Chapter 69:
Naraku, while grasping Jaken with his demonic tentacles, walked back with confidence to where he left Sesshomaru. Coincidentally, he was also able to free himself from the annoying demonic webs using his toxic saliva that melted them.
"Sesshomaru. So that woman companion of yours in not with you."
Naraku said out loud, but he only responded with another growl and quickly launched an offensive attack.
"And you seriously think I have her in my possession?"
Even with that question, Sesshomaru went on with his aggressive attacks. Naraku went for the dodging game, but even he was getting sick of it.
"I repeat, Sesshomaru…that woman is not here. You can kill me and dig this place all you want, but that won't make that woman emerge."
He said that louder and clearer this time around, but the dog demon did not stop and continued to clash with him anyway. He then decided to lash back at him by suffocating him with excessively toxic miasma and multiple saimyosho stings. These attacks were able to slow Sesshomaru down; but ultimately, he withstood them and charged at him once again like nothing happened.
Tsk, I thought it was that simple.
"It seems he has become a wild dog with no comprehension at all and just intent on killing me, but that will not happen. You, become the sacrifice. I already wasted so much time taming this beast. I have more important matters to attend to."
Naraku said as he threw Jaken just like that in front of Sesshomaru and quickly made an escape right after. Luckily, it looked like he has recognized Jaken as he stopped for a while, but he was still growling viciously.
Jaken was still trembling in fear, but he managed to squeeze out some words; hoping it would be enough to calm his precious master.
"Se-Sesshomaru-sama…! Naraku is telling the truth...! He does not have Arisa! You must have also sensed it by the time you came here...!"
However, he was instantly met with a dreadful bark. He was already raising his giant paw to squash him.
"Sesshomaru-sama…! Please don't…! I'm begging you…!"
Jaken cowered in fear, at the same time hoping for that someone to show up.
I wish Inuyasha would just appear out of nowhere and take care of his brother!
And as if those were the magic words, Jaken felt the presence of someone dealing with the paw attack meant for him. He opened his eyes and indeed, there was Inuyasha - blocking Sesshomaru's big paw using the dull edge of his Tetsusaiga.
"I came because I thought Naraku was wreaking havoc here with this nasty miasma of his, but I find you instead! And you're even about to kill your most loyal wimpy servant? The heck, Sesshomaru!?"
Inuyasha commented annoyingly, despite struggling with the pressure from Sesshomaru's heavy paw.
Jaken was about to complain on how he described him, but he was rather thankful so he let it slide for the meantime and just quickly got away. And in that moment, Inuyasha also took off, making Sesshomaru miss and freely tramp on the ground.
"Hey, Jaken! You owe me an explanation here! And where is Naraku? I'm sure he's around here!"
"Forget Naraku, Inuyasha! Just find a way to make Sesshomaru-sama come back to his senses…!"
"Hah!?"
He then finally had the chance to see Sesshomaru's form, and he was also taken aback by it. It was certainly not the transformation he was expecting.
"What the hell is with that new form, Sesshomaru!?"
However, he just pounced on him without hesitation but luckily; Inuyasha was able to avoid it.
"Whoa! You've got the wrong person!"
"Inuyasha, you might have to use force! Words can't reach him right now!" Jaken asserted as he watched over them from a corner.
"I'd be glad to do that, but how in the hell did all of this happen!?"
He then proceeded to provide Inuyasha a summary of the events that led to the current incident and to his surprise, it made him laugh mischievously.
"Are you telling me that Sesshomaru went mad just because that Arisa disappeared?"
"W-what…! It isn't like that! But now that you mention it…looks like it is…"
"Heh, I don't know if this would work but it's time to stop this tantrum." He said with a smirk and quickly hopped on to Sesshomaru's head. However, he was too sharp and immediately sensed Inuyasha's movement – wriggling his body rigorously. It made Inuyasha lose balance and dangle over his head, but he gripped on one of his ears. As a result, he shook his head continuously to get him off. But Inuyasha was able to keep up with it and secured himself right in front of his dark red eyes.
"Hey, Sesshomaru! You need to snap out of this, ya' hear me!?" he shouted, and in that moment - he stretched out his arm for a quick warm-up and delivered three continuous hard blows on Sesshomaru's forehead. And sure enough, it made him twitch violently as a whole due to massive discomfort that it even threw Inuyasha off to the ground. With that, he finally got knocked out for a while.
Jaken immediately came out from hiding and went near Sesshomaru as he slowly transformed back into his humanoid form. Tears of relief poured out from his eyes and he instinctively hugged him.
"Milord…! I'm so glad you're back to your normal self!" Jaken exclaimed, only to earn a glare from him to which he automatically backed off.
"Forgive me, Sesshomaru-sama! It's just, I'm so happy to see you back…!"
But before he could say anything, if ever he would, Inuyasha interrupted as he let out a loud complaint.
"Because of you, I lost my chance on killing Naraku especially now that his barrier was down!"
"Hmph. It was I who broke his barrier, and I almost had him only if someone did not interfere." He replied with a slight mock. Jaken flinched at his response, as he was indirectly referring to him.
"B-but it seemed like you were out of control so…! Even Naraku was—"
"Shut your mouth."
He quickly cut him off, because Jaken was right. He was aware of everything, but he couldn't control himself completely during that transformation. It was the first time he had encountered such a thing, and he hated how it currently bothered him.
Just then, Kagome, Miroku and Sango had arrived at the scene – already wondering what happened.
"Care to explain your strange transformation, Sesshomaru? And to think that it occurred just when you were searching for your woman?"
"It is none of your business." He replied with a prickly tone, and casually turned his back, already leaving.
"Aha! Maybe she left you for good and went somewhere far away!" Inuyasha continued to tease, causing Kagome to cringe.
"Inuyasha, SIT!" she shouted out loud, and there was the sound of a loud smack of his face to the ground.
"Uhm, Sesshomaru…! Sorry about that. But is it true that Arisa has really gone missing…?"
Kagome asked, but there was no response and he just continued to walk away from the place. Instead, it was Jaken who filled them in of what transpired in detail from the very beginning - thinking that maybe he could get clues from them since they were humans.
Kagome, being concerned, voiced out her opinion even if Sesshomaru was already quite far away from them. She guessed that he could still hear her, because he had sharp ears.
"Sesshomaru…! Basing on what I heard, it could be that she went back home for some unwinding, especially if she seemed down. I mean, that's what we usually do at times like that…!"
Even Jaken was surprised.
"I do return to the village when someone gets on my nerves to much..." she continued to say, scratching her temple with her index finger.
Really…? But she would always tell us or to Sesshomaru-sama alone if she had to go back to that other world and would still come back right away. But no matter how you put it, it's the most sensible reason right now.
"I will try suggesting that, in case he didn't hear." Jaken said as he ran to catch up with his master while looking for Ah-un, as he remembered that he was left behind somewhere in that place.
Kagome then approached Inuyasha, who was pouting more about the sudden sit command.
"Sorry about that. But good job helping your brother out, Inuyasha."
"Keh, I didn't help him! I only knocked him back to his senses because he was being annoying."
Kagome chuckled at his answer.
"Yes, yes. Whatever you say."
Lurking somewhere in that place was a saimyosho who witnessed everything, and it flew to where his owner was - conveying everything to him.
"To think that the mighty Sesshomaru has lost his cool over some woman…he really is Inuyasha's older brother." Naraku commented with a conceited smile.
Now that I know she's your weakness, Sesshomaru…it's even more exciting to dispose of her.
With that in mind, he focused back on the information given to him by Kagura and Hakudoshi about the places where the remaining shards were supposedly kept.
"Sesshomaru-sama, have you perhaps heard of what Kagome said?" Jaken carefully asked as he walked beside his master.
"Hn."
"I also think it's very likely..."
Sesshomaru paused, and then sighed inwardly.
"I simply thought Naraku was successful in capturing her."
Jaken's mouth fell open at his remarks.
I can't believe Sesshomaru-sama didn't rely on his senses firsthand and quickly jumped into conclusions…! Come to think of it, he had been losing his composure over the simultaneous events that Naraku had been plotting which involved Arisa.
"I…think that's hardly possible, milord, because that night was definitely a peaceful one…" the little creature commented in a more careful tone, not wanting to suddenly anger him again.
"…"
"…and what if forcing us to fall asleep that night that had something to do with her not wanting us to know that she's leaving?"
"Hmph, that is a valid explanation on why I could not get a trace of her scent."
He replied, and his eyes flickered with deep curiosity and irritation as he readied himself to go somewhere.
"Then…are you going after her, Sesshomaru-sama?"
"No."
"W-what…?"
"We will be seeing Bokuseno."
"Huh…? But—"
"If you do not want to come, then suit yourself."
"N-no, milord! I will come with you…!"
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A/N: Wow...thank you so much for the 200 follows! *insert crying emoji*