Servant By: OtakuSailorV
Chapter 15: Menace"Don't move, or the next one goes between your eyes!" Kagome warned loudly. She scuffed with dirt and mud from falling during the battle and dodging around his large, pointed vegetation-like limbs.
Her skirt was torn slightly and the fringes were showing, not to mention that her shirt had stains in it from grass and mud that would never come out. Her mother would be angry with her later for destroying another uniform. She mentally made a note to start wearing other clothes to the Sengoku Jidaii besides of her school uniforms.
Naraku glared at her, and snapped the shaft of the arrow deftly, though a shock of purifying energy was sent through him suddenly. He barred his teeth against the pain.
Throwing the remains of the broken shaft aside, he smirked at the pair. Fools. They thought they had him so easily?
A wave of miasma rippled forth, flowing around their feet like water as two phantom figures descended on either side of him. Kagura's fan snapped irritably, and she sent a pleased glare Naraku's way before facing back toward Inuyasha and Kagome. On the other side stood Hakudoushi, his scimitar in hand. His empty, childish eyes had a smug gleam in them as he looked on at his adversaries.
His look traveled briefly to Naraku's wounded shoulder. Something gleamed in his eyes but he said nothing and abruptly turned back to narrow his eyes on the hanyou Inuyasha.
"Damn." Inuyasha cursed under his breath as he spotted the two. This always happened! Right when he had Naraku, he somehow managed to turn the table in his favor again.
He looked sharply to Kagome, who still seemed steely in her resolve to fight. He searched for any sign of Sango and the others, but not one of them seemed to be anywhere. He let out a frustrated hiss of pain. His wound wasn't closing fast enough, and he was getting weaker every second.
This definitely wasn't looking good. . .
Yuhi stopped at the base of the rather large tree. Her legs were scuffed from running and tripping. Little branches and reaching roots had laid small scratches on them and torn at her clothing. She looked dis-shelved and clumsy; her hair was filled with leaves and small twigs.
Her throat was burning, begging for water and her muscles ached all the way to the bone. She tried to force herself to go on, but it was proving futile. Any time she tried to move, her body would not obey. It simply stood there. Her leg muscles twitched a few times before finally giving way. She slumped to the ground, exhausted, a hard, painful stitch in her side kept her from slipping into a drowsy sleep though.
Shaking herself, Yuhi forced herself to stand. She barely noticed that it took a little more effort than usual to pull her hand back from the bark of the tree.
Leaning against the tree, she coughed, the hollow sound shaking her ribs. She swallowed, trying to calm her racing heart and the constant pull of air through to her lungs, but it only proved to make the situation worse.
'Naraku-dono. . .'
Underneath her fingers, she thought she felt a soft humming, but she ignored it, the rhythm of her swift breaths echoing in her mind.
The humming grew though, so that soon her fingers were being driven up and down ecstatically on the bark by the deep vibrations. The tree glowed a strange and eerie green when she peered over at it. Gasping a little, she placed both hands on the harsh bark and looked up into its boughs curiously. "A Goshinboku. . .here?" She mused softly to herself.
The trill was heard somewhere above, almost as if the tree understood what she was saying, though she somehow doubted that. Trees were wise and as old as the moon, but they could not understand spoken languages. They only understood the music of the heart, the deep inner thoughts that could be conveyed only in that way, feelings that could not be put to words because they were too complicated. Feelings that had no proper description or name in any tongue.
She blushed slightly, wondering if her worry for Naraku had somehow awoken it from its sleep.
Above, the stars played amongst the branches of the tree, peering at her, winking knowingly down at the world from their high heaven. They rolled and frolicked up there, though they were perpetually in one spot it seemed to Yuhi, there was a strange kind of comforting magic that emitted from them.
"Little one." A solemn voice suddenly spoke, making Yuhi jump. The youkai in the back of her mind stirred irritably at the sound of the voice, writhing and rolling as if a monk had suddenly stuck a purifying spell on it.
Yuhi looked around curiously as the youkai growled venomously. 'What are you talking to? A God Tree? Tear it to pieces!' Yuhi ignored it, though the noisy voice was making her tired mind jump and whirl.
'Yes, go to sleep, let me take care of this for you.' The youkai said, sounding pleased with this turn of events.
Yuhi narrowed her eyes. 'Shut up.' She hissed at it, snapping out of her tired spell. 'I'm not going to let you take over my body.'
''Our.'' It corrected, but Yuhi had stopped listening again.
"Who's there?" She called, but there was no answer. Blinking in frustration, she went closer to the tree and pressed the pads of her fingers against the tree's bark again.
A ripple-like effect was produced, the bark lit up with the soft green light again and hummed. The branches moved without the wind as it's aid, and the leaves rustled eerily. The whole forest seemed to come to life, and Yuhi was instantly uneasy.
Just as she was about to snatch her fingers back again, the voice from before spoke up, soothing her fears.
"Do not be frightened, little one."
Her fear was temporarily pacified, though she was still unsure about the God Tree. She knew it could not hurt her, but there was something about the dual voices in her head – the youkai and the Tree – that made her feel strange on the inside. As if a foreign virus were trying to invade her body and she didn't have the strength or knowledge of how to fight it.
"You are deeply troubled, I sense your pain. Who is it that makes you so terribly sad and worrisome, my child?"
The sensation of being wrapped up in a mother's arms hit her and she was soon quite calm, leaning against the tree was if in a trance. The youkai was hissing, it didn't like having contact with anything that was contradictory to it's own darkness.
Yuhi was lost in the warm, comforting sensation. Her mind immediately opened to the spirit within the tree, allowing it to view all her sad thoughts, all her trouble experiences. Her worries, her doubts, in those brief moments the two were one, she understood it's feelings – though it was foreign and strange to her at first – and it understood hers.
When the contact had been broken, it seemed to be musing to itself. "You have led a rather troubling existence. . .and this 'Naraku-dono' of yours is one of the only figures that brought you happiness, correct?"
Yuhi let out a muffled sigh, which accompanied her answer. 'Life isn't supposed to be easy. I'm happy with the way things are. . .but. . .'
The Goshinboku rumbled, mixing temporarily with the continued growls of protest from the coyote. "But there are regrets. There is something you wish to accomplish."
Yuhi briefly pictured her kitsune friends, and nodded sadly, her eyes wavering with the need to cry, though she was holding it in. 'I want them to rest peacefully, but I can't abandon Naraku-dono, even after he. . .did something so horrible. . .I feel. . .compelled. . .'
After a moment in silence, during which Yuhi thought it had left her, the tree finally spoke up again, though it's voice sounded far away and the green glow started to fade from the bark under her fingertips. "They are not angry with you, little Yuhi. They're always watching you, and they want you to be happy. " It sounded amused in a way. "Now I must go, there is nothing more I can do here."
Yuhi's head shot up, and she came out of her pleased trance in which she had felt safe and cradled. "Going?" She asked aloud. "But, wait!" She called after it.
Her cries changed tot hat of shock as the large roots under her feet suddenly raised into the air. Jumping down, she stood in the dirt as a small cavern-looking place was created underneath the roots. It was just big enough for a few people to climb in and hide, but was concealed well enough with moss draping over the front that it looked like a simple little hill instead of a hollow.
Yuhi smiled at the tree softly. It was a place for her to stay, possibly even hide. But didn't it understand that she couldn't stay? She had already wasted too much time, and would have to leave right away.
'Damn straight you better leave, you bastard!' The coyote howled after the spirit of the tree.
Walking back over to the tree, Yuhi wrapped her arms around it as best she could and tried to hug it. "Thank you." She whispered.
Getting back down, she investigated the hollow briefly before climbing over and heading in the direction of the battle again. 'Who do you think sent the trees spirit to me, do you think?' She mused, for once consulting the youkai half of her self.
It was irritated though, and blew her questions off flippantly. 'Couldn't you tell, fool? You are so incompetent. . .' It grumbled to itself.
'Who?' Yuhi pressed as she dashed over upturned roots and trees with renewed vigor.
'It was that bitchy mother of ours. Can't she die and stay dead!' It growled, sounding like an unhappy adolescent in that moment.
'Mother? She's protecting me?' Yuhi sounded surprised. She had heard of such things, and believed that it might be possible, but she was unsure if her mother and father were protecting her.
'Yeah, it had the reek of her magic all over it. Who do you think sent us to Naraku, imbecile?'
'Mother and father?'
'Pah,' The youkai scoffed. 'That weak human had very little input, but yes.'
Yuhi became pensive and answered no more of the youkai's calls or rants for some time.
This was his chance. He had to move now if he wanted to get away. But the purifying magic had a good hold on him now, and he moved with labored breaths. Sweat rolled down the side of his head. Reaching into his shoulder, he tried to dig out the metal bit that had been left there, but he couldn't get near it. It froze his fingers, making him weaker by the second whenever he tried.
He hissed. This was not how it was supposed to end for him. Not him. Not Naraku. Dispensed by a single arrow from a miko wench who had had no formal training in her entire existence. Why had it not blown his arm clear away like the first time he had been encountered by such a situation? Had the little bitch done this to him on purpose?
Naraku hissed again, growling angrily. Leaning on a katana he had with him like a cane, he tried to walk as best he could.
Hakudoushi and Kagura were chasing off his enemies, but he did not trust them for a moment. He trusted no one. The Saimyoushou buzzed irritably around him, trying to aid him, but they dared not come close to his body, wracked with the purifying magic. They would die just touching it, it was a miracle he himself had lasted this long.
Using any of his powers to escape would be bad too, he had so little power left that just trying might expend too much vital energy needed to live. And he couldn't take any chances now.
Just as he was about to take a final rest, he heard something faintly, passed the drum of his heartbeat in his ears, past the incessant buzzing of the Saimyoushou. A familiar scent came to him, comforting in a way. Surprised laced his features for a moment before he corrected himself. Crimson eyes flashed as it got closer.
'Yuhi?'
Whew. Mass-updating. . .
No time for an author's note, but I would like to again thank all those who support and review this fiction. I appreciate everything you've done for me, guys!
I'll see you all soon!
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