InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Misunderstanding ❯ Goodbye ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 8

Naraku took advantage of the time that Inuyasha was away to attack his friends. He had arrived just in time to see Kagura and an enormous centipede youkai fighting against Sango and Miroku. The latter was on the ground, he had a wound on his arm. The poisonous insects all around the place forbidding the monk to use his cursed hand and filling the air with their annoying buzz.

Kanna was in the area too, but didn't take part in the fight. Maybe Naraku sent her to get from Kagome what he couldn't get from Kikyo.

Her souls.

Inside the hut, Kaede was on the floor and Shippou at her side waking up.

"Kaede-sama" Miroku rushed inside and kneeled next to the old priestess.

A small Kirara leaped to Sango's arms.

Inuyasha walked ahead, unsure of open the curtain for a moment, but pushing it aside. He didn't like what he saw.

Kagome was awake, sat on her sleeping bag staring at the wall with a blank expression on her face. Her hands gripped tightly the green material of her skirt. She didn't notice him.

Dread rose from his chest. Had Kanna stole Kagome's souls? A cold anger swept his body at that thought.

In a fast move, he was on the floor in front of her, so angry about his thoughts that he started growling instinctively, grabbing her arms and looking intently at her face, into her eyes; searching for any sign that showed him that she was ok.

"No" She backed away scared of the anger burning in his eyes.

When he saw her fear, he stopped and loosened his grip on her.

"Kagome" he called her name softly, immense sadness filled her eyes replacing the fright. She freed herself from his hold and turned her face to a side, avoiding him, rejecting him.

"Are you ok? Did Kanna hurt you?" he blurted out the questions that were swirling in his mind.

"I am fine" she answered flatly. After a deep breath, she continued.

"I saw everything. She showed it to me with her mirror." her voice a whisper. She was trying too hard not to break in his presence.

Kagome stood up leaving him on the floor. She started gathering her things and setting them into the yellow bag.

He did not dare to ask. Her words echoing in his mind not very sure of what she referred. Until she spoke again.

"I'll leave. You don't have to send me back" the bitter sadness of her words pained him. They enclosed a feeling of betrayal. She used his own words to make sure he knew what she saw in the mirror. Kagome had been all this time stuck in this era, missing classes, lying to her friends, risking her life, all for gather the shards of the Shikon no tama for Inuyasha and now that he finds Kikyo's love again, he just dismissed her.

He expected that when he told her, if he had had the chance, she would be bursting in happiness of going back to her time. He never thought this would be her reaction; he didn't want her to leave like that.

Now, he could not say or do anything.

Inuyasha's expression was stern, serene.

'She will be fine' to think it calmed him, he just stared at her in silence.

Kagome's heart was broken. He didn't say a word, an apology, an explanation. It was all true. Kikyo was right. She was a fool to think that Inuyasha really cared for her. She had been unconscious for who knows how long and he just ran to find the dead priestess.

He really decided to be with her. He chose Kikyo.

Shippou entered the room and approached the girl.

"You are awake!" he hugged her happily; he had missed her so much. The silence in the room was very weird, wasn't Inuyasha supposed to be clearing the accident incident to her?

She had her bag on her arm and the sleeping thing wasn't in the floor.

"Are you leaving Kagome?" the little kitsune looked at her with sad wide eyes.

She tenderly cupped his face with her hands.

"I have to, but you will always be in my heart" unshed tears glistened on the corner of her eyes, the little demon gaze watered too mimicking hers.

"I don't want you to leave me" he said in a whimper, she was not coming back.

"Are you going back through the well? For how long?" a shocked Sango came in the room, she had heard their conversation. Miroku was listening too while helping Kaede to get up. He wasn't sure that he had heard correct.

"Aren't you coming back, child?" the old miko asked.

"NO, SHE IS NOT COMING BACK!" Inuyasha snapped at them. Why did they have to be so sentimental? Why did everybody seem to care so much? He wished that everybody just closed their mouths.

Kagome had to go, was the only way he could protect her from fate.

Kagome faced him, she was angry; he had made her angry again.

"Don't shout at them! You cannot decide for me! If I want to come back I will!"

She was so beautiful when she was mad at him. The fire in her eyes, that passion, he admired her. Always caring for everybody more than for herself.

Those thoughts fed his determination, and he had to go on.

"Of course I can decide! I don't need you here anymore!" Narrowing his eyes, he folded his arms on his chest his claws digging in his skin hidden by his long sleeves.

"Go back to your time, I don't want to see you again!"

He shut up when Kagome's hand connected with his face, turning it slightly to a side.

"FINE! IF THAT IS WHAT You want.." trembling she took the shards from her neck and threw them to Sango who was dumbfound, the exterminator gaped perplexed at the pink Shikon shards in her possession.

"Please take care of it"

Inuyasha gazed at Kagome; she was staring at him. Crystal clear tears slipped down her face. Her hand moved reflexively over her bandage.

"Goodbye Inuyasha. Be happy with Kikyo." she ran off pushing Sango and Miroku aside.

It was too hard to part. She will never see them again and she didn't have the chance to say good-bye to the others; but she couldn't stay in that room one more minute.

The well was close. Everything would be over soon.

*********

"How could you?" Sango shouted at him.

"You promised me not to hurt her again, is this the way you fulfill your promise?" she walked towards the entrance. "I'll bring her back"

"Stop! Sango please." Inuyasha seemed miserable. The tough mask had fallen; he could not stand it anymore.

"Lady Kagome must be in really great danger. Or else this whole charade to make her go back would have never taken place" Miroku was as sharp as usual; he had an ability to read between lines.

The hanyou didn't reply.

"I'll follow her. I want to make sure that Naraku doesn't show again." he ran off too.

********

The flickering flames of the torches on the wall offered a muted light to the dark room. The shadows danced on the floor and on the many vases of miasma dispersed in the place, giving it a sinister look.

Naraku smirked amused at the scene in Kanna's mirror.

"Did you set it on place after your encounter with the hanyou?" his brown hair fell on waves over his shoulders.

"Yes Naraku. They won't know until it is too late." Kagura answered from a corner.

He wore a black kimono without undershirt. A gray pattern decorated the material. He kept the son's landlord form. He was tall, wide shoulders and muscular body; but the spider shaped scar in his back remained, no matter how many times he cut it. It always grew again, reminding him of the weak human bandit that gave him life.

Onigumo.

"Good." Soon Onigumo's weakness will not interfere again in his plans.

Inuyasha and Kikyo will pay.

He was enjoying so much torturing him, watching the agony that he was going through.

Soon. Very soon, his trap will take effect and the hanyou would wish to not have been born.

********

The night had fell over the Musashi region. The forest was amazing at night. The silver moon reflected its light in the leaves; an ethereal glow covered the foliage.

Kagome walked to the sacred tree, the Goshimboku. She had stopped to catch her breath and now climbed the huge roots of the tree.

'This is where I found him' she touched lightly the place where he rested. An image of Inuyasha pinned to the tree with Kikyo's arrow came to her mind.

She leaned on it with her forehead against the hard wood.

"Maybe I should have never pulled out the arrow"

A figure, hidden in the shadows, flinched at her words. He felt a stab on his chest. Kagome wished she had never set him free.

"He was better asleep than… in hell"

She looked at her hand; her palm still tingled from the slap. She had lost control; he had been so cruel with her.

However, she regretted it.

"I'm sorry Inuyasha" she came down the tree.

'She is apologizing to me?' he wanted to go and embrace her, to apologize for all the things he did and said. He didn't mean a single word. Nevertheless, the only he could do was listen and watch.

"Now I understand your feelings for her and hers for you" she sighed before she added, " because I feel the same way about you".

She can't deny it anymore, she loved him and she never had the chance to tell him. Little she knew that he was hearing every single word.

'She feels the same way?' he was shocked. He wanted to ask her exactly what she meant. His heart started beating faster. This couldn't be happening.

Kagome approached slowly to the well.

How easy it could be for him just to reach her and stop her pretending that nothing happened, that nothing was going to happen.

"This is it then. It's over" she put her hands on the wooden edge and with a last glance in direction of the village, she jumped into the dark tunnel and disappeared through the portal at the bottom.

Inuyasha came out to the clearing. His triangle- shaped ears stayed flat against his skull. His amber eyes filled with sorrow.

'She is right. It is over' he couldn't pretended it.

He felt that something was ripped from his soul; it constricted his chest and made it difficult to breath. He tried to swallow but a lump in his throat didn't let him.

'Why do I feel so bad if I did the right thing? Why do you make me feel like this Kagome?'

**********