Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha. But I will one day.

Chapter 25: The Battle Has Begun

Warning: May contain coarse and graphic violence. Not suitable for the young or faint of heart.

Makoto and Kita packed silently side by side on the third afternoon of Shippou and Tani's journey. They hadn't spoken very much since that day with the boar youkai. Kita's mind was wondering so far sometimes Makoto had to call her quite a few times just to get her attention. Her thoughts were on the past, things she was forced to do and things she gave-in to; being attacked at Sesshomaru's castle; the battle with her former master that was lurking ahead of her. She used to be a great fighter. Any hanyou who went out alone had to be to survive, but her injuries were deep, and there was no way she could move as fast as she used to. If there was going to be a big battle, there wasn't much she could do to help her new found friends.

The worst part about it, she was the reason these nice people were getting into a war. Before she came along they were all living happily and peaceful. Now they had to leave their home behind to go fight in some stupid war. Some friend she turned out to be. Kita finished packing the few sets of clothes she owned, kimonos that Kagome had given to her, and tied the straps across her shoulders. She headed to the door to wait outside for everyone else to get ready.

"Kita?" She stopped and turned at Makoto's voice. He was kneeling on the floor gathering his own things for the journey.

"Hm?"

"Did I……… are you……" he sighed. "Never mind. I'll be out as soon as I finish here."

Kita nodded and pushed the bamboo curtain aside. Outside the wind was blowing her hair across her face. He was wanting to say something to her. What was it? Everything about this entire situation had her so up tight that one little question lingering in her mind turned into thousands of bigger questions. What if someone were to get hurt? What if she was taken control of again? What if they lost the battle? What if she lost Makoto, or Makoto lost her? Would he be sad? Would he morn her dead? Would he ever understand just how sorry she was for all the trouble she had caused? A strong arm around her waist ceased all thoughts for the time being.

Makoto couldn't help but feel the tension between him and Kita. It was like a thick fog blocking her from his view. She was creating a shield around herself, trying to block everyone out like she was before they met. He didn't want to loose her, especially not like that. "Whatever happens after today, Kita, just happens. No regrets. No carrying the fate of the world on your shoulders. No more being alone."

"Makoto,… I'm…"

"I'm not going to let you do this to yourself. I'm not going to let you go. I care too much for you to drown in your own self-doubt. I need you just as much as you've needed me and nothing you've done or nothing you will do can change that." Makoto nuzzled the back of her neck and sighed again. "I'll be here, waiting for you. I'm not going to force you into anything when you're still not sure. But, please, remember I'm still here too, and I'll always be here."

"You two better be ready by the time Shippou gets back!" InuYasha's command interrupted.

"We are, Oyaji!" Makoto sighed as he answered back.

"That goes for you, too, Kagome. Everything that you'll need for you, the pups, and anything else better be packed before Shippou gets here or it'll just get left behind." InuYasha yelled through the door of the hut. His reply was nothing more than having a sandal thrown in his face. "Oi, wench! Just get packed already!"

"I'll finish packing when I'm good and ready BAKA!"

InuYasha crossed his arms and growled. "Keh. I'm going to make sure Miroku and Sango are ready to go. When I get back all of you better be ready."

Makoto shook his head as he watched InuYasha head for the village. He wondered why his Okaasan didn't just sock it to his Oyaji sometimes.

"Makoto?"

He turned to the wolf-hanyou beside him. "Hmm?"

"Something's not right, here. I'm sensing something…I can't figure it out. Can you feel it?"

Makoto closed his eyes and concentrated of the feelings around him. He sniffed the air, nothing. He listen, nothing but birds, animals, the rustling of the trees in the wind, Kagome walking back and forth gathering things inside the hut, nothing out of the ordinary. But there was something in the air, something that made him a bit uneasy. "Something's here. Watching."

"Makoto…"

"Shhh." He held a finger to her lips. Makoto concentrated harder on his surroundings. Yes, something was out there. A lot of somethings. Almost like they were…SURROUNDED! "Kita, get to the hut and stay there." He said in a calm, whispering voice. "Tell Okaa to keep the pups close and stay hidden."

"What's going on?"

"Just do it, Kita." Her grabbed her roughly by the chin and forced her to look directly at his face. "If something happens to me get Okaa and the pups and head straight to the village to find Oyaji and Miroku." Kita opened her mouth to speak but Makoto shook his head. "Go to the village. As fast as you can. No heroics." He watched as the girl followed his command and silently disappeared into the hut. He sighed and turned back toward the forest, walking forward with his eyes scanning the horizon.

The wind had a strange flow, going every which way, making it hard for Makoto to get any kind of scent from it. He had no doubt that it was the work of some kind of wind-youkai hiding in the forest. That wasn't the only thing out there, though. It took a lot of concentration, but he was slowly being able to sense dozens of creatures in the surrounding forest. Something was also trying to mask their presence, and doing a rather good job of it as the youkai had been able to get right up to the edge of the forest without any of them being able to sense it. There was a rustle on the far edge of the trees as three figures stepped out and stared at him.

The one in the middle was defiantly their leader, a rather cocky looking inu-youkai male. There were two other inu-youkai on either side of him. The one on the right, an older female with a scar covering the entire right side of her face. The youkai on the leader's left was a male inu-youkai with a huge body, but it didn't look like it had much brains. Makoto waited. The youkai just stood there, looking straight back at him. He growled. The leader inu smirked, raising his hand in front of him, and snapped his fingers.

What happen next happened quickly and precisely. As soon as Makoto heard the snap, whatever spells that were around the forest shattered and with it came the sounds and smells of not a dozen or so youkai like he first predicted, but an uncountable measure lurking just behind the trees. Makoto growled as the first line of youkai started to step out, each wearing their own smirks and toothy grins. Bat, centipede, boar, rat, inu, various reptile and bird, Makoto could even smell a few panther youkai. It was an army of youkai, mostly dumb creatures, but the multitude of creatures was what Makoto was worried with. There was no way he could hold them off for very long… absolutely no way…

He ran as fast as he could to the hut, poking his head inside. "Kita get Okaasan and the pups and get to Oyaji as fast as you can."

"Makoto, I sense all kinds of things out there, what's going on?"

"Just listen to me and go! NOW!"

Kita nodded, and Kagome looked at him with sad eyes. She feared for Makoto, but she had to take care of her pups. "Be careful."

Makoto ushered his Okaa and Kita with the pups out the door and down the path. When they were out of his sight, he turned back around to face the youkai. An entire front line of them now stood at the forest's edge. The three inu still remained unmoved from their original place. By this time Makoto was on the edge of freaking out. Sure, he had fought more than one youkai before, and he wasn't half bad a fighter, but he wasn't as big of a fighter as InuYasha. But he couldn't let these youkai into the village. There were too many innocent people, his entire family.

The inu-youkai in the middle nodded, and several of the youkai lurched at Makoto all at once. He growled out as he was jumped from all sides. His claws slashed at a snake-youkai that was wrapping itself around his legs, spilling a bluish-green blood across the ground. The youkai shrieked and turned to bite Makoto's side. He growled away the pain and slashed the youkai again, effectively slicing off the head that still had fangs digging into his flesh. As Makoto turned to attack a rather chunky-sized youkai to his right, another good sized youkai grabbed his left arm, stopping the attack.

Now both Makoto's arms were being held back, immobilizing his upper body from the fight. He flipped backwards, effectively freeing his arms for a few moments. As he was taking down the larger youkai on his right, he grunted at the feel of claws slicing down his back. One of the panther-youkai had emerged from the forest and using its cat-like speed kept charging Makoto, leaving red scratches behind in its wake. The oversized youkai finally fell victim to Makoto's claws, leaving one less youkai for him to deal with.

Soon the lone hanyou found himself face to face with the ground, having been successfully thrown to the ground. One youkai had his arm pinned behind his back at a painful angle. Makoto flipped his legs over onto the youkai's shoulder, using the combination of his position and his strong leg muscles to snap the youkai's neck in one smooth motion. Back on his feet, Makoto threw his shoulder back, cracking his bones back into place without a wince. He didn't have time for pain. A horde of snake youkai were covering the entire ground around Makoto, making it feel as if the very ground around him was alive.

The sky started to darken greatly, and looking up Makoto found out why. Dozens of the birds-of-paradise hovered just above him, squawking and clawing at each other in anticipation for their chance at the inu-hanyou. The panther-youkai finally came face to face with him. It was on all fours, its eyes glowing red, the black fur standing on end, the muscles rippling as it readied itself to pounce. As the panther leaped toward him, Makoto grabbed it by the tail and slung it into a rat-youkai coming up by his side. The two collided in mid air and fell backwards into the onslaught of youkai behind them.

The battle raged on. For how long, mere moments had passed, but by the time his strength and energy started to give out, dozens upon dozens of youkai lay unmoving at his feet. His clothes were soaked in blood from his own wounds as well as from the fallen youkai. Throughout the entire ordeal, the three inu stood off to the side out of harms way. Makoto fell to his knees, planting one fisted palm on the ground to hold him up as he tried to catch his breath. Just as he thought the fighting was almost over, a fresh line of youkai stepped out of the forest, two huge oni on either side of the line. The birds-of-paradise swooped down, feasting on the flesh of the fallen. They were there as vultures, just to clean up the battlefield. If he didn't have to save his breath to try and stand up to fight again, Makoto would have chuckled at the thought.

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Kita was doing her best to stay calm while carrying Mehiji in one arm and trying to support Kagome and Gina with her other. The miko had ran as fast and as long as she could, but her energy was becoming spent fast. As soon as they had left the hut, Kita could sense the horde of youkai surrounding the small clearing. Kagome must not have been using any of her miko powers, for she didn't show any signs of sensing the danger her first born was in. There must have been another spell surrounding the village, cause the closer to the village Kita and the miko got, the less she was able to sense from the forest. Even the strange wind had returned and blocked out her senses.

Unknown to any of the group, a few of the youkai had managed to sneak past Makoto and had followed Kita, Kagome, and the pups right up to just outside the village. By the time Kita had finally caught a scent, the youkai were circled around them, edging closer and eying Kagome and the helpless pups. Among the youkai were two boar-youkai, obviously from the same western tribe as the ones before; one huge rat-youkai; three snake youkai; and one giant bug-like youkai with a hard exoskeleton composed of tiny spikes.

Kita lowered Kagome to the ground, giving her Mehiji to hold and took a defensive stance in front of the three. The youkai were all red-eyed; grunting, shrieking, and gnarling at the wolf-hanyou as she growled back at them. The boar and rat were the first to attack. Kita managed to gut one of the boar in the first charge, having gained experience with the beast in her last battle. The other boar seemed to become even more infuriated with the girl. It dug its tusks into the dirt, scrapping with its hooves and snorting through its snout. The rat-youkai and snake-youkai attacked from three different angles.

One of the snakes managed to wrap itself around Kita's throat as she tried to pry away the fangs of the rat-youkai from her right forearm. The other two snakes held her legs firmly in place, disabling her from being able to use them to defend herself and the others. The boar was getting ready to charge again, and at the last moment before impact Kita threw her arm around causing the rampaging youkai to collide with the rat-youkai attached to her arm. The fangs of the rat left deep gouges as it was tossed to the side by the boar's tusks and Kita was able to slice the snake around her neck in half and take a deep, welcomed breath of fresh air into her lungs.

The crying the pups were doing only succeeded in making the youkai even angrier. Kagome tried her best, rocking them back and forth and cooing them to get the two a bit more quite. One of the snake decided Mehiji would make a good snack, slithering toward the pup with an opened mouth. Kita was too busy trying to ward off the rampaging boar-youkai to notice. Kagome raised her had just as the snake got in range and shot out a blast of her miko powers. She couldn't find enough strength to project a killing blow, nor did she have enough for another shot at it. The snake-youkai received the blast directly in its face, causing the creature to shriek out loudly and squirm around in pain. Kagome pulled her pups closer and tried to hide them from view.

Kita had gutted the second boar-youkai and was now dealing with the last snake and the rat-youkai. The snake struck at her, but she managed to back-hand the creature, sending it straight back to the ground. Kita kicked the head in, feeling the skull crack with the force of her abuse. The rat-youkai went down only moments after that, leaving Kita panting and Kagome taking a deep sigh of relieve, but their relief was short-lived. The other youkai had been so quiet and out of the way that the two had almost forgotten about it, but now the creature had its full attention on them.

Kita had to cover her ears when a high-pitched whistling sound was emitted from the spiky bug-youkai. The bug started to puff out, the hard exoskeleton peeling back and the spikes growing smaller and smaller until they were completely covered by its squishy under-flesh. The high-pitched whistling stopped, replaced by a strange 'pooft' sounds, like air slowly being released…

Kita groaned as she figured out what was about to take place. She rushed back in front of Kagome and the pups, spreading out her arms in a protective stance and grimacing while she waited for the blow. The bug-youkia's exterior deflated and with it shot out thousands of the tiny needles. Kagome gasped as she heard dozens of the projectiles digging into flesh at once. Kita fell to one knee, gritting her teeth to keep herself from screaming out her pain. It wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, most of the spikes had merely grazed her, a few had embedded themselves in her flesh, but she would have to deal with that later because the bug was already producing more spikes. As it started to puff out again, Kita forced herself back to her feet in front of Kagome. There was no way this is going to end well, Kita thought to herself as she braced for the worst.

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Makoto braced himself as he flew through the air and landed smack dab into the side of his family's hut. The last remaining oni covered his gauged out eyes with one hand, swinging around blindly with the other. Makoto got back to his feet in a flash and met with the oni head on. He used his claws to climb up onto the back of the oni, reaching down through the flesh on its neck and snapping the windpipe with his hands. The oni fell face forward, leaving Makoto laid out huffing on the ground. He groaned as yet another line of youkai came forward from the forest.

He was hardly ready to go at it again, but he shrugged off his fatigue and stretched out his claws, fangs bore, but the new line of youkai never attacked. They stood just out of the trees, and parted in the center as if waiting for someone to pass though them. The inu were also looking to the empty spot as yet another youkai emerged from the trees. This one was different though, not just a bloodthirsty beast like the other youkai had been. And this youkai happed to be a female with long, slender legs; short, furry clothing; cobalt blue eyes, and black hair pulled into a high ponytail. She stood in the middle of the youkai with her hands placed confidently on her hips, every eye on her, including a very shocked and confused inu-hanyou.

"A-Akina?"

A/N:

Lol. I know, I know, more PainMakoto. And I promise you more has yet to come for the entire group.

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