Pet Spider

Summary: Inuyasha has the ultimate leash to control his tantrums, so why not collar Naraku, who has an even greater temper? What will the consequences be in subjugating such a volatile being? Kagome will find out soon enough. (Humor/romance/angst in that order. Lemon and Character death near end of story.)

Beginning is comedy ending gets more angsty, a mismatch of ideas thrown together just for the fun of it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. There is a lemon and character death near the end of the story.

Chapter 2

Naraku took the time during the slow hike to make sense of his situation. 'I could try to find another priestess to remove the rosary, if I can find one as strong as this wench, but in order to do that I'll need to get permission,' he thought venomously, 'to leave her sight. Then there's also the issue of maintaining my existence. I would assume I can last a month before I have to feed, assuming I remain in possession of this half of the jewel. I am surprised she has not demanded it of me yet. It would seem, my best bet for survival would be to get closer to the infuriating woman. Attempting such so soon, however, would be suspicious, I will bide my time and find their weaknesses.'

"Oh look, I see the edge of the forest," Kagome cheered and sprinted off in the direction that the light shone through the gaps in the trees. She blinded herself as she broke through the tree-line, rubbing her eyes. Looking out over the landscape, she saw the village in question, but couldn't feel a jewel shard anywhere, well, except hers and Naraku's. She could take his at anytime, and even though it probably wouldn't mean much, she didn't want to take everything from him in one day. She really did feel bad when she had to subjugate him, seeing him collapse in pain like that was heart wrenching. "I don't sense any jewel shards here…" she spoke as the rest of them caught up, showing her disappointment at their wasted time.

'That is because the shard was simply a rumor to lure you to me,' Naraku recalled bitterly. 'I should have just stayed away.'

"Well, there may not be a shard, but at least we'll get a hot meal and a good nights sleep," Kagome beamed, her unbreakable, cheerful spirit showing as she skipped down the road.

Prancing into the village, the residents all fled in total horror. This reaction had Kagome completely confused until she remembered just who she had following her. 'Duh,' she nearly face-palmed. "Uh, Naraku," she addressed the scowling demon, "mind hiding the dragon tails and spikes and such." (A/N: His appearance after emerging from Mt. Hakurei.) Not breaking his gaze, a swirl of miasma engulfed him and dissipated just as suddenly, revealing a very human-looking Naraku, except for those hellish red eyes. Kagome smiled brightly, "Thank you. Now, lets find a place to stay, I'm starving."

"There is a problem there, Kagome," Miroku spoke. "We are out of money." He held up a string with only a single coin dangling from it. Her face looked suddenly saddened. To cheer her up, Miroku became suddenly animated, "Oh my, I sense an ominous black cloud. Come, I must perform an exorcism." Kagome giggled at his spiel, understanding his intentions while Sango and Inuyasha just rolled their eyes.

"He never changes," Shippo quipped from Kagome's shoulder.

Naraku only watched as if it was the most boring event ever, but was secretly taking in every piece of knowledge he could in search of their secret frailties.

A while later found them seated with food brought out in appreciation of exorcising the 'demon.' They were all, except Kagome, very uncomfortable with Naraku's presence, despite his lack of threat. Even being quiet, he was hard to ignore. While the other's dug into their food, some more crudely than others, Naraku made no effort to touch his. He didn't need human food, it was not enough to sustain him. Instead he spent his time telepathically talking to Kohaku and Kagura, sending them out to find a powerful priestess, and having Kanna search for any information on how to remove a subjugation spell. Inspecting the rosary, he noted its appearance, alternating black and red beads, the red having a black spider painted on them. It also had three small charms hung off of it that each glowed slightly. On their recent travels, he had been witness to Inuyasha's subjugation, understanding her insinuations from earlier, that he had one too. The power emanating off of Inuyasha's rosary was undeniably that of Kikyo, whereas his was pure Kagome. He had no idea she was so much stronger that the undead miko, otherwise he would have made sure to eliminate her much sooner. Even now, he couldn't feel any power emanating off her, but the pain from earlier attested to the opposite. He had never found a priestess with such power.

Kagome understood he was in no mood to speak, but his silence still left her a little… concerned. Stealing glances at him from time to time, she had no idea what to say to him. She wanted to cheer him up, but knew the only thing that would do that was release him, and then he'd probably just slaughter them all. Sighing, she decided to just give him space. She could only imagine how it would feel if her freedom had been taken away.

That night found all of them asleep, except Naraku and Inuyasha. Naraku reclined by a window, peering out in thought and determinately ignoring the guard dog that refused to let him out of sight. Inuyasha was understandably cautious, Naraku was a master at getting others to do his dirty work for him and he refused to give him that chance.

This routine continued for a very tense couple of days before Kagome finally approached him. They made camp and Naraku, as always, set away from the rest in the shadows. His subordinates continued to come up empty-handed. The only information of import was from Kanna. She explained how if Kagome died before the rosary was removed, the power would remain within it, keeping him trapped and allowing any priestess to control him if they learned the word. He would need to destroy her powers, not just her body. The last piece of assistance Kanna could give was, "Every soul has its weakness."

'If that is the case, than what are Kagome's?' he thought. The whole time he'd been here, her indomitable spirit seemed impenetrable. There had to be something.

"Naraku? Are you alright?" she asked timidly, drawing his gaze. He hadn't eaten a bite nor said a word since that first day; she was really starting to worry that he had fallen into some sort of demon depression.

'Perhaps her pity,' he pondered silently before turning away without a word.

"Leave him be, Kagome," Inuyasha scoffed, "no use wasting effort on him."

"Sit boy," Kagome commanded. 'At least Naraku is smart enough not to trigger his subjugation.' She sighed loudly then looked back at the dark-haired demon in front of her. He was so hard to read, but it was obvious he was deeply bothered. If only she could get him to open up to her, maybe she could help him; truly help him. It was unlikely he'd speak freely in front of everyone though. She returned to her sleeping bag with thoughts of guilt plaguing her mind.

It was the next day that they finally found a shard, Naraku sat back and just watched the show since his rosary prevented him from fighting. The demon ogre was proving to be more of a challenge for them than he would have anticipated. Where these seriously the same people who caused him so much hassle. A sacred arrow went flying, powerful, but completely missing its target. It was obvious to him, even without being able to see the shards like she could, that the jewel was in the demons neck, yet her arrow only grazed its shoulder. 'Pathetic,' he mocked to himself.

"You missed again Kagome?" Inuyasha shouted. "Kikyo would have never missed her target." And there it was, Kagome's weakness laid bare in front of him, all thanks to Inuyasha's callousness.

Her shoulders slumped, and her bangs hid her eyes, wetness accumulating at the familiar insult. Even when she was dead, he stilled compared everything she did to the woman of his past. "Well, I'm NOT Kikyo!" she yelled.

"Obviously," he barked back, still crudely trying to hack away at the demon.

With the two of them proving to be rather useless, Sango and Miroku teamed up. Sutras were plastered onto Hiraikotsu and hurled at the demon. The first strike was dodged, but upon its return, severed its neck. Still bickering, Miroku interrupted their argument, "Kagome, would you please retrieve the shard? Kagome?" She didn't hear anything over their combined screaming. Miroku rubbed his temples in annoyance.

Naraku finally let a small grin alight his face as an opening was spotted. It was the smallest crack in her heart, but he would pick at it until it shattered. Sending orders to Kagura, he set his plan in motion before turning back to the commotion in front of him.

(A/N: This part intertwines with episode 125, where Inuyasha takes off at the rumor of Kikyo being alive still.)

Kagome sat curled in on herself, barely holding back tears, on the outskirts of a village. Naraku's plan had worked perfectly. After having Kagura slay a traveler and use her dance of the dead, Inuyasha took off without a second thought in pursuit of a mere rumor of Kikyo. Kagome had dared to think that with Kikyo's untimely death, maybe Inuyasha would finally notice her, but this showed she would never be first in his mind. She mourned silently, not simply because he ran to Kikyo, but because her hope of a relationship was breaking.

Hearing heavy footsteps right in front of her, Kagome looked up just enough to see a pair of black boots, their owner standing directly in front of her. Letting her blank gaze look up, her head tilted back at a very uncomfortable angle. Those red eyes stared down at her, she had no idea why and hadn't the energy to try and figure him out right now.

"Why do you allow him to treat you like trash?" his voice held no malice, it actually sounded like he was genuinely curious. Everyone was shocked, Kagome especially, not necessarily by the words, but simply because he spoke at all. She blinked up at him a few times, trying to determine if she was hearing things or not. "You have the power to make him do whatever you want. Why do you not use it?"

She finally understood and glared back, "You mean subjugate him until he loves me? It doesn't work that way." She paused and looked to her left in the direction Inuyasha had bound off in. "Why do you care anyways?" She hadn't meant to sound so rude, but in her pain, it just came out. It didn't seem to faze him.

He came down on one knee and leaned in close to her ear so only she would hear his honeyed words, "Power should be respected, desired, not cast aside carelessly." His hot breath danced across her cheek as he spoke, then was gone just as quickly.

It took her a few seconds to process what he had just said and by the time she did, he was standing once again. 'Did he just say I should be desired? No, he said power should be desired, not me.' "I'm not powerful. I can't even shoot an arrow properly…" Inuyasha's insults had left quite the mark on her.

"Need I remind you," his partial sentence was punctuated by the rosary he drew her attention to.

'He, is implying that, I am powerful?' her jaw dropped at his seeming act of… kindness. "Uh, Th-thank you, Naraku." She gave a small smile and cheered up a little.

"Did you just see that too, Miroku?" Sango whispered.

"Yes, however I find it hard to believe," he responded back.

"Whoever thought Naraku, of all people, would be the one to cheer up Kagome," Shippo added.

'Keep it up, Inuyasha,' Naraku thought maliciously behind his peaceful mask. 'Just a few more instances like this and Kagome will begin to trust me more than you. Then I'll regain my freedom and leave you all to rot in my dungeon.'