Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. The story and characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. All I own is my character, Asami.

Chapter 10 -

Asami opened her eyes and looked around. She could see nothing. A spotlight illuminated herself and about 2 feet diameter around her, but everything else was pitch black, as thick as mud. She reached behind her, but found her Bo staff and her sais were missing. Nervously, she reached a tentative hand into the abyss and the darkness swallowed it completely. Gasping in surprise, she snatched her hand back quickly.

"Rin!" She listened for a response and was met with a stilled silence. "Jaken!" again silence. Looking around, she decided one direction was as good as the next. She hesitated a moment, then slowly stepped into the black. To her surprise, the light followed her. Another few steps, and again the light stayed spotlighted on her. Asami began running now, desperately looking for a wall or doorway to this strange place.

After several minutes of running, she stopped to catch her breath. The darkness still surrounded her and silence pervaded the space. "Where am I?" she whispered, swallowing the panic rising in her throat.

"Right where I want you," a deep voice whispered back, seemingly right by her ear. Asami jumped and spun around, but could see no one.

"Who's there?" she cried out in alarm.

"I've been watching you, kodama." he commented, ignoring her question. "It was so nice of Kagura to bring you to me, though now that I look at you, I see nothing remarkable about you. How disappointing," he mocked.

"Naraku," Asami bared her teeth in a sneer, looking around and trying to locate the source of the voice. "What have you done with Rin!" she demanded, fearing the girl faced a similar fate.

"She is not here. My miasma would kill her instantly, and she is my insurance for the game we are about to play."

"She's a little girl, not collateral! Now if we are 'playing a game' as you say, then show yourself and let's do this!" she raged at the darkness.

"Calm yourself, kodama. You are not the key player in my little game. You are nothing, merely a pawn." he chastised.

"Sesshomaru," Asami gasped, "What are you going to do to him?"

"Let's just say we are about to get intimately acquainted." His sadistic tone sent a chill down her spine. "Now wait for your role in this quietly."

"Naraku!" but when only silence responded, she looked around the dark prison helplessly.

As tears threatened to fall, she sank down and hugged her knees to her chest. I can't give in to despair. I don't know how to escape or help my friends, but giving in helps no one. Get it together Asami. She began to hum and then to sing. Her song was an old one that only kodamas knew. She sang of creation, life, and hope.

Naraku watched as the unconscious body of the kodama pulsed and a green aura emanated from her. The song she sang rang through the murky shiro, though her lips did not move. Vines, withered and blackened from Naraku's miasma, shivered then sprang to life. They turned green and began sprouting small white flowers. Naraku smirked. So she does have power. And from the measure of this small show, a lot of power. She could prove useful. But first...He lashed out and destroyed the blossoming vines. Closing his eyes, he entered the darkness once again.

"How sweet," his voice dripped with sarcasm, "Did you really think to rally yourself with a song? Let me assure you, no one is coming for you. You are alone. I will use you and then leave you to rot in this darkness forever," he spat out at her.

Asami, now silent, shuddered and lost her fight against the tears in her eyes. In the shiro, the hint of life that had reverberated with the song was snuffed out by Naraku's toxic miasma.

ooooooooo

Asami couldn't tell how long she had been in her dark cell. After trying a few more times to find a wall or opening in several different directions, she had given up and sat there waiting for something to happen. Suddenly in the distance, a warm red light appeared. It was small, barely a glimmer, but she immediately started running towards it. As it grew, the red light seemed to fight back and banish the darkness away that had been keeping her trapped. She reached out, touched the light, and felt it envelope her in ardor. As she breathed in, smelling spice and pine, she knew it was Sesshomaru.

She blinked and slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred, but she could see the movement of two figures fighting nearby. She tried to move, but something held her back. Blinking more, she cleared her vision and took in her surroundings. Asami saw Sesshomaru and Naraku battling in the courtyard of a shiro and something in the back of her mind screamed out to be remembered, though she couldn't quite recall what it was. Looking back over herself, she realized she was tied up to a wall, her Bo staff and sais just out of reach.

Sesshomaru knew the moment she regained consciousness. When he had seen her, tied to the wall and senseless, his heart had almost stopped. Despite his need to focus on Naraku, he had flared his yoki to reach out to her. When she had finally responded to him, his conspicuous relief shone in his eyes.

"So, the little songbird has awoken from my spell, has she?" Naraku sneered. "With such an enchanting voice, I was thinking of adding her to my collection of demons. What do you think?" he taunted the daiyokai.

Sesshomaru snarled, sickened at the thought of Naraku enjoying his kodama's singing. Raising Tokijin, he swept in for another round of attacks, slicing and chopping Naraku's tentacles into tiny bits.

Asami shook her head, clearing the remaining murkiness that clouded her mind. Summoning all of her strength, she managed to free one arm just enough to reach her sais. Cutting the remaining ropes, she collected her weapons and ran out to the courtyard. Swinging her Bo staff up over her head, she began attacking Naraku. She was puzzled as tentacle after tentacle came at her and was easily bashed to smithereens; this was too easy. All at once, she remembered Naraku's words about a game and knew he was laying some sort of trap for Sesshomaru.

"Sesshomaru-sama," she called out, "it's a tra-" A slimy tentacle lashed out and wrapped around her throat, knocking her Bo staff away, and lifting her high into the air.

With a maddening look of anticipation, Naraku smiled at Sesshomaru. "I had thought to play with you a bit longer, but circumstances have obligated me to move forward in this little rendezvous." Without warning, all of the pieces of Naraku that had been smashed and laying about the courtyard entrapped and began to cover Sesshomaru.

"No!" Asami cried out in a hoarse whisper as she watched Sesshomaru's entire body disappear into Naraku's slimy tentacles. She felt her heart rend and within her something broke. "Unforgivable!"

Turning his attention back to Asami, Naraku brought her in close to his face. Taking the opportunity, Asami swung her legs around and smacked Naraku in the face with a combination hook/roundhouse kick. It didn't do much damage, but it did surprise him enough to drop her and she leapt away to a safer distance.

"Unforgivable!" she repeated with rage. "You have threatened my life, you have taken an innocent child, my Rin, and now you dare to touch Sesshomaru-sama with your filthy appendages?!" A green aura began to pulse around Asami, her eyes swirling into a rich emerald shade. This was not the gentle power she had unknowingly summoned earlier, this was a tidal wave that burst forth and threatened to consume her. In a move that was instinctual, rather than conscious, she slammed her hand down onto the ground and she felt the earth respond to her call. The ground rumbled and shook, then roots and vines sprang forth from the dead, toxic soil. As if reading her mind, they shot towards Naraku and began wrapping and pinning him to the ground. For each vine Naraku broke and snapped with his tentacles, more would take it's place. This was the scene Inuyasha came upon as he landed in the shiro courtyard.

"What the -" he sputtered in shock, unsure of just who or what he came upon. The one clear realization was that the green glowing woman seemed to be fighting against Naraku and to have momentarily immobilized him. Taking his opportunity, he pulled out Tessaiga and blasted a wind scar at him. In a flash of brilliant light, everything exploded: vines, roots, Naraku's tentacles. Asami was thrown back several feet from the force. When everything cleared, Naraku was wounded, but still standing.

"Oi! Naraku! You've finally shown yourself. It's about time you coward." Inuyasha taunted the spider hanyou.

"Inuyasha," Naraku sneered, "You've decided to join us. Shall I absorb you as I've absorbed your brother?"

"Sesshomaru?" Inuyasha balked, looking around.

"He's in that bulging mass of tentacles," Asami snapped, jumping to her feet and running up to Inuyasha. "I need to get him out."

Naraku shot out another wave of tentacles to attack the pair, but Inuyasha slashed them away. "Who are you?"

"My name is Asami, I'm a kodama" she responded, "but that isn't important. Right now we need to save your brother."

"I have no interest in saving him," Inuyasha grimaced, "I'm just here to kill Naraku."

"Then we still have the same goal," Asami shot back, exacerbated. She dove under another tentacle attack, striking the earth and calling more vines and roots to her. Lifting them high, she shot them at Naraku. With speed and increasing skill, she used her hands and mind to control them, using them to smash tentacles and wrap around Naraku's body. It was a little more difficult to trap him this time as he was expecting her attack, but she was distracting enough that Inuyasha was able to get in another powerful wind scar. The explosion of light engulfed them all. Asami was once again knocked back, but this time managed to keep her feet. As she looked around, she saw another flash of light and Sesshomaru stepped free of Naraku's trap.

"Ironic that your flesh shielded me from the wind scar," he mocked Naraku with a smirk.

Inuyasha and Sesshomaru immediately began bickering about who was going to kill Naraku, each getting their strikes in. Meanwhile, Asami could feel the tidal wave of power within her surging beyond her control. A hatred in the back of her mind surfaced, raging against any and all who would harm the forest. Her power slowly lifted her off her feet, flying her in a swirl of razor sharp leaves. For an instant, she didn't care who she killed in the process of getting to Naraku who had killed so much of the land with his miasma.

"Asami" Sesshomaru shouted her name like a command over his shoulder as Inuyasha got another wind scar attack in against Naraku. Shaking her head, the nagging hatred that had stormed in her mind quieted down. She landed back on her feet gently and the razor leaves dispersed. Panting from the exertion, she watched as Sesshomaru struck the now severely injured Naraku.

Naraku's body became masked in a swirling cloud of miasma and saimyosho. "Hn. I shall retreat for tonight," his voice declared from within the cloud.

Sesshomaru's anger surged. I cannot allow him to get away. His yoki flared, turning his eyes red as he prepared to transform. "Do you really think you can escape me Naraku?" he growled.

Naraku gave a deep maniacal laugh. "Sesshomaru, shouldn't you be more worried about your little human companion? She is with Kohaku and Inuyasha knows just what that entails." With another laugh, he disappeared.

Sesshomaru gasped at the realization that Rin might be in danger, reeling in his yoki. So, she was taken to buy him time to escape. The coward.

"Sesshomaru-sama," Asami whispered as she reached out and gripped his kimono. She clung to it as if it were a life preserver, lost in the ocean of her power. "Rin," she managed to get out, still trying to tamp down on her power, "We have to get to Rin."

"Hey, Sesshomaru. Did Naraku take a hostage? Is this Rin a friend of yours?" Inuyasha asked, wary after the mention of Kohaku's involvement.

Without a word, Sesshomaru wrapped his arm around Asami's waist, drawing her close. Mokomoko encircled them both as Sesshomaru began to fly. He leaned down and breathed in her scent. She smelled all wrong, there was too much magnolia and something new, something verdant. Looking down at her, he noticed her eyes still swirled with green.

"I'll be alright," she responded to his silent concern, "Let's just get our girl back."