CrazyDreamerGirl: I wanna thank the following for reviewing: Shimoyuki, Bloodcherry, Nora Rose Evans, JadeStoneTheYounger, Inari's angel, Hirina.
Disclaimer: Why do I even bother. . .
IMPORTANT! READ: I would like to point out that this story takes place before Naraku kidnapped Rin. That's why Naraku is considering that option now. And, if any of you read the last chapter on the 19th, then I would like to point out that I uploaded that same chapter again on the 20th. The reason I did that was because I wanted to change the part where Naraku is plotting. I reread it and I thought Naraku was a bit OOC and that's why I changed it. He should be more in character now, but if he isn't, please tell me and I'll gladly change it once again. Thanks!
A Fox's Heritage
Chapter 5
Bulls eye, she thought.
She turned around to walk into the shrine while saying, "Hmph, take that."
"Take what?" a voice said behind Kagura.
Kagura turned around quickly and saw a bat demon and a silver fox demon. They were the spies. She looked them over and saw that they were unscathed, dusty yes, but not hurt. The fox's hair was a little dirty, so was his clothes. She also noticed the tips of the fox's hair was uneven. It must have been cut from the attack, she thought. The bat demon's face was dirty and his hat was askew. His wings were also a bit bent.
She tried to raise her hand that was holding the fan, but couldn't. Try as she might, she just couldn't raise her arm. She looked down and saw green vines were holding her arm down.
"What did you do?" she asked angrily.
"Nothing much, I just planted a seed in the ground where you were standing and transfered my energy into so it could grow in mere seconds and tie you down," the silver fox calmly explained without even caring that the demoness now knew about his powers. Hell, even Kuronue couldn't defeat him, and the bat knew every attack he could use. Then, again, even Youko couldn't defeat Kuronue; they were always at a stale mate.
"Bastard!" she yelled. She looked down and saw that now her legs were trapped as well.
"Now, now, now, a pretty lady like yourself shouldn't be using such foul language," commented Kuronue. Kagura glared at him with ice, cold fury and began struggling to get free. "Ooh, she's a fiesty one," the bat whispered to the fox, but his whisper was a little too loud. A slight tinge of pink spread across Kagura's face and it passed by as quickly as it came. Again, Youko shoved Kuronue away.
"So, what's your name wind sorceress?" asked the fox.
"She will not be telling you anything," a voice said, coming from the shrine. It was the man in the baboon suit.
"Look, it's baboon man," pointed out Kuronue.
"You're an idiot, you realize that," Youko said.
"My name is Naraku, not 'baboon man' as you so blatantly pointed out."
"Look, we don't want to waste our time with a demon puppet," said Youko.
Yeah, we already wasted a ton of time with those stupid demons, thought Kuronue.
"How did you know?" asked Kagura.
"We are the two greatest thieves ever. We can tell a fake from the original," Kuronue said seriously.
"It's a gift we have," said Youko while taking out his rose. The puppet was charging towards him. Its arms turned into long, brown, and pointy tentacles. Youko narrowed his eyes. He brought his arm down and the puppet stopped in midrun.
Kagura saw the puppet stop, but didn't understand why, until she looked at the fox demon. He was holding a long, green, and thorny whip. But how? Then it dawned on her. He had turned that rose into a whip. She looked at the puppet again. It fell to the ground in pieces. I never even saw him transform the rose. His powers are unlike any that I've ever seen, thought Kagura, Maybe he's powerful enough to destroy Naraku. . .
Youko turned his whip back into a rose and safely tucked it away in his hair. "So, now will you tell us who you are?"
"My name is Kagura, and will you please call off your plant." She didn't ask, she commanded.
"Suit yourself," the fox shrugged. The vines shrunk back into its seed. Youko picked up the seed and tucked it away for later.
"So, Kagura, I take it you work for Naraku," said Kuronue, trying to make polite conversation. Kagura just continued glaring. "I'll take that as a 'yes.'"
"Kagura, do you think you can take us to him?" asked Youko.
"Why should I? I don't even know you two."
"Well, I am Kuronue, the better looking and the smarter one of the pair. The fox over there is Youko Kurama, call him Youko," explained Kuronue. He turned his head to face the furious glare of Youko Kurama, the not so good looking one and the not so so smart one of the pair. Kuronue laughed nervously while waving his hands in the air defensively. "He can't take a joke," the bat whispered to Kagura.
"Look, we're demons, we want power, and we heard Naraku is the only competition around here, but we don't want to face him. We just want to make a deal with him, if you don't mind that is," Youko calmly lied.
"Why should I trust you?" asked Kagura.
"Well, I have in my possession a very rare plant that can control minds if used correctly. If I really was lying, then I really wouldn't have bothered with that explanation and I would have gone straight to controlling your mind. So, now do you think I'm lying?" Youko calmly lied, again. He really didn't own a mind controlling plant, but just thinking about it made his fur stand on end because of all the possiblilites it could bring. The closest thing he had to mind control was the Death Tree and that only gives hallucinations to its victims.
Kagura looked like she was considering the consequences. On one hand, they might be telling the truth and if this alliance of theirs goes through, then Naraku could end up even stronger. But, if they are lying, then maybe they want to kill him or steal the shards. They are thieves after all. But maybe I could manipulate them into killing Naraku for me if they don't want him dead. Yes, that should work, the wind sorceress thought.
"Sure, I'll take you to Naraku," she smiled. The two thieves grinned at each other. Everything was going according to plan. But unbeknownst to Youko and Kuronue, Kagura was planning something of her own: the downfall of Naraku.
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Inuyasha stopped dead in his tracks. He sniffed the air. "What's wrong, Inuyasha?" asked the monk.
"I smell Naraku."
"Which way?" asked Sango, the demon slayer.
"To the east."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" exclaimed Kagome. She hid her bicycle in the bushes. It was time to ride on Inuyasha's back.
Kilala was engulfed in fire and emerged as a large cat with giant fangs. Sango and Miroku jumped on. Shippo climbed on as well. Inuyasha began leading the way through the forests. They quickly maneuvered through the trees and shrubery.
They soon reached their destination. It was a small clearing. They also spotted an old, run down shrine covered in moss and grass. There was a large, gaping hole where they were. It seemed like there was a fight. But, there was something else. It was in the middle of the clearing. It was something white. Inuyasha jumped down towards it. He grasped the white thing. His eyes widened.
"Guys, its Naraku's baboon outfit."
"What!" the rest shouted.
Sango quickly went to see if Inuyasha was telling the truth with Miroku close behind her. Kagome waited until Kilala transformed into a smaller feline and she went down as well with Shippo and the cat demon.
The outfit was in pieces though. The only thing that was in one piece was the mask. Inuyasha was inspecting the mask and Sango and Miroku were looking at the rest of the torn outfit.
"Is this really Naraku?" asked Shippo.
"No, I don't think so," said Miroku sadly, "It was probably another demon puppet." He sighed. His Wind Tunnel was not gone.
"But who could have defeated it?" asked Kagome.
"That's the question on everyone's mind, Kagome; who beat us here and defeated the puppet?" replied Sango.
A strong wind began blowing. Kagome held down her skirt and hair. There was a tornando coming. It stopped right next to the reincarnated priestess. The wind died down revealing a wolf demon in brown. He had black hair tied in a ponytail and blue eyes. Inuyasha gave a low growl when he saw who it was. It was none other than-
"Kouga! What are you doing here?" asked Kagome, taking her hand away from his.
"Well, I picked up Naraku's scent and rushed...over...here," he slowed down his speech when his eyes landed on the torn outfit.
"Did you do this mutt-face?"
"Why do you wanna know, wolf?"
"Because Naraku was supposed to be mine to kill! Not yours!"
"Feh, you still have a chance. It was a stupid puppet!"
Inuyasha and Kouga were facing off. A person could almost see the angry aura those two were giving off. If the rest of the gang didn't know any better, they would have thought one of them was a fire master.
"Sit!"
Inuyasha's necklace glowed and dragged him face first into the ground. He twitched.
"Look, Kouga, we didn't even kill the demon puppet. Someone beat us to it," Kagome explained, "Do you have any idea who could have done this?"
"No, sorry, Kagome," said Kouga, staring at the costume, "But we now know someone else is also after Naraku's life. Be careful, my sweet. I'll come back for you!" He had one leg off the ground, getting ready to engulf himself in a tornado. He disappeared in a whirlwind of air and went off into the forest once again, almost knocking over his wolf comrades who were trying so hard to catch up to him.
"Inuyasha, can you find the scent?" asked Miroku.
"No, Naraku's scent ends here."
"Not Naraku's, the one that killed his puppet," explained Miroku.
"I'll try." Inuyasha sniffed the air once again. Nothing. He went closer to the old shrine. Sniff. Nothing again. "There's nothing, only Naraku's scent."
"But how's that possible?" asked Kagome.
"Well, I have heard of demons being able to blend in their scent with the surrounding area, making it seem like they were never there," Sango said absentmindedly, "but that's an ability a thief would want to learn, not some demon that already has a barrier to hide him."
"Do you think it's the case this time?" asked the monk.
"Maybe, but it would take a powerful demon to be able to do that. Who knows, this demon might be even more powerful than Naraku," mused Sango.
Shippo opened his mouth to say something, but closed it. The plants around here seem healthier. That always happened when Dad was in the area... wait, what if it was him? What if he was the one that killed the demon puppet? What if he really was here? And I missed him! he thought while hitting his head.
"Shippo, are you alright?" asked Kagome.
"Um, yeah, I just thought I felt a spider," the small kit replied nervously.
"Okay, if you say so."
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The cool wind was blowing in their faces as they flew higher and higher into the sky. They were soon above the highest clouds. Kuronue was thoroughly enjoying himself. Even though he was a bat demon and had wings, he couldn't fly. As hard as he tried, he was never even able to hover off the ground by about a few feet.
"Ack! Kuronue, control your hair! It's getting in my mouth," complained Youko.
"Then don't open your mouth," retorted the bat demon.
Kagura was up front, steering. The only thing she could do was shake her head at the antics of two full grown demons. Soon, they began bickering, and that turned into yelling, and an anime vein appeared on the wind sorceress' head. "Will you two shut up? We're almost there!" she yelled at them.
"Someone needs an attitude adjustment," muttered Kuronue.
"I heard that!" she yelled. Men! she thought angrily.
The skies soon turned dark and forebooding. It was getting harder to breath. "Hang on, we're entering the barrier," said Kagura. Youko and Kuronue grabbed onto the sides of the feather. The giant feather soon touched the barrier. A surge of energy appeared and disappeared. A hold big enough for Kagura to come in was opened. She quickly flew in with her passengers.
There was a giant, purple cloud inside the barrier. The two thieves began coughing slighty. "This is the poison miasma that surrounds the castle...don't worry, its not strong enough to kill demons such as yourselves," said Kagura and added that last part after seeing their worried faces.
She landed in the courtyard and hopped off the feather. Youko and Kuronue did the same. Her feather contracted and landed on the palm of her hand. She put it back in her hair and led the thieves through the dark hallways of the castle.
"Someone needs to redecorate," said Kuronue after seeing the bones littered on the floor and the the holes forming in the walls. The poison miasma wasn't helping much either. Youko kept reaching into his hair, as if he were checking to see if his seeds were still alive.
"Are you alright?" the bat demon asked his friend after seeing his pale face.
"I'll be fine for now, but we better get out of here fast," whispered Youko and he added, after seeing his friend's confused look, "My plants keep taking energy from me to survive in this miasma. I'll be fine for about an hour, but after that, well, I don't even want to think about it."
Kuronue's eyes widened. He knew how many plants Youko kept with him. He also knew that some needed more energy than others, like his Death Tree. Usually, the silver fox is able to keep his plants in check, but they need the energy to survive, and knowing him, he'll make sure they get the energy. His plants are like his children; his weird and bloodthirsty children that is.
"Will you two hurry up!" Kagura called from the front. The two thieves had fallen behind.
As Kuronue was walking, a door slid open revealing a small girl that stared at the bat demon. She was holding a mirror. She was all white, literally. Her hair, skin, and clothes were white. Her eyes were also devoid of any emotion. She stared at Kuronue like she was trying to look into his soul. Kuronue's reflection was on the mirror, and for some unknown reason, it really creeped him out.
"Kagura, who are they?" she asked in a monotonous voice.
"They want to see Naraku," replied Kagura.
The bat demon slowly moved out of the mirror's way. He didn't feel comfortable seeing his reflection in that mirror. As a thief, he had a feeling that it had some hidden ability and he really didn't want to find out... unless he was going to steal it of course.
"He won't like this at all."
"Well, it's a chance we'll have to take," replied Kagura angrily and walked away. Kuronue and Youko quickly followed. Something about that child creeped them out.
"So, who was that?" asked Kuronue curiously.
"My sister," said Kagura, without even turning to look at him.
"Really? You two look nothing alike," replied Kuronue nervously.
Kagura rolled her eyes. She stopped in front of a door; she slid it open. Kuronue got a peak of the room from over her head. Inside it was none other than baboon man, also known as Naraku. He had his mask hanging at the back of his neck. He looked at them with his dark and cold eyes.
"Well, well, well, who do we have here?" the man asked with a smirk.
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CrazyDreamerGirl: I don't have much to say, except, please review! And no flames!