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Itaru and Inuyasha: a duel duet!
Sesshomaru continued to struggle to get close to Naraku and Ryukotsusei. However, Ryukotsusei's flailing made it very difficult for the inu daiyoukai.
"Now Ryukotsusei, perhaps we got off on the wrong foot; let me try again, if you let me use your body, I will obliterate the remainders of the dog demon clan and any other foes that stand against you. You will gain all the land that you want, possibly this whole country. Now doesnt that sound better?" Naraku suggested.
"Heheh...tempting it is, but I am not interested..." Ryukotsusei said.
"Ah, I see..." Naraku sighed. Then suddenly, he shot a tentacle right through Ryukotsusei's forehead. The demon screeched a blood curdling cry that made even the soldiers of the soldiers down below shiver.
"Damn it, stand still!" Sesshomaru growled. He swung Bakusaiga, trying make his way towards Naraku.
"What the hell are we standing around here for?! Lets do something and stop Naraku!" *Shippo shouted.
As soon as those words left *Shippo's mouth, everyone began fighting. The soldiers charged at them and an all out melee ensued.
"Kagome! Do you think that you could shoot the arrow if you get up close?" *Shippo asked.
"Yes! I think I can!" Kagome affirmed.
"Hop on, then!" *Shippo urged. He transformed into his ball form. They floated into the air and flew towards Ryukotsusei until they were bombarded with flaming arrows.
"Whaaah! Whats happening?!" Kagome shouted.
They looked down to see a band of archers down below firing at them.
"It looks like you're not the only one with bows and arrows!" *Shippo said. "I'll take care of them! you save your arrows!" *Shippo said. He opened his mouth and shot a river of flames from his mouth and incinerated the archers below.
"You got them!" Kagome cheered.
"Awww, it was nothin." *Shippo said.
"Now to get this guy!" Kagome exclaimed. She posed to draw her bow and aimed for Naraku's head, where it was about to become one with Ryukotsusei's forehead.
"Perfect!" Kagome shouted. She fired her arrow with as much force as she could muster and it was lodged into the back of Naraku's head.
"Meddling wench!" Naraku said.
"Good job, Kagome! shoot another one!" *Shippo said.
"Okay!" Kagome grabbed an arrow from her quiver, however, they did not see Ryukotsusei's tail about to run into them. The massive appendage crashed into them and made Kagome fall off of *Shippo. She dropped her quiver of arrows and tried in vain to retrieve them.
'My arrows!'
*Shippo dashed to catch Kagome, ignoring the arrows.
"Shippo! my arrows!"
They watched as the arrows fell down to the ground.
"Alright, lets go get em!" *Shippo said.
However, when they looked again, the remaining soldiers grabbed the arrows and began shooting at them again.
"Oh no!" Kagome shouted.
*Shippo breathed more fire at them, temporarily stopping their attack once more.
"Thanks Shippo...but now I have no arrows!" Kagome said regretfully.
"Need arrows?" they heard a familiar voice call from above. They both looked up to see *Kagome, Inuyasha and Itaru riding on top off Haji and coming towards them.
"Inuyasha! You're alright!" Kagome gasped.
"Yeah im fine. I dont see what you guys were so scared for, it didnt even hurt!"
"So you were just laying down at the bottom of the castle to relax, right?" *Kagome asked cynically.
"That was precisely what I was doing." Inuyasha said in a huff.
"Mhmm..." Itaru mumbled before he got whacked on the upside of his head.
"Here, Kagome." *Kagome said, handing her quiver of arrows over to her counterpart.
"Thank you..." Kagome replied.
"Shippo, you take her. Itaru and I are going in." Inuyasha said motioning to *Kagome. *Shippo floated himself over to them and allowed *Kagome on.
"You two can shoot from afar off, so keep your eyes open."
"Okay..." Kagome agreed.
"And you do, STAY OUT OF THE WAY. BOTH OF YOU." Inuyasha warned.
They both nodded in acknowledgement. Inuyasha and Itaru turned to their foe, who was still trying to take control of Ryukotsusei's body.
"Lets go, Itaru!" Inuyasha exclaimed.
"Right!" Itaru affirmed. Itaru prompted Haji to fly upwards.
"You seriously think that you can defeat me?" Naraku said mockingly.
Ryukotsusei began shooting bolts of lightning from his mouth to unlodge Naraku from him, but it was no use. Naraku's head attatched itself to Ryukotsusei, instead of the face on top of the dragon demon's head being his own, it became the likeness of Naraku.
"See? you're all too slow! too slow I tell you!" he roared with laughter.
Sesshomaru swung bakusaiga and pierced his side. This time, it left quite a dent in his armor-like skin.
"Oh, its you again..." Naraku said. Sesshomaru flew along the length of the dragon's body. Suddenly, a head and then a body emerged from Ryukotsusei's body. It formed into a black, unclothed clone of Naraku. It had yellow, serpentine eyes and long claws and fangs. Sesshomaru stopped in his tracks.
"Copies, huh? have you figured out any new tricks, Naraku?" Sesshomaru questioned. The clone chuckled and grew a sword from his hand. They charged at each other and fought on the side of Ryukotsusei's body.
"There's uncle! what is he fighting!?" Itaru asked.
"Probably one of Naraku's copies. He's real good at making those." Inuyasha stated.
Meanwhile, below them, another one of Naraku's clones emerged from his body and grabbed the leg of Haji, pulling it down. The hell hound tried to shake it off, but doing so cause both Inuyasha and Itaru to fall off. Fortunately, they were able to grab onto the hairs from Ryukotsusei's mane.
"You okay there, Itaru?!" Inuyasha shouted down to him.
"Yeah! im fine!" meanwhile, a clone was forming behind him and preparing to attack him.
"WATCH OUT, ITARU!" Inuyasha shouted.
Itaru looked behind him and unsheathed his sword in defense in the nick of time. The clone laughed a menacing laugh and lengthened his neck towards Itaru.
"Get off of me...YOU CREEP!" Itaru shouted as he pushed it back, knocking it off of Ryukotsusei's body and to the ground below.
"good job, Itaru!" Inuyasha complimented, beginning to fight an opponent of his own.
all arond them, more and more clones appeared from Ryukotsusei's body.
"I dont get it! Ryukotsusei wasn't able to do this before, right!?" Itaru asked, beating back another clone.
"No, this is Naraku's doing! Only he is able to make duplications of himself!" Inuyasha informed.
"How are we going to keep up with all of these things?! There are so many, and they just keep coming!" Itaru exclaimed.
"We need to stop it at the source! One of us needs to get up to Naraku's head and kill that son of a bitch once and for all!" Inuyasha shouted to him.
"Okay! im on it!" Itaru offered. He began to run upwards toward, but was cut off by a new wall of clones. They all chuckled in chorus and shook their heads saying, "Nah ah ah...".
"Like im going to take orders from you!" Itaru declared. He jumped over them and started running towards the head of Naraku.
"Go! I'll back you up! you're the only one here who can truly obliterate Naraku!" Inuyasha commanded.
"How is that?! Im not as strong as you!" Itaru argued.
"YOUR SPIRITUAL POWERS! YOU HAVE A GIFT NO OTHER DEMON OR HANYOU HAS! YOUR SPIRITUAL COUPLED WITH YOUR DEMONIC POWERS CAN DEFEAT ANYONE, EVEN ME, ITARU!"
The boy gasped in realization. He remembered the conversation he had with his father in the past, "Hey son, perhaps I'll tell you this later, but you have something that I don't; something that can easily defeat me!"
With that strong reassurance, he nodded his head solemnly and clutched Sutasaiga and stared down a crowd of clones, that were grinnning menacingly.
"Alright, then!" Itaru replied. He ran through the throng, letting out a loud war cry.
"OKAY, YOU FILTHY BASTARDS! COME AT ME!" he swung Sutasaiga, dismembering and slicing his opponents in half.
"THATS MY BOY!" Inuyasha roared.
Itaru cut down each of his enemies one by one, creating a clear path to Naraku's head.
"Down below, everyone else, was just finishing off the remainder of the soldiers of the seiryuu seventy seven. *Shippo looked up to spot Itaru running up the length of the mighty dragon demon, slaying enemies left and right.
"LOOK! ITS ITARU!" He shouted.
They all looked up and realized what *Shippo was saying.
"Look at him go!" *Sango exclaimed.
"He's fighting them all by himself!" Miroku replied.
"No, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru are helping him!" Kagome said.
Meimei, Kazuka, Jaken and Shippo had just come back on to the balcony and saw what was going on.
"Daddy!"Kazuka exclaimed.
"Whats happening?!" Shippo asked.
"Inuyasha, Itaru and lord Sesshomaru are battling the minions created by Naraku; and Itaru is leading them!" Jaken declared.
"really?! Thats incredible!" Shippo shouted.
'Go big brother!' Meimei said hopefully.
'Thats it! im almost there!' Itaru thought jubilantly to himself.
But before he could reach the top, he was cut off by another clone. However, this one was different from all the others. It was much more muscular, had four arms and three faces and was twice Itaru's size. It lunged at Itaru with lightning speed. Itaru had no time to react and was knocked back and nearly off of Ryukotsusei's body. The clone was ready to attack again, until Sesshomaru stepped in.
"You didnt think it would be this difficult, did you? We have defeated you before, what makes you think that this time will be any different?" Sesshomaru inquired.
"Heheheh, you only defeated me because you had that wretch Kikyo protecting you. If it wasnt for her, you all would have perished! Now that she is no more, there is no one who can help you! The clone replied.
"Thats where you're wrong, Naraku!" Inuyasha said, jumping in front of Sesshomaru and facing their opponent. "We still have the upper hand, even without Kikyo!"
"Hmmm...I see..." the Naraku clone mused. He took a glance at Itaru and smirked. Naraku noticed that the aura around him was different from all the others and knew what that aura was, and knew that he had to get rid of it. A tentacle shot out from underneath Itaru and threatened to pierce his side, but Itaru was able to evade it. He jumped back on to the back of Ryukotsusei and started running again. However, everywhere he went, a giant spike would emerge right in front of him.
'Oh no! Itaru is in danger!' Inuyasha realized and started running after him, dodging the many sharp spikes in his way. Itaru was quickly tiring from constantly dodging the many spikes that were out to skewer him alive. Suddenly, a spike erupted right next to him, catching him off guard. He stumbled backwards and was pierced by another sharp spike in his shoulder. He cried out in pain, but dislodged himself and ran even faster despite his pain.
He was finally upon Naraku and crawled onto one of Ryukotsusei's horns.
"Your time is up, Naraku!" Itaru declared.
"Oh is it?" Naraku said coyly.
"You bet your ass it is!" Itaru spat. He crawled in front of Naraku's face and positioned Sutasaiga above him.
"Now! say your prayers! PURIFYING SUTASAIGA!" Itaru shouted. Sutasaiga began to emit a bright glow from its blade and was planted into Naraku's head. Naraku released a frightening cry, and his (Ryukotsusei's) body reeled in pain.
"YES! GOT HIM!" Itaru exclaimed.
But from where the blade was lodged, a thick and potent miasma spewed right into Itaru's face. Itaru stumbled back, coughing and covering his eyes. He was too close to the edge and fell off from Ryukotsusei's head.
"ITARRRRUUUUU!" Inuyasha shouted.
"NO!" *Kagome shrieked.
Itaru fell a great distance next to the body of his father and was rendered motionelss.
"Damn that little bastard!" Naraku hissed.
"That must have caused you a lot of pain, Naraku. Allow me to end your misery!" Sesshomaru shouted, and swung bakusaiga, releasing an green wave of energy. Naraku was injured even further; Naraku fired bolts of electricity in retaliation. Sesshomaru was electrocuted and cast to the ground.
"Now then..." Naraku said, turning to Inuyasha, who was on his neck.
"Naraku, if that boy dies, I will personally see to it that you make your bed in hell tonight!" Inuyasha hissed.
"Such bigh threats, but you cant back it up, can you?" Naraku sneered.
"Count on it!" Inuyasha shouted, charging at Naraku with tetsusaiga drawn. Naraku (Ryukotsusei)'s head charged to tackle the hanyou and narrowly missed. Inuyasha was right on top of him, but Naraku fired a blue ball of energy at him, sending Inuyasha flying.
"NO! INUYASHA!" Kagome cried.
"Hahahahaha!...I have awaited this moment...Now, all of you, bow down before me and resign yourselves to the underworld!" Naraku commanded while roaring with laughter. Naraku (Ryukotsusei) opened his mouth and began charging for his next attack.
"Oh no! what is he going to do now!?" Shippo asked.
"I dont know, but whatever it is, its going to be massive!" *Miroku answered.
"We have to get out of here! Inuyasha! Itaru! can you hear me!?" *Shippo called to them.
"Daddy!" Kazuka cried.
But they could not hear them, they were all paralyzed and unconscious.
"EVERYONE! WE HAVE TO GET THE LITTLE ONES AS FAR AS POSSIBLE!" *Kagome shouted.
"Right!" they all replied.
"Mama!" Meimei cried, clinging to her mother's leg.
"Meimei...you have to get away from here, you will get seriously hurt..." Kagome said, crouching down to her level.
"Wont you get hurt too?! and what about papa? and Itaru?" Meimei asked.
"We will be just fine, dearest. Dont you worry..." Kagome assured.
Meimei stared into the eyes of her mother with longing and sorrow.
"NO! IM NOT LEAVING MY DADDY!" Kazuka shrieked.
"I TOO WILL NOT LEAVE FROM MY LORD'S SIDE! I AM HIS LOYAL RETAINER AND WILL FOLLOW HIM EVEN IN DEATH!" Jaken shotued.
"ENOUGH OF THE FORMALITIES! IF YOU DIE, SESSHOMARU WONT HAVE ANY HEIRS AND THE DOG DEMON CLAN WILL SURELY CEASE TO EXIST! DO YOU WANT THAT?!" *Shippo retorted, looking Kazuka straight in the eyes.
Kazuka was silenced.
"Come on, Kazuka!" Shippo urged, shaking with fear. The little hanyou princess climbed on top of him and looked longingly at her father and began to cry. "I love you daddy..."
The ball of energy was doubling and tripling in size with each second. Down below, Itaru laid next to his father's body. He moved his hands ever so slightly and pulled himself up. He shook his head to recollect his senses. When he looked up, he saw a massive ball of energy positioned right on top of him.
"OH SHIT!" Itaru shrieked. He looked around for sutasaiga, but it was nowhere to be found.
"DAMN IT ALL!" Itaru cursed. "WHAT AM I GOING TO DO!?" he looked over to his father's body and noticed that Tetsusaiga was still on his person.
'TETSUSAIGA! THATS IT! I CAN USE THE BACKLASH WAVE!" Itaru realized. The boy scrambled over to *Inuyasha's body and drew tetsusaiga from its sheath. The sword pulsated three times and transformed.
'Thank you, Tetsusaiga. Please, lend me your strength to protect my family as you have helped my father and his father before him...' Itaru prayed.
Tetsusaiga transformed and Itaru clutched it even tighter.
"Im the only one who can save everyone! Its going to take all of my strength!" Itaru said to himself.
Then, the collosal ball of energy was released. The group shielded their eyes from the bright light. The air around them swirled and flattened everything in its wake. Shippo and Haji along with Jaken, Meimei and Kazuka took to the skies to get away from the wake of the blast. Anything floating near the huge energy bomb was incinerated instantly.
"This is my only chance! NOW! BACKLASH WAVE!" the wind around him and tetsusaiga surged and created giant waves of wind and demoinc energy. The wave collided with the energy bomb and held it back. It took all of Itaru's power to keep the blue globe of power at bay.
'I've managed to hold it off, but I dont know if I can push it back, its just staying in one place! I can't hold this forever!' Itaru thought to himself. In that same moment, the energy bomb began advancing towards them.
"OH NOOO!" Kagome shouted.
"ITARU! GET OUT OF THERE!" *Shippo shouted.
'No! I cant escape! I cant back down now! I cant fail-!' Itaru thought to himself with frantic determination. The heat from the blast began burning his skin. He cried out in pain, but held his ground. Suddenly he felt something behind him, and an added weight to tetsusaiga. He looked to see an additional pair of hands on the hilt of the sword. Itaru turned behind him to behold his father, standing right beside him.
"Looks like you need a hand, kid!" Inuyasha said with a smirk.
"PA!" Itaru cried with joy, his eyes sparkling.
"Okay, so here is what you are doing wrong, ok? you are depending on your own strength, instead of that of your enemy's. The backlash wave is entirely dependent on the youki of your opponent; the stronger the better! You use the wind scar to engulf your enemy's attack into a twister and and send it back to them! What you are doing here is just trying to use your own power to push back a force that is much bigger than yours all by yourself!" Inuyasha explained.
"Oh!" Itaru exclaimed.
"Now, lets do it the right way! do you feel that push of energy right there?" Inuyasha inquired.
"Yeah, I believe I do..." Itaru said.
"Thats good! Now use the wind scar and disturb that flow of wind, that will cause the attack to form a twister and send it backwards, understand?" Inuyasha instructed.
"Yeah! I can do it!" Itaru shouted.
"Show me, then!" Inuyasha urged.
Itaru gripped tetsusaiga and whipped out a wind scar. The wind scar did just as predicted and disrupted the flow of energy around their enemy's attack, creating multiple swirls.
"GREAT JOB! YOU DID IT! NOW SEND HIM TO HELL, ITARU!" Inuyasha commanded.
"ALRIGHT! BACKLASH WAVE!"
This time and it sent the the ball of energy back completely. Naraku could only watch with wide eyes and horror written on his face. He was torn to a thousand pieces, and then left his head floating in the air.
"He did it!" Kagome shouted.
"Quick, Kagome! We have to purify Naraku before he regenerates!" *Kagome exclaimed.
Both Kagomes quickly drew their arrows and aimed.
"GO!" They both said in unison. They released their arrows and they shot towards their target. Suddenly, the two arrows flew close together and then became one. That single arrow struck Naraku in the middle of his forehead.
"NOOOO! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! I AM INVIINCIBLEEEEEEEEE!" Naraku shrieked before being obliterated into millions of pieces.
The fallout from the blast floated from the sky. Sesshomaru stood up and noticed that the particles were attempting to regroup. He used bakusaiga to destroy the remaining pieces of flesh and to prevent them from regenerating.
"Is it really over?' Kagome thought out loud.
They all looked around them and saw only the clearing smoke. They saw no evidence of their enemy.
"Phew! that was quite the battle! You really outdid yourself, Itaru!" Inuyasha complimented.
"Oh gee, it was nothin really!" Itaru said bashfully, scratching his head.
Suddenly, they felt an enormous earthquake.
"w-w-whats happening now?!" Sango exclaimed. The ground under them began to crumble. Pieces of the platform in which the castle stood began to fall apart and fall into the mountain.
"Oh no! the castle!" *kagome cried.
"Its going to crash into the mountains!" *Sango continued.
"We need to get out of here!" *Miroku commanded.
"Okay! KILALA!" Sango cried. Two giant felines appeared in the sky and swooped down to pick up their friends.
The two Kagomes took off with *Inuyasha's body on *Shippo, Sesshomaru took to the skies himself.
"WAIT A MINUTE YOU GUYS! WHAT ABOUT USSS!?" Inuyasha and Itaru roared at their friends, who had just abandoned them.
"Oh! we left them behind, *Shippo!" Kagome said.
"Crap! I forgot all about them!" Shippo shouted.
"C'mon Itaru!" Inuyasha urged.
The two began running towards the edge of the balcony. Beneath them, the platform was falling appart, with the slope increasing and their speed increasing as well, they could not keep their footing and soon fell off. They fell screaming their lungs out and shouting curses at whoever was listening.
"WHY DIDNT ANYONE STOP TO SAVE UUUSSSS!" Itaru shouted before he felt a sudden jerk and a tight grip on his wrist. He looked up to see Meimei and Kazuka on top of Haji, holding on to his arms and shoulders.
"No one forgot you, big brother!" Meimei reassured.-
"You guys! you were supposed to be far away from here!" Itaru reminded.
"Would you rather us not save you? That can be arranged, you know."Kazuka snided.
Meimei giggled, "Lets just say we're not really good at doing what we're told."
Meanwhile, Inuyasha was still falling to his doom shouting obscenities. The Kagomes were urging *Shippo to go and catch Inuyasha
"Shippo! you have to go back!" Kagome pleaded.
"aww do I have to?" *Shippo said jokingly.
"SHIPPO YOU DUMB ASS! I SWEAR, WHEN I GET A HOLD OF YOU, IM GOING TO-" Suddenly, Inuyasha was cut off with a thud. Inuyasha landed head first on top of Shippo in his ball form.
"You were saying, Inuyasha?" Shippo retorted.
"Such an ungrateful whelp!" Jaken scolded.
"You said it, Jaken!" Shippo agreed.
And with that, they flew away to safety. The castle fell, crumbling into the mountain behind them. In the distant horizon, light was emerging and a new day was begining.
OH. MY GOD. YOU. GUYS.
I don't know what to say. There is just a certain feeling you get when you are able to put your imagination and thoughts onto paper. Im sure a lot of you can relate. Thats how I feel right now.
This is great guys. I'm so happy thank you all for being so patient for me. I hope you are all very well satisfied.
just 2-3 chapters left. I am actually half-way through these, I tend to start on future chapters while waiting for inspiration for the current one. So it wont be long at all.
again, a thousand thanks to you all.
Now you know the drill. I did my part, you do yours. REVIEW!
much love,
GoDdEsS oF tHe AbYsS