Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 23 – Training Day (Part 1)

As the group finally began to bed down for the night, InuYasha turned to his small counterpart and nodding towards the cave opening and commented "I think we should spend tomorrow and tomorrow night right here in this cave. It will be a very dark night tomorrow, no moon. I don't want to have to risk all of us being in the open."

Glancing casually at the two hanyou Tsuru smirked and interjected "So that's your time, is it?"

Sighing InuYasha thought for a moment and finally replied "Yes, it's not something we are comfortable with others knowing about, and if you try anything Kagome will purify you so fast you won't know what hit you, on top of everything else we don't actually know what will happen this time, the crowns may have changed the natural order of things."

Tsuru managed to look affronted and huffed "How can you even think such a thing, I would never take advantage of someone at their time of weakness and your secret is safe with me, I would never broadcast such information. You have done nothing but help me; I would never repay your help with betrayal!"

InuYasha sighed, rubbed that back of his neck and explained "I sorry, after all of these years, it's become second nature to distrust others. I managed to keep this information an absolute secret for over 150 years and now there are so many who know it's getting ridiculous!"

Despite the fact that everyone had agreed to sleep in a bit, the next morning found InuYasha up and about before everyone else. He could not sleep, the prospect of being able to access more of his youki was too exciting and he wanted to see if he would be able to accomplish any of the fabulous feats that his brother could. He knew that there was no way he would be able to transform into a giant inu like Sesshomaru could, since he was already manifesting his "true" form, but perhaps he could master some other powers.

Yasha and Tsuru soon joined the early rising inu and the three males moved outdoors, leaving the girls to their slumber.

Tsuru smirked, gazed off into the distance and commented "So InuYasha, do you want to see what you can do?"

Nodding InuYasha replied "Of course I do, but I don't have any idea where to start, what should I do?"

Motioning for the two inu hanyous to sit next to each other Tsuru knelt opposite them and after a moment of thought began "I am no teacher, but I will try and guide you through this as I was guided in my youth. In order to utilize your youki you must be able to tap into it at will. Close your eyes and try to meditate, as you quiet your mind, you should be able to actually feel your youki. It is a primal energy and wild, it is the very heart of your animal spirit, remember that while you are half human you are also half inu; you must tap into that part of your soul. Now both of you see if you can find that part of yourself, if you can, all I want you to do is try and let it fill your body with energy, but don't let it take over your mind. Remember even full blooded youkai can be overcome by their animal nature, it is intellectual thought that keeps it in check."

A bit confused InuYasha interrupted "If it is intellectual thought that keeps animal youki in check how does little Shippo do it? He is very young, and acts very much like a human child, I don't think I have ever seen him act like a real animal fox, and other than having a tail and paws he has never transformed into one."

Nodding again Tsuru smiled and quickly replied "Yes, a good question, higher youkai, that is youkai who have for many generations manifested themselves in a human type form often prefer to actually birth their offspring in that human form, it literally gives the child a head start. Human heads and brains are larger than almost all animals, so being born in a human form allows for more intellectual growth. The trade off is that the child must actually master their youki in order to transform back into their true form. The human form actually becomes the simplest to maintain, even though it is not their true from. That is why there are many pure blood youkai with human like bodies, but with some sort of animal part remaining, either their true animal head or a tail, or even appearing as completely animal, but upright walking like a human. They may have been born into a somewhat human like form, but they still have not mastered their youki enough to completely assume one form or another, or they may simply be too weak to ever make the change. I myself was born in a human like form, I had real feathers and, well rather embarrassing feet, it took me years of training to assume my true form, but once I did I found it much easier to get this form to appear more human. As it is, I rarely take my true form, and I mostly fly using my youki not my wings, having real hands is really so much more convenient than wings. As much as youkai are always going on about their superiority, the truth be told, in their true form, most animal youkai do not have hands and do not posses the sophisticated speech all humans posses. That's also why those drat monkey youki never bother to assume a truly human form, they are so close to human already that they never bother."

Satisfied, and overly informed by Tsuru's explanation both InuYasha and Yasha began to meditate, trying to locate and master their youki.

Within a few minuets InuYasha was able to clear his mind and much to his surprise he began to feel what he assumed to be his youki. On the night of the full moon he always felt more powerful, more 'primal', this seemed very much the same. More confident he encouraged the feeling and let it fill his body and mind, but unlike those horrible times when his youkai blood took over in the past, this time InuYasha realized that he was still very much in control. Opening his eyes InuYasha whispered to Tsuru "I think I found my youki and I'm letting its power fill me. What should I do now?"

Glancing at Yasha, Tsuru realized that while the younger hanyou had located his youki he was still trying to encourage it out from its normal dormant state; he assumed that being so much younger, Yasha simply had not had as much experience with his youki. The younger hanyou had never lost control the way his older counterpart had so his youki was going to be much more suppressed. Then, returning his attention once again to InuYasha, in a quiet steady voice Tsuru proceeded "Your youki is like a reservoir of power, you need to consciously guide it and then draw on it. Let's start with something basic. I want you to think of your youki as a vapor, a cloud that you are sitting on, and then imagine that cloud hovering just a bit above the ground. Once you have that image firmly fixed in your mind I want you to open your eyes and look directly at me."

Tsuru smiled as InuYasha scrunched up his face in concentration, his smile grew into a grin when the hanyou finally opened his eyes.

Holding InuYasha's eyes with his own, Tsuru nodded and whispered "You have done very well, I want you to firmly hold that image of floating in you mind, and then very slowly look down."

InuYasha very slowly and cautiously lowered his gaze and then gasped; he was floating at least two or three hand breaths above the ground. Swallowing audibly the stunned hanyou whispered "Am I doing this?"

Tsuru quickly reassured the awed hanyou "Yes, you have created a youki cloud. As long as your mind is focused on floating you will continue to do so, eventually it becomes second nature. If you imagine yourself rising, you will rise. Think of ascending slowly and you will do so. Go ahead and try to rise, I will rise with you and make sure nothing goes wrong. I am more than fast and strong enough to catch you if you should fall".

It was only then that the still stunned hanyou realized that the crane youaki was also floating at the same distance from the ground.

Nodding InuYasha imagined himself rising slowly into the sky and was rewarded when he realized that he was indeed gently floating upwards. True to his word Tsuru rose at the exact same speed, gently praising and encouraging the hanyou. Tsuru then asked InuYasha to come to a complete standstill, he then asked InuYasha to try to moving forwards, when the hanyou had mastered stopping and starting, the crane youkai then instructed InuYasha in left and right turns. After several more minuets of flight Tsuru instructed InuYasha to gently float back down to the ground.

By now Yasha had opened his eyes, abandoning his own meditation to watch his older counterpart in awe.

As InuYasha gently lowered himself once more to the ground he realized that not only had Yasha been watching, but Kagome and the Princess had emerged from the cave and were now seated near the young hanyou, both looking as awestruck as the little hanyou.

Once he was again safe and sound and standing on solid ground InuYasha cracked a grin, gave his mate a big hug and proclaimed "I can't wait to get back home, Miroku will wet himself with envy!"

Authors note: I have always wondered why (in the manga & cartoon) so many pure blood youkai either had the heads of animals (I remember there were panther youkai with human bodies and panther heads) or like Hachi were upright walking animals. Shippo had paws and a tail, but Sesshomaru obviously did not have paws, he had real hands and we assume feet, since he wore boots (as to whether Sess has a tail or not, that's a whole can of worms I so do not want to get into!).