InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Case of Double Personality ❯ She Lives ( Chapter 14 )

Chapter XIV: She Lives

 

 

Ever since they had left the village, Inuyasha was feeling cranky. After picking on Shippou even more than usual, yelling at the others and being sat by Kagome, he had rewarded them with a very pronounced “Keh”. Seeing that they were all glaring at him and Kagome was looking very frightening, he started walking in front of the group, with his head so high, they were expecting him to trip on something and fall on his face.

 

 

“Could you stop provoking such an annoying atmosphere?” Sango finally asked, unable to stand him any longer.

 

 

“Yeah, Inuyasha, I told you we would find her somehow, stop being so stiff!” Kagome added, trying to catch up to the hanyou and look him in the eyes.

 

 

“Stiff? The wind is carrying the stench of Shichinintai and the sun is almost down!” He snapped, glaring at them.

 

 

“Oh, no!” Kagome realized. “This is the day of the new moon! That's why he's been like this! How could I have forgotten...”

 

 

“I'm sorry, Inuyasha...” She said in a low voice, taking his hand.

 

 

He stopped and looked at her with a very angry expression, but her guilty look was just too much and his skin was warm where she touched him, so he settled for mumbling “It's ok.”

 

 

Kagome smiled at him as he started to walk faster and remained behind for a second as the feeling of Shikon shards struck her.

 

 

“Inuyasha! I sense a Shikon...” Her phrase was abruptly cut off as she felt a hand grab her from behind. The tip of a very sharp halberd touched her neck and she didn't even need to turn to know who her aggressor was.

 

 

“Bankotsu! Take your hands off of her!” Inuyasha shouted, leaping in front of him.

 

 

“What's wrong, Inuyasha? Your sense of smell used to be better.” Bankotsu spoke in an amused tone, trailing his sharp halberd over Kagome's frail skin.

 

 

“Don`t fucking touch her!” The hanyou yelled, unsheathing his sword as his eyes burned with anger.

 

 

“Make a move and I slit her throat.” Bankotsu warned, accompanying his words with a press of his weapon and a drop of blood came out of the girl's neck.

 

 

Inuyasha was breathing hard, claws digging into his own skin as his fist tightened.

 

 

“You two. The same goes for you.” Bankotsu addressed Sango and Miroku, who were taking up battle positions.

 

 

“Don't worry, Inuyasha. I just want a piece of information and I'll let her go. It would be a pitty to kill such a fine woman anyway.” The leader of the Shichinintai said.

 

 

“Spit it out already, bastard!” Inuyasha growled, barely managing to control his anger.

 

 

“I want to know where your brother's at.” He said, pinning them with his dark-blue gaze.

 

 

“How the fuck should I know where that idiot's at?!” Inuyasha shouted, narrowing his eyes.

 

 

“It's a pitty...really...Do you how long it's been since I had a woman, Inuyasha?”

 

 

Bankotsu asked with a grin, his free hand wrapping around Kagome's waist.

 

 

She kept quiet, although she dreaded his touch, because she didn't want to put more pressure on Inuyasha. The hanyou hated to feel helpless and she could see that all over his face.

 

 

“It's been almost a weak. And that's a very long time for me.” Bankotsu continued, moving his hand upward.

 

 

“Ah...I envy him.” Miroku said in a low voice, earning himself a glare from Sango.

 

 

“Get your filthy hands off of her!” Inuyasha yelled, preparing to swing Tessaiga.

 

 

“Make a move.” Bankotsu dared him, his hand clutching on the hilt of his Banryuu.

 

 

Inuyasha gave Kagome a glance. She tried to hide how frightened she was, as if he couldn't smell her fear from a mile away. Even close to becoming a human, he could still feel any of Kagome's emotions clearly and the scent of her fear drove him mad.

 

 

“From all the days...he had to pick this one.” Inuyasha thought bitterly, trying to find a way out of the situation. There was no way out. The sun was disappearing below the horizon.

 

 

“Sesshoumaru's headed west.” He said in a low voice.

 

 

“Good. That's all I need to know.” Bankotsu said, releasing Kagome and pushing her into Inuyasha's arms.

 

 

“Hiraikotsu!” Sango's giant boomerang flew after the leader of the Shichinintai, but he ducked it easily, thanks to his extraordinary agility and ran off.

 

 

Inuyasha let a growl of frustration escape him as his claws shortened into nails and his hair became raven black. He was still holding Kagome in his arms, so tight that the girl was afraid she would get bruises. The hanyou examined her neck with attention, sighing with relief at the sight of only a small scratch.

 

 

“Thank goodness he left before you turned human, Inuyasha.” Miroku said.

 

 

“Too bad you had to tell him where Sesshoumaru is though...” Shippou opined.

 

 

“Keh! That bastard can take care of himself.” Inuyasha replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

 

 

“We should rest here for tonight.” Sango advised. “Tomorrow we can go after him.”

 

 

Kagome nodded as Shippou proceeded to use his kitsunebi and make a fire, after which he paraded pompously in front of Inuyasha, blabbering something about his “never ending youkai power”. Thus, the kitsune found himself in the air, his tail held by a very angry hanyou.

 

 

“Knock it off you two!” Kagome addressed them.

 

 

“He started it!” They both yelled.

 

 

ooooOOoooo

 

A man in a white baboon pelt waited patiently on the branch of a high tree. The baboon mask covering his face hid his expression and he stood alone in the silence.

 

 

Not long after, a group of base youkai arrived, floating above the trees and descended in front of him.

 

 

A youkai that was half spider and half humanoid stepped forward and addressed the man:

 

 

“Naraku! You tricked us! You said that castle was easy to take, lacking its most powerful defender!”

 

 

“And was it not?” The man asked calmly.

 

 

“There was a Miko, who had purifying powers like nothing I have ever seen!” The youkai growled, approaching the man threateningly.

 

 

“ A Miko, you say?” He asked, his brows knitting underneath the baboon mask.

 

 

“Her hair was yellow like the sun and her arrow destroyed our leader like he was nothing!” The youkai continued.

 

 

“She lives.” He thought, realizing his worse suspicion had proved to be true.

 

 

It was not easy to find the Western Lord's castle, nor was it too difficult.

 

 

Using the swarms of base youkai he commanded, accompanied by Saimyoshou, he was able to spot the castle above the clouds. Not wasting any time, he had sent Kohaku to the castle gates, to ask for Lord Sesshoumaru, pretending to have an important piece of information that he could only entrust to his royal ears. The guards regarded the human child with wide eyes. A human asking to see Lord Sesshoumaru? What should they do? It seemed their master had lately developed a liking to humans, like that strange Miko and the little girl, so they should probably answer this one.

 

 

“Lord Sesshoumaru is away on important matters. Return in three days.” Came the guard's response.

 

 

Kohaku nodded and walked away. Naraku had only sent him to verify if this was indeed Sesshoumaru's castle. If the youkai lord was there, Kohaku would have had to make his escape. Or die. It didn't really matter to Naraku.

 

 

Since he was not there, the hanyou decided to waste no time in attacking the castle. It was the best way to find out if the Miko was still alive and, in that case, kill her.

 

 

He didn't send his own swarm of base demons for the job. They were indeed too weak to take on Sesshoumaru's guards. Instead, he had gathered the most powerful youkai he could find and promised their leader three Shikon shards if he could take the castle.

 

 

“It is an easy task, since the taiyoukai that rules over it is away. The guards shouldn't be any trouble for one such as yourself.” Naraku's kugutsu had said in a soft tone.

 

 

The youkai tightened his fist and spikes burst out of it as he looked down at the man in the baboon skin.

 

 

“Show me the shards!” He growled.

 

 

Naraku opened his hand and showed him three little glowing shards. Every youkai in the perimeter felt a pulse inside of them and they all regarded the shards with greedy eyes.

 

 

“It is indeed the Shikon no Tama.” Their leader said with a strange look in his red eyes.

Suddenly, the shards in Naraku's hand disappeared and he grinned beneath the baboon skin.

 

 

“Killing me and taking the shards is not an option.” He informed them calmly.

 

 

Hundreds of growls and roars came from all the youkai as Naraku stood still and calm in the middle of the raging group.

 

 

“Give us your name!” The leader spoke, calming down the masses with a wave of his giant spiked fist.

 

 

“Naraku is what I am called.” He answered in a soft voice.

 

 

“Very well, Naraku. We will accomplish your task, but if you have deceived us, you will regret it!” The demon warned, taking off with his army.

 

 

Naraku looked after them and smiled beneath the baboon mask.

 

 

“You will die for this!” The spider-like youkai roared, attacking the man in the baboon pelt. The others followed him, with rage shining in their deformed eyes.

 

 

Six or seven root-like arms came out of the baboon skin and caught the youkai, raising them in the air. Claws burst out at the end of those arms and blood started to pore out in every direction as the youkai roared with pain.

 

 

Naraku's kugutsu jumped to the side, releasing the already dead enemies, to avoid an attack from the remaining ones. With incredible agility and speed, he managed to entrap all of them in his strange root-like appendages and then squeezed, suffocating his enemies. As the bodies fell limp on the ground, the appendages retracted inside the baboon skin and the man landed smoothly on his branch.

 

 

“If they could be destroyed by a kugutsu, they are not nearly as strong as I anticipated.” Naraku thought as his puppet walked away into the sunset.

 

 

 

 

A/N: I don't know if anyone even remembers the story anymore, seeing how I took forever to update, and that fault belongs partly to college and partly to the birth of “Struggle”, my first Naruto fic :)