A/N – Thank you everyone who reviewed and added this story to their favorites. All of your comments are really encouraging. =)

I did plan on updating this chapter earlier, but I ended up extending it, so there's more for you to read! =)

Enjoy!

Beta-reader: DarkSacredJewelXoX

The Rat

Chapter Seven – On Their Own

Last Time:

Inuyasha looked once at the angry vixen. Once again, his pride shrank a little to have a mere woman take advantage of him like that. However, he could do nothing but stare. His life was on the line with this mission, and he could not fail. His memory linked back to the photograph of this girl in high school. He still couldn't believe that this woman before him was that same girl in the photograph. She continued to capture his interest on how on earth such an innocent girl has become this evil entity.

"Don't you trust me yet?" he asked.

Kagome turned and gave him a once over. "No."

Inuyasha was confused. "I don't understand. Sex to people like us means nothing, but to you…it seems that it's something much more," he speculated. He saw her eyes turn dark as if staring into a memory.

Kagome finally zipped up her duffle bag and turned to the door to exit, stopping to wait for Inuyasha to follow suit and leave the room.

Inuyasha managed to hear her whisper something before she left.

"You wouldn't understand. You have no idea what I've gone through."

It was another cold night, as it always was. It seemed that fate would always look down on her and give her the dark night that she pleaded for when she went out for another kill. It wasn't the cliché movies that had set the dark tone for a murderous night, but it simply happened because taking away a soul was indeed very dark. Somehow the fates knew this and granted the darkness.

She was always given three fucking days to finish a job. Naraku knew that was all the time she needed, but still, it was a little rushed. Especially since all he would give her was a name and a crappy picture. No location, no social security number…not even a fucking birthday. Not that the last part really mattered.

Kagome knew this was the perfect night. It was a fairly isolated area. A small wooden cabin in the middle of the woods. Seriously, it was almost too easy. This fucker almost pleaded to be killed. It took Kagome two days prior to find the son of a bitch. She went through phone bills, insurance companies, car rentals, and even dental records to find Habiki Notorou. After painstaking hours sitting in a run-down motel looking through her computer and questioning the few civilians in the nearby town, she managed to find the bald, bearded man.

With her carefully skilled hands, Kagome took out her wire and pin and began picking the backdoor lock. Even when she heard the lock give an audible click, she knew the sound would not reach Habiki's ears. It was late into the evening, and she knew that he would be busy watching the late night porn show while he pleasured himself. She already knew what his patterns were like in preparation for this night. Stalking him was easy when the guy was too busy with his life to notice his surroundings. Kagome knew this guy was a bum that did the same thing everyday. Habiki Notorou would wake up late in the afternoon, drive to the nearest gas station to play the lottery, then spend the rest of the night at a bar. He would watch the old television set that hung above the bar table and yell angrily at the losing team. She assumed that he placed bets on the game and was losing money…badly. He would drink until midnight and then Habiki would take the long walk home back to his isolated cabin as he wallowed in his losses. Yep, Habiki was a total bum. No one would miss him once she got through with him. Kagome almost wondered why the fuck Naraku would even give a shit about this bald bearded bum? No rhyming scheme intended. However, she knew not to question Naraku's intentions. After the first couple of years of doing this routine of solo kills, she knew it was pointless to get involved in his affairs. Kagome couldn't understand why every so often Naraku would make her do these solo missions, but she didn't want to question that either. For some reason, her targets seemed to be more challenging than the last, and she did indeed enjoy the challenge.

But seriously, Habiki Notorou was definitely not a part of her challenging list of targets.

Kagome quietly opened the back door and brought herself inside. She cursed silently when the old hinge gave an audible creak. She stopped to listen for any sign of movement. The back door entered into the kitchen and she raised her hand against her nose when she smelled that god-awful stench of rotten eggs. How on earth did the guy live in such a dump?

Without bothering to close the door, Kagome headed towards the living room where she would find Habiki lying on his recliner. Flickering lights could be seen around the corner of the kitchen into another room. The television, of course, was on.

Kagome's sharp heel clicked quietly against the linoleum floor. Every other step she waited and listened if Habiki decided to move from his chair. With her back against the wall, she slid her body against it. Reaching into her leather jacket, she pulled out her gun from her holster and quickly slid on the silencer. Originally, she wanted to use her knife, but the guy was a real fat ass, and it would take many stabs in the chest to bring him down.

As she neared closer to the small opening into the living room the sound from the television became more audible. Sounds of moans of a woman in pleasure rose to a peak as the porn star reached her climax. Kagome swore she heard a few male grunts in the process, but she assumed it was Habiki finishing his rub. Well, it was obvious that Habiki wasn't going to pay attention for what was going to happen next.

Kagome readied her gun and turned her body from the wall to walk through the opening. There she saw the old television box play a crappy video of a naked woman clearly licking the member of another man. Kagome's attention drew away from the screen and onto the back of the large recliner. The earlier grunting she heard before was silent and all she heard was the sounds of the woman on the screen. The man on the chair was still. She raised her gun towards the back of his head, and that was when she noticed something there that shouldn't be. This man had hair.

That was when she heard the click of the hammer of a gun behind her.

"Fuck," Kagome cursed. She closed her eyes in remorse. All of that preparation wasted just to be cornered. "You're pretty watchful of yourself. Who the hell is the guy sitting in your chair?"

"Another guy who tried to kill me earlier. I kept the body and it proved to be useful," Habiki said as he pushed his pistol against the back of Kagome's head. "Now drop the gun, and don't you even think about trying anything smart with me. I'll have this bullet through your head before you can even turn around."

Kagome sighed and dropped the gun to floor. She didn't really need it, so why bother agitating the guy? She was more concerned about pressing matters. "How did you know I was coming?"

He laughed, the pistol's tip shaking against Kagome's head as the large man heaved giant breaths. "I'm not that stupid. Naraku has been after me for years. I know how to watch my back and you, kid, are no different. I have a radar for people like you. I may not have been able to spot you out, but I know when I'm being watched."

Kagome internally sighed in relief. It was good to know that it wasn't her lack of skills that got her in this predicament. The asshole just had a lucky guess.

That little bit of knowledge was all Kagome needed to know before killing him. She knew that turning around would give Habiki enough time to shoot her, so she settled for a different attack.

Kagome suddenly threw herself forward on her hands in a frontal flip. As her legs flew up she kicked the gun out of Habiki's hands. The large man was so startled with her sudden movement that he didn't have the chance to regain his composure when Kagome quickly turned around to kick him in the side of his head.

Against the force, Habiki's large body lost balance and smashed against the wall. Falling to the ground, he held his assaulted head in his hands. Blood flowed freely from his wound.

"You stupid bitch!" he yelled as he looked up from his spot on the floor, readying himself for whatever came next.

Habiki wasn't prepared when he came face to face with the end of the barrel. When did this woman grab the gun?

Kagome smiled and held the gun firmly pointed at Habiki's shiny, hairless, forehead. Slowly she cocked the hammer.

Looking into her dark pools of brown, Habiki had a wave of déjà vu. Suddenly his body felt light and he realized he wasn't in the living room of his cabin anymore. Instead, he was in a small condo surrounded by flames. A tall dark haired woman stood before him with a gun pointed towards his head. Realizing death was inevitable, he stared into the eyes of his killer. "Kasumi…"

Kagome's finger lingered longingly at the trigger. It would only take a fraction of a second to take away another life. As the word passed through Habiki's lips, it quickly froze Kagome's touch on the trigger. His eyes were blankly staring into her face, like a deer caught in the headlights. Why the fuck did he just say that name?

Kagome's wicked smile quickly faded as she questioned, "What did you just say?"

Habiki's dilated pupils snapped back to reality and narrowed in disgust. "You can't be her…s-she died long ago."

That was not the answer she was looking for. Of course she was dead. Kagome already knew that. She forcibly pushed the gun under the man's double chin and brought herself close to his face angrily demanding an answer. "How the fuck do you know that name?!"

"Why the fuck should I tell you?!" Habiki spat. "You're going to kill me off anyways!"

Kagome's eyes narrowed into mere slits and slowly backed away along with the gun. "Oh, is that what you think?" Screw the mission. The entire situation has changed. As long as this bastard was dead in the end, it didn't matter what Kagome did to him in between.

A regretful fear crossed Habiki's expression.

Kagome calmly placed her gun on the small table beside the recliner and reached for the small knife in the back pocket of her jeans. She was definitely going to enjoy this bastard's screaming.

Habiki froze into place, not daring to move a single inch in fear of the girl's wrath. When he saw her pull out the knife with longing in her eyes, he swallowed. "W-what are you going to do to me?" he asked stutteringly, trying to control his racing heart.

Kagome held the knife in both hands. The pointed tip played across her fingers. "I'm going to ram this knife under your nails and pull them apart. Removing them one by one until you can never scratch yourself again. Unless, of course, you tell me how you know that name," Kagome spoke in a menacing tone, her eyes never leaving from the blades gleam.

Habiki's mouth hung open at the threat. He shouldn't feel this frightened. She was just a woman and he was twice her size. She left the gun on the table while his gun was on the ground near the television set. If he could just reach either one, he can take on this girl and quickly kill her off without hesitation. He played this idea over and over again in his mind as the girl slowly walked towards him, but no matter how hard he tried, his body disobeyed him from moving and instead shook with fear. There was something about the glee in her eyes. The glee of torturing him that made him quiver so.

With all the strength a two hundred and fifty pound man can muster, he managed to force himself to charge himself forward. "F-fuck you!"

Kagome was slightly surprised at his sudden ability to attack and ducked as he swung his heavy arms at her. She bent low and heaved her body to slam into his flabby stomach to try and shove him down to the floor again, but he was too heavy and only managed to get him to stumble back a bit.

With a war cry, Habiki ran forward again with arms out. Kagome, of course was too fast for him and took the knife in her hand to stab it into his forearm. Habiki screamed as he held his arm close to himself trying with great difficulty to soothe the pain.

"Fucking bitch!"

"What did you expect would happen charging at me unarmed?"

Habiki glared daggers at her. If he was going to live, he had to do whatever it takes. He grabbed firmly onto the knife in his arm and quickly pulled it out, screaming as the blade cut further along the sides. Once again he pushed himself to attack.

Realizing that now Kagome was unarmed she turned to do a sidekick, but was stopped short when she unexpectedly pulled back. Her scalp ripped painfully across the back of her skull as she felt her hair being pulled roughly. Then a pain shocked through her system when she felt the knife being stabbed deeply into her back.

Habiki pushed the blade further into her flesh and just as quickly pulled back ready to stab her again.

Kagome let out a scream and pushed herself forward, ignoring the pain from her hair being pulled, to kick back against Habiki's chest. When he stumbled, Kagome turned around to punch him in the face while knocking the knife out of his hands. Once again, Habiki was on the ground. This time, Kagome didn't hesitate the grab her gun from the table and shoot three bullets into Habiki's leg to prevent him from moving anymore.

Habiki yelled so hard that tears started to spill as he held onto his abused left leg. "Y-you bitch. You fucking bitch!"

Kagome winced slightly when she lowered herself near the injured bastard. How the fuck did he manage to grab her in the first place? Next time, she planned on tying up her hair. "Are you going to tell me how you've come to know that name? Or am I going to have to shoot your other leg too?"

"Fuck you," Habiki spat.

Kagome blinked, and then shot Habiki's kneecap.

"I'll ask you one last time. How do you know that name?" Kagome asked patiently this time, while she pressed the barrel of her gun hard against Habiki's crotch.

Now, Habiki was sweating fervently. He knew he was going to die. The look in that cold bitch's stare was enough proof of his demise. He couldn't even bring her down after stabbing her in the back. Fucking bitch was a stone.

Right now he was in so much pain, he couldn't imagine what it would feel like to become a eunuch, and he didn't plan on finding out either. When he heard the hammer click, he spilled the truth out like vomit. "O-okay, okay," he said with his hands held up in defeat. "She tried to kill me alright? You fucking satisfied?"

Kagome shakily pulled the gun away. Her eyes glazed over in blankness. "That's impossible…"

"I only figured out the name because the bitch wanted me to know it before she killed me. She fucking broke into my house, like you did, set it on fire, and then held me at gunpoint, just like you. I was only lucky to get away because the building collapsed before she could finish me off."

Kagome's eyes shifted in a haze as she continued to listen. None of this should be possible.

"All you fucking assassins. Trying to get me over a couple of thousand bills. That bastard Naraku has been sending bitches to try and kill me, all because I stopped financing his fucking science project."

This new fact peaked Kagome's interest. Her earlier mixed emotions about Kasumi momentarily faded. "What science project?"

"Heh, I don't even fucking know, yet still Naraku went as far as to get people like you to rid me of this world."

Kagome had had enough. She knew not to meddle with Naraku's business affairs. As long as she got the job done and got paid, it didn't matter what he did. She was only looking out for number one. Kagome was satisfied that Habiki didn't know anything else about Kasumi. For now, it was enough information for her to investigate.

Habiki was done. He was a waste of flesh, and it was time for her job to be completed.

"You got that right," Kagome said as she stood to pull the trigger to his head.

Blood splashed against the dirtied wall, an explosion of red fireworks spread out in every direction. Habiki's eyes stared blankly ahead, his internal clock coming to a stop. Habiki Notorou was no more.

Now that she was alone, she felt her composure crumple as she sank to the floor holding her head as she shook. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" She internally cursed. Anguish filled her heart after she heard that name again. Many questions filled her mind with confusion as to why Kasumi would even hold a fucking gun. Memories that she thought was locked deep into the back of her mind resurfaced and a tear fought to be released. Kagome hadn't cried since that night, and she refused to do so again.

Kagome didn't actually want to return to that dark part of her past by investigating Kasumi's true identity, but she knew that if she didn't, it would plague her mind for all of eternity.

Locking up her emotions, Kagome stood and fixed her jacket. Right now was not the right time to be breaking down.

Kagome checked her phone and noticed it was a little past one in the morning. She gave Kouga a quick call and then hung up when Kouga was about to turn it into a long conversation.

It was still late in the night, but Kagome had much work to do. The wound in her back was still bleeding, but the pain didn't deter her from finishing her task. She placed her gun back into its holster and began the tedious task of ridding the cabin of any traces of evidence that could be linked back to her. She left the body as is.

It was strange how different a day could feel when one single person was missing. What was worse was that it had only been nearly three days without the raven mistress, and he only knew her for a mere two days. How the fuck did that happen?

Oh yeah…

Well for one thing, she grabbed his attention after that steamy kiss.

Secondly, she was…interesting.

As much as it churned Inuyasha's insides for acknowledging this fact: for a woman, yes, she was indeed interesting…different.

Maybe it could also be because Kouga was placed in charge of their training for the last few days, and wow was that an adventure. Half of the day was wasted because the two couldn't stop bickering at each others fighting form, and there was no Kagome to control the situation.

Inuyasha laid on the bed in his condo staring at the ceiling. He still hadn't been in contact with his comrades. It had already been a week since he last talked to Sesshomaru, but he knew it would be too risky to try anything now. He wasn't surprised if the rest of Kagome's crew was spying on him at this very moment. Lying on a bed twenty stories high.

Nevertheless, Inuyasha still had to find the chance to get in contact with Sango or Miroku. They already planned how they would contact each other before beginning his mission. With Kagome still gone, he could easily contact Sango before Kouga and the rest find anything suspicious. Those boys were too stupid to figure out anything, but with Kagome, he didn't want to risk anything while he still couldn't gain her trust.

Inuyasha couldn't sleep. For the last couple of days, all that was on his mind was Kagome. It fucking bothered him that all he was thinking about was a murderous wench. His job was to catch criminals like her, not…think about what they were up to just for the sake of wondering. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, his mind kept wandering back to their conversation before she left. Everything with her was so dark and such a damn secret. Even talking about sex brought a rage inside her that he had never seen before in any other person. Was she raped perhaps? That was a plausible conclusion to her behavior, but even so…would that be enough to give her soul to the darkness? To kill? These questions plagued Inuyasha's mind, and he needed to do something to distract himself from them. His job needed to be kept simple. All of these mind games needed to stop and start thinking like the great undercover cop that he was. Not a fucking psychologist.

It was just past midnight and Inuyasha still couldn't sleep. He stood up from his bed, grabbed his coat from the closet, and walked out of the condo. The coffee shop should still be open. It was time that he paid Sango a visit.

"Where the fuck do you think he's going?" Kouga asked Ginta from the passenger seat, pulling his eyes free from his binoculars.

"How am I supposed to know? That's why were following him," Ginta replied.

"Well then drive you idiot! He's already out of the parking lot!"

"I'm not stupid! If I follow him too closely, he'll easily spot us!"

Kouga sighed. "Sometimes I wish Hikaku was here instead of you. He's a better driver anyways."

"Fuck you."

The city lights were still full of life even though the streets were quiet. The car purred as the two drove a few car lengths behind. A couple of minutes passed by as they continued to tail Inuyasha, as instructed by Kagome. She made it clear that if they left Inuyasha alone for even a second, she would strangle them when she got back.

"Isn't this the direction of the wolf's den?" Ginta asked.

"Yeah," Kouga confirmed. "Why the hell is he heading back there?"

"Oh wait. He's stopping at this corner," Ginta said as he pulled the car to park near the curb.

Kouga pulled his binoculars over his eyes to see Inuyasha getting out of his car to walk into a coffee shop called "The Black Bean."

"Coffee at this hour?" Ginta asked.

"I guess so. Or maybe he's getting a donut." Kouga laughed. That was when he saw the female barista walk into his line of sight. Kouga whistled low. "Damn…or maybe he's just getting some tail for the night."

"What? Let me see! Gimme the binoculars," Ginta shouted, making a move to grab the lenses from Kouga.

"No way! Get your own," Kouga said shifting his body away, his eyes never leaving his view on the brown haired beauty.

Inuyasha heard the familiar sound of bells as he opened the door to the Black Bean. Seriously, it was very unoriginal. As he opened the glass door, it reflected a white Mercedes with two men in the front seats. Inuyasha forced himself not to smirk. Did they really think he was that much of a moron? He already noticed their car when he pulled out of his apartment building's parking lot. The two idiots were also currently parked really close to his view, and he could easily see the outlined figure of Kouga holding spyglasses. "Keh…amateurs."

Inuyasha walked up to the register and tapped on the bell a few times to signal that he was there. A few moments later a young barista with a red apron came out from the back door. Her hair was tied high into a ponytail and Inuyasha simply had to smile to finally see a familiar face.

"Hi there. How may I help you?" she asked, giving her a customer-pleasing smile.

Inuyasha leaned forward on the front desk to bring himself closer to her. "If you could give me a couple of those chocolate Danishes that'll be great."

"How many sir?"

"Two sounds good." Inuyasha turned to the side to see a stack of various packets of gum and candy. He fingered a trident fruit explosion packet and placed it in front of the register, ready to purchase that as well.

Sango took out a box and tongs to package the Danishes. Her eye came in contact with Inuyasha every so often as she did her task.

Inuyasha fingered the gum packet and started tapping on it as he waited patiently for his food. He made sure Sango saw every beat of his tapping as he sent her his Morse code message. "M-I-R-O-K-U. 5. A-L-L-E-Y. T-R-I-D-E-N-T." He knew it was a very short and vague message, but as long as Sango passed this information along to Miroku, his long-term comrade and friend would be able to figure it out. He couldn't risk tapping out long sentences knowing full well that he was being watched.

Sango charged the food and gum and collected the money. As she was grabbing Inuyasha's change, she discreetly folded the corner of the bill before she handed it back to him.

"Have a nice night sir."

"Thanks. You too." Inuyasha left the store and climbed back into his car.

"I guess he wasn't planning on banging that chick," Kouga said as he put away his binoculars.

"He was just hungry after all."

"Don't you think it was kinda suspicious though? I mean what do you think he was talking about with that girl? They looked like they were flirting a lot."

"Uh, I think you're over thinking things Kouga. The guy was just being nice while ordering food. I don't see anything wrong with that. It wasn't like he was excessively talking with her either. There was no room for exchanging of information like what the cops would do."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Kouga felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and he took it out to answer.

"Kouga speaking."

"It's me. Are you watching him right now?"

"Yeah. He's just leaving a coffee shop near our impound."

"You guys can go home now. I'll be back tomorrow morning."

"You sure about that Kagome? He's still wandering about."

"If you want to stay up all night, be my guest."

Kouga was met with a dead line. Stupid bitch had no patience for a phone conversation anymore.

"Let's turn around Ginta. Kagome says we're done."

"Alright then."

Ginta pulled the car out from the curb and drove themselves home to their own apartments.

Everything went smoothly. The folded bill meant that Sango had no problems understand his coded message. She also knew that they were being watched by two men when he ordered the Danishes. In five days, Inuyasha will be able to get in contact with Miroku.

As Inuyasha headed for his car, he glanced back to see the white Mercedes pull out from the curb to head into the opposite direction. It meant that they believed he was simply out buying a snack and was doing nothing suspicious.

Good.

A/N – Hope you enjoyed the extra-long chapter. I started writing a bit more everyday, and I ended up extending this chapter a lot longer than what I originally planned. At one point I stayed up until 5am just because I was on a roll and couldn't stop writing =P

Please review and let me know how the fight scene was. I hope it was clear and kept you interested. =)