Inuhime and Hikaru had been battling for a little while now. After they had eaten their meal, InuTaisho, Inukimi, Kagome, Sesshomaru, and Inuyasha came to watch them battle for dominance. InuTaisho and Sesshomaru were proud that Inuhime wasn't one to submit so easily. Between having the great InuTaisho as your father and Sesshomaru as your twin, one has to be tough. Inukimi was by no means a weakling. She gave InuTaisho run for his money, but he was persistent. She admired his perseverance and among many other things. So in the end, she finally submitted herself to the Dog General. Inuyasha was yelling and cheering on his sister. He'd never really like Hikaru. It was fun messing with him, though. He liked watching Hikaru getting nervous around her. Like if he said anything cruel about Inuyasha, he would get punished for it. Much to Hikaru displeasure, Inuhime had always defended Inuyasha. No one dares speak ill about Inuyasha in front of InuTaisho or Inuhime or one would be facing their wrath. Kagome watched them battling in awe.

She said more to herself than to anybody else, "So, this is what a full youkai beast battling looks like."

Yeah, Kagome heard stories of different youkai beast battling from Sango, Myoga, and Totosai. Also stories what Kaede had told her that were past down to her and Kikyo. However, witnessing one is all together different. Sesshomaru smirked at her comment, but didn't make any reply.

Suddenly, a thought came to Inuyasha and said it out loud, "Is she only playing with him?" That made the Inudaiyoukai chuckled at Inuyasha's assumption. "What the hell is so funny?" Clearly, he was displeased with their action of laughter.

InuTaisho cleared his throat and said, "No, she isn't playing around. She's using her full strength." Sesshomaru added, "If she used her full power on you earlier, then you would be dead."

Suddenly a roar made them focused on the battle because Hikaru had Inuhime on the ground with his mouth biting down on her neck. He was growling, ferociously as Inuhime was snarling back furiously. Inuhime thought to herself, "I am not submitting to a male! Never again!" She struggled beneath him, however, the more she did; the more pressure he was putting on her neck. Inuhime, then thought, "I can't let this happened again. Not again." She whimpered softy, which made Hikaru stopped putting pressure on her neck. In turn, made her seized her struggles.

He asked, telepathically, "You submit?"

She whimpered, "No! I can't! I won't!"

"Why, Inuki?" Silence. "Inuki?" Silence. "Was it because of Toriko?" A whimper was the only answered that he got from her. He sighed. He should had known. "I am so sorry, forgive me, my mate."

"Why you have to be sorry for? You are doing what comes naturally to you... to us."

"I know, but I remember that night then Toriko took you. You, two, fought like this until he made you submit to him. If I recalled correctly, it was rather harsh. However, I am not Toriko. He made you bleed, really badly. I would had never leave a mark on you."

"You've been playing with me?!"

"NO! No, not at all, my love. This is just how powerful you are. I do not wish to make you submit. I want you to do so willingly. Not like this. I promise to apologize to Inuyasha, if you submit to me, here and now." He wasn't snarling like he was. He was glad when she bare her neck to hom. He licked the bite and inhaled in her pleasant scent, which drove him crazy for centuries. Then they reverted to their human-like forms. They were all surprised that Inuhime didn't had any injuries, however, she did do a number on Hikaru. His injuries were deep cuts of claw marks and deep puncher wounds from her formidable jaws.

Inuyasha was disappointed to see the battle ended the way it did. Yes, he knew it was selfish of him thinking that she should kick the living hell out of Hikaru. However, he also wondered why she was so determined to win, then suddenly she submitted; just like that. He heard her whimpered, but it wasn't out of pain, but out of sorrow. As promised, Hikaru apologized to Inuyasha for every insult that he'd had utter since he first met him. Hikaru stretched out his hand to shake. Inuyasha was surprised to say the least. He was rather reluctant until he looked at Kagome. She smiled at him encouragingly. Then he looked at his sister, she gave him the same smile. He inwardly sighed. The finally shook his hand with a hard, firm shake with a stern face. Hikaru smirked. He was grateful that Inuyasha shook his hand because it showed that he accepted his apology, but somewhere deep in the abyss of his mind, he knew Inuyasha would still be a pain-in-the-ass.

*Time-skip*

Three months later...

The children/pups were at the gardens playing while Jaken and Nanami were watching them from afar. Jaken wished that his master would get him do other things like telling the servants what to do. Yes, he missed that job. Nanami rolled her eyes at the imp's sulking. Natsume was growing fast. She was now walking and speaking in coherent words. She was very observant for her young age. She also inherited her mother's holy powers. Sometimes, she would shock some servants by accident. However, every time that Jaken was mean to Rin or the other human girls, she would zap him with her powers. Shippo did the same, however, he would turn Jaken into a statue. They would laugh and run away. Nanami sighed when she remembered those memories. She can't help, but to giggle at Shippo's and Tsume's antics. Jaken, however, glared at them. He also promised to punish them whenever he got the chance.

A hysteric cry coming from Natsume took Nanami out of memory lane. She instantly ran to her charge. She picked her up and try to comfort her, but no avail. She ordered Miroku and Sango's children to return home to get ready to dine. She motioned Shippo and Rin to follow her into the palace. Jaken was on there tail. He was asking in his annoying squeaky voice, "what's wrong with her highness?" Nanami didn't reply she needed to find Kagome. They finally found her in the study with the Lord, himself, going over some missives that his spies had been spending him. It wasn't very hard to get the young parents to go to their pup once they heard her cry.

Kagome clearly and understandably worried asked Nanami, "What happened?" She quickly sit down with Natsume and began rocking her back and forth. She whispered, "It's okay, Tsume. Mommy and Daddy is here." Sesshomaru was glaring at Jaken, which made him hide behind Nanami. "What happened," Sesshomaru roared which made Nanami flinched.

"I don't know, milord. She just started crying suddenly."

Sesshomaru looked at Rin and Shippo wanting them to tell them what happened. Rin said, "We were playing tag, but then Tsume just started crying. We tried to comfort her, even, Nanami, tried to."

"Did someone picked on her?" Both Rin and Shippo shook their heads.

Sesshomaru was going to ask them another question, but he was interrupted when her grandparents or shall I say, her grandpapa forced the doors opened to reveal himself, his mate, Inuhime, and Inuyasha. He asked, "Why is our grandpup crying?!"

"Yeah, Ice bastard, why is my youngest niece crying?!"

Before Sesshomaru would comment, Inuhime walked towards Natsume. She stared at her. It seemed as if they were communicating while Natsume was softly sobbing into her mother's chest. Inuhime sighed and said, "She had a terrible vision that we were all gone and she was all alone. Someone was taunting her saying that her family was dead and she'd be next in line to die. That's not all. She kept on seeing a woman with red hair and green eyes."

They all said the woman's name with venom in unison, "Akira!"

Ichiko knew that Inuhime would never help her destroy her kind, however, Zokushi had learned from under the same teacher. Ichiko explained to Zokushi why she needed her help with this particular transformation spell.

"Why, Ichiko, would you think that I would give you the spell knowing full well what you are up to?"

Ichiko sighed. "My brother. He wouldn't take any excuses. He knows that I know a lot of spells including those that one could transform oneself. It isn't like I want to help him! He could always find another dark miko. At least this way, we will know how long he could stay transformed. We just won't tell him that there's a time limit. Besides, he's an evil man. I know that I did some things, but that was more on survival than just the pure fun of it like he does. Zoku, you got to believe me. I have nothing against your best friend nor any of her family. I just want to do something for someone other than myself. Something good."

"Something good, you say?"

"Yes." What happened next was really surprising to Ichiko. Zokushi started laughing. She laughed until tears were coming down from her eyes. "Are you quite done, yet?"

"Wow, I haven't had a good laugh in a long while. Thanks for that, Ichiko!"

"I am glad that you'd found that amusing, but I am serious, Zokushi!"

It took a little while longer for Zokushi to calm down from all her laughter. Ichiko was tapping her foot at Zokushi. She was hoping that she would get the hint on how aggravated she was. However, that was in vain, cause every time Zokushi looked at her, another round of laughter came.

"Are you finished, yet?!'

"Oh,' she started in calm down slowly, 'I am so sorry, Ichiko. I'd never in my years heard you say that you wanted to help people."

"I may had done some terrible things, but my brother has done far more worse than I ever had."

In all seriousness Zokushi asked, "So, Ichiko, what's the plan, then?"

Ichiko looked at her and smirked. "The plan is killing two birds with one stone."

"Hmm... we need to plan this carefully. The last thing we need is having this plan back fire on us and everyone involved. And what about the pup?"

Ichiko looked at the pup in question with soften eyes. "We both have seen no future with this pup. We even prayed to the Kami, but they seemed to not want us to intervene on its behalf."

"In other words, there's nothing we could do for Akira's son."

Ichiko shook her head in the negative in confirming Zokushi's assumption. Then suddenly, Zokushi put her forefinger to her red, pouty lips and whispered, "The she-devil is coming." That comment made Ichiko giggled with the person person walked in the room with the confidence that she had in the world with her.

"What's so amusing, Ichiko?"

"Oh, it was nothing, Akira. The nanny and I were sharing some pup stories with each other." Then she basically made up a believable story to share with her.

"Well, that does seem amusing, Ichiko, however, the nanny's job is to watch and take care of my pup, not to hear you babble about the past. Now, you, 'she turned to a disguised Zokushi, 'go get my pup ready because we will have some interesting guests tonight."

With that Akira turned her heel and left. Zokushi sighed. "Fine. I'll help you with the spell. Have your brother here before those 'interesting guests' comes." Ichiko nodded before Zokushi left with the young pup, Yamiko. She was whispering to the pup while she was walking towards the pup's room, "Well, Yamiko, this is the beginning of the end." The pup with those emerald green eyes looked at his nanny and yawned, then he put his head on her shoulder and began to fall asleep.

Inuyasha (c) Rumiko Takahashi

Fanfiction & OCs (c) ladytari