InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Haunted ❯ Two Thousand Years ( Chapter 21 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter 26: Two thousand Years

Inuyasha was sitting, head sunk on his chest, trying to stay conscious. The link was very weak, and it was taking a heavy toll on him.

Aisai, please, beloved wife, my mate, come back, I can't take much more of this, I need you!

His heart almost burst through his chest when he felt the link open wide and her voice answer him....'I'm here, koinu, Its okay'... and he moved faster than he ever had before when he saw her slide to her knees, grabbing her before she hit the ground.

"Kagome!" he gasped, holding her so tightly she almost couldn't breathe. "What happened? Are you okay? Kami, wench, don't ever do that to me again!"

She pulled away, taking the mirror firmly in both hands, she raised it high over her head and smashed it to the ground, sighing in relief when it shattered. As she did so, there came a flare of power from the rocks where she had immobilized Kanna, and she watched as the pale girl faded away, giving her a look of gratitude, "Thank you," blowing on the wind.

"I never expected that," she said dazedly, looking up at Inuyasha. "Poor Kanna."

Sesshoumaru moved away from the tree he had been sitting against, and glanced over at his brother, who was currently entwined with his mate.

Ridiculous... he looks like he's trying to climb inside her skin with her - he gets far too emotional.

Keeping his usual stoic expression with some difficulty, he motioned for Inuyasha's attention. "Perhaps the questions should wait 'til we are back at your camp, little brother. Your mate looks weary, and it is getting late in the day."

Kagome looked up at the sky, surprised to see how late it was. "How long....?"

"You were gone for most of the day, koi, now do you see why I was so worried?"

He sighed and stood up, drawing her with him. "Sesshoumaru is right... for once," he said, with a sly, sideways glance at his brother, "we should probably get going. We can talk after dinner, and believe me, onna, you're gonna have a lot of talking to do." He turned and presented her his back. "Climb on then, wench, lets get moving."

She sighed wearily, climbing up onto his back and laying her head down on his shoulder, enjoying the feeling of closeness and his scent, allowing it to soothe her. "Are you okay, Inuyasha? You aren't hurt or anything, are you?"

He shook his head. "No, both Sesshoumaru and I are fine, neither of us was injured at all. Since you did most of the fighting, I should be asking you that..."

"I'm fine, koinu. Just tired. It's been a long day, in more ways than one. It's been an amazing day, in one sense, as well, " she said, thinking of meeting Amaterasu-kami. After all, how many people could honestly claim to have met a Kami like this? And had her call them 'my child'?

Gramps would have a fit if he knew, she giggled softly, thinking about it.

Surprisingly, it didn't take them all that long to get back to camp, and they were welcomed with glad cries. Inuyasha took Kagome to her bedding and setting her down gently, told her not to move. "I'm going to go catch dinner - you stay here and relax, koi, understand me?"

She smiled up at him, nodding her head. "Okay. I'm tired enough, that sounds good to me. Hurry back."

Nodding, he turned to Shippo. "Let's go, runt. Time to earn your keep."

Grabbing the little kit out of midair when his jump was slightly miscalculated, he snickered. "Then again, if you feel like trying that move again, you'll smash yourself to death on the rocks... and we can have kitsune for dinner."

Turning, he leapt off into the trees, Shippo's indignant cries fading off into the distance.

Sesshoumaru watched all this with his normal, calm expression, before going over to a tree at the furthest point he could and still be technically inside the perimeter of the camp, and settled himself back against it. He would move closer when the miko began to tell of this days events... he was curious to know what had happened after she disappeared into the mirror.

He looked up at hearing the voices of the monk and taijiya, glad that they weren't speaking to him.

"So, Kagome, what happened? Did you find Kanna? None of you look the worse for wear," Miroku asked, then glancing at Sesshoumaru, he lowered his voice. "And why is he here? I take it that there is a - truce of sorts, for now?"

Kagome nodded. "Yeah, he has agreed to ally with us against Naraku. Things are about to come to a head soon with him, we both feel it. So he'll stay with us 'til we've dealt with him. As for the rest, I'll explain it all after dinner, I'm kinda tired, and it's a long story, so I only want to tell it once." She looked over at a silent Sango. "How are you feeling, Sango? How's the fever?"

Sango shook her head, glancing over at her. "I'm alright, I guess. I still don't have any energy, and the fever goes when I take your medicine, but then comes back after it wears off. But I'll be fine, I'll eat dinner, listen to your story, and then go back to sleep."

"That sounds like a good idea," she sighed. "It's been a trying day, in one way or another." Yawning, she stretched her arms over her head, feeling the tension drawing out of her muscles. It felt good to relax.

It got quiet for a while, everyone lost in their own thoughts. Kagome let her mind wander, just sitting back inside herself and passively watching as random memories of the last several years passed in front of her.

She saw the time that Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru fought Sou'unga, the knowledge that even then, Inuyasha had been willing to keep fighting even into death to protect her, warming her heart and soul.

She watched as Kagura fired her own arrow back at Inuyasha, who was pinned to another tree. In all her days, she would never forget the horrible fear that had gone through her, and her own utter determination not to ever let him be harmed again by a weapon that belonged to her, especially not after Tsubaki, and Menomaru.

'Feh... silly wench, none of that was you, and I never blamed you for any of it. I always knew you would never hurt me of your own free will.'

She could tell he meant it, he wasn't trying to hide any of himself from her, and she felt nothing but trust and love coming from him, no doubt. She sighed again.

That's a good thing, itoshii, because I have a feeling we're going to need every bit of trust in each other and our link to make it through what's coming. She could feel his emotions become grim.

'Yeah....'

---cCc---

Inuyasha piled more wood on the fire, before going over to Kagome's sleeping bag and plopping down behind her. Pulling her back into his chest, he wrapped his arms around her. He lowered his head a moment, and put his nose into her neck, breathing in deeply, inhaling her scent.

Finally feeling calm again, he leaned back and watched his brother move closer to the fire, preparing to listen to her tell what had happened earlier that day. "So, wench, start talkin'. I want to know everything."

Kagome smiled softly, leaning back into her mate's chest, quickly going boneless as she relaxed into him. He could be so demanding sometimes... but she loved him anyway.

"Well, you know I took us both into the mirror, I knew that in there I could trap him and then destroy the mirror, if I could not purify his soul and free it. At first, when we got in there...."

"....so, anyway, the long and short of it is that Kichiro has gone to his rest. He's waiting for his next turn on the wheel, and he went willingly. He finally understood that we weren't fated for each other, and he let go."

She sighed, closing her eyes. "The truth was hard for him to take, at first, but when he realized that his true soul mate was out there, waiting for him, he was happy to go. I only hope he doesn't have long to wait."

Inuyasha tightened his arms around her. He could tell that there were other things that had happened, but he felt her desire to keep those parts just between them, so he knew that later, she would tell him the rest, and he was content. For now, he concentrated on the things she had told them all.

"So... you used a lot of power today, itoshii, is that why you are so tired? You said before that you hadn't found any limits, that your battle that time hadn't tired you at all, so does this mean that you've finally started coming across those limits you spoke of?"

She shook her head. "No, that's not why I'm tired. It's more... emotionally, I think." She smiled, a little sadly. "The last few weeks have been draining, in a way. A lot has happened." Glancing up at her mate, she reassured him softly.

"The parts about us, those parts are all good, Inuyasha, never doubt it. The only thing about it all is the suddenness of it. I've loved you for a long, long time. But... you had other things to think of, and I didn't think you felt the same. So it was kind of, well, shocking to find that you loved me, too. I really didn't expect that."

"And then," she frowned, "there's all the other things that have happened." She looked out towards the edges of the trees, watching the light from the fire flicker against the leaves. It looked beautiful, and she was enjoying the feeling of sleepy peace that it gave her, the quiet in the camp as everyone was lost in their thoughts, and the warmth of her beloved against her back.

Miroku sighed, and then stirred a bit, stretching his muscles. "So, then, what your saying is that you still haven't found any limits." He frowned. "I'm not sure what to make of that, honestly. There has to be something that we are not aware of, Kagome. It isn't natural for a human to have such profound powers. That's the province of the Kami themselves."

Kagome nodded in agreement. "You're right, Miroku. But, I think, from what Amaterasu-Kami said, well, I gathered that I was sort of, created, for a certain purpose. She said that I was as close to a child of hers as anyone would ever be so... I think that I was given this strength for a reason... and certainly, it would explain why I was brought so far into the past."

Sesshoumaru frowned. He had been listening quietly all this time, keeping his own council, as was his way, however, now he had questions. "Yes... that is a good question. Why were you brought so far into the past? Why weren't you just born into this time? I do not understand why they felt that breaking the barriers of time was necessary."

Kagome sat up a little and looked at her 'brother-in-law'. "The first time that we met Kanna, she tried to steal my soul, but she couldn't. The reason is that it was too 'large'. I never understood why, until now. When Kikyou was alive," she glanced over her shoulder at Inuyasha, before looking down at her hands, clasped together in her lap, "she could keep the jewel purified, but she couldn't do anything else with it. She couldn't have gotten rid of it, and her supposition that if they wished a pure wish on it, i.e. wishing for Inuyasha to be human, would destroy it, was wrong. It would never have worked. Kikyou was not meant to put an end to the jewel. Our soul still had too much to learn, before we would be ready for that task. So, the Kami allowed the jewel to be sent away when she died... until it was my time to be born."

Inuyasha stirred against her back. "So, what would have happened if we'd actually made that wish?"

"I'm not sure - but it would have messed things up badly. I think that, if you had succeeded, Naraku would have become invincible. He would never have been defeated. What happened," she sighed sadly, "I know it caused you so much pain, Inuyasha, but it was necessary. Otherwise, all of history would have been changed. Naraku would have gained supremacy, and everything would have been destroyed." She looked at him again, pain in her eyes. "I'm sorry."

He hugged her to him hard. "Don't be, koi. I'm not, not anymore. All that pain, it was worth it. I wouldn't change anything about where I am now. The only thing I regret is Kikyou's suffering. Nothing else."

"Anyway, the fact of the matter is that my soul needed to be re-incarnated many times, in order to learn what I needed. So the Kami made sure I had that time. That's why the five hundred years. And then they bent time, to bring me back here, where I was required. One thing's for sure," she grinned, "the Kami don't let anything get in their way, not even time, when they set out to do something."

Miroku looked up from the fire. "I think you are right, Kagome. What you have said makes sense. I for one am glad that we have the blessing of the Kami in this. It makes a difference. But still... the thought of so much power in your hands... it is humbling, is it not?"

She shook her head. "Not humbling, merely necessary. I'm just me, Miroku, not anyone else, no one overly special. I was given only what I need to complete the job that the Kami gave me. But it isn't even me that's the most crucial person in this fight. It's Inuyasha. Without him, none of us would stand a chance... not even me. He and I, we'll need to combine our strength, along with all of yours, to defeat Naraku. We are all necessary."

Sango shifted in her bedding, surprising the others, who had thought she was asleep. "I disagree with you there, Kagome." Looking straight across the fire at her best friend, the woman who she saw as her sister, she smiled.

"You are someone special. None of this," she gestured around the fire, "would have been possible without you. I honestly don't think the extent of your spiritual powers is even the most important reason you are here. I believe that your most important task was bringing us all together. Your most powerful asset is your capacity for love. You have given all of us what we needed... a family, and hope. All of us here, except you yourself, are pretty much orphans. You brought us all together, and it is your love that bonded us."

She smiled at Kagome, her feelings open for everyone to see. "You are the sister of my heart, and I know that Miroku loves you as his sister as well, Shippo sees you as his mother, and Inuyasha, well," she laughed, "we all know how he sees you."

Inuyasha reddened as Kagome blushed and smiled, once again leaning back into his chest and snuggling as far into him as she could get. Her eyes were damp, tearing up a bit from Sango's words. She smiled back at her sister, feeling her heart overflow with love for this 'family' she had found.

It was a lesson that she had learned a long time ago. Family is where you make it, and love is what binds it, not blood. And her heart was just as bound to these people as it was to her family on the other side of the well. She loved them all, equally. Of course, Inuyasha was a bit different, after all, he was what held her heart together.

Sesshoumaru hadn't spoken since that one question, not wanting to interrupt the people talking around the fire, he just listened, and considered what he heard. He had to agree with the demon slayer. The miko his brother had chosen as a mate was definitely what held these people together, and even full youkai as he was, he could see her heart in everything she did. It held more love than he had ever seen in anyone, and she never hesitated to open it to any who wanted in.

Even he himself, she gave affection to, respect, though he had many times tried to kill her and his brother. He had to admit, she had changed him, and he had a great deal of respect for her. Of course, in his case, Rin herself had more to do with his change of heart, but that was no one else's concern, so he did not speak of it, only kept it locked away in his heart. Someday, he would speak of these things, but only to Rin herself.

He found himself longing for that day.

"So, you needed five hundred years of living, to become strong enough to fight Naraku. Is he really that powerful?"

Everyone turned and stared at Sesshoumaru, having forgotten for a few moments that he was even there, he had been so quiet.

And Kagome shook head in the negative. "Not just five hundred, Lord Sesshoumaru." She looked at the people around the fire, weariness once again settling on her. "Two millenia."

At that, they all realized just why she felt weary. Two thousand years. That's a lot of lives, and all of it leading up to this place and time.

---cCc---

A/N: I am not claiming any knowledge of buddhist beliefs in this story, beyond the generally known one of re-incarnation, nor of true japanese beliefs. I have the general idea that the traditional shinto beliefs have been integrated with the buddhist, but the 'wheel of life' idea is mine, and is just for the purposes of this fic, so please, no flamers screaming that I don't have the ideas correct.