InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Reunion ❯ Chapter 44 ( Chapter 44 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Chapter 44

A/N: Sorry for the delay, my friends, but I have to admit that I have been fighting an addiction of sorts. I have become addicted to Never Winter Nights. I know, I know; very sad that a 41 year old man has become a video game addict. sigh I’ve always enjoyed gaming and I’ve just let this one take over. I have also been under pressure from my mate to do some ‘real’ writing. So, I have been working on my novel as well as my fanfics. That means that I will be trying to wrap up all my loose ends so that I can concentrate on that. Don’t worry! I’ll finish all the stories that I have started. I don’t own Inuyasha and I haven’t had any luck in trying to buy him, but I wonder if Rumiko Takahashi would be willing to lease him out for a while?

Naraku smiled in triumph as he looked over the growing pile of youkai and warriors that swarmed over Sesshoumaru. “Very soon,” he gloated, “you will be absorbed into me, adding to my power.” While he watched, the pile suddenly collapsed in on itself. “Good! He has transformed back into his smaller form.” Naraku started to move forward when a sudden burst of light and energy blew the ookami away from the center of the pile.

Sesshoumaru leapt from the mass of men and youkai. His face was impassive as he drew Toukijin at the top of his arc. The blade crackled with energy as he landed and thrust it into the ground with a calmly stated “Dragon Strike.” The ookami that had begun massing for a charge laughed at him, thinking that the ‘Mighty Lord Sesshoumaru’ had missed his strike in his weakened and confused state. The laughter ceased when the ground erupted as the energy of the strike rose from beneath them in the form of an energy dragon, obliterating a full dozen of their number. With cold contempt, Sesshoumaru sheathed Toukijin and advanced on the remaining youkai, humans, and wolves. One of the braver ookami ran screaming at the impassive inu-youkai, brandishing his naginata. Moving swifter than the eye could follow, Sesshoumaru side stepped the attack and caught up the impulsive wolf youkai by the throat. He never looked at the youkai struggling in his grasp as he slowly closed his fist and crushed the offending youkai’s neck. He opened his fist and let the new corpse drop at his feet. He regarded the remaining ookami and humans with contempt.

“Who is next to die?” he asked, in a flat, emotionless voice.

The infuriated ookami howled answer to his challenge and charged en-masse, with the controlled humans at their heels.

Sesshoumaru charged his enemies, drawing Toukijin as he closed with them. The great youkai sword swept in wide arcs, cutting down men and youkai like a scythe cutting wheat with the impassive inu-youkai lord acting as a grim reaper.

‘He is magnificent!’ Kagura exulted. Her anger and disappointment with Sesshoumaru could not overcome her admiration of the powerful youkai. Still, she knew that she had to oppose him. He would give her no mercy for the part she played in the kidnapping of his declared mate. With a regretful sigh, she opened her fan and began summoning her youki to use the ‘Dance of the Dead’ attack against Sesshoumaru. As she began her attack, a cry of “Hiraikotsu!” suddenly sounded from behind her. She barely had time to register this when her feather was cut from under her. With a startled shriek, Kagura fell to ground below, creating a small crater with her impact. As the dust settled, she tried to lever herself from off the ground, but collapsed with a groan.

After Sango had caught Hiraikotsu on its return arc, she guided Kirara down to the ground where Kagome leapt off as soon as the firecat touched down. Kirara was immediately off again, returning to the air to give her mistress a better position to use her great boomerang efficiently.

Kagome had already picked out her target. Pulling two arrows from her quiver, she nocked and fired them in rapid succession, her target: Kanna.

Kanna observed the arrows coming at her and impassively turned her mirror to catch them so that she could return them to their point of origin. She noticed the high amount of purification energy that was contained in the first arrow but thought nothing of it since her mirror would reflect all attacks. Indeed, the first arrow had no sooner entered the mirror than it began to emerge, just in time for the second highly charged arrow to arrive and strike the first, point to point. The resulting explosion blew Kanna through the wall that she was standing in front of. Her blackened and cracked body landed with her eyes open and lifeless like a broken doll. Her blackened and cracked mirror landed beside her, silently mirroring its mistress’s fate.

Kagome had little time to feel any satisfaction with the success of her plan as ookami began closing around her.

“Bitch!” one snarled. “You caused the death of Kouga! Now, we kill you!” The others howled their agreement and began to advance on Kagome when two familiar ookami suddenly appeared at her side.

“She is our sister!” growled Ginta. “You will not touch her!”

Hakkaku nodded agreement. “To get to her, you must go through us!” he added.

The first ookami looked at the two of them in disbelief. “You would side with this human bitch over your own kind? Have you no honor? Doesn’t your blood boil for revenge for your pack leader?”

Ginta nodded. “Yes, at first, we wanted blood for blood. But then we thought about it. Inuyasha was defending his mate and cub. Any of us would have done the same.”

“Besides,” added Hakkaku, “if we followed the rule of the pack, Inuyasha is supposed to be our pack leader now.”

“You two are weak, pathetic fools!” the ookami growled when he overcame his shock. “Your deaths will not hurt the pack. Kill them all!”

That was his last order before his head separated from his shoulders. Daremo had entered the compound at a full gallop and had seen the Lady Kagome’s plight. He drew his sword and loped off the head of the lead wolf youkai as he passed. Quickly, he sheathed his sword and dismounted, knowing his style of fighting was better suited on the ground. He charged at the remaining ookami, waiting until the last moment to draw his sword. That was part of the secret to his style. The speed of the draw was inhumanly fast, the blade flashing like lightning. Four wolf youkai fell with his draw as he flashed through the pack. Once through, he skidded to a stop and sheathed his sword again, turning to face his foes. He saw that the two ookami that had been defending the Lady Kagome when he arrived had engaged two of the remaining wolves. The last of the youkai who had been threatening the young miko snarled a challenge at him in his own language and drew his sword as he charged. Daremo could not understand the words, but he definitely understood the action. He began his own run towards the charging youkai. Suddenly, he leapt into the air. “Dragon Slash!” he shouted, as he drew his sword and slashed downwards, using his weight to add to the force of his swing. The wolf youkai barely had time to raise his sword in defense. It did him no good. Daremo’s sword shattered the ookami’s sword and cut him down.

Inutaro had been caught in an ambush outside the compound walls. He and the remainder of Daremo’s warriors were attacked by wolves. They lost a horse and the men had various wounds, but the wolves were unable to do more than slow Inutaro down. As he finally entered the compound, he stopped to take in the battle to see where he was most needed and to see if he could find his sister. His allies seemed to be handling themselves. Then he noticed a dark haired individual observing the battle. Even at a distance, he could feel the hatred radiating off this man. Inutaro smiled grimly. ‘You’re mine!’ he thought, as he charged the man.

Naraku sensed Inutaro’s charge. He pretended ignorance, waiting for the baka to come within striking distance. Naraku smiled. He needed an outlet for the irritation he was feeling concerning the battle.

Inutaro, who had been schooled in the Mitsurugi style of fighting with Daremo, leapt into the air and drew Jajjimentotsume with the intention of performing the ‘Dragon Slash’ technique. His intention was short lived as Naraku suddenly spun and shot out a tentacle spike, running Inutaro through the shoulder and suspending him in mid-air. He dropped his sword with a cry of pain and grabbed onto the spike with both hands, trying to pull himself off of it.

Naraku chuckled, without humor. “Baka! You should have known that you could not destroy me that easily.” He cocked his head and examined his struggling prize. “You remind me of that damned idiot Inuyasha.”

Inutaro’s temper flared. “My father is no idiot!”

Naraku’s eye’s widened at that proclamation. Then, he threw back his head and laughed. “This is wonderful! As many of my ‘children’ as he has slaughtered it is only fair that I should kill his. Besides, killing you will hurt him and bringing him pain pleases me.” He drew back his other hand and transformed it into a spike. The purifying arrow that cut through the arm suspending Inutaro came as a surprise.

Before Naraku could react, Ginta and Hakkaku followed their sister’s instructions and ran in, grabbing Inutaro by the shoulders to drag him to safety.

Naraku gripped what remained of his arm and looked at the miko responsible with hate filled eyes. While he had been occupied with the hanyou brat, he had failed to notice that the rest of the fighting had ended. The ookami were all but wiped out and the humans had fled when Kanna’s control had ended. His enemies ranged around him with looks of grim determination. However, he noticed a face missing from his foes. “I see most of my unworthy opponents.” he taunted. “But I don’t see the pathetic hanyou.” He smiled as he saw Kagome and her friends bristle at his words. “I know that he wouldn’t be here to miss this unless he fell during the battle.”

Kagome’s breath caught at his words. In truth, she had not really been paying close attention to where Inuyasha was because of her intent to stop Kanna. Whatever fears that were forming, died quickly with Sesshoumaru’s words.

“Do not concern yourself with my brother’s fate,” declared the impassive taiyoukai. “He was entrusted to find my mate and free her from where ever you have her held captive.”

Naraku laughed. “Then he is dead.” He laughed even harder at the looks of shock that passed between the assembled. “What?” he questioned. “Did you think that I would leave such a precious treasure unguarded?” He glared at his enemies. “Now that you are all here, I shall dispose of you.” He turned his attention to the inuyoukai lord. “And you shall die knowing that I will leave your corpse to go sample the pleasures of your mate.” His smile widened as he saw the great Lord Sesshoumaru begin to lose his temper. “I wonder if her body is as sweet and tender as it was the first time I possessed it.” he mused, goading the taiyoukai.

With a howl of outrage, Sesshoumaru lost control and began to transform. Naraku had anticipated this and began his own transformation into a hideous giant spider. The others fell back and prepared to do battle, willing to support Sesshoumaru in any way necessary.

Suddenly, the ground began to quake beneath their feet. They looked around for the source, until the building behind Naraku suddenly exploded outwards as a giant white akida leapt through the roof. He landed and turned to regard the other, larger dog and the giant spider before him, his blood red eyes wild and a limp form of a dark haired woman in his jaws.

A/N: This looks like a good place to stop. laughs evilly I do so love a good cliff hanger, at least when I am writing it, that is. We get to finish the battle in the next chapter. By the way, yes, I borrowed the ‘Dragon Strike’ scene from the fourth movie. It was too awesome not to use. I did not intentionally borrow from ‘Star Wars’. It wasn’t until after I had written the scene and was proofreading that I realized how similar it was to the Darth Vader scene at the first of the movie. Just goes to show how we are influenced by what we watch and read. Later guys. Just remember, if you shoot me for this cliffhanger, you’ll never see how it’s resolved!