Well, I've got no reviews for chap 3, I guess it's because the stories in IY section are thrown back to page 4 after less than a day, so remember, I don't own IY or Naruto.

Chapter 4: Rain

It rained the next day, not a normal rain; it was a heavy rain with an even thicker fog. Inuyasha tried to insist that they should keep going but he finally decided to stop when Kagome started to make sounds of illness, "just get someplace dry, I'll come get you afterwards" he said, he looked around, all of them were already running towards their spots of protection from the rain, "basterds, leave me all alone, will ya?" he hissed to the air and followed them.

Naruto looked at himself, he was back to his normal age, with him were two others, Kagome and the cat, which everyone called Kirara, "So, Kagome, what is this shikon jewel anyway?" he asked, he decided that if youkais will be after him because of the shards, he should at least know what they belong to. "The shikon jewel was created from the heart of a great miko, it contains her soul and the soul of the youkais she fought, the souls can grant either powers to do good or to do evil, it depends on the soul of the one carrying it…" she stopped for a moment, carefully choosing her words for her request; "I want you… to talk inuyasha out of using it to become a full blooded youkai". Naruto looked at her with somewhat surprise, he could easily tell that she had feeling towards Inuyasha, it was one of the cases that the emotions were obvious to anyone but the target of the affection, but she didn't look to him like a person who would act behind someone's back.

"I guess I can try, I can't really promise anything" Naruto said, he didn't even believe that Inuyasha will listen to him, he knew him for less than a week, and he didn't even manage to have a normal conversation with him once, he was asking himself if Kagome was that desperate to have someone talk to Inuyasha, but then she spoke again.

"I don't mean you as Naruto, I mean you as Inuyasha's father, you can tell him to back off from this, can't you?"

"oh" Naruto then realized it, she never thought of him as Naruto, for her he was just the outside shell for Inuyasha's dad, just like back at his own village, when he was nothing more than the container for the Kyubi, he felt the presence of the demon's chackra and directed it to his mouth, he really didn't feel like being in the same space as her, and he was clearly not in the mood to talk to her.

"No" the Kyubi's answer surprised them all, "I gave up on being educating him when I died, I'm not going to take over that case now, when he's all grown up and has a life of his own, if you have something to tell him or ask of him, do it by yourself" he continued, he could feel how this conversation made Naruto feel, Naruto asked himself if he was really nothing more then the lock on the fox demon, every time his feelings of self worth surfaced, at blow about his connection with the demon came and hit his feelings back to the oblivion of his soul.

"But you are the only one that can do it! Don't you care what happens to him!?!" Kagome almost yelled, his cold reaction freighted her, after meeting all Sessohamaru she started to fear that his cold attitude will also take over Inuyasha if he changes into a full blooded youkai, and now she just got reinforcement to that fear.

"It's not that I don't care about him, that's the reason I'm not involving in his life now, he started his own life now, and only he is responsible to what happens to him, I'm not going to reduce him into a small kid by making him act against his will" the Kyubi's temper heated up, in his whole period of life, which was hundred of times  longer than hers' ,he was not once accused of being cold or ignoring his children, it was his loyalty and caring for his family that changed the canine race into the pack animals that they were today.

"let me tell you about a youkai I once met, she was born when I changed the fifth time into the wolf form of mine, which can translate into about a few thousand years ago, she was a cat demon with a fire element as a grand grandfather, but that's not relevant, the point is that she had three sons, she was so afraid that something should happen to them that she never let them out of her sight. One day, she was called out on a urgent matter, and she left her three sons alone in closed cave with a barrier on it, it sounds like a great protection, right?"

Kagome nodded, she sent her hand to pet Kirara, but she couldn't reach the cat.

"Well, she was so protective of her young ones that she never even taught them how to hunt or to create flames, she planned to keep them as kittens forever, they never passed the mental age of a few months, and were never exposed to the real world, total innocence. But the story doesn't have a good end, you see, that youkai had many enemies, who tried to target the young ones, and so, one of the times she returned home, she was attacked by an enemy, she quickly killed him, but what she didn't know was that her sons watched her do it, so when she left, they tried to imitate what she did when she killed the attacking youkai, do you know what happened to them?"

Kagome feared the continue of the story, it was like one of those cases that children played with guns, she hated to think what will come next, but she tried her guess anyway, "they killed each other while playing?"

"yes, that youkai tried her best to keep their life simple and at the end, they couldn't handle the matters of reality and they died before growing up, that cat has learned her lesson, parents shouldn't hold the young ones back, children are meant to grow up and make their own decisions, parents are there only to keep them safe until that time and give them the tools to create their own future"

That was something that Kagome could understand, her mother and grandfather knew she was risking her life by going back in time, but they never tried to stop her from jumping through the well, and when she came back, they didn't bomber her with questions or anything like that, they were exactly what she needed, a family that supported her and her crazy journey, her mother didn't even bug her about homework or school, they all accepted her decision and did their best to help her get through. "so, what happened to that cat?" Kagome asked.

"she gave up on being a mother, a woman and anything other than a cat, she reduced herself to become a house pet", the fox said as Naruto's hand covered Kirara, he could almost feel her emotions, she was crying, and she stayed behind them so that Kagome won't see her, she believed that the life of a fighting cat were the best she deserved.

The two girls just sat quietly, they looked at the fox child that insisted on amusing them through the rain, Hinata thought it was just one of things small kids do, but Sango knew that the rain reminded him of the thunder brothers that killed his father, he tried to keep them all at good sprit so that he wouldn't fall in to desperation. "Sango" Hinata started, "how do you know Kohaku?" Sango looked at the girl, then she realized how wrong her first impression of her was, she wasn't just a shy child with a crush on Naruto, she was much more than that. "Kohaku is my brother, he was brain washed by Naraku, he also has a shard in him, it keeps him alive" Sango said, if that statement surprised Hinata, she didn't show a sign of it, "so that's why he doesn't recognize you or says something about this, what are you planning to do with him?"

"There's the problem, you see, while he was under Naraku's control, he… he killed all of our family. I want to be next to him when he remembers that, I want to be their for him when he realizes what he has done, I don't want him to live alone with that feeling" Sango started to cry, she knew that it was a wound that Kohaku could never heal from, he'll carry the tragedy of what happened forever, in a way, Sango knew that Kohaku doesn't remember his past because he doesn't want to, it pained him too much, of all of them, Kohaku was hurt the most by Naraku.

"so, what are we going to do? Are you thinking about taking the shards by force?" Miroku asked, "No, not yet anyway, the girl's piece is easy, the problem is with the boy" Inuyasha said, he had no idea what kind of sealing technique was used on Naruto, but anything that was able to seal away his dad must have strong and would have devastating effects if broken by force. "we'll keep them around, if by the time they leave the won't give us the shards, then I'll have to go into extremes measures, but until that time, they can keep the shards" he continued, if he allowed kouga to live with the shikon shards, then he could certainly allow Naruto and Hinata to keep their own pieces.

"Are you talking about Nartuo and Hinata?" Kohaku asked from the shadows, they both turned around and looked at him, "how long have you been there?"  Miroku asked, he was sure his hiding spot was empty, but somehow Kohaku slipped past his guard, "a few minutes before you came in, Inuyasha couldn't smell me because his nose is still filled with water from the rain" the answer came, "you two didn't say a word about me, so I guess that you have already decided about my future, can I hear what will it be?" Miroku and Inuyasha looked at each other, it was a bad choice to do: either tell Kohaku the truth and reveal to him his true identity or to shut up and risk having him alarming his friends who were close to Kagome, too close in inuyasha's opinion.

"you won't talk? I can't force it out of you, but I'm going to warn you, if you try to hurt any of us, we will fight back, and the people of the fire country fight their best when we are protecting someone" Kohaku announced, he wondered to himself why he allowed what he heard to pass by, he secretly decided it was because of the girl, for some reason, Kohaku trusted her, he could just tell right off that she's the kind of person who'll jump and take an attack to save their friend even when risking their own life, people such as that couldn't be evil in Kohaku's opinion, and if she entrusted her life to the two, he knew that there had to be a good reason for doing so.

Inuyasha stepped out, he looked at the sky, he still had a day until the new moon, and he wanted to get to the well before that, "get out! We have a long walk to do today, and we ain't gonna make any stops until we reach our destination!" he shouted to the trees. His friends and the newcomers of the group started to come out, he could barely smell them, the rain erased all of the traces, it meant that demons will have problems to follow them via the scent, "Are you all ready? We don't have any time to waste" Miroku said, he knew that inuyasha's temper will worse with the passage of time, he looked at them all, Sango and HInata were close to each other, chatting nonsensely about something, shippo quickly ran to Kagome, she welcomed him to her arms but it was clear she was avoiding talking to Naruto, who was surprisingly, holding Kirara on his shoulder and petting her once a while.

About Kirara: in the ep about midoriko, they've shown that Kirara was helping her, so I decided to make Kirara a grown up youkai, the dead children thing came since I needed a reason for her to act like a kitten.

This chapter will be the last to be updated on a weekly basis, chap 5 is nowhere near it's completion, and I'm not even talking about a normal plot for this one. I can say that the story is taking a side trip into the insight of the gang, that's why I'm separating the chars so much, I can't write multi-characters scenes good enough to have a real effect, so I keep all the story half POVed, each paragraph on a different character.

Anyway, review and help me with ideas