Disclaimer: me no own Inu Yasha.

Shippo's Greatest Moment, and Kagura's Simple Demise.

Kagura sat at a writing desk in the castle's drawing room with a sheet of parchment in front of her. On the parchment was scribbled several simple mathematical problems. They were statistics representing how many times she had been injured in battle with Inu Yasha and his friends. Within the first two years, Kagura had been injured relatively few times when compared to how many confrontations they had had. But in the last three years, the amount of damage she had been receiving had been increasing during each new battle. Kagura attributed these numbers to one thing: that blasted fox child, Shippo. In the first two years, both she and Naraku had greatly underestimated the potential of Shippo. And now, being raised by four skilled fighters was becoming apparent in his contribution to battles. He had started honing his kitsue powers, resulting in her increased injuries and near-death experiences, in fact, her last encounter was one of these: Shippo had disguised himself as Inu Yasha with a bared Tetsaiga and distracted her long enough for the legit Inu Yasha to score a hit. She had barely survived that attack and was now just recovered enough to fight again. But what infuriated her even more was that Naraku, in his arrogance, still regarded the fox as a mere nuisance. And another thing that was greatly bothering her; the shards of the Shikon no Tama were all gathered and accounted for. Naraku had the majority, but Kagome possessed the rest of them, and she knew it. The group of friends had kept a camp within striking distance of the castle, but they had been there for three days now, and it was worrying Kagura. They knew where Naraku was without a doubt, but it was so unlike Inu Yasha to just… wait there. Naraku was being stupidly optimistic over the matter, attributing their hesitation to fear of him. Kagura knew better, she had been closer more often to the group than Naraku ever had been. She knew they were planning something out there, and this waiting was part of it. In frustration over her thoughts, Kagura slammed down the pencil and left the drawing room.

Shippo waited in silence for a few moments before releasing his shape. As of late, he had been practicing masking his scent, and he had just passed his personal test. He could now transform his body without having his tail still attached, could change his voice, cover his demotic aura, and hide his scent! Kagura had unknowingly held him in her hand as a pencil for almost a half an hour. He unconsciously mimicked Inu Yasha's smirk of victory. He had been in Naraku's castle for the past three days, acting as a spy of sorts for his friends, and had learned some very interesting tidbits of information. Shippo peaked around the drawing room's doorframe, and made his way to the living quarters of the castle until he got to Kagura's room. There he transformed to look like a vase that had been, until now, occupying a small table on the wall, and waited for Kagura to leave. He knew she had been once again ordered to 'go kill Inu Yasha', so Shippo launched his master plan. After Kagura had left on her feather, he carefully crept into her bedchamber and looked around for the wardrobe. Upon finding it, he opened it up to find several changes of Kimonos, identical to the one he had always seen her wear. Quickly, he drew one out, sniffed it, and wrinkled his nose in disgust, the garment defiantly reeked of her, but that was perfect. Shippo transformed his body and voice to that of Kagura, dressed in the kimono for her scent, and left the room.

Naraku sat in the room of the castle that he had claimed for himself, thinking of what Kagura had been telling him. Maybe he was wrong, maybe that fox child was becoming a real problem, but his thoughts where interrupted.

"Kagura? What are you still doing here? I ordered you to go destroy Inu Yasha and the girl Kagome!"

"I have decided not to."

"What?! What is the meaning to this Kagura?!" Naraku ordered harshly.

"I will not follow your demands any more Naraku". Kagura smirked. "I am free now." Naraku's eyes narrowed

"Surely you do not fool yourself so Kagura" he said as he brought to bare the pink stone representing her heart. "You could not have possibly forgotten about this." And he began to squeeze the stone, but Kagura didn't move, just smirked even bigger. He squeezed harder, but she started to laugh, and drew out her fan.

"Dance of Blades!"

Naraku felt a brief flash of pain, but not as much as he should have from receiving a blow from Kagura, but that didn't matter, he crushed the gem he held; and then felt it. Kagura's life line to him fell away… she was dead. He knew she was dead, but there she was standing in front of him. Kagura stopped smirking and sobered.

"Do you know what you have done Naraku?" Kagura asked, but it wasn't Kagura's voice, it was that of the Kitsue's. "I made you so angry, that you didn't even notice my 'Dance of Blades' was made of fox-fire." And Shippo disappeared in a blue puff of smoke, as Naraku stood there utterly shocked. He brought his had to eye level and opened it to let the shards of Kagura's heart fall from his palm. She had been right, the fox child, Shippo, had become another formidable foe.

Shippo touched down next to Kagome. His friends all looking at the fallen body of Kagura.

"Shippo? You did this?" Miroku asked. Shippo nodded and walked over to the body, removing some objects that couldn't be seen by the others.

"Inu Yasha?"

"Huh?"

"Will you… will you help me bury her?"

"What!? She was our enemy! And you want to honor her with a burial!?"

"Yes! She may have been the enemy, but she didn't want to be, Naraku made her do it. While I was in the castle I heard her say 'she'd give even her life to be free' so I guess she is free now. I think she would have been a good person if it weren't for Naraku…" Inu Yasha studied Shippo for a moment.

"Alright, I'll help you."

"Thank you Inu Yasha." Shipp said after they had placed a rock a the head of Kagura's grave. Then he reached into his pocket for the items he had taken from her, and laid her fan and her feather on the dirt.

The End.

Yes, the end, it's a short story!