Inuyasha 1. Succumbing to Sickness

**A/N**: So here I am, finished my final exams, home for the summer, and back with yet another Inuyasha fanfiction. This marks my fifth one in the space of about two months. I must be on a roll! Ha ha. ;) Just as a note, as I did with "Strength in Numbers", I'm using elements from both the English anime and the English manga (spellings of character names are anime-based, while some terms and phrases used come from the manga). Hope this isn't too confusing for you guys. In any case, I hope you enjoy this, and if you do (or even if you don't), please let me know! I love reviews, positive and negative, so bring 'em on! Arigato, everyone!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Inuyasha, any of the characters, or any other elements of this completely addictive manga/anime series created by the ever-wonderful Rumiko Takahashi.

They own me.

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**Chapter 1** - Succumbing to Sickness

The dark night remained silent as Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Shippo, Miroku and Kirara slept together on the floor of Kaede's hut. They had stopped there for a few days to rest after a particularly long and difficult battle with a hoard of terrifically annoying crow youkai, and were enjoying the rare chance to relax. They had heard nothing as to the whereabouts of the evil Naraku lately, nor had they sensed anything sinister or unusual since the crow youkai battle, so they had decided that the best thing to do would be to return to Kaede's. Another reason for their return was a sickness that Kagome seemed to have developed. While she had tried to convince her friends that it was nothing serious, just a simple bout of the flu, the rest of the group had not been entirely convinced.

Now, on the third night that the group had spent in the hut, Kagome sat up straight, roused from her uneasy sleep, and let out a barking cough, her entire body tensing as the intensity of the coughing increased. The still night air had been disturbed by the noise, but by some miracle she had not yet awakened her friends who were sleeping on the floor nearby. Inuyasha was the only one not lying down, preferring as he always did to lean against the wall of the hut, but even he had not stirred yet. She was shaking violently with the force of the body-wracking coughs, and after a few seconds she saw tiny spots of blood fly from her lips out onto her right palm, which had been covering her mouth. She drew her hand away in alarm and gasped. For a few days now, she had been feeling a bit under the weather, and the coughing spells had been becoming more and more frequent, but she had never coughed up blood before.

_My throat must be raw from all the coughing I've been doing lately!_ Kagome realized, startled. She hadn't realized her condition was this bad.

It was right before the crow youkai attack when Kagome had first noticed she was getting sick. Earlier that morning she had awoken to a scratchy throat, and had noticed that her head felt thick and heavy. Before too long, as well, she had erupted into a cold sweat which had caused her to shiver violently, despite the fact that the day was quite warm. The battle later in the day had not helped matters much, either. Since that afternoon Kagome's sickness had steadily worsened, and now here she was, spitting up blood.

Finally, Inuyasha opened both eyes and looked around the room with as clear a head as if he had been awake all along. It was not long before he saw Kagome, seated upright not far from him, hunched over with a look of total frustration on her face. He could see, even from where he sat, that the girl was shivering again and that tiny beads of sweat had erupted along her hairline.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha spoke into the darkness, causing the girl to look in his direction. Her eyes were glassy and there was a trickle of blood escaping from the corner of her mouth, rolling slowly down toward her chin. _She looks awful!_ the hanyou thought to himself, alarmed. He stood up and walked over to her, then sat down next to her, looking concerned. "What's the matter?" he asked, obtuse as always. Kagome lowered her head and looked down at the floor, shivering still more violently. Not entirely knowing what to do, Inuyasha kicked Miroku, fast asleep nearby, in the calf of his right leg to wake him, and shook Shippo and Sango, who had also been sleeping peacefully through all this, to get their attention as well. "Oi!" he called to his friends, willing them to wake up quickly. As they came to, Kagome shook her head and whispered,

"Inu...yasha, it's all right. I'm fine."

Inuyasha wasn't convinced at all. "Keh," he spat, "you're obviously not, woman, so just pipe down and let us help you, all right?"

By this time, Miroku and Sango had awakened and were sitting upright, staring in the direction of Inuyasha and the sick Kagome. Shippo, however, was still fast asleep, twitching lightly and mumbling random, incoherent sentences. Inuyasha gave up waking the kitsune as a lost cause, and turned to the others.

"What's wrong with her, Inuyasha?" Miroku asked before Inuyasha could explain Kagome's symptoms or what was going on. At that moment, Kagome succumbed to another coughing fit. This time her coughs were so rough that they were even painful for the others to listen to. Sango winced in sympathy for her friend and moved to sit closer to her, drawing her hair back from the sides of her face and rubbing her back gently. Kagome appreciated this kindness immensely but was not able to communicate that.

By this time, Shippo had awakened and had moved over to sit in Kagome's lap, a look of something akin to terror on his tiny face. The noise had also awakened Kaede, who ambled slowly out from her bed chamber with a look of concern etched on her lined, aged face.

"Kagome, child..." Kaede spoke softly, letting the sentence trail off. The old miko had never seen the girl so sick and Kagome's condition worried her. She was getting low on medicinal herbs and did not think she had anything to give Kagome to cure the sickness or do much to ease her pain.

After a while, the coughing subsided. Kagome sat drenched in sweat, eyes glassy. Sango looked at her friend and spoke softly to her.

"Is there anything I can get you, Kagome?" the youkai exterminator asked, "Some water, maybe?"

Kagome nodded. "Water would be nice. My throat is...so sore!" she managed to get out. Sango crossed the room and rummaged through Kagome's backpack for a bottle of water. Once she found it, she unscrewed the top and placed it into Kagome's hand. The sick girl drank deeply, knowing full well that this was the best water she had ever tasted in her entire life. When she had drained more than half of the bottle in one go, she lowered it and thanked her friend for bringing it to her. A combination of fatigue and dizziness hit Kagome as she spoke, sending her falling backwards onto her makeshift bed. Now that the violent coughing had subsided, Kagome could at least talk properly, but she had been robbed of all her energy and it was all she could do to stay sitting up. Inuyasha shook his head in frustration.

"I'm taking her back to her own time," he told the group. To this statement, he got no response. Even Kaede knew, because of her current lack of remedies, that if Inuyasha didn't get Kagome back home, and soon, her condition would worsen. It was most likely just a bad case of influenza at the moment, but with time, it could develop into something much worse.

"You don't have to, Inuyasha," Kagome told the hanyou faintly, closing her eyes and resting her hands on her stomach.

"Oh yes I do, so let's go!" Inuyasha retorted, his words coming out much more gently than they would have under normal circumstances. The girl was obviously in no condition to walk, however, so Inuyasha grabbed her backpack, scooped her up into his arms and, after saying goodbye to the rest of the group, left the hut.

"I wonder if Kagome's gonna be okay?" Shippo asked in a worried tone. He hated to see his surrogate mother so ill and willed her to get better quickly.

"I'm sure she will be, Shippo," Miroku promised the kitsune, "or at least I hope so."

* * *

It took next to no time for Inuyasha and Kagome to reach the Bone Eater's Well. Knowing how sick Kagome was, Inuyasha had bolted at top speed away from Kaede's hut toward the well, stopping only when he was in danger of running straight into it. Still carrying the violently ill girl in his arms, who had fallen to sleep since they had left the hut, Inuyasha leapt straight into it and fell down into its blackened depths.

In what felt like no time, Inuyasha and Kagome popped out of the well on the modern era side. Inuyasha had to brace himself against falling face-first onto the cold stone floor of the well house. He didn't care if he hit the floor, but with Kagome in his arms he wasn't willing to risk it. Heat was coming off her in waves now and Inuyasha could almost tell without checking that she had developed a fever. Tightening his grip on the sleeping girl, Inuyasha took the steps up and out of the well house and slid the door open with his foot. It was every bit as dark outside than it had been inside, it still being sometime in the middle of the night by Inuyasha's estimation. He quietly padded his way across the courtyard until he reached the back door of Kagome's house and slid it open silently. Stepping inside, Inuyasha closed the door and carried Kagome up the stairs to her bedroom without even needing to look around to see where he was going. He had visited this house so often now that he didn't really need to think about where anything was anymore.

Once Inuyasha had arrived at Kagome's bedroom, he went inside and laid Kagome on her bed. She still had not stirred. Worry furrowed his brows as he looked at the ill young miko with genuine concern. He hated to see her like this: weak, violently sick, helpless. It was not the Kagome he was used to, and he missed that Kagome.

_Wait. What?_ Inuyasha could hardly believe what he'd just thought. _I _miss_ that Kagome? When did _that_ happen? Sure I'm worried about her, but..._

Inuyasha let his thoughts trail off, gazing at her pale, sweaty face. She looked peaceful, but the hanyou knew that would only last for as long as she remained asleep.

_Knowing Kagome, as soon as she wakes up she'll probably want to go back to the Sengoku Jidai again or something just as stupid, _Inuyasha told himself, _but I can't let her. She needs to stay here if she's going to get well._

Looking around the darkened bedroom for paper and something to write with, he found one of Kagome's notebooks and a pen lying on her desk. He crossed the room, opened the book and began to scrawl out a note to Kagome's mother, explaining what had happened and why he'd brought her back. Normally he would have stayed with Kagome at least until the morning, but he couldn't risk that now. He knew that Kagome would want to return to the Sengoku Jidai with him immediately, not caring about her sickness, but if she did that, she would not get the proper treatment for whatever was wrong. It was important that Kagome stay behind this time, and Inuyasha knew he would only get in the way if he stayed too, so he would leave immediately before she had a chance to stop him.

Once he had finished telling Mrs. Higurashi all of this in a note (written with an unsteady hand and in characters that no one in the modern era would be able to read properly without some headaches and frustration), he started on one for Kagome. After finishing both notes, he capped the pen and crossed the room back to Kagome's sleeping form. Gingerly and silently, Inuyasha removed the bottled jewel shards from Kagome's clothes, and clutching them in his clawed fist, smiled at her with sadness and walked out of the room.

_This is the only way to make sure she won't come back until she's better, _Inuyasha thought miserably. He hated having to do this, but with someone as strong-willed as Kagome, sometimes one has to do things that one would rather not do, for their protection if for no other reason.

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**A/N**: So what do you guys think so far? :) Love it? Hate it? Please review if you've got a spare second and let me know. I love getting feedback and it'll give me the motivation I need to post the next chapter that much faster. Thanks everyone!


	2. Only a Dream

**A/N:** Huge thanks and big squeezy hugs go to **Miko in Training** for the review and Story Alert Add; **InuKagSanMirFan **for being the awesome person she is and reviewing as faithfully as she ever did; and also to** DARK LOVE PRINCESS** for the Favourite Story Add.

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own Inuyasha or anything to do with him, not to mention any of the rest of Rumiko Takahashi's brilliant characters. My shrink is getting a lot of money from helping me through the inner torment I'm going through because of that fact. Ha ha.

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**Chapter 2** - Only a Dream

"Kagome?"

"Sis, are you all right?"

"Kagome, dear! What a surprise to see you home!"

Voices floated past Kagome's ears, barely registering in her feverish brain. As she fought her way through several layers of sleep, she thought she recognized the voices of her family - her grandfather, her brother Sota and her mother - but she could not answer them. Not yet.

"What happened, Kagome? Are you feeling sick?" Mrs. Higurashi asked her daughter. Finally, Kagome's eyes fluttered open and fell upon her family members, standing over her bed, each with looks of concern etched onto their faces. There was her grandfather, short and stout and so loveable, her younger brother, looking almost comically worried about his sister with eyes approximately the size of saucers, and her mother, normally so stoic and calm, but who today looked downright frightened. Kagome couldn't help but smile slightly.

Wait.

She was at home! How had she gotten back here?

And then she remembered. Inuyasha had mentioned something the previous night about taking Kagome back to her own time. That was the last thing she remembered.

"Mama, where is Inuyasha?" Kagome asked her mother. Her throat was painfully sore today, worse than it had been so far, so her words came out in barely more than a whisper despite the fact that she was speaking at the top of her lungs. Mrs. Higurashi looked confused.

"Inuyasha? Well I don't know, dear. I haven't seen him at all."

Just as her mother spoke those words, Sota crossed the room and picked up two pieces of paper from Kagome's desk. Taking only enough time to read the first few lines, Sota realized who they were from without even checking the name at the bottom.

"Sis? I think you should read this," Sota told Kagome, crossing back over to her, "and Mama, there's one for you as well." He handed the notes to their intended recipients, but Kagome could not read hers. Her pounding head was so thick and heavy that the unfamiliar characters swam before her eyes in a jumbled mess. She lay the paper down on her chest and closed her eyes again, willing the blinding pain to leave her.

"Do you want me to read it to you, Kagome?" Sota asked his sister gently. She nodded, eyes still closed. Her brother took the paper and began to slowly read what was written there, while their mother read her own letter in silence.

"Kagome,

By the time you read this, I'll be gone back to the Sengoku Jidai. I feel bad for leaving you like this but I knew that if I waited, you'd try to follow me. That can't happen. I need you to stay at home and get better before you come back, because your health is more important than anything else right now.

That's why I took your jewel shards. I know you're probably screaming in frustration right now and calling me every name you can think of, but I don't really care. The jewel shards connect you to the Sengoku Jidai and I knew that if I didn't take them, even if I was gone, you'd use them to come back alone. I'll come back in a day or so to check on you and bring you back if you're feeling better by then, so just be patient. I promise I'll come for you.

I'm sorry I had to do this, Kagome. I'm only doing it to help you.

Get well soon,

Inuyasha."

Kagome barely registered the words as her brother read them out to her, but she caught enough to know what was going on.

And she was angry.

Her eyes shot open when Sota had read _"That's why I took your jewel shards". _In her weakened state she couldn't react as violently as she would have under normal circumstances but her dark eyes, watery from fever, flashed and narrowed menacingly. How could Inuyasha possibly have done that to her? Didn't he care at all about her feelings? Did he not _want_ her around?

This and other hostile thoughts stampeded through Kagome's feverish brain, making her more and more angry by the minute. Actually, angry was not the word. _Betrayed_ was more like it. _Unloved_. _Rejected_. The fact that what Inuyasha had done what he had done was purely for her benefit was lost to Kagome. She didn't care. Thinking rationally, she might have eventually realized that Inuyasha had not betrayed or rejected her at all, and that he did care about her very much. Being sick, however, and only registering enough of Inuyasha's note to know what he had done but not quite enough to pay attention to why he had done it, Kagome was not thinking rationally. She tightened her hands into fists and stared hard at the ceiling of her bedroom.

"Kagome, dear, did you hear all of the note?" her mother asked, now that she had finished reading her own.

"Y...yes," Kagome managed to choke out with as much conviction as she could muster. Oh, she'd heard it, all right.

After a few seconds, Kagome's breathing became shallower and beads of sweat popped out all over the surface of her skin. Tears she couldn't control, brought about by her body's natural attempts to fight her fever, came spilling forth from her glassy eyes and ran down her blotchy red cheeks.

"Oh my darling..." Mrs. Higurashi said in her most soothing voice, sitting on the side of Kagome's bed and pushing her daughter's bangs from her sweaty forehead, "you're really miserable, aren't you?"

Kagome could only nod. She couldn't find the strength to tell her mother that her sickness was only half of what was making her miserable.

* * *

The afternoon passed slowly in a blaze of glorious, comforting sunshine. Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, Shippo, Kirara and Kaede were spending yet another relaxing day at Kaede's hut, resting and storing up their energies for whenever their next battle would occur. They were enjoying this time of quiet peace and contentment.

All of them, that was, except for Inuyasha.

Every moment he was away from Kagome felt like an eternity. He felt horrible for what he'd done. The fact that he could see no other way around the situation and only did what was best for the sick miko did not appease him in the slightest. He knew how hard she would undoubtedly take his actions, and she would probably get angry with him. Aside from Kagome being absolutely frightening when she got angry, Inuyasha hated making her mad because he always felt terrible for doing it.

While his friends chatted and ate their midday meal, Inuyasha stared off into space, not quite tuned into what the rest of the group was talking about. He didn't even notice the presence of the massive dark shape that was currently passing overhead outside the hut, floating silently through the cloudless blue sky.

* * *

Kagome alternated between sleeping and lying on her bed, staring at her ceiling, for the rest of the afternoon. In an attempt to relax herself, every time she awoke, she did her best to clear her mind of all thoughts and her heart of all the worries and insecurities it held. As hard as she worked to block everything out, however, sinister thoughts plagued her mind and squeezed her heart to the point where it was almost causing her pain.

_How could Inuyasha have done this to me?_

_Doesn't he care?_

_Is he really going to come back?_

_What if he doesn't?_

No. She didn't want to think about that last notion. Shaking her head slightly and emptying her mind again, she closed her eyes once more.

She had just drifted off to sleep when Buyo, the family cat, leapt up onto Kagome's stomach and began kneading a place in the comforter to lie down.

Devoid of the energy required to move the cat, or even to be annoyed with him, Kagome silently reminded herself to get her mother to shut the bedroom door the next time she came upstairs, and at the same time, felt a strange surge of energy rise to fill her entire body from the pit of her stomach. It filled her from her toes to her fingertips and for a moment she felt almost as though she was weightless. Floating.

Could this be from her fever?

Most definitely.

The weird energy continued to course through her veins, and she felt more alert than she had in days. Then, suddenly, as quickly as it had arrived, it disappeared, and Kagome began to lose consciousness. Her surroundings began to blur and swirl around her as fuzzy grey light hazed everything around her, then suddenly, her world went black.

_As though from out of nowhere and as quick and as silent as lightning, a long dark tentacle pierced Inuyasha's stomach and burst out through his back. In what seemed like no time, Inuyasha's expression changed from one of complete confidence to sheer horror and pain as he fell to the ground, blood spurting from the hole in his flesh as the tentacle was removed. His injured body hit the ground with a soft thud. Miroku, Sango, Shippo, Kirara and Kaede ran to his side, each of them wearing identical looks of concern. Inuyasha's blood was slowly spreading over the ground around him, staining the grass a deep scarlet, as the hanyou's breath became more and more laboured with every second that passed. With each beat of his heart, more and more blood was pumped onto the ground around his body, creating a grisly kind of physical aura around him as he lay there, only semi-conscious and gravely injured._

"_Inuyasha, are you all right?" Shippo asked, his small voice quavering with concern. Tears glistened in the tiny kitsune's eyes._

"_Keh," Inuyasha managed to get out, "it's just a flesh wound. I'm fine."_

_Kaede was not convinced. The old miko scoffed. "Ye are obviously not fine, Inuyasha. Ye need tending to, and ye need it quickly." She turned to Miroku and Sango, her eyes flashing determinedly. "Help me carry him into the hut," she asked the monk and the youkai exterminator. They both nodded and the three of them lifted Inuyasha from the ground, carrying him slowly toward Kaede's hut as his blood peppered the ground, leaving a trail behind the group as they walked. _

Kagome sat bolt upright, drenched in sweat, breathing rapidly. Tears were flowing fast and freely down her flushed cheeks: she had been crying. Wiping her damp face with the back of her hand, Kagome inwardly told herself that it must have been a dream, that surely Inuyasha could not have been injured, that none of it was real.

_But still..._

It certainly felt as though it **had** been real.

Kagome clutched at her chest, feeling her heart hammering against her rib cage. She thought that if it had been beating much harder, it would surely beat itself right out of her chest.

_It's just my fever_, she assured herself, _I'm just being ridiculous. It was only a dream. My sickness made me feel weird like that and black out, and what I just saw wasn't real._

Still unable to believe what she had seen, and hoping with every fibre of her being that what she had seen was not actually real, she turned over and, after the few moments it took her to calm down, fell slowly to sleep.


	3. GrownUp Matters

**Author's Note: **As usual, I have multiple people to thank for their responses to the last chapter. This round, I thank** Miko in Training **for reviewing once again, as well as **Kattana** and **Wolfhowler245** for the reviews and the Story Alert adds, in addition to **The World is a Stage**, who added a Story Alert as well. Arigato! Also, **InuKagSanMirFan** reviewed again this time around, and she also brought up a very good point: I didn't include the note that Inuyasha wrote for Kagome's mother in the previous chapter, because what it said wasn't really important enough to include. He just told Mrs. Higurashi that Kagome was sick, he had brought her home, and he took her jewel shards. Nothing more complex than that. Next, **Gamegirl27** added me to her Favourite Authors list, which made me very happy, and last, but certainly nowhere near the least, is my great friend **Sakura L. Fukashigi**, who reviewed the last chapter and added me to her Author Alert list. :)

**Disclaimer:** If I owned Inuyasha, oh the things I would do. Muahahahahaha. Sadly, however, I never did, still don't, and never will own any of Rumiko Takahashi's genius characters, so I deal with that in the best way I know how: by writing fanfictions. That way, I get to do whatever the heck I want. Ha ha.

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**Chapter 3** - Grown-Up Matters

Sango, Miroku, Kaede, Shippo and Kirara sat silently around Inuyasha's body, keeping a constant vigil over the unconscious hanyou and checking on his wound every so often to ensure that the bleeding hadn't started up again. They had finally managed to stauch the flow of blood, after applying much pressure and wrapping it tightly with the bandages, but they were worried that it could begin again at any moment, or worse, that he had begun to bleed internally due to injuries they hadn't seen. The gaping hole in his stomach spanned at least ten inches in diameter, burrowing all the way through his body and out the other side. Kaede was amazed that he had not yet died: even a hanyou would have had trouble surviving an attack such as the one Inuyasha had miraculously managed to escape. He had lost so much blood and the wound was so enormous that, for all intents and purposes, he should have died almost instantly.

_Although, now that I think about it_, Kaede thought silently, watching Inuyasha's chest rise and fall with every breath he took, _there is one possible reason why Inuyasha was not killed. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that one thing was what spared Inuyasha's life today._

Sango, Miroku and Shippo, meanwhile, talked quietly amongst themselves about the attack that had occurred earlier that day.

"I don't understand it," Miroku was saying, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger in concentration, "why would a puppet of Naraku's come and hunt us down here?"

Sango shook her head. "I have no idea," she said simply.

Shippo thought deeply for a few moments, and then piped up, "Maybe Naraku sent it here because he knew we were vulnerable and one of the members of our group is missing?" He offered. His theory met with silence and, mistaking the silence for being ignored, Shippo angrily stomped his way over to Inuyasha, plopping his tiny body down near the hanyou's left shoulder blade and looking daggers over his shoulder at the monk and the youkai exterminator, who were completely unaware that they had done anything wrong. They had not, of course, been ignoring Shippo, but were in deep thought. There was a possibility that the kitsune's theory about the puppet could possibly be right.

"That still doesn't explain why Inuyasha didn't sense the puppet earlier than he did. I would have thought that with his powers of detection, he would have noticed something strange right away." Sango said, looking at the hanyou. The hole in his stomach, caused by one of the long, thick tentacles of the puppet, had been expertly bandaged by Kaede immediately upon their returning to her hut nearly four hours ago, but they had all been alarmed by its size when they had first seen it. _Why didn't Inuyasha notice the puppet? He could have been killed because he didn't sense it coming!_ Sango thought miserably.

What none of the group knew, of course, was that at the time the puppet attacked them, Inuyasha had been far too deep in thought about Kagome to have noticed anything else, even with his hanyou sense of smell and detection. The others had sensed the presence of something sinister but didn't investigate, thinking it was probably just some Saimyosho passing overhead. It wasn't until a large, slimy tentacle had burst through the door of Kaede's hut that they realized exactly what was awaiting them outside.

_In a flurry of surprise and panic, the group burst through the door of Kaede's hut to reach the outside and found themselves face to face with a puppet of Naraku, floating weirdly in mid-air. Like most of the others they had encountered before, this one was wearing a full baboon skin as a disguise. Up until recently, the group would often get confused by Naraku's puppets, believing them to by Naraku himself, but by now they had learned that the puppets had scents uniquely different from Naraku's and could therefore easily tell that this one was the same as all the others. A few of its thick tentacles still hung below its main body, bursting through the bottom of the baboon skin. They looked harmless, simply dangling there, but the group knew that they could be lethal. Trying their best to ignore these and gathering every ounce of courage they could muster, they glared as a group up at the face of the puppet._

"_Ku ku ku..." it chortled under its breath. The group stood almost directly underneath it, looking up and bracing themselves for the attack they felt sure was imminent._

"_What do ye want with us here?" Kaede called up to the puppet._

"_Old woman," it began in reply, "I merely came to bid you all good day."_

_Inuyasha scoffed. "As if, baka!" he cried, unsheathing Tetsusaiga and raising it in a ready striking position. The sword turned almost immediately into its fang blade counterpart and its energy seemed to transfer into Inuyasha himself, giving him a sudden surge of energy and strength. Or at least, he felt as though it had. "I'll take you down in one swing!" the hanyou told the puppet._

"_Ku ku ku..."_

_Miroku began to panic. He knew that Inuyasha's temper was not the most gentle in the world, and the monk couldn't help but feel that this wasn't exactly the best time to arouse the puppet's anger. If provoked, it could do serious damage, even to stubborn hanyous._

"_Inuyasha, calm down. Trust me." the monk begged the hanyou, clapping a hand on his shoulder. Inuyasha, however, wasn't having any of this. He brushed Miroku's hand aside and, golden eyes flashing, turned back up to face the puppet. "Inuyasha!" Miroku exclaimed, but the stubborn inu hanyou had stopped listening to him. He had one goal at the moment, and one goal only: putting this nasty puppet away for good._

_Raising Tetsusaiga over his head, Inuyasha bellowed "Kaze no Kizu!" and sent the great fang blade swishing down through the air, a blast of energy emanating from it and zooming upwards toward the youkai puppet._

_As easily as though it had merely been taking a leisurely stroll, the puppet moved aside, dodging the Kaze no Kizu and letting the attack's energy zoom past it._

"_What the - ?" Inuyasha roared, furious that his attack had missed altogether. He swung the sword upwards again, and was just about to utter another attack when one of the puppet's many tentacles came zooming toward Inuyasha's torso. Before the hanyou had a chance to move out of the way or to block the slimy appendage with his sword, the enormous tentacle pierced his stomach and exited his body through his back._

_In what seemed like an eternity, yet only milliseconds, the youkai puppet removed its tentacle from Inuyasha's stomach and Inuyasha fell to the ground, a gaping hole ripped through his body, now pouring blood all over the grass. Miroku, Shippo, Sango, Kirara and Kaede ran to his side, each looking horrified at what had happened. Inuyasha struggled for breath, but with every passing moment it was becoming more and more difficult for him to gather air into his lungs, and his breathing became more and more laboured. His blood stained the surrounding area a deep scarlet._

"_Inuyasha, are you all right?" Shippo asked Inuyasha softly, looking concerned._

"_Keh," Inuyasha said, barely above a whisper, "it's just a flesh wound. I'm fine."_

_Kaede scoffed. The hanyou might be strong and as stubborn as a mule sometimes, but clearly, he was currently anything but fine. "Ye are obviously not fine, Inuyasha." she told him firmly, "Ye need tending to, and ye need it quickly." Without a moments' indecision, she put a hand under his neck, turned to Sango and Miroku and said, "Help me carry him into the hut". Sango and Miroku nodded and helped the old miko lift the bleeding, nearly unconscious hanyou from the ground. Ever so slowly, the group carried Inuyasha back inside Kaede's hut, letting his blood trail thickly behind them as they moved along._

Now, four hours later, Inuyasha had not awakened, not that any of the rest of the group had expected him to. Even a hanyou would need quite a bit of time to recover from the likes of what had happened to Inuyasha that day, so all Kaede, Sango, Miroku and Shippo could do was wait to see what would happen next.

Sitting around Inuyasha's body, Sango and Miroku turned their attentions to other subjects, to keep their minds off of Inuyasha and the possible fates that might befall him.

"I wonder how Kagome is doing?" Sango asked, lifting her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them. She was worried about her friend and hoped that her sickness had improved somewhat by now.

Miroku placed a hand gently on Sango's shoulder and stroked it. To his surprise, she didn't swat it away (or swat him across the face). The monk supposed that the youkai exterminator had far too much on her mind at the moment to even notice that he was touching her. "I'm sure Kagome will be fine," Miroku assured Sango, "although I shudder to think about how she reacted when she found out Inuyasha stranded her in her own time with no way to get back." Miroku, like all the others, knew perfectly well that Kagome could be slightly alarming when she got upset, and could only thank the Kami that he wasn't around to witness her reaction to what Inuyasha had done. The hanyou had told his friends soon after he had returned that he had left Kagome at home and had brought her jewel shards back with him to prevent her from following him back to the Sengoku Jidai when she woke up. Although Inuyasha had been convinced that he'd acted for the best, Sango, Miroku and Shippo weren't so sure. They all had felt exactly the same way: sick or not, Kagome would only be truly happy and well if she was with Inuyasha, and Inuyasha turned into a basket case whenever Kagome wasn't around. While they agreed that it would be good for Kagome to stay in her own time for a while to be treated for her sickness, they felt that Inuyasha should have stayed with her. The best place for both Kagome and Inuyasha was wherever they were together.

"Kagome will be even more upset now if she saw what happened to Inuyasha today," Kaede said. She had been listening to Sango and Miroku's conversation from a short distance away.

Miroku and Sango looked at each other, confused. "But Kaede," Miroku said slowly, "how could Kagome possibly have seen what happened? She's back in her own time."

Kaede looked down at the ground and it was a few moments before she spoke again. "I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that the connection between Kagome and Inuyasha is stronger than even I first thought. And that connection, I believe, is also connected to her miko powers."

Now the monk and the youkai exterminator were thoroughly confused. What on earth could the old miko be talking about?

Noticing the puzzled looks on their faces, Kaede chuckled. "Let me just say this: I believe that the reason Inuyasha did not die today has something to do with Kagome and her powers. There's an unsuspected bond between those two."

By this time, Shippo had noticed that Kaede, Sango and Miroku were talking about a subject that not only sounded interesting, but important as well. Hearing Kaede mention Kagome's name, Shippo's ears pricked and he turned his tiny face toward the three, who were all looking very grave and were deep in conversation. He had been sitting by Inuyasha's side, munching on some candy that Kagome had brought back for him from her time not too long ago, but he padded his way over to his conscious friends and hopped up into Kaede's lap, forgetting all about his anger about being - so he thought - ignored a few moments before. He looked back and forth from the wise old miko to Miroku and Sango, who were sitting in silence and waiting for Kaede to elaborate on what she had just told them.

Kaede, however, had different plans.

_I mustn't tell them any more than I already have, _she told herself, _until I see for myself whether or not what I'm predicting is true. If I am wrong, it will only confuse them, and they will most likely wish for my prediction to have been true. If I am right, I shall tell them all that I know._

Without another word, Kaede stood up slowly, accidentally sending Shippo crashing to the floor, and padded silently into her bedchamber, sliding the door shut behind her as she entered.

Miroku, Sango and Shippo exchanged confused looks.

"What on earth was that all about?" Miroku asked no one in particular.

Sango stared at Inuyasha's battered body. "I have no idea," the youkai exterminator said in reply, "but I hope Inuyasha and Kagome both recover soon, so we can get Kagome back and finally get some answers out of Kaede."

Thoroughly confused, Shippo went back to devouring his candy. This must be, he decided, a grown-up matter.


	4. Visions and Worries

**Disclaimer:** My mother keeps telling me that one day, I'll get over this problem I've developed about the fact that I don't own Inuyasha or any part of Rumiko Takahashi's wonderful series. She wasn't so sure about that when I kept threatening to kidnap the characters and hold them hostage, but now that I've sought help for that, she thinks I'll be okay. :)

JUST KIDDING GUYS. But in all seriousness, I don't own Inuyasha, nor any part of the series.

**A/N:** This fic will be ending very shortly. I'm thinking two or three more chapters, maximum. I don't know why I have such a mental block against writing long fanfictions; I just can't do it! The longer, the better when I read them, but when I'm writing, I prefer short and sweet.

Just thought I'd give you fair warning. Now on to the "thank you" section...this round, I'm bowing deeply to the following people for their lovely reviews:** Kattana, Sakura L. Fukashigi, Gamegirl27, InuKagSanMirFan **and last but not least, **Wolfhowler245**.

* * *

**Chapter 4 -** Visions and Worries

Two days after Inuyasha had brought Kagome home, her fever began to go up. It had spiked to a dangerous level more than once, and the entire Higurashi household was getting worried. Kagome's mother had taken her to the hospital, but the doctor had merely prescribed some antibiotics, bed rest and plenty of fluids. This was nothing more than a common flu virus, he had said, and that there was nothing to worry about. While Mrs. Higurashi was convinced that this was true, she was still worried about her daughter. Who knew what kinds of strange things she encountered during her long periods in the Sengoku Jidai? Who could be sure that she was truly taking care of herself while she was constantly travelling with her friends as they battled demons, searched for the remaining shards of the Shikon no Tama, and continued in their seemingly endless quest to hunt down Naraku?

Mrs. Higurashi stood in the kitchen, washing the supper dishes, during the evening of the second full day Kagome had been at home. She tried her best to distract herself from worried thoughts of her sick child, who was currently upstairs sleeping, and lost herself in the mesmerizing sounds of the water in the sink splashing around her hands and the clink of the drinking glasses she was washing as they banged together. She made a mental list of housework that needed to be done the following day, and of groceries she needed to pick up at the supermarket, including some foods which would help Kagome's sickness. She stared out the window above the sink which overlooked the courtyard, the grass on the lawn blowing softly in the gentle night breeze. She tried to lose herself in thoughts of how she should be thankful that her daughter had not yet been so seriously injured that it couldn't be dealt with by modern technologies, and that a flu was the worst thing she had contracted in a while.

Sure. What a comfort that was.

Suddenly, Mrs. Higurashi burst into tears. She had never been one to cry, but here tonight, despite the fact that she was doing her utmost to calm herself down, she simply had too many thoughts in her head and too many emotions tugging at her overextended heart, and she broke down. She let out body-wracking, all-consuming sobs, letting her hands rest in the lukewarm dishwater, leaving the dishes all but forgotten. Thick tears poured fast and furious down her face and mingled with the water in the sink.

She was scared. Scared that her daughter would continue to get more ill; scared that she wasn't doing enough to get her well; scared that she had no idea what she could do for her own daughter anymore. Kagome had been spending so much time in the Sengoku Jidai that Mrs. Higurashi felt as though she was only moments away from losing her daughter forever, and that idea probably scared her more than anything. She knew that one day, Kagome would have to decide between staying there with Inuyasha and her friends where her life was constantly endangered but where she knew happiness the likes of which she'd never experienced before, or coming back to her own era to live a safe life that she could never be completely happy in. Seeing the way that Kagome acted whenever she was with Inuyasha was enough proof that her daughter was only truly happy and alive when she was with him. Sickness or not, imminent death or not, Mrs. Higurashi knew in her heart that Kagome would most likely go back to the Sengoku Jidai one day and simply not return.

The only problem was, Mrs. Higurashi didn't think she was ready for that yet.

_What's wrong with me?_ the woman thought to herself as the tears came more rapidly and her slender shoulders began to shake. _I'm supposed to be strong. I'm not supposed to cry. Why are all these emotions coming out tonight? Kagome only has the flu; imagine how I'd come unglued if something more serious happened to her!_

But she knew why she had gotten so upset tonight: all her worries about her daughter had been lying dormant under the surface of her consciousness up until now, and now that Kagome was sick, they all came bubbling up and overflowed.

Quiet footsteps travelled down the stairs to the main floor of the house. Hastily, Mrs. Higurashi grabbed a cup towel and wiped her damp face. She did not like having her family worry over her, and this outburst would certainly do the job. She wasn't entirely sure who could be coming downstairs, however: Grandpa was out in the well house, tending to a broken step leading down to the well itself, Sota was visiting a friend and Kagome, as far as Mrs. Higurashi knew, was sleeping.

"Mama?" a small voice came from somewhere behind her. Mrs. Higurashi turned around to see her daughter standing at the base of the stairs, wearing a pink nightdress and fuzzy white bunny slippers - exactly the type of nightwear that Kagome would never have been caught in under normal circumstances. Now, however, with her raging sickness, Mrs. Higurashi knew that Kagome couldn't care less about how she looked. Her face was white and pasty, and even from the distance between mother and daughter, Mrs. Higurashi could see beads of sweat on Kagome's face and neck. The girl's dark hair was greasy and matted from lack of washing and from lying down, and her eyes were glassy.

"My baby girl..." Mrs. Higurashi said softly, drying her hands and crossing the room to reach Kagome. She enveloped her daughter in a tight hug, kissing the top of her head and stroking her hair with her hand.

"Are you...all right?" Kagome asked her mother with as much concern as her sickness would allow. She was so miserable that she found it hard to concentrate on anyone else, or even one thing in general, for any length of time, but the young miko could tell that there was something wrong with her mother. As she had been coming down the stairs, she could have sworn she'd heard crying.

Mrs. Higurashi smiled, her chin resting on top of Kagome's head. "I'm fine, dear," she lied. She didn't want to make Kagome any more distressed and upset than she surely was already., and besides, she hated to show weakness. What the woman did not know, however, was that Kagome had always been able to see right through her. Despite the fact that she pretended to be calm and stoic about Kagome's double life, never saying anything or trying to stop her when she left the house to go back for yet another extended period of time, Kagome knew that her mother was hiding how she really felt: worried sick about her eldest child. And now, with Kagome's sickness, she was doing exactly the same thing: pretending to be fine when in reality, her world was crashing down around her.

"Is there anything I can get you?" Mrs. Higurashi asked Kagome. With her arms wrapped around her daughter's frame, she could tell that she had lost weight even in the two days that she had been home. Kagome was normally slim as it was, but she felt even more small and frail now than ever before. This only worried Mrs. Higurashi more. She bit her lip to keep from losing composure again as Kagome shook her head.

"I'm fine," she lied, sounding almost identical to her mother. Kagome was lying through her teeth for exactly the same reason her mother had been: not wanting to cause one of the most important people in her life any more stress.

* * *

Kagome headed back upstairs to the sanctuary of her bedroom a while later, after finishing the herb tea that her mother had insisted she drink and taking another round of her antibiotics. Her head thick and her skin hot, she collapsed onto her bed, placing her hands on her stomach. She rubbed small circles over her belly and closed her eyes, trying to picture a happy, warm, comforting place where she could not be sick and life was wonderful.

It didn't come as much of a shock when the first image that came to her mind was of herself in Inuyasha's strong arms, leaning with him up against the Goshinboku.

With that image in her mind and a smile on her face, she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Sometime in the night, Kagome awoke as quickly and as clearly as if she had not been asleep at all. Her mind was surprisingly sharp, despite being plagued by a raging fever. She rolled over onto her side and looked out her bedroom window. The moon shone brightly in the ink-black sky, quietly watching over the world as it rested. Kagome stared as its perfectly round symmetry, and temporarily lost herself in a coughing fit, worse than she had yet experienced. More blood peppered her palm, a grisly tribute to how bad her sickness was getting. She had heard before that sicknesses sometimes have to get worse before they get better, but this was ridiculous.

After a few seconds of coughing, Kagome's mind was taken over completely by a vision of something she couldn't possibly be seeing...

_Sango, Shippo and Kirara were sleeping peacefully on the floor of Kaede's hut. The tiny fire they had built near the centre of the room had now been reduced to nothing more than a few sparse glowing embers. Kaede's light snoring could be heard - she was fast asleep in her bed chamber. Miroku was leaning against the wall in a shadowy corner of the room, keeping watch over Inuyasha and the rest of their friends as they slept. The monk's eyelids drooped slightly, but almost instantly they snapped open once again. It seemed as though Miroku was determined to stay awake. His eyes passed from Inuyasha, badly injured and still unconscious, to Shippo and Kirara who were curled into one another and sleeping peacefully, and then finally to Sango, sleeping on her side, curled into a fetal position._

_Miroku's eyelids dropped once again, but this time they did not open as quickly. After five full seconds the monk snapped himself awake once again, and crawled silently across the room. He nudged Sango's side to wake her. The youkai exterminator stirred slightly and her eyes opened a fraction of an inch._

"_M-Miroku? What's wrong?" she asked, her voice thick with sleep. Miroku smiled gently, trying to stop her from worrying._

"_Nothing, Sango, but I must admit I'm exhausted. Would it be possible for me to beg you to start your watch shift a few minutes early?"_

_Sango nodded and sat up straight. "No problem," she said, "you should get some rest. I'll take over."_

_Miroku, prostrate with gratitude, actually bowed low to the ground in thanks to Sango for agreeing to take over his watch before it ended. "Thank you so much, dear Sango," he said, "I'm sure Inuyasha will be fully recovered soon and we'll all be able to rest more easily."_

_Without responding, Sango stood up and moved over to the wall against which Miroku had just been leaning, and took up a position on the floor. Miroku took Sango's sleeping area and was asleep almost instantly._

Kagome blinked twice. _What in the world was __**that**__? _she wondered, thoroughly confused. That vision marked the second time since she'd been at home that she'd seen an image of her friends in the Sengoku Jidai. It didn't make any sense at all. She was in modern-day Tokyo, they were 500 years in the past. How could she possibly be seeing what was going on with her friends? These visions couldn't be real, could they?

Shaking her head to clear it, Kagome returned her gaze to her bedroom and lay flat on her back. Her coughs has finally eased off, but her head was pounding and her heart was racing. Kagome couldn't tell whether that was from her sickness, or from what she had just seen.

_Inuyasha..._ she thought to herself as she shut her eyes and sleep began to grab hold of her consciousness_, if what I'm seeing is real, please just be all right!_

The normally reliable hanyou was a day late in returning to her. The visions that Kagome had been getting, if it turned out that they were real, would certainly explain why he hadn't shown up yet, but they only made Kagome worry more. It seemed as though he was injured badly.

One last thought burned in her mind before she finally drifted off to sleep: _I've got to get back there. Somehow._


	5. Reunited

**Disclaimer:** Still don't own Inuyasha, and therefore, my life makes me sad. But I suppose one day I'll be all right.

Moving on! Ha ha.

**A/N**: My e-mail inbox became completely clogged - well, not completely, but partially, ha ha - with responses to the previous chapter of _TUB_ (oh wow, what an unfortunate abbreviation!), six of which arrived in the first 24 hours following my chapter post, and I have to say I'm hugely honoured! Thanks this time around to: my lovely friend **Sakura L. Fukashigi, **as well as** InuKagSanMirFan, Gamegirl27, Kattana, Miko in Training, Inuyashafan93 **and **Wolfhowler245** for their wonderful reviews, and also to **Penz Rite Stuf, X20ADemonFoxNinja**, and **Desaix** for the Story Alert Adds. You guys all rock! :)

* * *

**Chapter 5** - Reunited

The following morning dawned dark and misty. Rain beat at the windows of the Higurashi house as Kagome slowly opened her eyes and sat upright in bed. As soon as she did, her bedroom swirled around her in a rush of colour. She didn't know it, but her fever had spiked to a dangerous level during the night, shortly following her vision of Inuyasha and the rest of her friends back in the Sengoku Jidai. She gripped the side of her bed with both hands, trying to stop the room from spinning, and succumbed to a fit of coughing. The coughs had slowed down somewhat the day before, but now they were back with a vengeance and she doubled over, hand over her mouth, trying to suppress the noise.

Suddenly, everything went black.

_Sango's eyes fluttered open and she looked around the room at her friends, who were all still sleeping. Then, suddenly, she muttered, "What time is it?" to no one in particular and stood up to stretch. As she did so, she noticed dim light pouring in through the single window in Kaede's hut. It was raining heavily and the day was dreary, but it was undoubtedly morning._

"_Oh no!" Sango muttered, "I fell asleep on my watch! I was supposed to wake somebody else up before I fell asleep. What if something happened in the night? What if Inuyasha woke up? I was supposed to stay up in case anybody needed anything!"_

_This nervous rant continued under Sango's breath for quite a while. She crossed the room on tip-toe and bent over Inuyasha's body. Upon seeing that he was no more conscious now than he had been at any point before, she gingerly picked open the bandages around his torso to examine his wound. Shaking her head, she replaced them and stood up to her full height. _

When Kagome regained composure, she was lying on the floor. She had fallen down off of her bed sometime during the vision. As sick as she was, she had one thought and one thought only: _Get to Inuyasha_.

If she had been thinking rationally, she would have realized that it wasn't possible for her to return to the Sengoku Jidai; she would have realized that she was stuck in her own era; she would have had to resign herself to the fact that she was completely on her own until Inuyasha came back to get her.

However, Kagome was still violently sick, not thinking clearly, and obsessed with returning to Inuyasha's side by any means necessary. She didn't care that she would need at least one shard of the Shikon no Tama to pass through the Bone Eater's Well, nor did she care that going outside, especially in this damp weather, would most likely mean making her flu even worse than it already was.

Standing upright on shaking, weak legs, Kagome thanked the powers that be that she was at least able to stand and move now, which she most likely wouldn't have been able to before. She slowly crossed her bedroom, opened her door, and made her way down the stairs as silently as she could. She didn't want to wake her family as she left the house, for fear that they would try to stop her.

Finally reaching the outside, Kagome had to shut her eyes against the driving rain, and make her way as quickly as she could across the courtyard to the well house. She had begun to cough again, but she didn't let that stop her. She crossed the courtyard, one hand covering her mouth, stained red.

After what felt like milliseconds, and at the same time, about a year, Kagome reached the well house, pressed her palms against the door and threw it aside. The hand she'd been using to cover her mouth left a bloody print on the door behind her as she entered the building and descended to the Bone Eater's Well. The sick girl stared down into the black abyss, preparing herself to jump in. She hadn't given any thought to the fact that she didn't have any of her jewel shards and wouldn't be able to return to the Sengoku Jidai without them. She was too sick, and too driven by her desire to get back to her friends and, most importantly, to Inuyasha, to have remembered that tiny little detail.

Inhaling deeply, Kagome jumped over the side of the well...

And continued to fall through, transcending space and time.

She would be back in the Sengoku Jidai in a matter of seconds.

* * *

Sango, Miroku, Kaede and Shippo sat quietly eating their breakfast, the rain beating steadily at the front of Kaede's hut. Inuyasha still lay on the floor, covered up under a blanket now (compliments of Shippo, who had felt bad that Inuyasha had been lying there bare-chested except for his bandages ever since the attack). He had remained in exactly the same position for two straight days, without showing any signs of awakening. Between the rain and the grim sight of Inuyasha's battered body only inches away from the group, everyone was in an extremely sombre mood. In addition, they had still had no contact from Kagome, and couldn't expect to hear anything until Inuyasha recovered, so they had no way of knowing how she was feeling: whether her sickness had improved at all, or whether she was so ill now that she couldn't even get out of bed.

Kaede ate her breakfast slowly and thoughtfully, lost in her musings. _I hope that Kagome is able to figure out the connection between her and Inuyasha, _the aging, silver-haired miko told herself,_ because if she does, she will be able to return._

It was not easy for Kaede to keep quiet about the unexpected bond between Inuyasha and Kagome. She could not be sure how their friends would react to the news; whether they would think it was a good thing or a bad thing. All the miko could do was sit quietly and hope in silence that Kagome would figure it out for herself. Even Kaede had not noticed this connection up until recently, when Inuyasha had begun to survive increasingly difficult battles that he should not have been able to survive with powerful youkai that had the potential to do some real damage to him, as powerful as Inuyasha was. The more times Inuyasha became grievously injured but survived, the more sure Kaede became that the reason for his continued existence had to do with Kagome. She was sure that the hanyou and the younger miko hadn't yet realized that this connection of theirs even existed. Of course, their relationship ran deeper than mere friendship - any fool could see that - but this? This was altogether surprising. Kaede wouldn't have been surprised in the slightest if they didn't know, especially considering that Kagome did not have near the amount of background information she should have had on her miko powers.

Suddenly, a deep groan came from the floor in the middle of the room. The entire group whipped their heads simultaneously in the direction of the noise to see Inuyasha, his face contorted in pain, slowly opening his eyes.

"Inuyasha!" Shippo cried, leaping up and dashing over to the hanyou, jumping on his chest. Inuyasha let out a bellow of agony: Shippo had jumped directly on top of his bandaged wound without realizing it.

"Shippo, get off!" Sango cried, rushing to Inuyasha's side and plucking up the tiny kitsune. Inuyasha sighed with relief and his face relaxed somewhat.

"Inuyasha, are ye awake?" Kaede asked gently, ambling over to where the entire rest of the group was now standing. By this time, Inuyasha had completely opened his eyes, but it was possible that the hanyou could have done that inadvertently while unconscious.

"'Course I'm awake, old woman!" Inuyasha barked with as much energy as he could muster. Sango and Miroku burst into identical grins and looked at each other happily. Miroku leaned toward Sango and, covering his mouth with his hand so that Inuyasha couldn't see what he was saying, told the youkai exterminator:

"He seems to be just fine, doesn't he?"

Sango and Miroku both laughed, which caused Inuyasha to glare at them, his golden yellow eyes narrowed to slits.

"Oi!" he cried, "What are you two talking about?"

"Nothing, Inuyasha, nothing." Sango lied, trying (and failing) to cover her smile with her hand.

This was truly a joyous moment. The entire group sat around Inuyasha, grinning like fools. Such was their joy that Inuyasha was conscious again, and appearing fine, after two long, torturous days, that they didn't even mind that he said nothing but simply stared at each of them in turn, with a quizzical expression on his face.

Eventually, however, the hanyou broke down and spoke the first non-sarcastic sentence he had spoken since he had regained consciousness: "What the heck happened to me?"

—

It didn't take too long for the rest of the group to fill Inuyasha in on what had happened during the two days he'd been unconscious, purely because there wasn't much to tell. Everyone had remained mostly silent for the entire time, speaking only when necessary, and never leaving the hut. Inuyasha hadn't missed much.

Recounting the tale of the youkai puppet attack, however, did take a bit of time, for obvious reasons.

Once that daunting task had been completed, Shippo looked at Inuyasha with eyes full of concern and exclaimed,

"We're starting to get worried about Kagome, Inuyasha, I wish you hadn't taken her jewel shards!" The tiny kitsune pounded his minute fists on the wooden floor. At the sound of Kagome's name, Inuyasha's eyes flew open and he began to look around the room frantically, as though he expected to see her hidden away in a corner.

"Oh crap! Kagome!" Inuyasha exclaimed, throwing aside Shippo's blanket and beginning to stand up. No sooner had he tried to move than he felt an incredible stabbing pain in his stomach and had to lay back down to regain composure.

"Ye surely cannot be thinking of going to get Kagome right now, Inuyasha," Kaede said, the quality of a warning colouring her words **(A/N: I'm Canadian. Just thought I'd give a reason for why I spell some words, like "colouring", differently than anyone who doesn't live in Canada might be used to. Sorry about that! Now back to your regularly scheduled fanfiction)**.

"Of course I am, wench! I can't just sit here!" Inuyasha snarled, trying once more to sit up. This time, despite the fact that the pain was every bit as severe as it had been the first time, Inuyasha stood up to his full height on shaking legs and began to walk toward the main door of the hut.

"Inuyasha!" Miroku cried, darting across the room, leaping in front of the hanyou and blocking the exit with his arms spread wide open. "You can hardly walk. How can you be thinking of going to get Kagome right now?"

Inuyasha _keh'd_ and attempted to shove Miroku out of the way. As he did so, Sango sneaked up behind Inuyasha and grabbed his arms, pinning them behind his back.

Meeting with stubborn resistance from Inuyasha, as she had expected, Sango began to pull him backward toward the centre of the room where he'd been lying. Miroku walked in the same direction, facing Inuyasha and staring him down, as though daring the hanyou to try and escape.

"You know there's no way you can go anywhere like this, Inuyasha," Sango said gently, letting go of his arms. To everyone's surprise, he did not make any attempt to leave the hut, but instead crossed his arms over his bare bandaged chest and scoffed.

"And why's that?" he asked defiantly.

Kaede, Shippo, Sango and Miroku sighed in unison. _He's back..._ they all thought.

"If you left now, Inuyasha," Miroku began in a calm, gentle voice, attempting to be as diplomatic and reasonable about this as he could (because he knew that was the only hope he had of convincing Inuyasha to stay), "you could injure yourself accidentally or get attacked by something and not be able to fight it off."

Inuyasha scoffed once more and stalked off toward the door yet again. "Keh," he spat, "you know I'm stronger than that, you baka!"

Kaede shook her head and called out Inuyasha's name. She stared at the ground as he turned to face her, his golden eyes narrowed and flashing. "There might be a way that Kagome can return to us without ye going to collect her, Inuyasha," the old miko began, speaking slowly and willing Inuyasha to pay attention to her every word. It was important that he understand that if he left now, he would be putting himself and Kagome in very real danger, since his wounds had not fully healed and he was still weak. This was especially true as long as Kaede's theory about Kagome was correct and that there was indeed a way for her to return alone.

_I can only hope I am right about that,_ Kaede added silently to herself. She remained steadfast in her resolve to not tell any of the others more than she felt they needed to know at the moment. Kaede didn't want to tell them anything only to find out later, when Kagome did not return, that she was wrong (or that the younger miko had not been able to figure out the connection between her and Inuyasha by herself).

Not caring about anything that Kaede had told him, and not having even listened to most of it, Inuyasha chuckled, and, not paying much attention to exactly where he was going, walked straight out the door, allowing himself to be pelted by the driving rain...

And banged roughly into Kagome.

Inuyasha did a double-take, rubbing his bare chest and backing away from the girl. She was drenched from head to foot in rainwater, her eyes were glassy and her cheeks were flushed. She looked horrible. The hanyou blinked twice, to be sure that what he was seeing wasn't a product of his over-extended mind.

"K-Kagome?" Inuyasha asked tentatively, staring at the miko with eyes as wide as saucers - not that he knew what those were.

Kagome smiled gently and reached her arms toward the hanyou. At first he thought she must be sleepwalking, for she advanced toward him, arms outstretched weirdly. It wasn't until she enveloped him in a tight hug that he realized that she was very much awake and in full awareness - or at least in as much awareness as she could have been, given how she was feeling at the moment - of what she was doing.

"I don't understand," Inuyasha said softly, pulling away from Kagome and continuing to stare at her. "How could you get back? I took your shards!" Kagome shrugged. She was every bit as confused about it as she was. She still wasn't exactly sure how she had done it; it had simply happened.

"I think I can answer your question, Inuyasha," Kaede's tired voice spoke from the doorway of her hut. She was standing with Sango, Miroku and Shippo, who were all standing with identical confused looks on their faces, Kaede excepted. Instead, the aging miko grinned and beckoned Inuyasha and Kagome back into her hut. "It seems I have some explaining to do after all."


	6. The Most Special Person

**Disclaimer:** How many times must I repeat myself? Honestly. I don't own Inuyasha, never claimed to; wish I did, but never will.

Heh heh. ;)

**Author's Note:** So here it is, the chapter that will finally begin to explain the connection between Inuyasha and Kagome. You're getting this chapter slightly earlier than I would normally post it, because I'm expecting to be very busy over the next few days, so it was either today or sometime four days from now. :) I know you guys have been waiting for this for ages, so I do apologize if what you're about to read falls somewhat short of your expectations. Ha ha. I think you'll see what I mean when you continue reading. Let's just say that I'm not overly fabulous at writing amazingly complex plot twists. In any case, though, I do hope you enjoy! :)

**Author's Note Squared:** Many, many thanks go to the following people, who in some way acknowledged my last chapter. You guys are amazing! :) I apologize if you reviewed or whatever else but I don't include you here; I inadvertently deleted one or two e-mails with notifications, so my sincere apologies if you know you reviewed or added me/this fic to a list but don't see your name: **Gamegirl27, Sakura L. Fukashigi, Inulover227, AnimeNerd1, InuKagSanMirFan, Waterjasminewolf14, Drama Kagome, Yashibabe **and **Kattana**.

* * *

**Chapter 6 -** The Most Special Person

Once the group was assembled back inside Kaede's hut, the old miko insisted that Kagome change her clothes immediately, even before Kaede finally delivered the promised explanation of why Kagome had returned to the Sengoku Jidai. This was met by much protesting, mostly on Inuyasha's part **(A/N: Impatient much?). **Kagome, on the other hand, wanted to know why she had been able to return to the Sengoku Jidai without jewel shards as well, and normally would have put up a fight about being forced to change first, but she was too sick to care very much at the moment.

"Ye cannot allow your sickness to become worse, Kagome," Kaede was saying as she tugged at the sleeve of the younger girl's nightdress (she had not changed back into her school uniform before returning), "I can lend you some clothes until your own have dried properly." Kaede motioned toward her bed chamber. Kagome nodded slightly and moved at a snail's pace - she was still feeling immeasurably horrible - toward the small room, Kaede following close behind her.

As soon as Kaede and Kagome had entered the bed chamber and slid the door shut behind them, Sango, Miroku, Shippo and Inuyasha exchanged confused looks and spoke to each other at exactly the same time.

"What the - ?" Inuyasha exclaimed under his breath.

"How did she manage to - ?" Sango wondered aloud.

"Didn't Inuyasha say he took - ?" Miroku asked himself more so than anyone else, letting his question trail off into nothingness while he scratched his head. Shippo was so confused at the unexpected turn of events that he couldn't say much of anything, but instead simply sat on the floor, mouth agape, staring from one of his friends to the other.

It appeared that they were all every bit as confused as the others. How had Kagome managed to return on her own, in her weakened physical state and, most importantly, without jewel shards? How often had Kaede told them that only the bearers of jewel shards could transcend time and travel back and forth between Kagome's modern era and the Sengoku Jidai? Surely this was not meant to have happened.

Was it?

* * *

Once Kagome had changed into a set of traditional miko clothing, she looked so much like Kikyo that Inuyasha did a double-take as she stepped out of Kaede's bedroom. The resemblance really was astounding. Kikyo's reincarnation not only had her strong miko powers, but looked eerily similar to her when she dressed in a similar fashion, especially now, when her long dark hair was tied back loosely at the base of her neck. A few strands, damp from a lack of washing and rainwater, clung to her cheeks.

_So creepy..._ Inuyasha thought inwardly. It was almost like having Kikyo in the room; however, in the hanyou's opinion, this was almost better. He felt a sense of calm and peace coursing through his body from the instant she sat down beside him; merely having her close to him was enough to calm Inuyasha down. Heat was coming off of Kagome in waves: she still had a raging fever. Her eyes were glassy and unfocussed and her pale skin had taken on a slightly greenish-yellow cast. To Inuyasha, however, she was still beautiful.

_Wait. _

_Where did that come from?_ the hanyou wondered silently, surprised that a thought about Kagome the likes of that one could have entered his mind. Here was Inuyasha, the hanyou without a detectable romantic bone in his body (or so it seemed), thinking about how beautiful he found Kagome. It didn't make sense!

Before Inuyasha could formulate an answer to his own question, however, Kaede spoke up.

"I hadn't wanted to tell ye what I'm about to tell ye, because I feared I might be wrong. However, the fact that Kagome was able to return to us leaves no doubt in my mind that what I noticed about the connection between her and Inuyasha is the truth. I had thought all along that it might be, and should be, but now it is obvious."

Everyone else seated in the tiny hut turned simultaneously and looked with surprise at the aging miko. Even Kirara's tiny triangular ears seemed to perk up slightly at her words. Finding this reaction slightly humorous, but not unexpected, Kaede chuckled under her breath and continued to speak.

"Kagome," the old woman began, "while ye were at home for your sickness, did ye have any visions that ye couldn't explain or control?"

Kagome's heart skipped a beat. How could Kaede possibly have known? The girl nodded her head ever so slightly and stared at Kaede with rapt attention. Her miserable sickness was all but forgotten by everyone in the room: they were all staring at Kaede.

"What were they like, child?" Kaede prodded when Kagome remained silent. The girl didn't have much energy to talk, that was obvious, but Kagome took a deep breath and began to speak. Her voice was low and feeble, barely above a whisper. To hear her properly, the others in the room stayed so silent that you could have heard a pin drop a mile away.

"There...there were three of them," Kagome began, reaching into the depths of her feverish brain to extract the memories of what she had seen, "and each of them showed me something that...that you guys were doing here. I didn't really think they were real; I didn't _want_ them to be real. The first one I had was of Inuyasha being...being...b-being..."

Kagome could not continue. Her voice had broken up such that she couldn't form any more coherent words, and large tears formed at the corners of her eyes and rolled down her cheeks, leaving damp trails behind them as they travelled down her face, finally breaking free from the skin and dripping down onto her chest. The memory of what she had seen in that first vision was far too painful for the young miko to bear. She had inadvertently been a witness to the most savage beating Inuyasha had ever had, and from the looks of his bandaged torso, what she had seen had been real. Inuyasha had nearly died, and she'd had to watch it all happen.

It was too hard.

Suddenly, Inuyasha placed a hand on Kagome's shaking shoulder to calm her down. The girl looked at the hanyou. His golden eyes looked directly into her dark, damp ones, and instantly she felt better. She wiped the tears from her face and continued speaking with a renewed sense of courage.

"The first vision was of Inuyasha being attacked by a giant tentacle. I didn't really see where it came from. I only saw Inuyasha get hit in the stomach..." here Kagome stole a glance at Inuyasha's body to have another look at his bandages, "...was that from - ?"

"A youkai puppet, yes," Miroku interjected, nodding his head. "None of us noticed it had come until a tentacle burst through the door. We ran outside and one of Naraku's disgusting puppets was waiting for us out there."

The monk didn't have to say any more. Kagome could fill in the gaps for herself. She stared at the ground and shook her head in shock. _How could Inuyasha have survived that?_

Kaede coughed slightly. "Please continue, Kagome," she urged the girl.

"Oh, right, sorry about that," Kagome began apologetically, "the next vision I had came later. This one was of Miroku sitting against the wall, keeping watch over everyone in the room. He got tired, though, and asked Sango to take over for him so he could get some sleep."

Kaede, Shippo and Inuyasha glanced at Sango and Miroku to see their reactions to what Kagome had said. Since none of them had been awake at the time, none of them could be sure that it was true. The youkai exterminator and the monk nodded their heads in unison, confirming what Kagome had told the group. So far, two of her visions had been real.

Eager to know if her third vision held true as well, Kagome told them about what had happened in it. Once she had, Sango blushed slightly and nodded her head.

"That happened, too," the exterminator confirmed, "I was so wiped out that I fell asleep on my watch. I was so embarrassed!"

Everyone chuckled slightly at Sango's outburst. "No need to worry about it, Sango, clearly you didn't miss much," an amused Inuyasha told the girl, as his way of making her feel better about it all. The youkai exterminator still felt badly that she'd fallen asleep, but she smiled in spite of herself and felt a bit better.

After a time, Kaede brought the attention back around to the matter at hand with a rather unusual question. "Kagome," she asked, looking at the dark-haired girl with a very serious expression on her face, "did ye notice that ye were always particularly sick right before ye had your visions?"

Kagome sat silently, deep in thought. Now that Kaede mentioned it, her sickness had seemed to get increasingly worse in the last few moments leading up to one of her three visions: the first time was when the weird energy had entered her body and then left it, robbing her of all her strength, leaving her weak and tired; the second vision had followed a horrible coughing fit where she had coughed up an alarming amount of blood; and the third time had also followed violent coughing, but this time the coughing was coupled with a dangerously spiking fever. It certainly seemed as though every vision Kagome had had was preceded by a particularly difficult point in her sickness, so she nodded at Kaede by way of answering her question.

Kaede grunted in understanding. "And did ye notice that ye tended to feel somewhat better after the visions?"

Yes. Kagome had noticed that, too.

"And have ye wondered why it was that ye were able to return to the Sengoku Jidai without jewel shards, Kagome?" Kaede futher questioned the girl, whose glassy eyes widened suddenly. All the attention of the people in the room was now completely focussed on Kaede. This was what they had all been so confused by: how in the world had Kagome managed to return from the modern era, without a single jewel shard, especially as sick as she was? In the seemingly never-ending silence that followed, Kagome's thoughts returned to the moment she had leapt into the well. Even up until now, her brain had not fully registered the fact that she was back with Inuyasha and the rest of her friends, despite the fact that she didn't have a single shard of the Shikon no Tama in her possession. Her sickness and her all-consuming desire to get back to Inuyasha and ensure that he was all right had taken her over such that she had returned from the modern era without even thinking about how she could possibly have managed it.

In response to Kaede's question, Kagome nodded and said, "I did it without even thinking. I forgot I didn't have any shards."

Miroku turned to Kaede. "Would you be able to tell us more about all of this, Kaede?"

The elderly miko smiled at the monk. "Aye. I think it's time I did."

* * *

Kaede wasted no time in beginning to tell her tale. She mostly addressed Kagome, but every now and again her eyes would flick over to Inuyasha, since much of what she was about to say concerned him as much as it did the young miko sitting next to him.

"To begin, ye all are aware that, as a reincarnation of my sister Kikyo, Kagome was born with miko powers to rival those of my sister. What ye all may not be aware of, however, is the fact that mikos are protected by their powers from things such as injuries, infections, diseases, and other sicknesses. While miko powers cannot completely heal the miko immediately, they work to keep the sickness at bay when it flares up and becomes particularly bad. In other words, when a miko's life is threatened, her powers will kick in, increase temporarily and reduce the threat of death. With any luck, they will increase long enough to allow the miko to heal."

Inuyasha butted in here. "You mean, like my youkai powers?"

Kaede nodded. "Exactly like your youkai powers, Inuyasha. Your own powers increase when ye are on the brink of death, to protect your life. Kagome's miko powers do the same."

"When miko powers surge," Kaede continued, pausing only long enough to draw breath, "they also tend to show the miko many visions of what is happening in the life of the person she cares for the most. There might not be any link between the visions and the miko will have no control over when she gets them, other than the fact that there is a good chance she will get one when her powers surge. This is because of the bond between mikos and these important people of theirs."

Here, Inuyasha interjected. "Bond? What kind of bond, old woman?"

Ignoring Inuyasha's typical rudeness, Kaede continued speaking, looking him directly in the eyes. "The bond that mikos only share with the absolute most important person in their lives. When a miko establishes a strong, deep relationship with someone, her powers form a bond between herself and that person. In addition to showing the miko visions of that person, the bond also works to protect the person's life, regardless of the distance between them."

"But Kaede," Sango cut in, looking puzzled and sounding even more so, "what does this have to do with Kagome?"

The old miko smiled, her aged watery eyes twinkling. "Everything," she said simply.

"Keh," Inuyasha spat under his breath, "so do you mean to tell us that the visions Kagome had are because of her miko powers?"

Kaede nodded. "That's correct, Inuyasha, and what is more, the most special person in Kagome's life is you. This is why all of her visions were centred around you and the youkai puppet attack you survived. Because she is connected to you, she - or rather, her powers - helped you to come out of that attack with your life."

Kagome and Inuyasha looked at each other, wide-eyed, while Sango and Miroku did the same. Shippo, however, whose tiny mind couldn't quite grasp all the information it was receiving, simply sat quietly and waited for Kaede to continue talking.

Which she did.

"There is more to the bond between the two of ye, actually. Much more. First, however, I want to elaborate on what I just said about Kagome's powers working to protect the most special person to Kagome - in other words, Inuyasha." Here, Kaede turned directly to Inuyasha and stared at him without blinking. "There is a reason why ye were not killed in this latest youkai puppet battle, Inuyasha. By rights, ye should have been. Any youkai would have had trouble surviving a fight the likes of which ye just experienced, but ye did survive. Due to the strength of Kagome's powers, ye did not die. Ye are the most important person to Kagome, and therefore, ye will always be protected by her, especially in cases like this one, where her powers surge and become exceedingly strong. As much as the powers protected Kagome from succumbing completely to her sickness, they protected ye, Inuyasha, from death."

Kagome rubbed her temples gently. Her head was pounding! This was far too much information to take in at one time.

Little did Kagome know, however, that Kaede's explanation of the bond between her and Inuyasha was just beginning, and that what Kaede had not yet told them could potentially prove to be the most earth-shattering news of all.


	7. Torn

**Disclaimer:** One of these days, I'll own Inuyasha. I swear it (or maybe not). But as of right now, I don't, so I'm going to go sulk a bit about that. Please keep reading for further entertainment.

Hehe. Sorry guys. I just couldn't resist.

**A/N:** I apologize for that nasty cliffhanger ending I left you guys with last time. I might as well warn you now that I'm going to be doing the same thing to you at the end of this chapter. Sorry about this, everyone! Cliffhanger endings drive me insane when I'm reading them, particularly when I know there's going to be a wait before the next chapter comes out, so I hate to throw them at my readers. I have to, though, in this case. It'll all come together in due time, though, don't worry, and I might even try to get the final - chapter out to you a bit early to make up for the double cliffhanger. Also, as a quick note, I'm only reading chapter 506 of the manga as of right now, so I know there's a possibility that this fanfic, particularly this chapter and the next one, will completely go against where Rumiko Takahashi has taken the manga recently. If that's the case, I apologize, and ask that you guys humour me for a bit and, if you've read the manga up to the most recent chapter and it's totally different than what I've written, pretend you haven't, for my sake. Ha ha. ;) Thanks guys!

**A/N Squared:** Thanks this round to the following awesome people for their reviews and everything else from the last chapter: **Miko in Training, Penz Rite Stuf, Theruthlesscow, Shin Wal-New Moon-, Gamegirl27, Bladzesword, Black and White Kirara, Sakura L. Fukashigi, Emerald of the Emerald, InuKagSanMirFan, Inulover227, Inuyashafan93,** and **Wolfhowler245**.

* * *

**Chapter 7 -** Torn

The hours passed quickly for the group of friends assembled in Kaede's tiny hut, and soon, night had fallen. They had spent the entire rest of the morning and the afternoon talking endlessly, filling one another in on everything that had happened in the days they had been separated. Although it had not been an overly long time, it felt in some ways like an eternity. Such was the strength of the bond that held the entire group together that any time apart felt too long.

Then, of course, there was the unsuspected bond between Kagome and Inuyasha.

It hadn't taken Kaede very long to finish her explanation of the miko power bond between the hanyou and the miko, but with the imformation she presented, she had bombarded everyone in the room - especially Kagome, whose head had already felt as heavy as cement, and as thick, due to her sickness - with so much information that they were still having trouble processing it all. They had known that there had always been a bond between Inuyasha and Kikyo, before the fateful day when confusion and mistaken identities had caused Kikyo to seal Inuyasha to the Goshinboku and then die (only to be reborn, fifty years later) and now it appeared as though the same held true for Inuyasha and Kagome. Mikos, it appeared, were destined to be bonded to the people they cared the most about.

"For as long as ye two associate with one another, Inuyasha and Kagome, and continue your relationship, ye will both be protected." Kaede has clarified earlier that day.

Upon hearing those words, a warm contentedness that she hadn't felt in quite some time filled Kagome completely, and she couldn't help but smile through her physical pain. Although the knowledge of the bond was a burden, because now Kagome knew that it was up to her to protect Inuyasha as best she could, whether or not she would always be conscious of doing it, it gave her a sense of happiness and pride to know that she would always be there for him.

It turned out, however, that there was a catch. No one had actually noticed that Kagome had been silent and distant for the remainder of the day after hearing what Kaede had said next...

_Kaede's expression turned sombre. Her brows furrowed and the corners of her mouth turned down slightly. She was serious now. "I have yet to tell ye all that I know about the bond..." she began, not addressing anyone in particular. The old miko stared at the ground and narrowed her eyes before she continued to speak. _

"_As I have just said, the miko power bond will only hold for as long as Inuyasha and Kagome have a relationship with one another and are active parts of one another's lives. If there should come a time when Kagome chooses to return to her own era with the intent of remaining there indefinitely, the bond will break. Inuyasha will no longer be under Kagome's protection."_

_Kagome's eyes had widened at these words, and it took the sick girl a while to let them sink properly into her mind. Kaede had inadvertently just said the one thing that Kagome would not have wanted to hear. _Oh no!_ Kagome thought miserably, her already glassy eyes becoming moist with more tears _If I go home and stay there...the bond breaks? What kind of a burden is that to put on my shoulders? _She had often thought about what she would do once the Shikon no Tama was completed and purified, and Naraku destroyed, as was the ultimate goal of the group she travelled in. Would she remain in the Sengoku Jidai with Inuyasha and the others, or return home to her old life and try to move on, forgetting everything she had seen and done here?_

_She didn't know._

_Then, Kaede spoke again. "Either that," she began, "or when Kagome dies, the bond will break. Since she will no longer be an active part of Inuyasha's life once her own has ended, the bond must sever. There is not anything that can be done about this, as death is a natural occurrence in the life of every living being on this planet._"

Kagome had spent the remaining hours of the day sitting quietly off to one side of the main room of Kaede's hut, with her knees drawn up to her chest and her chin resting on them. While her friends talked amongst themselves, the dark-haired miko was lost in her thoughts. Ever since Kaede had told her and everyone else that, technically, Inuyasha's survival depended on Kagome deciding to remain forever in the Sengoku Jidai and also on her never dying (as if she had any control over that), Kagome had remained almost totally silent. Her mind was stretched and laden down with the weight of what she had learned that morning to the point that she thought she might burst.

Inuyasha would only be protected from death for as long as Kagome was an active part of his life. This was what Kaede had said, and it was this that Kagome was having more trouble dealing with than anything else the old miko had told her since she had returned.

_But why?_ Kagome wondered now, _Why does it bother me so much to find out that my existence provides Inuyasha's protection?_

A small voice inside the girl's head told her all she needed to know, and it turned out that she had known the answer to her question all along: _It bothers you because you care about him. You can't stand the thought of Inuyasha being hurt or dying._

It was true. Kagome simply could not come to terms with this news because she didn't want to have to think of what would happen, or what she would do, if anything ever happened to threaten Inuyasha's life, or actually kill him. She knew he was extremely strong, and stubborn to a fault, and could most likely hold his own in most battles, but eventually, surely, there would be a battle that Inuyasha simply wouldn't be able to overcome on his own.

"I love Inuyasha," Kagome said under her breath, so softly that she could hardly hear herself speak, "and that's why I care. That's why I'm having such a hard time with this."

And that was why, Kagome knew, she was about to have to make the hardest decision of her life: whether to stay in the Sengoku Jidai for the rest of her days and ensure Inuyasha's protection for as long as she drew breath, or to return home and try to go on with her old life.

* * *

A while later, as the group was preparing for bed, Inuyasha looked over at Kaede from where he was leaning against the wall of her hut. The old woman was padding slowly into her bed chamber when the hanyou called out to her.

"Oi, old woman!" he exclaimed to get her attention. Kaede turned around and eyed the hanyou suspiciously, wondering what he could want. As far as she knew, she had told him, as well as the others, all that she knew about the power bond. Miroku, Sango, Shippo and Kagome all looked back and forth from Inuyasha to Kaede, wondering what the infuriatingly rude hanyou would ask the miko.

"There's something you never explained earlier today," Inuyasha began, speaking somewhat more softly and slowly than he normally would have. Perhaps this was because he knew that what he was asking Kaede now was of a delicate nature, and concerned him, as well as Kagome, directly. Rudeness would get him nowhere.

"Oh?" Kaede asked, truly dumfounded. She hadn't forgotten anything, had she?

Inuyasha nodded, crossing his arms inside the sleeves of his haori, which he had put on that afternoon for the first time in two and a half days. It had been mended by Kaede in the time he had been unconscious, and the long holes in the front and the back - physical reminders of the gruesome battle that Inuyasha had survived - were no more. "You never explained why Kagome could get back here from her own era. I took her jewel shards; everybody here knows that. How did she do it?"

Kaede smiled gently, tilted her head ever so slightly to one side. "That is actually quite simple, Inuyasha:" she began, "Because Kagome wanted to return to your side as desperately as she did, her strengthened miko powers, combined with the feelings in her heart, were able to make it happen."

With that, Kaede turned away and continued to plod along slowly to her bed chamber, sliding the door shut behind her as she entered it.

* * *

No one slept very well that night. Since Kagome's unexpected return and Kaede's explanation, everyone had far too much to think about to even consider sleep.

Well, there was that, plus the fact that Kagome had begun another bout of coughing, making attempted sleep all but pointless for everyone.

As awkward as things were for Sango, Miroku and Shippo, they were even more awkward for Inuyasha and Kagome. Now that the truth about Kagome's feelings for Inuyasha was more or less out in the open, and now that Kagome knew that Inuyasha's survival rested with her, the hanyou and the miko were forced to think long and hard about their relationship and where to take it. Ever since the group had first started travelling together, everyone besides Inuyasha and Kagome had all been able to see something between the two of them that extended far past friendship. It was almost hilarious that the inu-hanyou and the young miko hadn't been able to see it for themselves.

Inuyasha, who had never been great with expressing his feelings, was tortured. He sat cross-legged against the cold, hard wall of Kaede's hut, staring at the mass that was Kagome's body as it violently heaved beneath a thin blanket with every almighty cough that emanated from her. Up until now, the hanyou had never thought so seriously about Kagome and his feelings for her. He knew he cared about her a great deal, perhaps more so (and in a different way) than he had ever cared for Kikyo, but exactly how strongly did he truly feel?

Inuyasha sighed. He already knew the answer to that.

He...he loved her.

That was all there was to it.

To lie to himself, and to everyone else, by saying that he had no feelings beyond friendship for the miko who had changed his life so completely, who had shown him what compassion felt like when he'd had no idea it even existed, would be stupid. Inuyasha knew that.

Eventually, he would have to come clean and admit to Kagome, and to himself, for the first time, exactly how he felt. It would not be easy, but it had to be done. He loved her, and if Kagome was going to be a permanent part of his life from now on, he had some opening up to do. Inuyasha knew that this definitely did not seem like something he would ever do.

_Keh. Guess she's had even more of an effect on me than I thought, _he thought to himself as he chuckled. He closed his eyes slowly, but not before he made absolutely sure that Kagome was in a stable condition and that her coughs had eased off.

* * *

After a time, Kagome's coughing subsided and she was able to rest more comfortably. Sometime during the day, her fever had broken, so now all that remained of her sickness was a headache, a sore throat, and the occasional coughing spurt. She estimated that she would feel completely well again within the next day or two.

Now, she lay on her back, staring through the darkness up at the wooden ceiling of Kaede's hut. Her eyelids were heavy and threatened to close, but her mind was too alert to allow sleep to take her over.

What a day it had been. Ever since she had first returned and Kaede had begun to explain the details of the connection between Kagome and Inuyasha, the young miko kept replaying Kaede's words again and again, trying her hardest to ensure that she didn't forget anything.

_That's correct, Inuyasha, and what is more, the most special person in Kagome's life is you. This is why all of her visions were centred around ye and the youkai puppet attack ye survived, _Kaede had explained to Inuyasha that morning. Then, slightly later, she had gone on to say: _There is a reason why ye were not killed in this latest youkai puppet battle, Inuyasha. By rights, ye should have been. Any youkai would have had trouble surviving a fight the likes of which ye just experienced, but ye did survive. Ye have not died because of the strength of Kagome's powers. Ye are the most important person to Kagome, and therefore, ye will always be protected by her, especially in cases like this one, where her powers surge and become exceedingly strong. As much as the powers protected Kagome from succumbing completely to her sickness, they protected ye, Inuyasha, from death._

This startling new knowledge was disconcerting to Kagome, to say the least. To know that, in essence, she was responsible for Inuyasha's survival, was more than she had ever bargained for.

Even more frightening, however, were the words Kaede had spoken later in the day: _the miko power bond will only hold for as long as Inuyasha and Kagome have a relationship with one another and are active parts of one another's lives. If there should come a time when Kagome chooses to return to her own era with the intent of remaining there indefinitely, the bond will break. Inuyasha will no longer be under Kagome's protection._ Kagome shuddered as she recalled them. She had known for some time now that she loved Inuyasha with all her heart (not that she had admitted that to anyone, technically), but was she ready to commit, full-time, to either her life here or her life back in her own era? Could she handle knowing that she was about to have to make a decision that would affect not only hers, but Inuyasha's life as well?

If Kagome chose to stay in the Sengoku Jidai indefinitely, she could remain with all her friends for the rest of her days. They could continue to hunt down the remaining shards of the Shikon no Tama, and Naraku, for as long as it took to accomplish those goals. Kagome would never have to worry about what would happen once the jewel was completed and purified, or once Naraku was destroyed, because she would be staying here regardless. What was more, she would always be by Inuyasha's side, protecting him from serious injury and being bonded to him until her dying day. She could live happily and freely with her friends, and most importantly, with Inuyasha, forever. There would be incredible risks to her life, she knew, and the dangers that her group of friends were about to face were undoubtedly the most frightening and challenging yet, but Kagome knew instinctively that she could only be happy in this life.

If, however, Kagome decided to return to the modern era and stay there, the bond between herself and Inuyasha would be severed and she would not be able to return again. This would mean the permanent end of all the protection she could give Inuyasha, as well as her relationships with Inuyasha himself, Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Kaede, Kirara, and everyone else she had met during her travels. Kagome knew that to return to her own era and stay there was to guarantee that she would never be truly happy. Yes, she would be safe - certainly the risk of being torn open by a truant youkai would not be a part of her life anymore - and she would be able to live with her family once again, but would those things make up for what she would have to leave behind?

No. Absolutely not.

Her heart was here now. There was nothing that anyone could do about that.

But still...

_Mama...Sota...Gramps...all my friends...can I leave them behind forever?_ Kagome wondered. If she committed herself to Inuyasha and her life in the Sengoku Jidai, she knew that she would most likely never return home again. It didn't seem to make sense to continue her double life if she knew that this one was the one she had chosen. She would miss her family horribly if she had to say goodbye forever.

As conflicted now as she had been earlier in the day, with her head pounding, Kagome closed her eyes and eventually, somehow, managed to drift off to sleep.

_What will I do? Should I go or stay?_


	8. Where I Need to Be

**Disclaimer:** I own Inuyasha now! Seriously, I do! ... Okay, so I've never been a very good liar. I don't own Inuyasha, nor any of the other characters created by Rumiko Takahashi. -Sniff- -Sniff-

**A/N: **So here it is, the final chapter, and with it comes Kagome's choice! Thanks so much to you all for putting up with me and my insane cliffhanger endings over the past few chapters. Now, I warn you, this chapter obviously renders this fic completely different from the way the manga ended, so I'm going to have to ask all of you who have finished the manga to pretend that it never existed, and to separate from it this final chapter of my fic. Otherwise, you'll all be screaming "What? That's SO not the way it ended!". This is simply the ending I chose. Thanks guys!

**A/N Squared:** I want to dedicate this chapter to my amazing friend, whose pen name is **Sakura L. Fukashigi**, for getting me hooked on anime and for everything else she's ever done for me. :) Arigato gozaimasu, Sakura-sama (heh heh...she'll know why I used that suffix)! And also, a huge shoutout goes to **InuKagSanMirFan**, for being the excellent person she is and for putting up with my rambling and sometimes very bad ideas for her own fanfics. Ha ha. You girls rock! And now, to thank all the amazing people who in some way acknowledged my last chapter and, in a lot of cases, this entire fic: **prairie inu, Miko in training, Music's Dancing Freak, smoondigiboy, Gamegirl27, Sakura L. Fukashigi, penz rite stuf, InuKagSanMirFan, bladzesword, inulover227, Black and White Kirara, wolfhowler245, inuyashafan93, theruthlesscow** and **Kattana**. Thanks so much, everyone! I love you all.

* * *

**Chapter 8 -** Where I Need to Be

_Ten Years Later_

"I'm home, everyone!" Kagome called as she slid open the door to her house and stepped inside. At the sound of her voice, her mother, her grandfather, and her brother all headed into the kitchen. Sota and Mrs. Higurashi looked at the woman standing before them in eager anticipation, while Kagome's grandfather looked a little queasy.

"So, sis, how did it go at the doctor?" Sota asked. Now tall and muscular, Sota had grown so much in the past ten years that Kagome could scarcely believe this was her little brother anymore. He was becoming a man.

Still, that didn't stop her from walking towards him and ruffling his dark hair with her hands. She grinned broadly at his annoyed expression and told him, "It was fine, little brother. I also got my ultrasound results back from my last appointment."

Kagome's grandfather's eyes widened. "...And?" he asked his now 25-year-old granddaughter.

"It's a boy!" Kagome exclaimed, happily, rubbing her stomach.

The rest of her family clapped and shouted gleefully. That was, except for her grandfather, who tried to arrange his face into what he thought was a passable smile, but failed miserably. He would always be fiercely overprotective of his Kagome. Mrs. Higurashi and Sota, however, were genuinely thrilled. They had known ever since they had found out she was pregnant that a boy was what Kagome wanted.

"I would have been completely fine with a girl, but for some reason I've known deep down that I'd love to have a boy," she had told them on the day that she'd found out she was pregnant, nearly six months ago. She had been a month and a half along before she knew, so now she was seven and a half months pregnant and could hardly believe how fast the time had gone. Soon she would be the proud mother of what would hopefully be a healthy, bouncing baby boy.

"Excellent! A boy!" Sota cried, punching the air, "Can you name him after me, Kagome?"

The woman laughed. "I'll see what I can do, Sota!" she promised her younger brother.

After a round of hugs and many congratulatory wishes from her family, Kagome turned and headed up the stairs to her bedroom, feeling elated. She couldn't be more happy that her baby was healthy and that everything was going along as smoothly as it possibly could have.

Turning the corner to reach her bedroom, Kagome peered inside to see Inuyasha, up on his feet and pacing in circles around the room. He couldn't seem to keep his hands still: one second he would clench them into fists, the next he would scratch his head, and the next he would tug at the sleeves of his haori. Smiling at this, Kagome entered her room.

"Inuyasha?" she said, moving closer to the hanyou, who had now stopped pacing nervously.

"How was it?" he asked, walking over to her and enveloping her in a gentle hug. Inuyasha had not come with her to the doctor's appointment because he had been fast asleep when she'd had to leave. Kagome hadn't had the heart to wake him because he had been getting next to no rest lately, and she decided it would be better to leave him as he was.

"It was fine, Inuyasha," she said, pulling out of the hug but still keeping her arms wrapped around his shoulders, "I'm going to have a boy!"

Inuyasha's face split into a grin that was highly uncharacteristic of the hanyou she had known for the past ten years of her life, and he hugged her again, kissing her softly as they embraced once more.

"A boy..." he murmured, "Finally!"

Kagome laughed. "I guess that's why my stomach is so big!" she told the hanyou, chuckling softly.

"Hey now," Inuyasha said, a playful warning quality to his voice, "you know hanyou babies always weigh more than full human babies! That's just the way it is, woman!"

"Oh I know, Inuyasha," Kagome retorted, punching him playfully on the shoulder and grinning, "and I'm not complaining. I couldn't be happier that this heavy hanyou baby boy I'm carrying is yours."

* * *

Later that afternoon, Kagome and Inuyasha returned to the kitchen of the Higurashi home. Once again, Kagome's entire family was assembled there, but this time, it was to say goodbye. Kagome and Inuyasha were about to return to the Sengoku Jidai until after Kagome's baby was born. The two proud parents had spoken with Kagome's family about it and everyone was in agreement that it would be best for Kagome to give birth to the baby far away from the awkward questions and confused facial expressions that would surely accompany any treatment Kagome would be given by a modern doctor. It had even been slightly risky during the last ultrasound Kagome had had, because her baby's ears were quite noticeably identical to his father's. The ultrasound technician hadn't said anything at the time, but Kagome had seen his facial expression change to one of concern and confusion. Thus, Kagome and Inuyasha were setting out to return to the Sengoku Jidai and await the birth of their son.

After many hugs and a few tears on the part of Mrs. Higurashi and Kagome's grandfather, Kagome and Inuyasha left the house with the promise to return as soon as possible, crossed the courtyard and entered the well house. Inuyasha scooped Kagome up in his arms once they reached the well, and leapt over the side.

They were going home.

* * *

Sango and Miroku could hardly wait for their friends to return. Kagome and Inuyasha had been gone for three days now, which was far longer than they usually spent in the modern era. Ever since Kagome had made the decision to live out the remainder of her life in the Sengoku Jidai with Inuyasha, she had not gone home often at all, and when she did, it was only for very fleeting visits; she was usually back within 24 hours. Kagome had dropped out of school at 16, vowing only to return home when it was absolutely necessary and announcing to her friends that this was what was best, and it was what she wanted. At first they had tried to talk to her about her decision, and attempted to make sure that this was indeed what she wanted to do, but Kagome had been adamant that she would be staying in the Sengoku Jidai for good. This pleased her friends immensely, and they had been extremely excited at the prospect of having Kagome as a permanent part of their lives from now on.

Today, nine years after Kagome had made the decision, Sango and Miroku sat outside in the warm sunshine, the grass around them blowing gently in the soft breeze. They had the feeling their friends would return today.

"Kagome's visit to her doctor was this morning, wasn't it?" Sango asked her husband. Miroku hadn't changed much in the six years they'd been married, although Sango had to admit that he had finally grown out of his lecherous ways. This, she knew, was a blessing.

Miroku nodded by way of answering his wife's question. "And it's a good thing, too. Izayoi and Sakura have been asking for their parents ever since they left!"

Sango grinned. Inuyasha and Kagome's two daughters were the highlights of all their lives. Sakura, the eldest, had been born six years ago, when Kagome was 19. Izayoi, named after Inuyasha's mother, came two years later, when Kagome was 21. Sakura had her father's energy and determination, and Izayoi had inherited the colour of her father's hair as well as a number of his other youkai features. Kagome and Inuyasha asked Sango and Miroku to look after the girls whenever they returned to the modern era to visit, particularly when they returned for doctor's appointments. It was quite convenient for the two young parents to have their married best friends living right next door to them.

Kaede had passed away shortly following the battle that had destroyed Naraku once and for all, nearly eight years ago. She had died peacefully in her sleep. While everyone had been saddened by her death, they preferred to reminisce about the time they had spent with her, and her wisdom and words of comfort. Kaede had insisted that Kagome and Inuyasha move into her hut when she passed away, since they had been mated the year before and hadn't had anywhere to live. They did this, and it hadn't taken Sango and Miroku very long to come to the decision to build a home of their own directly next to what was now Inuyasha and Kagome's hut. Soon afterward, Sango and Miroku were married and, at around the same time, Kagome became pregnant with Sakura. The group of friends couldn't have been more thrilled at the news and busied themselves with preparations to welcome the baby into the blissfully Naraku-free world.

Over the next two years, Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango and Miroku worked together to raise Sakura and she developed into a healthy toddler with an appetite for adventure. Then, before they knew it, Kagome had become pregnant again and named her second child Izayoi, at Inuyasha's request, after his mother.

The next four years passed quickly for the friends. They had so much to keep them busy and so much to be thankful for. And now, Kagome was pregnant once more, and Sango had been having enough morning sickness lately to be fairly sure that she had a baby of her own on the way. She and Miroku had not had any children yet but Sango was almost positive that she was pregnant now. She had been keeping her sickness a secret thus far, wanting to surprise her friends and her husband when she was completely sure. She knew that she wouldn't be able to wait much longer, however, before someone would begin to notice her swelling stomach or the fact that she was constantly sick in the mornings. Sango was absolutely thrilled.

Shippo, now 17 years old, was now living his own life elsewhere with his fiancee, Chiyo. He was blissfully happy in his relationship, and the two of them had recently built and moved into a home of their own, a fair distance from where his old friends lived. Still, however, he couldn't completely stay away, and returned to visit his two favourite couples in the world, and his "nieces", as he liked to call them, quite often.

Everyone was as happy as could be.

Suddenly, Miroku spotted Kagome and Inuyasha walking in their direction, holding hands. Kagome was resting one hand on top of her large belly and both were smiling at their friends as they came closer. Sango and Miroku stood up from the grass where they'd been sitting and went to meet their friends.

"Welcome back!" Sango exclaimed, wrapping Kagome in a hug, "How was the trip?"

"Oh, it was great! My doctor's appointment went well today, and I got the results of my ultrasound," Kagome said, smiling widely (it had taken some work, when she had first gotten pregnant with Sakura, to explain to her friends and Inuyasha exactly what an ultrasound was, but now they understood nearly as much about modern medicine and technologies when it came to childbirth as Kagome herself did).

"She's gonna have a boy!" Inuyasha bellowed, punching the air with his fist, much like Sota had done earlier, back at the Higurashi house.

"Congratulations, you two!" Miroku said, beaming, "I know how badly you've been wanting a boy."

Kagome and Inuyasha nodded simultaneously. "I wouldn't have minded another girl," Kagome began, "but I have a feeling that Inuyasha wouldn't be able to deal with all of the girly stuff a third time...clothes, hairstyles, dolls..."

At this, everyone laughed. Inuyasha's ears flattened to his head and he blushed ever so slightly, which caused everyone else to laugh still harder.

"Well, y'know, I think our hut needs a little more manliness anyway," Inuyasha said defensively. Kagome grinned impishly and swatted him on the back of the head before looking around a bit.

"Where are the girls?" she asked.

Suddenly, as if on cue, Sakura and Izayoi burst through the front door of their family's hut, and dashed toward their parents at top speed. Sakura wrapped her arms around her mother's swollen belly, and Izayoi attached herself to her father's legs.

"Welcome home, Mother and Father!" the girls piped up simultaneously. They had obviously been practising that.

"Hi, little ones," Kagome said warmly to her children. She would have picked them up but in her current condition, she didn't think that was wise. Instead, she rubbed the tops of both their heads and bent down (with some difficulty) so that she was at their eye-level. "Did you miss us?" she asked.

"Oh, we did!" Sakura gushed, "But we had the greatest time with Aunt Sango and Uncle Miroku!"

The girls had taken to calling their parents' best friends "Aunt" and "Uncle". Sango and Miroku, after making sure that the girls knew that they weren't their aunt and uncle by blood, never corrected them again. They liked the sound of those names far too much to be bothered by them.

"You didn't get into any trouble, did you?" Inuyasha asked, pretending to be stern, as he picked up Izayoi. He knew the day was coming when he would no longer be able to do this (she was four years old now and getting quite heavy, and what was more, eventually she most likely would want to go everywhere independently of her parents), but he enjoyed it so much that he just couldn't seem to stop himself. Yet.

"No, Papa," Izayoi assured her father, shaking her head. Her long mane of silver hair fanned out behind her in the breeze. Despite the fact that the girls were both only quarter-youkai, Izayoi looked almost like a full youkai. She had inherited her father's ears and his hair colour, as well as his fangs, although hers weren't much larger than grains of rice yet. Her eyes, instead of the golden colour of her father's, were silver, tinged with blue, and she had a single purple stripe running across her right cheek. Sakura had gotten Inuyasha's ears, but everything else about her was the spitting image of her mother, right down to the warm chocolate colour of her eyes. It was almost impossible to believe that the sisters had come from the same parents.

Kagome smiled up at her friends. "Did you two want to come in for a while?"

Sango and Miroku nodded happily, and along with Inuyasha, Kagome and their daughters, walked into the hut.

* * *

Later that evening, after Sango and Miroku had left Inuyasha and Kagome's hut to return to their own, the hanyou and the miko put their daughters to bed and returned to the main room of the hut. Inuyasha built a small, cozy fire for them both and they sat near it, watching the flames dance hypnotically before their eyes.

Suddenly, Kagome felt a tiny kick against the lining of her stomach and rested a hand on top of the spot, rubbing small circles around it. After a short while, the baby calmed down and the kicking ceased. Inuyasha had noticed this, and rested a hand on top of Kagome's, which still lay on her stomach.

"Are you okay, Kagome?" he asked his mate with genuine concern. Kagome looked at Inuyasha and couldn't help but smile. _He's changed so much in the ten years I've known him_, she mused, _the Inuyasha I met when I was 15 would have never really been comfortable expressing emotion like this._

"I'm fine, Inuyasha," Kagome assured him, "it was just a little kick. Nothing I'm not used to."

Inuyasha chuckled. "I guess not," the hanyou said, before jerking his head to one side and making himself look so much like an actual dog that Kagome had to suppress her giggles, "Kagome?" he continued, "I have to ask you this...are you happy?"

"Happy?" Kagome repeated, completely nonplussed. What kind of a question was that for him to ask?

"Yeah, I mean...I know how hard it must be, being my mate and bearing my kids and all..." Inuyasha explained, speaking slowly and choosing his words carefully, "I know I'm no picnic."

Kagome laughed outright at this. "Well, I have to admit that's true, Inuyasha," she began, grinning evilly, which caused Inuyasha's ears to flatten, "but I don't want you to doubt for a second that I'm happy here with you. When I made the decision to stay with you, I intended to stick by it, and I still do. Nothing's changed. Sure, there have been rough times, but we've been able to get through them all because we're together. I love you, and I know I'm where I need to be."

Inuyasha smiled, moving the hand that had been resting on top of hers up to her shoulder. He rubbed it gently, feeling more content and happy than he could honestly say he'd ever felt in his life.

"I love you, too," the hanyou told his mate, "and I can't even tell you how happy I am that you stayed."

* * *

_One Year Later_

"Sango! A little help, please?" Miroku called to his wife, who was currently in the bed chamber getting dressed. She had entrusted to him the very delicate task of changing their four-month-old son's diaper, and the monk had to admit that he wasn't very good at that job quite yet. This was due in part to the fact that the diapers Kagome kept bringing them from her own era were far too foreign and complex for Miroku, who was inexperienced in all things baby-related as it was.

Or at least this was what he kept telling Sango as an excuse for his poor diaper-changing skills.

Sango laughed heartily. "I'll be there in just a second, Miroku," she told her husband. Baby Masaharu had begun to fuss a little and the exhausted youkai exterminator could hear her son's cries from where she stood inside hers and Miroku's bed chamber.

Aside from the diaper-changing, the midnight feedings and the occasional crying fit they had to deal with, Sango and Miroku couldn't have been happier these days. Their son had been born strong and healthy four months ago and they were as proud of him as they could possibly be. They loved their baby with all their hearts and worked together to raise him in a peaceful, happy world. What Sango and Miroku, or Inuyasha and Kagome, would have done if their children had been born into a world where Naraku still existed, they had no idea.

Thankfully, however, they did not have to think about that.

Their world was at peace.

* * *

Next door, Inuyasha and Kagome were experiencing headaches of their own. Izayoi had been uncontrollably hyper all day, Sakura was being a bit moody for some reason and their newborn son absolutely refused to stay in his father's arms for any length of time, preferring, it seemed, to remain with his mother.

Feeling slightly rejected that his son wasn't interested in any physical contact with him, Inuyasha gave baby Sota to his mother and shook his head.

"You'd think that, since he's almost a year old, he wouldn't mind someone other than his mother touching him!" Inuyasha exclaimed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.

Kagome raised an eyebrow as she rubbed Sota's back gently. "What's that supposed to mean, Inuyasha?" she asked playfully, "Do you think I'm not a good mother or something?"

Inuyasha's eyes flashed. "Hey, come on, I never said that! Give me a - !"

The hanyou had been about to say "break", but Kagome winked at him and grinned. "I was just kidding, Inuyasha," she assured him, causing his face to split into a grin.

"Oh yeah? Well take this!" he cried, giving her an ever-so-gentle punch on the shoulder. Having a baby in her arms, Kagome couldn't react. Inuyasha loved a little bit of good-natured torturing every now and again.

Kagome sighed as she smiled at her husband, who was still gently poking her and prodding her, trying to get a reaction. _Some things never change..._ she told herself, _he might have matured, but deep down, he's always going to be the hanyou I met and fell in love with eleven years ago, and I'm always going to be by his side. The bond between us is just that strong._

Then, for old time's sake, she opened her mouth, inhaled deeply, and cried "Sit!", sending Inuyasha crashing to the ground with a cry.

Everything was as it should be.

* * *

**A/N:** So here it is, the end of an era. Well, maybe not an era, per se, but of this fanfiction. I want to thank all of you guys who stuck with me from beginning to end, and those who joined in the reading fun somewhere along the line. You guys are truly amazing, and your lovely reviews and other feedback gave me the drive to make this story the best one I've written yet. Thanks a million, everyone! I'm sure I'll be back sometime in the not-too-distant future with something new and (hopefully) exciting. Until then, sayonara!


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