A Bond Across Time

By: ChocolateEclar

Disclaimer: Do I have to do this every chapter?

Guys in suits w/ briefcases: *appear and glower at Choccy*

Choccy: ^_^;; *nervous laughter* Fine, fine. Here's the disclaimer:

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or any other character from the anime/manga "Inuyasha." So don't try to sue me. If you do, it's very unlikely that you'll get anything from me because I'm just a teenager with very little money. ^___^

To TetsuoTsubushi: Good guess, but you'll just have to wait and see… ^_-

To sleepwalking chicken and HAP: Thanks for reviewing!

To Lylli Riddle: I was just teasing Shippou. ^_^ Thanks for reviewing!

Shippou: *grinning*

Choccy: -__-;;; *sweatdrop*

A/N: At first I wasn't sure whose POV I should have this chapter under. Then, I decided upon Inuyasha's, but I didn't get rid of as much detail this time because I just hate doing that. So, this chapter's under Inuyasha POV.

A/N: This chapter has quite a few Japanese words in it. Scroll towards the end of the chapter to find the translations.

Part 6: Inuyasha's Wish

Kagome asking me several times what my wish was, but I didn't tell her. She would fine out soon enough.

After we went inside and Kagome went up to her bedroom, I sat on the couch in the living room, staring at that weird talking box, Shippou and Kagome told me was called a television. Apparently, it was off and the room was dark and shadowy.

I don't know when, but I was asleep sometime after that. That was when I had one of those freaky nightmares filled with real memories.

First, I was watching Kagome go through the well and saw her jewel shards appear a few moments later. I felt a dull ache in my chest and I watched myself leap down and grab the shard container.

In a blur I was reliving another memory. This one was far worse. It was from the day after Kagome left and her departure had finally set in. I watched myself become overcome by grief and run through the forest surrounding Kaede's village. I continued my flight until I collapsed. Then, I laid on my stomach, ignoring the world and lost in my own sorrow.

I lived in that horrible memory for what felt like years, the anguish coming off of me in waves. Then, I was gone again and remembering a time much later.

Shippou, Kirara, and I were at Miroku and Sango's gravesite. Kirara was weeping, little pearl tears dripping from her large, red eyes. Shippou was staring solemnly at the graves, his eyes dark and clouded with emotion.

The younger version of me sighed and stared off at the hazy sky. A woman of about sixty was coming towards us. Miroku and Sango's youngest child, Keikura. Her hair was gray and her face covered with wrinkles. "Okina! Inuyasha-sama!" she yelled at me.

"Okina? Who says I'm old, oban!" I yelled back at her teasingly. She was my favorite of Miroku and Sango's kodomotachi. She wasn't a hentai like Miroku and Eitoku, who took after his otousan. (Which just goes to show you 'kaerunokohakaeru,' or 'like father, like son,' is true sometimes.) She was kind and strong like Sango and looked a lot like her jibo in her infancy and later on. As for her aneue, Anai, she married young and had seven children. She barely ever talked to me, unlike Keikura who Miroku said 'idolized' me, or something.

Keikura laughed at my bluntness and said, "I miss them." She was looking at the graves with dark eyes. After awhile, she continued scornfully, "My dear kakei was flirting with a young traveler girl so his dacchiwaifu knocked him over the head. Last I saw him, he was lying unconscious in the road and his dacchiwaifu had left with some younger man."

"I wouldn't have dreamed of that happening," muttered Shippou sarcastically.

Keikura grinned and said, "He has kyousaibyou."

"No," I said. "He's just a hentai like your otousan."

Keikura nodded, chuckling. "You're right," she agreed.

I wondered why I was reliving this memory. It wasn't terribly awful so far. I liked Keikura after all. Then, I remembered why it was so horrific. Keikura started to make back down the hill when she collapsed, clutching her chest in pain. We rushed to her and turned her onto her back. She let out a wheezing breath and muttered an expletive.

We carried her back to the village, but she died soon afterward. The new miko couldn't do anything for her. I was stricken. I felt as horrible as I did when Sango and Miroku had died.

The memory ended then. When the blur subsided, I was sitting alone in the forest. I could tell it was a good hundred years afterward. My clothes were a bit more modern, but it was still obvious I was filthy and depressed.

I was wallowing in self-pity, my eyes lifeless. Shippou hadn't visited me in three years and Kirara had been gone for a year. I hadn't made contact with anyone since. I was half-starved, but I didn't care. I was in too deep to mind.

In a whoosh I was in another memory. It was the one where I was with Shippou and we had met a young Kagome. I could feel my half-pained, half-thrilled emotions that made me feel strange. She smiled at Shippou and the younger me, a smile that was like sunshine, but still agonizing to my heart that day. I watched and when Kagome was out of sight I felt an excruciating twinge.

I had to go see Kagome! I couldn't bear it if she were gone now!

I awoke with a yelp and hurried up the stairs. No one stirred as I crept into Kagome's bedroom. She was asleep, her hands wrapped around her blanket. Kirara was snoozing at the foot of the bed, her small chest moving up and down.

'K-Kagome's fine,' I reassured myself unsteadily. Still, I hovered in her room until the first rays of sunlight filtered through the room and I became a hanyou once again. Now I could smell her and hear her breathing. It made me feel better and I stepped out of her room.

I went back downstairs and slept more easily.

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"You're going to make a wish on Saturday?" Shippou inquired, one eyebrow cocked.

"Yea."

"What're you going to wish for?" he asked.

"I'm not telling," I responded.

Kagome sighed and gave me that damn look girls can achieve so easily. I resisted though, and turned away quickly. I heard her sigh in frustration and eyed her exchanging glances with Shippou. We were all sitting outside on the porch, Kagome sitting close beside me.

"You'll find out in two days," I said firmly.

Shippou shrugged and got up. "Whatever. I'll be back late tonight. I've got a date with Tessie."

"You still have a girlfriend?" I asked.

"Yea," Shippou huffed. "We're officially mates after all. In youkai standards anyway."

"What's she like?" Kagome questioned.

"Well," Shippou began. He grinned and continued, "She's a kitsune, an Artic kitsune to be exact so she's like the Artic fox and has white fur in the winter and blue-gray fur in the summer. She's really hot for a ninjen in her ninjen form. She likes to ice skate and is about fifteen years younger than me, which isn't bad for a youkai. She used to live in northern Greenland." He shrugged again and chuckled.

"'Sounds nice," Kagome said smiling softly at Shippou.

He nodded and said, "Well, gotta go, furenzu!" He sped away in a flash of reddish fur.

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The two days passed by and in the late afternoon of the appointed day, Shippou, Kagome, Kirara, and I stepped behind the shrine house to a little stretch of bare lawn. I took the Shikon no Tama out of my pocket and gazed at it with determination. I had to do this. I glanced at Kagome out of the corner of my eye. She was looking at me wonderingly. She would soon discover my wish…

I closed my eyes briefly, gathering my memory of when Kaede had told me how to use the jewel. "All ye have to do is call for the Shikon no Tama Guardian, Kanshishaippin, Inuyasha. Then, ye can make thy carefully planned wish…" Kaede had said.

I opened my eyes and said, "Kanshishaippin!"

The Shikon Jewel began to emit flashes of white light. After a few moments it jumped out of my hand and onto the ground. A female figure appeared directly behind it.

She was attractive; her delicate face looked like it was carved in porcelain. Her hair reached the soil, flowing around her sandaled feet. Her eyes were the lightest shade of blue I'd ever seen, quite like the majority of the long elegant gown she wore. Its sleeves trailed the ground while her hands were folded in front of her chest. The sleeves were tied just above her elbows with navy blue ribbons that matched the sash around her waist. Underneath the dress she seemed to be wearing a white long-sleeve shirt that you could see under the low collar of the gown and where her hands poked out of her sleeves.

On her head was a golden headpiece that separated her tresses into three pieces that ran down her back. Her lips were painted a light red and her eyes had a little make-up on them.

Over all, I think the person that described her best afterwards was Kagome who called her, "A tenimuhou." (A/N: I might have ended this chapter here, but I knew you guys would kill me if I did so I changed my mind. ^_^;;;)

"I am Kanshishaippin," she said in a voice as stunning as her appearance. It was refined and full of power at the same time. "Do you truly desire to make a wish on the power of the Shikon no Tama?"

I was still a bit stunned, but I managed to reply anyway, "Um…yea. My name's Inu-"

"I know," she interrupted coolly.

"Oh," I muttered. "Then, my wish is-"

She held one of her hands before her and I immediately silenced. "Are you sure that is what you want?" It was as if she already knew my wish.

"Yes," I answered. "That's what I want more than anything."

"Very well," Kanshishaippin said. "You're wish will be granted." The Shikon Jewel and her began to shimmer and we were momentarily blinded.

When we could see again, the Shikon no Tama vanished in a swirl of pink light, but Kanshishaippin still remained. She smiled at me and said, "From now on you will age just as a ninjen does. In about sixty years or so, you will die of old age just as a ninjen does."

"What'll happen to you now?" I asked her.

"I will finally rest," Kanshishaippin said. "I've been watching you ever since you acquired the jewel, Inuyasha. I was created hundreds of years ago when the Shikon no Tama was. I am what remains of Midoriko's soul and was given the name 'Kanshishaippin' by some demon exterminators who glimpsed me long ago, I have been battling the youkai inside the Shikon no Tama for all these years and now I can rest. I thank you for making the correct wish, Inuyasha." (A/N: Does everybody know the story of how Midoriko created the Shikon Jewel? If not, you can ask me in a review and I'll explain.) She bowed, folding her hands and tipping half of her body forward. Then she stood up straight again and addressed all of us. "Sayonara, furenzu."

And with that said, she vanished in a whirl of pink petals.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked after a few moments.

"Yea?"

"What exactly was your wish?"

"To die naturally just like a ninjen," I answered without making eye contact with her.

She came up behind me and held me tightly, her forehead leaning against my back.

"So you're goin' to die with Kagome, and Kirara and I are going to keep livin'?" Shippou asked from behind us.

"Yep."

"Hmm," Shippou said cockily. "Good, I don't think I could've taken being with you when you're feeling depressed for another five hundred years."

Shippou was close enough to me now so that I could easily thump him in the head with my fist. He grinned and let me hit him.

"I'll miss you too, asshole," Shippou said laughing. "But I don't think you'll be dying anytime soon though. You're too stubborn to die too soon after you've done something like this. I bet you'll die within a day of Kagome though."

Kagome chuckled. I unwrapped her arms from behind me and pulled her in front of me. I leaned down and kissed her. She draped her arms around my neck and pulled me closer.

When we pulled away she whispered to me, "I love you, Inuyasha."

I smiled, my face reddening. "Me too, Kagome. Me too," I said back. We kissed again.

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A/N: *sighs* So that was Inuyasha's wish! #^_____^#

A/N 2: Who can say Kanshishaippin quickly and correctly? I know I can't. ^__-

A/N 3: Here are the numerous translations of Japanese words in this chapter:

Okina=old man

Oban=bitchy old hag (A/N: I think… ^_^;;)

Kodomotachi= children

Otousan=father

Jibo=affectionate mother

Aneue=older sister

Kakei=elder brother

Dacchiwaifu=mistress/live-in lover

Kyousaibyou=wife-phobia

Furenzu=friends

Tenimuhou= perfect beauty with no trace of artifice/flawless

Translation of the Guardian of the Shikon Jewel's name:

Kanshisha=guardian

Ippin=article of rare beauty/gem

I just combined them to create her name. ^_^

If I made a mistake in translating, please tell me.

A/N 4: Review or face my wrath!!!!!!!!!! I worked hard on this chapter. I think I put too many Japanese words in this chapter. I had to look up each one. -__- Bye!