Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or any of its original characters.
A/N: Welcome all, this is my first time writing in the Inuyasha Fandom. The story is canon divergent and follows the adventures of the group after Naraku's death.
The first few chapters will aim to lay the groundwork for the story in general and the relationship between the two main characters, it's going to be big and eventful so I hope you have the patience to get through the first few quieter chapters.
Yes, this is definitely an adult fic for both language and sexual content. However, I will be posting the tamer version here and the original chapters on AO3, if you want to read it. There will be explicit references, but I'll avoid explicit content to conform to the site's rules.
Summary: What would have happened if after Naraku's defeat Kagome hadn't ended up in the Meido and the well hadn't been sealed immediately? What could Sesshomaru possibly want when he shows up at Inuyasha and Kagome's door?
It begins for the two of them a new life poised between present and past with old enemies becoming allies and new challenges to face. The half-demon will be forced to make choices that will change not only their future but also that of everyone around them. It will be necessary to forget old grudges and hurts in order to face new enemies who try to ruin the couple's new peace, but above all, the time will come for Inuyasha and Sesshomaru to learn what it really means to be brothers.
Chapter One: The Beginning
It had been a fine day in the feudal Era and the sun was finally setting. Inuyasha and his companions wanted to reach Kaede's village before night, but since they were still too far they decided to set camp near a hot spring.
Less than two months ago Naraku had been defeated and while they had been relieved, they also had been quite disappointed with the outcome: Kagome had managed to kill him with an arrow directed to his heart, but before she had time to wish the jewel away Naraku managed to shatter a part of it again.
All of their efforts and battles of the last year had been jeopardized and they were forced to start travelling again, even if Miroku and Sango were looking for the peace of married life in the village and Kagome wanted to start attending school regularly.
On the positive side, they no longer had to worry about a devious demon using the most unfair methods to get them in trouble and trying to kill them whenever he could. After his death, he had also caused the trail of death that the Shikon no Tama always carried to diminish considerably. It was definitely a relief to no longer have to encounter entire villages destroyed at Naraku's whim or spend time burying people. However, on the other side, there was always the problem of the remaining demons searching for the jewel. Now that Naraku was dead, just as it had happened the first time he had disappeared, a whole host of other minor demons had appeared and although they weren't hard to defeat, they forced them to stay on their toes more and more and were certainly a major nuisance. The group just hoped that no one would come to disturb them in the village that was still trying to recover from the damage caused by the last battle with Naraku.
They already had a great chunk of the jewel and in those first weeks, they had discovered that while the missing shards weren't much, they had a difficult time trying to locate them. They often spent more time wandering without a destination or looking for information in villages than fighting youkai. Thus, the spirits were very low on this fine day that was now ending.
At the same time, every member of the group was very satisfied with a particular outcome of the current situation, but one dared to voice the feeling. The renewed hunt give them time to think about Kagome's place in the past. Everyone wanted her to stay in the feudal Era for goo. They weren't ready to say goodbye and they were afraid she could choose the comfort that the future provides, her family, over the life she had been having over the last year here in the past. But mostly, they feared she could choose to live permanently in the future if one half-demon didn't find the courage to voice his feeling for her, especially now that the couple seemed to be more at odds than usually.
Inuyasha had been brooding a lot in the last week, creating a large distance between him and the future girl and no one seemed to understand why. This seemed particularly strange because in the previous weeks it had seemed to everyone that the half-demon was getting closer and closer to the priestess and she had hoped that the right time might finally have come for her to confess her feelings and maybe even leave Kikyo behind once and for all.
Kagome had started travelling with Sango on Kirara, deciding that if he couldn't stand to have a normal conversation with her then he probably didn't want to carry her anymore. She didn't want to be considered a burden and, certainly, she didn't want him to think he was forced to carry her. If he wanted to sulk and be grumpier than usual then he could do it just fine, alone.
Certainly, it hurt her even more this sudden change of heart, but over the months she had travelled with Inuyasha she had gotten to know him and more importantly was able to recognize certain attitudes that just seemed to say "stay away". He would come around sooner or later, or at least she hoped so.
The general thought in everyone's mind was: "Could she live in the past without the promise of a life with Inuyasha?"
Dinner had been a quiet affair or as quiet as could be with a cranky half-demon, a mischievous kit, a teenager high-school girl, a lecherous monk and a young demon slayer.
Kagome and Sango were currently soaking in the hot spring when the taijiya dared to change the pattern of the discussion.
"Hey, have you been thinking of any reason why he is acting weirdly?" she asked.
"Honestly Sango, I've been racking my brains for hours at night this last week and I can't understand. I mean, we were doing fine, weren't we? It's like going back to the beginning when it was just the two of us and he couldn't stand the thought of me. I really can't... If he so much dislikes the idea of being with me right now I'm going to make it easier for him. I'll leave tomorrow morning as soon as we reach Kaede's village; I need to make up for lost time at school and I think my grandfather has run out of fake illness. I don't care what he has to say, I have a life on the other side of the well too and he doesn't seem to understand that."
"You know he's going to throw a fit," was Sango's answer.
"Again, I don't care. I'm tired to be the shard detector who has to bend to his will. He needs to start treating me better. Besides, we had no lead lately and we are just wasting our time and tiring ourselves. A break is going to benefit us."
At that, Sango gave up and the two of them started going back to camp where Inuyasha was waiting for them with a frown on his face after having knocked Miroku out.
The following morning, just as Sango had predicted, Inuyasha had no intentions of letting Kagome go home.
"NO!" he bellowed.
"Look, I don't want to fight right now. I really need to go see my family and attend school for the next couple of days. High school is different, I can't keep making absences. I'm just at the beginning of the school year. I need time!" She was starting to have a huge headache. She brought a hand to her temple and sighed.
"And I really need to find the missing shards," Inuyasha replied, putting his foot down as usual. He couldn't see any reason.
"It's not like we had any luck lately and I figured you could use some alone time too," Kagome reasoned, trying to making him understand subtly that they both needed time alone. And he, most of all, needed to think about what he wanted. He couldn't keep her at arm's length every time he wanted and then come back as if nothing had ever happened.
"What are you implying wench?" he narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not implying anything. I'm just stating that since my company had been affecting you so badly in the last week, I could leave you alone and at the same time go back to my family that really miss me." She started to raise her voice seeing that he obviously didn't want to see reason. He just listened to what he wanted.
The atmosphere in the hut wasn't the best. Kaede was resigned, even if she didn't know the details of the last trip, while the others just wanted to get on with it already knowing the outcome of the discussion.
"We are staying in Kaede's village just for one day so you don't have time to go back and waste time on that strange school of yours," Inuyasha went on as she hadn't spoken at all.
"Don't make me say it," she threatened him.
A long sigh was heard in the silence that settled in the old hut. "Inuyasha I think you should heed Kagome-sama this time around. You're obviously distressed abo-" intercepted Miroku.
"I'm not distressed! I just need to find the fucking shards!" he shouted, fixing him with beady eyes.
"-out something and everyone could use a little break while you make peace with yourself," the monk concluded.
"Why must everyone always think that something happened?" the half-demon asked again, now angrier than ever.
"Because it's you Inuyasha," Shippo murmured.
"Shut up runt! Why should you understand something like that?!" Inuyasha shouted fighting the urge to thump the kit hard on his head. He clenched his hands.
"Something like what?" Miroku inquired.
In the meantime, Kagome was trying to make her way toward the exit of the hut unnoticed but she didn't have much luck. "Nothing. It's not- OI! Where do you think you're going? I didn't permit you to leave!" He grabbed her arm before she could put a foot outside.
Kagome tried to weasel out of his grip but he wasn't having any of that. "Who do you think you are? I've had enough!"
He gulped and everyone realized that one of her famous temper tantrums was starting. "You decided out of the blue to treat me like shit - SIT - call me names - SIT - avoid me - SIT - and then you think you could have any say in when I decided to go visit my family? SIT, SIT, SIT." She started running towards the well, taking advantage of the time he needed for the spell to wear out while everyone decided to make themselves scarce.
"Kagome wait, dammit!" he tried to call.
Angry tears were running down her face by the time she reached the portal and disappeared in the light that brought her 500 years in the future.
Shortly after, Inuyasha was seen sulking on a branch of the Goshinboku; he was thinking about the last few days and the distance he specifically put between him and the miko. Just when he had thought that everything was going well between them, just when he had believed that everything between them could start all over again using Naraku's death as a new beginning, Inuyasha failed again. Old fears had suddenly surfaced all at once and he had decided that the best solution for the moment would be to stay away and think for his own accounts. Not that this obviously improved his mood, quite the contrary. The whole situation still made him irritated and grumpy, and no one could venture to say it was all his fault.
Suddenly Inuyasha felt a light prick and he slapped at his neck, a flattened flea floated down into his palm. He brought the old retainer at eye level before speaking, "What do you want old flea? I'm not in the mood for your yapping."
"he surely came to repeat the usual things," the half-demon rolled his eyes.
"Master Inuyasha, I see you're doing quite the opposite of what I suggested to you last time we spoke," he crossed his two pairs of arms and tried to look at him defiantly, but a minuscule demon like him could never have this effect.
"Why should I?" he argued. "I already told you that this is nothing of your concern and you should learn to mind your own business a little bit."
"But Master! You can't ignore your instincts forever. I don't understand why you're specifically making Kagome-sama angry; it's not going to benefit you when you finally take her as your mate. You could make things easier if you at least let me expla-"
"NO! I already told you no, it's not your problem. I'll deal with my instincts myself, I don't need your help and especially I don't need you to explain that to anyone!" he interrupted.
"Master I thought I had been clear enough, you won't last long; it's already been months since you started feeling the need to mate her. If you don't explain things to her now you could find yourself in a dire situation."
"Yeah, yeah. It's not like I hadn't heard you the first time. I can handle myself as long as I keep myself away from her when she's in heat," the hanyou waved him off.
Giving up, Myoga already predicted the outcome of his master's stubbornness. He really couldn't understand why he insisted on non-mating the lovely priestess yet when it was clear to everyone that the lady was very much in love with the half-demon. And they knew the feeling was mutual. What the master really feared no one but him could know.
Maybe Myoga could stick around a little longer and make sure things didn't escalate in the worst possible way, then at least he would be there to try to fix the situation. Kagome had always been a reasonable and tolerant little girl; he wasn't as afraid of her as he was of the master. Besides, now that that horrible half-demon had been defeated their group didn't encounter as much danger and he could rest easier.
Yes, he was going to do just that. The important thing was not to be seen by the master or he would end up crushed more than once.
Unbeknownst to both the demons, another one was making his way through the meadow when the discussion started. "So the baka is doing all of this just because he doesn't want to mate Kagome?" Shippo shook his head. Most of the times he really couldn't understand why adults were always trying to make things complicated.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and to read your opinions, without feedback on the other hand you can never hope to improve and, within the limits of the constructive, it is always nice to read the opinions of those who read us.