Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the supporting characters.

To Hell and Back

Chapter Eight

Inuyasha is running through each corridor of Naraku's castle. He's using his nose and his mating bond to look for Kagome. Each time he thinks he is closer, he ends up at a dead end.

"Dammit! Kagome!!" He yells over and over again. Why can't he find her? Is this some cruel joke orchestrated by Naraku? He continued his search through each hallway until finally, he found the right door. He opened it to find Kagome knelt down with a gross old blanket wrapped around her. She appeared to be unconscious. He barely notices the infant in the miko's grasp.

Then he saw her. "Kagura! Get away from her! What did you do to her?!"

Kagura backed away from the girl with no intent to fight. "I .. I was only doing what I was ordered to do."

Inuyasha growled at her and then crouched in front of Kagome and shook her shoulders. "Kagome! Wake up, please wake up!"

-

"Naraku. Inuyasha is in the room with the miko and Kagura." The monotonous voice of the small yokai girl explained to the evil hanyou.

Naraku chucked and watched the mirror as everything in his plan comes full circle. "Good. This is all going according to my plan. Let's watch as Inuyasha's mate takes his life."

-

Inuyasha tries to pry the infant from Kagome's grasp but there is a small barrier around it. He can't even touch it. He then wraps his arms around his mate.

"Kagome. Please. Wake up." He looks down and sees the shackles around her ankles. He takes a moment to slice them to pieces so she can be free. Then he tried again. He shook her shoulders and called out for her, "Kagome! Mate! Wake up!"

In that instant, Kagome's eyes shot open and she jumped backwards from Inuyasha's grasp. He is completely shocked when he sees her. Her eyes are glazed over, showing absolutely no emotion. She drops the blanket, all signs of modesty gone. Without a word, she flings forward and lets out miko energy directly at the confused hanyou.

He dodges the attack and looks at his mate with complete horror. A memory flashes in his mind.

"Die, Inuyasha!"

Kikyo let her arrow fly and it struck him in the chest. He ended up pinned to the Goshinboku where he was lying dormant for the next fifty years.

"K-Kagome. It's me! Don't let Naraku win!" Then he was even more shocked and took a step back at the sight before him. Kagome materialized a bow and arrow in her hand made completely of her bright pink miko energy. She notched the arrow and aimed in directly at Inuyasha's chest.

"Die, Inuyasha." She let the arrow fly. A tear escaped Kagome's eye as she released the arrow towards her mates chest. When she saw that Inuyasha escaped her second attempt at his life, she had another arrow at the ready.

Inuyasha is moving side to side, watching as Kagome follows his every move with her arrow notched towards him. He takes a deep breath in. "Please. I know you are still there. I know you know it's me. I can smell the salt of your tears. Fight back Kagome! Fight it!"

The arrow in Kagome's grasp starts to shake slightly. Her aim is wavering and more tears start to flow. Her consciousness is starting to return but her control of her body is still very slim.

"Inu.. Run.. I can't.. Stop." The arrow flew again and Inuyasha barely got away that time. He looks to his shoulder and sees the burn mark caused by the purifying arrow. She reluctantly notched another one and aimed it once again.

Inuyasha rushes forward and pushes the arrow from her grasp, feeling a slight burn on his hand as he did so. He pulls her face to his and captures her lips with his own. At first, Kagome resists. She lets small amounts of her energy out of her hands, burning him slightly but not affecting him enough. Then, slowly, she leans into the kiss.

The infant that is clinging to her chest is immediately dispelled from her. He falls to the ground. "No!" The child screams.

Inuyasha pulls away to look into Kagome's sad eyes. He kisses her on the forehead and then quickly takes his Suikan off and wraps it around her bare body. She puts her arms through the sleeves and ties is around her waist like she has done before.

"Inu.. I'm sorry."

"Don't. It's not your fault." They turn around to see Kagura inching towards the infant. "Stay back Kagura!"

She looks at them with remorse filled eyes and then does what neither of them expected. She takes her fan and swipes her wind blades directly at Naraku's heart.

-

Naraku is watching the scene play out before him. He smiles each time Kagome attacks her lover. Then when things take a turn for the worst, he gets angry. He watches the baby get torn away and then watches as Kagura defies him once again. When the baby is cut in two, he immediately clutches his chest. He has to think fast. He rushes to the scene and when he enters the room, everyone turns around to look at him with both fear and determination in their eyes.

He goes with his last resort which is to absorb the infant back into his body. The others watch him do this as Inuyasha stands defensively in front of Kagome with his Tetsusaiga held out in front of him.

Kagura backs away slightly, knowing exactly what was about to happen to her for defying her master.

Naraku looked at Kagura and smirked. He held his hand out in front of him with what looks to be a heart. He squeezes it tight, watching as Kagura knelt down on the ground, clutching her chest. Then he pushes his fist into her chest and lets the heart beat inside her once again.

Kagura smiles at the feeling, even though she knows that it won't last long. She takes a deep breath in and lets it out slowly. 'This is what it feels like.. to be alive.' In an instant, Naraku's tentacle was through her chest. He pulled back out and let her collapse onto the floor.

After a moment, she managed to get to her feet and scramble out of the castle. She gets on her feather and flies to the one place she wants to die. She doesn't want to be in Naraku's presence when she stops living. She wants to look into the eyes of the person she has grown to love.

-

Inuyasha starts to strike at Naraku, missing every slash. "Kaze no Kizu!" The burst of energy aimed directly at Naraku, vanished when a barrier appeared around the evil hanyou's body. Naraku then changed into a large form with tentacles wiggling in every direction. He crashed through the ceiling of the castle causing the whole thing to come down. Inuyasha grabbed Kagome by the waist and jumped out into the opening and landed on the field in front of the castle that is now in ruins. Kanna is crushed along with the rest of the building. Inuyasha held his hand in front of Kagome to try and protect her.

"Kagome!" Sango ran up to her sister and handed her her bow with her quiver of arrows. Kagome thanked her and got into her fighting stance.

"You are NOT fighting. You are carrying MY PUP and I will NOT allow it!" Inuyasha yelled at her.

"Inuyasha! I am in this just as much as you are! I will NOT stand back!"

He growled at her as a male Inu mate would and she growled back to show her own dominance. He opened his eyes wide and then smirked.

"You are a very strong mate. Be careful." He gave her a chaste kiss on the lips before turning to Naraku.

Shippo ran up to Kagome and jumped into her arms. "You're okay! I missed you, okāsan!"

Kagome's eyes widened. "Okāsan?" Tears sprung in her eyes and she hugged him tighter.

"I - I'm sorry. It just came out.. Kagome." Shippo hugged her back.

"No, Shippo. It's perfectly fine. You can call me whatever you feel comfortable with." She pulls him away to look into his large green eyes and she smiled. "Okāsan is more than okay with me, musuko."

He smiled back at her and wrapped his tiny little arms around her neck. "I love you, Okāsan."

"I love you too. Now, do me a favor and stay by Kirara. Okay? Don't come back until I tell you it's okay."

Shippo nodded his head after giving Kagome a chaste kiss on the cheek and ran to the neko yokai and hid behind her while she is in her large form.

Inuyasha smiled at his mate and her adoptive pup and then turned back to the fight before him. There are tentacles flying left and right. Sango's Hiraikotsu flying through and destroying the tentacles over and over again. Miroku is slashing through each attack with his staff, still unable to use his kazaana due to the Saimyōshō. Kirara is biting through each attack that threatens the little Kitsune's life. Even Shippo used his fox fire on a few small fry that get too close to him. Kikyo is shooting her purifying arrows directly at Naraku's heart but they are being propelled away by his barrier. The barrier around his body is even stronger then the one that was around the castle.

Inuyasha starts with his most basic attack. "Kaze no Kizu!" When that didn't work, he tried a different one, "Kongōsōha!" The spears of adamant fly towards the evil hanyou and slices through his barrier, directly through Naraku's body, but missed his heart. Naraku shows on his face how surprised he is but then reconstructs his barrier and pulls his body back together.

Naraku attacks Inuyasha with the tentacles and ends up piercing him through his stomach. Inuyasha's eyes widened and he fell backwards onto the ground, dropping his Tetsusaiga.

"Inuyasha!!" Kagome yelled out as she ran to his side.

"K-Kagome. No.. Stay.. away." His eyes closed and then Kagome felt it. Inuyasha's body starts to pulsate. When his eyes opened again, gone was the amber and back was the bright red with a blue center.

Kagome wasn't frightened this time. She understood that her mate would never hurt her now. She smiled down at him and watched as Inuyasha stood up and snarled at Naraku. Naraku could only laugh as he shot more attacks at the hanyou and Miko.

Kagome dove out of the way and Inuyasha sliced the tentacle with his claws. "Mate. Stand back."

Kagome backed up but notched an arrow anyway. She gave Naraku a determined look and shot through his barrier, directly through his heart. Everyone watched as the barrier completely dissipated and Naraku fell to the ground.

Naraku is holding onto his chest and caughing up blood, yet he is still laughing at them. Then he says something which really gets under their skin. "Kohaku. Show yourself." Sango's eyes widened as she watched her little brother walk out from behind the shadows and into view.

Kagome cursed herself for not paying enough attention to realize his shard was right there.

When Kohaku came close, Naraku smiled at the taijiya and managed enough energy to strike a small tentacle at the boy's neck. Immediately causing the shard to fly out and they watched as Kohaku fell to the ground in front of his sister. Kagome picked up the shard and placed it with the others.

"Kohaku! No!" Sango bent down in front of him and held her brother in her arms, crying, knowing that he is now dead.

Inuyasha collapsed to the ground as his eyes fade back to amber and his other yokai features left him. He then lost consciousness. Kagome walked up to the evil hanyou, took another arrow and looked into his red eyes as she lifted her arms above her head and then slammed the purified arrow down to pierce him once again straight into his evil heart.

The last thing Naraku saw was Kagome holding the arrow above her head and slamming it down. Then everything went black.

Naraku's body completely dissolved and the shikon no tama rolled towards Kagome. She bent down and lifted it, completely getting rid of all the dark energy from the jewel. She puts it into her bag that was sitting next to Kirara and then she walked up to Inuyasha and bent down in front of him.

Inuyasha opened his eyes slowly to see Kagome's worried gaze. "K-Kagome. Wh-What happened?"

"Naraku is dead."

Inuyasha's eyes widened and then he smiled. "I told you you are strong."

She laughed as a stray tear went down her face and landed on his. "I thought I was just a weak human." She jokingly said to him.

"You were. When I met you." He smiled up at her, a fang protruding from his lip. "But now, you are the strongest person I know. You're stronger then me, Kagome."

She kissed him on the forehead and then turned to see Kikyo on the other side of Inuyasha. She stifled a growl, knowing they need to end things. She stepped back as Kikyo bent down in front of her former love.

"Inuyasha."

"Kikyo.."

She places a hand to his cheek and then leaned in and kissed him lightly on the lips for only a second.

Kagome's eyes widened and she clenched her fists to her sides as she watched the scene play out in front of her.

Kikyo looked down at the injured hanyou and smiled. "Thank you, Inuyasha. Because of you and your mate.. I can finally be free. I can rest now." She closed her eyes and allowed the souls in her body to be free. Each soul escaped and flew through the air. The very last soul to leave her body was the one that twirled through the air and then slammed intself down into Kagome's body, causing her to fall to the ground and lose conciousness.

"Bye, Inuyasha." Kikyo turned to dust in the wind and was now free to cross over to the other side. Inuyasha let a tear flow down his cheek and turned to look at his mate who is now on the ground. He closed his eyes and fell asleep, right after reaching towards his mate and thinking just one word. 'Kagome..'

Shippo ran to Kagome's side and hugged her tight, "Okāsan! Is she okay?"

Miroku stopped looking at his right hand which now didn't have the kazaana to answer the kits question. "She will be just fine, Shippo. We should go though. We need to get to Kaede's and heal our friends."

Sango lifted her head from her limp brothers chest to look at the houshi. "I can't leave my brother behind. I want to take him with us, then when everyone is healed, I want to take him back to the yokai slayers village and give him a proper burial."

Miroku smiled sadly at her and agreed. They grabbed their friends bodies and put them on top of Kirara. Kirara mewed about all the extra weight but knew it couldn't be helped. Then they left for home.

-

About six hours later, they were all in Kaede's hut. Inuyasha was laying on the ground with banages around his torso and arms. Kagome was sleeping on the cot with a cold rag on her forehead. Sango was sitting in the corner, cradling her little brothers body. Miroku was sitting next to her, staring at the palm of his right hand. Shippo had Kirara in his lap while he was sitting next to Kagome, and Kaede was stirring some stew for the group for when everyone gained conciousness.

Inuyasha slowly opened his eyes and tried to sit up, but stopped when he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. He cringed in pain and looked down at the bloody bandages. "Dammit. Kagome. Where's Kagome!?" He looked around and his eyes landed on the sleeping form on the cot. "What happened!?" He ignored his pain to stand over her and wipe her hair from her sweaty face.

"Inuyasha. I suggest ye be careful. Ye suffered some nasty wounds."

"I don't care old woman! What happened to Kagome?!"

Kaede sighed at the hanyou's impolite demeanor and answered him anyway. "She shall be just fine. When my sisters soul left her body and went back to Kagome's, it was too much for her all at once. She is going to need rest."

Inuyasha leaned in and kissed Kagome on the forehead.

"Inu..yasha?"

He looked back into her brown eyes and smiled. "Kagome.. How are you feeling?"

She sat up slowly even though he tried to keep her laying down. "I feel tired. And my head hurts. But other then that, I'm okay. What about you? You were hurt pretty badly." She looks at his stomach and cringes. "Inuyasha. You should be laying down."

He chuckles at her, "I could say the same thing about you, Koibito." He puts his face into the crook of her neck and places feather like kisses to her mating mark. Then he wraps his arms around her just to hold her. "I love you, Kagome."

"I love you too, Inuyasha." She pulls away to look into his amber orbs and smiled again. "Naraku. He's dead. He's finally dead."

"Yes, because of you." He puts his forehead to hers and then about thirty seconds later, his ears swivel to the entrance of the hut. "What the hell is he doing here?"

"What's wrong, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha gets up, holding his stomach and wobbles out of the hut. Kagome forces herself up and follows him. Sango reluctantly lays her brother down softly and also followed. Miroku, Shippo, Kirara and Kaede followed their lead.

When they left the hut, they saw Sesshomaru along with Jaken and the little girl that goes by Rin. Then they look closer and widen their eyes. It's Kagura. She is following behind the daiyōkai.

"Sesshomaru. What are you doing here!?" Inuyasha yelled to his older half brother.

Sesshomaru answers with his usual stoic demeanor. "This Sesshomaru heard about your Miko mate and how she caused Naraku's death. This Sesshomaru came to asses the situation myself. This Sesshomuru also sees that she is pregnant with your pup, Inuyasha. Now tell me, how is it possible that a hanyou such as yourself, created another hanyou? Shouldn't that child only be quarter yokai?"

Inuyasha's eyes widened. "You're saying.. my pup is a hanyou?"

The daiyōkai glared at him. "This Sesshomaru does not stutter."

Kagome placed her hands on her barely visible baby bump and smiled. Inuyasha thought for a moment, "I guess it's because I was in my full yokai form when the pup was conceived."

"I see." Sesshomaru looked down to the sword on his hip. It pulsed, not once, not twice, but three times. He put his hand on the hilt of the Tenseiga and started walking towards the hut entrance.

"What are you doing?" Inuyasha asked.

"Silence." Sesshomaru continued into the hut and saw the still body of the little boy who has threatened Rins life more then once. Rin ran in behind Sesshomaru and gasped when she saw Kohaku.

"Lord Sesshomaru. It's Kohaku!" The girl said with tears in her eyes.

The rest of the group followed, leaving only Jaken and Kagura outside. They watched carefully, with hope in their hearts for what is about to happen.

Sesshomaru unsheathed the sword from his hip and looked down at the boy. 'Why, Tenseiga? Why do you want me to revive the child?' He stepped closer and looked more intently. He saw them. The yokai of the underworld. In one sweap of his sword, they were gone and he walked out of the hut without a word.

Sango ran up to her little brother as he started gasping for air. "Kohaku!" She grabbed him close and hugged him with tears flowing freely down her face. She ran back out of the hut and yelled for Sesshomaru to turn around. When he did, she could only say one word, "Why?"

He glanced at her but did not respond. He turned to leave, but Rin stayed to answer, "Lord Sesshomaru is honestly a really nice guy." Sesshomaru called for her to follow and she smiled and waved before skipping towards her master.

Kagura gave them a warm smile and left too. They all came to the conclusion that Kagura must have went to Sesshomaru and he revived her as well.

Sango ran back into the hut and grabbed her brother in her arms. "Kohaku."

"S-Sister."

Yokai - Demon

Daiyokai - Great Demon

Hanyou - Half-Demon

Neko Yokai - Cat Demon

Kitsune - Fox

Taijiya - Demon Slayer

Houshi - Monk

Miko - Priestess

Okāsan - Mother

Musuko - Son

Koibito - Lover/Sweetheart

Saimyōshō - Poisonous Insects

Kaze no Kizu - Wind Scar

Kongōsōha - Adamant Barrage

A/N: Thanks for reading!! I hope you enjoyed the angst the last couple of chapters. So, I usually write Kikyo as an only bad character because I don't like her at all. But I decided to go a different route and I love what I did with it! I hope you do too. I also went through so many emotions writing these last two chapters. I actually cried and smiled and felt everything these characters felt. I had a really good time writing this part of the story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please review and keep on reading!