A/N: After an especially long hiatus from the online fanfiction community, I was inspired to post this story out of my own personal hobby-writing collection. There may or may not eventually be a sequel to this story, but here you go, this is my take on one of the potential future scenarios after the end of the series.

This takes place roughly ten years after Naraku's death.

What else? Shippou has grown, that's the first thing you read about. I'm sure that if you're sitting here reading this after the show's been off air for several years now, then I don't have to tell you the meanings of common fanfiction words like "youkai" or "kitsune" or any of that. I mean, if you need that, honestly...you know how to Google it, right? *Note on this: I use "taiyoukai" instead of "daiyoukai" and that's just how it is. Deal with it, people. Same with the way that I spell everyone's names. Not gonna change it for you. Messes with my writing mojo.

Disclaimer: Nothing owned by anyone else is owned by me. I make no money from this and neither should you. Unless you own these characters, in which case, I'm honored to have you read my derivative, Rumiko! :)

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After spending seven years training at the Kitsune Youjuijitsu Academy, Shippou had finally unlocked some secrets to his true power. And after that, he'd had an astounding growth spurt when his second tail came in, not to mention the fact that his size increased drastically in both his true form and his normal human form. Now he was about the size of an average human twelve-year-old boy, though since foxes were generally smallish, it could be said that he was more roughly equivalent to the physical maturity of perhaps a human fifteen-year-old.

After a few weeks adjusting to his new size, the fox went to train some more to harness his newfound powers and hone his skills, and he was now learning battle techniques. He trained when he could as Sango and Miroku began to teach their children about form and technique with weapons, and he would also train with Inuyasha to learn what it was to be in a more serous fight, with Kagome and Kaede and Rin to learn to anticipate and even counter some of the lesser spiritual powers...with Kohaku and Kirara to test his agility, or sometimes with Jaken and Ah-Un. Sesshoumaru had even deigned to let the kitsune play-fight him about four times, though it was laughably easy for the taiyoukai to defeat the foxling, regardless of using nothing but his fists against all of Shippou's tricks.

See, in the past decade, Sesshoumaru had become a "begrudging" member of their little tribe. After leaving Rin at the village, not picking fights with Inuyasha or being a self-righteous asshole for a long time, it was just inevitable. The brothers got along, and with them, the rest of the friends soon followed suit. [Well actually, the rest of the friends had already begun to get along for some time now, but now Jaken didn't have to pretend he hated everyone for it.] Nowadays it was nothing to have the dog stop by and spend half the day with Rin, letting her hand him flowers and whatnot, then spending the night chatting with his brother, so on and so forth.

Now, three years after his growth spurt, about ten years since the start of his training, Shippou had discovered, by way of murmurs from the travellers at the Maboroshi Inn, that there was something very valuable waiting to be found.

It wasn't something most youkai would be interested to find, and honestly, he almost missed it himself. Had he not been privy to a certain little-known fact, and had he not heard an obscure reference to it, he wouldn't have known.

Sitting in the main entertainment area where several young tricksters tested out their womanly disguises on the few men that had walked inside, Shippou, using his now-perfected Hidden Cloud invisibility technique, was waiting for a chance to pull something really good instead of just common routine pranks.

As he did so, of course he was listening to their conversation. Not only was it informative, but there wasn't much else to listen to except for the chortles of the girly-looking foxes nearby, which was useless. Shippou often had the forethought these days to figure out what these people would react to the most, but this night he was catching a different kind of chatter altogether.

"If we find this great treasure of yours, how do you suppose we even use it?" one of the men asked the other.

"I will need to track down the fabled sword," the other replied, taking a sip of sake, "the Blade of Heaven, and we must unlock the secret of weilding it."

"Blade of Heaven?" the other man scratched his head, "Do you mean it came from the stars?"

"I'm not sure. There's tell it came from a youkai, though it's hard to believe something so benevolent would have been crafted by an evil demon," the apparent leader sighed and crossed his arms, leaning his back against the wall as his eyes closed while he recounted what he knew. "However, as the tale goes, long ago this youkai fell in love with a human and had the sword made because it warded against the evils that may try to kill her. Legends say that this Blade of Heaven has a special connection to the Netherworld, and when it's used with the Crystal of Souls, it can bring a soul back to life even if they've been dead for a long time. However, it's said that a false or vacant body must be present for that soul, or else it will have nowhere to reside and will wander the lands, lost forever until the madness drives it to become an evil spirit."

"So how do you plan to have a decent body layin' around, huh?"

The man sighed and glanced over at his comrade, clearly finding him foolish.

"I'm going to have to make one of two choices. I can create a body, or find a fresh one to kill. I'm not yet sure. It's not that I want to kill needlessly, but..."

Here, a third man who had been previously preoccupied stood and walked over, almost as if on cue, and sat with them for a moment. Then he reached over and gripped the leader's shoulder firmly and sloshed the sake jug before him.

"You know you ain't gonna kill no woman to put her in some girl's body. We'll find a sculptor or somethin' like that so you can get your wife back," he hiccupped and shoved the jug into the mans hands, "now drink, be merry!"

Shippou studied them for a bit longer, then decided to pull the old one-two switch. Turning himself into a bug, he flitted over to a fox's shoulder and whispered in their ear, and they smiled and led off the drunken man for a few minutes of harmless teasing.

Once the man was out of sight, Shippou waited about three minutes, went around the corner, and transformed into the likeness of the absent man, swaying and plopping down heavily and hiccupping as he slurred out his question.

"So remind me," he drawled, blinking unevenly, "where'sa place we's goin' to fer the Crystal again? Should we stock up on, on sake?" he grinned as he sloshed the jug, red-faced like any other drunk.

Well, he was certainly convincing. The other men didn't spare a second glance.

"I told you, we've still got five more days of hard riding to go, and that's assuming we can keep enough food and water in the horses to keep them at a gallop. I'm guessing it's actually going to take about a week, and we've got to get all the way up the same mountain where the Northern Lord's castle is, only we're going along the other path. There's supposed to be a cave near there, one with a labyrinth inside, and whomever solves it earns the prize. If we're able to figure out the puzzle, we'll get the Crystal of Souls and be one step closer to bringing her back."

"Ya'think there's *hic* monsters in there?"

"I already told you the last time you asked me that," the man grumbled, "that's what we brought swords for, idiot."

"I *hic* forgot."

"You always forget," the man muttered.

Shippou heard a certain creak on a certain floorboard, and toddled to his feet unsteadily, swerving and swaying on his way towards the real man just down the hall, "I gotta *hic* take a leak!"

And as he went past the corner, he dropped his disguise, and about a minute later the real man sat with his friends again and started laughing with them jovially.

Shippou didn't bother to catch the slip of paper that fluttered to the ground in front of him. He had other things on his mind besides the menial points he'd gotten for the switch, and he spent the rest of the night skirting around to see what else they might say about the matter.

But as the night waned, he learned nothing else of real value, and he dipped out once they fell asleep, signing out of his training session to go and seek out a certain few friends...

But not, he decided, the one that had the Blade of Heaven. No, he was going to speak to select few others before he would risk enraging or getting up anyone's hopes.

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"Toutousai," Shippou called as he landed at the forge, "Myouga, where are you two old geezers? I see Moumou, I know at least one of you is here!"

"Oh, Shippou, it's you," Toutousai yawned and stretched, and Shippou felt a tiny pressure hit his neck just as an oh so familiar flea bit into him.

Shippou sighed and plucked Myouga off his neck.

"It's really difficult to respect your elders when they're sucking the blood out of you before they even say hello."

"Uh, hello, Shippou," Myouga said almost apologetically, and the fox shook his head and sighed. It was hopeless.

"I came to ask you guys what you know about this thing I heard some people talking about at the Fox Inn. Do you know anything about the Crystal of Souls?"

Toutousai and Myouga went eerily quiet for a moment, glancing at each other, then they both blinked at Shippou.

"What do you know of it, Shippou? How have you heard of such an old relic? It's tales are nearly obsolete."

"I told you, I heard people talking about it at the Fox Inn. Just some travellers looking for it. They didn't say a lot, but what they did say made me curious. Tell me, Myouga, Toutousai...why do I get this feeling you know a lot about that Crystal they're talking about?"

Myouga seemed apprehensive, but Toutousai began to give the fox an answer.

"Uh, well, that's because part of it was used to reforge Tenseiga after it was split from Tetsusaiga, to give it the powers that Touga wanted it to have. Just taking the Meidou from Shishinki wasn't enough to solidify the ability to raise the dead, y'know. Ever seen the Meidou resurrect anyone? And you notice, the Tenseiga still brings back the dead even without it. The secret to that is the way it was forged, with a piece of that same Crystal you speak of. Tetsusaiga absorbs jyaki, and even shouki, but that's not the power the Crystal holds. It couldn't take that away."

"So that Crystal has the power to bring back the dead?" Shippou gasped.

"Hmm, not exactly. It has the power to bridge the connection between this world and the next, but in the reverse of the direction of the Meidou, from the realm of the dead to the realm of the living. At least, that's the theory. The biggest problem with that is there wasn't a good way to make sure it got the right soul. The Crystal was a natural phenomenon. Some say it was bathed in the blood of a heavenly dragon, others say it was plucked from the depths of hell by a priest...I have no idea where it really came from, but what I do know is that all by itself it was impossible to use accurately or effectively, at least not for what Touga wanted to do. That was why the old Dog Lord needed the sword made instead of just taking the Crystal. That and the fact that he was the first to find it after it vanished."

"So in order to use the Crystal the right way, Tenseiga has to be used with it?"

"Indeed, but it's very dangerous, and not just because you have to consider that the soul needs a body, but also due to the fact that the soul needs a Purpose."

"A...Purpose?" Shippou raised his eyebrows.

"Listen, Shippou. Most souls get reincarnated after a long time, right? We've seen this in knowing that it was about five-hundred years between Kikyou's death and Kagome's rebirth with the Sacred Jewel. Did Kagome recall any of the memories of Kikyou? Did she recognize the village, the people, the names, the faces? Did she know anybody?"

"Uhm, well you got a point there, I guess...but I'm not sure I see where you're going with this."

"A soul that's long-dead will begin to forget it's life," Myouga took up part of the explanation, sitting in a very sagely manner as he often did for his talks, "and thus it's important to not only be mindful of that, but also to make sure there's an actual reason why that soul would want to come back. We all saw how difficult it was for poor Kikyou to readjust to walking among the living again, and truly, one whose body is false cannot feel alive as the others around them do. Not only that, but as far as anyone can tell, the journey from the other side is rather an arduous and difficult one. I suppose that if someone were to use the Meidou to go there first and then use Tenseiga together with the Crystal, they might be able to assist the soul they're trying to save, but that's speculation and nothing more. It's never been done successfully."

"But Kikyou remembered things..."

"Well, her soul was already reincarnated in a living body, so that was very different. Remember though, very few of Urasue's clay puppets were alive in the same sense as she, and the old witch dedicated most of her studies to the subject for an extraordinarily long time."

"You got a point there," Shippou agreed. "But, wait...now that Tetsusaiga has absorbed the Meidou..."

"Uncertain," Toutousai shrugged.

Shippou didn't sense any dishonesty there, so he dropped it for the moment, instead focusing on the travellers he'd first heard about the Crystal from.

"So...should I be trying to stop these guys who are trying to find it, or...?"

"Well, they're just humans, so I doubt they have any way of knowing how to use any of it, and they can forget about getting Tenseiga altogether, but maybe it shouldn't be allowed...eh, that is, the moving of the Crystal from the sacred cave in which it lies dormant," Toutousai scratched his head, "although I'm not sure I recall why it's there to begin with, honestly."

"Because it has vast powers that can be used for evil," Myouga huffed, "yes, Shippou, you should find a way to make sure these mere humans do not approach or remove the Crystal. But I think it should be simple enough to get there first and make a false cave, with a false Crystal, with your fox magic, and once they find out it's an illusion I think they'll just assume it was a lie all along, or at least they'll go look elsewhere for it."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Shippou frowned, "I mean, I'd feel a little bad, but those guys have no business in trying to get themselves into the trouble an artifact like that could cause them, so I won't feel Too Bad about it."

"You're right about that one," Toutousai started digging at his earwax absently.

"So why haven't either of you suggested I talk to Sesshoumaru about this?"

There was a much longer silence now than there was before.

"It's not for the long-dead to rejoin the living," Toutousai finally spoke something like an answer.

"He's right, and that's that," Myouga agreed with a firm nod.

"I never said I was gonna suggest he resurrect somebody. What aren't you telling me that's so important?" Shippou narrowed his eyes at them suspiciously.

They were silent for another couple of minutes.

"Not only are all the worst aspects of Kikyou's suffering a very real probability for any revived soul, and worse, but there's also the matter of the way that kind of temptation can twist a person's mind. That's a dangerous and poorly understood power to try and weild. Imagine, if you will, that you could resurrect anyone from the past, oh, let's say three-hundred years. Just think of all the people you'd bring back. Your parents. Your friends. And you would keep doing it for a long time. You'd watch your human friends pass away from old age, and you would call the soul back to keep away the grief in your own heart. Perhaps they would be grateful, but would they really appreciate being alive two, three, ten times longer than normal? And what does that do to the balance of souls in the greater scheme of things?" Myouga sighed. "There are too many factors, and with no offense intended, Lord Sesshoumaru is still...young. I'm proud of the progress he's made this past decade, but understand, Shippou...he's over nine-hundred years old, and I'm more than double that. The change is still very fresh in our years...something I'm sure you're only starting to grasp now that you've just recently passed a hundred years old and got your second tail."

"Yeah, I suppose you've got some valid points there," Shippou furrowed his brow, "but the real question is, what are the odds that I'd ever be able to do something that had anything to do with Tenseiga and be able to hide it from him for very long? If the sword was made from that Crystal, don't you think it's going to react?"

"Well, not if you don't do anything to it," Myouga said quite matter-of-factly. "Remember, all you have to do is get the humans to leave it undisturbed with some basic illusions. You don't need to bother it yourself. It's simple."

Somehow, the moment the flea said it, a feeling of heavy dread fell upon them.

"You just jynxed it," Toutousai groaned, hanging his head as if he knew it was already doomed.

"Don't say that," Myouga groaned, "it's a simple task!"

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Uh-Oh! Whatcha think is gonna happen next? Keep reading to find out! =^-^= .-'.-'.-'.-'.