A/N- I'm back! This chapter is pretty short. I didn't have time to make it much longer, so sorry about that. Anyway, thank you VERY much to all of you who reviewed. I love reading your reactions to my story!
ENJOY!
Disclaimer- Rumiko Takahashi owns them. Darn it!
The Colors of Emotions
Chapter 27
What Is Most Precious
Kagome pushed Naraku away from her roughly, but her momentum sent her tumbling backwards to land unceremoniously on her behind. To make matters worse, one of Naraku's claws had dragged along her elbow when she had pulled away, leaving a bleeding gash about three inches long going down her arm.
With a dark scowl, Kagome lifted herself up trying to save some dignity. That's when her thoughts from earlier that day bombarded her mind, and she asked the one question that she had been wracking her brains for all day trying to figure out the answer. "What the heck do you want with me? You could kill me here, there's nothing stopping you!"
A malicious laugh was her answer, but Kagome didn't let that distract her. She was mad. Naraku seemed to only be toying with her, and Kagome had just about reached her limit of how much she could handle.
"Answer me!" She shrieked.
"Kagome, my dear, you're so naïve. I am not here to kill you. There are other things I'd like to do with you." There was a glint in Naraku's eyes, and Kagome backed up a step.
Kagome didn't even want to start to imagine what Naraku meant by his statement, so she threw another question his way, "Why can't you just leave me alone?!"
"Because you're so much fun to play with. And believe me, I would love to see your little hanyou's face when he finds out about all this."
"Why is Inuyasha involved? I thought you only wanted the shards!"
Again, her only answer was Naraku's laughing…
*
Inuyasha was sitting absolutely silent on the couch. Had he misheard her? Kagome had just mumbled 'Naraku' in her sleep. What could she possibly be dreaming about…
Then some of the answers hit the hanyou. 'Kagome's nightmares!'
Trying to hear what she was mumbling, so as to obtain more information about what was going on, Inuyasha tugged Kagome's elbow trying to turn her body so she was facing him.
Watching her face intently, he waited until the sleeping girl might say something else. Instead, her face suddenly grimaced in pain, leaving Inuyasha to wonder what had just happened in her nightmare.
The hand that was grasping slightly on Kagome's elbow suddenly felt sticky. Pulling it away to see what it was, the hanyou was quite surprised to realize his palm was bloody. Inuyasha whipped his head from his palm back to Kagome's elbow, laying his eyes on a bloody gash.
His amber orbs slipped back to his palm as a drop of her blood starting traveling its way down his arm. 'What the hell?'
*
"Kagome, I believe you underestimate the feeling of revenge."
"Is that what this is all about? You want revenge on Inuyasha?" Kagome couldn't believe that Naraku was going to such extreme measures to get himself a little revenge. But then again, this is Naraku we're talking about.
"What would be a more perfect way to kill that hanyou bastard, than with the one thing most precious to him."
"What are you? Some sort of cryptic idiot? What could possibly kill Inuyasha that you think is precious to him?" But then Kagome was struck with a thought. "Kikyo?"
Naraku's answer was only a laugh.
"What does messing with my mind have to do with you getting Kikyo to kill Inuyasha?"
"Kikyo does not have the power to kill Inuyasha. As much as she may wish it not so, her all-powerful priestess days are over."
"Then what could possibly be so precious to Inuyasha?" Kagome was really confused now.
Naraku's cold glance landed on the jewel shard around Kagome's neck.
Immediately, her mind started filling in the blanks. "You mentioned me joining you a couple nights ago. You want me to join you for my jewel shard? And then kill Inuyasha with it?"
Naraku didn't answer, so Kagome took his silence as a 'yes'. "I would never help you Naraku." Kagome stated it so matter-of-factly, it surprised her. She suddenly felt calm…until Naraku started laughing even harder than before.
"My little miko, I wouldn't be so cocky. Must I prove to you again just how much power I have over you?"
"What?" But Naraku didn't answer. Instead, Kagome suddenly felt angry. She couldn't figure out why, all she knew was that she was pissed. The jewel shard around her neck glowed with blue energy, quickly absorbing her anger, and leaving Kagome wheezing and completely winded on the cold ground with the white mist swirling above her.
*
Inuyasha sat dumbfounded, completely lost as to what was happening. Kagome had been mumbling incoherently, but she had just said a clear sentence. 'I would never help you.'
'What could possibly be going on in her nightmare?' He thought hopelessly.
The next event confused Inuyasha even more. It also surprised him. The shard around Kagome's neck flashed a brilliant blue, practically blinding him.
But Inuyasha had to focus his attention back to the once again mumbling Kagome.
*
"I am in control here. I can feed you emotions when your mind is weakened. You cannot avoid me as you tried to do last night. You may believe what you want to Kagome. But you shouldn't put so much faith in your little hanyou, he cannot protect you from your own mind. And in the end, you will not have what you want." Naraku stated from somewhere through the mist above her.
Kagome stood to face the dark eyes that were boring into her own.
An image of Inuyasha and Kikyo from her first nightmare with Naraku appeared in her mind. But she shook her head furiously to rid her mind of the image Naraku had just implanted in it. "That's not true Naraku."
"As I've said before believe what you want to."
"I won't let you hurt Inuyasha with the jewel. You want me to join you and give up my shards to hurt him."
"I love your fire Kagome. But your insecurities are your weakness."
"Would you talk normal for once? Nothing you are saying makes any sense!"
"It wouldn't make sense to someone so innocent." Naraku's hand reached out to slide down the curve of Kagome's waist, but she slapped it away as soon as he made contact with her.
"Don't touch me Naraku." Kagome hissed.
"I do not think you are in a position to be giving me orders." But Naraku didn't seem to be angry or domineering. Instead, it seemed as if this was all a joke to him. He continued, "I'm waiting this out Kagome. It won't be long. One good push and you'll be running to me."
"No!" Kagome yelled.
*
Inuyasha was able to make out another sentence. 'Don't touch me Naraku.' An instinctive growl started low in his throat. Then the troubled girl in his lap yelled, 'No!' and Inuyasha was immediately trying to wake her up.
"Kagome." He whispered frantically while shaking the girl slightly. "Kagome." He tried again a bit louder.
*
"Kagome." The far-off voice reached Kagome's ears, and Naraku heard it as well.
"Kagome." The voice repeated. Naraku smirked when he recognized the voice as Inuyasha's.
"I think we're caught." Naraku said wickedly. "He's on to you Kagome. You'll just have to choose: Deal with me, or risk killing your friends."
Kagome glared at him, but it was ineffective as she suddenly lost sight of Naraku completely, and began to wake up.
*
Inuyasha breathed a sigh of relief when Kagome's eyelids fluttered open, revealing glazed over brown eyes. She closed them again, letting her long lashes rest against the creamy skin on her cheek, and she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked. She opened her eyes and snapped her head to look at him in shock, as she hadn't seemed to realize he was there. She also didn't realize that she was sitting in his lap, and her face was mere centimeters from his own.
With a blush, Kagome slid off of his lap to sit on the other side of the couch. 'Just stay calm. Maybe he didn't hear enough of my nightmare to get any answers. If I pretend like nothing happened, he might too.' "Sorry. I must have fallen asleep without realizing it last night. You could have moved if you wanted to. You didn't have to stay here on the couch." Kagome mumbled apologetically.
Inuyasha was slightly stunned by how she hadn't even acknowledged her nightmare, nor had she seemed to care that blood was dripping sluggishly down her arm.
Kagome saw his gaze on her arm, and with a groan, remembered when Naraku's claw had cut her. "Heh Heh, I guess I should clean this up." Kagome said, gesturing towards her wound.
Inuyasha nodded dumbly, and watched as she strolled to the bathroom to wash the blood off and bandage her arm.
Kagome returned a few minutes later, and sat beside him with her head down. But she didn't speak.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha repeated. "What just happened?"
Kagome didn't raise her head. She just sat there silently as she steeled up her nerve for what she might have to tell Inuyasha. It seemed the hanyou must have heard enough, as he had a thoroughly perplexed and slightly horrified look on his face when she first woke up. 'I can't avoid this. And I can't lie to him anymore.'
Kagome's brown eyes met amber ones, and it seemed Naraku was right.
She was caught.
*
Miroku sat quietly in a corner of Kaede's hut, where he usually slept, and watched Sango's steady breathing from where she slept near the other wall. Kirara was curled up near her head, and because Kagome wasn't there, Shippou had made himself comfortable on Sango's stomach.
The monk couldn't sleep. He had felt a strange aura earlier that night. It had felt slightly familiar, but try as he might, Miroku could not place where he had sensed this before.
Too deep in his thoughts, he didn't notice the sleek, green, dragon-like creature that was floating back to its master, to report that Inuyasha and Kagome were not there.
*
Heh Heh, sorry for ANOTHER awful cliffhanger. I'm off to camp tomorrow and I won't be back for about a week, so the update will be a little late.
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