Chapter 14: The Twelfth Hour- Going to War

'This one moment is enough,' thought Kagome. 'This one kiss is enough. I don't need anything else from him. Just knowing how he feels about me is enough.'

What was happening to her? It was like…a new fire had been started. She could feel it… she could feel its heat. What was this feeling? The feeling of being…whole, maybe? She wanted to stay like this forever. She moved her hand to the back of his head, and she pulled him closer, her lips clashing against his. She claimed them fully. She leaned forward, and the sneaky bastard got his tongue into her mouth, not that she was complaining. She fought against it, and she could feel his smirk against her mouth. She leaned onto him harder, practically devouring his mouth as she tried to find out what made Inuyasha taste so earth-shatteringly good. No, better than good.

At that moment, she heard something.

It sounded like a giant explosion coming from outside. Kagome had just remembered that there was a war going on, and she was here making out with Inuyasha.

She quickly, but unwillingly, pulled away from him. "Inuyasha! Naraku's the one who destroyed the dream bubble! He's outside, and everyone else is fighting him! We have to do something or they'll all be killed!"

Inuyasha nodded once in understanding but she could see the unwillingness in his eyes. Nonetheless, he put his hands on her shoulders and said, "You stay in here, I'll go and deal with that bastard Naraku." He turned and tried to leave, but Kagome ran forward and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"What do you think you're doing?" she said a little hysterically. "You can't just expect me to sit in here safe and sound, knowing that you're out there risking your life! I'm going with you!"

Inuyasha stared at her irritated, "What can you do? Naraku's a demon. How are you going to fight him?"

Kagome shook her head. "I don't know. But we've finally been brought together again, and I don't know what I do if I have to lose you again. I don't want to go through all that again. Please, Inuyasha… I want to be with you."

He reached up and let his hand rest on her cheek. "You are as childish as ever before," he told her. "I could tell what you were like when I first saw you. Aggravating, impatient, teasing, but you're...also something I wasn't expecting. Kind, warm, and caring…you look totally unbothered, like you'd be fine if I left. But I know and you know that that's not true. It's kinda irritating. Turn back now Kagome… before it's too late…" He pointed to the doors and when on. "Your brother is upstairs, go find him and leave before something happens.

"Inuyasha," begged Kagome. "Talk to me. Tell me what to do, I'm stuck! My heart's an anchor. Please… don't leave me in the dark again."

Inuyasha stared at her confused.

"Even if I could leave… I'll just end up back here. Or rather, some place just like this. Alone in the dark… waiting for someone to come find me. Please, I don't want to be left alone in the darkness and wait for you to come back."

Inuyasha pulled away gently before putting his hands on either side of her head and kissed her forehead. "You won't," he said. "I promise that I'll come back. Just wait in the dark a little longer." And then… he was gone. Leaving Kagome in the dark.

Kagome left the throne room to try to find Inuyasha. Finally, when she spotted a window, she flew to it and tried to open it; but it was locked. When she gazed down and recognized that messy mass of white hair standing below her, was staring at the gates as if he were waiting for someone. The wind suddenly shifted, swirling around the small group and picking up dirt. Kagome shielded her eyes from the flying dust until it cleared, when a new voice exploded into the small clearing.

He looked around to see if he could spot Naraku. "Naraku show you self," shouted Inuyasha. "Naraku!"

Naraku laughed his atrocious, dark, twisted laugh… and there he was. Kagome looked up, trembling slightly when she saw Naraku standing before Inuyasha with that look that made Kagome want to throw up. Then giant tentacles for arms shot at Inuyasha, the force of the attack slammed Inuyasha into a tree. Then Naraku pulled back one arm then his arm shot at Inuyasha again, making contact with his face, which smashed Inuyasha through the tree.

But when Naraku retracted his arms; Inuyasha sprung to his feet. He wiped off the blood from his face just as one of Naraku's arms flew at Inuyasha again. Inuyasha dodged his arm then ran toward Naraku; Inuyasha unleashed an unusual battle cry… an "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer". His hands became more clawlike and made giant scars on the ground where they were fighting. Naraku use his other arm to block, but the attack tore Naraku's arm off. Inuyasha jumped back, when Naraku laughed as insects the size of crows with giant red eyes came flying out of nowhere. They flew to where his arm was severed, lumping and forming until a new arm had grown where the stump had been.

"You have something I want, Inuyasha," said Naraku. "Your kingdom."

The half-demon snarled. "I thought that I made this clear. I'd die before I hand over my kingdom to you! This ends today."

"Never. You couldn't defeat even the simplest of demons." Inuyasha charges in without thinking, angered by Naraku's taunts. Naraku's arms transforms into spikes, and he then sticks one arm in the ground. It travels underground and comes up in front of Inuyasha almost hitting him. Inuyasha goes around it, just barely dodging it, he looked behind him. Naraku's other arm flies toward Inuyasha. When Inuyasha turned around Naraku's arm went through Inuyasha's stomach. Naraku pulls his arms back.

Inuyasha holds his stomach with his left hand and as he unsheathes a rusty sword with his right hand and it suddenly transforms from a rusty blade, into a sword that looked more like a fang than anything else. The sword turns red, and Inuyasha cries out, "WIND SCAR!" As he swung the sword, the attack makes a direct hit. The attack leaves Naraku with deep wounds and his body severed.

"It has to be over," thought Kagome. But then the giant insects fly at Inuyasha. Inuyasha tries to smack them away, which gave Naraku time to escape. So Naraku made his escape.

"Damn he got away," said Inuyasha bitterly as he resheaths the sword. He starts running after Naraku; while Kagome who was still looking out the window realized that she couldn't take it. She had to be by his side, she couldn't stand the thought of being safe when her friends and the one she loves are all fighting for their lives. She left the room and went running through the castle, finding her way much easier than before, and soon made it outside.

She ran though the place until she stood in the shadow of the castle, which rose behind it in bonnet-towered and turreted splendor. She ran down a wide flight of steps, pass the main entrance to the castle, faced the inner gates of the courtyard, and must have formed an imposing approach for advancing armies.

When she ran pass the gates, she saw them. Naraku was fighting with the others in a new form. Naraku was in a giant armor in front of Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, and her friends as they fought tooth and nail against him. Naraku armor was thunderous clang, that formed one titanic, mailed warrior, whom the cavernous mouth uttered an earthly metallic bellow; his eyes glowed. In one hand he wielded an enormous, double-headed ax.

Kagome whimpered. She felt the ground tremble as Naraku, ax raised, walked forward and stamped toward them. Not far from her, she heard Miroku let out a battle, but it was a mere piping sound in comparison to the terrible noise made by this Goliath of a demon. Kirara was above them with Sango on her back, trying to find some kind of weakness in the armor.

She had never felt more useless. She wanted to help, but she couldn't think of anything that she could do. It isn't fair. Both Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru clashed their swords against Naraku's while Miroku jumped behind Sango and were up on Kirara. Sango threw Hiraikotsu while Miroku threw a sutra with Shippo running around at Naraku's feet, trying to avoid getting trampled.

A bugle sounded, and from behind Naraku came a demon army suddenly charging at them, with pounding feet and clanking armor and a weird, ululating war cry. Scores of helmeted heads could be seen scuttling along the lower ramparts of the castle. There was only one thing to do: run for it. And there was only one way to run - back into the castle.

The armies were issuing from twin corridors, which curved around the sides of the main steps so that their exits faced each other. A platoon of bombardiers trundled a cannon in the vanguard of each army, and as the corridors were on an incline, and the cannons were heavy, and the trundling was enthusiastic, the cannon platoons were going to collide unless they hauled back hard. Which they did. Unavailingly, however, for the press of infantry and cavalry behind them drove them inexorably on. As the four invaders raced for the cover of the town, they heard a stupendous smash, like a thousand empty cans crashing together. They turned around, and watched wave upon wave of the goblin soldiers piling upon top of each other. On the ramparts, an inaudible bugler was red in the face with blowing the charge. Kagome ran forward and pulled Shippo back just as he was about to get stomped on and ran back towards the castle.

"Kagome?" cried Shippo bewildered. "Where did you come from?"

"Talk later," said Kagome as she ran through the gate and gesturing for Miroku and Sango down towards her. They got the message as soon as they saw the invading army and landed in front of her.

Kagome called to her friends, "In here!" She signaled for them to get pass the front gates. Reluctantly, Sango dismounted and led Kirara and Miroku inside. Kagome slid the bolt, while she was grinning with excitement. However extreme the peril they were in, nothing would ever be as daunting as the crap that she had been through the last half day. "Shippo and I wait for them to come over the gate," she told Sango. "You will guard the front doors. And you, Miroku—up on top of the gate."

Miroku nodded obediently and sprung into a salute. "Yes ma'am." He climbed the winding rungs of the stairs.

"Look out!" Kagome cried suddenly. Sango at once took up her on-guard position beside the door. Kagome and Shippo stood by waiting. Kagome called up to Miroku, "Miroku, are you ready?"

"Yep," he called as she heard the sound of the beads on his arm being taken off. The demon army appeared above them smashed the through the door with horns and claws until they were able to stick their heads inside to see who was in there.

"Shippo!" the demon exclaimed. "You're one of us."

"Yes," Shippo agreed, and broke his smashing top on the demon's helmeted head.

Sango was watching with mixed feeling. She had to hand it to Kagome, she was spirited, and she knew what she was doing, but on the other hand, she had posted her to the side, where nothing at all was going to happen. She was just beginning to wonder if she should just join them when an axhead shaped like a trefoil had missed her by inches. She looked up above her and she saw mad red eyes watching her and heard voices talking rapidly.

This was more like it. She squared up, then, through a crack, she saw half a dozen demons charging with a battering ram. In a trice, she slid the bolt back and opened the door. As the ram went past her at full tilt she dealt with each of its bearers skillfully with her weapon.

"Ha!" Sango shouted tauntingly. "Had enough? Don't worry there's more than enough for everyone!"

On top of the gate, Miroku was showered with spears. He simply ducked below the ramparts. Then a detachment of commando demons stormed the outside walls of the tower, clambering up ladders with the idea of overwhelming Miroku. He was not readily overwhelmable, kicking them down to the ground one by one as they reached the top of the ladders and peered over the parapet.

"Miroku," Kagome shouted, "use the wind tunnel!" He didn't need to be told twice, he uncovered his hand and the mighty black hole began to suck in everything in its wake.

Down below Kagome shouted as Shippo to retreat, "We have to go to the top."

"You first," he called back.

She did as he said. Shippo followed her, with Sango, to cover their retreat. She climbed up backward, ceding one step at a time, fending off her attackers. Kagome looked over the parapet. All the demons were congregated at the front of the house, struggling to get in after those who were forcing Sango back. Just below the gate she could see Inuyasha and Sesshomaru still fighting Naraku. Kagome move over slightly, and she felt her foot hit something; she looked down to see a small bow and a few arrows that must've been dropped when their owners were sucked into the wind tunnel. Kagome picked them up and called down to Sango, "Do you have any rope?"

Amazingly, Sango was able to pull out a thin rope and toss it to her, while she was still able to crack a demon's skull. Kagome tied one end of the rope to the arrow and prepared to shot. "Hold them back for as long as you can, Sango," she called down to her friend.

"You don't need to ask me twice," she called back up to her.

Swiftly, Kagome tightened the knot and, taking careful aim, was able to shoot it to the ground below them. Then she tied one end of the rope to a column of the parapet, "You first, Shippo," she said.

He hesitated, "I'm a coward."

"No, you're not," said Kagome fiercely.

He paused, almost smiling. "You're right. I'm not. Funny, I always thought I was." He grasped the rope, stood on the parapet, and shinned down to the ground. Then he held the rope to anchor it for Kagome. She followed him down.

"Miroku!" she called. "You next! Tell Sango to come after you." Miroku came down, a little too fast, scorching his hands, but was able to land safely on the ground. Now it was for Sango to make good her escape. The three of them, their heads craned back, saw the demon slayer come onto the parapet with her back turned and her weapon working hard. With her free hand she took hold of the rope and let herself a few inches down the outside of the tower. Then they saw her raise the sword that she wore on her side and unhitch the rope from the parapet. She plummeted.

Kagome pressed her hands to her mouth and let out a strangled scream. But then Kirara had appeared and caught her before landing gently down beside their friends.

"Sango! What did you do that for?" screamed Kagome

Sango shrugged, "Couldn't help it?"

Shippo suddenly stopped, his arms spread wide in warning. The rest of them had froze… Naraku in all his armor was standing before them.

"Uh-oh," Kagome muttered. "This could be it."

Naraku was not yon now. He had come close enough to aim a massive ax blow at them. It missed them, but gashed a great wound in the ground. A fountain of sparks spurted from the steel axhead. The three dodged past Naraku's feet, but he jerked rapidly around and smashed his ax down again with both hands. Screaming, they leaped apart, and the ax hammered the ground between them, burying itself among shattered paving stones. The giant withdrew it effortlessly, and now, crouching, he delivered a scything swing at them. They threw themselves flat, and heard the ax whiz over them with a noise like an ignited rocket.

They saw the ax raised high again, and scuttled for cover to the wall of the courtyard. The descending ax carved a slice off a buttress. Blow followed blow. Each one would have left no more of them than there is of a mosquito squashed on a wall. All that had saved them so far was the inflexible, jerky motion of Naraku's attack, which gave them a split second's forewarning of where the next annihilating crash was aimed. It was only a matter of time before they got it wrong, and Naraku seemed to have all the time he needed trampling after them around the closed courtyard and evidently not wearied by the atrocious energy of his onslaught. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru both appeared and continued their battle.

Naraku received out of all the blows they sent him only three managed to hit him. I was worried. They had been fighting for a while, they all had scars, yet Naraku was not. I felt Shippo tremble in my arms. He wasn't able to do anything either, was he like me, didn't like watching, while he couldn't do anything? I had to do something. I needed to do something. That was why I notched my arrow, and waited for a clear shot, even if I don't have powers or abilities like the others do, an arrow is still an arrow, and they can hurt.

Time slowed down when the arrow flew…time slowed down even more when it hit him. It stopped altogether when the arrow penetrated the armor… right above his heart. That was the opening that the others needed. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru combined their attacks and plunged their blades pass the armor and hit Naraku's heart. Naraku let out a long and dreadful scream that sounded like nails going down a chalkboard. Kagome covered her ears. She wanted it all to end.

When the screaming had died down… Naraku's armor fell to the ground with a crash. As soon as it did, the armor fell to pieces. It was as if years of corrosion were coming by in seconds until, all that was left was a pile of twisted metal and rust. The demons had all realized that their boss was dead, and they did the most natural thing that they've done, and ran.

That was when Kagome noticed something else. They… were all staring at her…

Kirara came down, releasing Sango and Miroku who were staring at his hand. Shippo who was on her shoulder was staring at her with new amazement. "That…" he said.

"Was incredible," whispered Miroku.

Inuyasha frowned, then came over to me and messed up my hair with his hand and said while doing so, "Not bad at all." Kagome looked at him… as he looked at her. And before anyone could stop her, she flung herself into his arms.

That was when everyone around them began to celebrate… minus Sesshomaru who looked disappointed that the battle was over and turned and left. Enjoying the feeling of his arms, she almost didn't hear the words that Inuyasha whispered to her.

"Come with me," Inuyasha's breath ghosted over her neck and shoulders. He then grabbed her by her hand and pulled her away from the others who were all hugging and laughing in joy. He pulled her into the courtyard just inside the gates, where the others couldn't see them before he turned to look at her.

"I'm not going to leave you in the dark. I'm not going anywhere." His arms came around to hold her, and he gave her yet another kiss. Though, the kiss wasn't as sweet or chaste as the others. Inuyasha's lips pressed against her in an almost desperate manner, needy; wanting, almost, so that he would perhaps be able to take the feeling of the kiss with him to the next life. Kagome's brown orbs slowly slid shut, before she quickly melted into the kiss; and the atmosphere quickly began to heat up, both of them were sweating and dying for air, but neither willing to stop because it would mean letting go of the one substantial thing in their lives.

Soon, however, nature exerted its dominance as the two were forced to break apart. Kagome looked up at him through watery eyes, her lips swollen and bruised, and her hair a mess. Inuyasha was in equal disarray, staring at her with more emotion in his eyes than Kagome could understand.

He whispered to her, "You'll see me soon."

Kagome was just about to ask him what he meant when she heard it.

A clock began to strike.

"It's the thirteenth hour," said Inuyasha. Inuyasha then held up the tiny jewel that Kagome recognized as the jewel that had created the dream bubble. He tossed the jewel up into the air, where it hovered, as if it were a bubble. Kagome looked at it, and saw Inuyasha's face, distorted, on the shifting, iridescent surface. Gently, it drifted down toward her. She reached out fascinated fingers for it and, as she touched the bubble with her fingertips, it burst. A mist of water atoms floated down the air toward Inuyasha.

But she saw that Inuyasha had disappeared. But she heard his voice, "Kagome… wait for me. You'll see me again soon… I promise."

His empty Kimono was settling onto the ground. A beam of light picked out a little cloud of dust motes rising from it.

The clock continued to strike.

Then at last, with a slow flutter, the kimono lay still. From beneath it, as the clock struck for the twelfth time, a white dog stood up, and vanished… as if it were nothing but an illusion.

Once the clock had stopped chiming… Kagome put her hand up to her face to find that there were tears were trickling down her cheeks.

(Yea! This story is almost over! 1 more chapter left! Thank you all for enjoying this story, and i hope to update as soon as i can!)