Chapter 1

It was nighttime when Kagome climbed out of the battered well with a grunt and slung her yellow backpack onto the ground, glad to be back in the Warring States Era with her second family. Shippo came bounding up the hill towards her with a happy gleam in his eyes, and promptly jumped into her open arms.

"Kagome! You're finally back!" he yelled happily while snuggling deeper into her bosom.

The young miko's sapphire eyes sparkled with joy as she laughed and spun the young fox demon in a circle. The young boy she considered her own had grown a few inches in the last few years, but he was still small enough to fit comfortably on her shoulder, his ever-growing legs swinging from his perch whenever they traveled. "It's good to be back, Shippo. You've been good for Kaede, right? And where are Sango and Miroku?" she asked with a smile.

"They're at the village, and I've been behaving, don't worry!" the emerald eyed boy said.

"Well, I've brought you some candy, but I'll give it to you when I get back to the village, okay?"

Shippo's eyebrows furrowed together slightly. "Where are you going?" he pouted.

Kagome gave him a small smile and kissed his forehead.

"I'm going to go get Inuyasha, I won't be long. Tell Miroku and Sango I'll see them soon," she said, ruffling his hair in a motherly way.

Shippo had never been naive, even when he had first met his adoptive mother, but he could tell by the look in her eye that she knew what she would be getting into when she went to see the foolish hanyou, so he sighed and didn't bother trying to talk her out of it. But he also knew that in the last 4 years the now 19 year old woman wasn't in love with Inuyasha any longer. The thought made him happy, since it meant no more consoling her at night when she stumbled upon Inuyasha and his meetings with Kikyo. "Alright, I'll tell them, but be safe okay mom?" Shippo whispered, worry evident in his green eyes.

The young raven-haired woman nodded and grinned before saying, "You know I will, Shippo. And if something happens, I'll send a signal, okay?"

Releasing Shippo, she watched him bounce back to the village. 'I guess I'll just leave my bag here. I can get Inuyasha to carry it back,' she thought with a twinge of guilt. She always felt bad for making him carry it, but then again, she's seen him throw a tree before, so her bag must weigh nothing to the teenage hanyou.

Turning on her heel she strolled into Inuyasha's Forest with a confident stride, her eyes glazing over as she considered the last 4 years of her short life. She was no longer the clumsy teen who could barely hit a demon with an arrow. Her aim was near unmatched after all the life-or-death situations where she either had to hit the mark or lose a limb. Her miko powers had flourished beautifully, but training them completely had been a pain in the rear. It was now child's play to shoot beams, create a bow and arrows with only her own energy, and even through up multi-layered barriers that were near impossible to break. Kagome could sense an aura from at least 15 miles away, which, incidentally, widened her range for sensing the jewel shards.

And of course that fact made Inuyasha infinitely glad.

Lately she had been working on turning her reiki into a more useful weapon for close combat, such as a sword. While the task was easy enough, after she had the reiki-sword in her hand, she didn't know what to do with it. Kagome was lucky enough that Sango offered to train her in the art of sword play, and the demon slayer even went so far as to entertain the thought of the miko forming a giant boomerang out of her own power. 'Which honestly wasn't such a bad idea at all,' she thought to herself in excitement of putting the theory to the test.

On her trek through the forest a branch snagged on her blue-black hair, and she frowned as she loosened it. Kagome had seriously considered cutting half of it off, since her hair now reached the back of her knees and had to be bound up half the time. Grumbling about annoying trees, she reached into her pocket and brought out her compact mirror, fixing the stray lock of hair back into place. She examined her face, which hadn't changed much in the last 4 years. Her lips had grown a tad larger and pinker, her eyes even more blue, and her skin tanner with all the traveling. Her body on the other hand, had changed quite a bit. She had gone from a B cup to a large C, from a waistline of 26 inches to one of 23, and she was now 5'4, exactly Sango's height. Kagome had to admit, she felt proud of her body, which didn't have an ounce of fat on her from all the fighting.

Physical changes aside, she even changed her wardrobe. The young girl no longer wore the green and white clothing, but now wore a sapphire blue button up blouse without sleeves and a black pleated skirt that stopped mid-thigh and had slits up both sides. Not wanting to give anyone a free show like she did when she was younger, she wore tight black spandex shorts underneath it at all times.

Even better were the emotional changes. The usually temperamental woman could calm herself down instead of exploding like she used to do, and her teenage hormones were basically gone, so she knew what she wanted and how to go about getting it.

'That's part of the problem though...after all this time with in the past and all the excitement, no normal guy will ever do. No, a human would never do,' she thought sadly. Kagome didn't know a lot of demons who would want a miko for a mate, and Kouga was out of the picture since she had finally gotten him to make good of his promise and mate the hyper Ayame. She did have her sights set on one particular demon, but their meetings were few and far between, and she doubted he even found her attractive in the first place.

Besides, there wasn't much time to think about her secret crush with Naraku still on the loose. He hadn't done anything too bad lately, she realized. They hadn't discovered any slaughtered villages or wide-scale homicide for at least a year now. Now that Kagome thought of it, all they had done was track him down, fight him, and then he would escape. Over the last 4 years he had almost completed the jewel 3 times, and then he would make some miniscule slip up and lose about half of it. It was almost becoming routine for the shard hunters, but it was also becoming tiring. Not to mention during their fights with any his incarnations they never used their full power anymore, as if Naraku's incarnations were becoming bored. Even the evil hanyou had an annoyingly bored expression on his face when they fought, and Kagome could swear she heard him sigh a few times when Inuyasha charged in to fight him.

Lately, the evil demon had been even more inactive, and would simply find a random animal and pump it full of jewels shards, knowing full well the group could defeat it easily. The last thing that was sent to destroy them was a giant demon dog with 10 shards and instructions to kill them.

Kagome purified it with one arrow with little trouble.

'Maybe Naraku is realizing that he needs a new hobby...he's not even trying to kill us anymore. Either he's planning a really big scheme or he's just too lazy to do much. Maybe he just needs to find a nice girlfriend and settle down or something...' the young miko thought vaguely. She laughed out loud at the thought; a tinkling sort of laughter that was more of a giggle.

Suddenly, as she reached a small clearing, something massive flared at the edge of her senses. It was a tremendous white aura, and she looked into the sky to see something plummeting from the heavens. Kagome's mouth dropped open as she watched as a steak of white-green light shot towards the horizon as a break-neck speed. The clouds disappeared and the entire sky turned from midnight blue to white for a few seconds as the object crashed into the earth hundreds of miles away from where the awestruck woman was standing. The sky returned to normal not a second later.

Kagome didn't know what to make of what had just happened, but her powers were flaring in synch to her worried thoughts. The thing, whatever it was, was at least 300 miles away, and yet the raven-haired beauty could feel it as strongly as if it was right in front of her. Suddenly it vanished completely, and she was able to relax and release the breath she didn't know she was holding in.

"Gosh, whatever that was, I hope we don't run into it any time soon..." she murmured with wide eyes as a shiver went down her spine.

She shook herself for a second, smoothing down her outfit before continuing to find Inuyasha. His aura, which was usually a volatile scarlet color, was a calming red that matched his robe. Creating a barrier that covered her skin and clothes and silenced her movements, Kagome crept closer towards the small clearing where Inuyasha and Kikyo stood in a warm looking embrace.

"Inuyasha...I grow weary of walking this earth in this body. How much longer must I wait for you and your friends to complete the Shikon and wish me back to life?" Kikyo whispered softly.

Inuyasha was silent for a moment before replying, "It'll be whole soon, don't worry. I wish there was another way though..." he trailed off sadly.

Kikyo stepped back to look into his golden eyes with a small smile, "But there is another way, Inuyasha. A much simpler way. You could simply get rid of my reincarnation and my full soul would return to me, you must know that by now."

A pained look crossed his face so fast that Kikyo wasn't even sure she saw it, but Inuyasha simply smiled back and embraced her again. The undead miko waited no longer than 10 seconds for his answer on the matter.

"I'll think about it and give you my answer in a week," the golden-eyed hanyou said determinedly.

If he had been looking at her face he would've seen the small smirk that graced her features at his words. 'Always so eager to please your master, Inuyasha,' the red and white clad miko thought smugly.

She pulled out of his arms and called her soul collectors to gather her. Kikyo wanted to laugh at the longing in the silver-haired male's eyes as she was slowly carried away.

"I await your answer, Inuyasha..." she murmured loud enough for him to hear as she faded into the night sky.

Inuyasha sighed and turned around to walk in Kagome's direction when she dropped the barrier around herself. He wasn't startled to see her leaning against a tree with arms and legs crossed in such a casual position as she smiled at him with affection.

"I can't believe she bought that load of crap you just gave her, Yasha." she said, trying not to giggle.

He blushed a bit before growling, "Feh, if she thinks I'm her puppy and that I'm gonna do whatever she wants shes got another thing coming. As if I'd actually consider taking your life to bring hers back. The first thing the wench is gonna do is stick another arrow in my damn chest," he stated angrily.

Kagome looked sympathetic at her best friend, her heart breaking at his sorrowful expression. "Yasha, you have to realize you were both attracted to each other out of sheer loneliness," she said softly as she walked over and placed a soothing hand on his shoulder, "it wasn't really love. If it was, Naraku would've never been able to come between you two. When you find a girl who loves you, you'll know, because she'll love you just the way you are and not want to change you like Kikyo tried to," the kind-hearted miko finished with a cheerful note.

Inuyasha placed his hand over hers and gave a rare, genuine smile. "You're right. But I hope the woman I find won't sit me every time I say something rude." He murmured the last part, hoping Kagome wouldn't hear.

He was rewarded with a swift punch to the arm for his snide comment. The blue-eyed woman jumped back as he moved to retaliate from the blow.

"Keep that up and I'll personally teach your future mate the subjugation spell!" she laughed as she ran on light feet towards the village.

"Hey, that's not funny! Hey! Kagome, get back here!" the dog hanyou yelled as he jumped into the air to give chase. He winced a bit at the bruise that was starting to form from her punch and smirked. 'Just because the wench is strong enough to not need my protection doesn't mean she's strong enough to beat me in hand to hand."

In the middle of the village by the well, with his friends and loved ones watching and laughing all the while and the full moon at its zenith in the sky, the young hanyou was proven painfully wrong.

Not that Kagome walked away without any scratches, either.