Disclaimer: I own nothing. Rest assured if I owned the hotness that is in these series I would not be wasting my time writing fan fiction! This applies to this chapter and the rest as well ok? So no suing!

(P.S.: The prologue is kinda important, even though it doesn't seem like it k?)

Kagome's POV

Feelings for a Fox

Prologue

So long ago. An eternity it was when I left my son at the shrine and returned to fulfill my duties. I have a number of estates, all over Japan and even a couple in other parts of the world. But now I am finally home, with my family, where I belong. This is where I belong… isn't it?

For them it's been a couple of weeks without me. For me it's been over 500 years without them. I am and yet am not the same woman-child they remember me being. Five hundred years of living for no other purpose than maintaining the barrier, and protecting humanity from the rogue demons of the Makai. That has been my existence. An empty life, distanced from the very souls I protect by the knowledge that whatever I am it is not completely human, not anymore. I am the physical manifestation of the barrier between the three worlds, its incarnation.

You must be wondering who I am and what it is I speak of. Allow me to start at the beginning then.

Long ago- unless you're not human, then it wasn't really so long after all- about 550 and some odd years really, there was a rather lovely and powerful miko named Kikyo. She was said to be kind, but distant-closed off from the people around her by the burden of her duty. She was the protector of the jewel known as the Shikon no Tama.

I know what you're thinking… you're thinking, 'Why is she telling me this? We all know the legend of Inuyasha!' Ohhh, well look who knows so much! Now where was I? Oh yeah…

It was a lonely position, one that wore at Kikyo's heart when she watched the children of the village running to greet their mothers. There was no comfort for one such as herself, cut off from the rest of humanity. That was until she met him. He was like her, a part of, yet apart from society. Although her position was one of honor while his was a position that was looked down upon. An accident of his birth.

They were together in spite of the unspoken but understood rules of the time-that no miko would ever know the touch of a man, lest their powers become tainted, or lost altogether. Theirs was a secret affair, kept hidden from the village. One that even her young sister Kaede only guessed at. But then it came to an end.

She realized she did not love him. More importantly Kikyo realized that he did not truly love her, that he had come to her with the intention of stealing the jewel. And so she fled, leaving her village her with the impression that she was going to be taking a trip to gain greater spiritual knowledge to better serve them. But in truth she fled from him, for unbeknownst to the thief she carried his child.

What? Never mind the kid! It's not important just yet. Look do you want this story or not?

Months passed and she returned to her proper place, among her people. Alone. And that is how she remained, until yet another man came to her seeking the stone. This one was different from the first, for he was an outcast in a way that could not be rivaled even by her position as the protector of the sacred jewel. He was an inu hanyou named Inuyasha.

Rivals they were until their rivalry changed and blossomed, deepening into something more. Eventually she grew to love the golden eyed demon, and he to love the strong willed human. But he would never fit into her life as he was. She tried to convince him to wish upon the jewel, to turn himself into a human so that he could have a place at her side. But Inuyasha was stubborn, wanting the jewel to become full demon so that he would never be weak or defenseless against the demons who attacked him because of his heritage.

Then something horrible happened. The thief named Onigumi returned to Kikyo's village, seeking refuge after being wounded during a failed thievery attempt. His return brought dissention between the new lover's and worse, it brought suffering to countless people. The father of Kikyo's child was mortally wounded, burned beyond recognition and there was nothing she could do short of wishing on the jewel she had sworn to keep safe, to keep him alive. Yet she could not bring herself to do so, even though he begged her to save him.

Sucked to be him didn't it?

In his rage he gave his soul to the wandering spirit of a demon, and merged with the malicious being, becoming neither human nor demon, but an evil entity that was known simply as Naraku. Naraku resented the hanyou, desiring both the jewel and the woman possessing it. He took the form of the half demon and attacked the woman he wished to claim, causing her to believe the hanyou had betrayed her as well.

It was a well aimed barb, feeding off the insecurities from her first relationship, and she in rage attacked the innocent Inuyasha. The hanyou defended himself, wounding her and tried to take the jewel from her, believing that her attack was proof that she could not love him, no matter what form he took. She died from his attack, and the jewel disappeared in the flames of her funeral pyre. The Inu hanyou was trapped against a great tree, sealed into a deathlike slumber by Kikyo's final arrow, until he was released fifty years later by a girl from the future.

Still with me? Good. Now is where the child becomes important. Well not really the child itself, but the fact that it even existed at all is important. The daughter Kikyo had grew up in a village, raised by a loving couple unable to have kids. Her daughter had a daughter- yada, yada, yeah you get the idea. Now this is where the child becomes important…

Shortly after the Inuyasha's release at the hands of a miko from the future, there was a wolf youkai tribe, headed by a prince named Kouga. His men attacked the ningen village to capture food for his den mates. All of the villagers were slaughtered, helpless against the more powerful demon predators. Everyone was killed… Everyone except for a single child who had survived only because Sesshomaru, the cold Taiyoukai of the West had revived her, using the great magic of the sword Tenseiga.

Is that a look of dawning comprehension I see on your face? So you've caught where this is all going have you? Just wait, it gets even better.

Yes, as I'm sure you have guessed, the child named Rin, was the granddaughter of the long dead miko. She became the adopted daughter of Sesshomaru and disappeared along with her new family completely after the defeat of Naraku. No one is really certain what became of the arrogant lord and his endearing charge. Except for me… but I'm not telling. I, Kagome, was the girl from the future, and Kikyo's descendant who released the slumbering hanyou from his rest. On my fifteenth birthday, I was drawn into the well at my family's shrine by a centipede demon who attacked me for the Shikon no Tama, which I had been born with inside of my body.

How should I know how the jewel got inside me?! Of course there's a point to all this!

When I found myself in the Sengoku Jidai I released Inuyasha from the tree and he saved me from the centipede, and then attempted to kill me thinking I was Kikyo… But that is not important to this story. The Jewel of Four Souls was ripped from my body and in an attempt to keep it from being stolen I fired an arrow at it. My arrow struck the jewel and it shattered. And so began the journey to retrieve the pieces with the aid of Inuyasha. Along the way I gained other powerful allies against the evil Naraku, in the form of the accursed monk, Miroku, and one of the best demon slayers in the world, Sango. I also acquired my son and heir Shippou, and an alliance with the arrogant lord of the west, despite Inuyasha's protesting the need for Sesshomaru's assistance.

Then what happened? Well eventually we defeated the maniacal baboon pelt wearing freak of nature that was Naraku and we all lived happily ever after, except Inuyasha who went to hell with Kikyo who had been resurrected from a stolen part of my soul somewhere along the way of our adventures.

Anyway, after the jewel was whole, I had to complete my part of the deal with Sesshomaru in return for his aid against Naraku. The rest as they say is history. I've lived through the past 500 years waiting for the time when my young counterpart officially left for the past, and I am now back at the shrine, getting reacquainted with my old life as if the past few centuries hadn't happened. That's exactly how we're going to play things. I am going to settle back into my role as a daughter, sister, mother and a student and I'll be damned if I don't reclaim the happy years I lost because of that fucking jewel!

Woo, was that bitter or what? Oh well. I'm starting school again tomorrow, for the first time in forever. I'm almost excited. I sincerely want to know just how much of what they will try to teach me will match what I already know. Also, I've gotten better at math over the years and I'm pretty sure I'll pass that class this time around. The problem is, in spite of the fact that I look the same age as I did when I left I don't feel that way. Not to the people who know me. So I'm transferring to a new school, where nobody knows me, and get this… I'm going to be wearing the guys' uniform! Heh, I think it's great. What better way to make people not notice how weird I am than by purposely making myself weird?

Ok I'm finished now. But I bet tomorrow is going to be a real trip! Oh yeah. Definitely excited!