Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.
Author's Note: Er. . . . I just wanted to explain why I haven't been giving Sango and Miroku much screen time. It's not that I don't like them, believe me, I love them dearly, but I just want to focus on Inuyasha and Kagome for the time being.
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'Stupid female,' Naraku snarled to himself, 'What the hell does she think she's doing?'
Kagome hissed in pain when her claws were brutally ripped from her skin, blood dripping from her wounds to stain the earth beneath her red.
"What are you doing?" Naraku shouted at her, his amusement for the situation fading as each moment passed.
Kagome froze when she felt a shudder run through her. She lifted her clawed hand on her own for a split second before her control was wrenched from her once again. 'That's it!' her mind spun as she processed what had just happened. A smirk crossed her lips and held. "No, not yet," she all but whispered.
Naraku was cursing to himself, what did she think she was doing? Was she planning on killing herself before she could kill the hanyou? "If you think you can get yourself out of this, you're mistaken," Naraku's smirk faltered when she looked up at him, the corner of her mouth kicked up in a lopsided grin as she watched him with one eyebrow cocked.
"What are you doing?" he screamed yet again, willing her to lunge at the hanyou once more and end this but Kagome merely stood there, her gaze mocking. Then she was beside him, rising from the crouch she had landed in, seeming to be having no trouble keeping her balance despite the fact that she was standing on the thinnest part of the branch.
She folded her arms over her chest in a very 'Inuyasha' like pose. She didn't seem to notice the blood that still dripped from her arm and shoulder. In a flash, she stood in front of him, her hand at his throat and slamming him to the tree trunk behind him. Kagome smirked arrogantly at him and her voice was deadly soft when she spoke, "I warned you Naraku. I gave you a chance to live. But your chance has expired."
She turned her attention down to the hanyou standing beneath them, confusion written all over his face. She leaned slightly over, enough for Inuyasha to see her. "Inuyasha!" she shouted, a note of cheeriness in her voice, "Come up here! The real one came this time. It's not a puppet!"
Inuyasha blinked at her, the muscles in his legs tightening and he landed neatly on a branch far away enough so that she couldn't swipe at him if she tried.
Kagome sighed, "Inuyasha, don't worry. He has no control over me now." She smirked at Naraku once more. "He was bothering me. What should we do with him?"
Inuyasha didn't look convinced, but edged to the next branch slowly. Kagome's eye twitched in irritation. "You don't have to be that suspicious," she mumbled, more to herself than to him, "Must I rip out his throat before you believe me? I just thought you wanted to be the one to kill him."
Inuyasha's ears twitched when he caught the soft spoken words and he edged closer.
"Ah well," Kagome sighed, her free hand lifting until her claws were in line with his eyes. "You have your nasty habit of rejuvenating yourself Naraku," she told him, "So I can't do what I was I've been wanting. But you can consider yourself lucky.
"You see, I was going to rip your arms and legs from you very slowly with a dull, rusted blade. Then I was going to shred your eyes one by one with my claws before I cut your lips from your face. Then the top of your ears would have gone and then the bottom, then I would have had the best time burning you in hot oil creating as much pain for you as I could for everything you have done. For killing all of Sango-chan's family and using her little brother against her. For cursing Miroku-sama's family. For what you've done to Kikyo. For every time you've made Inuyasha suffer."
Her eyes were blazing in anger and shimmering with the threat of tears when she recalled everything that her friends had suffered but her grip did not loosen in the slightest. Kagome didn't appear to notice the miasma that shot out at her when her hand tightened, creating small punctures in his neck.
"But since I can't do that, I'll just have to kill you instead," Kagome lifted her free hand in preparation to swipe, "Die, Naraku!" Her hand blurred, sweeping down to his neck with as much force as she could summon.
'NO! Don't!'
Her hand stopped just a hair breath from his flesh. She didn't even bother to speak within her mind but her anger and frustration was obvious, "NANI?! Why can't I?!?" Kagome struggled to bring her hand down the final space but whatever had been done to stop her would not move.
'No, not yet Kagome. It isn't time.' Hikari explained, trying to sound as rational as possible.
A violent snarl tore from her throat. "You'd better have a damned good reason for this, Hikari," she growled out. Her eyes had closed but her right eye was twitching with suppressed anger.
'He has a purpose to fill. You can kill him after that.'
It was clear that she was not happy but still Kagome mumbled, "Fine then."
She opened her eyes to stare straight at Naraku. She was beginning to become very irritated with the hanyou. He hadn't struggled once and the beginning of a smirk was becoming present on his face. She moved her hand, lifting it slowly before slapping him sharply across the face, the four shallow wounds and red tinge on his cheek being the only evidence of what she had done.
Kagome jerked Naraku forwards until he was eye level with her, "Consider yourself blessed, you bastard. But just to make things clear, just because I'm letting you live now, doesn't mean I won't kill you. Be assured . . . I'll crush you Naraku."
"I look forward to it human," Naraku was smirking again, no sign of fear or anxiety showed, only pure arrogance.
Kagome closed her eyes, her hand clenching around his throat and her eye twitching again. 'Can I throw him at least?" she thought quietly.
There was a slight pause before Hikari answered, 'Hmmm . . . As long as you don't kill him, I don't see the harm . . . Oh go ahead.'
Kagome opened her eyes slowly, a full blown grin spread across her face. "Well," she began, as calmly as if she was commenting about the weather, "Then I'll look forward to it as well."
Kagome released him, and turned. Naraku smirked, his hand reaching out to grab her by the neck. She spun around, grabbing the wrist that he had extended. "Until then, Naraku," she whispered, lifting him up slowly. Kagome leaned back slightly, the muscles in her arm tensing when she drew back. She jerked forwards suddenly, releasing Naraku as the same moment to launch him straight up into the air.
Kagome looked over at Inuyasha and winked once before jumping straight up. She brought her hand up when she saw Naraku on his return trip down and punched him hard in the stomach. He flew backwards in a blur and Kagome watched until she could see him no longer.
She landed in a crouch next to Inuyasha. "Gomen ne Inuyasha," she began, watching the confusion and suspicion cross his face, "I couldn't kill him. Hikari said not to. But I'll definitely do it next time." A fierce determination blazed in her eyes and Inuyasha just blinked at her.
"Kagome?" he asked, finally finding his voice, "What happened to you?" He reached out slowly, his fingers gently brushing across the wounds on her arm. He drew away sharply when she winced.
"Is that what you were worried about Inuyasha?" her voice soft, "It's fine now. I fixed it." The hand of her uninjured arm lifted to brush across his cheek. When she brought it down, she turned her hand so that it came into contact with the first of her wounds. Kagome slid her thumb and first finger into the wound, probing.
"Kagome!" Inuyasha grabbed her wrist before she could probe further, "What are you doing?"
Kagome smiled, "I've got to get them out before I heal completely."
"What do you have to get out?" Inuyasha voice was almost frantic now, her fingers were moving deeper into her own arm, tearing off the first part of the healing that her body had begun, "Damn it Kagome! Answer-"
His words were cut off abruptly when her fingers pulled out. With a single Shikon shard pinched between them.
"It's all right, Inuyasha," she told him, dropping the shard back into the glass vial, "I'll explain later."
Her fingers fished into several of her wounds, extracting a bloody shard from each of them. When she finished, her arm fell lax to her side and she took a single step forwards into Inuyasha. Her body went limp and she passed out.
Inuyasha sighed, his arms coming up to wrap around her and lift her up.
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Inuyasha sat, straddling a thick tree branch, leaning against the trunk. He had taken them quite some distance from where they had met up with Naraku, far enough so that the scent of miasma did not linger. Kagome was pulled up against him, his arms wrapped around her form protectively.
His own wounds had healed on their own already and he watched when the last of hers closed up as well. His mind was whirling, unanswered questions tumbling over each other and making his head pound. From the other times she had collapsed, she would wake soon.
Inuyasha knew that she would stand immediately and insist that they leave to rescue Sango and Miroku. He didn't blame her for that, after all, the night of the new moon was in two nights and they still had no lead as to where Dark had hidden their companions.
But, as it was, Inuyasha was determined to get his answers first. If he didn't get them now, he had a feeling that he never would. Kagome stirred in his arms, her eyes opening slowly and she sat up. Inuyasha opened his mouth, ready to question immediately, but Kagome pressed her fingers gently to his lips, stopping him before he could start.
"I don't remember anything that happened when I was tricked by Naraku," she began, "Those must be the memories that the bastard is still keeping from me." Her eyes slid closed and she paused, trying to sort through her mind and explain this to him as clearly and quickly as possible.
"I . . . gomen ne Inuyasha," she whispered, guilt flooding her at the memory of her claws dug into his skin. She lifted her hand slowly, wincing at the scent of his blood.
"It wasn't you Kagome," Inuyasha's voice was firm, "Don't apologize for it."
Kagome glanced up at him and in that brief moment when their eyes locked, he saw the emotions swirling in the almost completely brown depths. It was obvious that she was struggling against the urge to jump up and keep running but she had said she would tell him.
"I . . . my body wouldn't do what I was telling it to. Naraku took complete control. I thought . . . thought that I could do something about it and I was trying to force his blood from my body at first. But then . . . I felt his blood was woven into mine and I couldn't get rid of all my blood fast enough. But then when he spoke, I moved my hand on my own will, only for a little bit but it was enough." She swallowed.
"I felt my miko powers fighting against his blood inside me and trying to purify it. I took a chance the next time he spoke. To help purify his blood, I put a shard into my cuts. They would absorb Naraku's dark energy and then my miko abilities purified the shard again. So, Naraku's blood no longer inside me," Kagome finished, her eyes had closed and she was curled up against his comforting warmth, feeling a wave of exhaustion go through her.
Inuyasha was silent for a moment but when he spoke, his voice was softer than anytime that she had heard it before, "Sleep, Kagome. I won't let anything happen to you."
Kagome could feel herself being engulfed in the rising darkness of her mind but she managed to mumble out, "I know Inuyasha . . . I know . . ." before she fell into a blissfully dreamless slumber.
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Sango opened her eyes, or at least, she thought she did. She was floating in some sort of emptiness, it was dark all around her and her feet touched nothing when she moved, despite the fact that she was able to move around quite easily. She frowned, trying to figure out how had gotten here, and where 'here' was for that matter.
When her mind came up with no answers, she sighed, reaching behind her for the Hiraikotsu so she could clean it if there was nothing else to do but when she found nothing, she whirled instantly, searching for her weapon. That is, weapons, as it was that the blade at her side was missing too.
They were no where in site and the scenery seemed to take a curious blur to the edges. Sango rubbed her eyes in an attempt to rid herself of the annoyance but when the blur spread even further she stopped, watching the smudged view thicken until it almost appeared to be some kind of fog.
And as it had come, it left, slowly edging away until only the corners were blurred but within seconds, that left too, leaving all as it was before, with the exception of one small change.
Sango had seen what she thought was a bundle of cloth in the middle of the fog when it began to clear, it wasn't until cleared that she saw the mistake that she had made.
She ran forwards desperately, a strangled cry tearing from her throat, trying to reach the man before her but the close she appeared to get, the farther away he seemed to be.
A voice whispered beside her ear, its tone mocking, "What are you going to do, Huntress?"
Sango ignored it, trying to focus on the unmoving form that drifted away from her.
"At this rate, he'll die."
She shook her head, trying to force away the whispers and taunts that had risen in volume. Another figure appeared beside her, one that she recognized instantly.
"What are you going to do sister?" Kohaku's face grinned at her, "Can you keep up?"
Kohaku increased his pace and she tried to follow but was unable to. He ran until he was next to the still figure. "Which will you choose sister?" Kohaku glanced back at her once before sprinting in another direction.
Sango cried out in pain, her legs crumpling beneath her. She stood on shaky legs, staring after the two, each drifting a different direction, but which would she follow?
She took a slow step forwards, the voices returning in full force, "What will you do, Huntress? Which will you send to death?"
She fell to the ground once more, two new voices had been added to the mix. She saw Kohaku in her mind, Kirara on his shoulder, grinning happily, calling her, "Anewe!"
She took a step towards him before the other new voice slammed into her head, "Will you forget me so quickly then?" She saw the once unmoving form stand, his back to her but the purple and black robes gave away who the figure represented. The rings on his staff clinking against each other as he stood.
She stared after the retreating forms, her mind in a whirl. But then she felt something tighten around her hand.
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Jap Translations:
Nani-what
Gomen ne-I'm sorry
Anewe- older sister(informal)
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Author's Note: *Whew* Well, this chapter is finally finished. Hope you like it. Reviews are once again encouraged.
