Epilogue: Toward Tomorrow

The winter afternoon sun found InuYasha in the forest that bordered his village. It had been three years since everything in his life changed.

Three years since they stayed at the incubus's inn, and three years since his pride and joy, Izayoi, came into the world.

Now InuYasha found himself hunting for his hyper active pup. As she got older, Izayoi began to show just how much her father's daughter she was. Since she had learned to walk she had been running out to the forest and most times InuYasha would find his daughter hiding in the sacred tree, hell once he even found her sleeping in it.

InuYasha made it to the tree that he had spent fifty years pinned to and looked up and sure enough sitting in the branch right above him was a three year old blacked haired, golden eyed little girl with puppy ears and dimples.

"DADDY YOU FOUND ME!" she squealed as she jumped into her father's arms.

InuYasha effortlessly caught the little girl as if she was nothing but a feather.

"Pup have you been out here the whole time?"

Izayoi nodded with her sweetest smile, the one she knew her daddy couldn't resist. InuYasha rolled his eyes then examined her.

At least she's still clean, he thought. Kagome would kill me if she had gotten dirty.

"Well if you're gonna just run off I guess you don't want to go see Grandma, jii-chan, and uncle Souta huh?" he asked.

Today was Izayoi's third birthday and as they had been doing since she was born, they had been going to the modern era so Kagome's family could throw her a birthday party.

"NO, NO! DADDY I WON"T RUN AWAY ANYMORE I WANNA SEE GRANDMA!"

InuYasha chuckled as Izayoi began to squirm to be let down. InuYasha obeyed his pup's wish and once the child's feet touched the ground, Izayoi latched onto her father's fingers.

InuYasha couldn't stop the smile that spread on his face as he looked at his little girl. She was dressed in a winter child's Kimono with a heavy parka that Kagome had bought her when she had gone back to her era to visit. The parka was red, like InuYasha's kimono. Because Izayoi always wanted to be like her daddy, she wouldn't wear any other color but red. And on the child's feet where a pair of modern day snow boots.

Funny thing about Izayoi, she wanted to be like her daddy so when Kagome first got her a pair of winter boots she had refused to wear them.

Finally after weeks of frozen toes and Kagome's begging, the child's mother just came out and asked, 'Why don't you like them Izayoi?'

Izayoi had looked to her parents with wide eyes and had said, 'I like them mommy, but I'm like daddy and daddy doesn't wear boots.'

InuYasha grimaced at the following argument between himself and his mate.

OOOOOOOOO

Flashback

"I ain't wearing those stupid boots Kagome." InuYasha growled as he stuck his nose in the air.

"InuYasha if you don't Izayoi won't wear hers."

InuYasha continued to ignore his mate, though his ear twitched toward her sweet voice.

"So don't make her." He said. "I never wore shoes a day in my life and I'm fine." Kagome folded her arms and glared at her mate. "Izayoi, come in here and show daddy you're toes." Kagome called and like a good pup, the young hanyou came running in from playing in the snow.

"Look daddy my toes are blue!" InuYasha looked down at his child's feet and sure enough her toes where a pale blue.

"… Give me the damn boots." He said as his mate gave him his shoes.

After he slipped his on he looked to Izayoi. "I have mine on now you put yours on." He said as he knelt and helped the toddler put the boots on.

And he had worn them every winter since.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Flashback End

InuYasha shook himself out of his memories as they made it to the hut he had built for his family after they realized that Naraku had gone into hiding. Izayoi had been about a month old.

"MOMMY!" Izayoi shrieked as she ran into her mother's arms. "Have you been playing hide and seek with daddy?" she asked the giggling pup.

"Yup and he found me mommy! Daddy's the bestest tracker in the whole wide world!"

Kagome laughed as she saw her mate blush at his daughter's comment.

"Even better then Uncle Fluffy?"

Fluffy was Izayoi's name for her uncle Sesshomaru, since she was so young and couldn't pronounce the dog Lord's name, he allowed her to call him Fluffy. But no one else was allowed to utter the name, Miroku tired once… it didn't end well.

Izayoi made a face at her mother's question. She may be a daddy's girl but she loved her uncle a lot too.

"They are both the bestest!" Izayoi said with a smile.

InuYasha couldn't help but smile. With Izayoi it seemed the world was so simple. Sometimes he would come in from a stressful day and Izayoi would make a comment that made the hardest things seem so easy.

Kagome called it a child's innocence, the innocence that had already begun to fade the moment Izayoi had been born.

Since Izayoi's birth Kikyo had decided to live in the village with her sister. After Izayoi had purified Naraku's tainted jewel shards just by coming into the world the pack had suspected that she had her mother's Miko abilities. After her first birthday Izayoi had began to show signs of spiritual powers.

Even Sesshomaru had made it a point to visit often for both his niece and Rin, whom he had left in the care of Keade and Kikyo and under InuYasha's protection.

Yes Izayoi seemed to have brought everyone together. Her smile made everything seem right with the world and the pack had made a vow the day Izayoi had been born.

No harm would come to her as she walked the journey of life.

But no one knew what tomorrow would bring.

Done. Ok lets do a poll. If you want a sequel P.M. Me or say so in a review. Please review and let me know what you think I worked hard on this story and am very happy it's come to an end but I'm still kind of sad… T.T