Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

Unbreakable love

By: Mika Saito

Chapter 10- The Final Battle

Isamu led the way through the forest, not caring if Kagome was following or not. She had somehow broken his mind control. He would have been ok with it, if she had just waited a bit longer to remember everything. Now he would have to kill the hanyou with his own hands, and as quickly as possible. It would be more enjoyable this way, feeling the life drain out of Inuyasha under his hands.

Kagome followed Isamu, stumbling along behind him, trying to keep up with him as he moved quickly through the forest. She could sense Inuyasha ahead of them. He was standing in a small clearing, waiting, it seemed, to be found by the two who pursued him. Finally Kagome stumbled into the clearing behind Isamu; her eyes focused on the silver haired hanyou that stood on the far side of the clearing. Before she could speak, Isamu addressed Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha. How pathetic of you." Isamu smirked. "Not trusting your friends when they needed you the most. They're dying, because of you." Isamu started circling around the clearing, moving steadily closer the silent hanyou. "If you had just gone with them they wouldn't be injured. "He teased, coming to a stop a few feet away from Inuyasha, who growled quietly at the kitsune.

"That's not true. Don't listen to him Inuyasha." Kagome said, her voice barely loud enough to be heard. "If you had been there," she walked steadily across the clearing, her eyes locked onto Inuyasha's golden ones, "you would have been injured, almost killed, as well. You would have been purified." Kagome stopped when Inuyasha laughed darkly, she was only halfway across the clearing.

"Why should I believe you wench? Your this kitsune's woman, I don't have to listen to your lies." Inuyasha's eyes contradicted the look in his eyes. His golden eyes showed pain and longing, but his voice was cold.

"You're more pathetic than I had thought," Isamu chuckled, "if you believe that the miko was my woman. No, her love for you runs to deep. She was merely a pawn to help me get to you." Kagome blushed slightly at his words. They were true, she did love Inuyasha, but the thought was still new to her. Inuyasha wouldn't believe them anyway. He would think they were a trick, merely something to get his guard down by making him think that she did love him.

"Enough talking." Inuyasha took a defensive stance and drew the Tetsusiga. Kagome watched with a sense of dread while Isamu attacked Inuyasha, slashing at him with his claws. Inuyasha easily blocked the blow. Pushing Isamu's claws away he charged, his sword arcing gracefully through the air, barely missing a tree, the target had disappeared. Isamu didn't halt his movement after dodging the Tetsusiga, instead he took the opening Inuyasha inadvertently presented and slashed at Inuyasha again, and this time succeeded in leaving three gaping cuts in Inuyasha's' back. Inuyasha dropped to his knee, his sword forgotten on the ground in front of him. All he knew was the searing pain in his back and the blood that was slowly dripping onto the ground.

Kagome clenched her hand tighter around the bow; her mind registering that it was still there, as well as the quiver of arrows that rested against her back.

Isamu, the demon who had used her kindness to get to her closest friends and her love, to hurt them for having defeated his master. And yet she could still save them. She had her bow and an arrow, just a little energy could purify Isamu, but it could also hurt Inuyasha.

Slowly Kagome pulled an arrow from the quiver and readied herself to fire it at Isamu. She would aim to hurt him, not kill him. To aim to kill him would mean to kill Inuyasha and she didn't want to think about what would happen if she did.

Inuyasha swung at Isamu, once again missing the intended target. The pain was still almost overwhelming, though it had gone down a small amount since it had already started to heal itself. Something inside was telling him to defeat Isamu for Kagome, if for nothing else. He glanced quickly at Kagome and found her with her bow held ready, aiming at something. Following what would be the trajectory of the arrow he found Isamu watching her as well, his claws dripping with blood.

"Kagome-koishii, what are you doing?" He held his hands up in front of him and took a step toward her.

"I'm not your koishii." She growled at him. "And I'm avenging my friends." Pulling the bow tighter, she glared at him.

"You're the one that hurt them." He grinned widely.

"You had control over me. You made me attack them." Kagome released the arrow. It flew toward Isamu, bursting into pale pink flames of energy. The arrow pierced his shoulder; Kagome's energy burned his flesh painfully. The energy faded and Isamu collapsed.

Kagome relaxed, the tension leaving her as Isamu lay almost motionless on the ground, the only movement being his labored breath.

"Kagome." Inuyasha said softly, his eyes following her movement as she lowered the bow, letting it fall to the ground with a soft thud. The sight of Kagome standing there, looking lost and helpless caused Inuyasha pain. She was not fragile; it was the opposite, she was strong. She had never shown much of her pain to anyone that he knew of. But now, standing there watching him, she seemed weak, and he though of how fragile she really was. She could be broken, and it seemed as if she had been by the events that had happened. Though he couldn't see what had been so hard about them, but he didn't know the whole story, so he couldn't possibly say if it had actually been hard for her or not.

Her anger had always covered how she really felt, and despite all that he had done to her, she had continued to come back. She had continued to act as if his words didn't affect her. Inuyasha shook his head. She had left them, sealed the well, and then had come back. She had betrayed them by coming back with one of Naraku's freed incarnations.

"Why did you come back?" He sheathed the Tetsusiga.

"Isamu forced me to. He changed my memories and made me re-open the well. I couldn't remember anyone." Kagome spoke quietly. When Inuyasha didn't say anything Kagome started toward the village. "The others are hurt." Kagome spoke clearly now, deciding that if he wasn't going to talk to her then she would go check on her friends and try to heal them. She was glad Kaede had insisted upon her learning how to use her energy to heal.

Inuyasha followed Kagome silently, picking up Isamu's body when he saw that he was still breathing. He was glad Kagome was back, but while his heart was glad his head kept telling him that she was just going to leave him again.

The people in the village had already pulled her friends from the remains of the hut and were doing their best to stop the bleeding. They didn't know what they were doing, Kaede had always been the healer, so they hadn't had to worry about having to care for someone. They were completely clueless as to what they could do to help Kirara and Shippou.

Ignoring Inuyasha, who was still following her, Kagome went immediately to where Shippou and Kirara lay. She could see from where she sat the other villagers were working desperately to stem the bleeding from a wound in Sango's side. Though Shippou and Kirara, being demons, had probably received the most damage.

Placing a hand on both Kirara and Shippou, Kagome closed her eyes and concentrated. Demons were hard to heal this way. Too much energy could kill them while not enough energy wouldn't do anything. Slowly the bloody wounds on both closed. When all the wounds had been healed Kagome pulled away, watching as Kirara opened her eyes and purred gratefully before laying her head back down and resting, Shippou remained sleeping.

Kagome didn't really want to see her friend's wounds, the wounds that she had caused. But she had to, to save them. Leaving them to the care of the villagers would mean their death, even if she left them in Kaede's care in their conditions they would probably die.

Carefully she stood and looked over the bodies of her friends, trying to decide who looked hurt the most. Sango didn't look to injured, other than the gaping hole in her side. Miroku's face was bloody, with fresh blood still running down the side of his face from a head wound, Kaede looked the worst. Her skin was ashen and already a small pool of blood lay around the old woman's head.

Healing her friends had taken a bit longer than she would have liked, but finally Kagome moved away from Sango, the last one she had to heal. She was tired now, all she felt like doing was laying down and sleeping, but she knew she couldn't just yet. She still had to get home, but she also needed to make sure her friends knew what had really happened, she wasn't just about to leave them in the dark with only Inuyasha, who probably hated her now, to explain what little he knew of what happened.

The set an hour before Kaede, Sango, and Miroku were all awake and ready to listen. Kagome had apologized to Kaede the moment she had awakened about destroying her hut, but Kaede, in her usual way, had told her not to worry. The villagers offered to let her stay in one of their huts until s new one could be built for her, which was where they were now.

"I see." Miroku was the first to speak after Kagome had explained everything, starting with when she had first met Isamu (who was still unconscious and tied up in a corner at the moment). "Thank you for healing us, Lady Kagome." Miroku moved to give Kagome a hug, but Kagome pulled away before he could.

"Your welcome." She said, moving several feet away from the monk. She was glad that they weren't mad at her, but she knew Miroku; a simple thank you hug would turn into a groping session.

"I should be going home now. My family's probably worried about me." Kagome said quietly while she slowly stood up.

"Will you come back and see us Kagome?" Shippou jumped into Kagome's arms, snuggling in against her.

"I don't know. I... I won't seal the well, so I can try." She replied, smiling weakly at the kitsune pup. Truthfully she did want to come visit them, the past year had been hell without them around. She had missed talking with Sango about things that she wasn't comfortable talking about with anyone else. Miroku had, despite his lecherous ways, given good advice when needed and Shippou looked up to her as the mother he had lost, she missed these things. These people around her now were as much of a family to her as her family in her time. "I will come and visit Shippou, I promise." She whispered into Shippou's ear as she hugged him.

She set Shippou down and hugged each of her friends in turn, hesitating when she got to Inuyasha. It was Inuyasha who grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug when she started to leave. Nobody said anything while Inuyasha held Kagome. Their friends watched, but left them to say their good-byes in peace. When Kagome finally pulled away from Inuyasha she said goodbye to them again and stepped out of the hut. Inuyasha, still strangely silent followed her.

Kagome, after a quick glance at Inuyasha when he followed her, ignored the hanyou. This was hard enough without Inuyasha being so silent and... well, nice. It didn't take them long to get to the well, the whole trip remaining silent until she sat down on the edge and swung her feet in, ready to jump in but stopped by Inuyasha's voice.

"You will come back to visit, like you told Shippou?" The question sounded strange coming from Inuyasha.

"I know I promised Shippou I would, but I'm not sure if I can handle it Inuyasha. I will leave the well unsealed, so if I'm ever needed you can come and get me." Kagome didn't wait for to respond before she jumped into the well, and, once again, out of Inuyasha's life.

Inuyasha looked at the well for a few minutes after Kagome left, then decided to go back to the villagers hut where the rest of the group was waiting.

"You didn't tell her, did you?" Inuyasha hadn't even stepped fully into the hut when Miroku addressed him.

"Tell her what?" Inuyasha growled at the monk, moving to sit against the wall away from the light and warmth of the fire.

"You didn't tell her your feelings." Miroku said, not even looking at the hanyou.

"So what if I didn't?" By this time Inuyasha was glaring at the monk.

"You may have lost her forever." Sango spoke softly. "She may have said she wasn't going to seal the well, but there are other ways of loosing a woman. Like not admitting your feelings for so long." Inuyasha sighed.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Sango and Miroku glanced at each other and smiled, Inuyasha had basically just given them permission to fix him up with Kagome.

"Go to her and tell her how you feel about her." Kaede pointed out the obvious, knowing that Inuyasha knew what he had to do but just didn't want to face it.

"What ever." Inuyasha mumbled while standing up. He wasn't going to sit around and let them tell him what he should have done, so he left the hut, sleeping in the god tree sounded better than sleeping in the hut where they would continually tell him what he should do.

Kagome stepped out of the well house feeling worn out and wanting nothing more than to curl up in her bed and go to sleep, but her family would want an explanation and the sooner the better. The moment she walked in the door her mother pulled her into an embrace, asking where she had been. As quick as she could she told her mother and grandfather what had happened, leaving out certain things that, however silently, had happened between her and Inuyasha, but her mother guessed them anyway. When her mother told her to go to bed and not worry about school for a few days Kagome smiled thankfully and went to her room. She was asleep quickly, her dreams were filled with visions of her time in feudal Japan with her friends, and of happy times to come.

She woke the next morning smiling, happier than she had been in a long time. Her mother noticed her happiness and said quietly to Kagome.

"Things are starting to look up for you."

AN: The End!!! Just kidding. It's not the actual end. I wouldn't leave it here, not with Isamu still alive, and fairly healthy, and most definitely not without Inuyasha having to admit his feelings. The next chapter is the last one though, and I'm not sure when it will be complete, I'm still thinking about how to kill, or sufficiently maim, Isamu. If you have any ideas let me know!