Chapter 33

Five Years Later ...

Inuyasha and Kagome's lives seemed idyllic now, after all the chaos that had surrounded their earlier years. Tamae was staying in a hut within the old village and was training Kagome as a demon ninja witch. Inuyasha had a successful farm, with hardy crops and healthy animals with which he was able to feed his growing family. His family included young Shippou, his son Yasha, now 10, who was becoming a wonderful swordsman under his father's teachings, his daughter, Kaori, now 5, who was learning archery from her mother, and two more additions to their family, son Hiroshi was 2 and daughter Kohana was barely 2 months.

The family was happy and prosperous, but still faced prejudices. The family was more than welcomed now at Kaede's village and the villagers appreciated Kagome's newly learned healing skills. Their main problems were with the castle town and marketplace south of them, where the family went to sell their excess food and their livestock. Not everyone there wanted to do business with a demon, for fear that he might be out to harm them, among other things. Fortunately, over the few years that they had begun selling food and livestock, they had acquired some business partnerships that enabled them to be profitable in their dealings.

Sango and Miroku were frequent visitors, with their every growing family. In the past 5 years, they had added 2 more sons and 2 more daughters to the 5 they already had. Kohaku and Rin also visited often and in the past 5 years they had added a son and a daughter to their family of three.

Their lives had routine and order and reason to it. Visitors frequented past their humble home on their way to the castle marketplace. Inuyasha had started making comments that he wasn't running an inn but that comment went in one of Kagome's ears and out the other. Their home was large, larger than what they really needed for their family, and she was always cooking extremely large portions to feed the hungry demon family, so what was an extra human or two? Running the impromptu inn and teahouse soon turned into a full time job for Kagome. Soon, travelers coming and going from the marketplace stopped into the "Village of the Half-Dog", as it soon became known (to Inuyasha's chagrin).

One of their visitors, however, would bring a little more than they had expected. This visitor was a young man who decided to stop at this unusual village he had heard about on his travels. His name was Yoshi and he was a handsome young man traveling from the capitol of Kyoto to parts unknown. While in the castle town, he injured his leg and was told about the "Village of the Half-Dog" and the half-dog's beautiful wife who could heal practically anything. Hobbling his way towards the village, he was greeted by a boy with white dog ears and long, silvery-white hair. The boy introduced himself to Yoshi as Yasha and offered to take Yoshi to see his mother. Helping Yoshi along, Yasha helped him to their home. When Yoshi set eyes on Kagome, he was awestruck. He had been told that the healer was a beautiful woman, but he didn't realize how beautiful until now. Kagome realized that Yoshi had broken his leg and, with Yasha's help, she set the leg and splinted it.

To help Inuyasha feel better about the lack of privacy with running an inn, Kagome had agreed to his idea of setting up huts for their visitors to sleep in, thus returning privacy to both the visitors and Inuyasha. As Kaori prepared a hut for Yoshi, Kagome heated up a meal and brewed up some fresh mint tea. As he ate, Yoshi had a hard time taking his eyes off the beautiful lady who called herself Kagome. Kagome was oblivious to this attention, but someone soon noticed. That someone came in expecting lunch after a hard morning in the fields.

Inuyasha came in and kissed and hugged his wife. Whispering something softly in her ear, Kagome blushed and giggled. She introduced their newest guest as Inuyasha sat down awaiting his meal. He was soon joined by Shippou, Yasha, Kaori, and Hiroshi. Kohana slept peacefully in a small baby bed beside Kagome. Inuyasha smiled at his youngest as she squirmed in her sleep. His attention quickly turned to Yoshi, who was flirting (dangerously, in Inuyasha's jealous opinion) with Kagome. Subconsciously, Inuyasha growled a menacing growl toward Yoshi, who quickly stared at Inuyasha and shut up. Kagome made a mental note to chastise Inuyasha later. Secretly, she wanted to sit him, but when she wasn't pregnant, Inuyasha didn't hesitate to sit her right back. While this was painful for both her and Inuyasha, it was a hilarious moment for the pups.

'No', she thought, 'We don't need a sitting war."

After lunch, with Yasha's help, Yoshi went to lay down in his hut. To avoid having Yoshi walk on his bad leg at dinner, Kagome and Yasha brought his to dinner to him. Yoshi couldn't help but daydream about winning the beautiful Kagome away from that half-demon. She would be a prize to him. As the evening progressed, he decided he needed to find out why a simple, worthless half-demon had such a beautiful mate. Maybe the woman didn't realize how beautiful she was and thought that the half-demon was her only chance at marriage. Maybe he held something over her. Or, even worse, once he remembered the growl that the half-demon had sent his way, maybe he had kidnapped her from her village and raped her, impregnating her with his worthless offspring and now making her used goods to any other man who might have wanted her.

'Yes', he thought, 'That's obviously what happened to this poor girl and now she's stuck with that horrible monster. I'll save her from him. Just wait, Kagome. I'll save you!'