Chapter 8

"Tell me now, or die" Inochi repeated irritably. He wasn't in the mood to play around with that annoying little flea. "Tell me the secret now."

"You heard him" Inuyasha squeezed Myouga.

"You wouldn't let him kill me, would you Master Inuyasha?"

"I'm ready to kill you right now, Myouga. I want to know." Kagome and everyone else would have naturally protested, but no one expected for Myouga to hold out the truth for any longer. He'd crack eventually and be free. Besides, they were all curious of what the truth was exactly. "Come Myouga, you're wearing everyone's patience thin!"

"I can't tell you!"

"You had better!" Called Sesshoumaru from behind them all. "I had a feeling that you would flea back to Inuyasha. Now I've found you."

Inochi placed his hands on his sword. "Have you come here for another fight dog demon? I won't let you escape with your life so easily like the last time."

"That's interesting, because I was about to say the same thing to you." Sesshoumaru grabbed a hold of Tokijin. "Come on then, if you're truly strong enough to last another battle with me, then prove it."

'I'm saved!' Thought Myouga.

"Don't think you're off the hook" Inuyasha told him. He wasn't about to let go of him at all. "You're going to answer the question!"

"But Lord Inutashio had me swear that I wouldn't tell it! You wouldn't want me to break your father's promise, now would you?"

'My father?' Sesshoumaru thought to himself. 'He had Myouga swear that he would never say a word. He never said a word to me, and yet he trusted this weak and cowardly flea. Father, your intention couldn't be to keep it from me forever.' He gazed over at Inochi. 'And what would this human have to do with me? What is he?' "Myouga, you will die once I destroy this mortal."

"Wait!" Kagome yelled. "Why do you two have to fight? You two obviously have some kind of connection right? Why not try to figure it out together?"

"Me work with a demon?" Inochi asked. "Surely you've lost all manner of sense, woman. I would never work with a demon, no matter what the issue at hand was."

"And to think that I'd work with a disgusting mortal is punishable by death." Sesshoumaru reached out his hand towards Kagome and his poison surrounded his hand and lunged towards Kagome.

Sesshoumaru acted quicker than what Inuyasha did, since he wasn't expecting that at all. Inochi could read Sesshoumaru like a book and jumped in front of Kagome and stretched out his hand until a blue light extended towards the poisonous attack and canceled it out. "Attacking a mere woman now demon? How pathetic and unrespectable you demons are. You have no honor."

"There's no shame in destroying mortals. They deserve to die."

"You tried to kill Kagome!" Inuyasha unsheathed the Tetsusaiga and prepared to strike down Sesshoumaru. "You won't get away with that!"

"You just let Myouga go, you fool!" Inochi pointed out.

Inuyasha at the time didn't care. Sesshoumaru needed to be killed for that. "You don't hurt Kagome! I'll kill you for even trying!"

"And I'll kill you for interfering" Inochi told Inuyasha. "I've never before met a demon whose power canceled my own out. I think fighting him may prove to be interesting." 'He might actually be as powerful as me. How is that even possible?'

"This is my fight!" Inuyasha yelled back angrily. "No one does that and-" Inuyasha was silenced once he felt the touch of Inochi's hand on his stomach and the spiritual aura blast him back a few feet until he on his back.

"Inuyasha!" Yelled all of his friends. They rushed to his side, but he wasn't moving.

'He still might have information. That's the only reason why I decided to let him live.' "Alright, no more interruptions."

"Fine then, let your demise begin." They rushed to each other, their swords clashing and lighting shooting out from the power of the two swords. It was exactly like the Tetsusaiga and Tokijin clashing, but instead of Inuyasha wielding Tetsusaiga, Inochi wielded it, and he wielded it with such a grace and strength that matched Sesshoumaru's ability. The only thing lacking in power was the Tokijin. Tokijin was an evil and powerful sword, but it was no Tetsusaiga. Sesshoumaru had always known that, but Inuyasha could never truly master the Tetsusaiga, therefore, no one knew the truth, except for Sesshoumaru.

"It would seem that my sword is stronger." Inochi smirked. "Seems that this demon fang shall be your end!" He hit the Tokijin with his sword again, and the Tokijin seemed to cry as if in pain. "Your sword shall be destroyed!" He slashed it once again, and it cried out again. "Time to die!"

Sesshoumaru had one free hand and before Inochi made the final blow to destroy the Tokijin; his poisonous hand touched Inochi's gut, and began to burn through. Inochi backed away as soon as he could, but he was already beginning to lose his power. 'I allowed myself to be careless. I...I didn't expect that.' Inochi threw his sword a far distance and held his wound. He dropped to his knees and began coughing up blood. 'Darn him.'

"Even the strongest of you creatures, are still fragile." He raised his hand and prepared to finish him off. "Prepare to..." Sesshoumaru all of the sudden began to feel weakened, and he stepped back from Inochi, about to lose his footing. 'What's going on?' he asked himself. "Why am I so weak all of the sudden?" He began to feel wetness, and smelt the scent of blood, his own blood. 'I'm bleeding in my gut, but how is that possible? He didn't strike me.'

Inochi wasn't out of the fight yet. He wasn't about to die by the hands of a dog demon. 'I won't die like this.' He stretched out his hand, and while Sesshoumaru was distracted, his spiritual aura leaped out and blasted Sesshoumaru, but Inochi's power had taken such a dramatic increase, that it didn't kill him, like it should have, but Sesshoumaru was knocked back, as well as severely burned. "Got you...uh!" Inochi's own body began smoking, just like Sesshoumaru's. 'Why is this happening to me? How is any of this possible?' he asked himself.

"What's going on?" Miroku asked. "Why is Inochi's body smoking exactly like Sesshoumaru?"

Sango noticed the blood dripping from Sesshoumaru's body. "That's funny. I never saw Inochi strike him."

Inuyasha finally got up from his unpleasant defeat. "What's...what's going on?" He saw Inochi and Sesshoumaru both looking equally weak. "They have the same wounds."

"But how?" Shippo asked. "We just watched the battle, and it's not possible."

"Just watch" Inuyasha said. "Maybe they'll kill each other."

"We mustn' let that happen!" yelled Myouga, who surprisingly reappeared on Inuyasha's nose. "We can't let the two of them kill each other!"

"They both may be weak, but Inochi is a human after all. I think Sesshoumaru will win."

"No, Master Inuyasha, you mustn't let it happen! They mustn't fight anymore!"

Inochi began to feel paralyzed. He couldn't even breathe anymore. 'What's wrong with me?' Everything quickly became blurry. 'This doesn't make sense. With all the spiritual power I just used to hurt Sesshoumaru, his poison in me should be purified as well. I shouldn't be dying...' He began to cough. 'It must be something else. I've been poisoned.' He couldn't get up from off of his knees. 'How is that even possible? Every poison that I know of, I've built up immunity to, so what can this possibly be in my system? It must be something new and it's taking affect because I've been wounded.' He struggled to keep consciousness. 'This demon...he'll finish me off if I don't do something.'

Surprisingly, Sesshoumaru dropped to his knees as well. 'It's happening again, but why? Why am I dying? This mortal hasn't wounded me enough to destroy me. It's like before, but it's happening too soon. It's only happened every fifty years or so. It shouldn't be so soon...'

"What's the matter?" Inochi asked, with the last of his strength. "I didn't wound you enough to kill you."

"And you?" Sesshoumaru was beginning to loose his breath. "What of you?"

Inochi's eyes were bloodshot as a non-demonic poison began to overtake his body. He was pale and his veins were very visible. "You didn't kill me...if that's what you're thinking. I wouldn't give you the satisfaction." It was then that Inochi's heart stopped beating, and he fell to the ground, dead.

Sesshoumaru tried to hold on, but he too died.

"What just happened?" asked Inuyasha baffled. "Are they both...?" He didn't know whether to be happy, or concerned on what happened. "Their both..." he found the strength to stand to his feet and he ran over to Inochi and checked his pulse. He was dead. "Inochi is dead." Inuyasha walked over to his brother slowly. After all the things that Sesshoumaru had done to him, he thought he'd be happy seeing his brother lying on the ground lifeless, but strangely, it was oddly dissatisfying. 'He's gone. He's dead as well.' "Sesshoumaru...he's dead."

"What?" Miroku asked. "How could they both be dead?"

Myouga refused to believe it and hopped off of Inuyasha and on to Inochi's body. "No, Lord Inochi! Why did you two kill each other?" Myouga noticed Inochi's face though. He was poisoned, but demonic poison couldn't kill him, especially after he used his power. 'Thank goodness. He will be revived.' He looked over to Sesshoumaru. 'So Lord Inutashio was right all along about the boys.'

"What are we going to do?" Kagome asked.

"What do you mean?" Inuyasha asked Kagome. "This is a good thing."

"What about Inochi's village? Do you know how many demons will attack his village now that he's dead?" Kagome couldn't believe Inuyasha could be so inconsiderate. "And don't forget about Rin! Now that Sesshoumaru is gone, who will care for her? She can't be all alone in the world?"

"What's it matter to me?"

"Sit boy!"

"Ahhh!"

"You're so stupid!"

"We should probably find the girl" Miroku said. "The poor girl will have no one to care for her."

"Why was a human traveling around with Sesshoumaru anyway?" Sango asked.

Inuyasha lifted his battered body up. "I don't know, but he's dead and it doesn't matter anymore."

"No" Myouga said "Inochi lives, and so does Sesshoumaru."

"What?" Inuyasha asked. "That's impossible! I just checked his pulse. Nothing is beating! Look at him. He looks pathetic. He's dead!"

Miroku decided to check Inochi out and checked his pulse. "He is alive." He could even see Inochi's stomach rising up and down from breathing. "Look, his wound is gone" said Miroku. "He's...alive, and perfectly fine. His color is returning his face and his eyes are back to normal."

Shippo jumped on Miroku's shoulder. "Are you serious? How can that be true? I've never seen anything like that before. How can someone die and come back to life all of the sudden?"

"Well" Sango explained. "Sesshoumaru does possess the Tenseiga. It can bring anyone back from the dead. That's the only thing that I know of, besides the power of the Shikon Jewel."

"What?" Inuyasha heard his brother moaning from behind him. "That's impossible! They were both dead, I'm sure of it!" Sesshoumaru's body was also good as new. Inuyasha walked over to his brother and angrily questioned him. He was so frustrated. Things were getting out of hand.

"True" Miroku said "but the Tenseiga isn't responsible for bringing Inochi back to life, nor do I think it brought Sesshoumaru back to life."

"The sword doesn't make him immortal" Inuyasha blurted out, trying to convince himself that Sesshoumaru wasn't invincible. "There's another reason why they're both alive again. It's their connection. Somehow…I know it must be!" He grunted and began to speak to his brother. "Alright, you tell me what's going on Sesshoumaru."

Sesshoumaru opened his eyes slowly, still weak from the resurrection. "Sesshoumaru?" he asked. "Who is this...Sesshoumaru?"

TO BE CONTINUED...

A/N: Ah! Memory loss! Will he remember? Will he let Inuyasha's and Inochi live? Why did they both die? Find out next time!