Disclaimer: What am I supposed to write here? Something to do with Inuyasha...I think...whatever
A/N: Sorry it took so long...I had a case of writer's block. Kagome's going to be calmer in this chapter. Maybe if Naraku didn't have the larger portion of the Shikon jewel...she wouldn't be acting crazy::cough:: But whatever. I hope you guys like this chapter, I tried to make it longer than the other ones. Here goes nothing!
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Chapter 10 - New Plan
Kagome buried her head in her hands and sighed quietly. "I'm sorry you guys, I didn't mean to snap." She had resumed trying to purify the shards, but it didn't seem to be working.
Shippou suddenly became curious again and jumped onto Kagome's shoulder. "So why can't you just take the jewel shards out, Kagome? Couldn't you just pull them out?"
This thought had occurred once or twice in her mind, but she shook her head. "The way it sounds, Naraku's blocked me from the taking the shards out..with some kind of spell or something. I just don't think we should risk it." She shifted the kimono and gave everyone a very irritated look. "And this thing's way too long...and itchy."
Sango couldn't help but laugh slightly at this comment. "I'm sure we'll think of something. It's not like you're possessed right now or anything. That's good, right?" When no one said anything, she nudged Miroku, quite painfully, in the ribs and he coughed.
"Possibly...maybe Kagome's somehow channeling out his power. Blocking him from reaching her." He leaned into Sango again and tried to act natural. "Although it's sure affecting her mood..."
Miroku must not be very good at whispering, because Kagome sighed wearily and covered her face with her hands. "I know, Miroku. I already said I'm sorry. What else can I do?" Her voice seemed to quaver slightly, and her small frame started trembling.
Inuyasha, the thick-headed hanyou that he is, took no notice of this. "You could try taking the shards out again?" He didn't do anything until he could sniff out that salty scent...and lifted his head to peer at Kagome. Tears were spilling slowly onto the wooden floor and onto her kimono.
"Nice job, mutt face. What'd you do that for?" Kouga snarled. However, no one made any move to comfort her except for Sango and Shippou.
Shippou started patting her on the back gently. "Don't cry, Kagome. I'm sure Inuyasha didn't mean anything by it," he reassured carefully. "Idiot..." he muttered under his breath, muffled so nobody else could hear.
Kagome rubbed her eyes and smiled slightly. "It's okay." After a minute she sat up straight and clapped her hands together. She was smiling broadly now and looking at everyone in turn. "Alright, we need to come up with a new plan. I can't leave the castle until we get the jewel shards out."
Inuyasha "feh'd" and everyone turned to stare at him, even Kouga. "What? I just mean, why can't you leave the castle? Even if you can't, we could just leave without you..."
That didn't get off without a good hit from Miroku's staff and one of Kagome's 'sits.' He rubbed his head and lifted his face from the wooden floor. "What was that floor? I was just sayin'..."
Kagome rolled her eyes and glowered at Inuyasha wearily, who had resumed his sitting position. "How could you just leave me here?! If I leave, Naraku's going to come after us again, putting more people's lives at stake!" Sango and Miroku watched her admiringly, Shippou nodded, and Kouga, Ginta and Hakkaku...well, they were having a whispered conversation. (How often does that happen?) Kagome was probably the only person to have two jewel shards in her neck that could be endangering her life, yet she cares about the lives of others. Go figure.
Miroku pulled out a Sacred Sutra from the sleeve of his robes. "Maybe we could purify the shards with one of these!" He held it up proudly, and Sango frowned.
"Houshi-sama...I don't think that will-" Sango started.
Miroku slapped the sutra on Kagome's face and sat back to watch. Guess what? Nothing happened!
"Miroku, get this thing off my face!" Kagome asked loudly, though it was quite muffled. "The shards aren't being purified!"
Miroku ripped the sutra off of her face and she started rubbing her nose. "That hurt, you know!"
Shippou frowned and grabbed the sutra from Miroku's hands. "You don't even have powers of purification, Miroku," the kit reminded him matter-of-factly.
Miroku shrugged. "It was worth a try. Has anybody else come up with a descent plan? Kouga?"
At the sound of his name, the wolf snapped his head up from the muffled conversation to look at Miroku. Kouga turned his head back to Ginta and Hakkaku and nodded. "We're gonna go find Naraku. And don't even THINK about following us, got that?" That said, the three wolves got up and started walking towards the door. But Kouga couldn't leave without flicking one of Inuyasha's ears. "C ya, dog boy!" He waved again and soon started running, for Inuyasha had started chasing him.
"Inuyasha, don't bother. Leave Kouga alone," Kagome pleaded. "Maybe if he can get to Naraku and distract him, I'll be able to purify the shards," she said, halfheartedly. "I mean, what harm can he do?" Just then, a bam was heard a few rooms away from where they were.
Miroku shrugged again. "Besides destroy every room in the castle? Nothing, I suppose." Another bam sounded through the walls, and Shippou jumped. A few shouts were heard, and then the sounds of running footsteps.
"I guess he's gone to desecrate some other section of the castle," Sango implied. "At this rate, he has to run into Naraku or Shiori sometime." Maybe even Kohaku...
Kagome blinked at the sound of Shiori's name. "What happened to her? The last time I remember seeing her was after she left with Naraku." Her mind floated back to when Shiori left her and Sango in that room, Sango couldn't move, and she had a hole in her back... "And why do you think Naraku healed me?"
Sango blinked and turned her head to face Kagome. "Now that you mention it, I haven't seen any sign of Shiori since she left, either. I wonder what happened to her...And I suppose it would be harder to control you if you were injured."
Inuyasha scoffed and crossed his arms, nose turned slightly in the air. "Who cares about what happened to her. She was one of Naraku's minions. As far as I care, she could be dead right now."
No one reacted to what Inuyasha had said. They were just thinking. Nobody really felt like saying anything. The only one who really moved around was Shippou, who was skipping around the perimeter of the room, humming quietly to himself.
Inuyasha started growling out of pure annoyance caused by the unknowing Shippou. "Would you quit that already, runt? That damn humming of yours is getting annoying." One of the hanyou's ears twitched, and you could tell he was fighting the urge to bash Shippou's head into the ground.
"Kagome!" Shippou cried, and no sooner had he said that then the kit scampered to his perch on Kagome's shoulders. His face was contorted in a terrified expression as he settled under the wisps of Kagome's ebony hair. "Inuyasha's scaring me..." Although it was harder to hide, because most of her hair was put up.
Well, I'd be scared too if an extremely strong - and not to mention extremely irritated - hanyou was growling at you, both hands clenched tightly into white-knuckle fists. Which happened to be shaking in front of the young kit's face.
Kagome sighed and slapped Inuyasha's hands away. "Don't do that, Inuyasha. You know how that scares Shippou..."
"Keh. Scare? He's only feigning that so he can hide on your shoulder," Inuyasha retorted. Nonetheless, he retreated back to his spot beside Miroku and huffily sat cross legged on the floor, hands burrowed deep inside the sleeves of his haori.
Shippou sighed and crawled out from behind Kagome's head. He jumped quite happily off of her shoulder and ambled over to where Kirara was scratching her ears with her hind paw.
Inuyasha stood up and started walking towards the door. "That's it, I'm sick of this. We can't just sit around all day while Naraku's in another part of this castle, scheming who-knows-what. I'm going to look for him," he stated defiantly. "Sango, you should stay with Kagome. Are you coming with me or not, Miroku?"
Miroku nodded hastily and stood up to follow Inuyasha. Before he closed the door behind him, he turned and waved hastily to Kagome, Sango, and Shippou. "If there's any trouble, Kagome-sama, it shouldn't be too hard to find us."
Kagome sighed and stood up once the door slid soundly beside them. "How long do you think I can hold Naraku off? It's only a matter of time..."
Sango stood up and put a hand on Kagome's shoulder in attempt to comfort her. "Don't think like that. We'll find a way, I'm sure of it."
Kagome nodded and quietly sat back down on the floor. Shippou was, for once, quietly playing with Kirara. But her thoughts kept wandering back to when her and Sango were trapped in that room. She tried to push those thoughts away, they were giving her a headache.
"Kagome, remember what I told you."
Kagome gasped and buried her face in her hands. Get out of my head! But that same sentence was repeating itself over and over again. She felt a burning sensation in her throat and clutched her neck desperately to try and make it stop. Sango's perturbed voice was barely audible to her.
"Kagome-chan...what's wrong?" Sango rushed quickly to her side. "Kagome, can you hear me? Kagome!" She searched the room wildly for anything that might help them. But, unfortunately, the room was empty. All of a sudden, Kagome stopped shaking. Her body lay perfectly still, unmoving. Sango watched in horror as her friend lifted her eyes to stare at her.
The usual chocolate brown eyes were now black, just like they had been earlier. Sango watched in deft horror as Kagome reached her hand out to grab the hilt of the sword given to her by Naraku. "What are you doing?"
Shippou sensed the anxiety and fear that was in the air and scuttled over to sit by Sango. "What's wrong with Kagome?" the kit asked in an even more worried tone.
Furtively, Kagome stood up, sword held at her side. She was gone..again. Sango grabbed onto Shippou and nudged Kirara. When the youkai cat woke up, she immediately transformed. No one was sure what to make of Kagome's possessed form.
"Kagome, remember what I told you."
Kagome watched from inside her own body as Sango stared in horror at her. What's happening? Am I being controlled again?! She could only sit back and watch as her legs started moving her towards the door. Stop it! I can't leave now! Wait a minute..what about Inuyasha? He doesn't know! She tried to force herself to turn around and return to Sango's side. But she felt exhausted, maybe from holding Naraku back for so long.
Sango watched sullenly as Kagome ran out of the room. She wasted no time grabbing her Hiraikotsu and throwing Shippou on her shoulder.
"Sango, where's Kagome going?" Shippou asked fretfully from his perch.
Sango sighed and started running after Kagome, not paying much attention when she slammed the door behind her. "Probably going to find Inuyasha," she placated simply. Naraku ordered her to kill Inuyasha, so it would only make sense...
Shippou shut his mouth and sat dizzily as Sango turned corner after corner. They caught glimpses of Kagome's red kimono. Once she even turned around to glare at them, which made Shippou more frightened than ever.
What was this? Some kind of chase?
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Inuyasha opened yet another door. They'd been opening door after door after door...and found no sign of Naraku or Shiori anywhere. Miroku sighed as Inuyasha slammed the door shut. "Inuyasha, do you think it was wise to leave Kagome and Sango alone?"
Inuyasha snorted and all but ran down the hall, searching for another door to bust. "They'll be alright. Sango's with her, after all."
Miroku frowned and ran to catch up to Inuyasha. "Yes, but what if Naraku found out we left them alone and went after Kagome-sama again?" He must have made something in Inuyasha's head to click, because he turned around to glimpse quizzically at Miroku.
"Dammit. Why didn't you say something earlier?!" Inuyasha snapped. Without another word, he began running back to the room where Kagome and Sango should've been. Not a word was spoken to each other.
Until they rounded the next corner.
Inuyasha stopped dead in his tracks as he came face-to-face with Kagome. Well, they were on opposite ends of the hall but you get the point. He could tell by the change in her scent and her lifeless eyes that she wasn't okay.
"Kagome?" Miroku asked somewhat hesitantly. She was holding the sword poised in front of her, aimed dubiously at Inuyasha.
Inuyasha growled and tilted his head towards the ceiling, shouting to no one in particular. "Dammit, Naraku! You know I won't fight her!" The shout echoed its way through the hall.
Sango soon managed to catch up, and stumbled to Miroku's side. She took one look at Kagome and turned her head away. "I couldn't stop her. She was fine, then she started shaking and mumbling all sorts of things. I didn't understand what she was saying..." Sango panted for breath as she turned her stare from Kagome to Inuyasha. "Do you think she's actually going to try and kill him, houshi-sama?"
Miroku sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "I don't know. Kagome-sama's probably fighting very hard against Naraku to regain control of her body. But besides that, I don't know if there's anything else she can do."
Inuyasha didn't unsheathe his Tetsusaiga. He stood there and watched Kagome carefully. "Are you going to attack me anytime soon? I won't fight you, but I sure as hell ain't afraid of you killing me!"
Kagome's grip on the hilt seemed to tighten. Her eyes flickered as she set her gaze on Inuyasha.
I can't...do this. I won't hurt Inuyasha! Despite her own cries in her head, her arms wouldn't cooperate. Slowly her arms started raising in the air. Kagome, from inside her head, watched in blind horror as her feet started running towards Inuyasha. No! Stop it!!!!
But it wasn't like she had much of a choice, now did she?
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Naraku smirked evilly and threw the jewel shard in the air again, catching it with his opposite hand. "So, the wench finally relented. I knew she wouldn't be able to last much longer..."
Kanna held her mirror steady as Naraku as the fight was mirrored within. By the looks of it, Inuyasha was making no moves to run away from Kagome, or even defend himself. He simply dodged her swings, and a few times the blade made contact with his skin. Kagura merely watched from behind Naraku's shoulder.
Naraku chuckled quietly at the fight ensued. "Inuyasha might not be around much longer..."
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A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! So, Kagome's possessed again. But Inuyasha won't fight...nobody will. So what's gonna happen? I'll update ASAP. Thanks again to all my reviewers!
Next Chapter - Deep Within