Chapter 7: Fire in the Sky

"OW!"

"Hold still, InuYasha!" Kaede scolds, trying to able bandages to the stubborn Demon's wounds.

"You old hag!" InuYasha barks, "you're deliberately trying to hurt me. OW...Ow...Ow!

Kaede grabs InuYasha arm and whacks his wound three times. InuYasha jumps into the air and

backs off.

"What was that for?"

"For calling me an old hag...again."

"InuYasha, stop picking on Kaede," Kagome sighs, "she's only trying to help you."

"I don't need any help," InuYasha growls, turning his attention to Kagome, "I can heal on my

own."

While InuYasha was busy, arguing with Kagome, Kaede tried sneaking up on him. She raised her

arm, and applied the medicine to his side.

"Heh? YEOW!" InuYasha goes straight up and hits the roof.

"What a baby!" Shippo huffs, climbing up on Kagome's shoulder, "I didn't scream when she did

me."

"Remember, InuYasha took more of a beating, then we did," Miroku calmly states, "he has a

reason to scream, in his condition..."

As Miroku was speaking his final words, InuYasha jumped up, and tried to run off. Kaede grabbed

his Kimono, and ripped it off, exposing his whole lower body. InuYasha kept going and fled the

hut. Kagome and Sango blushed, Shippo sighed and Miroku calmly sipped some herbal tea.

"...But sometimes InuYasha can exaggerate a little, from time to time," grins Miroku.

"So the Sword of Hinikato is in Mount Kana-soma?" asked Hinaki.

"Yes," Sassaru confirms, pacing back and forth, "except I forgot to ask the damn water spirit,

where the Mountain is located. Now he is dead."

"I am sorry to say," Hinaki calmly apologizes, "I have never heard of this Mountain, in which the

water spirit stated the whereabouts of the Sword, is located."

"That is why we need to find it, as soon as possible."

"I will gather the group, and we will head out to find information, about this unknown

Mountain."

"Then do it, already!" Sassaru barks, turning an evil eye, in Hinaki's direction.

"Yes, Sir, Lord Sassaru!" Hinaki accepts, bowing and walking away.

"InuYasha...," Sassaru thinks out loud, "you will not get in my way this time. I will make sure of

that."

A week passed and everyone is healed back to 100 health. InuYasha spend most of his time,

up a tree, where Kaede couldn't reach him. That was until, Kagome used her "Sit" command,

and brought InuYasha down to earth. It goes without saying, that her "Sit" command, caused

some more pain for InuYasha, which made it easy for the two, to drag him back to the hut.

"Bye, Kaede!" Kagome waves to the old priestess, as the group leaves the Village.

"Ye take better care of thyselves," Kaede calls out.

"So what do we do now?" Sango asks, as they make their way out of the Village, "we don't have

a clue, as to where Nara...Sassaru is, and what he wants."

"I say, leave it up to me," InuYasha grunts, "my nose can find him in no time."

"But remember InuYasha," Miroku explains, "you had a hard time, detecting him in the first place,

back on the hill. How do we know, that he can't hide his scent, or even change it at will."

"Yeah, you're right," InuYasha agrees, folding his arms across his chest, "and what's worse, we

don't know if he has any more Reincarnations."

"True," Miroku agrees, "he may have more ways of manipulating his body, then his previous body,

allowed. We saw, earlier, that he can summon Demon spirits, out of those black scars all over his

body. He may have more tricks up his sleeve."

"So, how can we stop him?" Sango asks, "InuYasha turned full Demon, and still wasn't able to

get through to Sassaru."

"I don't know how we'll beat him," Miroku sighs, "but what I suggest we do, right now, is find

him first. We can worry later, as to how to defeat him."

"Ok, fine," InuYasha impatiently growled, "let's get going already."

The group started down the path, which was the same path they had used, many times before,

back when Kagome was last around. They walked for an hour or two, with InuYasha sniffing all

the way. He had no success, though, picking up Sassaru's scent. InuYasha, quickly became

agitated, and began clawing trees in half.

"Hey, calm down, InuYasha!" Kagome gasped, "we'll find him. It's not much to think about, right

now."

"You're wrong!" InuYasha growled, clenching his fists, "I should have killed him, back a year ago,

but I didn't. I messed up big time."

"InuYasha," Miroku calmly whispered, "don't let him get to you. That's what he wants. For you to

lose your cool, and get careless in battle."

"Grrrr...,"

"InuYasha," Kagome whispered, walking up to him, and grabbing hold of his clenched fists, "we

will get him for sure. Don't worry about it. Your a lot stronger, too, you know."

InuYasha stared into Kagome's eyes, with his teeth bared. For a second, neither of them moved,

as they both looked, deep into each other's eyes. Then, InuYasha's face loosened, and he lost all

anger in his demeanor.

"Yeah, I know!" InuYasha finally sighed, lowering his hands, but not letting go of Kagome's, "it's

just that, I had another chance to see you. It's been such a long time, and then he shows up,

and almost kills you. I would have lost you, before I had a decent chance to be with you."

"We all almost got killed," Miroku brings up, "we didn't know what we were getting ourselves

into. You're not at fault InuYasha. We all made a mistake."

Everyone stood still for a second, and then InuYasha, began walking again, pulling out of

Kagome's hands. She looked at him, as Miroku and Sango, walked ahead of her.

"I always end up causing InuYasha pain," Kagome thought, "I'm such a pest, to him."

The group continued it's journey, along the dirt path. InuYasha led the way, followed by Sango

and Miroku, walking together, and Kagome and Shippo in tow. They walked for days, without

finding a trace of Sassaru's scent.

"Damn it!" InuYasha yelled, pounding the wall of the cave, in which they had entered, to spend

the night.

"InuYasha," Miroku sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder, "we won't get anywhere, by getting

all worked up, over something that we don't know yet."

"I haven't picked up any scent at all, since we started out," InuYasha growled, "for all we know,

he could be in the opposite direction."

"Maybe so. But we need to keep level heads, if we are going to succeed."

InuYasha pulled away from Miroku's hand and walked outside the cave, where Night had just

began to show. It was just starting to rain a little. Little slivers of water, fell from the sky, and

made tiny dark spots on the ground. InuYasha didn't mind, as he stood on the edge of the cliff,

where the opening of the cave, was located. After about 10 minutes by himself, Kagome crept

outside, and stood beside InuYasha. The two stood in silence, as they both looked up at the

partially clear sky. Even though it was raining, only a fraction of the sky, had clouds, covering it.

Most of the sky, was perfectly clear. The sky glowed a beautiful purple color, with the stars

shinned brightly along it. After a short while, of no talking, Kagome slowly moved sideways,

towards InuYasha. She sidled up to him, and rested her head on his left shoulder. InuYasha got

frightened a little, and didn't move. He let her rest her head, while he kept his arms folded,

across his chest. Kagome sighed, and InuYasha's face got red. His body shook as he made a

move to put his arm around her. He stopped several times, and then he went for it. He wrapped

his arm around Kagome's body, and rested his hand on her shoulder. Kagome sighed a laugh, and

snuggled into InuYasha's comfortable body.

After a while, they both slipped down and sat on the ground, still in the positions they were in,

when they were standing. Miroku, Shippo and Sango were inside, sleeping. Everything was quite,

and peaceful, until a bright light showed up in the sky. InuYasha and Kagome had fallen asleep on

the cliff, and weren't aware of what was going on.

"Heh heh heh! So long, InuYasha!" Hinaki laughed.

Just then, the bright light, became a giant fireball, and droped from the sky. The ball of fire,

flew straight for the side of the cliff, where the Cave opening was. The fireball hit the mountain,

and exploded on impact. The whole mountain, shot up in flames. Rocks fell above fall and

crashed onto the landing, where InuYasha and Kagome were sitting. The whole mountain, then

collapses, and went down in flames.