Chapter 8

Izayoi opened her eyes to see Taro sitting beside her looking at her worried. She watched his stand from the chair and move to sit on the bed beside her with a small smile.

"Hey." He said looking down at her as she smiled up at him.

"How long was I out for?"

"It's been an entire day. Your mom was worried because you should have woken up after a few hours." She looked at him as he spoke.

"You were worried…." She said making him give a smirk.

"You keep doing this I'm gonna have to kill you myself." He smiled as she sat up. "You feeling alright?"

"I'm alright. Where are the twins?" She asked looking around.

"Jiro has them. He said he'll watch them until you were better." He grinned. "He doesn't have to know you're awake." Izayoi giggled as she leaned forward running her hand over his cheek.

"You can be a cute little wolf sometimes." He grinned leaning in and kissing her. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. "Well so much for us pretending I'm still sleeping." She smiled as he went to answer the door as she climbed out of bed and wandered to the other room with her robe on to see who it was. She smiled seeing Jiro standing with Toshiro and Akia.

"Izzy!" Toshiro called as he ran to her hugging her. "Are you alright? They said you were out of it. How are you?" She giggled as she shook her head.

"I'm fine. I guess I just needed extra sleep with my wound and how low my powers had gotten. When did you wake up?"

"I only slept for a few hours like you should have." He smiled. "You know dad's gonna kill you when he sees you. You should have seen him when we got you back here and then when you didn't wake up."

"That bad?" She asked worried before she sighed with a small smirk.

"What are you planning?"

"Nothing. Just gonna go talk to him, daddy can't resist his little girl." She grinned making her brother laugh.

"That's cheap." Taro said making her look at him as the twins ran in followed by Mina and Hikaru.

"You only say that 'cause you get caught by it." She giggled as Katara ran to him wanting up as Kenta went to his mother to be held. Taro picked his daughter up as Jiro laughed at him only to have Taro punch his arm.

"Why uncle Jiro laughin'?" Katara asked as Taro glared at his brother.

"Because he's a baby." Mina said laughing at her brother. "They wanted to come see you guys and I figured you'd all be here." The two boys had their mothers let them on their feet so they could run around as Katara sat happily in her father's arms. "Alright, you three, let's go leave your parents alone." She said as the two boys ran over to her as Katara laid her head on Taro's shoulder.

"She's fine. You and the boys go have fun." Izayoi said with a smile at Taro as he ran his free hand over Katara's back. "She's daddy's girl after all." She smiled as Mina took the two boys to go play leaving Jiro to laugh at his brother as Akia yelled at him as Toshiro laughed. Izayoi went to get changed before walking out to Akia punching Jiro's chest as he laughed.

"You ready to go talk to dad? You know uncle wasn't too happy either. So you better know a way to win him over." Toshiro said with a small chuckle.

"I've been wining him over for years." She grinned. "Besides if it gets too bad, Hatsu and aunt Rin will take care of him." She laughed as she walked over to get a hug and a kiss on her cheek from Katara. The group walked down to where the others were.

"This is why I told you before I didn't want you going up against them." Inuyasha said as the adults stood in the courtyard. "You could have been killed and you never had any thought to how powerful they could have been."

"I listened to you and this was different this was planned so that nothing happened to us." Izayoi said as her father continued to lecture her. "I knew what I was getting into. I knew how strong they were, I wasn't going in blind and stupid." She shot back, her anger rising as he looked at her angrily. Taro stood beside Koga as he watched the two argue.

"This doesn't look good." Sango said watching the two yell at each other. Sango looked at Kagome who watched her mate and daughter yell at each other.

"Taro get Izzy." Kagome said making him look at her. "They go too much farther it won't be good." Koga laughed and slapped his son on the back when taro looked at his mate with a sigh.

"You picked your mate. Now go take care of her." He laughed making Taro narrow his eyes at his father as Kagome stepped in front of Inuyasha as Toshiro moved over to help Taro pull Izayoi away.

"Izzy, come on." Taro said as his mate stood seething with a low growl. "Iz." He said as she turned her angry eyes to him. "Let's go." He looked down at her making her look at him and relax. He wrapped his arm around her and the two walked off as she took a deep breath. Kagome got Inuyasha to relax before he walked off in the opposite direction with Kagome.

"That was close." Sango said as the others looked around. "Those two are exactly alike."

"That's why she's his little girl." Nori smiled. "He's very protective of her and she loves him, but being exactly the same…."

"You have no idea." Sango smiled. "They were going at it not long after she was born." She smiled.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome said waking up in the middle of the night. She looked around and looked up to see him standing out on the balcony. She walked over to him to see what was wrong. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"You really should talk to her." Kagome said looking out over the side of the balcony. She smiled as she saw Izayoi walking over to a large tree that sat in the middle of the court yard. "You know as well as I do what it's like to have the enemy going after our kids. It's hard to deal with, you want to be able to protect them." she turned to look at him with a small smile. "I know you still want to protect your little girl but I think we need to let her take the lead."

"She's still too young to go up against the seasoned demons."

"As much as we hate to admit it our babies are growing up. Our little twins are grown up and have families of their own. It's their families that these demons are after, maybe we need to let them have some say in what we do."

"I know. It really just feels like yesterday they were little kids following us when we told them to stay home." Kagome smiled and looked back at the tree.

"Go talk to her. You two did have a pretty bad fight." Inuyasha gave a small nod before giving Kagome a kiss.

"Try to get some more sleep." She nodded as he jumped over the side and walked over the tree to talk with his daughter. He stopped at the base of the tree and looked up finding her in the branches. "Senshi." He said looking up as she looked down at him with her golden eyes.

"What do you want?" She asked softly.

"Come down here." He said before sitting at the base of the tree to wait for her to climb down and sit with him. Once she landed and sat beside him he started speaking to her. "About the fight…"

"Mom talked to you didn't she?" Izayoi asked making him smirk. "I know you. Mom's the one who does the talking and makes you talk to people." She smiled as he shook his head.

"You always did have your mother's brain." He smirked making her giggle softly. "Senshi, about the fight…"

"Don't worry about it. I also know you don't like to really talk about things." She smiled. "I know you were only trying to keep me safe and make sure we were all taken care of."

"You were talking with your brother." He watched he smile and nod.

"Yeah. Yeah Shiro and I were talking with Shippo." She sighed looking away for a moment before looking back at him. "I'm old enough to think and fight, I grew up in the middle of a war. Everyone was after me and my brothers."

"Your mother and I want to keep you all safe and try to make sure nothing could ever happen to you, your brothers, or your sisters."

"We all know that. But what you gotta remember is we were all trained and raised by the best. I wouldn't have been able to even think of going against those guys without growing up with you training me. You raised us to be smart, talented and strong. There's no way we will ever back down from protecting everyone."

"I know I don't want you to have to put yourself in the way if I can help it."

"I know that, but remember; we were raised and taught by the best." Inuyasha smiled and wrapped his arm around her as she laid her head on his chest.

"You really do take after your mother more than I thought." He chuckled as she laughed.

"I may be like mom a bit but I'll always be like you daddy." She smiled up at him making him grin. "I better get back to bed. I should get some sleep before the Kenta and Katara wake up."

"Yeah, those two are even worse than you and your brother were." Inuyasha chuckled as the two stood and started walking back into the castle.

"Dad." She said as they stopped before they went off to their own rooms. "The other kids are on the other side of the well so we can move and do what we have to easily, why we don't take Kenta, Katara and Hikaru over. They'll be safe from the demons and it will make it a lot easier to do what we have to to get these demons out of the way."

"We can take them over in the morning. Get some sleep."

"Night daddy." She smiled before leaving to go to her room leaving Inuyasha standing in his place remembering all the years ago when she was a child.

"You okay?" Taro asked as Izayoi walked into the bedroom.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I just-"

"Had to climb the closest tree?" He smiled as she walked over to him. "Have any luck thinking without the sacred tree?"

"Not too much but my mom got dad to go talk to me." She smiled as they sat on the bed. "We're gonna take the kids to the other side of the well in the morning. It will be safer for them and that way we can do what we have to here."

"They've never stayed on the other side without us, let alone without us. You think your grandmother will be able to handle them with the other kids?"

"Well Aunt Rin and Mizuki will probably stay with the other kids. Taji is there with Akemi, Haruko, and the younger kids already. They'll be able to keep an eye on all of them."

"I'll talk to Mina and Akio about staying and helping out too. It won't hurt to have the extra help around the house and with the kids."

"It's a good thing grandma added onto the house." Izayoi giggled as Taro wrapped his arm around her and held her close to him. "Kenta and Katara are gonna be up in a few hours we should get a few hours of sleep before we are after them." Taro nodded and the two climbed into bed holding each other as they drifted off to sleep.

Izayoi stood holding the sleeping Kenta in her arms as Taro held Katara sound asleep against him while they waited for the last of their group to make it through the well. Izayoi turned as she heard her grandmother talking to her mother before turning to look at the boy sleeping in his mother's arms.

"Izzy, how have you been?" Her grandmother asked with a bright smile.

"I've been good, grandma." Izayoi smiled and hugged her.

"You look prettier every time I see you. And little Kenta…. He's gotten so big." She said with a bright smile suddenly they heard giggles as six two year olds ran over to them. Izayoi laughed as they all attacked their parents. Izayoi took Katara from taro as he bent to hug his youngest sister.

"Taro!" Screamed a little girl with brown hair, and teal eyes. She giggled as he picked her up.

"Hey Chi." He smiled as he held her.

"So what did you guys come over for?" Asked Taji as he stood with the other children.

"Mom." Kagome said walking closer to her mother. "I know it's a lot to ask but we need to keep all the kids here. These demons are after Kenta, Katara and Hikaru. We need to leave them here so they can't get hurt."

"Kagome, you should know best than to think it's a burden." Kaorii said with a smile "We'll take care of them."

"Thanks grandpa." Toshiro said holding Hikaru. Kaorii reached out taking the boy as he started to wake up. "Karu, be good. Okay?" The boy nodded to his father as his mother gave him a kiss on the forehead. Mina took Kenta as Keiko took Katara. The twins looked around seeing their parents.

"You two listen to everyone while we're gone." Izayoi said with a smile. The twins gave a small nod as Katara looked at Taro about to cry. Taro set his sister on her feet as she went to talk with Koga and Ayame and he smiled at his daughter.

"It's alright Kirei; we'll be back before you know it. You just help take care of the others okay?" The little girl nodded as Taro smiled at her.

"Thanks mom." Kagome said with a smile as Inuyasha held a silver haired, gray eyed little girl. "We're going to finish this as soon as we get back over there. So you won't have to have the house this full for too much longer."

"Kagome, just make sure you're all safe. It doesn't matter how long this takes."

"Well Rin, Mizuki and the other older kids are going to stay and help out a bit. Taji," She said turning to look at her son. "If you need to get us or anything you know how to open the well right?"

"Yes mom. Don't worry about anything. You and dad trained us well." He grinned. "Just go make it safe for my niece and nephews."Kagome smiled before shaking her head and saying goodbye. The group said good bye before turning to leave back through the well where Kagome and Izayoi sealed the well.

"So where do we start first?" Jiro asked.

"Well the only thing I can think of is to follow the rumors." Akio said.

"Gotta find the rumors first." Jiro said rolling his eyes at his brother.

"Alright, alright, don't start." Taro said looking at his two brothers. "Last anything came in it was towards the north. If we start heading north we should start running into rumors." Everyone nodded as the little group started off toward the north hoping to end this sooner than later so they all could live out their days in happiness with the younger children.

As the sun sank they decided to stop for the night and rest. They built a fire as the men went for food the women set up. It didn't take long for the group to cook the deer and eat and setting down to sleep. Everyone moved off to their spots to sleep, after saying good night to everyone and talking about their plans for the next day. Taro jumped up into the tree his mate had jumped into. Finding her he sat next to her.

"You okay, Iz?" He asked as she gave a small nod. "What's wrong? You're quiet."

"I can't be quiet?" She asked looking at him from the corner of her eyes.

"No, no you can't. Iz, you're never like this. You know the twins are safe and we'll get rid of these demons. Then we can bring the kids home and we can go back to being happy." He said making her nod.

"I know." She sighed glancing at him before back out to the bright moon. "I'm just…. Taro, you really think we can kill these demons?" Taro looked at her confused. She was never so worried and down.

"We will take them out. There's no way the others are going to let them roam around and there's no way in hell me and you are going to let them get away with going after our kids." He smiled as she gave a small smile and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Let's get some sleep before we have to move in the morning." She nodded as he moved to lean against the trunk letting her sit between his legs and lean on him as they dozed off.