Title: Along Came A Kitsune
Summary: The jewel is complete and Kagome is back in the modern era. Kurama is looking for a girlfriend but he and Youko can't agree. Then along came a kitsune…
Chapter One: Dreaming of You
Blood.
There was so much blood.
It coated everything so heavily with its putrid odor and slimy feel that it took all her best efforts to keep from spilling the contents of her stomach. But she steadily made her way through the blood-soaked clearing and around various body parts.
She had made it halfway to her destination before she couldn't take it any more. She collapsed onto her hands and knees and heaved. The bile spilled to the ground. Slowly, and a little more weak, she looked up and examined the grounds of the previous battle.
Farther away and to her left, she saw Miroku struggling to rise. His robes hung in tatters around his body and his hair had come unbound. Even from her distance, she could see the red crusting his hair as it did hers, drops of the crimson substance plunking to the ground around her.
Sango had managed to get to her feet, but she was hunched over in pain and clutched at her stomach, where she could see one end of a bloody gash. Kirara limped at her side as they made their way over to the handsome monk. She hoped that his curse had been lifted now and that Miroku and Sango could live together as husband and wife and have lots and lots of kids. They deserved that and so much more.
Kagome tore her eyes away from her friends to continue on. She had stayed back during the final battle with Naraku. She knew she was no good at close-range fighting and would only get in the way during the fight, endangering everyone. And she wasn't thinking about only her friends. If they failed, she knew that no one else would have the power to defeat the evil hanyou. So instead shot her purifying arrows wherever they were needed.
And so, while Sango fought her brother and Miroku fought Kanna, Sesshoumaru (who she was surprised showed up) battled Kagura (who flew away on her feather with glee the second Naraku was losing for good). That left Inuyasha with Naraku.
It had all seemed too unreal to her and she could barely remember what had happened. But then, she remembered seeing a light coming from the direction of the two hanyous. It expanded in a blinding white light and threw her back, knocking her out for a short time. Shippou, who had been with her to protect her from any enemies that endangered her using his Fox Fire, told her it had only been a few minutes. But in that short time, she had found that all of Naraku's followers had been massacred. She had almost thought Inuyasha had turned youkai, but instantly dismissed the idea when her miko senses clearly told her that this was not the work of a youkai.
And so she had gotten up and began to make her way to Inuyasha.
Now that she was there, she realized that he had suffered the brunt of the white force. It wasn't like he was cut up too badly or anything. Being a hanyou, he would be able to heal within a week or two.
But there was a problem.
His hair was black.
And she was certain that, if his eyes were open, they would be violet.
She then realized what that light had been. He had used all of his youki to defeat Naraku and in consequence, he had turned human. He would never survive these injuries.
She fell to her knees and began to cry. After all this time…She had gotten to know him, then grew to love him so dearly…Everything in her life seemed to revolve around him…And now she was going to lose him. Forever. Memories flashed in her mind, coming and leaving before she could fully remember the events. That is, until she remembered a day not so long ago…In fact it had been the day before.
Inuyasha had told her that he loved her. He loved her for her, not Kikyou.
But then, Naraku had come.
Suddenly, she heard something: coughing. She looked around herself and saw Inuyasha with his eyes open. Blood trailed from his mouth. "K-Kagome?"
"Inuyasha…" Tears dropped like rain from her watery eyes.
"Stop crying, wench." He smirked weakly. "You know I hate it when you do that."
She nodded and tried to stop the tears.
"Kagome?"
"Yes, Inuyasha," she replied hopefully.
"Will you…will you put my head in your lap?"
She was a little surprised but immediately complied. Soon, his head was comfortably in the requested position and she sat there, clearing matted hair and blood from his beautiful face. Something similar had happened before, the first time she had seen him as a human. It was then that he had unconsciously complimented her scent. He said it was calming to him, that it comforted him. That was how she knew he was afraid of dying.
He didn't speak any more, but she knew he wasn't dead either, so she began to talk to him. After a few minutes, she began to speak to him about the jewel. "The jewel is complete now, Inuyasha, and Naraku is dead. You can become a youkai now, and we can live together and have children and be happy together. And—"
"No, Kagome. We can't." She was going to protest but was cut off by a coughing fit from Inuyasha. More blood passed through his lips. "What's the point if I'll just go mad? And besides, I couldn't stand the thought of you growing old while I don't age. I don't want to lose you like that."
"…Inu…"
"Kagome, use the jewel and make a pure wish. Then I want you to go home and be happy. You're strong, I know that. That's why I love you so much. No matter what, you can always make it though tough situations."
"I won't be able to forget you, Inuyasha. How can I move on when I'm still in love with you?" she cried.
He looked her in the eyes for a moment before speaking softly, "I'm not asking for you to forget about me, Kagome. But I don't want you to suffer because of me either." He reached out a hand and caressed her cheek and she put her hand over his. "Take Tetsusaiga."
"But—"
"It's my gift to you Kagome," he insisted.
She nodded, tears trailing down her cheeks again. "Then I accept it."
"Good." Another fit overtook him. They both knew he didn't have much longer to live. "Kagome," he said weakly, "I will find you again someday, Kagome. I love you."
"And I love you, Inu." Not a minute after she said this, Inuyasha drew his last breath.
Kagome's heartbroken scream cut through the land.
Kagome woke with a start and looked over to her clock to see the device flashing 5:38 in neon red.
She sighed. It wouldn't be worth the effort to try to get back to sleep. Her alarm would go off at six anyways. She rubbed the tears from her face with her blanket as she remembered what had happened after his death.
Sesshoumaru had offered to bring Inuyasha back to life, not out of brotherly love or anything, but out of gratitude for the group saving his lands from Naraku's taint. But she had refused. Besides, Tenseiga refused to work. Without a word, he had left them.
The trek back to Kaede's village was hard enough with all of them being injured, but it was exceptionally more difficult with a dead body to lug back. Kagome had refused to burn his body along with everything else and so Miroku had slapped an ofuda on Inuyasha to keep his deceased body from decomposing before reaching their destination. When they arrived there, they held a small funeral and buried Inuyasha under his favorite branch of the God Tree.
Kagome had stayed in the Sengoku Jidai for a couple months after everyone's wounds healed, but finally she couldn't take it any more. Seeing Miroku and Sango married and so happy with each other brought such sadness to her that her friends began to worry. It had been so difficult to explain to Shippou that she had to leave him…
The day before she left, she did one last thing: She made a wish upon the Shikon no Tama.
"I wish for there to be a way for youkai and ningen to live in peace."
She hadn't stayed long enough to see the results though. The next day, she had left with Sango and Miroku promising to take care of Shippou.
And now, in her time, she had completed her schooling two years early (thanks to the fact that her mother had enrolled her in home schooling after the first year of shard hunting and the fact that she did her best to keep from remembering everything by staying busy) and had earned a teaching degree. She now worked as a mythology teacher at the local university and took care of the shrine she would take over upon her grandfather's death.
But despite everything that had happened to her, Inuyasha's last words continued to ring clear in her mind.
"I will find you again someday, Kagome. I love you."
AN: Well, everyone, what do ya think? I know a lot of you are probably wondering why I haven't updated Red Flowers. The answer is, I just didn't feel that inspired to write the next chapter for that. I'll probably update it in a week or two.
By the way, I have absolutely no idea what the main plot in this is gonna be ("main plot" meaning if there's gonna be a villain or anything like that). So if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to speak out! Um…next chapter may or may not be very long depending on whether I figure out a plot. That's probably gonna be in chapter three though…
Anyways, as usual, please review!