Alone. So alone.

InuYasha trudged through a thick forest, feeling alone yet again. He was never happy anymore. He hadn't had any sort of real companionship in as long as he could remember. Not since Kagome left.

Just to keep him from dying of boredom, he counted the years. It was a few months after Naraku's demise they left. He couldn't remember who had actually put an end to him, but he was certainly gone.

With Miroku's curse lifted, he made the tough decision of leaving the group and try to have a life he didn't get while worrying over the curse. Sango set out to find Kohaku, who wasn't with Naraku when he fell. She knew he was dead due to the fact his jewel shard wasn't in him, but she needed to give him a proper burial. So then it was just InuYasha and Kagome.

Then the inevitable happened, Kagome left. She said she needed to find a life in her own time; she couldn't keep coming back to him with nothing to do here. That hurt him the most. She insulted him without even knowing it. But he took something away from their odd relationship, the fact that he wasn't human, he wasn't demon, he was hanyou, and that was okay. And with that, he set out to be accepted.

Oh yeah, Shippo. He left around a week after Miroku and a few days before Sango. The little fox demon set out to become as strong as InuYasha and teach people not all youkai was evil. He cried that day, but not as usual crying that very much annoyed InuYasha, but a single tear ran down his cheek as he smiled and waved as he walked off.

That was 7 long years ago. Since then, InuYasha had no desire to become as weak as a human or as vicious as a demon, so he placed the jewel in the care of the miko, Kaede. She was withering fast so she took an apprentice, a young miko that resided in the town near Kaede's hut. She taught her all she needed to know to protect the jewel and how to never to tell anyone it was in her possession. Also, with InuYasha's help, they got a rumor around saying the jewel was destroyed, and that kept most of the demons off its tail. It was amazing to InuYasha how a simple rumor could stop all trouble.

InuYasha would visit Kaede and the younger girl, named Pena, every so often but that act died along with the old miko. He would go and visit her grave every so often, but that was rare. He would usually find a small town in need and it usually took some convincing, but he would finally win them over and allow him to help. He made quite a few friends that way, but none could ever match up to his former ones. He also realized his anger had decreased, which it had to too win those small towns over.

So he trudged on through the thick woods, becoming depressed with his memories. Why did he keep doing that to himself! He would always think about his old comrades and it would just depress him more.

He was tired. He slowly, lazily, leapt into a tree, resting on a large branch near the top. He gazed at the sky, as he used to, just staring into nothingness.

He had changed since everyone left- a lot. He cut his hair to ear length, but leaving his over-grown sideburns long. Something as simple as his long hair had reminded him of Kagome. He changed his attire a bit, also. He only changed the bottom of his kimono to black, not a big change, but enough to satisfy him. He had grown too. His muscles more defined and a bit taller.

The sun stood directly over him, indicating noon. His ear twitched at the sound of water and realized he should bathe, not having done so in a while, though it wasn't as if he reeked.

He leapt from the tree, landing softly on the ground and headed toward the sound. As he got closer to the origin of the water's trickling noise, a luscious sent hit him. He inhaled deeply, stopped dead in his tracks. It seemed sort of familiar, but he couldn't place it. He continued on, and stopped behind a bush. He peered around and spotted a young yasha. (A/N: Just to inform, yasha means female demon.)

She was just finished with bathing and was sitting on the bank of the small flowing river. She began pulling on her fur vest, worn over a light blue shirt with a leaf print. It all seemed so familiar, but he just couldn't put his clawed finger on it. She stood, allowing her burnt orange hair to fall to just past the small of her back. A small hand reached down to pick a blue ribbon, pulling it under her hair and tying it up into a high pony tail. InuYasha gazed down at her interesting feet, well paws. He realized she was a fox demon, with small pointed ears and a long, fluffy tail. His thoughts went immediately back to Shippo, his former young comrade.

He even missed the annoying nuisance. He was always so happy, and InuYasha needed happy. Snapping back to reality, he found the yasha now turned and gazing at him with big, blue eyes. InuYasha yelped in surprised and fell back. She raised an eyebrow and one corner of her mouth drew into an amused smirk. He grunted and stood up, embarrassed, but he wouldn't let her see that. He was sort of afraid, also. If she was anything like the other women he had known, she would assume he had been watching through the majority of the bath, and strike him.

"Do you make it a habit to invade other's territory?" She had a smooth voice, not far from a man's, but it had feminine drawl. Wait… territory? Normally only males took territory.

"Sorry." InuYasha grunted again, crossing his arms.

"Wait…" The yasha blinked twice, her mouth dropped slightly. She stepped closer, and her scent filled his nostrils, it was highly familiar, but he still couldn't place it. She studied him and her eyes widened.

"InuYasha!" She gasped, and InuYasha just became confused.

"Do I know you?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I should have known it was you!" She suddenly wrapped her arms around InuYasha's neck and he hobbled backward.

"Hey! Hey!" He feebly protested trying to push the girl off. "What are you doing!"

"Don't you recognize me?" The 'girl' huffed, unwrapping herself from his neck and looking at him, almost hurt. Her scent wafted into InuYasha's nose again and he took in the still luscious smell. He thought back to when he first saw her. She was fox demon, young, long hair and fluffy tail, her oddly similar clothing... His mind again raced back to the young kitsune kit he knew 7 long years ago. His eyes widened in realization.

"Shippo!" InuYasha shriek in a voice not at all like his own, but filled with shock and surprise. "Is that really you!" Before the now not-so-young fox youkai could answer, InuYasha pulled him into a tight hug. Shippo squeaked a bit but returned it, obviously as lonely as InuYasha, but something was different.