Disclaimer: I do not own Saiyuki

Eighth and final chapter to Demons of the Past, I will continue it in a newer story called 'The Decieved'...AND NO I'm not telling you what it's about yet...well, you'll get the point when you read the end of this.

Memories

The three men, and two boys, arrived at a village the next day. Lucky for them, there was a carnival in town, which really pissed Sanzo off beyond so many words. Nataku looked at him, he could've sworn he saw fire in his eyes, but then shook his head. "Cool! Look at that, Nataku!" Goku pointed at a guy sticking a sword down his throat. He winced.

'I hope he doesn't bleed to death...' he thought to himself, then smiled at Goku, "Yeah, it's cool."

Sanzo looked back at the two, and tried to restrain from smiling. It was like seeing two little grade school kids, on their way to a field trip, but then turned away. He had this feeling about the war god, but didn't say anything. He would figure out his feelings later, all he wanted to do now was find a damn inn so they could get some sleep. If they found one, then he'd be at least happy, then those idiots could do whatever the hell they wanted.

"Nataku, Goku, you guys can check these things out later. Now we need to find an inn to stay in for the night." Hakkai said, as they walked along, smiling at the both of them, "Let's go..."

"Alright." The boys said in unison, they looked at eachother, and smiled.

Gojyo smirked, he hasn't seen Goku this happy since the day that they all met, but something about Nataku gave him a gut wrenching feeling. He hasn't bothered to tell Sanzo or Hakkai, especially Goku, about it, he just thought it would pass. But it didn't. Then he remembered the revalation they were given about Goku's past, the boy who was supposed to kill the boy, was Nataku...'No...' He thought, and looked at Nataku, 'He wouldn't, would he?'

"Gojyo, we found an inn.." Hakkai said, with a smile, "Come on...let's see if we can get a couple of rooms." Gojyo only nodded, and followed them into the inn. He was going to have to watch that Nataku more closely now.


Kenren watched Nataku walk with Goku up ahead. They were both laughing, and talking, Goku wincing once in a while because of his hurt wrist. How he broke his wrist, he wasn't sure. Nataku said he got caught in the tree, but Kenren thought that would be too easy. He shook his head, no, he must not think of that.

"Lord Nataku! Your father wants you right now!"

Nataku looked up at the guard, "Why?"

"Don't ask me why, young man." Another voice came out, they turned around to see Li Touten standing there. Kenren saw Goku shift at the sight of the man, and glared.

"Well, Nataku, I guess you have to do what your father says. Say your good-byes to Goku, and then go, k?" Kenren said, trying to sound calm. Nataku nodded, and turned to Goku.

"I'll see you tomarrow, ok, Goku?"

Goku nodded vigorously, "Yeah! Ok!"

Li Touten glared at the boy, then escorted Nataku back to his office, but not before smirking at the general. Kenren glared, something was up and he was going to find out. He knew it had something to do with Goku, he didn't like it, he didn't like it at all. He looked down at the heretic, who was looking out to where Nataku had left.

"Come on Goku, Konzen comes back today."

"Ok, Ken-chan..."


Hakkai and Sanzo had decided to share a room, while Gojyo got stuck with the two younger boys. "Oi, if you two make a whole lot o'noise tonight, I'm going to stick you in the other two's room and see what happens."

Nataku laughed, "Don't worry, we won't be as noisy as you." He winked twice, Goku laughed.

"Ok, so, I pick up some chicks at night. But not tonight since I'm stuck babysitting you two!"

"Yeah, we'd probably scare her away with all the love stories about Gojyo." Goku said, while high fiving Nataku, "Then we could just tell her about your you know what life too." He made sure to wink at that too. Gojyo's face turned red.

"You wanna fight, monkey?!"

Goku laughed, "No, I don't want Sanzo to shoot us..." He looked at Nataku, and smiled, "Right, Nataku?"

"Yeah, I like my life." Nataku said, with a small laugh, then looked outside, "Maybe we can go to the carnival!"

The two boys looked at Gojyo, who sighed, "Not like I care or anything! Just be back before Sanzo realizes you guys are gone. He told us we couldn't go unless we were all together..."

"Why can't you come...?" Goku asked, scratching his head.

"I don't want to." Was the kappa's blunt reply, "Go before I change my mind."

They did, leaving Gojyo all by himself to think. 'Just don't do anything stupid...'


The Carnival was unlike anything Nataku attended in his life, the jade emperor's birthday was the only thing they had. And that was boring since he always talked about his boring old life and about being ruler of them all. There were kids all around, laughing, and playing with their parents. Frowning, he thought of his own mother, and father. His mother had treated him like a normal human being, but his father used him as a killing puppet. Images of him trying to kill Goku rang into his head...

"Nataku, is something wrong?" Goku looked at his friend with concern, "You look distraught...or whatever that means."

"Maybe we should go back..." He said, "Sanzo's going to kill us for going alone..."

Goku stared, "Well, if you say so...this isn't so great anyways."

"Yeah, I wonder if Gojyo got us into trouble...he seemed kinda wierd when we left." Nataku said as they headed back towards the inn. Just then, people started to scream and yell as a light descended from the sky.

"What the hell?" Goku yelled, "What's going on?"

Nataku felt his gut twist in pain, "I don't know..." He had a bad feeling, a really bad feeling. The day he met his dad back that day, the day he told him to kill Goku, that's what it felt like...

Goku ran towards the light, and grabbed his Nyoi Bou, "This isn't good, we can't fight with all these people here."

"Yeah..."

"Nataku!" A familiar voice called out, Nataku froze, "There you are! I was wondering where you left off! You are with the monster child again..."

Goku whirled around to face him, but then dropped his weapon. He remembered that face, he..."Li Touten.."

The man smirked, "I see you've remembered.."

'Though I don't know how I did...' Just then, Nataku started to walk towards his father.

"Nataku!"

"I'm sorry Goku..." Nataku whispered, "But I have to do what my father says." Li Touten gave him a smirk, Goku just stared. Just what the hell was going on? Why was Nataku leaving him?! Angry tears soon found their way to his eyes.

"If you want it to be this way..." He grabbed his weapon, but not before Li Touten shot at it, hitting Goku's hand. He fell back in pain, "Damn it, why'd you do that for, you bastard!"

"What do you think?" Li Touten said, putting a hand on Nataku's shoulder, "You corrupted his mind long enough. It's time for you to die."

"You couldn't kill me five hundred years ago, you can't kill me now!" Whoah, where'd that come from? How was it that he remembered everything that had happened so clearly?

"Oh...I'm not going to kill you son Goku. I'm going to make sure you live a life of Torture and pain..." Li Touten's voice iced over, and then whispered something to Nataku, whose eyes went blank.

"Nataku..." Goku dropped his weapon, he couldn't harm his friend, he couldn't...but why did this seem so familiar? Why did...? Had Nataku tried to kill him before? Was that why he...? Nataku attacked at full force, Goku tried to block, but the princes sword delved into his lower abdomen, he screamed out in pain. He fell, laying in his own pool of blood. Goku's eyes started to go blurry, the last thing he saw, was Nataku staring down at him, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"I'm sorry Goku..."


That's the final Chapter! Don't worry! I'm doing a sequel! How will Sanzo and the others react? How can Nataku live with himself? Find out, in 'The Decieved'!