AN: Okay, I'm going with the wonderful Fred the Mutant Pickle on chapter lengths, they will stay around the same length, for now anyway. Well, except for this one. It was already written and I can't find a way to split it that I like, or a way to shorten it. So this one will be on the long side, but future chapters will, as far as I have planned out now, not be longer. Does that make any sense at all? Maybe.

Now let's see, I guess I'll answer some things, in case I don't get around to making them more clear in the story. Uzura is a girl, and yes it seems like only boys can inherit the Kazaana. However, I meant to make it clear that it is the first time this has happened. There has always been a boy to inherit it when necessary. However, for some reason she is cursed. It may or may not be explained why. Also, Shippou has aged. He is in his late teens, around the age of Sesshomaru in the manga (which I have read is about 18).

A warning to those who have only seen the Cartoon Network Inuyasha. I don't know how far they have played, but this chapter may contain spoilers.

I'm getting tired of writing Disclaimers. I think everyone knows I don't own Inuyasha.

One last thing, A special thanks to Fred the Mutant Pickle (for always helpful questions and encouraging praise) and to Gemina (for making my day as the first person to review chapter four). Thank you also to Tiasha (I'm glad you think Shippou fits!) and Kristen Sharpe (I feel the same way about good stories and long chapters. No chapter is too long is I like the story. I hope my story is/becomes one that you eagerly follow) for liking Uzura. I rather like her too…Please review! I'm addicted to reviews!

Now let me get to the point already!

Chapter 3: His Future

"KAZE NO KIZU!"  An alarm wailed loudly in the background, but didn't cover his angry voice. Inu-Yasha swung his sword taking out another part of a wall, and several of Naraku's front guard. He hardly noticed. His anger, his pain, his confusion, all of it he poured into destroying the building that rose high and unweilding in front of him. The soliders, human and weaker levels of demon made no imprint on his mind.

"KAZE NO KIZU!" the memories played in the back of his head and he knew that she must be near, and felt if he could only see her they would stop haunting him, playing before his eyes with every battle cry and swing of his sword. Him, discovering the Kaze no Kizu, practicing with Kirara. Discovering he could use it at will and playing with it like a child until she cried out "Osuwari!" in exasperation. Fighting Naraku. Tetsusaiga turning red. Testusaiga breaking. And so many battles besides. So many close calls. Her eyes, her voice calling out to him. And the last battle muddled but thoroughly horrifying…

"Inu-Yasha!"

"Kagome! Bastard, get away from her! KAZE NO KIZU!"

"Kukukuku." 

"KYAAA!"  

"NARAKU! DIE!"

"NO! INU-YASHA! THE TETSUSAIGA!"

"Pitiful hanyou…"

"INUYASHA"

          .

         .   

       .

"Ahhh…"  

KAGOME!

"Inu…Yasha…"

"No, no, Kagome…I didn't no, I didn't mean…KAGOME!!"

"Kukukukuku"

"the…Tetsusaiga…Inuyasha…Don't worry about me…it…going to…all right."

"No, no, no…ARGH!"

"The jewel…Inuyasha…I need the jewel…please…"

"NARAKU! I KNOW YOU'RE THERE!" He didn't want to remember this way! Her blood scent, filling his nose. Her voice weakening. And so much was unclear. How, how could it happen?

"OUT OF MY WAY! BASTARDS!" Inuyasha growled. "KAZE NO KIZU!" he was now doing significant damage to the building. The smell of blood was thick and acrid smoke stung his sensitive nose. The alarm was still ringing through the air. And the laugh, he could still hear Naraku laughing in his mind.

"STOP LAUGHING!" He swung wildly, missing the main building but tearing across the barren earth to the fence and blasting another whole in it.

"Kukuku" The laugh was exactly as he remembered it, taunting, irritating. His rage felt as if it would explode as he spun eyes tracking to a figure perched on the roof of the building.

"NARAKU!"

Kagome gasped in fear as the first explosion shook the ground. Her eyes widened as a pulsating noise split the air. It was the loudest noise she could clearly remember hearing. Phantoms in her mind told her it meant danger and she cringed as the earth shook again. The walls creaked and wavered as another blast sounded over the siren. Kagome ran for her bed, jewel clenched tight beneath white knuckles. She was afraid. She curled on her bed, watching the walls quiver with wide gray eyes. As a third explosion hit, dislodging a large hunk of wall, a low moan escaped her. She didn't know what to do. Her mind was so cloudy, vague memories not enough. She put her pillow over her face waiting for her world to come crashing down.

 But something seized her, seized the empty fear gripping her confused heart. Something rose inside her and her mind screamed at her. She was Kagome Higurashi, and there were several things that she had learned to do when in danger.

She threw the pillow to the side, eyes scanning the walls, assessing the damage to the expansive room which was her home. There was little actual structural damage, from which she inferred that the room was most likely a bit removed from wherever the brunt of the attack (if that's what it was) was being taken, no matter how loud the noises seemed to ears that were, after all, unaccustomed to any sound save her own murmurings.

Arrows…

She should have arrows.

"Shippou. Where's a bow?"

"He can turn into a…a snail?"

"I'm a bow, idiot!"

"No weapons…Sango… Miroku…Kirara…"

"Kagome-chan! Hold on! Kirara, protect Kagome-chan and Shippou!"

"Kagome-sama! Look out!"

"I'm alright…but just need to make sure…"

"Kagome-chan! We lost him! He took the battle that way!"

"We must hurry Sango, Kagome-sama. Inu-Yasha seemed really angry this time."

"Inuyasha. Where are you?"

"I meant let me Protect you! Do you hear?"

"Damn it! Stay out of this Kagome, you stupid girl!"

"Bastards! Sankon Tetsuo!"

"KAGOME! HANG ON!"

So many images becoming clearer in her mind with every passing second. How could being groped by a corrupt monk and sworn at by and irate half demon seem comforting?

"Minna-san. I want to see you again." A loud voice finally rang familiar in her ears and she grinned. She knew that voice.

"I want to see you again, Inu-Yasha." She placed a palm on a weak spot in the wall, feeling a strange heat welling within her, where, she could not tell. But the wall was glowing too now and seemed to be…weakening? Shaking. It burst outward. And for the first time in this life Kagome faced the outside world. And she was herself. She tucked the ever warm jewel in a pocket, and tilted her head, scanning her surroundings. She was in some sort of room, a room to monitor her, she realized with a twinge of annoyance. How humiliating to be watched every second of the past…how many years? And without knowing it. Then she saw the door. And beyond the door, a corridor, deserted and sterile looking. The loudest roar yet ripped through the air and Kagome gratefully turned to run in the direction of the voice. Then she processed the rage filled word he had screamed:

Naraku. And, inexplicably, Kagome found herself screaming along with him.

Inuyasha lunged for his enemy, the hatred he felt for the half-demon only intensified by the second almost death at the devious hands of the once human menace. He easily dodged the tentacles streaming toward him, his anger multiplied when he realized that it was just a decoy, again.

Kagome kept gasping in pain in his head. Brown eyes kept looking at him in shock. Blood kept flowing out of her open wounds. And in that moment it was all Inu-Yasha could think of. Only of that betrayal, so much more painful than his betrayal of Kikyo, because it had been by his claws, no shape shifters trick, that she had died. He had sought to make things right by Kikyo by killing Naraku. He had failed.

He could never make things right with Kagome. But he would follow Naraku to hell if it would insure that she could find some measure of peace. If it would assure that her pained eyes would stop staring into his.

Meanwhile his claws ripped through the puppet easily. Swiping the wood-like tentacles clean off with his claws alone, before redrawing Tetsusaiga with a flourish a slicing the vile thing clean in half, wishing it was the real thing. He frowned at the little doll that was left behind as the illusion dissipated, the single dark hair fluttering benignly in the tumultuous air in the wake of his attack.

He was breathing heavily, realizing that the puppet Naraku had no doubt distracted him as the real thing made his escape. He wondered if he had taken Kagome with him. He wondered why he should believe that Naraku would have Kagome alive, why he had even presumed that she was here in the first place. Never one to stop and think too deeply in the midst of battle, he abandoned his line of thinking as his blood, still feeling near boiling, demanded action. These feelings were rewarded as strange metal demons appeared in the sky. He vaguely remembered seeing something similar in Kagome's time. Felicopers? It wasn't important. These were different than what memory he had of the strange things, larger, more menacing, and equipped with two sets of whirring blades, and what he recognized as some form of canons. He leapt at one, deftly avoiding the dangerous blades while slicing neatly through the cables and rods attaching them to the body of the beasts, sending it careening down and away to erupt in a firey blast.

Just as Inuyasha was smirking over the ease of his latest victory, a deafening boom lit the air, as the felicoper canons launched a projectile at the building. As the projectile exploded and took down a large portion of the complex, Inuyasha realized, with a sick feeling, that the mechanical beasts had not (at least not entirely) been sent to kill him.

With a scream he leapt to where the dust, smoke and flames of the explosion were clearing enough for a faint pink light to be visible amongst the rubble, and began throwing heavy pieces of steel, stone, and materials unfamiliar to him to the side. As the noise died away he heard a single cry above the noises of what had become a battlefield. It was his name, sprung from feminine familiar lips, and it was coming from the center of the destruction.

"Kagome!" He attacked the destruction more viciously, as the pink light began to falter as she responded to him.

"What's going on Inuyasha?"

"I'm not sure. But I know it's got something to do with Naraku, that bastard's made himself some kind of fucking Emperor!" The pink light blinked out and she gasped as the shield failed for a second. The light flickered back.

"Naraku…"

"Keh! Killing him once isn't going to be enough!"

"I…Everything's still kind of fuzzy…" Inuyasha growled louder, not knowing exactly what she meant, or what was wrong with her, but knowing who was to blame. Looking up, he noticed the…things….above were circling back towards them.

"Shit! Kagome! There's these things; they shot at the building. Big metal demons…Felicopers. Can you get out at all?"

"Felicopers…Metal demons…Helicopters? Why would they…There's helicopters?"

"Who the hell cares?!"

"I…I think I can push this stuff away."

About three feet from where Inuyasha stood, where the harsh grays and silvers of what had once been a hallway were bathed in rose colored light, the stone and metal began to lift ever so slightly. But it was too slow. Inuyasha's hand tightened on Tetsusaiga.

"Get down Kagome, and don't move." He hoisted up the sword. Too slow, too slow! The helicopters were taking aim. No time to think too much.

"Tetsusaiga!" He swung the sword gently, nevertheless parting the layers of cement and metal that had hidden her from his view. He had no time at all to prepare himself for seeing her. At that moment the metal monstrosities above them fired. Her head shot up startled. There was no time for him to pause, make sure she was the same as he remembered. There wasn't any time to remind himself to keep his distance. He was mid leap before she had even fully sat up. Before she had registered him in her mind. He was scooping her up by the time she offered a grateful smile of recognition. She was in her familiar position on his back when the pink shield that had protected her since she had first awakened in this new life, 10 years ago, vanished, completely.

Kagome had almost been glad when a blast from who knew where took out the hallways she was running in. She had had no idea where she was going. She had been tired. And the blast had left her unharmed. She had been puzzling this when she heard him call her name and realized she had called his. And now she was on his back. It was a strange feeling. The pink bubble of protection had just died, and left her with a slight chill. Her miko powers were now severly depleted. At the same time, something about being so near to him, touching him, brought a warmth that surprised her for two reasons. One was that it was the first time, in this life time, that she had ever been touched. Secondly, it was him and touching him had always been fulfilling, a sense made stronger by their long separation.

Unfortunately, all these warm and fuzzy feelings were dampened by the fact that two large missile-like projectiles were shooting straight toward them, at a speed she was unsure Inuyasha could surpass.  He was indeed, already moving, but not fast enough, and now the helicopters above, were firing more shots, too many. She held fast to Inuyasha's shoulders as he dodged one…two of the missiles or bullets (she wasn't sure which they were). The heat was intense, walls of flame erupting where the things hit ground.

"KYAA!"

Uzura had been content to sit in silence as the kitsune beside her gasped and shook, from what she presumed was shock. He could obviously see quite clearly what was going on below and from the range of emotion racking his entire body, it was something even more important than she knew. Having no demon senses, she was aware of none of the more intimate details of the goings on below, but had been awed to watch the red clad demon man take down a Dark Bird as easily as if it were a blue bird. His roars of rage had astonished her, and the destruction had thrilled her. But she was confused. The fox seemed to know the person attacking the building and yet he sat by as the demon fought alone. Was it some type of respectfulness for demon pride? When the Dark Birds opened a barrage on a point below, unclear to her, that was no doubt the location of the mysterious attacker, she found her arm shaking the shoulder of her companion. This demon boy, he was strong! She had never seen anyone hurt Naraku so much. He couldn't die.

"Shippou! There's no way that he can avoid it all. Shouldn't we…" he cut her off by leaping away with as a female voice screamed.

"KITSUNE BI!" his voice, gentle and youthfully friendly before, was a roar. Uzura was astonished to see a tiny glimmering line of tears trail after his lithe form. There was something about him, or them, if that had truly been a female scream she heard. His face… unnaturally lined, jaw clenched, eyes wide. And now the tears. It was all so strange.

Luckily, she was nothing if not a warrior, and leapt into battle, using her unnatural (for a human) grace (and some handily placed curved blades) to gain height off of a neighboring building. She felt herself warming as no other battle had ever managed to heat her blood.  After all, how long had she dreamt of this? Dealing a serious blow to Naraku instead of waiting idly until the curse took her life, causing trivial damage in the meantime?

"HIRAIKOTSU!" the kitsune was focusing his fire on the shots raining down on the figures that she could now make out below. He was knocking them off course, many of them exploding in mid air, others thrown off course to, perhaps not by accident, take out the so far less damaged portions of the building. Which, by all logic left her to take out the Birds. She hit the nearest one on her first throw. Hirakotsu flew easily directly through the thing's body, decapitating the driver and sending the thing careening downwards. The second banked left hard just in time to avoid Hiraikotsu on its return path. Uzura grinned and caught her weapon in mid leap backwards, where she used a blade that she had hooked to the heal of her uniform (her kimono had been shed on the shadowy roof where she and Shippou had been perched before) to gain a vertical foothold.

"HIRAIKOTSU!" The second shot missed too, but Uzura, anticipating this possibility, threw herself onto the front of the Dark Bird. Two blades extending over her wrists and the top of her hands sank into the windshield. She grinned at the shocked looking lizard youkai and humans inside, this time feeling nothing but grim battle joy as she saw her third and fourth high level youkai. Wrist blades cutting easily through the glass, she leapt nimbly inside.

"Servants of Naraku. It is time for you to die." She laughed as the two lizard creatures lunged for her, tongues out and bubbling with a strong acid. She cut off their tongues with a simple flick of her wrists. The human stopped in mid attack and backed off in search of a weapon. She wasn't surprised. Naraku's human supporters notoriously lacked loyalty, particularly in the face of death. She ignored the idiot and turned her blades instead on the helicopter's controls, slicing quickly through them and then launching herself back out of the body and into the air. An electrical explosion rocked the Bird then and Uzura watched the eyes of the human widen through the smoke and bright flames consuming the vessel as its rotors died and it hung in the air for a moment before plummeting in a great fiery, smoking spiral. It would have been kinder to kill him out right. Uzura didn't care. She offered no sympathy or mercy to those who died by her hand in the service of the enemy.

In the heat of battle Uzura had forgotten about the kitsune and about the strange demon and his possible companion. But now, as her blood cooled and she looked in detached satisfaction over the burning wreckage, she remembered and sought them out. The kitsune had come to rest on the ground below. In a moment she rejoined him, pulling the blades from her heals and retracting her wrist blades and looking much less menacing for it. Shippou looked at her oddly then looked away from her.

"You weren't joking earlier. I wouldn't have enjoyed fighting you." Uzura thought it was meant to be a joke but was unsure. His face was still serious, and he was anxiously scanning the surrounding area.

"Where the hell…" He smiled a bit wistfully, his features finally softening.  She decided it was safe to ask.

"Who are they Shippou? You know them? Are they from the demon front of opposisition?"

"No." He walked toward the street, where bright sunlight was visible, beyond the smoke and dark energy that shadowed the battlefield. Stepping into the street she caught only a glimpse of a figure moving rapidly away.

"He doesn't recognize it." He looked at her. "We need to follow them. Get on my back, it'll be faster." She looked at him warily and he sighed.

"Look we're going to lose them. He'll be after them, sending his worst too. So just stop bein' so damn stubborn and get on." She complied. Realizing that with her hand on his shoulders it would be easy to deploy her wrist blades and slit his throat, should he prove untrustworthy. However, though prepared to kill she wasn't quite prepared when he grasped under her knees and took off after what now looked to her like little more than a red speck. She also wasn't prepared for him to scream out,

"OI! INUYASHA!" it was fortunate for Shippou's neck that she was adept at keeping her head in alarming situations, as it was she hissed out a admonition.

"Shippou, quiet. You'll draw attention." That was the first rule of taking on Naraku. Don't draw too much attention to yourself.

"Tch. He's got other stuff ta deal with right now. INUYASHA! OI! STOP YOU JERK!"

he smiled at Uzura.

"That's what I used to call him. I dunno, but I thought maybe it could jog his memory."

"He doesn't remember you?"

"He didn't get a clear look at me. Or a clear scent. Plus I haven't seen him since I was a kit."

"Why?" She found that she really wanted to know.

"It's a long story. Basically because he jumped forward in time 500 years from when I knew him and got himself killed 200 years ago." He sighed. "That was a bad explanation. But it's true, anyway. INUYASHA! KAGOME!"

"Kagome…she's the other one…dog demons? Are the dog demons?"

"He's a hanyou. Not her though. She's a human. I don't know how she's come to be here. She died with him. And she can't be a reincarnation. She'd smell at least a little different, but she doesn't really. Not her smell at least. She doesn't have the smell of her family, or her shampoo or any of that extra stuff actually. GAH! I can't believe he had her!" Uzura guessed that the last 'he' was not the one they were following but Naraku. The rest of what he said made very little sense to her. She disregarded it for the time, choosing instead to voice a slight concern.

"Are you going to be able to catch them?" His shoulders tensed. Her concern was well placed. It had initially seemed like they were gaining on the pair in front of them but now the distance looked like it was neither decreasing nor (thankfully) increasing significantly.

"No. He always was faster than you would think, him being a hanyou and all."

"Then…"

"I know…there has to be someway to make him…Hiraikotsu! Throw Hiraikotsu!"

"Eh…what?" the fox wanted her to attack them?

"He'll recognize it! You can throw it from here right?"

"Of course I can. But I thought you wanted him to stop! If he thinks we're attacking don't you think-"

"No! Don't throw to hit! I said earlier that your ancestors and me knew each other right? Well they knew him too! He'll recognize the weapon and he must at least kind of recognize me…but….well he always was an idiot.  At the very least he'll stop to fight and we'll be able to talk to Kagome. She's really smart!" He sounded almost childish when he spoke of the girl and against her better judgement (which told her that possibly drawing the demon she had just seen destroy a small army and a the strongest of strong hold into battle was a bad idea) she found his innocent (how could he still be innocent in Naraku's kingdom?) hope contagious.

"Alright." She took stock of her position. "I need to be able to use both my hands."

"I won't let you fall. Don't worry about that!"

"Okay then. Well…" She kept one arm around his neck as she unhitched Hiraikotsu from her back. "Lower your head, yeah, and- HIRAIKOTSU!"

 Inuyasha was not yet close to tired. He had been grimly preparing to take on two more of those helicopters while avoiding their fire all with a very tired Kagome on his back. But they had been helped by a strangely familiar kitsune and a girl with a familiar weapon. But how could it be? He had no idea how long he had been "dead" this time, but he knew that the taijiya, at least, should be dead. It was the future of Kagome's time. The kitsune…No, he wouldn't let himself hope it was Shippou. Naraku…Naraku wouldn't have let the kit live. And so it must just be his nose tricking him that the fox smelled so wonderfully familiar. That the voice that called out from behind as he fled in the direction of Kagome's ruined home was not really the little kit Inuyasha had known and been irritated by, the little kit he had protected. He was glad Kagome couldn't hear.

"INUYASHA! OI! STOP YOU JERK!" Kagome stirred slightly in her half-sleep.

"Did you hear something Inuyasha? Someone calling you? It…sounded…familiar." She murmured sleepily.

"Keh. Just someone yelling, its nothing."

"Hmm…'K…Where are we going."

"To-" how could he tell her that they were going to the partially collapsed cave that stood over what had once been her home. He would tell her later. "Someplace I think'll be safe." Truthfully, he hated to run at all. But Kagome was exhausted, and he had no idea what they would be facing, what resources Naraku now had at his disposal

"I…I feel safe Inuyasha." She sighed. "Like feeling safe before wasn't really…real. What's happened Inuyasha? I feel…strange" A soft, cotented sort of noise followed her sleep slurred speech.

"Keh" But inside he felt something twist his stomach, pierce his heart. She didn't remember. She didn't…

"AHH…"

No, no…

"Inu…Yasha"

No…

"No, no. Kagome…I didn't-"

"HIRAIKOTSU!" Thankful for the diversion Inuyasha leapt sideways (to a surprised squeak from Kagome) and spun, eyes wide.  His pursuers took the opportunity to move in. The weapon hadn't been meant to hit. Inuyasha knew it hadn't been meant to hit. And as the pair came into clear view he found himself staring. The auburn hair, still tied in that ridiculous high ponytail. The face, the scent…A young kitsune all grown up. He heard Kagome gasp and felt her become fully awake.

"No way…"

"INUYASHA! KAGOME!"

"Shippou." he heard Kagome gasp again as he voiced the one word that had consumed each of their minds. Every second the kit drew closer and every second Inuyasha was more sure it was him. Slight change in scent; that came with age. And the other smells on him, unfamiliar smells of this world. But he couldn't doubt it any more. This wasn't a trap, wasn't a trick of his senses.  Shippou had stopped running now. He was right in front of them, setting down the girl with him, who looked and smelled a bit familiar but was neither Sango nor Miroku and therefore unimportant right now, and he was taking careful steps toward them, eyes wide.

"Inuyasha…Kagome…Is-how did you-" And then he choked and his eyes welled with tears that Inuyasha could see hurt him to shed. Had the kit been left alone? Suffered the same hard, lonely child hood as him? Kagome was crying too. She pushed herself off of his back, stumbling a bit in her hurry. Shippou was something unexpected, a familiar, friendly presence in a world where they thought only they remained. And something about him made it seem like such a long time since they had dwelled in the world.

"SHIPPOU-CHAN!" she ran at him. Hugged him, a bit awkwardly because he was now so much taller than her. She laughed through her tears as he was the one to lift her up.

"KAGOME! I thought…you and him…" the kit grinned over at Inuyasha, through still teary eyes (he hated that expression) and the older demon felt himself fall back from his shock. He recovered though, and tore his eyes from the fox in irritation.

"Keh. Like I'd let myself be killed by that bastard." And somehow suddenly, Naraku seemed far away. For the first time since he had begun to wake, 10 years ago, Inuyasha wasn't haunted by any of his memories. After all, Kagome was alive. Not dead. Not betrayed, or pained. Finally his blood began to calm. And in the calm, he couldn't help but wonder…What would this world hold for him? He looked over at Kagome and felt the familiar gut wrenching guilt. Whatever it was it wasn't a happy ending. That chance had died…with her. Whether she was alive again or not. Again, he promised that he would not fail this time. Naraku would die by his claws. Then a pink light exploded from Inuyasha and everything went dark.

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Wooo. I liked that chapter, if you don't mind me saying so. Ah…Inuyasha angst. Was he OOC? Oh well, I still like it. Do you?

Please review!