A/N: After watching InuYasha over again, I got a new perspective on Naraku. I decided to see how my enlightened view on him plays out in this story. I hope that you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha. All characters and concepts belong to Rumiko Takahashi, VIZ Media, etc.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
A petty, shameless thief was the norm for Onigumo. It had been that way since his early childhood years. Only as he grew older, he felt less and less shame over his actions. Every being needed to survive and stealing was his only means. No one else understood that simple, irrefutable fact.
Throngs of bandits assaulted villages on a regular basis. They murdered men, women, children, priests, and priestesses. They raped when they felt like it and then brutally slaughtered their traumatized victims. Onigumo should know. Bandits had killed his father whom tried to prevent their leader from raping his mother. The brave woman told her only son to run while he still could. He knew his mother didn't survive as all he could see and smell was the burning village behind him.
But somehow, some way thieving was deemed as the most heinous thing a human could ever do. During his heists, he never harmed his victims. He stole the goods, mostly money and crops, and bailed.
Onigumo could not count the times the villagers cast the orphaned thief away with a pole or a barrage of rocks. "Onigumo! You worthless thief!"
Naturally, during his younger years, his thieving wasn't practiced to an art yet. He got his fair share of cuts and bruises, but now, the twenty-seven year old mastered his controversial art.
It wasn't as if he had other friends his age either. The other children would tease him. "There's Oni! He won't remove his mask!" He had never been a sociable child which baffled the children in his village.
He had no human friends and he truthfully could not care less. Humans were proving to be as hostile, if not more, than the petty yokai that wreaked havoc on human villages.
Alone in a mad world. But that was how Onigumo preferred it. No one to drag him down or question his way of life. The fates had sewn this path for him. It wasn't as if he had any other choice in the matter.
o-o-o-o-o-o
Onigumo had done this for years. His entire life in fact. How had it failed so miserably?
The thief had his stash of food, but money was running dangerously low. The unfortunate thief hit a rough patch. His previous heist did not pan out so well. In his escape from his pursuers, an enemy arrow had pierced his sack of pricey jewels. Most of which spilled into the rushing river below them.
Onigumo screamed at the heavens. Why betray him so? Why now of all times? He never believed in divine intervention, but he needed someone to blame at this current moment.
With the river claiming his loot, Onigumo tossed the pitiful remnants to the ground. An arrow to the leg had halted any further retreat. He fell to the ground painfully. His breath exhausted, his leg throbbing and burning. He accepted his fate. He would lose a few limbs for his treachery.
The vigilante group drug their captive back to the lord who hired them.
"Well done. You will all be rewarded in the finest gold and silver for your excellent work."
Onigumo sniffed. He hadn't been able to rob the castle. It was as if this entire day had been cursed. Bored with looking at the gravel below him, Onigumo looked up at his captors' leader. He felt something that he hadn't felt in decades. Fear. The lord's eyes were soulless. It looked as if he'd been possessed by something...
"You are the infamous Onigumo. The master thief who has plagued many a village. Your reign of terror ends here." upon those words, the lord's demeanor changed drastically. "You will be burned alive for your crimes."
"Milord, is that not cruel?" one of the vigilantes asked. He was answered by a slice through his neck by a seemingly invisible weapon. The man's head rolled clean off of his shoulders. The other vigilantes could do no more than blink before they suffered the same harsh fate.
The surrounding vassals were left aghast at the carnage.
'Fools. That is no human lord!' Onigumo cursed humanity's naivety about yokai. How could humans be so dense when their kind knew of such creatures in their lands. Why were they always so shocked when yokai attacked? True, they had priestesses who were expertly trained in vanquishing yokai threats, but regarding the average population, Onigumo was beyond words to describe their stupidity. If any human begins behaving stranger than their usual selves, or any oddity that's far beyond what a human could produce, it's likely the work of a yokai.
Onigumo silenced his errant thoughts as the praying mantis demon approached him.
So this is how he would end? Being killed by a demon? It figured.
o-o-o-o-o-o
Onigumo heard stories of folks being burned alive. They always said that the smoke would get the victim first. They didn't lie. His lungs burnt. He tried to hold his breath, but that didn't stop his brain from wanting to breathe through his nose. Being human was flawed. Sentience was a curse as it didn't match his instinctual reactions. Didn't his brain realize that smoke surrounded his body? It certainly saw the smoke.
He marveled at his ability to get distracted over minute details in times of peril. Perhaps it was due to his overall detachment from life in general.
He couldn't care anymore. His consciousness was leaving him and perhaps his life...
o-o-o-o-o-o
Onigumo awoke in a damp, dark cave to mind-numbing pain and paralysis. He should've died. He wanted to die. But here he was trembling in pain, but not able to move.
But there was something different. There was someone next to him. All he could see was blurred white and red. 'Those are the colors of a priestess.' he managed to think.
"Can you speak?" came a lovely voice. "Are you able to tell me your name?"
At the moment, all he could feel was rage. Couldn't this woman see that he was dying? Why prolong his suffering under the guise of helping? It wasn't as if he'd be completely healed even if her remedies miraculously worked. He'd be a disfigured shadow of his former self. He'd truly be an Oni.
He only stared at her with his eyes. Shit, even that hurt.
Onigumo didn't know how long the woman had stayed as he had lost consciousness once more
o-o-o-o-o-o
The fallen thief awoke once again to the same woman who was seemingly obsessed with futilely tending to his injury. You couldn't classify a whole body burn as "injuries". He might as well be literal.
"Your...n-ame." he managed to rasp out. He was bored. He figured he'd better learn her name if she was going to stick around for a useless task.
"Kikyo. I am the Priestess Kikyo."
"I am...Onigumo."
o-o-o-o-o-o
Somehow, Kikyo's remedies ebbed his pain away, but he still could not move. The paralysis was killing him. He still believed that he would've been better off dead, but something kept him from giving in.
Her voice sounded like sweet music. Her touches were tender and angelic. She could've done anything else with her time, but she tended to him. To him the "Oni Mask", to him the worthless thief.
For once, Onigumo felt like a heavy storm had begun to break up within his spirit. Sunshine had pierced his battered mind and heart.
Was this what his mother had spoken of? Was this the missing attraction in his life?
o-o-o-o-o-o
Whether it was Kikyo's remedies or his newfound brightened spirit, Onigumo's pain was no longer a constant source of misery. He could no longer move his body, but that was fine. Happiness came to him. He didn't have to search for it.
But his happiness was becoming sparse. Kikyo stopped coming as often. He wondered why. Was she in trouble with her village? How could she be? She was perfection. A guardian angel in this mad world.
o-o-o-o-o-o
Kikyo's visits eventually trickled down into nothingness. Onigumo could not figure out why. What had happened? He and Kikyo conversated gaily. She made Onigumo forget who he was in the past. The thief felt as though he were a forest burnt to a blackened crisp. The ruins would degrade into the Earth to fertilize the ground. Kikyo was fertile soil. He was on the verge of blossoming into beautiful regrowth. The worthless thief Onigumo would be no more.
But the soil was not fertile. It shriveled up and refused to rebirth him.
o-o-o-o-o-o
15 days. 15 days Onigumo waited for Kikyo to return. His sunshine did not return.
He made a desperate wish. Let me see Kikyo.
A throng of demons answered his call. They showed him a vision. There was Kikyo. Beautiful Kikyo. And with her was a hanyou youth. An inu-hanyou. The two's lips were passionately intertwined.
Why? Why betray him so? Why now of all times?
But here was an opportune chance. He'd exterminate that hanyou pup.
Onigumo let the hungry yokai devour his debilitated form.
o-o-o-o-o-o
A spider-hanyou walked confidently out of a damp cave. He had no covering over his nude form. He was born anew. Free to attain his dark dreams.
A baboon-yokai and his sons were fishing by a nearby river. The little family did not know what had hit them. The two sons were killed instantly. Their father facing a similar fate.
A figure wearing the adult baboon's pelt and the head as a mask smirked down at the ruined family.
As long as there's light, no one ever pays attention to darkness. He'd cover everything in darkness. Then, finally, they'd notice him.
He'd give them hell.
He grinned as he renamed himself as Naraku.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
A/N: What did you guys think? Fail? Win? Please let me know! Constructive criticism welcome.
Thanks for reading! :-)