Thank you to everyone who's gonna put up with this chapter. I'm working off yet ANOTHER computer (converting files is hell. HELL.) And I've got another keyboard to adjust to, like my typing wasn't bad enough already. Plus, this one's all clackety.
Yes, I do know that Miroku is older than Sango, but here, he's not. To make up for the age mix-up I've made him smart. Live with the compromise.
Also, new character this chapter, though I think I'm gonna have to knock someone off, because Kikyo and Sango and Miroku and Jaken are all kinda serving the same purpose.
Apologies to Jhonen Vasquez for the ripoff in the last chapter. I stole the giant squid thing from Invader Zim.
This chapter dedicated to Piro and Largo from MegaTokyo, the funniest webcomic ever.
Okay, okay, on to the goddam fic already… geez…
"Miko! Miko, four more youkai have emerged from the well! They're headed toward the forest!"
The brown eyed temple maiden grabbed her bow, slinging her arrows over her shoulder. What was it with the youkai today? They were coming in the thousands, and her strength was beginning to weaken.
"How long can this last?" she asked. She feared the answer.
"Are you sure he went this way, Inuyasha?"
Kikyo tried not to laugh at the sight of the little boy with his nose pressed to the ground.
"Mm-hmm. Jaken too. Somebody else, but I don't know them."
"Somebody else?"
"Who else could there be?" Miroku asked. The other two shrugged.
"They're really close. They went over… this way!"
Inuyasha ran off.
"Hey! Wait up!"
"What are we waiting for, anyway?"
Sesshoumaru leaned back against a tree, glaring at the older man. Naraku was peacefully sitting cross-legged on the ground, his baboon pelt abandoned. Jaken was wandering around looking for something familiar.
"I'm not going to ask you to trust me on this one, but you'll just have to wait."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"Patience, Sesshoumaru."
"Exactly what he's good at," Jaken muttered from out of Sesshoumaru's range. The daiyoukai glared at him, but didn't make a move to retaliate.
Naraku watched all this with an air of removal. All was going according to plan. The siamyoushou had reported that the hanyou had come out of the well, bringing some humans with him. They would be little trouble. Now, assuming Takemaru had done his job properly, all was going according to plan. The hanyou would of course come looking for his elder brother, bearing news of their parent's tragic death.
Sesshoumaru, following the pattern of human teenagers everywhere, would find someone to blame. His soul would be filed with hate. And then Naraku would be free to absorb the daiyoukai, and all his power.
If only the stupid child would hurry.
Kagome moved almost silently through the forest. Her arrow's sling was hung over her shoulder, one of them already nocked and held at ready. The youkai could be anywhere, and wherever they were, they were definitely not alone.
But why so many so suddenly? And why out of the well?
Too many questions for one day.
She heard voices to her left and whirled around. Whoever was talking, they didn't know she was there. This could work to her advantage.
"You know, today is Wednesday," Kikyo said absently.
"So?"
The four of them were walking along, Inuyasha stopping every once in a while to alter their course. For the most part they were just walking and talking about stuff.
"I never got the hang of Wednesdays. I could never figure out what to do with them. Now I can't figure out what to do with this. How do you react to something like this?"
"Roll with it." Miroku suggested.
"Easy for you to say. You're eight."
"Still. That's what I'm doing and I havn't had a mental breakdown as of yet, so it must work."
"Arrgh… stop being smart, you're weirding me out."
Miroku sighed.
"Inuyasha," he said, trying to change the subject, "Are we still going the right way?"
No answer.
"Inuyasha?" Sango said, looking behind them. "Where did he go?"
"Did he run off?"
"He shouldn't be hard to see, with al that red he wears."
"Wait a minute, I hear someone," Miroku said, looking in the direction they had just been heading.
"Come on!" Kikyo ran off in the direction of the voices. The other two followed her.
"Don't follow them," Kagome hissed.
Inuyasha, transfixed by the arrow tip a few feet in front of him, nodded.
"I'm gonna ask some questions, youkai. If you try to transform, run off, or attack me, I'll shoot you. Got it?"
Inuyasha nodded.
"I'm not a youkai."
"You've got dog ears, kid. I'm not stupid."
Inuyasha shook his head without moving anything else.
"No, mommy said I was a hanyou."
"Your mother's a youkai then?"
"My dad."
"Where's he?"
She knew the answer, he was off somewhere, looking for her. Tables turn, youkai.
Inuyasha rubbed one eye, willing himself not to shed a tear.
"He got killed. My mommy, too."
Oh, so she'd already got him then. Made her job that much easier.
"Why did you come through the well?"
"That's the only way here."
"Here? From where?"
"Where I live. The future."
"And that's where all the other youkai are coming from?"
"I guess so. I'm only looking for my brother."
"He's probably already dead," Kagome didn't say.
"I've been killing off youkai all day," she failed to add.
Why didn't she want to tell the kid that? He was just a hanyou. She'd kill him once she was done with him, so what did it matter?
Think about it later.
"Tell me everything you know."
"Um… kay… this could take a while."
Kagome pulled back harder on the arrow, stretching the bowstring even more.
"I've got all day. Start talking."
Sesshoumaru's amber eyes flicked over to the trees, verifying what his nose was telling him.
"Somebody's coming," he said.
"Finally. We've been sitting here for an hour."
"Quiet, Jaken."
Kikyo burst into the clearing, followed closely by Miroku and Sango.
"Sesshoumaru? What are you doing here?" Sango asked.
"So this is the infamous Sesshoumaru, huh?" Kikyo asked.
"We've been waiting for THEM?" Sesshoumaru asked incredulously. Naraku, who had conjured the baboon pelt once again, nodded.
"I don't have time for this," Sesshoumaru said, standing to go.
"Hey, wait!" Sango said, "Have you seen Inuyasha anywhere? We can't find him, and since he was looking for you-"
"Why would the hanyou be looking for me?"
"You're his older brother, duh," Kikyo said. "Without his mother or father, you're the only person he has le-"
"Wait. What do you mean, without his mother or father?"
The three humans stiffened, sharing a nervous glance.
"He doesn't know," Sango whispered.
"Somebody better start talking or there's gonna be trouble," Sesshoumaru hissed. A single drop of poison dropped from his claws, burning a plant on the ground.
"There was a mob of humans," Sango said hurriedly. "There was no one at your house but Inuyasha and your parents, and they lit the walls on fire-"
"Bullshit. There's no way my dad couldn't get away from a bunch of humans."
"We weren't there. From what we heard from Inuyasha, he stayed to distract the humans away from where Inuyasha and his mother were getting away."
Two more drops fell as Sesshoumaru's hands dropped.
"The burning house collapsed, killing your father and the humans he was fighting. Your mother was killed later-"
"She's not my mother."
"Why would you assume that Sesshoumaru-sama would be related to a human?" Jaken interjected.
Naraku, still receding into the shadows, allowed a small smile to grace his lips. Takemaru had come through quite nicely indeed. The first shadows of darkness were creeping into Sesshoumaru's previously pure aura.
"Hate," he whispered, encouraging the boy.
"So my father died," Sesshoumaru said slowly, "trying to protect his human woman and her half-breed kid?"
He gave up… power, everything he could have been, to pretend to be a human, to live… then, with her, with Inuyasha. He died for them.
"He died for Inuyasha," Naraku whispered, "the half breed as good as killed him. Return the favor. Kill him. Get the revenge you deserve."
"Where is he?" Sesshoumaru hissed.
"That's what we were asking you. We can't find him."
Sesshoumaru turned to leave.
"Wait," Miroku said. It was not a request. Sesshoumaru turned back, slowly, looking quizzically at the little kid who thought he could order around youkai. Miroku had his right arm extended, the palm covered by prayer beads and a thin layer of cloth.
"Oh, shit, not that thing," he gasped, remembering.
"Miroku, look out!" Sango exclaimed, pointing to the sky. Half a dozen siamyoushou hovered there, waiting for their suicidal mission.
"That means… whoever's behind all this is around here somewhere!"
They noticed Naraku for the first time.
"... how long has he been there?" Kikyo asked, a little freaked out by Naraku's choice of attire.
"So these things are yours," Miroku said, "Meaning you are the demon who cursed my ancestors with this kazaana, probably right about now, if I'm right about what era we're in. What I can't figure out is why you're here now."
"He came to find me," Sesshoumaru cut in. "Any more than that is no business of yours. Ditto for my half-brother. Go back to your own time, leave this to the people qualified to deal with it, humans."
"I can't do that, see, it's been my job, along with my father's and his before him to find this demon here and kill him, and I won't back down from that because of you."
Naraku frowned. This was an unexpected development. He tried to see whether the boy would open the kazaana despite the immenent danger, but his face revealed nothing at all. Impressive, for a child so young.
Impressive, but dangerous.
"I don't have time for this. I'm going to find that baka of a half breed."
He spared half a glance for Naraku.
"When they're dead catch up to me."
Naraku nodded, resenting having to take orders from someone a tenth of his age.
"That's why my friends and I are here. I just want to find Sesshy."
Kagome was having a hard time keeping the arrow knocked. What if he was telling the truth? He was innocent, even if he was a hanyou. What if he wasn't?
It was hard not to believe the golden eyes child's story.
'damn my maternal instincts,' Kagome thought.
"Look, I'm sorry," she told him, "but it's my job to get rid of youkai, and you fall under that category."
Before Inuyasha could even understand what she had said to him, she released the arrow, sending it on it's deadly path. Something white flashed between her and the hanyou, and her arrow was gone.
"Huh?"
She followed the path of the white flash, here eyes leading her to the figure of a boy, dressed in a white and red kimono, holding her arrow between two claws. He had the markings of a youkai on his face.
"Sesshy!" Inuyasha called out. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"
Sesshoumaru flicked his claws, sending the arrow back at Kagome with alarming speed. It buried itself in her shoulder, drawing a ragged gasp from the miko as she sunk to the ground.
"Sesshy, what did you do that-"
Sesshoumaru moved again, covering the distance between him and his brother in a second. He picked Inuyasha up by the front of his shirt, slamming the boy into a tree.
"It's your fault!" he screamed. Inuyasha regarded him without the smallest bit of comprehension, which only angered him more.
"You don't know? Or you don't care? Do you even think you've done anything wrong?"
Inuyasha couldn't breathe, the pressure on his chest was too much. Panic showed on his face, strengthened by the pure hate in his brother's eyes.
Hate turned to surprise, and Sesshoumaru dropped the boy. Inuyasha fell to the ground, gasping for air. Kagome drew another arrow.
"This one will go through your heart, youkai," she promised.
Naraku could feel, even through the distance, the darkness in Sesshoumaru's aura. He'd have to move soon, this was his chance. For all his flaws, Sesshoumaru wasn't an evil person, and soon after he killed his brother a lot of guilt would set in. The darkness would evaporate and probably never come back. Guilty people had an affinity for making vows never to kill again.
He left the siamyoushou to deal with the humans and set off after Sesshoumaru.
An interesting scene greeted him. Inuyasha was alive, Sesshoumaru having been distracted by a miko, another character that seemed to appear out of the woodwork. She was about to shoot a purification arrow, which didn't work for Naraku. The daiyoukai's power was nothing if the boy was dead.
"Look out!" Inuyasha cried. Kagome followed his finger to where a second youkai had appeared. Kagome shifted her aim, instead shooting at the fur-clad man. He disappeared, appearing once again behind Sesshoumaru. He wrapped his arms around the boy and the two of them disappeared.
'I'm not gonna ask,' Kagome thought. 'I don't care, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I'm not-'
"Are you okay?"
Inuyasha nodded.
"What's wrong with him?"
"Who?"
"Sesshoumaru."
"That was your brother?"
"He isn't like that though."
"He's a youkai. They're all 'like that.' Has he been hurt recently?"
"I don't think so. Why?"
"He's not using half the power he's capable of. I shouldn't have stood a chance, but I did. Why?"
"He's only been youkai for a day."
"A DAY? How is that possible?"
"It's the hundredth full moon in our time. I think. I'm not really sure."
"That explains it."
Kagome stared at the ground, lost temporarily in thought.
"I have to go find my friends, okay? See ya!"
Kagome watched the hanyou run off.
I shouldn't let him go.
Youkai and hanyou, they're all alike.
Well… maybe one won't hurt.
Sure she'd regret it, Kagome let the boy go.
"Get off me! Bastard, let GO!"
Sesshoumaru fought against Naraku. The hanyou's arms had devolved into more like tentacles, wrapping around Sesshoumaru. Naraku would absorb his body, and therefore his power, and become almost unstoppable. But Sesshoumaru wasn't going to go without a fight. He dug his claws into Naraku, the poison spreading quickly. The hanyou let go of him for only a second, but it gave Sesshoumaru the chance he needed. He spun around, a trail of poison energy emerging from his fingertips, whipping out and slicing a line right through Naraku. The hanyou disappeared once again, leaving Sesshoumaru alone.
"Where the hell even am I?" He asked no one in particular. When they didn't answer, he went off in search of his own answers.
Again.
Yeah, that was long. You are grateful, are you not?
Irony: While I was writing Naraku, I was listening to Was (Not was), their song 'betrayal's just a game.' I likes it, I do. So yeah.
School's starting and I'm getting set back to 4.5 hours of computer a week, so updates will probably continue to be slow. Also, August 31st is my fifteenth birthday, which I will spend jumping in and out of wells, so probably nothing then, either.
Karvian and Kitsune Ryune get their names on the board of people who got it right.
For this chapter's question: What's the shichinintai?
Or, if you don't know that, what's the literal translation of siamyoushou?
Review for your chance to get a chapter dedicated to you!
I'm upset cuz I finished my other Inuyasha fics and they got, like, three reviews… there's too much of a turnover rate here.
"Lady Kagome! You're hurt!"
Blood ran down Kagome's arm, dripping from her fingertips to the ground.
"It's not that bad. I'll be okay."
Once the arrow had been removed, she was able to examine the wound. It should be healed up in a few days.
'for such a powerful youkai,' she thought, 'he sure did have poor aim. It's almost like he aimed that way on purpose…'
No way. No youkai is that kind.
Her mind flicked briefly back to the white haired hanyou, the pure innocence she had seen in his eyes. Had that youkai been his brother?
She shook her head, trying to clear out her thoughts.
In any case, there had to be some other youkai who had come after the jewel. Fighting them was a straightforward battle.
Perfect.
"Inuyasha! Where on Earth have you been?"
The three humans gathered around Inuyasha. He didn't say anything, and didn't look as if he was going to.
I dedicate this chapter to anybody who clicks on the author profile button. I've got like 50 stories, there should be something you like…