A/N: Hello, everyone. This is the second to last chapter... I have worked so hard on this story, and now it's almost over. It's kind of like raising a child... Except that I don't have to wake up in the middle of the night to loud shrieking and poopie duty. LOL!
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, and, because of that, you have no legal right to sue me.
Last Time: Kagome lets it be known to Sesshomaru that Inuyasha is trusting enough of her to come near the palace. The demon lord and miko share a romantic moment of their own, and, by Kagome's orders, continue on with their plan.
Love and Deceit
Chapter Eleven: Beating of the War Drum
By: Kate the Inuyoukai01
"No, Inuyasha, don't!" Kagome cried as she stared into his blood red eyes. For some strange reason, Inuyasha had transformed during the heat of battle, dodging both her and Sesshomaru's attacks. Some how, it had been Kagome that he'd pounced on first at just one scratch from Sesshomaru's Tetsusaiga. He had his claws raised, waiting to make the fatal blow that would send her spiraling into the Afterlife. Souta was waiting back at the castle with Mika just incase things went out of Sesshomaru's hands. One way or another, Sesshomaru would guarantee his younger brother's death. That was all Kagome really wanted, to satisfy Sesshomaru with the help of her own hands. She grasped her injured arm, blood gushing from the wound as if it would never stop.
Inuyasha glared down his nose at Kagome, a growl promising death ripping through him, "I love you, Kagome. How could you betray me like this!"
Kagome stared up at him, then frantically searched for Sesshomaru... He wasn't there anymore. She looked back up at him, tears streaming down her face. Where had he gone? She closed her eyes. Had he left her there? She screamed.
"Sesshomar-ack!"
Her scream was cut off as he grasped her throat and squeezed-
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Kagome woke up with a start, her forehead beaded with sweat. She looked around the room in fear, only to sigh in relief when she found herself in her bedchamber. She closed her eyes and concentrated her powers. She relaxed when she felt Sesshomaru's familiar aura in the bedroom across from hers. She felt him shift, and he entered her room with a slightly worried look on his face.
"Kagome?" he entered the room, fully clothed and looking as if he'd been up for hours. She looked at him in confusion as he knelt next to the futon. "You screamed."
She shook her head, "I'm fine. I-it was a bad dream, that's all."
He raised an eyebrow. Then realization dawned on him as he searched for the answer in her eyes. She was frightened of Inuyasha. He knew that she had been having a dream. He had woken up early in the morning to her gasps of pain and calls for help. When he entered the room and found her asleep, he contemplated waking her, but decided not to.
"Kagome... if you're still not ready to take the hanyou, I will not force you," he stated softly as he pushed her bangs out of her face. "He trusts you, and he just might come after you first during this battle."
Kagome nodded, "I know." She looked out of the window and saw the it was a beautiful day. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue, with small clouds floating here and there. She could hear birds chirping and flying from tree to tree, and the smell of freshly bloomed flowers was thick in the air. Yes, it was a beautiful day... a good day to win, and a good day to die. She took in a deep breath, closing her eyes and just enjoying the peace of the morning. By noon, this peace would be abruptly ended by battle and bloodshed, and she had to ready herself. She let out the breath she had been holding and opened her eyes as she turned her gaze to Sesshomaru.
"No, I'm ready. There is no need to worry."
Sesshomaru stared into her eyes. There was a drastic change in her emotions. One minute, her eyes were full of fear and anxiety, but now they were calm and peaceful, as if she had found some sort of resolve. He watched her for a moment longer, before standing. He began walking back to the shoji that led to his room, but turned.
"Bring him close to the barrier, but not too close. I have a plan."
Kagome nodded, a small smile forming on her lips, "Yes, sir."
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Kagome sighed once again as she stared at herself in the mirror. She wore a light blue yukata with creme swirls, a black obi wrapped securely around her waist, and a blue queque in her hair, tying it back in a low ponytail that ran down her back. She was preparing to call on Inuyasha, and had formed a plan of her own. She would evade answering his question from the day before, and after she had signaled their arrival to Sesshomaru, she would politely deny him. She had a feeling that he would persist, or ask her questions as to why she did not love him, and it would be the perfect delay until Sesshomaru arrived. She closed her eyes and counted to three, checking to see if her dagger was still hidden in her underkimono. She nodded, opening her eyes and walking out of the room. It was time...
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Inuyasha smiled when he awoke. Today was the day that he would take Kagome back to his real home. She would be his. There was no way that she was going to say no. He had seen her blushes, her averted eyes, and her soft smiles. He stood and stretched as he exited the cave that he had been staying in for over a month. Every other night after he had seen Kagome off, he would return to his home and inform his men of her impending arrival. After he defeated his brother, they would have a Lady of the Western Lands.
He ran his hand through his hair and made his way over to the stream to splash water over his face. He wanted to be awake and alert when she arrived. He planned on having a vey busy night with her. He smirked as he dried his face with the sleeve of his haori. He decided to wear his normal red clothing, and he planned on telling her who he really was. He felt an onslaught of guilt every time she called him Kibakichi, and he was through with that. He wanted her screaming his name, not some other name that he had fathomed off of the top of his head.
This is going to be a good day. He thought.
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Kagome walked to the clearing and saw Inuyasha by the stream. He had a confident smirk on his face, as if he knew that she was going to say yes. She shook her head and made her way over to him.
"Kibakichi."
He looked up at her in surprise, and then smiled. With the water around him, he couldn't scent her very well. He stood and leaped over the stream to give her a hug.
"Kagome, my dear!" She smiled at his use of words. "Are you ready to go?"
She smiled, "It's just a walk, Kibakichi."
Inuyasha smiled and shook his head, "No, this is so much more to me. Where do you wish to go?"
Kagome tapped her chin with her index finger, fiegning contemplation. "Um... Oh! There is a beautiful clearing full of flowers. It's close to the Western Palace."
Inuyasha's smile faded slightly, "Are you sure that's where you want to go?"
"Oh," Kagome said, sounding disappointed. "Do you not wish to go?"
Inuyasha stared into her eyes. She looked genuinely disappointed. He sighed and slung his arm around her waist, "Sure, I'll go, if it makes you happy."
He smiled as he kissed the top of her head, "But when we get there, I want to talk to you."
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They sat down on top of a small hill. The grass was soft and the field was dotted with forget-me-nots. Kagome sat exactly where Sesshomaru had told her to. She looked up at Inuyasha as he smiled down at her, and she pulled a small string that was hidden in the grass. It led to a bell that Sesshomaru had set up in his study the night before. He would take his time to get there on her orders.
"Alright, Kagome," Inuyasha said in anticipation, "what's your answer?"
Kagome looked into his eyes, shining in love and confidence. He really thought that she was going to accept his offer. She looked down, sighing before she returned her gaze to his.
"I can't, Kibakichi."
His eyebrows furrowed in confusion and surprise, "W-why not?"
"I can't leave my family, Kibakichi... and I don't feel for you the way you feel for me," she sighed at his look of disappointment. "Until yesterday, I thought that we were just friends-"
"You know."
Kagome looked up at him, only to see that he was extremely angry. He stood up and glared down at her, "You know that I'm not who I say I am. You love me, Kagome, but that bastard Sesshomaru must have spotted me and poisoned your mind against me."
She shook her head, "I did know. I knew the day after you stole my first kiss."
"How?"
"I asked Sesshomaru what you looked like, and put two and two together."
As she said this, Inuyasha's face contorted in fury as he looked somewhere behind her. That's when she noticed Sesshomaru's familiar aura as he stepped through the castle's protective barrier. Inuyasha growled.
"You sold me out to that son-of-a-bitch!" He howled, "I love you, Kagome! How could you betray me like this!"
Kagome almost gasped at the familiar sentence, but held her composure.
"You murdered my baby sister, as well as my little brother," she spoke calmly, despite her fear at the sight of his angry eyes. "I could never love you because of this."
"I don't even know your family-" Inuyasha began, until Souta came from behind him and punched him in the back of the head.
Inuyasha stumbled forward and landed with a thud next to Kagome. He sat up, rubbing the back of his head as he looked up at his attacker. Souta watched in satisfaction as his eyes widened in recognition.
"Remember me now?"
Inuyasha sat up, "No! That's not possible! You..." he stopped, looking up at Kagome. "That human whore that Sesshomaru was infatuated with? That was your baby sister?"
Sesshomaru growled and in the blink of an eye had the hanyou in a vice grip around his throat. "Do not speak of her as if you knew her. You knew nothing about Rin."
Inuyasha grasped Sesshomaru's wrist, an evil smirk playing on his features.
"I'm not as weak as I used to be, bastard." He kneed Sesshomaru in the stomach with lightning speed, making Sesshomaru grunt and his hold on the hanyou's neck slackened.
Inuyasha growled as he turned to Kagome closing the short distance between them and grabbing her around the waist. "You're coming with me. My army is expecting the arrival of the soon-to-be Lady of the Western Lands."
Kagome narrowed her eyes, sending out her purifying energy. She could hear his skin sizzling under the pressure of her aura fighting his youki and he howled, chunking her across the clearing like a rag doll. She hit a tree branch, then landed on the ground with a thud.
"Kagome!" Souta called out as he ran to her side.
Sesshomaru snarled as he drew the Tetsusaiga, the withered blade transforming quickly into a fang.
"That will be the last time that you harm something that belongs to me. In this life, or the next."
Inuyasha smirked confidently, drawing his own blade. "Then prove it!"
Sesshomaru growled and leaped forward.
Souta ran to Kagome and grabbed her right wrist, checking it for a pulse. He released a breath that he didn't know he was holding. Kagome was unconscious. He pulled out a small flask of water and opened it, dumping it on her face and lifting her head up slightly. She winced, but didn't wake up. He looked down and noticed that her left wrist was broken. It was situated at a strange angle, the flesh poking out slightly from the bone pushing against it.
"Oh, Kagome..." he gasped as he lifted up her arm.
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Sesshomaru growled as Inuyasha came within inches of his face with the blade of his sword. He jumped back slightly, landing on his left foot and leaping over the angry hanyou. Inuyasha growled and turned around, but was too late. Sesshomaru cut a deep gash in his shoulder with the tip of his Tetsusaiga, causing Inuyasha to cry out and grab his shoulder. Sesshomaru smirked, leaping up again. This time, Inuyasha leaped with him, meeting him in mid-air and slashing his stomach.
Sesshomaru pushed aside the pain. Luckily, Inuyasha was not a full fledged demon. If he had been, then his claws would be sharper and there would most certainly be poison in his claws. He would have been incapacitated until his own poison could destroy the invading poison and would have allowed the half breed to run off with the unconscious Kagome under his arm.
"This ends now, half breed."
"You're right," Inuyasha said with a confident smirk. "Kagome is going to be mine, and I'll be able to take Tetsusaiga and the Western Palace-"
He was cut of by a laugh. A pure laugh that he had never heard before. Sesshomaru was laughing at him.
"What's so damn funny!" he growled as the battle continued.
"Do you really believe that my soldiers and gaurds will let you enter?" Sesshomaru chuckled darkly, which was far more suited to his character for Inuyasha's opinion, "The barrier alone will be enough to keep you from entering. The servants would be able to dispose of you. You're too pathetic to take on such a position."
"Shut up!" Inuyasha howled as he race toward him. Sesshomaru smirked. The bastard had always been easy to upset, even when they were pups. He leaped up and grabbed him from behind, the blade of the Tetsusaiga being pushed up against his jugular.
"It's over." Sesshomaru growled as he pushed the blade into Inuyasha's throat.
Inuyasha gasped, grabbing the blade and trying with all of his might to keep the blade from cutting through.
A/N: LOL! Cliff hanger! I loves them, but I hates them all at the same time. Please review. It's almost over... sniffle I'm so sad.
