Servant By:: OtakuSailorV
Chapter 2:: WoundedKagura smirked, and finally turned her eyes toward her. "Because that fool, Naraku, is fighting against Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru both. There's no way he can survive against them."
"N-nani?" Yuhi asked, a bit startled by the comment.
"I said he's going to get himself killed. Are you deaf, girl?" Kagura snapped at her, though she looked pleased. "I'll be free."
Yuhi was silent for a few moments, playing with the hem of her kimono in thought. "Free. . ." She whispered to herself and looked up to see Kagura starting to disappear before her eyes.
"Ah! Kagura-sama!!" She said, hastily getting to her feet and running toward the wind sorceress.
"Tch, silly girl." Kagura said, looking at her fading form with disgust. "I'm being summoned to the battle, he must be losing already." She smirked before looking up at the coyote hanyou in front of her.
Yuhi quickly grabbed hold of her shoulders. "Please, Mistress Kagura, take me to the battle too." She pleaded with the youkai.
Kagura looked at her in a mixture of disgust and shock. "What do you want to go to the battle for? You can't fight."
Yuhi desperately clung to the fading shoulders. "Please, I'm not a fighter, but my duty as a servant is to serve the Lord and young master as best as I can. Surely treating their wounds will count for that?"
"Are you a fool?!" Kagura roared at her. "You'll be free if you just stay here and let him die!!"
"I can't!! I won't have a clear conscience if I do that! Plus I have a debt to repay to Lord Naraku!!" Yuhi screamed back.
Kagura sighed, and grabbed the girl's hand tightly, her claws digging into the skin of the young hand. "I will not take you to him!" She proclaimed, tearing the hanyou's hand off and throwing her to the floor.
Yuhi scrambled to get up, but Kagura had disappeared with an evil smirk.
The coyote hanyou sat on her hands and knees, staring at the empty air in the doorway. ". . .No. . ."
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Yuhi ran to Naraku's quarters and opened up the door that led to the garden outside of his quarters. Chest heaving from the run, she looked skyward, hoping to see him coming down safely.
But there were only dark, gloomy clouds that foretold rain.
Not knowing what else to do, Yuhi sat down on the wooden porch that overlooked the garden, and waited, not knowing for what though.
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Yuhi winced as a tiny; cold water droplet fell on her nose. Looking up, she watched as more and more water droplets fell from the clouds above, soaking her to the bone. 'I will not move. . .' She told herself, gripping the cloth of her kimono around her knees tightly in her fists.
'Not after Naraku-dono saved me. . .'
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Yuhi sat in the cold rain for hours, her eyes closed, the water running down her face and rolling onto her clothes that were sticking to her body.
Her ears were twitching from the cold, and her tail was so soak that it looked thin and mangy, instead of like a bristly brush.
Despite all this, she sat silently, not saying a word, never moving her eyes from the forest in front of her. There were times in the long hours that she thought she had heard something coming her way, but when she turned to investigate, it would prove to be nothing but a broken branch that had fallen in the rain.
Now, sighing, she watched, bored out of her mind, but determined to stay put until she saw her Lord safely return.
It was almost dawn when she opened her eyes to investigate a noise.
The rain that had fallen all through the night, had finally startled to slow down, with only a light drizzle floating through the air.
The hanyou's ears perked up at a sound not far in front of her. Opening her eyes immediately, peering at the forest intensely.
There, staggering toward her, was a hunched figure shrouded by the rainy mist in the forest.
Yuhi got to her feet, stunned, her entire body throwing off pools of water. Quickly, she ran toward him.
"Naraku-dono!" She called as she neared him.
She gasped in horror though, as she saw him. He was bloody, torn, and his eyes were void of any emotion.
'He's not even aware that he's been walking here. . .' She thought to herself, seeing his empty eyes.
"Naraku-dono!" She cried again, reaching toward him only to have him knock her hand away with a flick of his wrist.
Yuhi made a noise of frustration and tried once again to help him by sticking her shoulder under his and grabbing his opposite arm with her right hand. He resisted her help, but as soon as she had gripped him well enough so that she could walk back to the room with ease; he had gone completely unconscious, his entire body going slack.
Yuhi grunted, trying to hold him up. He weighed so much more than she was used to carrying, she felt weak as she staggered toward the room under his weight, her knees shaking with each step.
"Ugh. . ." She moaned as she tried to pull him up the tiny step, onto the wooden porch, and into his room.
But she couldn't lift him. Straining, she felt her shoulder muscles knot up as she tried to lift his bulk. Her leg's muscles did the same, and she was sure she was going to collapse from the pain when she finally, with one great heave, managed to get him up onto the pathway and drag him into the room.
Sighing, she used the last of her strength to lower him to the floor.
Without resting, she made an assumption of his wounds and hurriedly closed his screen door and fled for wrappings and other things she would need to fix him up.
She arrived back minutes later with large bandages and things that she would need to sew up his multiple wounds.
Carefully, she knelt beside him and wiped off his face with a cloth. "Everything's wet. . ." She mumbled to herself. "He'll catch cold. . ."
Peeling back the clothes on his left shoulder, she proceeded to clean and sew up the wounds as skillfully and deftly as she could. Her fingers moved hastily, and she soon had the shoulder fixed up, though there was still blood on the carpet and on his clothes.
"This is going to take a while. . ."
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A few hours later, and Yuhi was finished with all the sewing and getting him out of his wet, blood-filled clothes. She sighed and rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand before trying to lift him onto his nice, clean futon.
Her knees immediately buckled under his weight, but she managed to some-what 'drag' him over and lay him in, bringing the blanket up to the tips of his shoulders.
Frowning at the mess of clothes and unused bandages in the corner, she quickly picked them up and took them with her, making sure to shut the door behind her.
Yuhi jogged down the hall, tired, and wet, ready to sleep. 'Ugh, so. . .tired. . .' She thought, groggily wandering down the halls until she reached the place where she could dump the bloody clothes and bandages.
Sighing, she dropped them and turned about, heading back for her own room.
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When she arrived, she opened the door and staggered in, flopping down on her futon and starting to fall asleep.
"Hmph."
Yuhi opened her eyes immediately at the sound of someone's voice.
"Who's there?" She asked, sitting straight up, warm water running down the back of her neck.
"Who do you think, idiot?" Kagura asked from the doorway.
"Oh! Mistress Kagura! Is there some way I can assist you?" Yuhi was on her feet in moments, but her muscles almost immediately gave out and she crumpled to the floor, sitting on her knees.
Kagura smirked at her. "You're pitiful, you know that? You'll die, over-working yourself like that in the rain and everything. He would have been fine if you would have left him alone."
Yuhi shook her head. "Oh, no, I couldn't have done that Mistress Kagura." She protested. "I am a servant, and I must take care of my Lord if he is ill, and Lord Naraku was in very bad condition. I couldn't leave him out in the cold rain and let the elements get to him."
Kagura still smirked, watching her lightly as she leaned against the door post. "That's what's pitiful about you. You don't want to be a servant, yet you wouldn't let him die." Kagura's voice was filled with spite, and Yuhi could sense that she was getting angrier the more she spoke. "If he had died out there, you and I would both be free, but you foolishly helped him!!"
Yuhi, frightened and unsure of what to do, stared at her Mistress until Kagura had calmed, her red eyes no longer flaming. "But. . .Mistress Kagura, I. . .I couldn't just let him die out in the rain like that. If I had gained my freedom by ignoring his need for help, then I would not have a free conscience. . ."
Kagura looked at her angrily for a few long moments before stalking away.
Yuhi, flopping back down in her bed, reflected on the conversation as she shut her eyes. 'Was it really wrong of me to have helped Naraku-dono?'
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Yo! Me again.
It took a bit to update, just been lazy and didn't feel like writing lately. . .
Still experimenting with this, so tell me if I make any of the cannon characters go out-of-character, ok? Thanks.
Also, thanks for the reviews, you make me very happy and I feel more obligated to update if I know people are reading.
Thanks again, and please review!! Ja!!!