I'm Strong Enough

(Inu Yasha and all related terms are property of Rumiko Takahashi.)

Chapter 1: To Learn and Grow

A deep ditch appeared with a flash of light before the pawed-feet of the little kitsune. He backed away as quickly as he could to avoid falling in. "Whoa!" He yelped, eyes wide with fear. "This is getting dangerous!" He glanced back at his partners, all working to defeat Naraku's several minions. Inu Yasha was slicing through them with ease using his blade. Kagome destroyed hordes of them with her sacred arrows. Sango and Miroku banned together to destroy the stragglers on the ground.

Kirara, in her larger form, marched up next to Shippou, leaping the gap in the earth with ease. He looked up at her. "Kirara!"

Kirara growled a response.

Shippou wriggled his was up onto her back. "Let's get a safe distance away, Kirara. They can handle it without me!" He clutched to her fur as he trembled. "Come on… please…let's just go for a minute…"

Kirara didn't seem sure but she lifted into the air and started away from the gruesome battle.

"I can't fight very well, so it's better if I'm not in their way," Shippou said, more trying to convince himself than Kirara.

Kirara roared, turning around.

"Huh?" Shippou looked out over the fight now a distance away. "Wh- WHAT IS THAT!" He shouted.

A light, he thought, or a shadow? It was black, yet staring at it burned his eyes as if looking into the sun. It flickered, then filled the entire area. Kirara zoomed just out of its range, snarling.

Suddenly… all was quiet. The black light was gone. The silence… the silence was deafening.

Without any consent from Shippou, Kirara rushed back toward the battleground out of worry for her master, Sango.

Shippou leapt off of her when they reached the ground. The wasteland before him was littered with demon remains, and an ominous fog surrounded the area.

"Hello?" Shippou called. "I…Inu Yasha?… Kagome?…Miroku? Sango?…" He slowly stepped over pieces of destroyed monsters, squinting his eyes in an attempt to see through the mist. There was no movement except for Kirara behind him and his own movement. "Is anybody there?…" His voice left an eerie echo.

He walked a few more steps, concentrating on the mist in front of him, when the small pawed foot stepped on something and knocked him on his face. "Ow…" He whimpered, tears forming at the edges of his green eyes. Turning to see what it was that made him lose his balance, he felt his stomach drop and his breathing quit all together.

"The…" He murmured, picking up the glass vile. "The jewel shards…" Kirara sniffed them curiously. "Kagome?" Shippou called. "KAGOME, ARE YOU HERE!"

No response.

He clutched the jewel shards close to his heart and continued forward. Not too far, a silhouette formed through the fog, though the fox boy was sad to see that it was not a human one.

Approaching the item, he felt as if his heart had shattered, the pieces puncturing his lungs. "The…" He choked, tears rolling down his cheeks. "The Tetsusaiga…" There it was, it's blade stabbed into the earth with the sheath laying an arm's length away. "Inu Yasha would never leave this the way it is… INU YASHA! WHERE ARE YOU! MIROKU! SANGO! SOMEBODY!"

Two emerald eyes slipped open. Sunlight beamed through the cutouts of the door and window in the shabby hut.

The young man moaned, rolling on his back and covering his eyes with his hand. He rubbed his face with said hand, then lifted his frame from the pile of hay in the back of the hut. Clambering onto his large, golden pawed feet he stretched out his back. "I've in the woods and been more comfortable."

Large, clawed hands straightened the teal top that hung open just enough and brushed dirt off of the blue pants that were tied off right below the knees so that his furry legs and paws weren't restrained. He yawned, running fingers through orange strands of hair and headed out, snatching the sword leaning against the wall on the way.

Kirara was already outside, poking with her little paws at the ashen spot where his fire had been the night before. "Sorry, Kirara," He told her. "You're still not going to find any food in there."

Kirara mewed sadly.

"Yeah, yeah," He replied. "I know we ran out of rations a week ago…" He leaned out over the edge of the cliff the shabby hut had been placed on. "…and for some reason the hunting's quite bad here…" He smiled a fanged grin. "Wanna go visit home?"

-

The sun had barely made its way over the horizon when Shippou took off on the back of Kirara. It was warm now, but it was breezy and therefore comfortable. He sighed, humming idly as they drifted through the air. "The weather is perfect. There's not a cloud in the sky. A perfect day for travel."

Kirara growled in agreement.

Shippou leaned against her, breathing in the smell of her light-golden fur, the same color as his tail. Her body heat bleeding into his bared chest and cheek made him sleepy. He hadn't slept well the night before, plagued by nightmares of the memories of the past.

There had been no sign of any of his friends, not since that day, but he had not lost hope that they were still alive. He just assumed optimistically that he wasn't looking hard enough. Naraku had been working behind the scenes for most of his life since the disappearance of his comrades, and Shippou hadn't seen him face to face since then either, but he knew that if he got the chance (that is, if he survived if he got the chance) that he'd definitely find out that Naraku had something to do with it. As if that wasn't obvious…

"Huh?" He snapped his eyes open, and he slowly became aware of the fact that he had fallen asleep. The sun had risen higher in the sky that was now bright blue. "Whoops. Sorry, I guess I dozed for a couple of hours, hah-hah… We must be reaching the village by now…" He straightened up and peeked over the cat-demon's head.

There was a large tree in the distance, one that was all to familiar. Just a little farther from the tree was a bunch of ant-sized buildings with tiny lines of smoke rising from them. "Wow… We've made great time, Kirara."

She grumbled.

"Okay, okay," He chuckled, petting her side. "YOU made great time." She purred in response.

Ah, Kirara… his only companion for the past years of constant travel. She was the only acquaintance he was particularly kind to, he sort of hated to admit. It seemed that as he grew older, he lost his stupidity and fear of everything and exchanged it for a slight attitude problem. He seldom smiled unless he was alone, and he often blew up at people over trivial matters. Kaede had claimed that in carrying Inu Yasha's blade he had adopted Inu Yasha's "fiery" spirit. Shippou hadn't been able to respond to that remark snidely since it had hurt too bad to think about his missing friends.

His "fiery spirit" didn't bring him his proudest moments, but he'd learned how to fight, and fight well. He wasn't swinging around toys anymore to use as distractions. No, now he could use his claws and fox-fire like a master, and, even though Tetsusaiga would only let him handle the blade, not transform for him, he'd taught himself how to swing it and fight with it appropriately. He had a dagger hidden in his shirt for last resorts, and he could even bite if he had to. Once he had bit someone so hard that he left deep bloody wounds on his arm. That man… he couldn't even remember what he did anymore…

Kirara landed just outside of the village, and as soon as Shippou clambered off, she transformed back into kitten form. "You coming with me, Kirara?"

She mewed and pranced off.

"Whatever," Shippou sighed, placing his arms into his sleeves. He headed towards Kaede's hut.

It amazed him how the woman could possibly live this long after all the trouble the village had suffered, but he supposed that if one could live off wisdom, that she would live for centuries… and yet, he still had trouble being respectful.

"Hey, grandma," He said, striding inside, smelling lunch over the fire. He could pick out the different scents of the ingredients.

The elderly woman smiled kindly at him. "Young Shippou, it has been a long time. Welcome back."

"Yeah," He nodded, plopping down as she poured a stew into two bowls for each of them. "Just coming back to stock up."

"Oh, do stay and share some lunch with an old lady," She chuckled.

"I never said I wouldn't," He replied, graciously taking the bowl from her. The constant thought in his head was to be polite. He began drinking the stew gratefully. His last meal had been a burned fish that he'd forgotten about when he was practicing with his weapon, and that was two days ago.

"How is your search coming?"

"Not at all," He grumbled bitterly.

Kaede watched him grimly.

"Damn it…" He stared into the stew, feeling his rage start to boil inside of him again. "Sometimes it feels like I'm just wandering around for nothing."

"You are not traveling meaninglessly, young one. As you journey, you learn and grow."

"It doesn't feel that way," He griped. "I don't feel any smarter or bigger than I did yesterday or the day before that or the day before that."

Kaede smiled kindly. "Such things as wisdom and development are gradual, young one. They happen slowly enough that you do not realize it, but the people who do not see you often can see it clearly, like myself."

Shippou stared at her in surprise. "You think I've changed?"

"I think you are changing. You are not yet finished though, child."

He slurped at his soup for a moment, mulling over the words. "How much farther do I have to go?" He queried, raising an eyebrow.

"I think that only you can make that decision, Shippou."

He watched her slowly begin eating her stew, the reflection of the flames flickering in his eyes.

"I think…" He mumbled.

She glanced up.

"I think… that I've got a long journey ahead of me."

"In more ways than one," Kaede added, smiling warmly, "but rest assured that this old lady will be here for assistance as long as her years will keep her here."

Shippou wanted to smile, but somehow, he couldn't muster it.

"My whole life's been one big long road leading to nowhere… or at least that's how it feels right now…"

"You've only just started down the road," Kaede replied. "It will fork soon, and it could be that one or both paths could lead to danger and trouble."

"Well, shit," He chuckled almost pathetically, leaning back against the wall. "It almost makes me want to turn around, but danger awaits me in my past too…" His smile and humor faded, "but… if there's going to be some kind of fight, I just wish it'd happen, so I could get it over with. The quiet spot is driving me crazy."

He set down his empty bowl and stood. "Could you please make me another pack of food? I was going to go… well… I was gonna… explore or something…"

Kaede, knowing where he was actually heading, nodded. "Go on then."

He walked out of the hut into the daylight, feeling more pitiable than when he went in for some reason. Kaede had more faith in him than he himself did.

Shippou wandered out into the woods.

-

Spread out underneath that famous tree, the one Inu Yasha had once been pinned to, he sighed. He stared through half-lidded eyes up at the leaves, bright beams of light penetrating between the spots between each leaf. "Where are you guys…?"

BOOM! The ground trembled beneath him. Shippou jumped to his feet.

"What the hell?" He shouted. THE TOWN! His thoughts raced, but not nearly as fast as his feet caught on. He was the only one around to protect it, and he certainly wasn't going to stand idly by.

(A/N: Yeah! I've revamped the original story and turned it into something worth while! The plot is similar, but there's a lot of differences that you'll soon see. Thanks for reading.)