Chapter Twenty-one

A Battle for Life

Last time in Hell:

When he approached the tree and looked up, his heart stopped and his blood ran cold…

Now:

Inuyasha looked up and saw Aiko lay limp in his arms. He never thought that this would happen. Inuyasha had completely forgotten about Naraku for that matter. Inuyasha's eyes began to flicker with tints of red in them. His claws were slowly growing, and his demon was coming out. He stepped forward and took a fighting stance,

"Put her down Naraku! Or I'll rip you to shreds."

Naraku just laughed at the comment and brought a tentacle up to Aiko's throat,

"And if I don't? You have no power over me Inuyasha; I have the girl, so there's nothing you can do."

Inuyasha gritted his teeth in frustration; he then realized that he'd lost.

"What do you want from me?"

"Revenge, what else would I want?"

"Okay then. If I let you take me will you let her go?"

"Poor, poor Inuyasha; always mixed up with humans. Why do you care what happens to her? You seem to have the feelings of when you were on Earth with that other mortal."

"SHUT UP! You have no right to talk about Kagome like that!"

"Are you mad now? Good. That will make the torture even better."

"Just let her go first."

"Very well, I am a man of my word, here"

Naraku threw the girl at Inuyasha and he caught her in his arms. He then turned around and placed her on the ground. He looked down at her and then she stirred as her eyes fluttered open.

"Inu- Inuyasha?"

"Don't worry your safe. I need you to run away now."

"But why?"

"Just do it… I… I promise I'll come for you later…"

"Is everything okay?"

"Yes… just go. Now!"

Aiko turned and ran into the distance, but before she was too far away, she hid behind a tree. She was still close enough to hear and see him. Then she noticed the other man that was with him… he was the one that attacked them before. Aiko waited to see what would happen, listening to everything.

"Now. I let you take the kid back, so you have to come with me."

"And if I don't. I could just kill you right now."

"I would love to see you try Inuyasha, I would just love to see you try."

Aiko watched in horror as one tentacle pierced through Inuyasha's stomach, and another slammed into his side, flinging his into a tree. She understood what he did; but what is she supposed to do? Her mom was gone, none of the villagers would take her in, and she had no one now. Then an idea popped into her mind, and she scurried off toward the village.

'Kikyo!'

"Inuyasha do you honestly think that you could defeat me? You're pathetic! A filthy half-breed could never even touch someone of my caliber."

"You're a hanyou as well, or did you forget that? Deep down inside you feel the same hatred in yourself."

"Shut up! You are in no position to be talking like that; especially since you're going to die."

"How am I going to die? We are in Hell dumbass…"

Naraku shot another one of his tentacles at Inuyasha, but this time it was dodged. The half-demon leaped at Naraku, ready to fight him head on. He figured that he wouldn't have a chance in Hell of defeating him. 'Ha… chance in hell…'

Inuyasha charged at his opponent dodging the appendages that came rocketing toward him. He managed to get close enough to Naraku to plant one nice blow to the side of his face, but he was hit in the rib cage in an instant and fell to the ground. Naraku stood, towering above his victim. He slapped Inuyasha in the side of his face with his hand. The forced was so strong that it sent him soaring across the field and crashing into a large rock. His body broke when it hit the boulder and the rock itself cracked under the pressure. He slowly managed to get to his feet and limped back over to Naraku. He wiped some blood with his sleeve and approached his enemy. For about five minutes they just stood there; eyes locked, unmoving, simply staring each other down. It was Inuyasha to break the silence,

"I don't care… what you do to me," he coughed up some blood, "I'm not going to give up, I'll wither kill you or die trying!"

"Well then, it looks like you're going to die trying. Suite yourself, if that's what you really want."

Inuyasha was instantly slammed down into the dirt face first. His neck snapped and pain jolted through his body. When he tried to get up he was impaled yet again right through his back. Naraku had Inuyasha by the throat, and was holding him high off the ground. He began to squeeze harder and harder, until Inuyasha's face began to lose all traces of life. Naraku laughed as he drove another appendage straight through his stomach; blood gushing out of him into giant pools that lay at his feet. Inuyasha's face turned pale and his eyes closed shut. His breathing had stopped and his body went limp in Naraku's grasp…

With Aiko:

She ran as fast as her feet could possibly take her. The girl ran all the way to the village that Kikyo had been at for a while. It was nearly a two mile walk, but running she had managed to get there in a little under six minutes. She knew that there was absolutely no time to spare, and she needed to get help as fast as possible.

Running around frantically, Aiko began screaming out Kikyo's name, hoping to find her fast. Many of the villagers came out of their huts murmuring about how bothersome the little girl had been. Aiko ignored their protests and continued to search for the priestess.

With Kikyo:

Kikyo was in a flowery meadow just outside the south end of the town. She had heard some screams coming from the area and decided to investigate. She never did find anyone, but it was a nice place for her to take a break and think over a few things.

Walking over to a log, the priestess sat on a large oak stump. The area was nice and quiet, so she felt at ease. Her mind began to open up, and she pondered at how to initiate the soul transferring with Inuyasha and Aiko. It would definitely be in her best interest to get some help, because in order for her to complete this, she would need time. As the spell is preformed there can be no interruptions and no physical contact from the outside world. If anyone were to come up, they could simply kill all three of them. Kikyo needed to find someone willing to help them out… but the thing was who would be willing? Everyone they'd met was either scared of them or despised the hanyou. Kikyo furrowed her brow in frustration. This was going to be harder than she had hoped. Not only was the spell one of the most difficult one to do, but they would be helplessly vulnerable to Naraku, or anyone else for that matter, and there was nothing they could prevent him from doing. This thought made her shudder. After all this time, everything that had happened in their lives; Naraku never seemed to go away. Whenever she had tried to dissipate him from her memory, he would somehow manage to reappear. Now even in death he haunted her mind. She was in Hell and he was still after her. What did she do to deserve any of this?

Then she thought of Inuyasha. He was in an even worse predicament. He had no idea what to do, he was stuck in this void, Naraku wanted revenge, and after everything he'd gone through he was separated from Kagome. This had to be even worse for him. He never did deserve anything she had done in the past when she tried to drive away Kagome. Every time she had done that, a piece of Inuyasha's heart would be lost. Every time she had ever brought trouble upon those two; his heart would crack. Soon enough, if she didn't act quickly, there would be nothing left of his mind or soul. He would be an empty body… completely useless and dead. There was no way she was going to let that happen; even if this cost her the very body and soul she possessed, then without a second thought she would give them up.

Kikyo could faintly hear a child's screams. They weren't the same as before, but the sounds were quite familiar to her ear. After a moment of indecision she jumped up and dashed off to the girl. Aiko was in trouble and Kikyo knew she needed to get to her fast. As she rounded a corner in the village she ran straight into Aiko… literally. The two slammed headfirst into one another and toppled over in pain. Aiko quickly jumped to her feet and began to yank on Kikyo's kimono,

"Hurry Kikyo, hurry!"

"What's wrong? You need to tell me what's going on!"

"No time! Hurry!"

With that, the small child dashed off into the village. After gaining her composure Kikyo ran after her. The girl was fast, but because Kikyo was older, had longer legs, and was stronger, she caught up pretty quickly.

"What's going on? Why aren't you with Inuyasha?"

"That… that demon has him! We need to hurry before he gets killed. Inuyasha is already injured too much, and if we don't get there now, he will die!"

Kikyo, with amazing strength, picked up the girl and tore off into the woods. With Aiko on her back giving her instructions, it would only take them half the time it took Aiko to get into the village. The priestess and the girl burst through the shrubs and trees into the opening just in time to see Inuyasha's lifeless limp form drop and crash into the blood stained dirt at his feet. Aiko instinctively ran for her friend, wanting to be by his side. He had saved her, and she wasn't about to let him die.

Noticing that Naraku had his eye on the girl, Kikyo raised her bow and fired a shot that went rocketing at the demon. The arrow broke through a tentacle and then grazed Naraku's face. It left searing burn marks across his left cheek as he howled in pain. Before he could even turn to look at the miko, another arrow was coming at him. He scoffed at leapt back-wards, this time dodging the deadly projectile. Knowing that he didn't stand a chance he fled; he may not have shown any signs of pain, but the first arrow had nearly purified half his body. If it was managed any direct contact he would have been killed instantly.

Kikyo ran over to the girl that was softly crying over the form of Inuyasha. She approached and knelt down beside her. Kikyo held the girl in her arms and tried to give her as much comfort as possible. Inuyasha had always put his life before the others that he cared about, but he never realized that it actually hurt them too. So many times she had seen him save Kagome, and nearly die in the process. Kagome would be devastated and think that it was all her fault. Then she would go into a state of depression and everyone would be upset. Even though all of intentions were good, they weren't always the correct action to take. He had always been to reckless for his own good, and she knew that that would surely cause his death one day.

"He… he can't really be dead… can he?"

"He is alive for the time being, but I don't know how much longer he will be able to hang in there. We need to get him medical attention right away"

Aiko stood and then grabbed Inuyasha and tried to pull him up.

"You go and try to find help Aiko, I will try to move him."

The girl obeyed instantly and took off toward the village. Kikyo tried her hardest to lift Inuyasha, but failed at each attempt. She finally managed to support him on her shoulders and half drag his body. She was very scared at this point; he was unconscious, hardly breathing, hid pulse was almost non-existent, and on top of that they would need to somehow find someone to help. This worried her mores so, she realized that with the village against them it would be near impossible to get anyone to help them. Plus it was Aiko that went into the village to try to get some help, and she wasn't very liked by anyone there. This was going to be most difficult. Inuyasha most likely wouldn't make it…

With Aiko:

The girl ran as fast as she could; dodging tree limbs and hopping over logs on the forest floor. Not once did she bother to stop and breath. She began to slow down after a ways, and her body wouldn't be able to take much more. She had already put herself into overdrive, and didn't have any energy left. Her heart was in the right place, but her physical status just wasn't enough to continue onward. The girl collapsed on the ground panting for air, and rested against a nearby tree. She wanted to get up, but her body simply wouldn't let her. She began to drag herself, but after using her last bit of strength she fell straight on her face. As she glanced up once more, she noticed a blurred bark figure that was slowly approaching her…

I hope you guys liked this chapter, so don't forget to review and tell me what you think! Sorry 'bout the wait, but I couldn't think of what to write for the longest time...