Author's Note: Originally a giftfic for n0t_again, written for Thanksgiving at LJ Comm Inuholidays.
Warnings: Tentacles and claws, though more psychological horror than gory.
Kagura's Plan
The plan had been crafted in whispers and corners, out of his sight and masked by misleading winds, deceptive reflections, and careful displays of submission. No compliance could be too swift or obvious; no response either too passive or too flamboyant. Everything had to be just so, lest the grotesque and powerful Naraku suspect what his Kagura had in store for him.
Kanna was perhaps best able to manage her task. Her emotionless ghost-child's face easily covered her treachery. Even to her compatriots she did not reveal a hint of pleasure or need. She answered her Lord's every question with the same whispered calm she always had, even as she managed her portion of the impending betrayal.
Kohaku found it less easy to practice deception than Kanna since Kagura had lifted what she could from the veil of mind control Naraku had placed over him. He had never been a child given to dishonesty or trickery, though he did not truly know this since his past was still hazy. Kagura did not want to free the boy from her own need of him, so his history remained submerged even as freer thought about his recent misuse by the hanyou lord was plentiful. He stifled his resentment with Kagura's encouragement in order to carry out their planned revenge. Most importantly, in not even the tiniest manner did he resist Naraku's bidding. And, fortunately for the duplicitous trio, this proved sufficient to keep their deceit from being known.
Kagura, by contrast, relished her disloyalty. Of the three, she was most free of will, a creature borne of the wind and with the wind's desire to soar openly. It was clear no hero would come to rescue her; even Sesshoumaru had proved a passive ally at best. And of the inuyoukai's brother and his companions' pitiful efforts to bring down Naraku she had scant hope. No, she would have to wreak vengeance herself, and though the risks might be so great as to claim her existence, it had heretofore been too small an existence to lament the ending of.
For the wind sorceress, trifling pleasures in serving her master well had quickly given way to reminders that she could never mean anything to him for the priestess Kikyou would be the only one ever to touch his black soul. And even she was spoken of as ultimately unworthy and a hindrance to his power. Thus, where Kanna seemed merely a pale reflection of whoever might make the strongest demands of her and Kohaku was a puppet who would not know himself again even if his strings were cut, Kagura had hopes and ambition. Since she could not attain her Lord's love, she would bring his downfall.
As she was made of his composite flesh, Kagura, like Kanna, knew Naraku's weaknesses. Because he held her heart, she could not use them; but nor had she risked giving away his secrets to others, lest they fail and the trail of her perfidy lead back to her. Instead, she had bided her time, perfecting her control in the ways best suited to contain and drain the being who was at once to her lover, father, and master.
At last the day came to carry bring their preparations to fruition. Naraku was enjoying the distraction of Kagura's pliant body, filling her every orifice with oily tentacles that he watched from the distance of his self-made throne, savoring ripe plums and cherries as his black limbs searched and probed her. Each moan and whimper tasted as sweet as the fruit he chewed with the flash of white teeth.
Kohaku begged pardon for interrupting, softly requesting audience. Naraku did not cease either of his pleasurable pastimes, but continued to fuck and eat as he listened to Kohaku tell, in soft, toneless voice and downcast eyes, of a jewel shard embedded in an enchanted stone creature in a cave near the sea. The boy made plain he had learned of it by overhearing it discussed by the one called Sango. Naraku chuckled his pleasure at the boy's blatant yet unknowing exploitation of his own sibling. He never to grew tired of sending Kohaku to spy on the girl, often instructing him to let her catch sight of him then flee. Rarely was there valuable information brought this way, but when he had no other immediate use for the mind-numbed child, this gave entertainment at least to the sadistic lord.
Today, however, was a treat. A piece of the shard he could retrieve himself, increasing his power once more and providing him far better entertainment than Kagura's too-familiar form writhing before him. He withdrew his appendages as he spit a final cherry pit into an ornately decorated bowl beside him. "Bring Kanna," he commanded as Kagura rose and covered her sweating, naked form. She bowed and hurried off to summon Kanna. Naraku made clear he would see this "stone creature" with his own eyes before he went chasing after rumors.
Kanna came as bidden, quiet and emotionless as ever, holding her mystical mirror before her. She obeyed her Lord's request to use her powers to find the shard of which Kohaku spoke. The boy repeated the location of the cave as he had understood it (from Kagura's directions, of course), and soon an image of a massive grey oni came into focus, blended into the very walls of the cave, lying in wait for prey to devour and add to its mass. Kanna brought forth the image on her glass, and Kagura fought back a smile at how smoothly their plan was proceeding.
"Good," Naraku said with a nod at the vision. He then oozed his command: "Kagura, fetch it for me."
Impatience must not win out, Kagura knew. She would continue on course without faltering. All was progressing. She had long labored until she had discovered a shard. She had given it quickly into the keeping of a witch to whom she had promised the skin of Naraku's testicles once he had been destroyed. The witch had brought forth the false oni by use of the shard, in which she had far less interest than demon scrotum. And now Kagura would go and attempt to destroy it, knowing well she would be watched by Naraku's insects and Kanna's mirror.
Of course, she was unable to destroy the creature, for once inside the beast was easily able to repel even her strongest wind powers. Kohaku's weapon was of even less use. Returning, she bowed and apologized for her failings, then took the lash of Naraku's whip with a trained masochist's pleasure and a determined traitor's will. "Very well," the hanyou lord at last conceded, it seems I will have to retrieve the shard myself. He left both Kanna and Kohaku behind but insisted Kagura attend him. "I did not give you form to fail me thusly, Kagura," he snapped, encasing her in a protective sphere and projecting them easily and swiftly to the cave mouth.
"Make another attempt as I watch," he commanded, ever the voyeur and keen, it seemed to Kagura, on seeing her fall short before his gaze.
Kagura obeyed, knowing only the briefest of moments separated her from true vengeance, when the full power of the summoned oni would close the cave around her Lord and bind him to the rock long enough for her to plunge her hand inside him and claim his heart for her own. Instead, however, her very breath was stolen as she and not Naraku was taken and bound within the living stone, held aloft by wrists and ankles as the cave opening sealed shut. Her red eyes glowed with impotent fury as Naraku breached the enchantment and came to stand beside her.
"Ah, Kagura. Will you ever cease your underestimation of my power? Even if Kohaku resists me with his feeble mind, he will always return, for I protect him from a past he dreads to remember. Kanna is as duplicitous as you, my pet, and told me of every delicious aspect of your traitorous plot. It is I, not you, in control of this moment, and every moment of your existence."
Kagura writhed within the inescapable stone bondage, spitting the venom of her tortured soul—if indeed she had a soul—at the one responsible for her unending misery. "Destroy me," she spat. "End this farce, Naraku."
The black-hearted demon smiled at his prey, stepping near enough to caress her cool cheek with elegant fingers. "Oh no," he purred. "You will never be free. Not when you bring me such exquisite diversion." He rent her layered kimono with a single swipe of three razor-sharp claws, then thrust them inside her.
Kagura screamed.
Naraku tittered contentedly. "Scheme all you will and more, my little wretch. When the results are this delightful, I will not complain."