Author's Note: I don't know about you guys, but the last chapter seemed dull to me. Oh well, I guess that's just my opinion. Anyways, thanks for all of your reviews everyone! I really do appreciate it and hope you send more and continue to let me know what you think! I love hearing which part of the story a reviewer likes the best, or just a nice compliment!
Well, I won't keep you to read this A/N now, so please read and review the fic! Enjoy!
lady kjerston of the western: Yeah! I wanted to show both of Inuyasha and Kagome in her when she fought the demon. Like when she screamed, like Kagome, and acted all tough in the end, like Inuyasha and kinda like Kagome yeah. She's just a sweetie! lol! Yes, this is the last sequel, sorry for some who've just enjoyed it so much but hey it's gotta end soon, ne? Thanks for your review!
erica6060: Yes, yes. Sanae is a cuttie indeed, and so are the other two girls. lol, Inuyasha better be on the look out for young guys tryin' to steal his girlies! Thanks for your review!
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha
Chapter Eleven: Losing Ground And Falling Faster
Inuyasha walked toward the stream, reaching inside his haori to get out a small water bottle to fill with fresh water. His calm golden eyes gazed at the small waves in the water as he kneeled down and unscrewed the cap of the bottle.
Inuyasha's once calm eyes widened in shock, 'A demon is near.'
The hanyou instantly stood up, dodging a fireball that had almost hit him dead on if he had stayed where he was. He jumped on the other side of the stream, thinking quickly, 'Maybe if I lead this demon further away from where the others were, then it won't fight them too.' However, he knew demons could smell scents, so he began to think that this plan wouldn't work as well as he would want.
Inuyasha, as always, had enough of this hide and seek game that other demons just loved to play, "Where the hell are you?! Come out here and face me!" Inuyasha shouted at the trees.
A female laugh could be heard echoing from all around Inuyasha. The hanyou brought a hand to the hilt of Tetsusaiga and unsheathed it.
The demon finally came out of the shadows.
Inuyasha saw a young girl walk in his direction, a deadly and playful smirk on her crimson lips as she grasped her giant straight scythe. "So you're Inuyasha, the one I've been looking for." Hinote said and stood her ground a few good yards from the hanyou.
"So? What's it to you?...wait…Who the hell are you anyway?" Inuyasha asked, obviously not pleased with how this little girl stood up to him with such an over confident smirk on her face. That alone made him angry enough to kill her.
"I've been given orders from my master Taisuke to fight you." She said to him and rose her scythe up in the air, "And I am Hineto, the fire sorceress!" She stated loudly and attacked Inuyasha with her now scorching scythe. He brought up Tetsusaiga and both swords collided with a loud clash of metal.
Inuyasha froze when he sniffed the air, 'Her, her scent. It smells just like that demon I saw with Rikku.' Inuyasha's heart sank, 'Why is he coming after me?' He shook his head and regained his composure.
"Why didn't he come here instead?" Inuyasha asked when the swords separated. Hinote stood straight again, repositioning her weapon, "Merely to observe your fighting skills." She simply said and disappeared. Inuyasha was clueless for a second but didn't know that she had vanished until it was too late.
She reappeared behind him and swung her scythe on his back with powerful speed.
Inuyasha's eyes widened. He felt the scythe cut his back, but because he moved forward a little bit before she attacked, he didn't get as deep a cut as he would've gotten had he just stood there. The fire demon smirked, 'Well that was easy.' She back flipped twice behind him. Inuyasha turned around, seething inwardly because of his wound, 'Damn her.'
"You're pathetic. And here I thought I was expecting a real competition." She stated casually.
Inuyasha brought Tetsusaiga in front of him, "We'll see, bitch." He prepared his sword and glared at Hineto, 'So her stupid master is watching us right now huh. Well, he can watch like a coward if he wants, as long as he doesn't know my true objective to find the spheres, then we're fine for now.'
As their fight commenced, he thought of the name Taisuke. He had never heard of a name like that before. But he knew It was that same man he saw. All the pieces came together in his mind. Inuyasha only knew this guy's name and yet that same person knows everything about him. This made Inuyasha nervous by the minute, what did this person really want?
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"Ready, Kagome?" Miroku asked, staff in his firm grip.
"Yes. Boys stay behind us." Kagome replied and took a deep breath while the young men did as they were told. However, they readied themselves for battle if such times called for it.
A horse demon charged out from the bushes and halted in front of them. They were quite amazed by how it looked; they gazed at it with wide eyes. The horse itself was a beautiful cream color and its mane and tail were of nothing but fire, blazing freely in the wind. (I guess you could say it's that fire horse, uh Rapidash pokemon thing….why do I know that? ) The horse's crimson eyes glared at Miroku and Kagome. It snarled, shaking its head once in a fast motion, and sprinted toward them.
Miroku stood in front of Kagome and pulled out his sutras. He threw about three of them toward the horse demon and it miraculously dodged them. Even angrier now, the horse grunted and hit Miroku hard with its head, causing the monk to fall to the ground and away from Kagome.
"Dad!" Asoka called and rushed to his father's side. Kagome made sure Taikan was behind her when she readied her bow and purity arrow. 'Where is Inuyasha? I have to get to him.'
She shot her arrow dead on in the direction of the flaming horse. Seeing this, the stallion formed a fireball in its mouth, fired it at the arrow, and saw that it had melted it before the purifying powers had a chance to take effect.
The miko gasped. Taikan grunted at this and ran to the horse, punching its head.
"Taikan wait!" Kagome shouted, but he had continued to fight anway.
The horse had gotten punched, and was a little dazed. Kagome then smiled and sighed in relief that the horse didn't dodge the attack. She looked over at Asoka and Miroku, "Is he ok Asoka?" Kagome called to them, getting another arrow.
Asoka looked up as Miroku was beginning to awaken, "Yeah, I think he's gonna be fine Lady Kagome."
Kagome nodded and aimed her arrow at the horse while it fought Taikan. She kept following their motions with her bow and arrow, not able to get a clear shot. She wanted to glance in the direction Inuyasha went to earlier, but then that could mean she'd lose a chance of shooting the horse clearly.
Kagome narrowed her eyes, 'Taikan, move out of the way.'
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Inuyasha was about to attain wind scar when he heard, "Taikan wait!"
He stopped and looked in the direction of the beautiful voice, 'That was Kagome.' He was about to look back at Hineto, but then for the first time now, caught another demon's scent was over there where Kagome's voice came from. "Damn it! Why didn't I smell it before?"
He turned back to look at Hineto. She must have known what he was thinking because she smirked and laughed a little at Inuyasha's expression, "Oh yeah, did I forget to mention about my faithful steed?"
Inuyasha staggered back slightly. "W-What?! You have a fucking pony attacking my mate and kid?!" Inuyasha shouted as he got his sword ready again, "Alright you bitch, you really got me pissed off now. Wind scar!" He swung Tetsusaiga down and a wave of energy pulsed through the ground toward Hineto.
She was surprised to say the least and could only stare at this energy, "What's going on? He's not suppose to be this strong." She murmured.
Hineto screamed in pain at first, 'How did he gather this much power so fast?' She closed her eyes and had managed to jump in the air and away from the rest of the attack, "I'll return hanyou!" She shouted and disappeared in the sky in a burst of flames.
Just as wind scar was dying down Inuyasha sheathed his sword and ran toward where he knew Kagome and the others were fighting another demon.
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Sanae stopped walking immediately. 'They're in a fight with another demon. Oh no.'
She ran to them this time, not caring how much trouble she knew she'd be in when her parents found out that she was coming.
While she ran, she pulled out another arrow and positioned it in her bow so that when she arrived, she'd be ready to attack in a moment's time. 'I'm coming guys!'
Keiko rubbed her neck nervously, "Um well, you have to guess..." She said and Sanae sighed in frustration, "But, if you were to say that Asoka is practically in love with you...I'd say great guess!" She said as she smiled sheepishly.
"N-No way! He does?... I knew it." She murmured the last part to herself. She now grew nervous, "But, what do I do? I'm not any exprert on this kind of stuff! Should I tell to my Mom?!" She nearly cried. Keiko walked up to her and put a friendly arm around her shoulders, "Oh don't worry about it so much, just keep pretending that you didn't know about it yet." She said calmly.
'I forgot all about that!' Sanae gasped as she kept running, which was kind of hard to do if you think about it. She became not only scared for her life, but nervous now.
'What do I do when I see him? I can't just pretend I don't know that he likes me. That would be kind of unfair… Ugh! Too many problems for my little brain to deal with! I'm just a kid!'
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Once Inuyasha had made it in the clearing, he saw that his son was fighting a horse type of demon and Kagome was trying to shoot it with her arrow. Just as he was about to help Taikan fight, the horse hit the young hanyou and he flew against the trunk of a tree, sliding painful to the ground.
All of a sudden, everyone heard a little girl's voice call out, "Taiakan!" and saw an arrow fly toward the horse demon. It hit dead on and the horse disappeared with serious damage. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes, 'Probably ran away just like Hinteo did. I know it's not dead.'
He immediately went to Kagome to make sure she was alright. Once he saw that she was fine he hugged her tight and she hugged back. By this time Miroku was up on his feet and rubbing the back of his neck, he looked around, wondering where this young girl was.
Inuyasha sniffed the air and his eyes widened, "S-Sanae."
Just as he said that, he saw her walk out from behind a tree and stop in front of all of them. She instantly dropped her bow and cried, "Oh, I'm so sorry Daddy! I didn't mean to not listen to you and come here. But I just wanted to be with you and Mommy and show you how strong I am, and-"
Inuyasha narrowed his eyes and walked toward her, very angry. Sanae was too scared to move or make another sound. 'Oh no, he is mad at me.' She gulped and lowered her head.
He stopped just in front of her and spoke low and seriously, "What are you doing here?"
Sanae jumped at the tone of his voice. "I...I" She shook her head, still not looking at him, she just looked at his feet instead. "Sanae, you disobeyed me. How could you?"
Sanae cringed and a moment later, looked up at him and saw not an angry face anymore, but a frightened one. He was scared, but why?
Inuyasha took another step closer to her and dropped down to his knees and hugged her. "You could have been killed, what were you thinking?" He meant to scold her, but his voice was too soft. 'Thank gods she's ok.' He shut his eyes and held her tightly. He thought about how far she had walked to get to get to them, how tired and hungry she must have been, and of how many demons she must have fought along the way.
Kagome was helping Taikan to his feet, and he seemed to be alright. "Thanks Mom." He said and she smiled. "Where's Dad?" He asked and looked toward where Kagome was looking with a shocked face, "Sanae, what is she doing here?"
Miroku and Asoka were also watching the scene and the monk breathed a sigh of relief, thinking at first that Inuyasha would say the wrong thing to this daughter and make her cry and feel guilty about her innocent actions of wanting to be with them. Asoka blushed and looked somewhere else, then he remembered how Sanae took care of that horse demon and he smiled, 'She's awesome.'
Sanae sniffled in his shoulder, "I'm sorry Dad. I just wanted to be with you and Mom. I promise I won't disobey you ever again."
Inuyasha pulled away from her and smiled, "Ok, but have to keep your promise." He said and watched her nod. They both walked toward everyone else and they all regrouped.
Kagome hugged Sanae against her this time as Inuyasha got everyone's attention, "All right, enough wasting time. That demon I just fought, her name is Hinteto and her scent was the exact same of that demon we've been looking for."
Taikan stood by him, a little bit out of breath from fighting. 'So I guess this means we'll encounter him soon.' The young hanyou thought.
"Are you sure Inuyasha?" Miroku asked.
He nodded, "Yeah, she told me his name is Taisuke and that he had sent her here to fight us… well, me."
"So he is the one we've been wondering about." Kagome murmured and Inuyasha looked at her, "Yes. I'm sure of it now." He knew she was worried, hell they all were. Just what was this guy up to anyway, besides wanting to fight Inuyahsa? Since many demons knew he, with Sessoumaru's help, defeated Naraku, not one of them dared to challenge him.
Miroku narrowed his eyes in worry, "Has this Hineto questioned you of our travel?"
Inuyasha shook his head, "No, and I hope she nor Taisuke don't find out either. If they know that we're after the orbs of Higan, they'll most likely get there before we do."
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Hineto returned to the castle while clutching her shoulder in hopes to heal it faster. She walked toward her master's chamber, planning on what to tell him about the earlier events of fighting Inuyasha.
Hineto grunted miserably, 'I can't just tell Taisuke that I lost... I'll.. I'll just tell him that when I was about to kill Inuyasha, he-um, got all his friends against me.'
"You are such a fool."
Hineto turned around to see her older sister come out of the shadows. Hineto scoffed, "What are you talking about Reina? I did what Taisuke ordered me to do."
Reina only blinked and turned around, walking away from the younger girl.
Hineto blinked also and then just narrowed her eyes. She turned back around and entered Taisuke's chamber. "Lord Taisuke."
When there was no answer, she walked in. She saw him, his back to her and she saw that he was looking in his mirror that he uses often. "Master, there was a slight problem. Inuyasha-"
"Are you sure of what you're about to say?" His deep voice asked.
She paused, 'He-he knows.' Suddenly, she was flown to the wall by an invisible force and she gasped for breath, having it knocked out of her when her back met the wall. Taisuke made no move to turn around, "If you decide to fail me again, you'll plead for hell."