Spring had finally decided that winter had had his fun, and it was now her turn to cover the world with her sunshine and showers. All over the land, flowers and trees alike had started to bloom, coloring the world with their vivid hues. As Kagome kneeled to the ground, she found she could not properly enjoy them as she would like to, for all the flowers in the little meadow they were in had been spattered with blood. She grasped at her side, trying to stem a little of the blood flowing freely from it.
The final battle had been unleashed upon them quite unexpectedly, and they were not doing very well. They had defeated most of Naraku's minions, the rest of them had been called back as their master himself had come out to play. This did not serve to better their chances, however. Massive tentacles flowing every which way kept everyone busy. Sango was in the air on Kirara, throwing Hiraikotsu as accurate and fast as she could, severing some tentacles, but they all just seemed to sprout back as soon as they were cut off. Miroku was quick on his feet, sutras and staff swishing through the air, trying to keep himself out of harm's way. His kazana had reached it's max, and he was not going to waste it on the tentacles alone. Inuyasha was, as always, swinging Tetsusaiga around madly, trying to get as much damage done as he could. Kagome had been fring her arrows in the direction of Naraku's main body, but as she was stringing her bow once more, she had failed to notice one of his tentacles kreeping around her, and was caught by surprise as it shot past her from behind, catching her exactly where she had been wounded by the centipede demon at the start of it all. She heard her name yelled by her friends as she crashed onto her knees, cradling her side with her hands. It wasn't as if she was mortally wounded, but if she could not stop the blood flow, she would surely pass out. She glanced at her surroundings, searching for something that could be used as a tourniquet. Her gaze fell upon the discarded fur she had been logging around since Sesshoumaru had left in her care. It had, while in her possession, contracted significantly more dirt than it had when it was with it's rightful owner. Kagome could not help but wonder how in the world he kept it as immaculate as he did. Deciding she should not look a gift horse in the mouth, she stumbled over to it, and bound it tightly around her waist.
"He's going to kill me for ruining it," she muttered to herself as she resumed a fighting position and notched another arrow on her bow.
It was not long before she ran out of ammunition. Staring helplessly at the fight, she could do nothing but pray for the safety of the others. Even though her friends were trying to protect her from the onslaught of the tentacles, they could not prevent one particular slithery one slipping pas their defenses, and shooting for the miko once more. Kagome screamed as the tentacle closed around her hips, and lifted her in the air, squeezing her far more tightly than was comfortable. The voices of her friends and the maniacal laughter of Naraku reached her ears.
"I have your precious miko now, InuYasha," he drawled, "what are you going to do about it?"
Beneth her, she could see InuYasha sputter and fume at Naraku's taunts, but he could not reach the tentacle that had hauled her up into the heavens. Trying to wriggle free, she only managed to aggravate her wound, making it bleed faster than it had been, and a blood stain was slowly becoming visible on the pelt around her waist. Spots appeared before her eyes, and she was starting to get dizzy. Suddenly, the grip around her loosened, and she registered faintly that she was falling. Landing with an 'oompf' in InuYasha's arms as he jumped for her, she smiled up to him.
"Thank you," she said hoarsely.
"Keh. Wasn't me," came the gruff reply.
Confused, Kagome looked over his shoulder as he sped her away from the battlefield.
There, in the middle of the clearing, in all his immaculate, regal glory, stood Sesshoumaru, flicking some of Naraku's blood of his Bakusaiga. The tentacle that had been cut off, writhed and disintegrated on the ground. Naraku glared at the DaiYoukai before discarding the part of the tentacle still attached to him, which was also disintegrating fast.
"You should have stayed out of this, Sesshoumaru," he spat, "this is not your fight!"
"You made it mine," growled Sesshoumaru.
The last thing Kagome saw before her world went black, was her savior leaping into action.
Author's note: this chapter went through some many rewrites and revisions, it's just no funny anymore. I'm still not satisfied with it, especially the really lame ending, but I am just not comfortable writing action scenes or anything even remotely related to them, so this is my lazy ticket out. Sorry for the long wait, but I have my bachelor's degree thesis to work on, and after typing over 20 pages on the coping of youths with a disabbility, I kind of had my fill of Word, and I had to take a break.