A/N: I am so bad…so bad… I'm SO SORRY, minna-san. My History teacher is KILLING me with all this homework! But I'm on a two week-break now, so here's the next chappie!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Goaku: The Five Deadly Sins of Buddhism

By Aiko

Hachi – Feels like Déjà Vu…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Prepare to die, Naraku!" Inu-Yasha lifted the fang high above his head and charged toward his sworn enemy.

Naraku looked up to find a more than intimidating blade coming toward him at an alarming speed. Kagome, who struggled futilely from his captor's grip, gazed up at the heroic detective and the expert way he handled the sword. He leaped up to perform a finishing blow on Naraku, and as he did, Kagome could have sworn his hair turned silver. And were those DOG EARS on top of his head?

Naraku's eyes widened, as he threw Kagome down and jumped onto the rafters when the blade was within a hairsbreadth of his face. The sword crashed into the wooden floor, and Naraku smirked confidently.

"Hmm…you think you can defeat me so easily, hanyou?" He laughed maniacally at this seemingly ridiculous notion.

Inu-Yasha growled at his adversary. "You bastard. Don't act so cocky! I beat you 500 years ago, and I can beat you now!" He was surprised by these words, but they felt so…so right. He crouched down by Kagome and quickly whispered, "Are you all right?"

Kagome's eyes grew wide as she nodded. "What? What's the matter?" Inu-Yasha inquired. The girl pointed to the top of his head. Cautiously, he moved his hand to the top of his head. He felt two…THINGS poking out of his head. He pulled a lock of hair forward. It was SILVER!! 'What's going on?!' he thought.

And suddenly, he knew. He smiled arrogantly at Kagome. "Feh. Don't act like you don't know me, wench."

Usually, if someone acted like this toward her, she would've slapped them. But there was no time for that. "Get down!" Inu-Yasha yelled, as he pushed her to the side. A blast of a foul, venomous substance had just missed her, thanks to Inu-Yasha's shove. The only thing damaged in the gust was Inu-Yasha shirt, which was burned off, exposing his toned midsection. Kagome blushed and turned away.

Kagome smiled, in spite of the dire situation. 'And besides,' she thought, 'this is the Inu-Yasha of old.'

******************************

Meanwhile, Miroku lay in exhaustion by the wall, his wounds still not fully healed. Sango sat by his side.

"Miroku," she asked, "are you…okay?"

Miroku smiled. "I must be a bother to you. Always getting hurt, and you always coming to my rescue. Seems like it should be the other way around. The guy is supposed to help the beautiful damsel in distress, right?"

Sango blushed and looked away. "I…I can take care of myself," she said defensively. "You're the one who's always getting himself into trouble." She forced a sad smile onto her lips.

"Hey," he said, to get the profiler's attention, "I meant what I said before. I'm glad that you worry about me. Before, I didn't think you cared what happened to me."

Sango turned to him abruptly. "Of course I care!" she said, hot tears welling up. "I don't want to lose anyone else I…" Her face lowered to his.

Miroku looked shocked. "Sango…"

Just as their lips were about to meet, Sango heard a soft clank of metal against wood.

She quickly turned her head and got up, her eyes widening. "Ko…Kohaku?!"

This sort of left Miroku in the lurch. "Aww…" he cried, sweatdropping.

Sango stepped toward her long lost brother, and he raised his weapon over his head. "Don't do this, Kohaku!" she pleaded.

Much to his sister's surprise, Kohaku release the blade, and it sunk into Sango's delicate skin. He ruthlessly pulled it out, remorse nowhere to be seen on his stoic face.

Her hand quickly flew to the site of the wound, which began to bleed profusely. "How…could you? Kohaku! My little brother!"

Naraku briefly turned his attention to the little scene. "Oh," he said, smirking that despicable smirk, "I almost forgot." He sent a huge boomerang her way, and it planted itself in the ground beside her. "Must make it a fair fight!" he finished, as he dodged a slash of Inu-Yasha's sword.

Sango turned to the ridiculously enormous weapon. Her fingers itched to use it, like it was something familiar, but her heart would not allow her to fight her sibling. She turned to the unfeeling boy. Her eyes softened. "Kohaku…" She smiled benignly and stepped toward him, her arms open to embrace him.

Kohaku unleashed the fury of his sickle upon her. One slash, two slashes, soon turned to ten. Nevertheless, she did not falter. She made her way toward him. All she could remember was their childhood together. Sitting on the porch step, playing with the cat. Talking at night about things he would never tell their parents.

Soon, it was only a few short steps that separated the two. Blood trailed behind her.

"Sango!" Miroku cried out for the umpteenth time upon her deafened ears. "Please!" He tried to get up, but his unstable legs would not allow it.

"My…baby brother," she said, drawing nearer.

******************************

"Damn you!" Inu-Yasha spat at Naraku, as his swing of Tetsusaiga merely grazed him. "You're disgusting."

Naraku sneered at his insults. "You're boring me, half-breed. This is becoming quite tedious. I may just have to up and kill you!"

Inu-Yasha's mind raced. 'Great,' he thought, 'now I'm some hanyou with a big sword. What do I do now?' He glanced around the room. 'Well, at least Kagome's safe.'

In the meantime, Kagome was fumbling with something she remembered she had hung on the wall. It was a bow and arrow. Suddenly, her archery days were coming back to her.

Inu-Yasha was getting a little impatient with this song-and-dance. He needed something to finish this bastard off.

And then he felt it. He felt the clash of his aura and Naraku's. He could hear them scraping together, forming a crevice.

His new ears twitched at the magnified sound, and a smirk took residence on his face. "Keh. We'll see who kills who…" he started, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Kaze no…KIZU!"

Naraku's eyes widened as razor sharp winds headed his way. "What?!" he shouted incredulously. He narrowly escaped the attack, the left sleeve of his kimono ripped to shreds.

Then a strange thing happened. He LAUGHED. His laughter was insidious, with a bit of disbelief mixed it. "So I see I've awoken the power in you, hanyou. Hmph. It will only buy you time. But it will make my killing you all the more enjoyable!" And with that, Naraku dove down toward Inu-Yasha, a stream of poison shooting out from his palm.

It scalded Inu-Yasha's cheek and made him wince slightly. "Damn you! You'll pay for what you did to Kagome and her family!" He swung his sword toward his mortal enemy with everything he had. Naraku flew back.

He hit the wall hard, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He looked up, a dangerous look of death in his eyes. "I will take more than a weak little hanyou to beat me!!!"

Suddenly, Naraku began to form into a horrid creature. His upper half remained the same, but from the waist down his body squirmed and shaped into something unimaginable by human standards. Before Inu-Yasha knew it, a root-looking appendage shot out from his foe's chest, flying directly for him.

Kagome's eyes widened. "Inu-Yasha!!!" She knew there was no way that he could escape. What could she do?!

******************************

"Ko…haku." Sango had nearly reached her brother. A trail of blood was left in her wake, an indication of how much blood she had lost. She staggered slightly, tears welling up in a mixture of sadness and overwhelming joy. "I love you, Kohaku."

"Sango!" Miroku shot up with every fiber of strength within him, disregarding his wounds, both old and new. He ran over to the wounded woman, and caught her just as she began to fall. Miroku glared at Kohaku. "Look what you've done to your own sister!?! Your own flesh and blood!"

Sango weakly lifted her head. "No, Miroku. He doesn't…know any better. He's being controlled by that…bastard Naraku…" She winced slightly, and looked up toward Kohaku. She lifted her hand up and brushed it lightly against her brother's cheek. "Little…brother…" she managed to say, and then became limp in Miroku's arms.

Miroku's eyes widened. "Sango! Wake up!!" His heart pounded, his mind raced.

Kohaku's eyes suddenly changed. The coldness of them melted away, and two warm, chocolate-colored eyes, virtually identical to Sango's, seemed to emerge from their icy prison. A look of horror and panic settled onto his young face. "Sister!" His chain sickle slowly fell from his hand and clinked onto the wooden floor.

He fell to his knees and stared at his bloodstained hands. He glanced behind his sister's body and saw a long path of red following her. 'Did I do this?!' he asked himself in utter revulsion.

******************************

Naraku's attention snapped away from Inu-Yasha, and the root shot back to where it came from. Worry struck his face, as he yelled sharply, "Kohaku! What are you doing, boy!?"

Kohaku looked up solemnly, "My…sister. I killed my…sister." He seemed to be in a state of disbelief.

Naraku smirked venomously. He began to scoff to himself, and the scoffing soon turned to laughter, maniacal laughter.

"What the hell are you laughing at, scum?!" Inu-Yasha spat to the strange concoction of parts that was his nemesis.

Naraku turned to Inu-Yasha. "And so you see," he seemed to be continuing a tangent he had yet to start, "the last of my murders has been committed. The five Goaku have been taken off this earth, and Buddha shall bestow absolute power to me!"

Miroku looked down at Sango, shock and angry tears filled his eyes. "What are you talking about, Naraku?!" he shouted. "Sango never did any wrong in her life!"

Naraku clucked like a schoolmarm scolding her pupils. "Oh, but she had. Remember the five deadly sins…Murder, Theft, Adultery, Drink…and Deception." He acted as if all of this was a well-known fact. "She was deceiving herself in believing that she could bring her brother back from my grasp…isn't that right, Kohaku?"

Kohaku slowly shook his head and wiped his tears. "You're so self-righteous, Naraku. So ignorant and haughty that you never saw what was right in front of you all along…"

Naraku's eyes narrowed, and his anger flared up inside of him. "What did you just say, you little brat?!"

"Hmph," Kohaku sneered, a smirk passing over his lips, if only for a brief moment. "For someone so learned in the Buddhist religion, you sure don't understand much about it."

And with those words escaping from his lips, he grabbed the cold metal blade, freshly dirtied with his sister's blood, and swiftly turned it to himself, sinking it into the soft flesh between his ribs. He fell over.

"Kohaku?!" Miroku said, shocked.

"And now," Kohaku croaked, "The last…of the mur…murders has been comm…itted."

Naraku growled and yell in incredulity, "WHAT?!"

Meanwhile, Kagome watched on, helpless and amazed. Suddenly, she felt a buzzing coming from the object in her hands. She looked down. The Bow and arrow were glowing a brilliant blue. She blinked several times and tried to register what was happening. And then, she knew.

She stood up and stretched the luminescent bow to the point where the string cricked several times, taut and strung tight. "Die, Naraku!!" She yelled triumphantly, as the arrow flew undeniably toward the demon's heart.

Before Naraku had time enough to turn around, the arrow had pierced through his hideous skin. His body began to disintegrate.

"You…bitch," he said with the last of his breath. And then, he was gone.

Kagome collapsed onto her knees and breathed a sigh of relief. "We…did it."

Inu-Yasha slowly made his way over to Kagome, the once large fang of a sword reduced to merely a scratched up katana. He let it slip from his fingers and clatter onto the floor.

"Kagome…" Inu-Yasha started.

Kagome ran up to him and embraced him. "I…I was afraid he was going to kill you!" Her tears wet his bare chest.

Inu-Yasha smiled. He returned her hug and stroked her hair comfortingly. "Keh," he said familiarly, "You should know by now. You don't have to worry about me."

She looked up, smiling through her tears. "Inu-Yasha." She then stopped and looked quizzically at him. "Your hair!"

Inu-Yasha looked at a lock of hair that had fallen forward. It was black. "I guess everything's back to normal, eh?"

Miroku, meanwhile, held the unmoving Sango in his arms. A tear traveled down his cheek and dripped onto the floor. "I don't understand," he mused aloud, "it wasn't supposed to be like this…I…"

And all of a sudden, Sango stirred. She gradually and gently lifted her head and looked up at Miroku. "M…Miroku?"

His eyes brightened. "Sango!?"

Sango's eyes were rimmed with confused tears. "Oh Miroku!" And with that, she threw her arms around his neck and drew him into a long, deep kiss, taking him completely by surprise.

"Sango, I l-," he started.

Suddenly, the front door burst open, and bright lights poured in. A shadowed figure stood in the doorway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: GAHH! I'm finally done with this chapter!! So, did you like how I did away with that stupid bastard Naraku? ^_^; Yes, I know that this chappie isn't as long as the others, but a lot of schtoof happened, ne? I really hope you liked it!

Oh yeah, and by the way, I finished this about 2 or 3 weeks after the break! Shows you how busy I am!!! X.x;;

Soreja!

Aiko