InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter one

Twentyyears after the death of Naraku

Plink. Plink. Plink. Plink. Plink.

 

The stone skipped five times across the water's surface before sinking, splashing apart Isamu's thoughts as he guiltily looked up into his best friend's overly perceptive gaze.

 

“All right,” Kazuki said at last, “Which one is it?”

 

“What?” Isamu asked, genuinely confused.

 

“I said,” Kazuki repeated, sitting down next to Isamu and digging around for another stone, “Which one? Don't worry, I'm not gonna slay you. I saw you staring. So c'mon, tell me?”

 

“What,” Isamu asked, “the hell are you talking about?”

 

Kazuki sighed, blowing out a gust of breath that rippled his overlong fringe. “Do I have to spell it out for you?” He complained. He turned and looked Isamu straight in the eye. “Which. One. Of. My. Sis. Ters. Do. You. Have. A. Crush. On.”

 

Isamu turned bright red, but he couldn't help glancing across the small lake at the girls in question. Kazuki laughed.

“Aha!” He said. “Is it Yuki-ane-san? Please say it's Yuki-ane-san. Because then you two can move away and she'd never have to annoy me again...”

 

“It's not Yuki,” Isamu grumbled, and then realized that he'd said it. Kazuki just laughed louder, causing the smaller children to pause in their game to stare at them. Isamu turned redder.

 

“Haruka-ane-san? Yeah, I can actually see that happening,” Kazuki chuckled, winding down. “So ask her to dance or something. They'll be a party tomorrow night, y'know. For the new baby.”

 

“It's your poor aunt I feel sorry for,” Isamu commented, flopping backwards onto the grass, desperately trying to change the topic. It was a warm summer evening, and they were planning to camp out if the baby wasn't born by nightfall -considering that was the reason they'd been banished from the village in the first place- but now Isamu wasn't sure he wanted to spend that much time with his best friend, who was still grinning.

 

“Don't think I don't know you're trying to change the subject,” he commented. Then he stood and pulled his kimono top off. “Well, if that's the way you want it, let's race! A cold swim would do you good, I think.”

 

Isamu growled under his breath at Kazuki. “Down, you mutt,” the boy reprimanded before diving into the water. Isamu pulled off his shirt too and, trying desperately to ignore Yuki's wolf-whistling and Haruka's giggling, dived under the water.

 

It was a fairly small lake, and he quickly caught up with Kazuki as they swam towards the goal, at the centre of the bottom of the lake. It wasn't really a lake. It was actually a huge crater, which, over the twenty years of its existence, had filled up with rainwater until it had become a more or less permanent feature.

 

At the bottom of the lake was a well, which added another ten feet or so of depth to the race. As they'd grown up, Kazuki and Isamu had first raced to see who would touch the bottom first, and then to see who could do it fastest. Isamu's golden eyes glowed appreciatively as he sped past Kazuki and into the well.

 

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“Onee-san! Look!” Hitomi yelled, thrusting a bunch of bedraggled flowers under her eldest sister's nose. “Look at the flowers me an' Kiki found!”

 

“Kiki and I,” Haruka corrected gently as Yuki made an exaggerated show of sniffing the flowers. Kiki gave another bunch to Haruka.

 

“Hark! Listen to the bookworm,” Yuki said with a chuckle as she tucked a small white flower behind her ear. “Aren't these pretty!”

 

“Thank you,” Haruka said. “You're so clever! Where did you find these?”

 

“They're growing near the Goshinboku,” Hitomi said, now carefully enunciating her words. Kiki started giggling behind her hands, her ears twitching madly.

 

“I wonder if you can find even prettier ones?” Yuki challenged, sending the girls speeding off towards the tree again.

 

“And don't go too far!” Haruka called after them. The god-tree was within sight of the lake, but those two had a knack for getting lost in search of pretty things...

 

“They didn't hear that,” Yuki commented, twisting the more intact flowers into her fringe. “Still, I bet the boys would love to go hunting for a couple of little lost girls... Get to be the `big strong men'...”

 

Haruka laughed as she looked over at the `men' in question. “Michio and Yoshinori already wage battles of the ego every day... surely you don't want to leave Kiki and Hitomi's safety in their hands...”

 

“They'd find them, though,” Yuki replied, grabbing Haruka's bunch of flowers and starting to weave them into her twin's longer hair. “They'd compete to see who could find them fastest... and then get into such an argument that it's be up to Ta-chan to lead them home...” True enough, 6-year-old Takumi was certainly far more mature than his ten-year-old brother or twelve-year-old cousin...

 

“So, are you going to get Isamu to dance with you at the party?” Haruka asked, looking over at the two boys who were talking by the lakeside. Her idiot brother was laughing his head off, which probably had something to do with why Isamu was so red...

 

“Nah,” Yuki said, tying Haruka's ponytail back together and sitting back on the grass. “I mean, he's cute and all... something about those literally puppy-dog eyes...” she cut off to whistle sharply, and Haruka turned and saw it was because the inu-hanyou had taken his shirt off and was diving into the water after Kazuki. She giggled with embarrassment as she got a good eyeful of chest muscle before he disappeared under the water. Cute didn't quite cover it, in her opinion...

“But said puppy-dog eyes are always on you, anyway,” Yuki continued. Haruka looked back at her sister and blushed.

 

“What?” she gasped. “R-really?” that only made Yuki laugh again.

 

“Hey, at least his love's not unrequited,” she commented, which only served to make Haruka blush deeper. She was almost relieved to see that Kiki and Hitomi were far out of sight.

 

“Michan!” She yelled, trying to fight off her blush by changing the subject. “Yoshi-kun! Like a challenge?”

 

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SesshoMaru shot over the lands, fast and alone. Rin was due soon, so he'd decided to go visit her, maybe meet her new baby... relieve a bit of boredom by growling at InuYasha for a bit...

 

What had he been searching for, these past twenty years? A purpose, he supposed. He'd never felt so without a direction before. For a long time, he'd sought to find Tessaiga, then to kill Naraku. But then he'd acquired Bakusaiga, and Naraku had died. And he'd ended up alone.

 

Rin had decided to stay in the village and was now married, with children. She was happy. Jaken had had to return to his clan years back. They had fled their homeland and the forest was torn down and replanted to provide wood. They were presumably hiding somewhere now. Lesser youkai had been dying out rapidly since Naraku. He had killed so many, that those humans who had not seen his wrath had at least heard of it, and now that the wars had ended, the humans had turned their force from each other to the youkai.

 

Of course, the end of the wars also meant many restless soldiers. SesshoMaru's nose twitched as he caught the overwhelming scent of blood and fire. Bandits...

 

He'd never liked bandits much, and meeting Rin had only intensified his animosity. In the years he'd wandered without a purpose, he could be sure of one thing... there were always bandits, murdering for fun... it was only fair, really, that he returned the favour.

 

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“It's a little girl,” Kagome announced, carefully wrapping the baby in a clean cloth as she handed her back to her exhausted mother. She had every right to be exhausted, really...

 

“She's quite large. It's no wonder you had such a long labour,” the miko commented as Rin smiled wanly and clutched her crying child to her breast. The infant instantly settled down to her first meal.

 

“Kohaku?” she called out. “Come in and meet your daughter.”

 

Kagome smiled as the now middle-aged taijiya returned to the hut and sat down next to his wife and youngest child. The haunted boy had returned from his training twelve years ago a much more serious young man of twenty, with battle skills that were almost unparalleled. It had been such a relief to see him. He hadn't visited the village once since he'd left. It hadn't taken long for his childhood friendship with Rin to take hold again and grow...

 

“It's such a beautiful night... what about Tsukiko?”

 

Kagome jerked from her memories with a smile. There was indeed a shining full moon sailing over the village, so it was only fitting that the newborn's name should be “Moon Child”...

 

“That's perfect,” Kohaku agreed, picking up his now-sleeping daughter. “Do you think we should call the kids back or let them camp?”

 

“They're probably having fun... there's nothing in the forest that would hurt them, anyway,” Kagome agreed, before standing to leave the hut. “I'm going to go get some sleep, myself. Goodnight.”

 

“Goodnight, Kagome-sama,” Rin called after her. Kagome started walking towards the hut she'd lived in for the past seventeen years with her family, but instead gave a muffled gasp as strong arms swept her up into the air and over the forest, to the top of Goshinboku.

 

“Warn me before you do that,” Kagome chided, leaning over to tweak her mate's ear. He patted her still-flat belly in response.

 

“Pathetic human. You should be used to it by now.” InuYasha wrapped his arms around Kagome and looked down at the campfire by the edge of the lake where, despite the fact that it was surely past midnight by now, Kazuki was quietly recounting some gruesome ghost story that he'd probably made up. “More trouble than his bouzo father, if you ask me,” the hanyou commented as Kazuki suddenly leapt forward, hands extended like claws, making the girls scream- except Yuki who, true to form, pushed him over. “So what is it?”

 

“A girl,” Kagome said, looking up at the moon. “They named her Tsukiko. Do you think we should tell Yoshinori and Takumi that they have a sister yet?”

 

InuYasha seemed to be thinking it over before he shook his head. “Nahhh. They're having fun.”

 

Kagome giggled slightly. “Should we tell them the other news yet?”

 

InuYasha shook his head. “If Isamu don't notice your scent change in the next week, then he's not the pup I raised him to be.”

 

“Awww, the poor boy's just preoccupied at the moment,” Kagome said, before settling back into his arms with a yawn. It was a long way to the ground from the top of Goshinboku, but she felt safe in InuYasha's arms. She always had, and knew she always would. Forever.

 

“Oi, are you sleeping?”

 

“Mmm-hmm...” Kagome mumbled as she drifted off. “'Night...”

 

“Keh. Pathetic human.”

 

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Isamu means “Bravery”

Kiki means... well, when you hear her given name, the inspiration's kinda obvious. You've probably guessed it already.

Yuki means “Snow”

Haruka means “Scent of Spring”

(the idea is that the twins were born on the cusp of winter to spring.)

Kazuki means “First of a New Generation”

Michio means “Man on the Correct Path”

Hitomi means “Beautiful eyes”

Yoshinori means “Noble Virtue”

Takumi means “Artisan”

 

Ane-ue is a rather archaic way of saying “sister”. Something about the character I envisioned for Kazuki involved his addressing his family with such respectful terms... As you'll see, he also uses “Chichi-ue” for father, “Haha-ue” for mother, and “Ototo-chan” and “Imoto-chan” to address his younger brother and sister respectively. I think Takumi and Yoshinori may be that way too, for different reasons. There's so many of them, it'll take a while to flesh out all of their characters.

 

InuYasha is the property of Takahashi Rumiko-Sensei, and I claim no ownership of any of it. All couples not involving original characters will be strictly canon. Aside from Haruka, Yuki and Kazuki, I made up all of the kids, though since birthdates other than Kazuki's were never really stated in the manga, nor names, I've made these up as well. This fanfic will make little sense if you have not read the entire manga, and I'm afraid that to read the last twenty or so volumes you will have to (at the time of writing) venture into the internet, but I strongly suggest that you do buy the Tankoban volumes for yourself, so that Takahashi-sensei can afford to continue gracing us with her imagination. Anyway, hope you enjoy the fic. ^_-