Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any other characters.

A/N: If you started reading this on mediaminer please note that I have altered a few things and taken out a few more, and changed some chapter titles.

Also, if anyone on fanfiction has noticed that there is an identical fic under the penname Inu-san, I would like to take a moment and point out that that is my old penname. I switched to Yami no Tsubasa because the email address I was using for Inu-san is dead (the ISP I had went kaput, and my email followed like a puppy) so I made YnT.

Further and last note: I won't rant in the beginning of chapters any more, like I did on MediaMiner. (Yeah, sorry for that.) Also, I'm rewriting a few parts of TWM so that the characters are more accurately portrayed. My dad has said that I have to cut back on computer time (scoffs) so I don't know if I'll be able to update frequently or not.

Enough of my prattle, this is why you're here:

Beforehand

The Shikon no Tama, or Jewel of Four Souls, had the power to grant someone a wish. Many demons sought the powers it contained. It was created by a miko named Midoriko, then later was passed to another miko by the name Kikyou. Kikyou protected the Shikon no Tama for many years. The only way the jewel could be purified was if it was protected for a lifetime from evil, or if a demon made a pure wish on it. Kikyou valiantly fought off all the creatures, large and small, that desired the Shikon no Tama.

But one day, a bandit by the name of Onigumo stumbled into Kikyou's village. The priestess was too kindhearted to send him away. He was rendered immobile by horrible burns, and Kikyou took care of him, hiding him and bringing him food and water.

Though Kikyou's intentions were pure, Onigumo's were not. He set his desires on Kikyou, and despised the half-demon, InuYasha, whom Kikyou began to love. Kikyou and InuYasha made a plan. InuYasha would use the Shikon no Tama to become a human and live with Kikyou, and Kikyou would live her dream of being an ordinary woman.

During that time, Onigumo offered himself up to a hoard of demons, giving his flesh for their power and mobility. The demon Naraku was thus created. He tricked Kikyou and InuYasha into betraying each other, so that Kikyou pinned InuYasha to a tree with a sacred arrow, causing him to succumb to an enchanted sleep. To the half-demon, it was as good as death. Kikyou followed him in death, suffering from a fatal wound to her shoulder that Naraku himself inflicted, disguised as InuYasha.

Kikyou willed her younger sister Kaede to burn the Shikon no Tama with her body. Regretfully, the young miko-in-training did as she was bidden. The Shikon no Tama was burned along with the village's beloved miko.

Fifty years later, Kikyou's reincarnation- Kagome Higurashi- fell through the Bone Eater's Well, which transported her from the twenty-first century to the feudal era of Japan. The Shikon no Tama was inside her very body, integrated into her being through the fires that burned Kikyou, which not only turned Kikyou to ashes, but the jewel, too.

InuYasha awoke then, and defeated the centipede demon that drug Kagome into the well. But he turned on Kagome, claiming she smelled of the woman that killed him. Kaede, now fifty years older, put a magical rosary around InuYasha's neck. Kagome, with the command 'oswari', was able to subdue the half-demon. Of course he was unhappy about it, and was only after the Jewel of Four Souls.

During a fight with a crow youkai, Kagome broke the jewel, and she and InuYasha went on a quest to retrieve all the pieces. Along their journey, InuYasha's elder brother, Sesshoumaru, attacked them. He was after their father's sword, the Tetsusaiga. He himself had the other of their father's swords, tenseiga. Sesshoumaru was beaten when InuYasha transformed the blade willed to him by his father, in order to protect Kagome.

'Just shut up and let me protect you!'

One of Sesshoumaru's arms was severed in a painful memento of one of his few defeats.

A young fox demon named Shippo soon joined them after that, and soon after InuYasha discovered instant ramen noodles. Shippo was trying to avenge his father's death by stealing Kagome's jewel shards to gain power. InuYasha defeated the Thunder Brothers, and gained their jewel shards.

A witch named Urasue took possession of Kikyou's ashes. When Kaede, InuYasha, and Kagome went after her to recover the ashes, Kagome was Kidnapped. Urasue put her soul into Kikyou's body, which was made of graveyard soil, bones, and ashes. Kagome then figured out that InuYasha used to love Kikyou. But before Kikyou could stake her revenge on InuYasha, whom she thought killed her, Kagome called her soul back into her body. Kikyou staggered away, left only with her burning hatred toward InuYasha.

Later, they came across a... a... a cursed monk by the name of Miroku. His curse was a wind tunnel in his right palm, given to him by Naraku two generations before him.

After a time, a demon slayer from the village where the jewel originated joined their crew. The demon slayer, Sango, was also tricked by Naraku into thinking that InuYasha had slaughtered her village while she was away.

The forger of the Tetsusaiga, Toto-sai, ran down InuYasha. While he was with them, Sesshoumaru attacked again. InuYasha unlocked the Wind Scar, and defeated Sesshoumaru once again, though didn't kill him. Tenseiga protected Sesshoumaru. Toto-sai explained that while the Tetsusaiga could destroy a hundred demons, tenseiga could save a hundred.

Even later, they ran into a pack of wolf demons. Their prince and leader, Kouga, set his sights on Kagome once he found out she could see the jewel shards. He didn't join their group, but helped from time-to-time in order to have Kagome as his 'mate'.

'Kagome, you're my woman.'

During that time a young girl named Rin was attacked by Kouga's pack, and Sesshoumaru decided to experiment with his sword. He brought Rin back to life by destroying the otherworldly imps that came for her.

Many other fights were fought as the small group collected more and more jewel shards. Unfortunately, Naraku was collecting the shards, too. It became a power struggle to gain the shards, and Naraku would send detachments of himself to fight the group. Such detachments were Kagura, the Wind Sorceress, and Kanna of the Mirror. Others that did not last were the mind-reading Goshinki, the one that took a bite out of InuYasha's Tetsusaiga.

InuYasha's sword kept his demon half in check, and without it, he was overcome. He was lost in the feel of battle, the thought of killing Goshinki. InuYasha had to turn to Toto-sai, the creator of the Tetsusaiga, of whom he had a past with, to repair the sword. Toto-sai used one of InuYasha's fangs to repair it.

Meanwhile, Sesshoumaru commissioned Toto-sai's renegade apprentice, Kaijinbo, to forge him a sword made of Goshinki's teeth. After a skirmish with InuYasha and his friends, Sesshoumaru recovered the sword, toukijin.

The small group was very close to each other then. Kagome was in love with InuYasha, and InuYasha remained confused. Miroku and Sango had their own little tiffs, usually consisting of a grope and a bump on the head.

After many battles and many bruises, along with several near-death experiences, the final battle was at hand. Kikyou sided with Naraku, determined to kill InuYasha. Sesshoumaru claimed to be the one that would kill InuYasha, and so sided with his brother in order to do so later. Kouga also sided with the small group, determined to get revenge on the wind sorceress Kagura for murdering his comrades. The jewel was divided, some to InuYasha's group, most to Naraku's. Kikyou herself handed most of Naraku's collection of shards to him.

With no more shards to find, Naraku attacked the group...