"Time to die, Naraku!" And with one final swing of Tetsusaiga, Naraku disintegrated. With no Jewel Shards left, his body was incredibly weakened, weakened enough for Inu Yasha to be able to defeat him. It was a long, hard battle, with many casualties on both sides. Naraku had summoned a small army of weak demons to defend himself, not to mention Kagura and Kanna. For the good side, it was Inu Yasha, Kagome, Mirouku, Sango, Shippou, Kirara, Kouga, and Myouga. Kouga couldn't risk any more of his pack's lives, so he came alone to help. Sesshoumaru, who was never involved directly with Naraku's and his brother's fight, didn't see Naraku as enough of a threat to his lands, so he didn't participate.

Sango had a broken thigh, a dislocated shoulder, and a broken wrist at the end of the fight. She had taken out a good many of the weak demons with the help of Kouga, who had a bad cut on his head and across his back, and Kirara, who was now missing a good chunk of fur and suffered from a broken back paw and a broken tail.

Mirouku fought against Kagura and Kanna, aided by Kagome, and early on Inu Yasha. He now had a much larger whole in his hand, and a few busted ribs, while Kagome wasn't the focus of the attacks, and only suffered minor scraps and bruises. Later on, near the end of the battle, Naraku managed to wound Kagome; a nasty scar over her right eye would always reside on her face, but during the fight it bled from her hairline, across her forehead and her eye, and ended near the bottom of her right ear.

The reason Naraku went after Kagome in the first place was because she somehow managed to purify the Shards he had, and significantly reduced his power. After a few directions from said miko, Inu Yasha managed to slice the Shards out of the evil human-turned-half-demon, resulting in his destruction.

Inu Yasha himself suffered the least, mainly thanks to his demonic abilities. Kirara would always have a slight limp, Sango could never gain all of the precision and accuracy with her Hiraikotsu from before again, Mirouku would always be slightly short of breath, and Kagome's eye would always have a scar. Because Shippou and Kouga had the same abilities as Inu Yasha, although Kouga had a very hard time moving for the longest after the battle, they didn't retain any lasting wounds.

---

"Inu Yasha," Kagome said softly, looking over at the confusing half-demon. They were sitting alone in Keade's hut. It was a month after everyone's wounds had healed fully, and Kagome decided it was time for her to go home, permanently. Even though Kagome loved Inu Yasha, and made obvious attempts to tell him, he seemed indifferent to her feelings. They were so comfortable around each other, it would be strange when she stopped traveling through the well, stopped skipping school to fight demons, and strangest of all when she couldn't see the feudal era anymore. Sure, she grew up in the future, and couldn't live without her precious technology, like most teenagers, but she'd miss everything about the time, from the clear air to the unsoiled landscapes, to the people closest to her. "The Jewel's yours."

They had finished the Jewel thanks to the defeat of Naraku, and Kagome had kept it since then, waiting on the perfect moment to fulfill her promise to Inu Yasha and give him the Jewel. Now, with Sango and Mirouku visiting her old village, and Keade, Shippou, and Myouga out in the village, now seemed like the best it could get. But she still couldn't bring herself to say goodbye. Privately, right before Sango and Mirouku headed off, she had told them she might not be there if they returned. She had broken the news to Shippou and Keade the night before, while Inu Yasha was off in the forest. Now the only one to say goodbye to was sitting right in front of her, and she couldn't do it.

"What?" He looked at her strangely. He didn't expect this from her, least of all at the moment. Inu Yasha had lately taken off to the forest, to sort out his feelings. Even he had picked up at the not-so-subtle hints she had been dropping for the last year that she liked him, but he couldn't be sure. He never said a word to the monk, in case his suspicions were false. It was because he thought she could never love him that prevented him from showing his feelings toward the young miko girl.

"It's yours. I said I would give it to you when we completed it, and I've had it for this long after it was." She spoke softly, the Jewel in her outstretched palm. She couldn't look him in the eyes, know that if she did, she could never stay away.

"No, you keep it." He paused, thinking. "So you can visit." Several minutes passed by before Kagome spoke. Her eyes had already glassed over from tears, but hearing this, they spilled down her faced, unchecked.

"Inu Yasha...I can't keep coming back here. Not if you...Because I had a life other than this." She stood, eyes closed so she wouldn't look at him. "If no one's here to keep me, then I have to find someone else." She spoke the last unintentionally, because it was supposed to have stayed in her head. It devastate Inu Yasha. He stood now, worry in his eyes.

"Kagome..." He started, but there was nothing left to say. In his eyes, she didn't love him, but she would miss him when she left. She had already made up her mind, and Kagome's mind wasn't something he thought he could change.

"I...I'm sorry." Was the last he heard from her as she turned and ran from the hut. Inu Yasha watched her go, but at the same time realized that he didn't care anymore. He bolted after her, but found it hard to keep up with the girl, who had a considerable lead on him. He had to stop her from leaving; he wouldn't be able to survive without her.

It was the last straw. She would never be able to look at him again. He didn't love her, and he never would. That's why he wasn't going to stop her. 'Why didn't he take the stupid Jewel then?' Kagome questioned herself as she ran the familiar path to the well. She shook her head slightly, causing more tears to fall. 'No! He still loves Kikyou, and now they can be together.' She thought dejectedly as she approached the clearing. She could see the well now, only a few more feet...

"Kagome!" Inu Yasha yelled from somewhere behind her. He could see that she was almost at the well, and now he had to stop her. "Wait!" He couldn't let her slip away like Kikyou had.

She ignored him. She made it to the well, and stood on the edge, but turned back toward him, pausing only a moment. He landed in the clearing, a needy look in his eyes. He was saying something, but she couldn't hear it. His hand was outstretched, but everything was moving in slow motion to her. She reached out for him with her hand, and the Jewel flew off without her noticing. She tried to jump away from the well, but her foot caught on the inside lip of the well. Whether she was pulled backwards by gravity or by the well itself, she'd never know, but she was pulled inside the dusty old well just as Inu Yasha reached it. He tried to grab her hand, but he was just a few seconds too slow.

"I love you!"

---

Later on, after she had time to sort through all of her memories, Kagome realized what he had yelled out, hand outstretched, reaching for her. It was much later when she realized that she had said "I love you, too!" as she fell. She hoped he had heard her.

Every morning, Kagome could be seen walking silently into the old, dusty well house, and every evening she would return to her house, for a nice meal, a hot bath, and then another sleepless night full of haunting dreams of what she had and what she could have had. She never knew what happened to him, or Shippou, Keade, Mirouku, Sango, Kouga, Sesshoumaru, Kohaku, Rin or anyone else she had met there.

The only clue she had was a small inscription she had found in the well. Inside, near the bottom, scratched into the stone, was something that gave her hope. It was a date, and not just any date. It looked like it had been there for centuries, but the date had still yet to come. Kagome believed it was Inu Yasha trying to tell her when they'd meet again, for the date was only about three weeks after she had came back.

Now, it was the morning of the date engraved into the well, and, for the first time in weeks, she stood outside. She stood in front of the first place they had met, and where she had unsealed him. If she hadn't of fell into the well and unsealed Inu Yasha from the spell, he would still have been there all along, waiting on her. It was destiny that made her go into the well house that morning all those years ago, not just her love of Buyo.

She stood out there all day, until the sun started setting. She never gave up hope in that he'd come, against all odds, just to see her again. She had already stopped speaking to anyone, no matter what they said, so no one in her family knew about the date. By the time the sun was halfway behind the horizon, she finally gave up hope.

"He...he's not coming." She said quietly to the tree. "It wasn't for me, it was for someone else." She said dejectedly. She turned and started going toward the backdoor of her house. When she reached the door she paused, looking back toward the tree. No one could be seen from where she stood, so she turned and went inside.