Naraku, the main antagonist of the series, devised an elaborate strategy to destroy the demon exterminators and take their pieces of the Shikon no Tama. He first lured the five most skilled slayers of the village away to a castle. The castle was under the control of Naraku who had either taken the form of its young lord Hitomi Kagewaki or had been that person for many years. The slayers quickly killed a weak spider demon who they had been told was threatening the castle. Immediately after, another spider-demon in the disguised form of the castle's lord took control of Sango's younger brother Kohaku and had him attack the entire group of exterminators (including his own father). Sango was the only survivor. When she discovered the presence of the spider-demon controlling Kohaku, she turned to attack the demon. Kohaku stabbed her in the back with his kusari-gama (chain-sickle). Meanwhile, the spider-demon still disguised as the lord of the castle ordered his men to kill the "crazed" slayers. Sango and Kohaku were both shot full of arrows. Naraku, in the form of Hitomi Kagewaki, then appeared and killed the spider-demon. He orders that the bodies of the exterminators be buried with the exception of Kohaku which he takes away for other purposes. Sango was then buried but then digs herself out of her burial mound and afterward has her wounds briefly tended to by Naraku in the form of Hitomi Kagewaki (the young lord). In that form Naraku has his saimyōshō come to him. The saimyōshō (calling itself Naraku) tells Hitomi Kagewaki within listening range of Sango that her village was destroyed by demons under the leadership of a yōkai named InuYasha. Enraged at this "news", Sango demands her weapon and swears to kill InuYasha at all costs.
Sango meets InuYasha and the group not long after she left the castle. Immediately she engages in a battle that InuYasha does not want to fight in, and he thus holds back. Naraku was watching closely with a yōkai puppet and sends the saimyōshō to deter Miroku from using his Kazāna. It seems like Sango has the upper hand by using her poison gas to fend off InuYasha's attacks, but InuYasha easily discovers that if he knocks off her mask she would not be able to use such an effective defense. Having done so, InuYasha 'saves' Sango from her own poison gas after knocking off her mask. Puzzled as to why InuYasha, the yōkai who supposedly killed her entire village would save her, she stabs him in the arm with her Wakizashi. InuYasha, after rather nonchalantly removing the weapon from his arm, bluntly points out that Naraku was tricking her and that she was bleeding rather badly. Sango is shocked to see that he was right because she had felt no pain from her wounds, soon afterward she passes out. She awakens on InuYasha's back and only after assurances and explanations from Kagome does Sango feel as if she can "trust" InuYasha for the time being.