A/N: Time to explain my thinking in regards to the ages of Inuyasha and the pups. If you've read 'What the Future Holds" then you already know my explanation but I will also list all the children's names for Inuyasha's, Miroku's and Kohaku's families.

First, in my previous story, I included "circa" dates, which I didn't here, but I may start doing. Takahashi has the Inuyasha story taking place "500 years ago in the Feudal Era", which, from 1997, when the Manga started, would be 1497. However, the story arc of the Schichinitai sorta disputes that because guns are used in that arc and guns were not introduced into Japan until the year 1542 (This is Takahashi's arc) and in the episode, "The Woman Who Loved Sesshoumaru" (an anime story), guns are also used. Because of this, I like to set my stories about 450 years in the past. This still sets it up into the Feudal Era, but after the time that guns are introduced. For "Sparrows", I decided to start it at 1544 (when Kagome falls down the well). In this timeframe, I have Naraku defeated in 1547 (I like a 3 year time frame for the entire beginning to end of the story. This makes Kagome 18 when Naraku is defeated).

So, I stated that to set this up with the ages of Inuyasha and his pups. I sorta explained this earlier in the story, when Kagome first visited Tamae so that she didn't die too early and leave Yasha alone. My reasoning behind this is, in Movie 3 it is laid out that Inuyasha was born some 200 years ago. Takahashi has said in interviews that Inuyasha looks and acts 17, but no other age reference is given. So the way I figure Inuyasha ages is, that once he turned 13 (if you want him to age during the 50 years he was pinned to the tree) or 14 (if you don't want him to age during that time), he would need to live 50 additional human years in order to gain a year of maturity in demon years. Hence, using 14 as his age 200 years ago, Inuyasha has lived 214 human years. 50 of those years he spent pinned to the tree and didn't age, so 3 segments of 50 years would add three years of maturity to Inuyasha's demon years. This would make him 17.

I figure full demons age about 1 year in demon years for every 100 human years. (Sesshoumaru appears to look about 19 in the series so I set his 'human age' at approx 500 years old). In the series, Shippou seems to be about 8. This chapter has my story fast forwarding about 6 years from the previous chapter, or the year 1565. So Shippou's age, in my story, sits about 13-14. Inuyasha's son, Yasha, was born in the year 1549, so he is 16 human years old, but appears about 13-14 also. So the ages I give for Inuyasha's pups are in human years, but after the age of 13/14 in human years, the pups won't "age" for another 50 years.

Families -

Inuyasha/Kagome - Shippou - 29, Yasha - 16, Kaori - 11, Hiroshi - 8, Kohana - 6, Jasmine - 5 and Kazuo - 1

Miroku/Sango - Aya - 16, Cho - 15, Mirai - 14, Nami - 14, Fujita - 13, Ryo - 11, Sen - 9, Hana - 8, Akira - 7, Hotaru - 5, Akikio - 4, Ichiro - 3, Kaito - 1 and Miya - 3 mos.

Kohaku/Rin - Uyeda -12, Kanaye - 9, Ai - 7, Botan - 4, and Takai - 1

Also - THANKS TO ALL MY REVIEWERS! I LOVE YOU ALL! Ok - Now onto the chapter ...

Chapter 39

Inuyasha sat on the fence watching his daughter, Kaori, practice her archery. Kaori was a superb marksman and each arrow firmly embedded itself within the tree with a solid "THWUMP". Watching his daughter, Inuyasha would feel himself involuntarily flinch with each hit of the tree. He didn't know why, but the sound of the arrows hitting the tree sent his mind reeling back over 50 years ago when Kikyou had pinned him to the sacred tree.

Over the past 6 years, Kaori had grown from an impetuous 5-year-old to a self-confident 11-year-old. Her long, silvery-white hair reflected the sunlight like a halo. But, when Inuyasha looked at his daughter's face, he saw his mother in her features.

Inuyasha's family had since grown by two ... 5-year-old Jasmine was the result of the pregnancy that had occurred after Kagome and Inuyasha had made up after the death of that troublesome human, Yoshi. As expected, when Kagome discovered that she was pregnant so soon after Kohana, she threatened to tie a knot in his offending appendage. As a result, Inuyasha made sure that the next pup, son Kazuo, didn't arrive for another four years.

Miroku was making good on his plans to have "15 or 20" offspring, with 14 at last count. Kohaku was a little nicer to Rin as they only had five.

Four years ago, Inuyasha had decided to have Totousai forge a sword for Yasha from Inuyasha's fang, designed to hold Yasha's demon inside like the Tessaiga. He was now considering having Totousai forge a smaller blade for Kaori with another fang.

The family was making plans to visit Kaede and the others at the Kaede's village later that afternoon. Once they arrived, the friends enjoyed a picnic by the river.

"So, Sango, how is the little romance between the young lord of the castle town and Aya coming along?", Kagome asked her friend excitedly.

Sango smiled. Ever since the family had opened a stall at the marketplace three years ago, Aya had been courted by the young lord of the castle, Taro. Sango said to her friend, "Wonderfully. I think it's serious.", she whispered.

"Marriage?", Kagome whispered back, "How wonderful!", she said as Sango nodded.

The men were talking about the problems of more bandits in the area.

"Kagome had these 4 men grab her and demand all the money she had as they tried to drag her away. It didn't take Yasha and me long to send them floating downstream.", Inuyasha reminisced about the incident that had occurred two weeks ago, as Miroku and Kohaku reiterated stories about bandits coming into the village.

Heading back to the village as dusk settled on the area, the families planned a big dinner with Kaede. Suddenly, the warning bell from the watch tower began ringing. Miroku, Sango, Kohaku, Kagome, and Kaori grabbed their weapons and headed to the main part of the village behind Inuyasha and Yasha, both of whom had their swords drawn at the ready. Numerous bandits on horseback were wreaking havoc on the villagers, as women and children ran for cover. Aya and Cho found Kaede and helped her evacuate the women and children from the burning houses. Rin hustled Inuyasha's, Miroku's and her younger children into a hut behind where Kohaku and Miroku were fighting.

Inuyasha smelled it first and commented quickly to Yasha that a demon was controlling the bandits. As Yasha continued to take down horses, putting the bandits on a level playing field, Inuyasha searched for the leader. Kagome and Kaori fired arrows into the bandits attempting to disperse them. Kaori separated from her mother to attack another flank. A bandit grabbed her and attempted carry her away. Inuyasha had made sure his daughters knew how to defend themselves and Kaori put her knowledge to use. Grabbing an arrow, she jabbed the bandit in his crotch and, when he released her, she clawed his eyes out, blinding him. As the bandit fell to the ground, bloody and in pain, Kaori simply spat at him,

"Never fuck with a half-demon!"

As Kaori began to look for a weak line of defense, she smelled the acrid smoke behind her. Realizing that the hut Rin and the children had taken refuge in was aflame, she ran back and got her mother and the two of them shooed out the children. In the confusion, Rin thought that some of the children remained inside and she went back in to find them. Kagome and Kaori thought everyone was out as the building collapsed in flames to the ground.

Inuyasha found his opponent, a dismal monkey demon. After taking out his opponent, the rest of the bandits were a cinch for Inuyasha, Yasha and Miroku. Unfortunately, the bandits did their damage, and the village was nothing but a heap of smoky ruins. After the few remaining bandits fled, they took account of the damage. It was then that Miroku heard his wife's scream.

"NOOOOOO! Kohaku!", Sango screamed in terror.

Lying off to the side was the lifeless body of Kohaku. He had obviously tried to protect the hut where Rin and the children huddled inside, but he had lost the battle. Inuyasha noticed that the hut was now a smoldering pile of wood. Did everybody get out? He found Kagome and Kaori and did a quick head count in his mind. All of Miroku's pups were accounted for. So were his. And Kohaku's. But ...

"Where's Rin?", he asked Kagome.

"I don't know. I thought she was with the babies."

Inuyasha looked over towards the pile of smoldering wood that had been a hut and saw Yasha nosing around. Yasha looked up and their eyes met and Inuyasha knew immediately what Yasha was telling him. Looking back at Kagome, he said quietly,

"She was in the hut, Koshii."

"WHAT? She couldn't have been, I saw her come out.", Kagome said, tears falling.

As Inuyasha hugged her, he whispered, "Kohaku didn't make it either."

Yasha came over and said quietly, "I'm going to take Kirara and find uncle. He can fix this with the Tenseiga.", As Inuyasha nodded to his son, Yasha went over to a mourning Miroku and Sango and told them his plan. Thanking Yasha for thinking of the Tenseiga, Kirara transformed and Yasha, along with Shippou, took off to hunt down Sesshoumaru.