The blossoms of hidden feelings
Chapter: 1 The impaled note
Sango walked over suspiciously to where she had heard the muffled yell. Walking forward slowly and cautiously, she pushed aside the dense shrubbery that lined the clearing she was making for.
She gasped and quickly ran forward. A shallow puddle of blood lay in the middle of the clearing; the grass around it stained a deep red. A note with an arrow petruding out of it stuck limply to the oak in the middle of the clearing.
Dropping her boomerang, Hiraikotsu, with a clatter, she ran forward and plucked the arrow out of the oak. Sliding the impaled note off of the arrow, she read it. As she progressed farther down though, she began shaking harder and harder, and the arrow dropped and buried itself into the hard compacted ground near the end.
Her head spun wildly, unable to take the news in. But a rustle in the bushes interrupted her dizzy thoughts, and Naraku appeared, holding back a struggling Miroku. Miroku's shoulder was all bloody and a huge gash ran down his arm, bleeding sluggishly. Ropes snaked around his wrists and arms, cutting into his already badly wounded arm.
"Run, Sango!!" shouted Miroku, trying feebly get to her. "GO!!"
Sango, instead of running, leaped down and hoisted her boomerang up, I can't and I won't! She thought fiercely, but before she could do anything, Naraku pulled Miroku over and pressed a lethal-looking blade into his throat. Sango froze. Watching with horror as drops of blood spilled out onto the blade.
"Haha! Not so tough now are you?" Naraku asked mockingly.
"Please, Sango! It doesn't matter what he does to me! Run...!" yelled Miroku hoarsely, though pain was written all over his face.
Before Sango had time to think or answer though, Naraku threw the dagger he was holding with surprising agility, finding its mark on her neck.
"I wonder where Sango and Miroku went?" Kagome asked, glancing around her as she and Inuyasha trudged through a bunch of thick bushes.
"Sango's probably off whacking Miroku with her boomerang." answered Inuyasha sarcastically. "But then, he probably deserves it…Hey, isn't that her over there? Hey Sango!" he shouted.
Sango didn't stir or move at all and Kagome ran over anxiously.
"Oh my god! Inuyasha get over here fast!" Kagome shouted, easing Sango's head into her lap. She noticed the bloody dagger lying close by and the dark red bruise that had imprinted itself on Sango's neck.
"What is it?" asked Inuyasha as he ran over, propelled by the urgency in her voice. He noticed the note lying by Sango, and picked it up and began to read, his eyes widening as they traveled through the note.
"Karetasou…" he whispered. "Damn it!"
"What?" asked Kagome, pulling a sleeping Shippoe out of her backpack. She rummaged around for a while and finally located her medicine box.
"Naraku… took Miroku to his hidden mansion in Karetasou most likely… but to want the shards…" muttered Inuyasha to himself under his breath, who hadn't heard Kagome because he was so occupied in thought.
"Hey, Inuyasha, what do you think of that wound and this dagger?" Kagome asked, tugging at his coat for him to come over. Inuyasha allowed himself to be pulled over and crouched down by Sango fingering, the keen-edged blade.
"Well… I think someone tried to kill Sango by throwing a dagger at her… The dagger flew true, just that it hit Sango with the hilt not the blade… The person must not have noticed."
"Lets take her back to the cave where it's warmer, we don't want her to catch anything." Kagome said, wincing when a cold wind started to blow, pulling and tearing at everything.
"Yeah…" murmured Inuyasha, shielding her and Sango from the wind with his body. "Yeah…"
Sango opened her eyes wearily, and peered around. Suddenly a thought sprang into her mind. Miroku! At that thought, her neck began to throb, as if it too, had just remembered. She got up, staggering a bit. But her legs refused to hold her up, and she fell back down again onto the sleeping bag.
Miroku! I'm sorry… I failed you…I- I wasn't able to save you…Tears came unbidden to her eyes and she buried her face into the pillow. Remembering, that last time, she had buried her face into Miroku's shoulder, and he had comforted her as they both sat by the fire, just made her cry harder.
"Sango, don't cry." Kagome said, coming over to her, and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "We'll help you find Miroku. I promise. We'll go and find him together, so don't worry."
"It was my fault!" sobbed Sango, unable to control her tears, "If I had been able to react quick enough, this… this-… wouldn't have happened…Miroku would be here…with us."
"This is not your fault, Sango." Kagome said quietly. "Miroku wouldn't want you to think that way! Come on. Come over here by the fire to help me and Inuyasha think up a plan."
Leading Sango over, wrapped in a blanket, they all sat by the fire in silence. Shippoe, sensing the tension that hung thick in the air didn't bounce around as usual, but just sat with them, silently playing with a few pebbles that lay strewn about the floor of the cave in huge quantities.
Inuyasha lay sprawled on one side, staring into the fire, with no expression at all on his face, thinking hard. It was hard to decide what to do. In the note, Naraku had said if they wanted Miroku back again, they'd have to give up the Shikon No Tama Shards. Inuyasha would've given up the Shards without too much thought, had the fact that Naraku would become extremely powerful not been there. But… It was there… And they had a lot to think about… Especially the fact that Naraku had told them to go to Karetasou…
Karetasou was a dangerous forest where sunlight never got through. It was as dark as hell in there, which was probably why sinister demons chose to make their homes there. The path to Karetasou, though not as dangerous, it was equally dreaded. They had to go through a mysteriously gloomy forest, where mischievous weather demons lived. These demons had great power over the weather, and were known to be extremely stubborn, and rather evil. They could even blow up a great blizzard in the middle of the summer, so if they were to travel through there in late autumn, the chances of getting strange and unwanted weather was unpleasantly big.
Abruptly, Sango interrupted the long silence. "Do you guys know what happened to me? I mean... Naraku threw a knife at me… Shouldn't I be dead? Am I dead?"
"No… You're not dead." Inuyasha answered, still staring in to the fire, " I think that the dagger struck you on the wrong end, with the hilt instead of the blade, and Naraku must not have noticed."
"Oh."
"We'll set out tomorrow." Inuyasha said, finally removing his eyes from the fire to look at the quarter-moon outside, "I have a plan that might work."