Elemental

Chapter Thirteen

Author's Note: this story is coming to a close soon...I might cry whoops.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha.

The moment Naruto returned from his 'pee break', Kagome knew something was up. His appearance was the same, except his holster was on the left instead of his right. But that's not what ticked her off; his scent was completely different.

She stood up, catching the attention of he teammates as she quickly threw a kunai at 'Naruto'. He dodged it, looking at her shocked. "K-Kagome?" She sneered. "Don't play dumb with me, idiot. You're not Naruto. You may have gotten most of his appearance down, but he's right handed, not left. Plus, you can't change your scent."

'Naruto' smirked before a cloud of smoke overtook him. When it dissipated it revealed an Ame nin. He laughed. "Smart girl. But so what? I'm still gonna take your scroll. Now hand it over, or else." A smirk began to form on Kagome's face.

She suddenly appeared behind him, kunai posed at his neck, and a small droplet of blood slid down, vanishing into his shirt. "You know...coming alone to fight a team is quite dangerous." the male shivered, his eyes wide.

"Especially when one of them is a demon."

Sesshomaru stared at the Hokage coolly. "Are you trying to tell me..." he began, nostrils flaring in anger. "that you allowed my daughter to go into that forest with a demented sociopath?!" he shouted. The Hokage took it in stride.

"Now, Sesshomaru-san, that is only part of what happened. I did not allow her to go, I'd only found out about this yesterday and it took the entire day to figure it out. We cannot stop the exams; Orochimaru would surely end up killing everyone if we did. And you cannot enter them either, it would disrupt the shinobi relations and could cause another war."

Sesshomaru grunted, calming down a bit. "But, we have suspicions that Orochimaru has killed the Kazekage and taken over his form, tricking his shinobi into forming an alliance with my ex-pupils' own village; Otogakure. Their goal is to destroy Konoha, but my pupils is to kill me."

Sesshomaru stared at him. "And why exactly am I needed?" The Hokage gave a small smile. "I'm afraid I've grown too old, Sesshomaru-san. I cannot defeat Orochimaru, nor can I kill him because of my own human emotions. The only way I have to inflict damage on him would kill me, and there is not a high percentage of it actually working. This is where you come in."

"You, and your mother of course, are the oldest yokai to have lived, Sesshomaru-san. You have ruled over the lands for many years, and for the west even longer. While I know you are not the cold, killing machine you once were and that your hate for humans has ebbed down over the past centuries into an annoyance, it would be in your best interest to help us."

Interested now, Sesshomaru leaned forward. "Sarutobi-san, are you trying to blackmail me?" a twinkle of amusement was in the Hokage's eyes. "That it exactly what I'm trying to do. We may be old friends, Sesshomaru, but the duty I have to my village trumps that. If I have a way to save it, then I will exploit that use."

Hiruzen smiled. "Besides, your daughter has grown to love this village and the people within it. It would pain her greatly to see it destroyed, don't you think?" Sesshomaru froze and then a second later nodded, a smirk forming. "You were always good at making me do things you wanted me to, Hiruzen." The Hokage chuckled.

"You made him wet himself." Sasuke noted in disgust, kicking the now tied up shinobi in the leg. Kagome crinkled her nose as Sakura fought off giggles. "Yeah, I can smell it." she blanched.

She checked his pockets and holster. "His teammates must have the scroll." she sighed, standing up. She looked to her two teammates. "I'm not entirely comfortable with this, but I'm able to handle myself on my own. Since I'm easily able to track him, I'm going to go after Naruto and hopefully find the rest of his team." she pointed to the unconscious nin. "Are you two gonna be okay by yourselves?"

Sakura nodded, smiling. "Yeah, we'll be fine." she then turned to the Ame nin and Sasuke took his chance. He walked towards her, a mere hair's width away. He brushed his lips across her cheek. "Be safe." he whispered in her ear before pulling away.

Kagome gave a smile, nodding, before she took to the trees after their missing teammate. Despite Sakura's reassurance that they'd be fine, she had a horrible feeling that something bad was going to happen.

How right she was.

Kagome stopped short, her hand shooting out to clutch the tree to stop her from falling. She'd tracked Naruto's chakra alright...right into a snake. A giant snake.

She shivered.

The snake was lounging at the moment, but she could see the small lump in it's body, along with the muffled cries of Naruto. She placed a hand on her katana. "No pup, now isn't the time for me to be used. Instead, use the wind sorceress's fan." she nodded, retrieving the fan from her pouch.

To the normal eye it seemed like a regular tradition fan. But Kagome could sense the yokai within it, begging to be used. She didn't know how she knew the correct motions to make, or even how she knew the name of the attack. It just...came to her.

"Dance of Blades!"

Hyousuke stopped mid-step, his two teammates stopping as well. He closed his eyes as he felt a surge of yokai go through him. He turned to his teammates, observing them.

His first teammate, a female, could pass as the Taisho's older sister, though there were a few differences. She had flawless alabaster skin and long, black hair that fell past her waist and tied into a loose ponytail with a ribbon. She had big brown eyes that were cold and dead, and a hitai-ate with the Oto symbol rested around her neck. She wore miko attire; red hakamas and a white haori. She had refused to wear shinobi attire; the hitai-ate was the only thing she allowed.

His other teammate was a boy. He had white hair and purple eyes and tan skin. Black markings were all over his body, but they were covered up when he was wearing clothes. He wore a mesh shirt and over that a black shirt that was two sizes to big and showed his shoulder, revealing a curse mark. Along with that he wore loose pants, a holster on his left leg, and black ninja sandals. His hitai-ate was around his neck.

"Hyou-kun, why did you stop?" the boy asked, tilting his head with emotionless eyes. Hyousuke repressed a shiver. The boy had shown up at Orochimaru's three years after he did and Orochimaru wasted no time in placing a cruse seal on him.

It didn't have the affects he desired, but Hyousuke suspected it had to do with the fact that the boy was a demon, as his own curse mark hadn't worked either. Their female teammate hadn't received on for she had no flesh to begin with, though it seemed she did.

"Kikyo-san, Hikaru-san, do you not feel that?" His two teammates seemed to pause. "Ah, Kagome-danna is using her powers?" Hyousuke nodded at the boy, still mystified at the fact that he referred to the Taisho as his master.

Kikyo didn't take it too kindly. "Why do you call her that? You have never met her. She is my reincarnation, not your master." Hikaru looked at her with cool eyes. "Please, you are but a shell of what you once were. Do not insult my master in such a way by bringing her down to that. She is not your reincarnation, you clay pot. You have part of her soul, it is not the other way around."

Thoroughly miffed, Kikyo only glared at the boy before turning the other way. Hyousuke sighed at the two. While he didn't trust Kikyo, he had some respect for Hikaru. He'd gotten him out of many things, but not without a price. He owed Hikaru many favors; he was just glad the boy hadn't called upon any of them.

"Where are you going?" Hyousuke asked, watching as Kikyo walked the in the opposite direction. "To blow off steam. Don't follow me." Kikyo said, a warning in her voice. Hyousuke sighed, turning to his other teammate. Hikaru's purple eyes were narrowed in thought.

Hyousuke sighed again. He had a bad feeling about this.

Kagome grimaced, shaking her arm to rid it of the snake guts. Her wind attack made crescent-shaped yokai that had sliced the snake into pieces, freeing Naruto. However, it sent the snake's guts flying everywhere too.

"You go on ahead Naruto, I have other things I need to do." the bright eyed boy sent her a grin before making his way to Sasuke and Sakura. She grimaced before jumping into the trees. She needed to catch the Ame nins' scent again.

It didn't take her long and soon she found his teammates sitting at the base of a tree. They were arguing, probably about their teammates absence, but she didn't care. She hopped down in front of them, smirking at their shocked expressions. She closed her eyes. "Now, this could go two ways. One; you could tell what scroll you have and hand it over and be free to go, or two," she opened her eyes, revealing that red was beginning to seep in. "I can kill you."

Her fangs elongated and her claws grew sharper. The two Ame nin started to shake at the killing intent that suddenly filled the area. "W-Where's our teammate?" one of them asked. She smiled in a sick fashion. "Oh, the one that tried to attack us? I ate him." she lied, watching as they suddenly went pale white.

One of the nin fainted and she smirked at the one remaining. He quickly dug into his holster, causing her to tense before he pulled out a brown scroll. "We have an Earth one, here, take it!" he shouted, throwing the scroll at her feet.

She paused, picking it up as her fangs and claws returned to their normal size, the red receding from her eyes. "Thanks!" she chirped, returning to the trees as she made her way back to her team.

She had made it only a short way back from where she had slain the snake before an arrow whizzed past her face. She stopped short, steadying herself on the ground as she narrowed her eyes into the trees. Soon, a girl walked through them, her dead eyes glaring at Kagome and another arrow already notched in her bow.

"Reincarnation, I have come for the rest of my soul."

A black brow rose. "Your soul? Um, I don't even know you, but this is my soul." she wrinkled her nose. "Why on Earth do you smell like graveyard soil?" the girl narrowed her eyes. "My name is Kikyo, I am the guardian on the Shikon no Tama. You are my reincarnation."

Kagome huffed, annoyance settling in. "Look," she began. "I don't know who you are, but this is my soul. I don't have time to talk to you and your weird ramblings, I've been away from my team for too long." she paused as her words seemed to have no effect on her. "Please, don't make me kill you."

Kikyo scoffed, her aim lowering. "As if a weak reincarnation as yourself could do any harm to me." Kagome didn't take the bait like she expected to and Kikyo frowned. An idea suddenly came to mind and she inwardly grinned.

Suddenly, she appeared behind Kagome. The girl could only let out a gasp as Kikyo hit her in the back of the head. She caught the girl as she fell unconscious, dragging her to the bushes were they wouldn't be easily spotted.

Calling upon her own portion of her soul, she watched as the pink orbs lifted from her body, prepared for the sudden tightness of her chest. She then called upon Kagome's, watching as the orbs of light floated from her chest. However, it was different than before. Instead of it just being pink, there was black and blue mixed in.

She shrugged her shoulders. It probably had something to do with being reborn. Before she had the chance to mix the souls together, a shout broke them up. "Fox fire!" green flames licked at the edge of her vision and she hastily called back her own soul. Only half of what was her own managed to return to her before she stood and ran.

Kagome's soul, along with half of the portion of what Kikyo had, mingled together before returning to her chest. Shippo came running up next to her, relieved when he sensed she still had her soul, and motioned for Miroku to pick her up. The monk did so, for once not being a pervert.

Author's Note: Is it obvious I'm trying to tie up loose ends?