Chapter 18 Naraku's defeat

"I advise you to stay. You will only get in the way in that form."

Sesshoumaru looked over his shoulder as he walked, and said quietly, and Inuyasha snarled,

"Shut up, I'm coming! I have to save my mate!"

He said, following closely behind Sesshoumaru, glaring at him. Sesshoumaru stopped walking, and turned around completely.

"The slayer... She is your mate?"

He asked, turning around to look at Inuyasha.

"Yeah. Why?"

"..."

He didn't reply, but just walked on. The group shrugged, and followed, all somewhat tending to some of their minor wounds on the way. Kagome closed her eyes, and covered her face with the cloth, letting Miroku guide her arm.

"...Don't get in my way..."

Sesshoumaru warned quietly as they approached the dark castle, walking into the courtyard.

"Keh!"

Inuyasha snorted as he walked in as well.

"Damn!"

Koga yelled, coughing.

"The miasma in here's thickened..."

Inuyasha said, covering his mouth as well.

"There he is!"

Miroku yelled, pointing at a dark figure in the cloud.

"He's not alone."

Sesshoumaru stated; the expression on his face unchanging. Sure enough, there were two more shapes, followed by small specks in the sky.

"Saimhoushou..."

Miroku said, sighing.

"I can't use my wind tunnel..."

"A rather unexpected visit, Sesshoumaru?"

Said the figure in the middle, and it revealed itself to be Naraku. The group tensed up, getting ready for battle.

"What have you done with Sango you bastard!"

Inuyasha asked impatiently, holding the tetsusaiga up in front of his face.

"I come here to destroy the nuisance that dwells in this castle. You."

Sesshoumaru answered simply.

"Oh?"

Naraku asked, smirking under the mask of his baboon mask.

"Grrrr... Quit ignoring me Yahhh!"

Inuyasha yelled, lunging at Naraku with the tetsusaiga. His sword bounced off something hard, and he fell backwards. He grunted, and his eyes widened as he looked up to see what it was that blocked his blow on Naraku. It was the hiraikotsu. Inuyasha dodged the blow that came straight down on him, and scrambled to his feet, looking at Sango. She looked like all the other copies of her, showing no emotion.

"That must be the real one..."

Miroku said, and Naraku said,

"Yes, I grew tired of that little game. Now is the time you die."

He said, and the third silhouette revealed itself to be Kohaku. Kagome gasped and opened her eyes, forced herself to say,

"So... Many shards..."

"What?"

Koga said, looking over at the three.

"Yes, excluding the ones the wolf demon, and the girl has, I have control of the rest of the shikon jewel."

Naraku said with a smirk.

"And now they'll all be used against you."

"What do you mean?"

"Sango... Has a large piece of the jewel in her..."

Kagome said, coughing some more.

"I don't have time for these hindrances."

Sesshoumaru said, drawing the tokijin, and running at Naraku at breakneck speed, and swung his sword at Naraku, stopping dead a foot away from his neck. It had been stopped by the hiraikotsu again, and Sango shoved it off, swinging her weapon aggressively; Sesshoumaru able to dodge in the nick of time. He jumped backwards, dodging countless swings of the hiraikotsu. One of the blows managed to hit the top of his armour, cracking it slightly. He jumped back to the rest of the group, grunting silently. Kohaku ran at Inuyasha, and flunk his sickle at him, and Inuyasha raised the tetsusaiga, but it hit part of the chain, and it swung around his arm, the blade tearing into his shoulder. Inuyasha grunted, pulling on the chain, pulling Kohaku down with him. He painfully ripped the blade out of his shoulder, and Koga joined the fight, jump-kicking Kohaku in the face, and held him down on the ground with his foot.

Sesshoumaru blocked Sango's blows with some difficulty. He blocked an end of her giant boomerang, and their weapons locked, both of them pushing against each other.

'...She is strong...As I expected...'

Inuyasha ran at Naraku while Koga kept Kohaku busy, and swung the tetsusaiga at him, widely missing as Naraku jumped up into the air, his demon parts exploding from the inside of his baboon suit. They lunged after Inuyasha, who desperately slashed them out of the way, jumping backwards. He saw an arrow whiz past his right ear, suddenly bursting into a pink light. It hit Naraku on his body, the demonic parts dissolving away at the purifying powers of the arrow. Naraku grunted, as he pulled away. Kagome was holding her breath when she shot the arrow, and released it when she put the cloth back to her face.

'I don't have time for this.'

Sesshoumaru thought, as he delivered the hardest slash he could muster, and the hiraikotsu blocked it, but slowly started to crack right through the middle. They glared into each other's eyes, putting their full weight on their weapons, and all of a sudden, Sango abandoned the hiraikotsu, jumping into the air, flipping forward gracefully as she drew her sword and stabbed Sesshoumaru's back from above, who had just finished slicing the hiraikotsu in half. Sango jerked out, and got a few more good hits in with her sword before Sesshoumaru whipped around with the tokijin, but Sango purposely fell onto her back, dodging the blade, and flipped backwards, kicking Sesshoumaru in the face as she did so. She landed gracefully on the ground a few meters away.

'Damn, he's pretty strong for a little runt...'

Thought Koga, holding down a struggling Kohaku. He slowly reached for the chain of his sickle, just out of his fingertips reach, and suddenly lunged, catching Koga off guard, and flung the blade at him, who easily grabbed it and yanked it out of Kohaku's grasp.

"Damn it kid, wake up!"

He yelled, wrestling him to the ground again, keeping the sickle a safe distance from him.

Sesshoumaru didn't feel any pain at all, but parts of his kimono were torn, his armour shattered at some areas, and he was starting to get annoyed when he saw that Sango had not even a scratch on her.

'She was strong without the jewel...'

He thought,

'However now, hundreds of times strong thanks to that jewel...'

Sesshoumaru gripped the tokijin, ready to strike again. He dashed at Sango and swung the sword, emitting a blue light that shot out at Sango. She dodged this, but Sesshoumaru dropped the sword quickly, using his whip of light to restrain her movements.

"Girl, where is the jewel?"

Sesshoumaru growled at Kagome, struggling to keep Sango under control.

"I-In her back..."

Said Kagome's muffled voice from beneath the cloth.

"Where!"

Sesshoumaru asked, growing very impatient.

"Below her left shoulder blade!"

Kagome yelled, holding her breath again as she fired another sacred arrow. Sesshoumaru withdrew the whip, and jabbed his claws into Sango, and tore out the large piece of the sacred jewel, as Sango fell to the ground. Miroku ran over, picking up the jewel piece from the small puddle of Sango's blood, and handed it to Kagome, and upon touching her skin, the black jewel purified, and turned bright pink. Sesshoumaru pushed Sango's unconscious body onto the ground, and went over to Kohaku. He ripped the back of his shirt open as Koga did his best to hold him down, and Sesshoumaru used one of his claws to prick the skin and take out the jewel shard. Sesshoumaru tossed the shard to Koga, who put it into his pocket to give to Kagome later. Kohaku stopped moving, and his eyes were closed, as his breathing slowed to a stop.

The tetsusaiga wasn't much help in the battle in its rusty form, but it was the only weapon Inuyasha had until the sun rose, which was hours away. Naraku came at him just too fast for him, and was eventually overpowered, as one of the tentacles went underneath Inuyasha, and tripped him, causing Inuyasha to fall with a thud to the ground. The arms of Naraku tried to stab Inuyasha, trying to kill him before his demonic powers returned. Inuyasha rolled out of the way, but not quick enough, as one of them stabbed his arm, making him cry out in pain. He cut it in half, ripping it out of his arm as he stood up, staggering from the loss of blood. He saw Naraku's smirk as his arms reached after Inuyasha, who raised his sword, ready to fend them off. He never got to, however, as he felt someone shove him to the side, and fight off the arms for him. Sesshoumaru. He had picked up the tokijin, and worked on Naraku's many arms. Naraku didn't look too happy as he saw Sango and Kohaku both on the ground, and the whole group after him. He summoned all the demons he could, including Kagura and Kanna, and surrounded him as he smirked.

"What the hell is your problem! I was going to chop off his damn arms back there!"

Inuyasha yelled at Sesshoumaru, backing away with him.

"Silence. You would have died with no doubt."

Sesshoumaru said coolly, not even looking at him.

"Keh!"

Inuyasha snorted.

"Since when did you care so much?"

"..."

All the demons attacked, and Koga, Sesshoumaru, Ginta, Hakkaku, Inuyasha, Miroku and Kirara all kept them at bay. Kagome shot a purifying arrow at Naraku, but was blocked by the demons. She was down to her last arrow, and she stringed it, getting ready for the chance to get a clear shot at Naraku.

Sesshoumaru cut through the demons easily with the tokijin, its awesome demonic power shredding all in its path. All the demons were slain quickly, and it was down to the Saimhoushou, Naraku, Kagura and Kanna.

"Destroy them!"

Naraku yelled at Kagura and Kanna. Kagura looked back and forth between Sesshoumaru and Naraku.

"What are you doing! Kill them!"

Kagura glared at Naraku, jumping off her feather as she grabbed it in the air, tucking it away neatly into her hair.

"Why don't you go to hell Naraku! Dance of blades!"

She yelled to everyone's surprise, cutting up Naraku's demonic parts severely. Naraku growled, and in one of his hands was a heart. He squeezed it with no mercy, causing Kagura to go down to her knees, screaming in pain. Sesshoumaru leaped up, and cut the arm that held the heart, and it landed right in front of Kagura, who was gasping for air. When she saw her heart roll out from Naraku's arm, she quickly grabbed it, holding it to her chest as it disappeared.

'M-my heart... It's inside of me... I'm finally free...'

She thought gleefully, but then glared at Naraku, who was regenerating his parts as quickly as the group was destroying them.

"Dance of the dragon!"

Cyclones suddenly appeared, ripping apart the demons that were absorbed by Naraku.

"No!"

He yelled, grunting as his body started to collapse.

'I must retreat for now...'

He thought, and suddenly, a pink arrow flew across the air, stopping in front of his chest, starting to dissolve it.

"I got him!"

Kagome yelled, as the group watched Naraku try and stop the purifying arrow from reaching his heart. He unleashed his dark powers against it, trying to drive the arrow back, and it started to work, the darkness enveloping the arrow.

"No! That was my last one!"

Kagome said, watching worriedly. Suddenly, another arrow whizzed past all of them, reaching Naraku right beside Kagome's arrow. This was too much for Naraku, and he started to collapse.

"No...No!"

Miroku grasped his prayer beads that sealed his cursed hand, and ripped them off, as he said,

"Naraku, feel the pain of the curse you have inflicted upon me!"

He yelled, slowly sucking in Naraku's struggling body, the arrows' purification spreading through his body.

"NOOO!"

Naraku yelled finally, completely being sucked into the black hole. Miroku sealed it up, and the whole group sank to their knees, the miasma quickly reducing, and disappearing completely. Kagome looked back behind her, and gasped as she saw a priestess with a bow; Kikyo. She slipped away, unnoticed by the rest of the group.

"Is it over?"

Inuyasha asked, and Miroku looked at his right hand, slowly removing the prayer beads, and flinching. He looked, and where the wind tunnel, the deadly curse was to be, was nothing but flesh and bone.

"It's over..."

He said, unable to help but smile.

"Inuyasha!"

Sango yelled, getting up as soon as she regained consciousness. She staggered, and started to run to Inuyasha, who also got up. When she was no more than 20 meters away from him, she stopped dead with a gasp. The group all stood up and watched in horror as well when they saw what happened.

"What the hell! That's the real one!"

Koga yelled, watching what was going on.

Sango looked down to see a blade through her stomach, which entered from her back. She looked up at the wide-eyed Inuyasha, continuing to walk, her hand reaching out to him, desperately wanting to reach him, to touch him, to feel him. She felt the blade rip out from her back, and felt it slash diagonally twice, and she fell to the ground, unmoving in a pool of her own blood, her hand still outstretched in the direction of Inuyasha.

"Sesshoumaru, what the fuck are you doing you bastard!"

Inuyasha cried, tears forming, and flowing out of his eyes, as he shook in rage. He raised the tetsusaiga again, and charged at his brother.

Soooo... Who do you think will win? Inuyasha or Sesshoumaru? Review it in and it'll influence the next few chapters/ (Yes, this is going longer than expected, I'm liking this fic a little more than before now)