Hey, shout out time! To my reviewers…

Pyro: an almost instant review! I feel privileged…really!

Kitsune Hanyou: yes, all right, cliffie writers are evil! "MWHA HA HA HA!" Ooh, was that me?

Mattielover: a regular reviewer is a thing of beauty…

Jessica T: hello again! Hope you like this chapter…it's kind of where the whole story idea came from.

Fiwen: ok, little monkey, here it is! And I can't believe anyone would cancel Inuyasha – what is TV land coming to, I wonder? All the good stuff is disappearing!

A/N: Personal update, to all my loyal readers – this week has been absolute hell. So much so, I've been doing this writing stuff all hours in an effort to escape from it all! So, here's another chappie, way ahead of my usual time. Just don't get used to it…hopefully I'll get a life again soon.

Oh yeah, all that 'voting' for Sesshoumaru or Naraku as 'the attacker' brought it to my attention – haven't mentioned Sesshy in this fic at all thus far! Oops. I promise, I will try to fix that…

Disclaimer: Dratted guilty conscience * grumbles * - I don't own Inuyasha. Feh.


Choice and Consequence

Chapter 7: A Moment's Delay

Naraku, to put it lightly, was getting annoyed. Very annoyed.

"What is so hilarious, wench?"

It did make for quite a confusing sight. A furious hanyou was towering menacingly over his captive – and his captive was having a fit of the giggles. Kagura and Kanna watched impassively from the sidelines. Kanna's face betrayed no emotion, while Kagura's mouth was twisted into a wry grin.

Well, it was funny to watch. She settled in to see the rest.


If Kagome hadn't been tied to a pole, she would have been rolling on the floor, she was laughing so hard. Tears of mirth rolled down her face – but to a keen listener, some of the laughs would have sounded suspiciously like sobs.

She couldn't stop. 'I guess all this stress is getting to me…'

Out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed Naraku raising a tentacle in readiness for yet another attack. She quickly shook her head, gulping for air. When she could finally speak again, the words came out in gasps.

"You…you've..already lost…"

Understandably this comment did not improve the Evil One's already flaming temper. He reached out a hand to grip Kagome's chin in a bruising hold. Her mistreated jaw blazed in agony at the rough handling, but she bit down hard on the scream that threatened to burst out of her.

"Care to say that again?" There was no mistaking the threat in that voice. She regained a little more control, forcing herself to breathe.

"You've lost this battle." She stopped to think, and shook her head. "Amazing…you've been one step ahead of us all this time, it seems, and now you miss this." She raised her head to look him square in the eye.

"Inuyasha will never come for me. You've lost."


Trees whipped by in a rushing blur. At the speed with which he was moving, it would really hurt if he collided with one. This sad event was quite likely as Inuyasha was paying little or no attention to his surroundings.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID!' he thought viciously. What angered him even more was the fact that these vindictive thoughts could not in all honesty be directed at his somewhat shamefaced companions. No, the blame rested fully upon his own idiotic shoulders. 'Really, really stupid!'

How could he have let this happen? For the past two weeks he had been a first-class jerk. First of all, he had let his temper get the better of him, attacking Kagome. Actually, no, he didn't want to think about that. He quickly moved on to the next item of bad behaviour. That night at the camp, he had said something wrong, made her leave them. Of course, he had no idea what he'd said, but that made no difference when it came down to it. Bottom line, he was always doing that.

Jerk.

He'd been off running through the forest while she had been seriously hurt by that scorpion youkai. He had allowed Kouga to snatch her away from him, possibly putting her in even more danger than ever. He had been lulled by Kikyou's presence, so that he hadn't even smelt Kagome's return…and then –

"AARRGHH! STUPID!" He slashed at a branch in fury, not slowing his pace.

He'd kissed Kikyou. Of all the moronic things to do, he'd kissed the undead miko. (Well, she had kissed him, but…he'd let her!! He was a hanyou, he was strong, why couldn't he just push her off straight away? Yup, one more thing to add to the bad behaviour list – after losing his temper so often, he hadn't got mad when it really counted.) And Kagome had seen him.

Kagome had seen them. Oh, that hurt. But the best was yet to come…

He had simply stood there. He might as well have been in a trance, caught between action and inaction. Who knew how long he had stayed there? It must have been a while if Kagome had gotten back to camp and left again without him even noticing. But it hadn't seemed like any time had passed at all. And during that time, Naraku had somehow gotten his claws on Kagome.

He suddenly felt the need to tear something to shreds.


All pretence of bravado slipped away from Kagome as her strength finally gave out. She sagged against the ropes around her body, letting them take her exhausted weight. Her part in this was over, she didn't want to fight anymore, she just wanted to lie down and sleep…

Naraku remained strangely unmoved by her statement. His face was slack, with a cold expression painted onto his features. The only sign of vitality was a sudden flash of anger in his eyes.

Or was it satisfaction?

"And why would that be?" he asked. She would have glared at him, but she was too out of it now. Did he really have to make her say it?

"I'm not needed here anymore. Inuyasha and Kikyou – " she stumbled over her words for an instant, then carried on – "are reunited. He has what he needs to get all of the shikon no tama, and all that he needs to defeat YOU." Venom fairly dripped from her voice. "He has no idea where I am, or even that I'm missing, and so this little trap you've set has failed right from the start." She let her head loll to the side, hiding her gaze from prying eyes.

Naraku was thoroughly enjoying himself. This submission, this breaking of the spirit – this was what he lived for. He had yet another trick to play, however.

"But as your mate, he would have to come and find you. After all, he's disrupted my plans quite enough times to prove his devotion to you." He waited.

The forlorn girl clenched her fists, grinding her teeth in fury. "How many times do I have to tell you? He loves her, not me! He would come to get her, not me! My job is done, he has no reason to come!"

Ahh, there it was – his little curse had come full-circle. He really did despise youkai who took joy mainly in physically destroying their prey. Sure, you could kill some people, but those left behind would actually gain strength from that fact, increasing their determination to fight. No, the key was to break, to bind, to remove spirit, soul, mind and emotions. That was the only complete victory.

The only true conquest came from the inside out. Take away their will to live, sooner or later their life follows.

Hmm, it had worked so well. Hanyou loves miko, miko loves hanyou, miko thinks hanyou tried to kill her, seals said hanyou to a tree. Second miko arrives, unseals hanyou, miko loves hanyou, hanyou loves both mikos – has to choose. Hanyou chooses second miko, first miko shows up to spoil everything, second miko thinks hanyou has gone back to first miko. Second miko runs, first miko helps capture second miko, hanyou going mad…yes, a complex chain of events.

One more thing was needed to make the job complete. He motioned towards the side of the room.

Kagome looked up dully at the motion he made. 'What now?' She gasped.

Kikyou walked into the space in the centre of the room, gazing coolly at the captive girl. "What should I do with her, Kikyou?" Naraku already knew the answer – this was too much fun…

"She is unimportant. Kill her." The undead miko turned and walked away. Kagome turned just in time to see a fist crashing down on her skull, knocking her once more into nothingness.


Sango, Miroku and Shippo made their way as best they could in the general direction that their hanyou friend had taken. Not for the first time, they wished they had brought Kirara on this little jaunt of theirs. Shippo was lucky, being small enough to cuddle up in Sango's arms, or sit on Miroku's shoulder. The other two had no such refuge from the endless walking.

"Houshi-sama, can we stop for a bit? I need a rest!" Sango moaned. Miroku, despite his excellent stamina, was only too glad to comply. They tumbled onto a clear patch of grass by the road, muscles aching mercilessly. Sango twisted around uncomfortably, trying to ease the tenseness in her neck. She stiffened when she felt two warm hands begin to ease away the soreness. "H-houshi-sama?"

The hands stopped their gentle movements, resting softly on her shoulders. "Mmm?"

She felt more than a little foolish for interrupting him, and besides, he had been helping. "Er – nothing. Ah…a little to the left?" She blushed. 'Way to encourage the pervert, Sango!'

Out of sight, he grinned. "Very well, Sango." His smile widened at the small gasps his attentions were causing. There was nothing perverted about this – but with a little imagination…oh, yes.

Sango, blissfully unaware of the path her friend's thoughts were presently taking, relaxed under his touch. "How far ahead do you suppose Inuyasha is, Houshi-sama? I feel like we're getting nowhere at this pace." She frowned. "He shouldn't have just run off like that, should he? If Naraku really does have Kagome-chan, it's going to take all of us to get her out of there." No reply. "Houshi-sama?"

Miroku hastily cleared his head of certain images. "Ah, er, yes. All of us." Much to his annoyance, Shippo took this opportunity to wake up and start making a nuisance of himself.

"Hey, why've we stopped? Have we found dog-boy yet?" Upon being told that they hadn't, he wrinkled his face up in a frown. "Well, why not? We've gotta find Kagome!" He paused, looking at the two humans. "Sango, why're you blushing?"

The flow of questions was rudely interrupted by a sweater that Sango had retrieved out of Kagome's bag. The garment flew over the little kitsune, smothering him in thick material. "Hey, wha – mmph, fph, fwhmpf!"

Miroku sighed in evident relief. "Yes, Sango, a definite improvement. Well, we should be going, ne?" Sango was about to answer when a gold shape on the horizon caught her eye. "You have got to be kidding…Kirara?" The transformed cat demon landed gracefully in front of the weary travelers, giving them a look that clearly said 'well, what are you waiting for then?' Sango shrugged, at a bit of a loss. "I don't know why she's here – I thought I told you to stay at the village?!" The cat demon ignored the question, simply waiting for her passengers. Miroku gave up figuring it out and made as if to climb on. "Well, Sango, I for one am simply glad that she is here. Finding Inuyasha will be far easier from the air, wouldn't you agree?" He was stopped by an iron-hard grip on his wrist.

"Houshi-sama, what makes you think you are riding?" He twisted around in hurt surprise.

"Why, Sango, how am I supposed to keep up on the ground?" He gave her his best 'innocent smile'. "It would be quite impossible, as you are aware. I will just have to ride behind you!" She was not fooled for a minute by the 'friendly guy' act. But he was right, she couldn't leave him behind when he was needed to help locate and rescue Kagome. She sighed in resignation. "Very well, Houshi-sama. You can ride. But if those hands of yours wander any further than they're supposed to…" She let the threat hang between them. He nodded and they clambered up onto Kirara, Shippo snuggled in Sango's lap (having finally found his way out from under the sweater that Sango had silenced him with).

As soon as Kirara saw that everyone was ready, she took off. Miroku tightened his grip on Sango's waist reflexively, then backed off at her red-faced glare. "Calm down, Sango, I merely had no wish to fall to the ground!" He assumed a dignifed expression. "Don't you trust me?" He could have sworn he heard her mutter a reply – which he chose to ignore.

It sounded an awful lot like, "Not on your life."


Flames filled her vision, blinding her. A voice spoke from out of nowhere.

"Do you understand?"

No, she did not understand. She didn't understand any of this.

Her body had faded, but she was still here. And power burned in her veins, the like of which she had never felt in her life before. She could hear Kikyou, but she was nowhere to be seen. Strange.

A pink flash of light erupted from the gloom, casting everything into shadow. She could vaguely hear astonished shouts, and then…they were calling her name. They were afraid…of what?

The ripping sensation – a moment of intense pain – she was burning…

Her eyes snapped open, her breath erratic from the dream she had just woken up from. She would be so glad when she didn't have to get those anymore. It didn't help, of course, that she was so battered and bruised that she couldn't sit up and recover from the shock of the nightmare.

Every motion made her feel like she was falling apart.

She snorted in disdain. Of course, feeling like something had crushed her bones was nothing compared to the fact that Kikyou, the cold, unfeeling zombie woman, had sentenced her to death a short while ago. In fact, after getting that final blow, she had fleetingly thought that that had been the end; but it seemed that Naraku wanted to prolong the agony. How typical.

'I guess I won't have to work out what all those dreams mean, after all,' she thought unhappily. 'There won't be enough time.' The dank little room she was in was very dark and gloomy, with very little light showing. She vainly tried to hear anything being said outside her cell, but the castle seemed to be asleep.

'Judging by the silence and lack of light, it's sometime at night. I've probably got until morning before he comes for me.' Ugh – happy thought.

To pass the time, she let her mind wander back to her shard-hunting friends. She wondered what was happening now.

'Sango, Miroku and Shippo will be looking for me, I guess. Hmm, let's see – Sango will be looking for clues, Miroku will be looking at Sango looking for clues, and Shippo will be chattering away like a monkey, generally getting in everyone's way. Inuyasha –' she really didn't want to think about him right now, but it was unavoidable – 'Inuyasha will be looking for shards, shouting at the others to get a move on and stop fussing around. He'll be wondering where the heck Kikyou got to…because she's here with Naraku!' The full implications of this hit her fuzzy brain with a rush. 'She's betrayed him again! He doesn't know she's with Naraku now, he'll believe anything she says, and she'll lead him right into a trap before he has any idea what's going on!'


Inuyasha was unceremoniously forced to a screeching halt by a vice-like hold on his arm. He had been so intent on reaching his goal – Naraku, and ultimately, Kagome – that he had not been paying attention to who was nearby. He had real cause to regret that now.

"Where are you going in such a hurry, Inuyasha?" His heart sank at the cold voice that had greeted him. 'Not now, oh please, not now – I don't have time!' No use.

Sesshoumaru regarded him stonily. "You're not going to ignore me, are you, little hanyou?" Inuyasha swiped at the claws that held him…missing by a mile. Whoops. He resorted to his usual method of ticking his half-brother off. He started talking.

"Put me down, bastard! I have to get to Naraku – " He stopped at the sudden look in Sesshomaru's eyes. 'Huh?'

"You know where Naraku is?" Sesshoumaru asked. He really sounded almost…eager. "Show me." Without waiting for a reply, he took off running in the direction Inuyasha had been traveling in. Understandably taken aback by his half-brother's sudden switch in attitude, he started following. It was no good, he had to know – "Why do you want to find this creep, anyway? It's not like you've been looking for shikon shards!" The youkai turned, implacable anger sweeping across his aristocratic features. Inuyasha fought the traitorous urge to step back nervously.

"He kidnapped Rin. He will have to pay for that. The girl is under my protection." Obviously feeling that no further explanation was necessary, he turned and headed once more into the distance. "Hey!"

Fuming at the unwelcome interruption, Sesshoumaru turned. Inuyasha blinked.

"Er, Naraku's smell - it's…that way." The two unwilling allies raced off.


A clanking sound at her door roused Kagome from a restless slumber. Apprehensively, she tried to stand, only to find that her legs were still disobeying any commands she gave them. She settled for waiting for whoever it was on the cold stone floor. She didn't have to wait long.

Naraku himself entered the tiny cell. "Good morning," he said mockingly.

"Huh? Good morning?" She thought about it for a second. 'Ah.'

"Follow me." He turned to go, then stopped when he realized that she wasn't coming after him. Giving in to the fact that her legs wouldn't work, he wrapped a tentacle around her waist and lifted her, carrying her none too gently toward the stairs that led to the roof. Sensing the question long before she asked, he said, "I don't need any mess left in my castle. We are going outside." Right.

As they emerged into the dim light of dawn, she took a furtive look around her. If this was the last thing she was going to see, she wanted to know where she was. Unfortunately this valley was just like any other valley, and she had no idea where it was. The wild beauty of the Sengoku Jidai never ceased to amaze her, but sometimes she really could have wished that it didn't all look the same. A winding path led up the side of one of the surrounding hills, but that looked like the only way in or out of this place. Great. Wait…was that someone standing there?


Much to his imminent peril (falling from a great height was not good for your health), Shippo started bouncing up and down in his seat. "I smell him! I smell him! Inuyasha…" he paused. "And someone like him?"

The two humans glanced at each other. "Not…Sesshoumaru?" Sango asked. "He would have a similar scent to Inuyasha, being related, wouldn't he?" Miroku shrugged, his attention having been caught by a run-down looking castle in the distance. "Ah, Sango, doesn't that look familiar to you?"

"Naraku's castle." The grim hatred in her voice made him shudder, thankful that it wasn't directed at him. As they flew in closer, they picked up the faint image of two inuyoukai racing towards the same destination. "It IS him! I don't believe it…" Sango broke off at the horrifying sight that met her eyes. "Oh, Houshi-sama, look! It's Kagome –and Naraku has her." She urged Kirara to greater speed.


Naraku glanced up as he sensed the intruders in his domain. "Ah, my other two projects. They are so very determined to defeat me, are they not? And do you know the best part?"

Kagome wasn't sure she wanted to know this. At his next words, she was certain of it.

"They want to kill me, to get rid of the curses I wrought on their lives. And it's quite a futile gesture." He leaned in close to Kagome's face, as though conveying a precious secret. She fought the urge to gag at his nearness. "Killing me will have no effect on those same curses. If I should die – highly unlikely, but if that should happen…I will still have my satisfaction. The curses will live on." He laughed then, making the girl shiver. It simply couldn't be true.


Miroku would die within a few years from the hole in his hand. Sango would never regain her younger brother. Had it all been for nothing, in the end? She hung her head in utter defeat.

Inuyasha spotted the ageing castle and sped towards it. Something caught his eye, up on the battlements, which made him yell in horror. Kagome, hardly able to stand, in Naraku's grasp – and Naraku was looking straight at him. He shivered. The bastard knew they were here…which meant that he had just run out of time.

He started to bound down the path towards the castle when Sesshoumaru once again latched onto his arm, stopping him in his tracks. "Would you quit doing that? We have to hurry!" he snarled. The older youkai refused to let go, saying, "You can't just race in there – you don't know what he's got planned."

"All I know is that he's going to kill Kagome, right in front of me! Now let me GO!" Inuyasha pulled free. After that everything seemed to happen all at once.

Kagome looked down and saw him, wonder filling her face. "He…he came?"

Naraku bided his time, waiting. Just a moment more – enough to let him think he might make it…

Inyasha scrambled up onto the ledge, reaching desperately to save the young miko.

Kikyou walked out into the daylight to watch what was happening – all according to plan.

When Inuyasha was barely a few metres away, Naraku almost casually dragged a claw across Kagome's neck, letting her fall bleeding to the ground. He disappeared.

Inuyasha reached her, falling to the ground beside her where she lay. He looked at the damage in horrified disbelief. "No, Kagome…NO! Damn you, Sesshoumaru – I was too late because of you and your delays! Kagome, please…please…" He couldn't tear his eyes away. 'The blood – her blood. Oh, gods, so much blood!' Kagome's eyes were closed; but one thought was echoing over and over in her mind.


'He came…he came…came for mehe came.'

Argh! * Dodges sharp implements * don't hurt me! I promise, there's a reason for all this! And no, I'm not going to tell what happens next. I guess you'll just have to wait… *dodge * stop it! It won't be very long between chapters, don't worry.

Next Chapter: Joining Forces.