Chapter 7

"Memories"

He was not happy, she was supposed to stay put instead he found out she was up and had disappeared. No he was not happy, as he stormed out of the large house leaving Kai gasping for breath on the floor. He would find her and there would be hell to pay. Sesshomaru, Inu Taiyoukai, lord of the west did not go traipsing after injured females, or any one for that matter, he hunted them and he would hunt her down.

It puzzled him greatly that she had been able to move around on her own, she shouldn't have been able. She was too injured which could mean that she was taken in the night, whom ever was blackmailing him could have decided she was too much trouble and they needed to get rid of her. Though he hadn't sensed or scented anything that would suggest that she had been taken, everything was as it had been last night before he left.

If she did take off on her own than he was going to beat her for making him worry, it didn't help with the dreams he had been having lately. They had centered around the encounters he had had with his half brother when he had been trying to steal tetsusaiga. He remembered being shot at with purifying arrows by that odd girl/ priestess, he remembered those long, long legs clad in that strange green thing. Her face had always eluded him though he knew it was that miko whom had traveled with his brother at the time and that girl Kagome kept reminding him of the miko, something about the way she talked to him.

His run ins with the hanyou were so infrequent that he never really bothered to learn the girls scent, always kept his breathing shallow due to the fact that InuYasha rarely bathed and his stench was unbearable though he did often get the vague scent of rain from the girl. The fact that he had dreamt of that time was nothing new it was the fact that the girl was prominently featured, that bothered him.

She couldn't have been more that sixteen or seventeen at the time and he did remember her lush body, though no self respecting male would have forgotten that body. Giving himself a mental shake Sesshomaru left the estate, heading for the one place Kai had told him where he might discover Kagome's where abouts, he headed for the Higarashi shrine.

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Arriving at the village brought back painful memories, ten years ago when she had been forcibly returned to her own time.

flash back

Tears streaming down her face as she tried again and again, jumping down from the lip of the well. After spraining her ankle Kagome sat at the bottom of the well crying for hours. She had just lost her best friends, her first love, nothing was going to be right any more. There would be no more red clad hanyou after her to come back to the feudal era sooner, there would be no more bringing pocky back for Shippo. No more long baths in the hot springs with Sango or having to guard against Miroku's lecherous spying. Every single one of her friends were gone, every single one of the people whom she thought of as family were gone. Never again would she see there smiling faces.

It was long past sunset when she finally made it out of the well and in to her bed. Days past as she ignored her mothers prompting to eat or her brothers attempts at making her smile. They didn't understand her grief, did they not know that she had just lost a huge part of her life to time it self. Couldn't they just leave her be and let her wallow in her grief, because that's all she wanted to do was drown in this feeling this absolute numbness.

On the first day of the second week of just laying there staring blankly at the wall not moving. A quiet knock sounded at the door, not receiving an answer the door opened to reveal her mother. Not even bothering to respond, it seemed like it was too much effort. The soft sigh that echoed at the sight of seeing Kagome in such a condition was heart breaking for her mother.

Sumi Higarashi had always seen her little girl in good spirits, always that hint of fire sparkling in her eyes, those sparkling blue depths were dull and lifeless now.

"Kagome" her mother said sitting down on the edge of the bed her hand on Kagome's shoulder.

"I know that your grieving for the loss of your friends but do you think that they would want you like this? Don't you think that they would want you living your life to it's fullest, doing something to help people, like you did in the past? I think they would be very sad to see you wasting away in your grief. InuYasha, Sango, Miroku and Shippo would not have wanted you like this they would have wanted you as you have always been" she paused for a moment "An old friend of your fathers runs an investigative firm and he needs an assistant, if your interested" placing a green business card with black writing on it, next to her alarm clock on her bedside table.

END

Her mother had been right they wouldn't have wanted her to give up her life in grief, they would have wanted her to live and move on, and she did.

Now looking at the walled village that she had finished rebuilding after she had found it crumbling, though now a little bit more modern, she was glad that she at least knew the fate of at least two of her friends. Every year on the anniversary of her return to her time she came to lay flowers on there graves. She was a few days late this time, but she knew they would understand, she would have an irate Sesshomaru on her hands soon enough.

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"What do you mean Kyo's missing?" yelled an irate Kitsune.

Five foot ten with a muscular athletic build, Shippo looked like the corporate tycoon that he was. Dressed in a dark charcoal suit with a gray button down and a black tie in place, the unruly auburn hair of his youth, slicked back in to a short ponytail at the base of his scull lending to the image of ruthless.

"Umm, but sir, I" the young man stuttered his head bowed in thought as he recalled what had happened before he had come to his office.

"I don't care what you have to do but find him, if I have to go looking for him my self there will be hell to pay" Shippo's eyes flashed in anger as the underling whirled around making his way quickly out of his bosses office.

Shippo now a fully grown youkai had made a living for him self by dealing with information, over the centuries he had been in a position to gather vast quantities of information. He dealt with it on several levels, corporate, street, youkai underground. He was one whom was almost never out of the loop, that was until Sesshomaru had come to him with his problem, who would have thought that the great and powerful Taiyoukai of the west would allow himself to be blackmailed. He was the one whom had told Sesshomaru about Miss Higarashi, Shippo himself had heard it from the vice president of Ookami Productions Koga's underling had used K-Rashi investigations with much success and after informing the youkai lord of this he went in search of the girl.

Being in a kitsune, Shippo had become a spy, an information dealer because of his unique skills. Having compiled an entire network of information and then used it to start his own company, a company that the government liked to use a lot. There were some things that only he could provide to certain people like the ones at certain top intelligence agencies, he had spies every where.

Though things were more complicated now that he was five hundred years older, around InuYasha he was still the same young kit he had always been. The brash hanyou bringing out the side of him only a few privileged had seen, such as his mate. She had been one of the few things he had taken pride in showing off. She had also been one of the few people whom had known him for most of the five hundred years of his life.

Turning from his desk with the mountain of reports he had yet to go through, Shippo did some thing he rarely did, he dwelled on the past. Things had never been the same for him after Kagome had died after the battle of Naraku, that bastard had taken the only parent he had left after the Thunder brothers had taken his father. He spent a great deal of time with Sango and Miroku for the first ten years after the birth of there sixth child he had left to find InuYasha and instead met up with Sesshomaru and lady Rin. Ah yes he had remembered Rin had always wondered what had happened to her until that fateful day.

Flash Back

A good deal taller now he looked about the age of nineteen maybe twenty, dressed in a dark blue hakama and lighter blue haori with only a short sword and a dagger in his dark sash. His wild auburn hair haphazardly restrained by a green tie. It had only been a week after he had started his search for the hanyou, when he had heard a young woman screaming. Coming upon a small encampment being ransacked by bandits and seeing them advancing on the girl he had taken action and saved her, killing off the bandits before they could touch her. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen her long black hair flowing down her back in loose braid, the orange and white kimono covering her down to her ankles her feet clad in sandals and her doe brown eyes filled relief and a little fear. He had politely approached her kneeling palms up as a show that he wouldn't hurt her. He was hurled to the ground by the girl crashing into his arms, sobbing as buried her face in his haori.

"Thank you so much" she said between sobs "If you hadn't have been here I don't know what I would have done"

Sitting up carefully Shippo shifted her small shapely body to sit in his lap, rocking her she started to calm.

"It's okay, those guys are gone now no ones going to hurt you" his voice deeper; his tone caring.

Shippo had been so concentrated on the girl in his lap that he had failed to sense the demon coming up behind him until the touch of cold steal against the side of his neck brought his attention back to his surroundings.

"You are touching something that belongs to this Sesshomaru" the Inu lord said his tone menacing.

"Lord Sesshomaru" the girl said bouncing out of Shippo's lap suddenly happy again.

"Rin, are you alright?" Sesshomaru asked not changing his tone.

"I am fine My Lord, this young man saved me, if he hadn't" she trailed off.

"What is your name demon"

"Shippo, Lord Sesshomaru" He said not moving from his position, knowing that one wrong move and he would be dead.

"Ah yes, the kitsune that traveled with my half whit brother" he said sheathing his sword.

Turning around Shippo bowed low from his kneeling position before the lord his forehead touching the ground. He knew his place and having grown older he also grew wiser for it.

Sesshomaru was a powerful lord not to mention the fact he could learn much from him, making a snap decision he asked.

"Lord Sesshomaru, it is my humble request that you allow me to accompany you on your travels"

The sudden delighted gasp by Rin and the clap of her hands as she bounded up to the Inu Lord was all Shippo heard before her voice filled the air.

"Oh please let him join us, lord Sesshomaru, then Rin would have someone to talk to and I wouldn't have to bother you with all the chatter, that lord Jaken says annoys you"

It was a long pause before Rin's delighted giggles filled the air once more. Looking up from his place on the ground Shippo saw the inu lord acquiesce to the girls innocent persuasion.

"Lord Sesshomaru, may I ask you something?" Shippo asked sitting back on his heals.

"What is it Kitsune?" Sesshomaru asked sitting down at the base of a tree.

"Would you teach me?"

"Explain your self"

"Would you teach me, I know how to fight , I am good at what I can do with my own unique powers, but I wish to become better, I lack the training I need to survive" He said sheepishly.

There was a long pause before Sesshomaru answered.

"As payment for saving Rin, this Sesshomaru will teach you"

END

It had been two years after that, after getting to know the sweet Rin, so vivacious in her every day life it was like she never had a bad day always finding something to be happy about. Two years, when he asked Sesshomaru for permission to mate Rin. Having earned the stoic youkai's trust and respect and seeing to the fact that Shippo was being trained properly. The kit knew how to protect Rin, so he allowed the young youkai to take her for a mate. The mating ceremony had bound there souls together for life, and now that she was bound to him she would live as long as he. Only for love would he have done this, only for love had he risked his very soul so that they could be together.

Yes he had been with her for the past five hundred years. His Rin was his world, she was his light at the end of the long dark tunnel. She had helped him become the man he was today, but then again so had Sesshomaru. The Inu lord had helped shaped Shippo into a strong, intelligent war lord, he had taken Shippo under his wing so to speak and in doing so insured his survival as well as Rin's. He could only be grateful to the man for what he had done and knowing that Sesshomaru had only done most of it because of Rin. Shippo was grateful that she loved him as much as she did, or he would have been toast long ago.

AN: Hi every one I normally wouldn't care because this is a repost, however I would like to see you guys review. I've been having a bit of a hard spot lately and need some motivation I've only got a page of chapter 18 written and, well to put it bluntly I need to feel the love. cuz I feel totally shitty I would like to see more reviews, I just want to know you guys whom have been reading since I the original post back in september or what ever it was are still with me.

Thanks bunches

Penelope Dream Weaver