Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, but I do own Makoto. Yay Makoto!

Chapter 35: Final Battle Part 2

Everything in the clearing seemed to be put on hold, then Haru's youkai pulled back and circled the clearing. Makoto and InuYasha gave off twin growls. Sesshomaru, Yukio, Shippou, Kouga, Kigai, and Ayame joined them in the center, each taking careful glances at the youkai should they decide to attack without warning. As expected, one spot in the crowd cleared enough for two figures to walk through: Haru and Taru. Yukio stepped forward with a menacing growl of his own, only to be stopped by Sesshomaru's hand on his shoulder. Yukio backed down.

"It all comes down to this, Sesshomaru." Haru stated, ignoring his other son. "This battle may very well be the biggest of both our times, and we the perpetuators." He scowled. "But the difference between us two is while I go down as a man conserving a true and strong blood line, you, the great lord of the Western lands, will go down as a man who think it better to conserve and cultivate, within his own household, a species of lesser beings. Pathetic human beings."

"It is this Sesshomaru's own business who he sees fit to have strong or true enough blood for this line. You, Haru, were not worthy of that place."

Haru growled and fingered the scar on his forehead. "You will not get away with what you have done!" Suddenly, he smirked. "Not strong or true enough blood, am I? I'll show you true. Those…those half-breeds will never have the kind of strength that runs freely through my veins! And," he raised his fist, "they will never be able to reach the true form of the inu clan."

InuYasha could see the changes almost immediately. Haru started to grow taller and wider. His silver hair started to spread until it completely covered his body. His pointed ears grew fur and slid to the top of his head, mimicking those of InuYasha himself. Haru's nose shifted just above his lips before his jaws protruded from his face and fangs grew over his bottom lip, his eyes turning red and shifting closer together. There was a crunching noise as his backbone shifted and Haru fell forward to his hands and knees. His fingers and toes were sucked into his hands and feet, being replaced by pads and long claws. As his bones finished shifting into their new locations, a tail shot out from his backside and the transformation was complete.

The true-formed Haru stood before them with his legion of followers gathering not far behind him. All were red-eyed and beginning to change into their full forms. InuYasha glanced to his brother. He and his loyal followers had started to change, too.

"Dang, guess that means we'll have to change, too." Kouga said with a sigh. "I'll tell ya one thing, if I never revert to that form again it would be too soon. The extra power and all is great, but with the bone shifting and crunching…augh!" he shivered. InuYasha and Makoto watched as Kouga, Ayame, and Kigai changed into their forms. It was much like watching Haru, except Kouga, unlike Haru, looked almost sick when his backbone popped out of place and shifted him to all fours. InuYasha would have laughed if he weren't so caught up in the sight before him. Silver dogs, multi-colored wolves, a giant red fox, nasty looking tigers, all hundreds of times bigger then they should have been.

Soon he, Makoto, and the other hanyou were the only ones not changed in some form. This is not good. He thought to himself. Sure, he had fought Sesshomaru in this form before and won. But that was a long time ago, and Sesshomaru was caught off-guard at how strong his half-breed brother really was. He glanced back down the path. Somewhere out there was his friends, his brother's family, his mate, and his pups. He gripped Tetsusaiga tight in his hand. He couldn't afford to fail, not while he was defending his family he worked so hard to protect so far. He growled and turned to the battle.

The battlefield was polluted with the sounds of growling and snarling from the various beasts. The transformed Sesshomaru and Haru were standing nearly nose-to-nose, both poised to leap into action at any given moment. Haru flicked his ears, taunting the inu lord. Moments passed as both inu growled out their threats until Haru finally gave in and leaped forward. Sesshomaru was fast enough to keep Haru's fangs away from his neck, but growled ferociously when they met his left shoulder. This growl acted as a signal to all others that the battle had finally begun.

The various formed youkai attacked, the battlefield quickly being covered with blood. InuYasha eyed by one of the larger inu, blood already dripping from his fangs. "What are you lookin at?" he asked with a cocky smirk as the inu eyed him back. The inu flashed his fangs in a snarl. It raced forward, threatening to meet InuYasha head-on, but swerved at the last moment to come across his right side. InuYasha's fire-rat haori was caught in the inu's jaws and he was slung from side to side like a chew-toy. The cloth ripped and sent InuYasha crashing to the ground, the inu skidding to a stop, turning back around, and dashing after him once more.

InuYasha ducked as fangs bore down on him, grabbing a handful of silver fur and hoisting himself on the neck of the enraged inu. The inu bucked, and gnarled, and clawed; unable to reach his unwanted hanyou passenger. InuYasha held on with one hand and raised Tetsusaiga with the other. He plunged the sword down hard where the inu's head met the neck, the beast stumbling forward and falling to the ground. InuYasha wiped the sweat falling in his eyes and looked around. Many of the youkai, good as well as bad, had already fallen. Sesshomaru had another inu by the neck, cracking it in two with his powerful jaws. Yukio was gnawing on the hind leg of a large panther-youkai, its front leg tucked under its chest and obviously useless for the rest of the battle. The battle, in which, raged on at full force all around him.

Yukio ripped through the flesh on the panther's hind leg. The cat turned around hissing and slashed Yukio's muzzle with its razor claws. Yukio in turn grabbed hold of the panther by the scruff of its neck between his jaws. The youkai instinctively fell to its back and raised its three good paws in the air and struck madly. Yukio yelped and jumped back, pawing at his injured eye. He regained focus and snarled. The panther-youkai hissed and arched its back, poised to strike quickly. Yukio used the panther's injured state as leverage, attacking it from the right side where the youkai would have to turn around fully to swipe at him with its good front paw. The panther was too slow at striking and Yukio was able to get his fangs under the panther's neck before it had to chance to act. He felt fresh blood seeping from his mouth and he ripped open the panther's throat and tossed it aside.

His red eyes scanned for who he was really after. The one who would die by Yukio's own claws and fangs. He stuck his nose in the air and sniffed to catch a scent. It was hard; tons of smells flooded his senses. Of course there was a lot of blood, and there was thousands of different scents for him to distinguish from. Finally he caught the scent and raced toward it. Many of the youkai nipped or slapped at him as he flew by, but now that he had the scent nothing was going to get in Yukio's way. Yukio increased his speed; his padded feet barely touched the ground before being hoisted back it the air. He found his target watching the battle, sitting on his haunches, ears alert. Taru.

Shippou felt queasy on his stomach and a bit uneasy on his own feet. It was the first time he had ever transformed into his full form, and so far he wasn't to fond of it. He felt huge; thick red fur covering his sleek fox-body, with a long bushy tail following behind him. It did have advantages; he'd admit that much. The inu and wolves had the brute strength; Shippou had the speed and the agility. He slinked through the crowd as low to the ground as he could manage. He found his prey. A transformed hawk-youkai was bomb-diving an inu Shippou knew was on his side. The huge bird raked its long talons down the back of the inu, a clump of fur and flesh still in its grasp as it flapped its massive wings to gain back its altitude.

Shippou slinked to the inu's side, his fluffy tail twitching in anticipation, as the hawk-youkai circled the fallen inu looking for a nice moment to strike again. It twitched its tail-feathers, tilted its wings, and stretched out its talons. Shippou watched the hawk dive toward the inu at its full speed. But Shippou was faster. As the hawk was just about to close its talons around the inu's fur, Shippou leapt over the inu in a flash of red-brown fur, closing his jaws around a wing. The stunned bird flapped its free wing madly in an attempt to free itself. Shippou crunched down on the wing before ripping it completely from the body of the youkai. He curiously watched as it still flapped its one wing on the ground, trying to get away. It succeeded in hopping a few feet on its talons before the inu it had attacked raised its paw and crunched its head into the ground.

Makoto shoved Touken down on the head of a snake-youkai, pulling the blade down the length of the serpent and splitting it into two halves. He growled and went straight after another youkai that so happened to cross his path. He made quick work of a bear-youkai and a spider-youkai before he growled in frustration of his own thoughts. He was proud of his heritage. Being a hanyou. He loved both his sides, or at least had came to a better understanding of why he was what he was. Haru's little speech about all hanyou having 'weak' blood had just ticked him off. In his youkai form, it was hard for Makoto to keep his anger in check and keep himself from going on another rampage. He kept Touken in his hand just in case bad went to worse.

Makoto had a death-grip on the sword by the time his tenth victim fell. His youkai really, really didn't like being called weak. Haru's words echoed in his head over and over; Makoto releasing a ferocious growl, "they will never be able to reach the true form of the inu clan." He stopped. The true form. Sure, he could just as well kill every youkai there in the angered form he was in now, but the principle of the matter… was it possible? Could he transform into the true form of the inu clan? Yes…he would try. His youkai seemed to get excided by the idea of proving Haru wrong. Now, how to go about it?

At first Makoto concentrated on Touken, but the sword proved useless to get him to transform into his true state. He was just about ready to stop the first inu that passed and ask them how to transform when a silent whisper in the back of his head gave him an idea. Dormant instincts trying to groggily wake up from all time without use, probably. He closed his eyes and started to focus. He pictured the big, silver furred dogs in his mind. The long fangs and massive paws, swishy tails, long narrow muzzle. He imagined becoming one. Then the change began. He could feel it immediately. He felt fur growing all over his body, sprouting from his arms, legs, torso; he twitched his nose when the fur growing around his face tickled. He felt his fingers shorten and cringed. It didn't exactly hurt, but it wasn't the best feeling in the world either. The only thing Makoto could think of to describe the feeling was it was like Kagome had used numbing herbs on wounds or when she had to pop bones back into place. You couldn't actually feel the pain, but you just knew that there should be pain to it.

The same was true when his bones started to rearrange themselves. His ribs tightened together, moving his organs in the process. His legs and arms proportioned themselves and his backbone grew out his backside forming the tail. The he felt a sickening 'pop' in his back and was forced forward on all fours. His stomach lurched. He wasn't sure if it was because it was settling into place or if the transformation was getting the best of him and he was about to puke. Either way, he didn't like the feeling. The last of the transformation completed; his muzzle stretching out and his fangs growing to full size. Makoto slung his tongue out of the side of his mouth and panted. That was an experience he wasn't likely to forget anytime soon, but he marveled at the newfound power and senses. Yes, he would say that the transformation was well worth the uncomfortable feelings. He felt a hundred feet tall and invincible.

InuYasha had just spotted Makoto as he had started to change. Now InuYasha stood, mouth agape, at his son. Towering taller then most of the other inu, there was one major way to know that it was still Makoto, and that was the fact that his silver coat of fur was marred by two long, black stripes going from the tip of his ears to the tip of his tail. "Keh." InuYasha crossed his arms and gazed accusingly. "I don't need to transform to take care of these weaklings." Haru had all but disappeared from the fight as soon as it had started. InuYasha tried following the scent, but every time he caught a whiff of Haru another youkai was nipping at his heels. A bear-youkai stood in front of him on its hind legs and roared, swiping its huge paws at InuYasha's head. He felt the paw barely graze over his ears and rolled on the ground and into a crouch, shoving off with his back foot and leapt straight at the bear. He drew Tetsusaiga and ripped through the bear's rough hide. The bear's paw swiped again and InuYasha was sent flying through the air and landed hard, knocking the breath out of him with the impact.

The bear dropped to all fours and barreled forward. InuYasha stood staggering and barely moved out of the way in time to keep from getting trampled, but he couldn't avoid the bear's next swipe. The claw hit him from the side and sent him smashing into a shocked centipede-youkai who turned to skink her teeth into InuYasha, but it never came. Instead, InuYasha heard a shrill screech as the centipede was being tossed side to side in the rough jaws of the transformed Makoto. Blood oozed from the side of his mouth as his bit down harder, the youkai's outer shell cracking and crunching under the pressure until it fell from Makoto's jaws in two separate pieces.

By then the bear-youkai had turned back around, this time charging Makoto. Makoto braced his paws against the ground and lowered his head with a snarl. The bear rushed him, tossing his shoulder into Makoto's side. Makoto slid sideways from the impact, but raised his front paws to the back of the bear and used his fangs to grab a mouthful of fur on the back of its neck. The bear rose on its hind legs and roared, trying to turn around to get to Makoto. Makoto held on, twisting his jaws around the bear's flesh and dragging it back to the ground. He kept his grip as the bear stumbled to its feet. Makoto jerked to the side, firmly planting his feet to the ground and ripping at the youkai. The bear-youkia's thick fur prevented Makoto from completely ripping off the flesh.

Shippou rushed up from behind, taking a massive paw into his jaws and tugging. The bear roared and swiped with the other paw, but Shippou was too fast and leapt out of the way. Makoto maneuvered under the bear with that distraction and grabbed hold of its throat. Shippou ran around the front, taking nips at the bear from time to time to keep it distracted. Eventually Makoto was able to rip a chunk from the bear, but it caught him in the side with its claw in return. Makoto winced as the impact cracked ribs. Shippou was still prancing around in front of the youkai, taking nips then jumping back when the bear would strike. Makoto snarled through the pain as he got back on all fours and charged forward. He shoved his shoulder into the bear's side and knocked him down on his side.

InuYasha had been standing by watching in amazement until he heard the crunching of Makoto's ribs. When Makoto sent the bear to the ground again, InuYasha woke from his stupor and jumped on the bear, shoving Tetsusaiga into its flesh and pulling it down its length. Blood poured from the wound, and the bear lay still. InuYasha looked at Makoto. "Keh. Show-off."

A/N:

Sept. 13…. Happy (late) birthday Bella Swan! (Hopefully Bella Swan-Cullen soon ;-D Yay!)

Anyway, I've had this chapter half-way written since I first started the sequel, and I am VERY happy to finally get it out there. Only a few more chappies left!