Disclaimer: I do not own YuYu Hakusho or Inuyasha.

Author's Note: I want to dedicate this chapter to kristina. .3 - thanks for all of your kind words and encouragement!

Silence.

Her world was silence. She looked around and saw carnage everywhere. There was Inuyasha, bleeding from hundreds of cuts, small and large. He was kneeling (on several dismembered carcasses) next to where Kikyo had finally fallen. She had no remains, her body wasn't real to begin with, not for her second life... only clay and dust.

There was Sango, silently weeping over the corpse of her brother. It was silent, wasn't it? The large heaving sobs she was emitting should be making noise... at least she thought so. Right?

Miroku was sitting beside her, leaning against a huge bolder. He was staring at his hand in awe. That was a miracle. His kazanna had opened and ripped. It had devoured everything around him. There was no way that Miroku was going to live. Miroku was going to be destroyed the same as his father, and his father's father before him. Only, Miroku was the last of the line. He had no children to carry on the curse, to break the curse.

But, suddenly, it was over. Sesshomaru had taken Naraku's head from his shoulders. The real Naraku's head. Inuyasha took out the rest of his body with the Bakuryūha. Once Sesshomaru had disolved the head with his acid, Naraku was no more. All those years, fighting, suffering, hunting... all over. All so suddenly. Just like that, the wind tunnel had ceased. The battle had ceased. The blood still poured though. So did tears.

Kagome rose to attend her friends. She rotated in a circle to inspect the ruins of the battlefield once more. As she completed the circle, Inuyasha sprang at her, his face morphing into that of Naraku.

Kagome sprang awake with a frightened cry. The soft sound was absorbed by the strange walls. But, at least she heard it. There was sound... none of that endless silence. Then she glanced around, this was neither Kaede's nor her home. She was in the future, the western style bed and glass windows told her that. She further inspection of the room revealed a single desk and plants everywhere.

'Oh my,' she thought, 'I'm in Kurama's bed! What happened last night?!'

Then it all clicked. The New Year. She had spent the entire thing with her twin brother and his friends. Well, they were her friend's, too, now. Yusuke had made her promise to spend the entire day with them all, from midnight to midnight. They had all ended up at Kurama's place to watch a movie during the last couple of hours.

A soft knock sounded and the door opened. Kurama poked his head in.

"Ah, you're awake. I thought I heard something." Kurama entered the room and Kagome almost fainted. Kurama slept in pajama pants. Only. He wasn't wearing a shirt, oh boy - his chest was, quite possibly, the sexiest thing she'd ever seen. And she'd seen a lot of chests.

Kagome snapped out of it and drug her eyes back up to meet his. There was a light twinkle in his green orbs as they met her brown ones. She narrowed her eyes and brought her mind back into its rightful place.

"Did I make it to midnight, Kurama?" She inquired, glancing down at her hands.

He grinned at the young woman sitting in his bed, "no, you succumbed to sleep twenty minutes before the day ended."

"Gya!" Kagome scrambled out of bed, "Yusuke is never going to let me live that down!"

"It's fine, he passed out shortly before you did. Yusuke never even noticed your lapse into the dream world."

"Oh. Good." Kagome glanced around the room and saw the door that led to his master bath, "may I use your shower?"

Kagome struggled to keep up with her twin's brisk pace. He was irked at Keiko for making him go out to fetch breakfast for the group. Keiko had claimed it unfair for one person to cook breakfast for everybody, especially pigs. She didn't name any names, but Yusuke and Kuwabara were the ones that she was referring to.

"Yusuke, could you please slow down?" Kagome panted. She was healthy and walked (and ran) a lot in the feudal era, even while toting a backpack. But, she was still just a human.

"Sorry." Yusuke grumbled, he did slow his pace, though. They turned a corner, almost back to Kurama's with breakfast.

Yusuke kicked a pebble that dared lay in his path. He watched it skitter across the sidewalk and strike a wall before pitifully bouncing three times to a stop. He smirked. He turned to Kagome to tell her something and saw a huge shadow rise up from the alley they were passing. His eyes got huge and he moved to grab her to safety. He grasped air. Kagome shrieked.

The shadow chuckled, "Pretty lady. Pretty necklace. I believe I will have both." He swung Kagome like a pendulum, holding her by her left ankle so that she dangled upside down.

"Put me down!" she kicked at the hand that held her ankle. It had no effect on the youkai, so she stretched to reach the ground for weapon, but her fingers only scrabbled on air.

"You heard the lady," Yusuke growled, already posed in his famous shooting stance, "put. her. down!"

The youkai glanced at Yusuke, "okay."

It raised its arm and dropped her from its considerable height of twelve feet. Yusuke darted in and caught her before she could strike the ground. She wrapped her arms around her twin's neck and squeezed in thanks. Yusuke swung her down onto the ground, but kept his left arm wrapped around her so that she was leaning into his side and protected. He raised his right arm and with his thumb cocked and his index finger extended, he pointed at the youkai.

"Die." Yusuke snarled, "Spirit Gun!"

The beam disintegrated the youkai that had dared touch his sister. He glared at the spot it had once existed and then his face softened as he looked down at Kagome.

"You okay, kid?" He asked.

"An hour, Yusuke!" Kagome screeched, "You were born one hour before me!"

Yusuke smirked down at her.

"Yes, thank you for saving me." Kagome pulled away from him and looked down at her ankle. There was going to be a fairly large bruise on her ankle soon, and there was a shallow cut that should heal without a scar. Yusuke saw her ankle and was furious. Since he had already obliterated the demon that hurt her, he only had either himself or Kagome to be angry at. He chose himself.

Kagome knew what her brother was doing and snarled at him, her finger almost touching his nose, "Don't you dare feel guilty! You saved my life! If it hadn't been for you, I would have a lot more than a bruised ankle and a small scratch!"

Yusuke blinked at her.

Kagome glared at him.

Finally, Yusuke gave in and grabbed the bags of food he had dropped. Kagome scooped up the drink trays of coffee and hot cocoa that had plunged to the ground when she'd been snatched by the youkai. They were not salvageable, but she wasn't going to just leave them lying there. She limped to Kurama's home, her arm looped through Yusuke's elbow to help her balance.

Kurama opened the door to allow breakfast through and found the disheveled twins looking not at all as well as he'd been expecting.

"What happened?"

"Youkai tried to take her and the jewel." Yusuke shoved the bags at Kurama and scooped Kagome up and dropped her on the couch to inspect her ankle.

Kurama shoved the food at Kuwabara and stepped over to the twins on the couch. Kagome's face was crimson as Yusuke checked over her ankle.

"How bad is it?" Kurama asked.

"I dunno, I'm no doctor." Yusuke responded with a growl.

Kurama brushed a hand through his hair and kneeled next to Yusuke, "Let me see."

Yusuke moved aside as Kagome protested that it really wasn't necessary.

Kurama opened his palm and revealed the plant he had withdrawn from his hair. He tore a leave off and ripped it in half. He handed half to her and mashed the other half between his fingers. He gently smeared it all over her ankle. Then he took a petal off the flowering part of the plant and placed it softly over the cut. He looked up at Kagome's face and she was looking at the leaf half he'd given her.

"Eat it, it will help with the pain." He stood up and went into the bathroom to get something to wrap her ankle in. He saw Keiko and Yusuke out of the corner of his eye. They were kissing softly, obviously, somebody knew how to calm the toushin.

When he came back, food was being distributed and Kagome was laughing at Hiei and Kuwabara's argument. Kurama knelt to wrap Kagome's ankle when she spoke up.

"Yusuke, will you teach me to fight?"

Two days later, Yusuke, Keiko, Kagome, and Kuwabara topped the steps to Genkai's. Kuwabara took off like a rocket to where Yukina was sweeping while Yusuke led the other two towards where he assumed Genkai would be. Sure enough, there she was, playing video games.

"Old hag, I have a favor to ask." Yusuke dropped onto the floor next to her, legs crossed.

"Yusuke!" scolded both his companions.

"Numbskull, shut up for a minute."

The trio waited for Genkai to finish her level, which she did... and got the high score.

"What, you punk?" Genkai turned towards the youth.

"I want you to teach Kagome like you taught me." Yusuke said.

"I don't have Yusuke's powers," Kagome interjected, "I'm a miko. So, it wouldn't be the same... but, Yusuke assures me that if anybody could teach me how to use my powers to their fullest extent it would be you."

"Hmmm." Genkai looked Kagome over. She'd met her before a couple of times and the girl had always been respectful. Guess that's where all the good genes went to in the family. However, she wasn't a trainer of mikos. There weren't any more of them.

"I will train you as I trained Yusuke." Genkai stated, "I am not a miko, nor am I of the Shinto religion. I am sorry, Kagome, but there are not any more true mikos in the world. There haven't been since shortly after the barrier was formed and the worlds split... there was no longer a need."

Kagome blanched.

"I will train you to use the same kind of reiki your brother does. That may give you some knowledge of how to deal with your miko abilities." Genkai sent a sideways look at Kagome, "as long as you're not the same kind of slacker as your brother!"

A/N: Thanks for reading! I have this entire story almost completely planned out... it will be a little more than 12 chapters (with some related one shots) IF the chapters don't turn out too long as I write them. I am going to try to update at least once a week, should there be enough interest in this story.

Please let me know if you like it.

Zeika