(A/N: Sorry for the long chapter, but I wanted to put this fight all in one entry. I hope you all enjoy it!)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Hanyou Clash! Inuyasha VS Naraku

Kouga easily dodged the tentacles laughing all the while at Naraku's slow reactions. He moved around, toying with Naraku and getting a few hits here and there. His main concern right now was to keep him distracted and buy Oni some time to run away.

'That damn mutt. It's all his fault for coming here. I knew that Naraku was after him. It's a good thing that I decided to come back too otherwise Naraku would have killed Oni. I'm always saving her ass.'

Kouga rushed towards Naraku, creating strong winds as he ran from one spot to the other. When he was a few feet from his prey, Kouga lept high into the air. Naraku looked up and his eyes narrowed.

'Hah. Fool.'

Naraku's tentacles chased after Kouga, one grabbing him by a leg and another by the neck. Kouga looked surprise, but shook it off and slashed the tentacles with his free hands.

'Damn, that was a close one. For a minute I thou....'

Another one of Naraku's tentacles had wrapped itself around his leg. Only this time it pulled down before Kouga could react. He slammed hard into the ground, forming a crater where his body impacted with the earth. The wind was knocked out of him, but he was otherwise ok. he moved a bit, but was pulled backwards towards Naraku before he could situate himself. That was when he noticed that Naraku still had a hold of his leg. Using his other leg, he kicked sharply at the tentacle and ripped it to shreds.

"You'll have to do better than that Naraku." Kouga taunted as he rushed Naraku with a barrage of kicks and punches. Naraku staggaerd backwards, never losing the contempt little smirk from his face.

'Like I said before... you're a fool."

Tentacles wrapped around Kouga at a near speed of light. It was all he could to just to keep them from crushing him. Using all of his strength, Kouga pushed back at the walls that threatened to crush him into a little ball. His breathing was becoming labored and his vision began to fade. He couldn't believe it.

'How could I have been so stupid?! He did this on purpose. He acted slow so that I would attack him head on. Then he showed his real speed to catch me. But if this bastard thinks he's won..... he better think again!'

Kouga flexed the muscle on his legs, where his jewel shards were. He pushed down and bent into a crouching position. Then, with a burst of energy and power, Kouga shot himself upwards........... nothing happened.

'What the hell..... ?'

Kouga looked down to find his legs had sunk into Naraku's tentacles like quicksand.

"Trying to use your shards are you? How idiotic. Because you thought you were stronger than me not only will you die, but I will get your shards and your demon powers absorbed into my body. Struggle all you want, but your death is inevitable."

Naraku's words threw Kouga into a panic. 'Not like this! I have to win! I can't lose here!' But it seemed that the more he struggled the more his legs sank into Naraku's skin. At a last ditch effort to escape, Kouga clawed at the tentacles around his arms, freeing his upper body... but from his waist down he was still trapped.

'Damn! This is too much! I have to find a way out of this!'

Inuyasha stopped momentarily to sniff the air. He turned back to find no one behind him. "Keh, they're too slow. I guess I'll have to do this myself."

'But... I don't have that much time. I'd better hurry.' Again Inuyasha lept into the air and dissapeared into the foliage, running with all his strength. Over tree tops and past brooks the hanyou sped on towards the sense of the aura coming from ahead. 'I'm getting closer... hold on wimpy wolf!' At the moment Inuyasha reached the clearing he noticed that there was no time to to sit and chat. In front him were Naraku and a half absorbed Kouga fighting for his life. Inuyasha put his right hand on tessaiga's hilt and ran into the fray...... not waiting for the others.

"What's going on? What is this barrier?" Kagome and the others had stopped when they had all bumped into a stong barrier apparently set up by one of Naraku's minions. They all examined the shield with worry. Had Inuyasha passed through it? Had Kouga gotten away from Naraku? Why did Naraku set up such a large barrier? None of what was happening made sense. Miroku tried using his hamafudas against the barrier, but it was too strong. Kagome also tried one of her sacred arrows to see if it made at least a dent.... nothing.

"What are we going to do? I know that Inuyasha passed through here.... he would have waited for us if he would have run into the barrier." Kagome sounded frantic and was staring at the barrier like if it had just run over her puppy. Oni was also staring at the barrier, but she was silent and dark. Her eyes were helpless and out of focus and her hair was covering her tear stained face.

'No... demons don't cry. There must be a way around this. If a hanyou created it.... then certainly a demon can destroy it.'

With a new light in her eyes, Oni racked her brain to find a way around the unbreakable barrier......

"DAMN YOU NARAKU!!!! PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE!!"

Naraku didn't have time to dodge, block, or even look at Inuyasha's attack. The wave of the kaze no kizu swept across his body, tearing off the tentacles that were stretching out towards Kouga, draining him of life and power. After launching that attack, Inuyasha quickly ran towards Kouga and pulled him out of the loosened tantacles. "Looks like I'm saving your ass again wimpy wolf. Don't get used to it..... Oy, Kouga!" But Kouga was unconsious. The hanyou grabbed the passed out demon by the belt and carried him into the forest.

"Oy! Kouga!" He tried one more time and Kouga opened his eyes lazily. "What happened?" Kouga tried to sit up, but Inuyasha place a strong hand on him to sit him back down. "Listen to me Kouga, I need you to get Kagome out of here. I'm the one Naraku wants and I don't want her getting hurt because of me." Kouga jumped up at the sound of Kagome's name and then turned around vigorously, searching for her. "Where is she? What have you done to her you mutt?" Inuyasha simply pointed a clawed hand into the forest and muttered, "that way." In a split second Kouga was gone.

"Well, now that the wimpy wolf is out of the way....... Naraku!" Inuyasha walked out of the forest with his tessaiga resting on his shoulder. He showed no fear to the hanyou that had gained so much power in the past few years collecting the shikon shards. Naraku looked back, also showing no fear to the hanyou that had many times come unbelievebly close to killing him. "I will be your opponent!!" With that said Inuyasha crouched and took off towards Naraku at a sprint. Naraku in return sent his tentacles towards the advancing hanyou.

"Kouga." Oni breathed as everyone was looking at the barrier, trying to decipher a way around it. Kagome looked up.

"What Oni-chan?"

"Kouga...... he's coming this way." Kagome looked into the barrier and noticed the aura of two jewel shards coming straight for them. "Yeah, I see him. What's going on? Where's Inu..." But Kagome's sentence was never finished as a gust of wind passed through the barrier and stopped instantly beside her. I the midst of the group stood Kouga, bruised all over his legs and almost completely drained of power.

"Kag..." Kouga was about to address Kagome, but Oni rounded on him before he ever had a chance to speak. She placed a hand on his back and sent a shock of energy into him. The blast sent him slamming into the barrier, which he simply bounced off of.

"Kouga, be a dear and tell us where Inuyasha-sama is." Even though her voice was as sweet as ever, Oni's eyes were lit with anger and the corners of her eyes showed the tears of despair she had been shedding. Kouga got up and rounded on Oni.

"What the hell's your problem??!! Is that how you treat the guy that saved your life?" Kouga then turned to Kagome, "Come on Kagome... we're leaving." Kagome's hand connected so hard with Kouga's face that birds flew away from the tree tops.

"Where's Inuyasha??!! Where is he?!!" Upon looking at Kagome's desperate face, Kouga couldn't help but explain things a bit.

"I don't know what he crazy mutt is thinking, but he showed up suddenly, interrupting my battle with Naraku, then he started barking orders at me about getting you away from here! I think this is the first time that I ever agreed with him!"

Kagome stared at Kouga in disbelief. "And you just left? You just left without trying to at least help Inuyasha a little bit?" She felt like slapping him again for making her listen to his poor excuse, but Oni beat her to it. With a swift movement, she was standing behind him and was holding the back of his neck. "You always were a coward Kouga. I'll never forget this." With that she let go and resumed to stare at the barrier that was keeping her from Inuyasha. 'There has to be a way around this.'

A powerful aftershock extended over the length of the forest as Inuyasha fended off Naraku's tentacles with the kaze no kizu. An enormous dust cloud lifted and the hanyou used it to hide himself from his rival. Leaping into the air with minimal effort, Inuyasha got above Naraku and came down on him with full force.

"Do you really think that'll work?" Inuyasha didn't have time to react as Naraku's barrier went up. with a resounding crash his attack was rejected by the barrier and the he was thrown into the forest blade and all.

"Damn, I had forgotten about that stupid barrier."

He quickly got up and paced around Naraku like a wolf pacing around it's prey. The growl coming from Inuyasha was fierce and powerful. With his tessaiga in his right hand, Inuyasha made another lunge at Naraku. A crystal aura surrounded the tessaiga and Inuyasha unleashed one of his most powerful attacks.

"KON-GOU-SO-HA!" Each syllable seemed to add more and more power to his force as the diamond spears rushed towards Naraku. The spears penetrated both the shield and the villain. Naraku was thrown back into the forest trees behind him. Inuyasha, knowing better than to think that this was over, carefully made his way to where his enemy had fallen.

"I wanna know something before I kill you Naraku... why did you come look for me?"

There was a sudden rumbling in the earth and tentacles shot out from underground, slashing at Inuyasha's arms and legs numerous times. Naraku got up from where he had fallen and walked calmly over to the injured hanyou. It truely was a pitiful sight. The great Inuyasha barely holding himself up let alone his fathers' chipped sword.

"Still as clueless as ever aren't you Inuyasha. Then Die!!"

Another series of tentacles sprung out from under the hero, but this time he lept into the air and used his tessaiga to turn his attackers into dust. 'His actions are slower than before. Heh, looks like my attack did some good damage.' It was Inuyasha's turn to smirk. He landed a few feet from Naraku and shot the kaze no kizu straight at his foe, lifting a great deal of debris in the process.

"Haven't you noticed by now that your attacks are meaningless you fool?" Naraku taunted as his barrier deflected the blast. But his smile soon faded as he noticed the red shimmer reflecting off the dust around him. 'No.'

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

With an expert slash, Inuyasha's red barrier breaking tessaiga cut open Naraku's barrier from behind, but the attack wasn't over. Using the force from the slash, Inuyasha made a complete 360 degree turn and slashed again, this time at the defenseless hanyou. The force of the second slash was backed by the power of the kaze no kizu and sent Naraku's body forward into the ground, sliding for more than fifty yards before it came to a stop in pieces.

"I'm going to ask you one more time.... what did you want with me?" Inuyasha knew that Naraku was still alive... so long as the bastard didn't have a heart, he was practically immortal, but he did feel pain. He watched uninterestedly as the body parts began to re-form.

'Damn. I can't bring him close enough to me to absorb him. It looks like this one is a bit smarter than the half-witted wolf.'

"Damn you! Answer me!"

"It seems that you're still thirsty for knowledge. Very well. You wish to know why I have come for you..... for years you and your companions have hunted me down, hindering my plans to take the jewel shards and interfefearing with my plans to become the strongest demon in Japan. But now I have decided to become the hunter. I will track you and your friends down to the brink of your deaths. I will kill you all and then I will absorb your pathetic powers."

With a swish of his sword, Inuyasha got rid of the pieces of Naraku's body that were trying to attack him, but he didn't see the bit that came from behind. With a deadly speed and accurasy, one of Naraku's tentacles lodged itself deep into the back of Inuyasha's calf. Wincing in pain, the hanyou faltered for a moment.... and that more than enough time for Naraku to attack. Using all of his tentacles, he wrapped the hanyou into a cacoon. Smiling at his own cunning. The power would soon be his. It was worth the pain. Soon he will finish off one of his strongest foes and bask in the spoils of the fight.... Only his foe did not intend to be destroyed.

Kagome, Sango, Oni and Kirara floated above the barrier looking for an opening. Miroku, Shippou, and (after much "convincing") Kouga split up and ran on the ground circling the large dome barrier. They were all looking for a way in.

"I'm sure that he's fine Kagome-chan." Sango said reassuringly, "You know how Inuyasha is... he's always gloating about how his body is different and about how he can take much more pain than us "weak" humans can." Kagome gave her a faint smile, but wasn't feeling any better. She was afraid none the less. 'Inuyasha has always had a tendency to push himself to the limits when the battles involve Naraku...' Oni looked at Kagome's pensive face. "Kagome-chan..... you told me that you have fought this demon before.."

Kagome was jerked out of her thoughts by the sound of her name. "Huh? Oh, right. Well, we've fought him on lots of occassions, but he's always gotten away from us. You see, Naraku......" and Kagome explained everything to Oni while they searched the barrier. Naraku, Kagura, Kanna, Tessaiga, Sesshoumaru, The Schinnintai..... Kikyo, everything. Oni was listening in interest as Kagome told her about the many perils they had faced on their quest to get the shards back when Sango interrupted them.

"Kagome-chan? Can you see down there?" Kagome looked down and saw two large dark masses inside of the barrier. Upon squinting she noticed that one of them was Naraku... and the other......

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!"

It was all Sango could to to keep Kagome from jumping off of Kirara into the barrier. "Let me go!!! I have to go to him!!! He needs me!!!" Kagome struggled against Sango's grip as the unimaginable scene played out before her...... Naraku was absorbing Inuyasha.

The smell of the pugnent tentacles were getting to him... and he felt as if he would be snapped like a twig at any moment.... but what made Inuyasha move and react was the sound of her voice from beyond.

"I have to go to him!!! He needs me!!!" This was all he heard. It was faint, but it was definitely her..... Kagome.

'Keh, I need her?! It's more like she needs me...... Kagome.... she needs me.' Flashbacks came to Inuyasha, each one giving him a throbbing headache and boiling up his anger. Thoughts of the times that he's protected Kagome... the times that he's used himself as a shield for her... he's run after her and faced demons for her... the times he's held her... ' Kagome needs me!!'

"KAGOMEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"

With an exhibition of tremendous power, Inuyasha clawed his way out of the cacoon and scanned the area for his dark haried beauty, searching desperatly to find his woman in peril. Then he looked up.... there she was. In all of her beauty with Sango, Kirara and Oni. The hanyou crouched down and rocketed upwards towards Kagome, forgetting about his enemy only a few yards away from him. As he flew upwards he noticed a shimmer that was too bright to be sunlight.

'Is that.... a barrier?'

Not thinking twice about it Inuyasha pulled his now red tessaiga back over his head and slashed at the barrier, which crumbled under the power of the sword. Higher he went, reaching Kirara and the others in the sky and landing square between Sango and Kagome, not adding much weight to the flying mononoke.

"Kagome.... are you ok?" The hanyou was panting hard and his face was stricken with fear. Kagome grasped at his legs and cried into his pants.

"Don't you ever do that again!! I thought you had been absorbed!! I thought you were gone!! Baka!!" (A/N: Baka means stupid in japanese... normally I frown upon using normal japanese words in english stories that aren't attacks or names, but "baka" just sounds better than "stupid".)

Inuyasha looked down on his raven haired princess as she cried madly into his clothes.

"I'm sorry Kagome... I didn't mean to..." but their conversation was cut short by the yelling that was going on under them.

"KAZANAA!!"

"Watch where you point that thing you stupid monk!!"

Miroku and Kouga were both attacking Naraku. Kouga of course was going for close range attacks while Miroku had unleashed the power of his right hand and almost took Kouga into the kazanaa. "Well, I can't use it anymore anyway... let's do this the hard way then" Miroku said darkly as a large amount of poisonous bees appeared behind their enemy. At the same time they both charged Naraku, Kouga getting to him first and Miroku following closely behind.

(FLASHBACK)

"I have decided to become the hunter. I will track you and your friends down to the brink of your deaths. I will kill you all and then I will absorb your pathetic powers."

"I will kill you all and then absorb your pathetic powers."

"I will kill you all...."

(END FLASHBACK)

Inuyasha felt the panic rising within him. He forsaw his friends lying in a battlefield... all motionless.... all cold... all dead.

"GETAWAY MIROKU, KOUGA!!!!" Before he knew what he was doing, Inuyasha had lept off of Kirara and was plunging down face first towards Naraku.

'I won't let him.........'

He gripped his tessaiga...

'I can't let him......'

He focused on his target...

'I have to....'

The tessaiga crystalized...

"You'll never hurt my friends! KONGOUSOHA!!!!!!!!!!!"

The power of Inuyasha's attack hit Naraku just before Inuyasha himslelf struck down at his hanyou adversary. The impact was so powerful that the earth trembled from the aftershock. Rocks and dust flew every which way, shielding the outcome of the attack from anyone's view. Everyone stood silent... waiting for the dust to settle and see who still stood and who had fallen. When it finally settled everyone looked on in surprise......................