Naraku was not a stupid creature. In fact, he prided himself on his ability to manipulate situations to his will. He would always come out on top. Even with the treacherous miko whore, regardless of her current form, and her half-bred dog constantly playing against him, always was he one step ahead, always did he have another plan to fall back on, another route in which to secure the power that he deemed only worthy of himself.
He was determined to see the light of the Shikon in its full glory, burring with the dark fires of its true beauty. It would be his, all of it. And no one and nothing would stand in his way.
But he was no fool. The Taiyoukai dog had proved to be more of an obstacle than he had assumed. His attempt to take on the awesome power of the Inu and make it his own had failed, and now he was left with yet another adversary in the game. Such a failure was not looked upon fondly by the dark hanyou. It had been his desire to control the power of the Inu Lord, but now the dog had forced his hand to the point where he could no longer allow any of its interference. Sesshomaru, despite his power and his position, would not live to challenge him again, not when all of his plans had finally fallen into place.
Now though, he had been forced to expose himself much earlier than he had anticipated.
His minions had felt the burn of the Shikon miko's immense powers, and thusly he had sent more to investigate her raging release. When it had been revealed that the miko whore was offering her services to the dog, Naraku knew that a stop to their actions must ensue. The demon Lord was enough of a nuisance in his plans as it was, but if the miko of the Shikon were to find protection under the blade of the Taiyoukai, he knew that such a thing would prove most deleterious to his mission.
It was dangerous to expose himself to them now, he knew, but he could not leave off this encounter to one of his pathetic incarnations. Not even a golem would have been powerful enough for this encounter. And though he knew the threat posed to him by confronting both the Taiyoukai and the miko, their joining must have been prevented at all costs.
His barrier surged up around him as the crackling jolts of pure energy running in sharp waves from the little miko's body made their way closer to him. Her power was incredible, so thick it filled the air with its caressing pulse, bringing with it the vibrant flashing of light that warmed everything that it touched. Everything. Everything which, unfortunately, included the Shikon. The jewel reacted to her proximity and her tremendous release of power, its beautiful darkness being stripped away to be replaced by the hideous light.
Naraku hissed in fury when the stone started to burn against his flesh, but he would not be deterred.
"You foolish girl," he hissed out at the little miko. "Do you think that that dog will protect you? Do you think that you are safe under his claws once he has had his way with you?" His sick, wicked laughter filled the space of his barrier in a chilling echo. "Do you actually believe that a demon would love you?"
"You call me foolish?" Kagome questioned the beast in a dark voice as her lips pulled tightly into a bitter, hateful smile. "No, Naraku," she corrected him, "It is you who is the fool. You think that you can come here, impart your 'wisdom' to me, and expect that I would follow along in your wicked game? You think that I would ever, EVER listen to any of the vile words that spill from your lips?"
Her power surged around her wildly, lapping against her skin in heated waves of pure light. At her sides, her hands had been clenched tightly in rage, and the glow of her powers began to take form, to grow and build until every tiny twitch of her fingers would release a devastating jolt of power that lanced out like lightning in a wild bolt to search for that which it would destroy.
"Are you really so deluded," she continued as her hands slowly began to lift before her, "So caught up in the wicked games that you play and your wretched manipulations of others that you can not see what you have done here?"
Naraku, beginning to feel the precarious nature of his position as the miko's powers continued to grow and to lance out at him in wild bots, made the decision to end the miko's tirade before she could gather any more power to herself. His arm moved forward from his body, stretching outwards towards the miko without pause. As it moved, his demonic flesh contorted, twisting into deadly spines with which to impale the wretched miko upon.
But even as he reached across the distance between them, even though he moved at a speed that her mortal body could never have maneuvered around, he would never be able to touch her. The minute he had removed himself from the confines of his barrier, the pure power radiating from the miko began to consume his flesh, burning it away in searing agony and turning it to glittering ash.
Naraku howled in pain and pulled his severed arm back through the safeguard of his barrier. He hissed in fury at the miko, but his anger was only fueled to a new level when he found her smirking at him wickedly.
"I told you, you filthy scum," she spat out angrily. "I'm going to kill you. You can hide in your barrier all you like, but the longer you do, the longer I have to purify the darkness of the Shikon. You think that you can trap us in your game. You think that you can waltz out here and completely ruin my pleasure by trying to tell me that Sesshomaru would never love me. But you, Naraku, are a fool. Love…has nothing to do with this!"
Naraku's eyes widened in apprehension when he saw the miko's hand lifting towards him. In a defensive act, he thrust what remained of his severed arm through his barrier again, allowing the burn of her pure light to rip across his flesh, but causing the dark miasma to spew out from his body and creating a dark cloud of destruction to battle against the waves of radiant light.
Through the dark fog, though it was steadily being dispelled into glittering ash by the flowing wakes of her power, Kagome could no longer see the position of the dark hanyou. Still, that wasn't enough to stop her. She had been denied her pleasure for so long that she was actually finding a sick amount of satisfaction at being able to focus the raging fires in her veins into doing something. Even if she was not to find her release, making damn sure the vile, wretched, pathetic excuse for a hanyou would never again see the light of day was something that the miko would gladly have taken as her compensation for being so long denied.
Her hands lifter before her, sending scorching bolts of energy flying blindly into the mist of his miasma.
But her target had moved away from the deadly touch of her purity. Naraku had used the distraction of his miasma to make a momentary retreat from the girl, but when she had concentrated her powers to lance outwards where she had believed him to be, she had opened herself to an attack. He burst forward from his concealment, the long, deadly spikes of his distorted flesh reaching out to snatch the wench's pathetic existence at long last.
Kagome, however, would never feel the sting of his attack.
Before Naraku could come in contact with the miko, his reaching limbs were severed completely by the hissing blade Tokijin. Again the dark miasma spewed forth, covering the path of the wicked one in his retreat. But Sesshomaru could not be so easily fooled. He followed the path of the hanyou even through the heavy blanket of putrid poison that seeped out of the vile creature's body.
"Sesshomaru," Naraku's voice, cracked with pain and filled with hatred hissed out from behind the mist. "Why do you protect that wretched human? Do you so willingly betray your noble blood? Is your heart so weak that you would allow her conniving nature to blind you, to bend you to her will?"
"Foolish hanyou," Sesshomaru sneered as he tracked the voice through the mist. "It is she that is to be doing the bending, and my will that shall keep her there until she has provided what pleasures her mortal flesh will give me. But that you dare to interfere in the goings on of this Sesshomaru is a crime that shall be your death you vile wretch."
With that, Sesshomaru launched his attack at the dark hanyou. His form blurred as his path was cut through the poisonous mist, his movements so swift that no eye, be it human or youkai, would have been able to detect them. He reached the weakened barrier of his prey in less than a second, lashing out against the intruder with unstoppable currents of raw and devastating power being conducted through the fang in his grasp.
Under the force of his assault, Naraku's barrier cracked. With one more powerful thrust from the sword of the Taiyoukai, what remained of the barrier was shattered into nothingness, leaving the dark hanyou unprotected from the coming fury. He knew that he had been beaten. He knew that another strike from the powerful demon would spell his demise. But Naraku would not allow himself to fall when he was so close to attaining his goal.
He wrapped his being around the resonating power of the Shikon, drawing from it its glorious might. Though the jewel burned against him with the radiant light being absorbed into its recesses, there still remained enough of the darkness to sustain him. His form began to morph yet again, slipping from the confines of his demon flesh to blend in with the dark mist rising about him.
Sesshomaru's final blow would not come on this day.
Naraku cackled out his elation as his non-corporeal form lifted high into the sky. "Come," he beckoned to Sesshomaru, his voice coated with his own sick pleasure, "Follow me if you will, Sesshomaru. Let the miko die of the torturous fires you have ignited in her veins."
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AHHHH!!! Cliffy!
Do you think Sesshomaru could really leave Kagome there to die of her sexual frustrations? Come to think of it, is it possible to die of sexual frustrations? Well, she is a miko, and she is loosing the battle for control over her powers. I guess there's only one way to find out, eh? But do you really think that I would be so cruel?
Kukukukukukuku
Hmmmm…You know…when I was writing that scene, I kept picturing Sesshomaru fighting against Naraku with nothing on but the sword in his hand. Giggles madly I wonder if moving so fast and all if little Sesshomaru would look like a dog's tongue flapping wildly in the breeze as it sticks its head out of the window of a moving car?
Ok, I'm leaving now. Two chapters in one day deserves some happy time for dreams ;P
Cheers
Shadow
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or have any claims over anything but for my terribly twisted imagination that so enjoys torturing these wonderful characters.