Author's Notes: So far, still only one person reviewed, but I'm steadily gaining more hits as I write, and hopefully by this point you should at least leave a small review of what you thought of it since you've taken the time to read through all 4 chapters I've posted, 12000 words, and are now continuing to read my 5th chapter. It would only be the polite thing to do. Thanks again to Shainingu. And all of you can thank her, too. Because of her dedicated reading, I've decided to write this next chapter tonight. Btw, the next chapter of her fic is up, and it holds up to the greatness of the first one.
Get to know the author: I thought I would let everyone know a little bit more about me that you couldn't have already gathered from my bio and elsewhere. I am 17, I have long hair, never had a girlfriend, and still debating whether or not I even care. Anime makes up a good deal of my life, and especially Inuyasha.
Inuyasha is and has been my favorite anime since I started reading the first couple manga and saw it on C/N. It was the first series I got into after Ranma ½, created by the same author, Rumiko Takahashi.
My friend and I call each other by Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. If you ask us, we will tell you that we are them, and if you don't believe us, we'll just kill you. One day I hope to finally gain my long silver hair, but until then, it's only about shoulder length.
I really loved later on in the series when it started getting more involved in the story how Sesshoumaru would every so often glare at Jakken, and the next thing you saw him knocked out on the floor with a lump on his eyes and swirly eyes, and Sesshoumaru would just walk off without him. Of course I had to add this in my fict.
Additional Notes: I apologize if this one is a little shorter than the rest of them. I really liked the 10 page chapters, and I felt as though I still have some more room to expand if I want, but I just feel like I need to pay some attention to Kouga in this chapter, which might make it a little shorter than I should hope for in a chapter. I'll do my best though.
And now, it's time for Inuyasha! –Cue intro music-
Chapter 5: Kouga and Kagura, Fight to The Death.
Kagura has been planning to betray and kill Naraku for a long time now. However, Naraku has known about this for a long time and continued to manipulate him for all of his plans, but Naraku had finally manipulated her one last time to use her in his plans, and now he has no use for her. She only has the choice to fight for her life or be killed, when who should show up, but Kouga. Does Naraku have a final plan for Kagura?
Kouga's senses began picking up. There was no mistaken it, he could smell Naraku all over in the air, and he was approaching them fast. He could also smell the not-so-distinct smell of Kagura. It smelled just the same as Naraku to normal youkai, but since Kouga was a wolf youkai, he could tell a slight distinction. "Heh, I'm coming Naraku."
Behind him, as usual, came his two companions, yelling for Kouga to slow down and wait and gasping for breath. "Wait up!"
"Come on Kouga, wait for us!"
"Slow down!" they called.
"No can do, guys. I smell Naraku, and I have to hurry up and catch up to him before he gets away again." Instead of going slower like they were screaming for him to do, he simply sped up and went even faster. The two just took a quick look at each other with an expression that said, "Yeah right" observing that there was no way they could keep up, and then they both desperately began running to keep up the best they could, even though they would fall far back behind like usual.
Naraku had caught wind of Kouga coming toward him from one of his Saimyoushou (his insects) and had quickly devised another one of his clever plans. He looked deviously at Kagura, which gave her an uneasy feeling and made her go on guard a little bit. "I will make you a deal," he told her. "I've been informed that Kouga is coming this way. I want you to fight him for me." An evil grin came across his face.
"Why should I help you, Naraku?" she said now being very defensive.
Suddenly, in Naraku's hand, appeared Kagura's heart. It pulsated and throbbed in Naraku's hand. He let out a small menacing laugh and gave it a slight squeeze giving Kagura pain that was the equivalent to a heart attack causing her to clench her chest where her heart should be.
"If you fight and kill Kouga, I will grant you your wish and give you your heart back and your freedom. However, if you fail to kill Kouga, you will not be allowed to live, and I will kill you." A smirk came on Kagura's face.
"You certainly are a crafty one," she said to him. "This will be no problem." She didn't really want to just follow in Naraku's plans again, and she definitely didn't trust him to keep his word, but she had a better chance of living longer if she just obeyed for now and took more drastic measures later when she could risk it.
At that moment, Kouga appeared before Kagura and Naraku. "So I finally found you, Naraku. I will make you pay for what you did to my comrades!" Naraku just laughed at him. Don't be foolish, your opponent isn't me this time. Your opponent is Kagura. This was his cue to Kagura to step in and fight Kouga as he flew back and observed from a close perspective, confident enough that Kouga wouldn't even be able to get passed Kagura, but was he underestimating the wolf youkai?
Inuyasha had awoken from a long, well-deserved sleep. He found that Kagome had fallen asleep next to him and had begun using him as a pillow sometime during the night. He shook her awake so that they could get back to camp and then start looking for Naraku again as soon as possible.
Kagome woke in a daze. Last night had been very exciting for her and she had so much fun, she almost didn't even feel like getting up to go search for Naraku again, but eventually she did and got to her feet. "Let's head back," Inuyasha said to her, and she nodded in agreement.
They came back to the camp to find that Miroku and Sango had already woken up and prepared everything at the camp so that they could leave as soon as everyone was there. During the early morning, Shippou and Kirara had come back to. "Is everyone ready?" Miroku asked. Everyone was. So they took off to find Naraku's heart and the cave. However, what they didn't know is that Naraku's heart had already been destroyed, and that Kohaku was laying on the ground, lifeless, inside the cave.
The battle between Kouga and Kagura started off fast. Of course, any fight with Kouga was going to be fast since his speed was practically unmatched by any other youkai. Kagura waved her fan and began a strong breeze going in the direction of Kouga to help slow down his movements and to speed up her wind based attacks. Kouga caught on quickly, but there seemed nothing he could do about this disadvantage. "Enough of your cheap tricks," he said as he charged at her.
He made the first attack, jumping up in the air and striking feet first into the ground where Kagura was standing right before she moved out of the way to avoid the strike. She retaliated by sending crescent shaped wind blades at Kouga at an accelerated rate at Kouga. Kouga quickly moved out of the way of each of them and dodged them seemingly without effort.
Kagura wasn't so easily impressed. Her abilities were limitless with the manipulation of the wind and she intended to use that to her full advantage. She pulled out one of her feathers and flew up in the sky where it would be harder for the land-based wolf youkai to reach and where she could effortlessly command the wind at the same time. Things were looking bad for Kouga.
Kagura used her Dance of the Dragon technique on Kouga, which he had to quickly dodge to avoid, and then she followed up with more crescent blades of wind which sliced into the ground all around Kouga as he quickly moved out of the way to dodge them.
"I'm really getting tired of you games," Kouga said out loud. Putting his entire weight to the ground and then pushing off as hard as he could, he flew at an amazing rate at Kagura. At first she didn't think she would be able to move out of the way, even with the strong wind currents slowing him down, but she managed to dodge his strike path by moving up and out of the way.
Kouga flew right passed her and up above her, but now he was on the other side of her, and the wind was on his side blowing against her. While still in the air, he directed another attack using his youki, the air current, and gravity to pull himself very quickly in the direction of Kagura to deliver a strong blow to her.
As she turned around to look at her opponent, she barely caught a glimpse of his attack shortly before he landed it, and she was just barely able to move out of the way, but because of how short of time she had to react she could just barely avoid the punch, causing her to fall off of her leaf headed straight for the ground.
However, she was Kagura of the wind. So she manipulated the wind once more to cause her to land slowly and gracefully touching the ground and regaining her composure.
Inuyasha and the others were headed in the direction of the cave where a great battle had just taken place the night before between Sesshoumaru and Hakudoushi. There was the scent of blood in the air. It was human blood, and Inuyasha knew distinctly whose blood it was. Kirara knew, too.
"What is it, Kirara?" Sango asked her. Inuyasha knew.
"She can sense Kohaku near by," he explained.
"Kohaku?" Kagome said in shock. "It can't be, I don't sense any shards around her."
"There's no mistakin' it," Inuyasha explained. "It's definitely his blood I smell."
Sango looked as though she were about to break down. Tears began to swell up in her eyes, tarnishing her beautiful blue eye liner she so often wore, and nobody knew how to comfort her. She quickly jumped on Kirara's back and went off on her own in the direction that Kirara led her.
"Sango, wait!" Miroku called after her, but with no avail, she wasn't going to turn back or wait for them. She had to reach Kohaku. She couldn't accept that he was dead. "Sango," he said to himself compassionately.
"What are you waiting around for, Miroku?" Inuyasha said. "Let's go!" He gave him a warming smile to try and assure him that everything would be alright, but if Kohaku was really dead, everything wouldn't be alright, especially after the promise that Miroku made to Sango last night that he wouldn't let anything happen to Kohaku. Sango would be absolutely crushed.
"You're right, Inuyasha," he replied. "Let's go!" Miroku took off with Inuyasha, who had Kagome and Shippou on his back. Miroku may only be a human, but it's been shown lots of times before that Miroku can fight strong along side Inuyasha and can even run a fast running pace along side Inuyasha and Kirara.
Kirara led Sango directly to the cave. There was no mistaking where the smell of Sango's brother, Kohaku's blood was coming from. Kirara, however, was worried too. Sango jumped off of Kirara and gave her a quick pat on the head for a job well done. Knowing that her job was complete for now, Kirara transformed back to her cute little kitty form.
Standing from the entrance of the cave, Sango could see her little brother lying on the ground with a distinct whole in his back, surrounded by blood where the shikon shard that was keeping him alive clearly used to be and now was not. Suddenly, Sango was overtaken with extreme sadness. She broke down in tears and fell to the ground kneeling at the side of her motionless brother.
Not too far behind came Inuyasha and everyone else who noticed the body lying on the ground and Sango crying over it. 'Oh no, Kohaku,' thought Kagome. Nobody knew exactly how to feel, except Sango, who was completely overtaken by grief for her younger brother who now was on the ground, lying face down on the ground without any movement whatsoever.
Her morning eventually became stronger, and she threw herself onto Kohaku's body, not worrying if any of his blood were to get on her. Tears ran down her cheeks and landed on the exposed left cheek of Kohaku which showed itself because his face was facing slightly to the left. From the look of it, Kohaku was crying, too, but it was just her own tears falling on his face, Sango thought.
However, after minutes passed of Sango morning and everyone else morning with her, Kohaku's body made a noise. Some sort of grunt or a moan. And then, his leg began to move. "Kohaku!" Sango said excitedly. He was still alive! Despite the fact that the shard of the Shikon jewel had been removed from his back, he managed to stay alive on his own after healing up through all this time. It seemed almost unreal.
"Kohaku!" Sango screamed again, as she put her arms around him in a half embrace as to not hurt him because it was obvious that the shard being ripped out of his back, the nervous center of the body, had caused him to be in severe pain that caused him to black out and appear dead.
"Sango, I'm so happy for you!" Miroku said, smiling with tears coming from his eyes.
"Congratulations, Sango," Kagome said, continuing the praise and happiness that her brother turned out to be fine. "We're happy to see you're okay, Kohaku."
"Nee-chan," Kohaku managed to get out. "Nee-chan, I remember!" He smiled the best he could while he was in severe pain, but it only lasted for a second before he had to grind his teeth to bare the pain he was in.
"Kohaku," Sango said passionately as a wide smile and tears formed on her face.
The battle between Kouga and Kagura continued to wage on. Blow after blow, they seemed to continually miss each other and seemed to be a very good match for each other in a fight. "You certainly have improved since the last time, Kouga."
"Heh, I haven't even gotten started," he replied in his cocky manner.
Meanwhile, Naraku still watched in amusement as the two battled it out to the death. It could either be one or the other, and it was too early in the fight to be able to tell who was going to win, but either way, Naraku planned to take them both out in the end. It was a perfect idea to force Kagura to fight Kouga for her freedom so that when there was finally a victor, he or she would be weakened and unable to fend off Naraku's assault.
Kagura figured that she better do something soon. She was beginning to tire out and didn't know how much longer she could continue fighting for. So she had to send a message to Kouga that she wanted his help to take down Naraku, but to do that, she needed to get close, which wasn't her specialty in fighting at all. So before she could even give Kouga her message, he might already have killed her, but it was her only chance, she thought, of saving her life and finally being free.
She finally saw her chance when Kouga flew back from her counter attack and skid on the ground and immediately darted for her. She, also, darted toward him, which seemed to confuse him. She knew of his keen sixth senses. So if she were to begin an attack, he would put his guard up instead of finishing his attack, which is what she did.
She waved her fan up in the air and started to summon the wind, and right on cue, Kouga put his guard up and Kagura took the opportunity, swinger her fan down low as though she were going to bring it back up and strike and got close to Kouga.
"I'm being manipulated by Naraku, and I need your help," she explained. "He is holding my heart, and if I get it back, I can finally be free from his grasps. Will you please help me?" She flew back and flung some air crescents at him, continuing a ballet of attacks and Kouga dodged on cue.
They quickly clashed again. "You're joking, right?" he said in disbelief.
"No, I mean it for real. I've never wanted to follow Naraku's orders in the first place. I am the wind, and I want to be free." And right on cue and with perfect coordination, Kouga threw a kick at Kagura, which she stepped back and dodged.
Once again they clashed to continue their conversation without Naraku expecting that they are actually scheming against his demise. "Listen, you can deal with me later, but right now Naraku is right there, and we have a chance to defeat him. We should take it!"
"Fine," he agreed. "And after that, I'll consider whether or not to kill you."
Another piece of the ballet and another clashing together. "So what do we do next?" Kouga asked her.
"I'll cut off his arm, and you use your speed to retrieve my heart before he can."
With that, Kagura summoned the wind to slice of the hand Naraku held her heart in, and with expert precision, Kouga swooped in and grabbed it.
"I'm impressed," Naraku said with a chuckle. "I expected you two to fight it out until your death, but instead you found a way to work together. Next time, you won't be so lucky." Naraku began to fly away. He wanted to come back and fight when he was sure he had the advantage.
"Not so fast," Kouga said as he came after him and ripped through his mid torso with a powerful punch, surrounded with youki. However, Naraku just released a bunch of Miasma, which defeated any hope of Kouga making another attack on him. "Damn you, Naraku!" he shouted as Naraku made his Narrow escape.
'It seems I have underestimated that wolf youkai.'
Author's notes: Nothing too important to say this time. I just want to remind you that reviews are very much appreciated. I know there are more than just one person out there that have something they could say about it, and if you've read this far, you're obviously interested in it. So why don't you do me the honor of writing a simple review for me, since I diligently wrote this entire chapter for you when I should be sleeping.
Hey, I'm just adding this in. I've been having trouble posting things up lately, and I can't really understand why. It seems like it's only with .rts and .doc. Is anybody else experiencing these problems.
Well, I FINALLY managed to upload this chapter after I decided to try to upload some random readme file and then copy and paste my chapter into it. Please tell me if you know anything.
Get to Know Your Author: Although this fanfict up until this point has not displayed any real content over the Teen (T) rating, I had originally put this fanfict in the rating of Mature(M) as a way to express the freedom I desire when writing my fanfictions.
On the Next Chapter of Inuyasha:
Myouga's voice:
"After Kagura has finally gained her freedom and Kohaku is safely back in the care of Sango and the others, Naraku is running out of places to run. The gang is corning him in. Will this really be the final battle with Naraku?"