Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha...

A/N: Sorry for the space in between the updates. I've been busy... I really don't have any other reason, but the chapter's finally complete. I hope you enjoy it!

Well, let's get on with the story.

Translations for the day:
Matte: Wait
Onna: Woman

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Author: Sakura-chan88
Title: Taking the Long Way
Chapter: Blood Loss and Bloodlust
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Inuyasha didn't understand it. The girl, Kagome, who had stopped running at the youkai's command had loosed her last arrow in order to stop the down-swing of his staff which had planned a course to thrust into the hanyou's left shoulder. She had used her last arrow to stave off an attack he couldn't have defended against. Now, she had nothing left to save herself with.

However, as the scene played through, Inuyasha found himself following the arrow that had deflected off of its target. Its path was clear as it soared through the air, gaining an odd pink glow around it...

The arrow found a new target. Hiten gasped in unison with Kagome and Inuyasha as the younger brother was pierced through the heart. Manten fell with a dull thud on the hard earth below; the cloud which had carried him dissolved into the air.

******

Kagome couldn't believe it! She had hit her target- her intended target- and, with some unbelievable luck, she felled Manten... Now, she felt sick. Totally and utterly sick to her stomach. Sure, she hadn't meant to do it and it would keep them alive at least a little bit longer, but...

'Iie... I didn't... I didn't just kill him,' she thought, raising a hand to her mouth as bile rose in her throat. 'Iie..!'

When Hiten withdrew to be with his brother, Inuyasha walked over to her grabbing her wrist to draw her attention. She started slightly, then turned to look at him with watering eyes. She couldn't have...

A feral cry escaped the eldest Thunder Brother, confirming what Kagome had heatedly denied to herself. Manten was dead- either by the arrow or the fall. Which, it didn't matter. He was dead, and she was the cause. The same thought was running through Hiten's mind, for his attention was diverted solely to her.

******

He felt the pain spread through his body like fire- no... Like ice as his brother faded before his eyes. It chilled him to the core, making everything even less bearable. The air on his skin scorched him, the staff in his hands felt like molten steel. Everything burned him as his heart turned crystalline by the cold, emptiness that flooded into his veins, becoming his very essence.

That girl had taken his brother from him! She was not going to live to brag of the day she had killed his Manten, his young blood brother whom had shared his entire life with him until now. Oh, no she wouldn't. She would die, bodyguard or no; she would perish in agony for so much heartbreak.

Bodyguard or no, she would die!

"Onna!" he bellowed, spinning to face the miko. "You'll meet your end here!"

******

He was incredibly fast, approaching at a speed unmatched by anything she'd ever seen. He was in front of her in seconds as Inuyasha was tossed through the air. Unconsciously taking a step backwards, Kagome felt the wooden structure and the sense of relief that came with it...

If she was going to escape, she had to do it now!

"Matte!" She screamed in hopes to confuse Hiten.

Well, enraged youkai never bother to listen to a prey's final plea. Kagome's chance had come and she was a fraction too late to take it, but she took her chances and let herself tumble over the well's lip. She was hit in the side and hissed at the pain as the soothing blue light consumed her falling body.

******

Hiten's speed alarmed Inuyasha. He'd gained so much power after Kagome's arrow struck his brother that Inuyasha's preparation for the oncoming blow was not nearly up to par with the hit. With the wind knocked out of his lungs and no power to regain his footage, he listened helplessly to the soft hiss from Kagome and the sound of wood splintering in the background.

An odd sensation flooded his body at one thought... Kikyou was hurt- no, Kagome was hurt. He didn't understand why he thought of Kikyou, but did nonetheless. Still...

He lifted himself from the ground in anger at the feeling of rage that coursed through his body at the sharp intake of breath from the girl. He shouldn't feel like this! She needed to die anyway! She was the only thing standing between him and the freaking Shikon no Tama!

He surveyed the area with a wary eye as he sped toward the Thunder youkai, his fist connecting with the side of his face in a blur. "I'm your opponent, baka!"

Hiten took the hit at full force and was affectively knocked to the ground, his staff still imbedded in the well's edge from the previous down swing. Kagome was no where to be found, the scent of the Shikon no Tama was waning under the metallic smell of blood.

"You've met your end!" Inuyasha rasped, closing his hand around the youkai's staff. "And imagine that- with your own weapon."

"Think whatever you want, pup," Hiten muttered, glaring as he stood, regaining the wheels at his feet. "I've gotten revenge for my brother, now it's time to claim my prize."

"Wrong," Inuyasha smirked, bring the staff down to impale the advancing man. "The jewel's gone with the girl!"

******

Hiten's mind was fuzzy, a red, blood-like haze covered his every thought. He moved unconsciously, watching his weapon be used against him. Raigekijin screamed to be rescued, taken from the hands of the stranger that now wielded it; the hanyou was impervious to the high pitched shrieks. The bladed staff continued to cry.

"The girl is at the bottom of that well, bleeding her pathetic mortal life away," Hiten hissed. "Don't try to fool yourself- she's going to die."

"Then I'll send you with her and claim what is rightfully mine," Inuyasha shouted, grunting as he swung the weapon around him, then upward from the ground to connect with his opponent. "You'll never feel that power- that's one promise I won't fail to keep!"

The jagged point sliced across his chest, flesh searing with heat from the electricity coursing through the offending object. Raigekijin moved with the contact to thrust farther in by pure instinct, the need for blood growing stronger. Hiten knew its cry all too well...

'I should have known a weapon made by Kaijinbo wouldn't know friend from foe,' he mused, clamping his teeth together to hold back any verbal signs of agony.

Inuyasha didn't seem to react to the staff and moved with it without hesitation or thought of the way it clearly reverberated for want of bloodshed. Raigekijin no longer called for its owner as bloodlust took control.

******

Kagome clutched her side, gritting her teeth as she climbed, single handedly, up the latter to get to her house, the Shikon pressed over the cut. Hiten's blade hadn't sliced deeply, but the power coursing through the weapon made the pain near unbearable upon contact. And her plan was foiled completely.

She'd meant to pull Inuyasha back with her and help them both, then send him back for a surprise attack on Hiten. Too late now...

She cringed as she fell over the lip of the well. Staggering on unlevel feet, she exited the well's shelter and fell at the buildings side. She wouldn't make it... She couldn't make it...

"Jiisan... Souta..." she whispered, dragging herself a bit further. "Jiisan! Souta! Mama..!"

The last name she uttered, pulled from her voice box as she collapsed completely, was that of a certain hanyou she prayed fate would aid in a battle against, not only an awful opponent with rage intoxicated power, but against immeasurable odds. "Inuyasha..."

'I'm sorry... I... couldn't help...'

"Kagome-neechan!"

******

Souta threw his controller in disgust. His fighter had been obliterated with no trouble from the game's cheating son of a biscuit eating martial artist. No fair- getting a perfect on him, the head hancho and all time grand champion of Tekken 3!

"Souta! Let Buyo out," his mother called from down stairs.

Sighing, he left his console to oblige to his mother's wishes, grumbling about the obese blob that demanded free night time roam of the Shrine Grounds. Opening the door, he heard a faint voice call for him, then his mother, and ending with the newest person he'd come to meet.

Peering through the opening, he found his sister fallen a few steps from the Shrine's well house.

"Kagome-neechan!"

His shout brought his mother and grandfather to the door in curiosity. Upon seeing the teenage girl, both adults ran outside and to the Miko's side, frantically trying to awaken her.

Souta already knew it was useless...

He'd seen the blood on her blouse...

******

Inuyasha was propelled forward, being both pushed by rage and tugged by the weapon he wielded. The object was powerful and called for blood. The passed few moments had found him fighting with less instinct as the blade commanded his actions, drawing life from his being.

As soon as he sliced Hiten in two, he'd through the staff into the deepest valley gorge.

The blade struck its victim in the stomach, then the cheek, and made another blow to the already abused and tattered remains of a shoulder. Hiten cried out again, his eyes fogging more with each hit. The electricity that entered his body zapped a bit of life from him with every succeeded attack.

Inuyasha was fighting a losing battle...

And it wasn't against the man...

******

Hiten, no matter the hurt, was grinning inside, knowing that the bastard hanyou would die. It didn't mean a thing anymore if he saw the hanyou's defeat or not. His brother was to be avenged either way... Yet, the thought to give up and be killed never crossed his mind.

He dodged a series of assaults, just to be beaten seconds latter. Inuyasha was smirking, his eyes narrowed and his pupils dilated. The energy from the staff sprung in a bolt to spear Hiten through the heart, then another to go through his knee cap.

"I'm beginning to enjoy this," Inuyasha chuckled.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Hiten witnessed the swords youki seep in to mingle with the hanyou's, tasting its master's power to find it pleasing. That didn't bode well for the lightening youkai. A weapon that took to its wielder was like a child finding a stray and brining it home.

It was ready to play.

"You're just a hanyou bastard," Hiten hissed. "Just a scared pup being pulled in by the stench of rotting flesh, drooling over work that isn't your own."

"At least the work is done," sneered Inuyasha as Raigekijin launched forward and impaled the youkai heart.

******

The man gasped, falling to his knees and grabbing the weapon in alarm. His hands were pulled down with him as the staff sliced through his entire body with no hitch. A soft breath was all that marked the fading man's departure to the next world.

Inuyasha smirked in satisfaction, willing his hand to release the shaft. It refused. It pulsed. It called for more. It willed his being to turn toward the nearest village. It desired more blood to be spilt and more hearts to fail as souls fled in free flight.

It wielded him.

Darkness shrouded his mind as he complied, slinging it over his shoulder and swiveling on a bare heel. He was numb; his thoughts, actions, feelings... all blended together in an oppressive blanket of the ever familiar graying hue. With nothing but the lust for blood coursing through to control a blanking shell, he moved forward on the quest for new prey.

He didn't get far before he found his next target.

It seemed the old hag Miko had decided it was about time to gather the villagers and see if they could, in any small way, aid the girl and hanyou in ridding Edo of the Thunder Beasts. Pity, they should know the girl was most likely dead... And the bitch took the Shikon with her...

"Inuyasha," the elderly woman called out as she pulled her horse to a stop and the following village men halted as well. "Where is Kagome?"

'Kaede?' his mind recognized.

The staff in his hand pulsed with pleasure as it pulled from the man the understanding that another life was in its path. So, more blood to spill...

The hanyou's lips pulled into a sinister grin as one foot slid slowly in front of his body.

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A/N: Sorry the chapter is so short, but I really wanted to get it out for my birthday. I have some kind of problem that drives me to give as much as possible on my birthday- the day just seems so much brighter and cheerful! ^_^ But, *big sigh* alas, I have missed my mark and over shot by a few weeks. My birthday was the 15th of February... *Bigger sigh* Sorry, everyone. The next chapter should be up soon...

Anyway, how was it? Good, bad, could be better? Comments, questions, suggestions, anything goes! Check my profile if you wish to receive an email specifically for 'Taking the Long Way' updates, k?

Ja ne, minna!