broke the silence that had settled over them like a blanket.

“Good night, Sango,” Miroku whispered to taiji-ya placed not too far from him on the cold ground.

Sango blushed, and was thankful that the monk could not see her red face in the dark. “Goodnight, houshi-sama,” she said, curling up with the comforting ball of fur that was Kirara by her head.

They were just settling down to sleep when the sound of frantic footfalls reached their ears. Then, into their campsite stumbled a girl. She must have been no older than seventeen, and her round, pale face was streaked with tears.

Kagome shot up, waking Shippo. Sango and Miroku had been awake for a long time, waiting, listening. Inuyasha peered down from above, uninterested.

Miroku immediately got up and clasped the weeping girl’s hands in his. “What is wrong, miss?”

With Kirara on her shoulder, Sango followed, keeping an eye on the perverted monk. “Yes, why are you crying?”

“M-my father was killed! By a bear youkai!” the girl sobbed, and couldn't stop herself from telling the whole story. “I—I'd been out all day, a-and when I got back to my village, everything was destroyed and my f-father was dead! The youkai was gone, but the remaining villagers told me what had h-happened!”

“Oh, dear,” Kagome, who had just joined them, said, putting a hand to her mouth.

Another bear youkai? Sango thought to herself. That’s strange. But she said nothing more than, “That’s horrible,” as she placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. “Is there anything we can do?”

“Yes, is there anything we can do?” Miroku asked, keeping the pretty girl’s hands in a tight hold.

She tried to pull out of his grasp, a little bewildered by the fact that he seemed to have more on his mind then her dead father and the sudden influx of bear youkai. “Sir,” she whispered, her face red as she pulled away.

“I have a question, Miss…” Miroku said beguilingly, as he put the hand that had been banished from her hand onto her shoulder.

“R-Ryomi…"

Behind the two, Sango was furious. Kagome, who knew if Sango were released she would tear her precious monk to shreds, was holding her back.

“Will you bear my child?” Miroku asked seriously.

Ryomi reddened and squeaked, “Sir, I—”

Sango’s hands curled into angry fists, and her face flushed an angry red. She effortlessly broke out of Kagome’s hold and charged toward Miroku, whirling him around with one arm as the other punched him in the face without holding back at all.

Shocked, Ryomi glanced between the fallen monk and the furious girl.

Looking down at Miroku, Sango’s anger turned to sorrow. She recalled that time, not long ago, when he had said that she was the one woman he truly cared about; when he practically asked her for her hand in marriage. Had he been joking? Looking down at him, barely conscious but still smiling crookedly at Ryomi, she felt as if everything had been a lie.

Then, more anger clouded the sorrow, and Sango screamed at Miroku before she could stop herself, “I hate you! I hate you!” Then, she turned on her heel and disappeared into the forest. Kirara, a little puzzled, followed obediently.

Miroku shot up into a sitting position, knocking the extremely confused Ryomi aside. “Sango…” he whispered, obviously horrified. “You… you hate me?”

Inuyasha jumped down beside them all, giving Ryomi quite a fright, as she had not known that he was there. “You’ve really done it this time. She’s not gonna forgive you again,” he declared.

Kagome closed her eyes in sheer defeat, totally astounded by Inuyasha’s bluntness. “Sit, boy!” she said loudly, smiling in satisfaction when Inuyasha crashed to the ground.

Ryomi looked around in absolute confusion, a little frantic now. “What is going on?”

“Stupid lech,” Inuyasha said simply, getting back on his feet with a little difficulty and pulling twigs out of his hair.

Miroku wasn’t listening to any of them anymore. He had gotten up and was stumbling, as if in a drunken stupor, in the direction Sango had run away too.

Kagome stepped after him. “Miroku-sama?” she said hesitantly.

“Do you really think she hates me?” the monk asked.

“No, of course she doesn’t, Miroku-sama,” Kagome said, making a futile attempt to cheer him up. “Why don’t we let her have some space, and go after her in the morning? She probably won’t be angry then.”

“No!” Miroku exclaimed fiercely. “Let’s go find her now!”

Kagome rubbed her forehead tiredly. “You need sleep if you want to find her. Come on.”

“Fine,” Miroku said reluctantly. He allowed himself to be led to back to bed, and they found that Ryomi was nowhere to be seen, and Inuyasha and Shippo were already asleep again.

To Kagome's surprise, she saw that Inuyasha had not gone back up the tree, but had fallen asleep leaning against the trunk. The futuristic miko crept up to him and brushed a lock of silvery hair out of his face, peering at him fondly. His expression was peaceful, similar to the expression he had worn when Kagome found him pinned to the tree. “Beautiful,” she breathed.

“Eh-hem!” Miroku cleared his throat loudly, and Kagome jumped away from Inuyasha.

“Er… uhm…” Kagome, on impulse, cried, “Sit, boy!” Inuyasha hit the ground with a loud crash, and Kagome covered her mouth with her hand, horrified that that had slipped out purely by accident.

“Owww,” Inuyasha growled. He stood, towering over Kagome. “What was that for?”

“It… it was an accident,” Kagome squeaked.

“Feh,” Inuyasha muttered. He scowled at her and hopped up into the upper branches of the tree. “Stupid wench.”

TBC…

Author's Note: I love revamping stories. So, yes, this is Heart of Darkness revamped! I hope you enjoy this better version; the writing quality will be better and it will probably make a lot more sense. After all, I wrote this a little over a year ago, and in that time I have improved… a lot.
Enjoy. Review. You know the deal.