A/N: Ok, I'm finally starting the 5th chapter for my Inu/Kago fic...lord, it's been like, a year and a half since I've posted an update. So anyway, I'm a horrible authoress, seriously. Now, enough of the pity party, and on with the next chapter in the LONG awaited fanfic, "Realizations". The cool part is that I wrote this while I was in Japan last summer. I was so bored, and inspiration hit! I was so excited, so this thing has been sitting in my little green paper book for almost a year, so now it's time to get it out in the open. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha & company. They all belong to the ever brilliant Rumiko Takahashi...but I do own a butt load of Sesshoumaru merchandise (drool)
Last time
The sloshing sound of flesh penetrating flesh sliced through the air.
Inuyasha tentatively opened his eyes to see his own carnage, but was surprised when he felt a light weight pressed against him and saw a sea of raven hair in front of his eyes.
'What the-' he wondered as he looked down, but was cut short when he saw Kagome in front of him……with a tentacle protruding through her stomach.
"You ok, Inuyasha?" he heard her whisper as she lifted her head. A look of worry plastered on her face. Shimmering, blue eyes looked up expectantly as Inuyasha nodded numbly.
"Good," she sighed. "I'm glad."
Just as she finished speaking, her body collapsed to the ground, staining it an unforgiving shade of red.
Inuyasha's eyes widened is realization and screamed in desperation,
"KAGOME!"
Ch. 5 Retribution
The poison filled tentacle slowly retracted out of Kagome's stomach with a sickening sound of wet flesh against flesh. She was so limp and cold, the poison quickly spreading though her body. He gently laid her across his lap to get a better look at her wound, her head cradled in the crook of his left arm.
'Oh gods,' was all Inuyasha could think. He could look through the wound and see the cloth on his leg. His hakama was quickly collecting her life's blood. Her sailor shirt, now with a gaping hole in it, was also soaking wet with her blood. Her chest heaved as she took in each labored breath. He looked up to her face and saw porcelain white skin slowly turn ashy white. Her eyes faded from its vibrant sapphire blue to muted gray. Inuyasha knew she was dying and he couldn't do anything to keep death's inky tendrils from taking her away from him.
He gently brought a clawed hand up to her face, mindful of his claws, and stroked the back of his fingers down the side of her face.
She was so cold.
Inuyasha paled and looked into her misted eyes, trying to find some inkling of life.
"Kagome?..." he whispered, afraid that using a louder voice would break her faster.
"You're...alright, Inuyasha?" she sputtered, spilling more life's blood down past her bluish lips.
"Gods, Kagome. Why? I would have lived...but you..." A strained squeak escaped his throat. Inuyasha's eyes glazed over as tears threatened to brim over the edges and slip over onto his face. Kagome brought a pale hand up to Inuyasha's cheek and held it there with all her might.
"Because," she started as her breathing slowed. "That's what someone does..." She licked her dry lips, trying to finish her confession. She had to tell him, even if it killed her. Which it probably would.
"...for the one..." Her arm lost its strength and her hand fell from Inuyasha's face.
"they...love..."
Her eyes slowly slid closed and her head nodded forward. Her body went lax in Inuyasha's arm.
'For the one they love...she loves me?'
"Gods, Kagome!" Inuyasha clutched Kagome's cold body to his, not caring about the blood that still emptied from her body.
"...no..." he started off softly. "No...no, no, no. No! No! No!" Inuyasha's voice escaladed with each cry of denial. ' No, she's not dead...she can't be...she's not dead...'
Nothing could hold back the dam of tears that flowed down his cheeks. He buried his face in the crook of Kagome's neck and let the tears flow. His anguished cries resounded throughout the battle field, making everyone pause to see where the sounds of pain and utter defeat were coming from.
"...It's not fair," Inuyasha whimpered. "Dammit, it's not fair, Kagome! How could die saying that?...I never got to...tell you too."
"Kukuku," Naraku's voice rang out over the field. "What a pity. Dying in her lover's arms. How cliche. Oh well, she was fun while she lasted."
Inuyasha's ears laid back against his matted hair. A growl resonated throughout his entire body, not only shaking his but Kagome's body as well. The sound was unbearable to hear. It grated on the soul of every innocent life present. It was a sound of grief, anger, and despair. Blood red eyes looked up from Kagome's pale neck. "You...bastard," the inu hanyou mumbled.
"Sorry, mutt. I can't hear you," Naraku baited.
Inuyasha gently laid Kagome's body on the blood soaked ground, stood and turned to face Naraku: teeth bared and eyes the color of blood. Tetsusaiga pulsed rapidly at his side, desperately calling out to his human blood. However, Inuyasha's rage clouded over his senses, filling him with anger and pain. All of his senses went into overdrive, sending the inu hanyou to the brink of insanity.
"You..." he grated out. "You took Kagome away from me...give her back...GIVE HER BACK TO ME!"
"Kukuku, puppy's got a temper," Naraku taunted. "I'll just have to put the mongrel out of his misery."
Naruku thrust another five tentacles at Inuyasha coming from every direction. The inu hanyou jumped straight into the air, slashing at everything that came between him and his prey.
Everything hurt to Inuyasha. The blooming pain in his chest was near unbearable. 'It hurts,' his mind cried out. 'Make it stop...make the hurting stop...kill Naraku...take the pain away...kill Naraku and the hurting will stop.'
Inuyasha cried out as he slashed at the tentacles that threatened to surround him. The red haze still clouded his sight, but one thing still remained clear: Naraku. His rage had blinded him into only seeing the one thing that would take the pain away.
After a few minutes of futilely sending his barrage of poison tipped appendages at the inu hanyou, Naraku began to realize that nothing would stop Inuyasha's rampage. Slowing him down was one thing, but stopping him was another problem all together. He had to think fast, or else he would be defeated. If only his ranks of youkai hadn't been obliterated by the miko's blast of purity. Wait...the miko...she still possessed the remaining Shikkon shards. He slid a tentacle past Inuyasha, tricking the inu hanyou into thinking that his aim had become poor from panic, but rather aimed it towards the miko's cooling body. Ah, there they were, just resting around her pretty, dead neck. Just as he was about to complete the jewel, Naraku's appendage suddenly fell to the ground. It had been cut off by the huntress's boomerang. He glared over at her and saw tears and rage flare in her eyes.
"Don't you touch her," she growled from beneath her exterminator's mask. The two humans joined the kit and fire cat in front of the miko's body, ensuring the safety of the Shikkon and that Kagome's body wasn't desecrated. Naraku glared at the miko's friends.
'Damn, more nuisances. At least they are only human.' Naraku thought in contempt.
Suddenly, the evil hanyou was shaken out of his thoughts by another cry from Inuyasha. He looked up, his eyes widening in shock as he say the inu hanyou only ten feet in front of him. When had he make it past his appendages? No matter, he would never be able to get past the barrier.
Inuyasha began to claw at the miasma shield, his hands smoking after only a few seconds of contact. Wisely, he pulled his hands back, batting away more tentacles.
'Damnit,' Inuyasha thought though his rage. 'Help me...help me, Kagome...it hurts so much, make the hurting stop, Kagome,' his pleas becoming desperate.
Suddenly, the pain faded away and left in its wake was a tingling warmth, like a lover's embrace. Oh gods, it felt so good, but what was making him feel so good? He hadn't killed Naraku. The bastard was still living, smirking on the other side of his barrier. He wanted to growl, but Inuyasha really didn't feel like it. This feeling was so wonderful; so peaceful.
Unbeknownst to the inu hanyou, any and all wounds on his body filled with flesh and blood, making him whole again. The red haze that had glazed over his eyes was quickly being replaced by a whitish-blue glow. In fact, his entire body had started to glow. All bystanders on the field watched in awe; especially Naraku.
'What in the seven hells is going on?' Naraku pondered. Just about everyone else on the battle field was thinking the exact same thing.
Suddenly, a tiny voice whispered to Inuyasha. Whether is was truly whispered in his ears or in his mind, he didn't know, but the voice was soothing, downing out any and all noises of the battle. The voice sounded so familiar, but he couldn't place it. However, he could definitely tell the voice was feminine.
'Everything's all right, Inuyasha. Just do what you feel is right,' the voice chimed.
'What I feel is right?' Inuyasha wondered? It was then that he felt the Tetsusaiga pulsing at his hip in synch with his own heartbeat. He drew out his sword and watch through his own frosted gaze as Tetsusaiga transformed, still pulsing in his hands. It had turned into it's blood-red, barrier slicing state, but there was something different. Along the edge of the blade was a whitish-blue aura that pulsed in time with the blade.
Inuyasha slowly brought the Tetsusaiga down across the barrier, leaving a clean split in the shield. The edges around the cut glowed blue and spread the crack further, ensuring that anyone could walk though in safety.
Naraku's expression was one of unmasked awe and terror. He watched as the inu hanyou effortlessly broke though his barrier. 'Wha...How is he able to do this? What is this magic?'
Inuyasha stalked proudly up to Naraku, sheathing his sword to his side. The pulsing had stopped, having served its purpose in this battle. As Naraku tried to flee, Inuyasha simply held up his left hand. Naraku froze in place. The inu hanyou continued to walk towards his prey until his raised hand clasped around Naraku's neck.
The evil hanyou's flesh began to burn and char under Inuyasha's touch. He tried to coil away from the offending hand, but couldn't move. Naraku looked up into Inuyasha's eyes and only saw a calm, icy-eyed facade. The whites of his eyes were ice blue, yet his irises were still the vibrant amber they had always been.
"How?" Naraku rasped past the choke hold.
"Divine Retribution," Inuyasha spoke, but didn't. His mouth had moved in time with the words, but the voice did not seem his own. A feminine voice rang clear and foreboding with Inuyasha's own calm voice as an undertone, like the gods' own death sentence.
"And now," the voices spoke as Inuyasha drew his right hand back.
"You die."
Naraku's cry resonated throughout the field as the hand clutched around his heart poured in wave after wave of burning, hot power. There was so much power that it eventually blasted out though Naraku's mouth and eyes, flowing out onto the courtyard. Sango, Miroku, Shippou and Kirara all braced themselves for the painful impact, but when the wave of icy blue power came in contact with them, a pure warmth spread throughout their bodies and healed their wounds. All four of them soon passed out from the massive amounts of purity exposed to their bodies.
Eventually, the whitish-blue power receded back into Inuyasha's hand. If one looked to where Naraku was standing, all you would see would be Inuyasha's hand grasping thin air and a nearly completed, small pink jewel gleaming innocently on the ground surrounded by a white smudge across the earth beneath it.
Inuyasha blinked a few times, trying to clear the lingering blue fuzz around his eyes. He remembered everything as he looked in awe at his own hand. How had he done that? It wasn't his power that poured from his body. So, how was he able to defeat Naraku so easily? He was only slightly tired and sore from his extensive activities. He bent down to pick up the remaining part of the Shikkon jewel, when he suddenly remembered a very precious someone about a hundred and fifty feet behind him. Inuyasha's amber eyes widened. He scraped up the jewel from it's resting place and sprinted back to Kagome's body.
Inuyasha scanned the area around his love as he ran over and first noticed his friends' bodies laying around Kagome's. At first fear had gripped him as he thought that they had been slain as well, but when he had skidded to a stop by their bodies, he could hear their gentle breathing. With a sigh of relief, he looked over to Kagome's body. Gods, it still hurt to look at her battered form. But then again, she wasn't battered anymore. He peered into the hole in her school shirt and saw whole, unblemished skin. Her body had been healed! Even her blood had disappeared from the ground.
Inuyasha knelt by Kagome's body and saw that even though the body had been healed, her chest didn't rise or fall with breath, he didn't hear a pulse, and he didn't smell life on her. Only death entwined with her delicate cherry, spring rain, and jasmine scent. His fallen angel didn't appear to be dead, only sleeping peacefully.
He laid the remaining jewel across her chest, and gently placed the shards from around her neck with them.
"We did it, Kagome," he whispered. "We defeated Naraku and the jewel is back together..."Inuyasha bent his head forward as a few silent tears ran down his face.
"But...there's just one problem, Kagome," he rasped, not hiding the grief that still consumed him. "You're not here with me...come back. Please Kagome, I'm begging you...I know I've already asked a lot from you, but please! Come Back! Come back...please!" Inuyasha sobbed. He leaned forward and rested his forehead on Kagome's stomach, his hands grasping one of hers.
As Inuyasha pleaded with any listening deity to send his beloved back, the Shikkon, still resting on Kagome's chest, began to glow, engulfing Kagome's body as well. The Shikkon had heard the pure, unselfish wish of life from one in love. The jewel slowly seeped back into Kagome's body, making her glow an even brighter whitish-pink.
Inuyasha finally noticed the blinding light from behind his tears and tightly shut eyes. He stared in open shock and confusion as Kagome's body levitated off the ground and became semi-transparent. He could no longer hold her or have proof that his love existed.
Inuyasha growled at no one in particular, thinking harshly, 'Won't the gods even let me mourn in peace? Why must I be punished further?'
Suddenly, a bright pink aura surrounded the hanyou. A chorus of four soft voices called out, 'Be not afraid. All is well. We gave heard your pleas, and you have been answered.' A large pulse vibrated throughout the pink world. Inuyasha didn't know what it meant, and looked around blankly for answers. Kagome's body then appeared in front of him. Making sure that he could touch her, Inuyasha grasped her to his chest, his face nestled in the crook of her neck.
Nothing else existed outside of the small world that contained two love struck people and the Shikkon.
Inuyasha suddenly became extremely tired. The stress and shock of the day had finally caught up with him. He laid down on the ground, still keeping Kagome's body near his. Nothing would disturb the two bodies laying within the pink world. Nothing could separate the two lovers. Eventually during their peaceful slumber, the pink world retracted back into Kagome's chest, leaving only a slight breeze and the normal sounds of the night atop Mt. Fuji.
A/N: OK! Damn, took me long enough. So, that's the latest update of "Realizations." Hope you enjoyed it. Now, THIS IS NOT THE END! I'm sure most/all of you beautiful readers out there can figure out what's coming next, but that is for me to know and for you to so cleverly guess. So, there's at least 1 chapter left...maybe two if I'm feeling generous...scratch that. If I'm feeling INSPIRED. So, I don't really care if you don't review, but it would be cool to hear what you think.
Even if what you think is a nice, big flame for taking FOREVER to update. Believe me, I've been beating myself up about it since last summer in Japan. Now, good news. I have the beginning of the next chapter already written! Yays!...and I promise that I won't take as long updating the next chapter as I did with this one...that was just kinda ridiculous Ttyl!
Sesshie's Nina