AN: Re-cap of chapter 31- Inuyasha after Naraku beats him brutally and impales him.  People are… very upset.  Sesshomaru is shocked and imagines having to kill his own son.  Sesshomaru decides that he will not allow Inuyasha to die, as well as denying the actual fact of Inuyasha's death.

AN2: There will be a series of prologs after this chapter.  This is not the end… just yet.

Chapter 32: Chaos

"Sesshomaru, I would have thought that, as you are a full demon, you would be able to smell the unmistakable scent of death that is beginning to fill the air.  I can assure you that it is coming from your brother."  Naraku laughed.

"He's not dead."  I insisted, and swallowed slowly.  I could feel the eyes of everyone on me.  The demons knew I was lying, and even the humans were aware of Inuyasha's… 'condition'.

"Then what, exactly, is he?"  Naraku asked through gritted teeth.

"He's sleeping."  I replied, trying to stop the shiver of fear that was running through my body.  I had one chance, one shot, to hit a target roughly the size of house cat.  It was all I could bluff my way into getting.  And even then, the rest of the fight was Inuyasha's business.  Swallowing again, I bit my lower lip and drew Tensaiga from one of my shoulder holsters.  I checked to make sure my inheritance was properly loaded, before taking aim at one of the pallbearer that was already climbing over my brother's body.  "Allow me to wake him up."

"NO!"  Dr. Higurashi shouted at me.  "Don't shot him, you bastard!"

I felt her hand push against Tensaiga as I pulled the trigger, and I gasped in surprise as Tensaiga shifted in my hands.

"Oh… Shit."  I whispered, as I silently prayed that I would hit the pallbearer.

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I blinked as I opened my eyes and found a bright light shinning in my eyes.  I groaned and rolled onto my side, swearing I would never touch alcohol… until my hangover cleared up.

"Inuyasha, come on.  Open your eyes."  A woman's voice begged me, and I look up.

"Mother?"  I asked, as I tried to remember who the woman was.

"Yes, dear.  It's me."

"But you're… you're dead."  I protested, as my mother hugged my tightly. 

"So are you."  My mother laughed.  "You're dead too."

"Oh."  I laughed shakily, as I remember my fight with Naraku.  "Oh, that's right.  So I am."

I hugged my mother back and smiled at her.

"Where's father?"

"Oh, he's waiting for us.  Only one person is allowed to come and collect a dead person's soul.  Come on!  We'd better hurry."

"I'm coming."  I grinned as I got to my feet.  I looked over at my mother who was already hurrying on ahead.  "Hey!  Wait up!"

"Come on, Inuyasha!"  My mother laughed.  "Come on!"

"I'm trying."  I told her, as I tried to hurry, even though I felt like a sort of invisible molasses or glue was keeping my feet down.  "I can't run that fast!"

All of a sudden, a sharp pain ripped through my heart and I doubled over in pain.

"AH!"  I screamed, as I clutched my scalp and pulled at my hair.  "It hurts!"

"No."  My mother cried as she ran towards me.  "No!  Leave him with me!  Don't take him!"

I looked up at my mother, loosened one hand from it's death grip and tried to take her hand as she reached for me, but my, unexpectedly, translucent hand passed through her solid one.

"Come back to me, Inuyasha!  Please!"  My mother begged, as she tried to hold my disappearing body.  "No!  No!"

And as I listened to her protests fade into the air, I noticed that another equally unhappy and feminine voice was also shouting.

"How could you?!"  The woman protested.  "How could you desecrate his body like that?  Isn't it enough that he's dead?!"

'Ugh.'  I mentally groaned as I tried to pry my eyes open.    There were many twinges of pain in my chest and head.  My torso was a burning mass of pain and it was almost unbearable but the pain was already fading fast.  I finally pried my left eye open and found that the liquid I was laying in was blood and vomit, my blood and vomit.  Not to mention, my shorts felt a touch wet.  'Damn it, that's embarrassing.'

I tried to find my gun without moving and I finally found it laying a few feet away from my head.  I was almost positive that I could grab it, but I was pretty sure that Naraku, or someone else would notice.  Fortunately, I did have the element of surprise, I assumed, since I had… died?

'OW!  Now my brain hurts.'  I silently moaned, as I felt a few of my brain cells explode.  'Note to self: It's never wise to try to figure out how you came back to life after being dead.  Never.  It's not worth the brain cells.'

I began to breathe in slowly, lifting my head the tiniest bit so that my nose was no longer submerged in my own blood.  After a couple seconds, the pain was almost gone, I was breathing through my nose and half my mouth, and my right eye lid was still secured to my check with my own blood.  Lovely adhesive, dried blood.

I heard Sesshomaru let out a long sigh and I tried to look back at him without moving too much of my head.  It didn't work.

"Inuyasha!"  Kagome shouted, noticing my movement.  "You're alive!"

"Fuck."  I heard Naraku hiss and I rolled out of my old position, just as ten roots sprung out of the ground.  Reaching for Tetsusaiga, I felt my fingers grab it and desperately began to pull the trigger, while aiming at Naraku's head and torso.

'Please let there be bullets!'  I silently beg God, or anyone else who might have been listening, as I kept pulling the trigger.  I hadn't counted how many times I had already fired Tetsusaiga, and I had no idea how many bullets were actually in the gun, but I hoped it was enough.

I pulled the trigger twice before the gun wouldn't fire anymore, but I saw Naraku stagger twice.  I watched in amazement and Naraku began to wither and collapse before my eyes.  It was like he was disintegrating into dust before my eyes.

"Holy… fuck."  I heard Kohaku whisper from behind me.  I thought that summed it up nicely.  When Naraku had fully disappeared, it was like everyone had been frozen.  No one moved; no one spoke; no one breathed.  Slowly getting to my feet, I cautiously walked over to the pile of dust and, kneeling next to it, spread it around with the muzzle of my gun.

"Hey, Sesshomaru."  I whispered, though I'm sure he could hear me perfectly.  "Is he… you know, dead?"

"I… I think he is."  Sesshomaru whispered, before laughing shortly as if in disbelief.  "I think he is."

"Oh.  That's good, I suppose."  I nodded, as I stood up.  My knees were a little shaky, I noticed.

'Funny.'  I though with a mental laugh.  'I've killed people before.'

"Inuyasha?"  Kagome asked, as she came forward to the edge of the circle.  I turned around to face her and took a step forward, ignoring the drop of rain that fell on my left ear. "Are you all right?"

"I'm a little shaky."  I admitted as I took her offered hand.  "Just a little shaky.  Kagome?"

"Yes?"  Kagome replied, as the rain that had been threatening since the beginning of the meeting began to fall.  I fell against her and she lowered my to the ground so that I was lying stretched out with my head in her lap.

"I had the strangest idea while I was fighting.  I thought I was dead.  But that's silly, isn't it?  If I was dead, how could I be alive now?  And how could I have won?"

"By cheating."  Sesshomaru hissed, as he walked over to me.  "Keep it down."

"What do you mean?  I didn't cheat!"  I asked defensively.

"You didn't.  I did.  I used Tensaiga, the brother gun of Tetsusaiga.  It can fully restore health… and it can revive the dead  I bluffed and said you were only asleep so I could resurrect you.  Keep it a secret, though.  This can't get out."

"So, what you're trying to say is that… you saved my life?"

"It's not like I had much of a choice."  Sesshomaru sighed, as he looked up at the falling rain that was beginning to fall harder.

"But you saved my life, correct?"

"Yes.  I did."  Sesshomaru admitted, to my utter shock.

"So… you saved my life."  I repeated, still unable to grasp the concept.

"And both our clones are remarkably stupid."  Sesshomaru muttered, so softly I barely heard it.

"YOU saved MY life!"  I suddenly gasped, the idea hitting home like a battering ram.  "YOU!  You, the leader of all evil bastards worldwide!  You… saved my life."

It was truly amazing.  All that was needed to complete the ultimate picture of the unexpected was a sudden newscast that Switzerland had declared war on… well, anyone!  I didn't get that.  However, I could have sworn I heard Sesshomaru mutter something along the lines of 'resist urge to crush with bare hands'.  A typical detail for an atypical event.