A/N: Okay, before we get things started, I should say that I am EXTREMELY SORRY for being so long on the update! I have had other things to do and the story just slipped from me. Now, I won't be the most reliable updater but I'll do what I can. So here it is, Chapter 3!
A/N: The ''' at the beginning and ending of some paragraphs represents a dream sequence.
A/N: Nothing belongs to me except my own imagination.
Broken Blossom's Flower
Chapter 3: Dreaming
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In a cavern, miles from civilization, a body lay limply. If it were not for the faint breathing and the slowly trickling blood, one would think the man to be dead. Although it looked like a man, anyone with a mind of their own could see it was not. It was a demon, and not 10 yards away was a figure, watching him intently, slowly walking towards him.
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Inuyasha was leaping wildly over hill and tree, looking for Kikyo. It had been some time now since he had smelled her blood, and as the seconds grew into minutes, he became more and more frantic.
"KIKYO!" screamed Inuyasha, "WHERE ARE YOU?"
Inuyasha stopped on top of a rock face, and started to think.
'This is hopeless, maybe I should just go back to..."
There it was, blood, faint but close. Inuyasha ran at full throttle through the trees and past boulders that had shifted loose from Mt. Hakurei's slow destruction. He was back on track and was very close to the blood now, but something was off about the scent. Certainly he could smell Kikyo's blood, but there were other scents as well, before he had assumed that it had just been the smell of those who had fallen at Naraku's hand, but now...he wasn't too sure...
Then he climbed the next boulder, and for the first time in his life, could have sworn he had died right then and there.
And had gone straight to Hell.
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The figure had kept his slow, almost sauntering pace, but stopped dead still at the slightest of movements from the body on the ground. At points he seemed to say a name, and was breathing very strongly now. The figure knew that he must be in pain, but couldn't think of any way to end his pain.
Except for one.
Slowly and carefully, the figure drew a long sword from his belt.
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In front of Inyasha lay a scene of carnage that was still unfolding as he watched. Shippo was on the ground, intestines skewered and pulled through his stomach, letting his corpse to rot. Kagome looked as though her right leg had been broken and was kneeling awkwardly firing her holy arrows. Sango was beating off an assault that was slowly cutting her and wearing away her demon-slaying boomerang, Hiratsu. Miroku was a different story all together, half of him had been absorbed by pulsating flesh while he tried to use his wind tunnel to stop the any further onslaught.
And Kikyo...
Kikyo was lying on the ground close to a crevice, face turned and cold empty eyes staring into nothingness. Inuyasha was enraged to say the least when the impact of it all hit him. His friends were dying and he was standing there like some village idiot just watching it all happen. He had to do something.
At the center of this maelstrom of carnage stood, unscratched, the thing that had done this all. And he was laughing.
"NARAKU!" Inuyasha roared, "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
As he leaped from his perch upon the rock, Inuyasha felt a strange sense of deja vu, as though he had done this same thing before. But no matter, everything was swept aside in Inuyasha's mind so he could focus on his one goal at the moment.
He had to kill that cynical bastard and drive his head into dust. He tried to pull the Tetsuiga from it's sheath, but the sword wouldn't budge. 'No matter', Inuyasha thought as he let the sword fall to the ground, 'It'll be so much more satisfying if I kill him with my bare hands.
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The figure walked with the quietness of a caterpillar on the rough stone as he walked to the now restless body, sword drawn. It looked as though the body was fighting off a thousand of his own kind, which seemed plausible enough for the state he was in.
His clothes, once made of some fine red material, now lay in tatters strewn across his body. A scar reached from his waist to his shoulder, as though something had tried to slice him in two. His silver hair, possibly once radiant, now slightly charred and grayed by some intense source of heat.
He was about to raise his sword when the body sprang to life and shouted a terrifying scream that echoed throughout the cavern an chilled the figure's very bones.
Never had he heard such a primal scream of blood lust and rage, thinking that whatever he was going through, it was best to soon end it, and continued his walk to him, if but slightly slower due to the scream.
As he reached the writhing body he hesitated, 'Should I really be doing this?", he thought 'Is it right to end someone's life just because he seems to be in pain?'.
When another, fiercer scream erupted from the demon's mouth, he resolve was solidified and raised his sword, readying himself for the blow he would inflict.
"I'm sorry"
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The battle to say the least, had not been going in Inuyasha's favour. Miroku had been eventually swamped by Naraku's flesh and was now gone, while Sango, heartbroken after this revelation, had lost her fighting spirit and had been absorbed as well. Kagome wasn't fairing much better, after the loss of three of her friends her strength to avenge them had come flooding back to her, but was loosing a lot of blood from her leg.
Inuyasha on the other hand, was failing miserably at trying to hurt Naraku. As soon as he chopped one limb off, another four grew to replace it. It soon had become a slow, downhill fight with only one certain outcome left.
Death.
But Inuyasha wouldn't simply accept it like that, he was going to keep on fighting, no matter how much damage he received. He would not just lay down and die to that deceiving bastard. Inuyasha tried another swipe at Naraku's chest, but to no avail, and instead ended up getting caught in a tangle of deformed arms and tentacles.
"Inuyasha, so you thought you would try to save your friends," Naraku held him with mocking eyes, "How pitiful"
"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU NARAKU!" Inuyasha yelled, trying his hardest to break free and breath at the same time.
"My, my Inuyasha, is that your entire vocabulary? Just "I'm going to kill you"?" Naraku gave a horrible smile, "I expected nothing less from a weakling half-breed."
"INUYASHA!"
Inuyasha's head snapped around only in time to see that Kagome's lapse of concentration had cost her life, as spikes of rock pieced her body, blood-soaking her uniform and arrows.
"..No..." Inuyasha quietly said, "Not you too..."
The limbs surrounding his body shifted, making a hole directly behind his back.
"And now Inuyasha" Naraku slowly pulled his arm back, ready for the kill, "That will be your fate as well"
It seemed as though time slowed to Inuyasha as Naraku's arm became rock and went flying towards Inuyasha's chest. As he watched in silent horror, he heard a voice, a very familiar voice.
"I'm sorry", the voice said, "I'm so very sorry"
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Inuyasha woke up in time to see the sword, arching down towards his body, only having time to say one word.
"...Sesshomaru..."
A/N: And there you have it! Chapter 3 in all it's angstiness (don't know if I spelled that right) and goriness! Please review and tell me what you think!