InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Blackout ❯ Naraku's True Objective ( Chapter 21 )

Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha or any of the publicly known characters, plot, etc. I’m just renting them from Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, etc. I do own the plot of this story and any original characters I’ve created. I will make no money from this fic; I write for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of my readers.


Naraku’s True Objective


Kagome sighed miserably as she trudged along at the rear of the group. Sango had stayed with her for moral support, but the taijiya seemed to understand that she wasn’t in the mood for conversation. She was really in the mood for a nap; pregnancy and sleep deprivation did not mix well. But she was damn sure not going to ask Inuyasha to carry her. He was so lost in his own private torment, that he probably wouldn’t hear a word she said anyway. Part of her wanted to be mad at him, but her sympathy outweighed her jealousy. He had lost the woman he loved, after all.

Naraku had escaped. Again. They had briefly encountered the dark hanyou in the interior of Mount Hakurei, but he hadn’t seemed very interested in fighting them. He had shown Inuyasha that Tetsusaiga could no longer penetrate his barrier, and gloated that Kouga’s jewel shards now belonged to him as well, courtesy of their mutual ‘ineptitude.’ But then he had retreated, leaving the mountain collapsing behind him. It was a fairly feeble trap by Naraku’s standards, and Inuyasha had gotten them out with relative ease. Once outside, they finally met up with Miroku and Sango, who had made their own escape. All in all, it had been a fairly anticlimactic encounter, compared to their epic confrontation with Jakotsu. That is, until Inuyasha had suddenly run off without a word. At the time, Kagome hoped she’d imagined the flicker of that familiar look in his eyes, the one she’d come to associate with Kikyou.

She had not. By the time they caught up to Inuyasha, he was alone. Kikyou was gone, cast into the miasma below by Naraku; all that remained of her was her broken bow. The dark hanyou had fled, and Sesshoumaru, who had confirmed Kikyou’s death with a few cruel words, had departed as well. Kagome shuddered at the memory of the haunted look on Inuyasha’s face, the lifelessness in his eyes. He almost seemed dead inside, as he asked them in a disturbing monotone to set up camp somewhere. He didn’t tell them when he would return, and no one dared to ask. They had done as he’d requested, joining up with Shippou and Kirara, as well as Kouga and his pack. And while everyone else, including the youkai, had fallen asleep during the night, Kagome had remained awake until the first light of dawn crested over the remnants of Mount Hakurei, when Inuyasha finally returned. She knew immediately that he hadn’t found any trace of Kikyou. He seemed surprised to find her awake, and apologized while stating that he was ‘okay’ now. Then he’d walked away, and hadn’t said another word to anyone since.

Kagome put a hand over her mouth but couldn’t stifle her yawn. It was now the middle of the afternoon on the day after her all-nighter, and she was beat. Her headache from the day before had never completely gone away, probably due to lack of sleep. She almost felt physically ill, but hoped it was merely the combination of normal fatigue and exhaustion from overusing her spiritual energy.

“Do you want to take a rest, Kagome-chan?” Sango asked gently, to which Kagome shook her head in response. “Well, we’ll stop early tonight,” the taijiya stated, in a tone which would permit no argument. “If Inuyasha doesn’t like it, I’ll whack him with hiraikotsu a few times. You’re pregnant, Kagome-chan. You shouldn’t push yourself.”

The unintentional mention of the hanyou only made Kagome feel worse. But she couldn’t argue with Sango’s reasoning. Once it was explained to him, she didn’t think Inuyasha would protest too much either. But she was glad that Sango was willing to fight with him in her place, if necessary. She definitely didn’t feel up for that, and her sympathy meant that she really didn’t want to ‘osuwari’ him in order to get her way. But she did need to rest, for the baby’s sake; there was no doubt about that.

The pair lapsed into silence until Sango spoke up excitedly a few minutes later. “Oh, look, Kagome-chan! There’s a village up ahead.”

Kagome raised her eyes to confirm that observation, then glanced doubtfully over at Sango. But the look in the taijiya’s eyes said that they would be stopping at this village for the night, as long as they could find a place to stay. Regardless of what any other members of the group thought about it.

“A good-sized village like this might even have a hot spring nearby!” Sango observed brightly, clearly trying to cheer her friend up. Kagome nearly moaned at the thought; a hot bath sounded positively divine. She was still covered in the dirt and sweat from all of the battles yesterday, and she probably didn’t smell very good. If only that was the reason why Inuyasha didn’t want to walk with her. But before she could start thinking about him and Kikyou again, Sango spoke up.

“I was actually hoping to find a hot spring soon, anyway. I…wanted to talk to you in private, Kagome-chan. When Houshi-sama and I were on Mount Hakurei…well…”

Now that got Kagome’s full attention. Sango didn’t look like she wanted to say any more until they were alone. Kagome could respect that, but now she was extremely curious. It wasn’t every day that something happened between the amorous monk and the reserved taijiya. Had they kissed? Had they confessed their feelings? Tch, maybe they got drunk and slept together. She snorted at her own joke, but wisely kept it to herself. If that had been the case, she was pretty sure that Miroku’s male ego would have grown large enough to block out the sun by now.

Sango grinned at her, despite her obvious embarrassment. She was glad she had given Kagome something to look forward to aside from another evening alone with her misery. The miko’s obvious interest in her and Miroku’s love lives could come across as meddlesome at times, but Sango had learned to appreciate it. Her friend cared about her, wanted her to be happy. And it was honestly nice sometimes to get another woman’s opinion of a man’s behavior, especially a man like Miroku who could send mixed signals. And that was putting it lightly.

After all, it wasn’t as though she and Houshi-sama had really done anything. No! I won’t leave you. We’ll die together! Her face flamed at the memory. Afterwards, it had taken her a few moments to recall everything that had transpired. But she remembered it all, down to the finest detail. The despair she’d felt at the realization that she was about to lose him. How life hadn’t seemed worth living unless he was by her side. And how she’d thrown herself against his chest, tearful eyes closed, prepared to let the youkai consume her.

Miroku’s behavior toward her hadn’t changed since then, for which she was grateful. The hand-holding was still somewhat uncomfortable for her at times, though she genuinely enjoyed it. Moving beyond that was still out of the question, and perhaps he understood that. She had walls of her own, like the other warrior of the group, which took time to come down. That Houshi-sama was apparently willing to give her that time before pushing things too far made her very happy. He’d already shown his respect for her by refraining from groping her after slipping up at the temple, but this went a step beyond.

Then again, he hadn’t really had much in the way of an opportunity to flirt with other women since their recovery. She was curious what would happen the next time they came across a peaceful village inhabited by a few comely eligible lasses. Maybe the village just up ahead would qualify, and she’d have her answer. In that case, she would definitely want to talk privately with Kagome as soon as possible. The younger girl was a bit naïve about love, in Sango’s opinion, but her positive attitude was always encouraging. Kagome was the type of person who believed in the adage ‘love conquers all,’ that if two people were meant to be together, things would work out. She applied that outlook to Sango’s relationship with Miroku, but not to her own relationship with Inuyasha. Probably because she didn’t yet believe that the two of them were destined to be together. Not that Sango could blame her, given how things had turned out. She just hoped that Inuyasha didn’t pine after Kikyou for too long. Kagome was hurting too, seeing him so depressed because he didn’t have the dead miko in his life anymore. And if Inuyasha insisted on moping for more than what the taijiya felt was appropriate under the circumstances, she might just have to give him something to really cry about. But for the moment, they would all try to be patient with him. He obviously needed time to cope with Kikyou’s apparent demise. He just had to snap out of it before he did too much damage to his relationship with Kagome.

Unfortunately, all romantic concerns would need to be put on the back burner for a while; they had a very ‘real world’ tragedy to deal with.

“This is terrible,” Sango stated as she caught a full glimpse of the carnage.

“Low-level youkai,” Inuyasha muttered, his first words since early that morning. “From Mount Hakurei, most likely.”

His friends nodded in agreement. This was the first village they had come across like this, but it probably wouldn’t be the last. A great swarm of youkai had emerged from Mount Hakurei, likely half-starved and ravenous. It was no wonder that nothing remained of the former inhabitants of the village except bones and tattered clothing. The Inu-gang was too late to save them, but they could at least bury the dead. Without a word, Inuyasha grabbed a shovel and began to dig a grave, evidently not in the mood to burrow in the dirt with his hands like a dog. His friends started gathering up the victims’ remains with practiced ease. They had become far too proficient at this sort of work.

The preparations were nearly complete when a stranger appeared over a rise down the road little ways. He was a traveling monk, who graciously offered to assist with the burial. He seemed to not be in the best of health, so the Inu-gang politely declined. Instead, they sat him down and heard his story. That same morning he had assisted some of the local daimyo’s soldiers with burying the dead from another village ravaged by youkai. And he seemed to know that the youkai had come from Mount Hakurei, which surprised them until he suddenly spoke of a miko, drawing everyone’s rapt attention. Apparently, an injured miko had washed ashore on a riverbank on the other side of Mount Hakurei the previous evening. No one doubted that this was Kikyou, especially not after the monk stated that the miko had mentioned Naraku by name. He also said that she might already have succumbed to her wounds, and likely wouldn’t survive much longer. That was the kicker for Kagome. As much as she didn’t want Inuyasha to go, she knew he needed to.

He didn’t argue with her, muttering only a quiet apology as he gazed at her feet with a guilty expression. He was not able to meet her eyes, which oddly made his departure easier to deal with. A part of her took grim satisfaction in the knowledge that he felt bad for leaving her to go search for the twisted abomination which used to be his first love. But this was also the part of her that wished the rumor concerning Kikyou was a hoax, and the dead miko was really dead this time. Needless to say, Kagome did not enjoy encountering this side of herself. And so, because she did still feel a tremendous amount of sympathy for Inuyasha, she resolved to try not to add to his misery by making him feel guiltier than he already was. If Kikyou truly was no longer roaming this Earth, then she would support him as he grieved, and hopefully he would be able to move on eventually. And if she was ‘alive’…

Kagome sighed. Never had returning to the status quo seemed like such an undesirable outcome. And there was that little voice in her head again, whispering of all the wonderful things which could come to pass if Kikyou was no longer standing between her and Inuyasha. Her dreams were finally within her grasp, so long as her hanyou was finally free of his–

“Gah!” Kagome exclaimed, tossing her arms over her head in frustration and storming off down the road. Her friends followed wordlessly, no one commenting on her strange behavior. They knew she was hurting, and probably assumed that she didn’t want to spend the night in what was for all intents and purposes a ghost town. This was actually true, but really Kagome just wanted to burn off some steam and take her mind off of her dark thoughts. When did I become such a horrible person? What had she said to Kouga? “It’s only natural, when you love someone.” ‘It’ meaning to wish for the death of a rival in love. But it didn’t feel natural; it felt shameful. She was glad that none of her friends possessed powers of telepathy.

They had traveled maybe half a kilometer before a group of soldiers appeared in the road up ahead, perhaps the very same soldiers the wandering monk had aided that morning. They didn’t look particularly friendly, so despite her frustration Kagome yielded the road. Once her momentum ceased, her fatigue hit her like a ton of bricks. She put her hand to her head, suddenly wanting nothing more than to lie down and sleep for at least twelve hours. Unfortunately, fate had other ideas. Instead of passing by, the leader of the squad reigned up before them, glaring at them suspiciously.

“You lot will come with us peacefully,” he announced. “Due to the strange events which have taken place recently, all suspicious outsiders are to be brought the castle.”

Kagome’s shoulders slumped. Of all the times to get hassled by some pompous ass who thought he was better than everyone else just because some other pompous ass had put him in charge… She could practically kiss her bath and peaceful night’s rest goodbye. Judging by their whispered conversation, Miroku and Sango thought they could escape at any time, but weren’t comfortable knocking fellow humans around without real provocation. Kagome could understand that, but it didn’t make the experience of being roughly manhandled and bound with rope any less unpleasant. When one of the soldiers poked her in the right buttock with a stick to get her moving, she almost spun around kicked the offending bastard in the balls. It was only the fear that said bastard would retaliate by hitting her in the stomach–not realizing she was pregnant–which kept her facing forward. But if looks could kill, the pompous ass on the horse would have a grapefruit-sized hole in the back of his skull. As she did not possess this power, however, his head remained intact and he continued to lead his prisoners back to the castle. Kagome sighed. This day just keeps getting better and freaking better.

Screw sympathy. Inuyasha was getting ‘osuwari’d’ into a crater when he got back.

Off to the side, a kitsune and a neko youkai huddled in the tall grass, having avoided detection due to their small stature. Kirara growled, her fur standing on end, but she knew her mistress’s feelings on harming humans. Shippou petted her for a few moments to soothe her. He too had heard Miroku and Sango’s conversation. Even held captive as they were, they believed they had the situation under control. So he wouldn’t interfere either, which left him two options: follow them discreetly to the castle, or go retrieve Inuyasha. He ultimately chose the latter, just in case this wasn’t an innocent misunderstanding as his friends seemed to believe. If it was something more, Inuyasha’s assistance could prove crucial. He just hoped he could track the hanyou down.

“Are you feeling better, Kirara?” he asked when the humans were gone. The fire-cat ‘mewed’ and transformed, with somewhat more difficulty than normal. But she held her large form, and motioned for him to climb aboard. The two of them set off without delay. It would be difficult to catch up to Inuyasha, since Shippou was sure that the hanyou was running at full speed in the opposite direction. But they would do their best. Kagome, Sango, Miroku…be safe.


A/N – This was really short, I know. I originally wrote this chapter and the next one as a single chapter, but decided to break it up due to length. Chapter 22 will be up within a week.

And I apologize if you were anticipating the battle with Naraku inside Mount Hakurei, but the truth is that it probably would have followed the canon script pretty closely. The signature battle of this whole Shichinintai arc was supposed to be the one last chapter, and writing another one just seemed like overkill to me.