InuYasha Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Mors Mortis Miko ❯ New Moon ( Chapter 6 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

She had missed the New Moon twice and he planned on having her miss for a third. The man was insane, and that was saying something when you compared his antics to hers. But under the current circumstances, she could decipher what was and wasn’t insane. She had her sanity back.


Well part of it.


She hadn’t expected it to come back when she killed Miroku. She didn’t want it. Everything was sadder, scarier, and bleaker to her now. She longed for the day when she smiled at situations like this and improvised up a plan she would have fun doing. That was what she missed: the fun, the innocence, and the sheer obliviousness to everything. It was a sad turn of events; her craving for lunacy when she had missed her sanity for so long.


She heard him chuckle and she grimaced. He was always laughing. Was this how people felt when she laughed at nothing and everything? Uh. His laugh sickened her and so did her prison. Cold, wet, and cramped. She twisted and tried to get comfortable. Her movements only made him laugh the harder. But she didn’t care, even if she had a bone to pick with him, she’d wait for the right opportunity.



In the meanwhile, she could only grimace as old memories began to pop up. She welcomed them…it was a change of scenery from her dark cage. Anything was better than that.



~____~



“So…how do you know we’re going in the right direction?” Sasuke asked, annoyed that they had been following a deranged woman around in the woods for hours without anyone voicing their doubts.



Kagome rounded on him and smiled widely, tapping her temple with a smug look. “I don’t know. I just hear him calling me, and I follow that mental voice.”



“That’s not very reliable.” Naruto added.



“Not in the least. This way!” Kagome didn’t bother to check to see if they were following before she took off at a sudden sprint.



“Are you who you really say you are?” Sasuke asked as they all caught up to her, easily keeping pace.



“Of course.” Kagome answered throwing him a smile.



“Then why are you so…so…?” Naruto began but became lost from a choice of words.



“Flamboyant?” Sakura added helpfully, trying to keep her hero from getting her feelings hurt.



“Sure. If that’s what you want to call it.”



Kagome surprised them by laughing aloud as she turned on her heel and began running backwards without skipping a beat. “It’s part of my punishment. The longer I go without killing my friends and returning the treasure, the more my sanity slips away from me.”




“So you weren’t always…like this?”



Kagome fell, but before they had a chance to stop in alarm, she was back on her feet and running right, but her smile was gone and her face was stony. With dirt on her face and a head full of leaves, at the moment, Kagome truly did look like a spirit born of the earth.



“No I wasn’t always like this.” She snapped.



“I was nothing spectacular, but I was a better person.” She continued, “I was caring, kind, and passionate. I had morals; I had a sense of self-preservation. I didn’t take risks just for the hell of it. I thought things through before I did anything. I was capable of making plans and following through with them. When I laughed, something funny was actually going on!”



“How long have you been at it?” Sakura asked her, almost afraid of the answer.



To their surprise, Kagome laughed bitterly. “Too long obliviously! I don’t even remember how old I am! But the true irony is…if I had my sanity, I probably would have finished this crap all a long time ago!” Kagome finished her tirade with laughter.




“I don’t think that’s funny.” Naruto whispered to his teammates.




“And that’s what’s sad about it. Because it’s not!” Laughing to herself, Kagome came to a sudden halt just as they rounded the top of a hill. “WE‘RE HERE!”




“Where’s here?” Kakashi asked, finally speaking up.



“Yeah. Where are we?” Sakura added as they looked around at the surrounding hills that enclosed the valley below. The valley would have been a beautiful utopia, if the many trees hadn’t been barren and the ground actually had grass. It seemed to reek of sadness and death. Nothing grew there, and nothing ever would.



“At this spot.” Kagome answered as she sat on the ground and laid down for a rest.




“What is this spot?” Sasuke prompted, his patience thin.




“This is the spot, where Miroku will meet us at.” Kagome answered, her eyes closed as she tried to drift off.




“So if he isn’t here, then where is he?” Naruto asked.




Kagome peered out of one eye and glanced around as she lazily pointed in seemingly random directions. “Somewhere in that direction licking his wounds.”




“WHAT? He’s injured? Then why don’t we go now and finish him off?”




Kagome sat up at this and looked Naruto straight in the eye, much to his unease.




“Because he is my friend. He wasn’t always like this, he was an honorable monk and he will die with respect.” Kagome drew her knees up into her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “I wouldn’t dare take that from him. He’ll die fully capable of defending himself, he’ll die in battle, and he’ll die with dignity. I owe him at least that, for what I did to him.”



“What did you do to him?” Sasuke demanded of her, his voice accusing.



Kagome glanced up at him with a sad smile. “You are an unforgiving child. You don’t like me, do you?”



Sasuke didn’t answer and continued to glower at her. Kagome chose not to answer either and stared down at her feet, wondering just when she had lost her shoes.



“What were they like?” Sakura asked after a few minutes of silence.



Kagome looked up at Sakura, clearly confused.



Seeing her confusion, Sakura hurriedly reprised her question. “What were your friends like?”



At the question, Kagome’s eyes lit up with something besides lunacy for once. “My friends,” she started, looking up in remembrance. “They were great. They were my family. Matter-o-fact, you guys remind me a little of them.”



She looked at Sasuke fondly; catching the boy off guard for this was the first she had done so. “You remind me of Inuyasha. He was the leader of our pack. He was strong and brave, always ready to protect us. He was always the first into battle, and the last out. There seemed to be no end to his ever growing strength. I was in love with him. Even if he was the world’s biggest grouch. He was a grumpy, half-demon who swung his sword fiercely rather than come up with a strategic plan. He wasn’t the smartest fellow in the world, quite slow-witted, with a tendency to get enraged and fight whenever something or someone confused him. He had a few issues. His parents had both died while he was young, his brother tried to kill him a few times, and because he was a hanyou, he was never really accepted by either humans or demons. But we accepted the foul mouth, hot tempered dog-boy with loving arms.”


Sasuke, who had liked the comparison at first, scowled at her while she turned to face Naruto. “You most definitely remind me of Shippo. Shippo was like a son to me. We had taken him in after his parents were killed by a pair of evil brothers. We helped him avenge his parents by killing the brothers and taking back Shippo’s father’s pelt. He was a fox demon. No bigger than a breadbox. He and Inuyasha were constantly fighting and he would go out of his way to pick on him. He was also a pretty hyper kid. Never still for very long and always running around rather than walking.”



Kagome smiled briefly before turning her sights onto the ever-quiet Kakashi. “You and Miroku have an uncanny resemblance in personality. Well, before he turned, but you remind me of him. He was a pervert.”



This caused the little ninjas to giggle and smile, while Kakashi merely continued to gaze at her curiously, but Kagome didn’t see him, for she was too busy looking into the past.



“Yeah, he was a pervert. He was constantly asking women to bear his children, and you had to watch yourself if he was standing near, or if you couldn’t see him, or if he smiled at you, for he had a bad case of wandering hands. He was a decadent monk, but a monk, nonetheless. A very spiritual man, he was. Always meditating, when he wasn’t harassing women, and a suave talker, when he did talk. He wasn’t one to put his two cents into everything, and when he spoke amidst an argument, it was usually something very logical and worthy. He kept his cool, and I don’t think I ever saw him lose his temper. Yes, he was fierce in battle, but he never lost it. He was the epitome of chivalry. He was cursed to die young. You see, he had a whole in his hand, a wind void, and it was destined to swallow him whole one day. Just like his father before him, and his grandfather before him. That’s why he was always asking women to bear his children. So that he could have an heir before he died. I thought he had found someone in Sango.”


Kagome drifted off at this as her smile faded and deep thought tried to conquer her madness.



“So I remind you of Sango?” Sakura asked, already guessing what Kagome thought of her.



“Heavens no!” Kagome suddenly burst out into laughter, making the smile on Sakura’s face to fall.



“Sango was a warrior. A fierce, iron hearted, fearless warrior.” Kagome continued, oblivious to Sakura’s chagrin. “She was raised, since birth, to fight and kill demons. She was the strongest of her village. She was the only one left of her village. They had all been killed and she had been buried alive. The first time we met her; she was angry and vengeful and had fought against us. I don’t blame her; she had been lied to by the incarnate of evil. She joined us then in hopes of avenging her village and family and rescuing her brother. Sango was a marvelous strategist with a military like persona. She was my best friend, almost like my sister. Hell, she was my sister. But she thought more with her head than with her heart, and could even seem cold hearted at times. That’s not you. No you remind me of me.”



“You?” Sakura asked, sounding anything but thrilled.




“Yes me,” Kagome laughed, “Don’t sound so optimistic. Remember, I told you, I wasn’t always like this. I was a caring person. Of course I had powers, but I wasn’t big in the battles. I was more of a rock.”




“A rock?” Sakura repeated skeptically, her hero-worshipping of Kagome starting to dwindle.




“A rock. I was an anchor. I kept the group intact. You heard me about those contrasting personalities, they would have murdered each other without me. They could not have been friendly and civil alone. I was a link between them. Even though I wasn’t as weak as they liked to think, they preferred me to stay out of battles; they wanted to protect me physically, because I protected them mentally and spiritually. I cared for them. I told them that the tragedies in their lives would be compensated one day, that their ill-fate would rectify itself and that it would all result in their happiness in the end. They had guilt and sorrow on their souls, I shared it, I told them that it wasn’t their fault and that nothing could change what had happened except for them to let go. I kept them sane. I kept them from the edge. I tethered them to the present. I loved them. I put myself in countless dangerous acts to keep them safe. Keep them alive and happy.”


Kagome’s face darkened in anger as her eyes became glassy and maddened.



“But I guess that was a futile effort in the end. They survived all those times just to die because I didn’t care about them for one moment. And now, when I need someone to talk to, when I need someone to care for me, there’s no one!” In sudden anger, Kagome swiftly and fluidly sprang to her feet, alarming the ninjas into nervous stances where they sat. “Who’s going to keep me sane? Who’s going to keep me from the edge? I have guilt and sorrow, who’s going to share it with me? What about my compensation? Am I destined to have happiness in the end? Will I finally be free of Death’s bony, dramatic fingers?”



Kagome began to pace furiously, muttering loudly how Death was a drama queen and was too lazy to do things himself. Her frantic ranting made the ninjas anxious, as she now began calling the Grim Reaper a freakish, girly elephant without a trunk.



“Because that’s what he is. He cries like a girl and he’s freaky like an elephant without a trunk, and he takes his half-baked frustration out on normal people who just want to die, and forces them to make up for his anomalies. The freak…I hope he cries himself to sleep and chokes on his tears.”



Soon, her ranting got quieter as she fell into herself and laid down again, farther away from the ninjas and her back to them. It wasn’t until they had stopped completely that they knew she was asleep.



“If you ever get like her,” Naruto began as they all looked at Sakura. “We‘re going to lock you in a box.”




~_____~


Kagome awoke abruptly; startled out of her sleep by a loud, boisterous silence.


She stood just as silently and stared out into the imposing night, which was made darker by the absence of the moon. Sometime during her nap, her companions had joined her in the Land of Dreams, and now sat sprawled around their site in deep dozes. She wouldn’t call the place she had been, The Land of Dreams; it was more like a numb unconsciousness. Usually her dreams, when she remembered to sleep, consisted of painful, heart wrenching, wish-she-had-died memories of her life passed, but somehow, this time, she had dreamed of nothing. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed at their absences, not all the dreams had been unpleasant.


“Kagome.” She shivered as the wind spoke her name like a lovers whisper in her ear.



She knew that if she turned towards the voice that she would see nothing, so instead she looked out and down into the valley as a shadowy figure rose up from nothing.



“Miroku.” she whispered in greeting, as a small, sad smile irrupted onto her face. Even though she couldn’t see his features, she got the impression that he smiled and nodded at her in acknowledge.



“What do you think you’re doing?”



The voice stopped Kagome in the tracks she hadn’t known she’d been making. Like always, the emotion on Kagome’s face and mind were hidden behind her distraught smile.



She angled her head to glance at them over her shoulder, her facial expression disturbing them, but not to the point of backing off.



“I’m going to go kill my friend; you have a problem with that?” Kagome asked, her smiled fixed into place, as they surrounded her with disapproving looks.



“Yeah, because of the fact that you can’t fight and that’s a demon!” Naruto yelled, making his point with violent gestures.



Kagome continued to smile at the accusation that she couldn’t fight.



“Why can’t I fight?”



“Because you don’t know how, obviously.” Sasuke answered for her. “You’ll get yourself killed.”




“You are so encouraging, Little Prince. Now what makes you think I can’t fight?”



Ignoring the nickname, Sasuke looked as if he was about to reply when Naruto beat him to the punch.



“Because Kakashi kicked your butt, back in the village!”



Kagome turned to stare at the silent teacher, who merely gazed back with a bored and slouchy disposition. Yeah he had kicked her butt, but she wasn’t trying to fight him. She was trying to summon her non-existent powers. Turning back to face the children, she smiled sheepishly and shrugged.



“You caught me. So what are we going to do?”



“You’re going to stay up here, out of the way.” Kakashi spoke up, as he put a light, but firm grip on her shoulder, letting her know that the decision was not up for arguments.



Kagome glanced at the hand then back at the young ninjas. “So you four plan to fight him all on your own, while I play the damsel in distress.”



“Not so the damsel, but more of backup plan.” Sakura said, trying to soften Kagome’s ego, thinking they had offended her.



Unexpectedly, but not surprisingly, Kagome burst into laughter. “Of course.” Kagome complied, giving them a mocking bow. “My saviors, you shall fight the beast while I play cheerleader and root you on.”




“That’s not what we…” Sakura began, but was interrupted as Kagome began to speak again.




“Whatever! Just go and do what you plan to do before he gets impati….TOO LATE! HERE HE COMES!”




Miroku had grown tired of their bickering. He raced up the hill with such speed, that it looked as if he was flying. As he was the first time she saw him, Miroku was shrouded in the dark, evilness that was the jewel, nothing visible but his burning eyes, filled with hatred. The ninjas barely had time to dodge out of the way before he was upon them. But Miroku merely batted them out his way like flies as he dove for his intended target. Kagome.



The ground exploded as Miroku came into contact with the spot Kagome had stood seconds prior.



“And they say chivalry is dead.” Kagome muttered as her rescuer landed yards away from the attack sight and set her down gently.



Just as she had been expecting, Kakashi didn’t comment before leaving her to fight the final battle.



Kagome didn’t feel compelled to correct the ninja’s on their assumption that she couldn’t fight, they seemed to have forgotten their mock battle when she had escaped the village.


She smiled to herself as she seated herself on the ground to watch the fight. There was no point going out there and interfering, she would hate to warp their minds by breaking their beliefs in her fighting abilities, besides, she was in no hurry to kill her friend. And it wasn’t like she knew how to do that anyway. Anyway, the ninja’s seemed to be keeping Miroku on his toes, from where she was sitting, she could see his black, smoky blood leaking from his wounds.


She knew he was there before he spoke, and any good feelings she had had were immediately vanquished as her face crumpled up in displeasure.



“This is not their fight.” Death said, his voice sounding disapproving.



Kagome angled her head to briefly glance at him, she made a look of distaste and openly dismissed him and his statement. She had only turned her eyes back to the battle for a mere second before she felt an incredible pressure grab her around the middle, pinning her arms to the side, and yanking her into the air and turning her around face Death.


Kagome’s grin, which had always been disturbing to those who witnessed it, was predatory and outraged as she glared at him. She didn’t breathe, blink, or move, merely hung limply in the air and glared, while Death’s stance was relatively the same, yet the only movement from his side came from the steady throbbing of his scythe at his side, which glowed darkly as it held Kagome’s body in the air.



“Why must you waist time?”



Kagome didn’t answer.



“Do you know how much you grate on my nerves?”



Kagome started to laugh.



“What is it?” Death growled, annoyance evident in his voice.



“I’m not afraid of you.” Kagome answered, her laugh low and dark.



“Meaning?”



“M eans, that destroying you is going to be all the more fun.”



“Why so bent on destroying me? I’m not the one who forced your friends into things of nightmares.”



“Shut up!” she yelled, kicking out and catching him in the side of his neck, but where he should have fallen to the ground in disgrace, he merely misted away and reformed.



Kagome could tell that he was angry because the pressure around her middle increased to unbearable proportions. She laughed in his face.



“What are you going to do, kill me?” She grunted through her laughter and pain.



Death ignored her question and forced her to turn around and face the battlefield, but as he turned her body, Kagome turned her head, refusing to look.



“Look!” he growled, turning her more, but she did the same until her neck reached it’s limit. If she turned anymore she’d break her neck. And with that thought she began to push her limit.



“Cease this nonsense!” Death yelled forcefully turning her head with his bony grip that sent convulsions of disgust and terror down her back as she was forced to watch the ninjas fair in battle.



“Oh how you have fallen.” she heard Death whisper to himself, but she ignored him as she watched the battle, and saw how the ninjas were slowing and becoming tired, their movements jerky and sporadic. The battlefield, she noticed, was covered in Miroku’s misty blood. Said man, was as fast and ruthless as ever.



“Oh.” she muttered in sudden realization. “Well what do you know? Miroku has miasma blood.”



Kagome forgot about Death, she forgot about the bonds restraining her, and she forgot that she had just been angry and annoyed. The bonds were gone, she began to stroll down towards the battle, not once feeling Death’s gaze on her back.


As she got closer, she heard moans and sounds of pain, she quickened her pace. Not for the urgency of the voices she heard, but for the sudden excitement she felt.



She began to run.



~____~


“I…I can’t…breathe.” Naruto gasped, trying desperately to make his heavy arms do more than support him off the ground.



“Then…shut up and conserve…your…energy…stupid!” Sasuke growled, though he was in no better shape, kneeling on a numbing knee and his back being the only thing keeping him from falling to the ground.




“What is this stuff?” Sakura moaned, all her weight being supported by one of the decrepit trees.




“Poison.” was all Kakashi managed to croak out, being the only one on two feet, before he was bombarded by a wave of fresh attacks from their opponent, whom, he thought, was merely playing with them now.



‘I don’t know how long I can keep this up.’ Kakashi thought, his knees now beginning to quake.



He raked the battlefield looking for their opponent, not trusting what he saw, for the beast seemed to be everywhere at once. One glance would show it speeding towards them from the right, but a second later it would be gone, another glance showed it further back, but as he focused on the spot, there was nothing to be seen. Sometimes he wouldn’t even be charging towards them, sometimes walking, others standing still or lounging against a tree.


Trying to hold back a cough, Kakashi nearly choked as the beast suddenly appeared before him, shrouded in the dark evil that now consumed the land. Kakashi didn’t try to move, he didn’t have time, the beast was too close. It had no claws, nor did it carry a weapon, but the hand that loomed nearer to him was one that meant death. He braced himself as best he could, waiting for the blow, and in return got kicked in the head.


Once down, Kakashi knew he wouldn’t be getting back up anytime soon, he had absorbed too much of the poison, he, like his students before him, had not the strength to do more but watch as their fate unfolded before them.



“Lady Kagome, so nice of you to join us.” Miroku greeted, not in the least bit annoyed that Kagome had taken away his kill, but, in fact, was grateful to her for having gotten rid of it for him. He was getting bored.



Kagome didn’t bother looking at the fallen ninjas, she only had eyes for the dead, undead?, monk before her.



“Happy to oblige.” Kagome answered, giving him a curtsy with a twisted grin.



“Ah, yes.” Miroku grinned his features becoming unobstructed as he returned her curtsy with a polite bow. “Shall we dance?”



Kagome didn’t answer, nor did Miroku expect an answer, they simply, and suddenly, plowed into each other.


He aimed a punch at her head, she took the hit but simultaneously jabbed at his stomach. He swung away from it and she grabbed him around the neck and forced her knee into his face.

He staggered back briefly, only to return with a backhand so powerful that she spun on her heel twice before hitting the ground. Kagome flipped onto her back just in time to see Miroku descending and wrapping his hands around her throat with murderous intent. She laughed in his face, and he smiled sadistically. Working her legs under him, she put as much force as she could into them and kicked him off of her.

As she got to her feet, Miroku was already there and hoisting her over his shoulder and into the air. Here is when Miroku should have uttered a corny line, such as: have a nice flight, or, I hate to see you go, but I love watching you leave, or, happy travels, but instead, he merely smiled and flung the lithe girl into a grove of trees.


The first two she hit splintered on impact, but the second and third held firmer and slowed her to a stop.



“I think you broke my back.” Kagome accused as the fore mentioned bone, formerly bent at an angle, straightened and rectified itself with a series of pops and cracks.



“That’s better.” she said to herself before charging at the waiting Miroku, but before she reached him, she flipped onto her hands, wrapped her legs around his neck and hoisted herself up.



Miroku clasped her thighs automatically and smiled at their position. Kagome wasted no time as she began delivering blow after blow to his trapped head. Fist, fist, elbow, fist, head: the pattern was nonexistent.



“That’s quite enough of that.” Miroku muttered between blows, as he steadied his wavering body. Gripping her legs tightly, Miroku fell to the ground and brought Kagome slamming down onto her back.


The blow should’ve killed her, or at least knocked her unconscious, but instead, it cracked her skull, sent her into a slight daze, and made her laugh madly at the outcome as Miroku got to his feet and hauled her up along with him.


He held Kagome in the air by her arms and was slowly, and painstakingly, trying to pull them apart. Kagome countered with a kick to the jaw and flipped her way out of his failing grasp, and effectively pulling her arms out of the sockets herself, but with a erratic move, they had righted themselves just in time to block Miroku sudden charge.


He had her on his shoulder, charging towards one of the firmer, sturdier trees that held a promising and broken, pointy branch. Kagome launched herself over his shoulders, and locked her legs around his neck, and as she twisted around and off his back, she heard an audible cracking noise as she broke his neck, but with a sudden burst of strength, Miroku grabbed her around the waist and using their momentum swung her onto the intended branch, impaling them both through the chest.



“This…” Miroku moaned as his neck mended and righted itself, “…is going to take forever.”



“Well I’m in no hurry.” Kagome laughed, ignoring the pain it caused her.



Noticing the nonexistent space between them, Miroku grinned. “Me either.” and with as much ferocity as when they had been fighting, Miroku kissed her again. As last time, Kagome didn’t fight back, the numbness seemed to spread even further this time, spreading from where he kissed her and from where he fondled her. Spreading like a disease.



“You taste as good as I thought you would.” Miroku said as he finally broke the kiss, and it wasn’t until after she saw the blood in and around his mouth did she notice that he had bitten her. “Now what about the rest of you?”



He began to tear open her shirt, but suddenly he let out a mighty scream and tore himself off the branch and away from her, holding his hand as if it was out to kill him.



“Well, look at that, I have killer breasts.” smiling, Kagome looked down at herself only to find the Shikon no tama hanging out. “Oh.”



She pulled the jewel from around her neck and wrapped it around her fist, the jewel enclosed within it.



“Hey, you lech, come here!” Kagome yelled to the now recovered monk who was shooting murder her way with his eyes.



Kagome smiled at the look and with a sickening, to the forgotten ninjas, squelching noise, Kagome un-skewered herself off the branch and stalked towards her friend.


Such anger there was in Miroku’s eyes, that he didn’t notice anything different about Kagome’s fist until it connected with his face.



The sound Miroku let out was a mix between a growl and yell, while Kagome hooted enthusiastically.



“You bitch!” he yelled, looking up at her and displaying the cracked and brittle looking skin where her fist had connected.



“Oh I got you now!” Kagome laughed, jumping around and feigning punches like a boxer.



Miroku growled once again, Kagome launched herself at him and swung with all her might and missed. Without skipping a beat and recognizing where the threat was coming from, Miroku quickly came up behind her, catching the arm with the jewel with one hand, and pinning Kagome to him with the other.


He drugged her backwards a few paces, and Kagome couldn’t figure out what he intended until they had bumped up into a tree. It took Miroku three times to bash her arm against the tree hard enough to make her lose her grip on the jewel. It fell through the air ominously slow.


Watching it fall, Kagome didn’t have time to react before Miroku threw her to the ground and dashed after the jewel. What resulted was a scrambling that would have been funny if there weren’t half dead children on the battlefield who had been poisoned, and that the woman involved wasn’t a mere, yet cracked, shadow of her former self, and that the monk turned demonic rapist involved wasn’t planning to kill and victimize the entire country side if he succeeded in getting rid of one simple jewel. Other than that, it would have been hysterical.


Miroku raised his foot to smash the jewel, but Kagome jumped him at the waist and brought them both crashing down. Their impact made the jewel roll down the slightly hilled land. Kagome made a grab for it, but as she scrambled over him, Miroku grabbed her around the waist and crushed her into the ground as he made to catch it.


Kagome pulled her face from the dirt laughing hysterically, dirt and filth falling from her face as she fumbled at Miroku’s feet, tripping him as she tried to catch hold. Miroku growled in anger and annoyance as he turned from the jewel and began kicking the lunatic girl in the face, trying to dislodge her from his legs.



“This is very unladylike!” Miroku growled, delivering a kick with each word.



“Tell me about it.” Kagome retorted from a bloody and bruised face before bringing her mouth down on Miroku’s ankle.



During the fight with the ninja’s, in which Miroku suffered many wounds, the twisted monk never uttered a sound, yet, as Kagome teeth took hold of his foot, he yelled in pain as he abandoned the jewel entirely in order to remove Kagome from him. He beat at her, he pulled and pushed, he even tried biting her back , but Kagome didn’t let up until she was good and ready.



“Seems you spent too much time around dogs!” Miroku growled once he managed to slap her loose .



Kagome didn’t say anything as she picked herself up from where she had fallen, smiling.



Miroku’s anger was replaced with suspicion as he eyed her tightlipped smile. But before he could get a clue about her intentions, a stream of black liquid seeped from Kagome’s lips just before she spat it out, directly into Miroku’s eyes.



“That’s very ungentlemanly like.” Kagome muttered as Miroku hollered obscenities in between his yells of pain.



Kagome spat again as she stood up, ignoring the screaming Miroku squirming on the ground and trying to get his own poisoned blood out of his eyes. Her smile was gone now, she knew that she was almost done with Miroku. She knew that she wouldn’t be happy when this time came, but she wasn’t sad either. She felt nothing. She was empty.


Just like the jewel, she thought, as she bent down to pick up the seemingly harmless, pink jewel. By the time she had returned to Miroku, his screams were reduced to mere growls and now he was up on his feet, but he didn’t seem to notice Kagome standing in front of him. She smiled sadly at what she was about to do.



“I’m going to make it all right again, Miroku.” She muttered, gaining his attention, but before he could do anything, she had forced the Shikon no Tama into his mouth, and with a quick uppercut to the jaw, had it down his throat and into the inner workings of his body.



At first nothing happened and he merely looked at her blankly, but when the first wave of pain hit him, his hands shot up and clutched at her shoulders, his eyes wide in disbelief.



Smoke began issuing from his eyes and mouth, he cried out as the pain hit him, his body was shaking, but his hold on Kagome was still strong. Miroku was dying.



“…Kagome…” he managed to say through his cries as he fell to his knees, bringing her along with him.



Kagome felt as if her soul was splitting open as she sat and watched her friend die, she thought she felt the tears she had been unable to shed cascade down her face, but she was unable to check, Miroku had too firm a grip and she dared not shake him off.


She watched as his skin turned brittle and gray. Cracks started to appear, starting from his chest, where she assumed to jewel was lodged, and spread up his neck and down his arms and legs. He didn’t say anything else, didn’t even attempt to call out to her again, he just screamed and screamed, as his eyes turned a blind white and light began emanate from his mouth and the many fractures in his skin.



“I’m sorry!” she finally screamed, unable to watch his torment anymore as she flung herself onto him, clutching him tightly and crying her nonexistent tears into life. “I’m so sorry, I never meant to hurt you! Any of you! You’ve got to understand! They took my family, my baby, I’m sorry! Forgive me!”



“Kagome…” he moaned again, this time a bit more clearly.



Kagome let go to look at him and found his stare directly on her.



He made an obvious effort to hold back his anguish as he tried to speak, but finally he gave up and smiled, closing his eyes, and as he did so the light became blinding and he seemed to implode into dust.



“Miroku!” Kagome yelled frantically as she clutched at the dust in a panic. She hadn’t been expecting that to happen. She thought he would merely fall over dead, not completely disintegrate.



“NO!” she yelled, as an unfelt wind manifested itself and began scattering the dust that was Miroku. “Stop it! Stop!” she yelled trying to save as much as she could, to no avail.


Completely distraught, Kagome slumped onto the ground, wishing that she the ground would just open up and take her away, but as she sat in the quiet the remaining wind blew through her hair and a soft voice whispered into her ear. “Thank you.”



She smiled.



~____~




Her smile had been genuine. She didn’t feel like laughing, she only felt sadness and remorse. She was alone again, and she hated it. That’s how she knew a part of sanity had been returned.



Kagome stayed where she sat until valley was suddenly bathed in an unnatural light. The door into the In-Between was now open and waiting. It was time to go.



“Ok.” she muttered to herself, ready to free her next friend from the hell she had inflicted upon them. After feeling the relief and happiness from Miroku’s final goodbye, Kagome didn’t dare wish for any of them to suffer a moment longer. It’s the least she could do.



Before getting to her feet, Kagome laid eyes at the spot Miroku had last been, and saw, laying in the light of the door, the Shikon no Tama, looking innocent, but no longer feeling.



She picked it up and felt the malevolent power within. When Miroku had come into contact with it, the jewel had taken back his borrowed powers, leaving him a dried up soul with no body to retain it and no evil to power it. At her touch it purified, but as before, the jewel was pure, but the power inside still evil.



She wondered, looking at it as she began to walk, what would happen once all her friends had been saved. Would she have to suffer through protecting the damned thing again, would she finally die and leave it and the world to their own accord, or would they both cease to be.


She really hoped it was the latter.


“Well, ninjas.” she announced as she finally arrived at the fallen ninjas, who, as of yet, were still unable to move. “You all fought valiantly. And if it wasn’t for his poisoned blood, I’m pretty sure you could have beat him, maybe. Why wasn’t I affected, you wonder? Who knows? Maybe because I can’t die. Maybe, I don’t know. But as I was saying, you all did a good job. But it’s time for us to go.”


Us.


The meaning of the word was not lost on the ninja’s. Unable to move, they all yelled and squirmed in protest. But Kagome was deaf to their complaints as she waltzed through their immobile ranks, her mind focused on one thing and one thing only. Naruto.



“You and I are going to have some great adventures together.” Kagome said as she reached the wide-eyed boy. Smiling at him softly, she hoisted his limp body onto her shoulder, but as she turned around to face the doorway, she found Kakashi had managed to rise to his feet, but the effort exhausted him to the point of unconsciousness. He could barely lift an eyelid let alone a hand in defending Naruto against her abducting.



Kagome saw this and smiled gently at him. “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him.” Shifting the squirming boy on her shoulder, Kagome walked forward boldly and pushed the man back down onto the ground, where he could no longer move a muscle. The other two she ignored as their attempts to stand ended with them falling face first into the dirt.



“You’re basically alone in that village of yours.” Kagome chatted, not noticing the boy‘s yells of defiance. “I’m alone too, so I thought we could help each other out.”



“You’ll like it where we’re going. You’ll see all new worlds and people. We’ll be like a family of two, fighting evil and righting my wrongs together.”



Kagome was feeling so optimistic about her future that she didn’t notice the figure standing before the gate until she was a few feet away. When she saw him, her smile went away.



“Move.” she demanded, already knowing why he was there.



“He doesn’t belong with you.” Death said in a placating voice, not moving from his current position.



“No!” She yelled in sudden fury, clutching Naruto tightly to herself. “Let me have him!”



“His place is here, Kagome, not with you. You shouldn’t have involved them in your matters, in the first place. You’re only torturing yourself. Let him go!”



“NO!” she moaned, falling to her knees and dropping Naruto onto the ground. “Why!” She yelled, jumping to her feet again and charging at the dark entity. “Why do I have to be alone? Why can’t I have somebody? Why must you punish me more?” She raised a fist to hit him, but she never made it before he had pulled the scythe out and forced her to stop with a great imposing force.



She stood frozen in place for a second, her hair blowing in the force that was Death’s power. And though his strength was imposing, his voice was pacifying. “By taking this boy away you punish him. He has a life here, he has own destiny to follow. He is not alone, he has friends, and you wouldn’t wish to inflict upon them the pain you feel at the absence of your loved ones would you? You are alone because you chose wrong. Don’t make that mistake again.”



At the end of his sermon, Death flung Kagome away, sending her skidding across the ground where she lay motionless until his presence faded. She felt heavy with oppressed sadness, at guilt of what she had almost done, and of the constant gnawing of loneliness at her heart.



Silently Kagome stood up and surveyed her surroundings, nothing stirred and the gate still stood open patiently and laying by it’s mouth was Naruto. She made her way over to him and scooped him up into her arms. She didn’t look at him as she returned him to the others.



“I won’t say I’m sorry for what I did, because I’m not. I’m not sorry. I’m only sorry he stopped me.” She strolled amongst the ninjas and propped Naruto up against a tree.



“I really wanted you to come with me.“ She told him as she crouched down to meet his eyes. “You remind me so much of Shippo, and having you with me, would have been like having part of my old life back. I would have taken good care of you, I would have treated you like my own son.” Kagome looked as if she was about to say more, but stood up at the last minute.




“You would have made a good mother.” Naruto said, guessing at what she had wanted to say, as she walked towards Sakura.




“Now you make sure you keep these guys in line.” Kagome told the young girl as she carried her to where Naruto sat.




“Always have, I’ll just make sure to work harder now.” Sakura answered, giving Kagome a small smile.




“Good. Make right decisions.”



“Now you, dark prince.” Kagome began as she reached Sasuke and began hauling him over to the others. “Smile more often and get a personality.”



“I have one.” Sasuke growled annoyed.



“Get one that people like. Because someone is going to kick your ass one day.”



“Highly doubt it.” He smirked.


“A smirk. Right. Close enough. You, psychotic child.”



“He isn’t the only orphan in the village you know.” Sasuke said lowly under his breath so that only Kagome heard, but he didn’t notice or see Kagome glance back at him as she moved towards Kakashi.



“Listen, Cyclops.” Kagome grunted as she drug the ninja over to sit with his students. “I want you to stop hanging around these children so much, it’s creepy. You need some adult friends and most definitely a woman.”



“I tried to get one, but she seemed oblivious to my subtle advances.” Kakashi said lazily, not trying to help as Kagome struggled to haul his body up against the tree.



“Did you grope her, pervert?” Kagome asked, as she finally gave up and left him as straight as she could.




“I offered, but she never got back to me.”




“Then sounds like you might have a chance there, I think. Well, this is good-bye then.” Kagome told them as she stood up and gave them her glum smile. Obvious that her mood wouldn’t get any better by staying, Kagome turned to leave, knowing that they’d be able to move by sunrise.



“Hey Kagome.” Naruto yelled after her.



Stopping, Kagome turned her head to look back at him.



“You know, there’s an empty room at my place, if, when, you ever get done. I‘m tired of living by myself.”



Kagome smiled brightly at the invitation, and nodding her head at him, she took off for the gate at a run and disappeared inside it.



~____~



And thus, Kagome time in the world of ninjas ended.


Now it was time to hunt again. This time…it was Sango.


Sango’s terror wasn’t as perverse as Miroku’s, but it was just as gruesome. Sango, it seemed, was filled with rage and bitterness. She plagued the land by destroying whole families, especially the larger ones, and leaving only one survivor each time. Leaving only one daughter from each family. Spreading the pain she felt, spreading her life’s misery, spreading anguish and sorrow in her wake.


Upon arrival in the new world, Kagome hadn’t been aware that others had been hunting Sango too. Unlike with Miroku, the other force knew of Sango, but as Kagome bounded onto the scene, Sango left the world. Leaving Kagome alone to wait for the new moon. Leaving Kagome to answer to the force. Leaving Kagome alone to meet him.


They had assumed that she was in cahoots with Sango and had attacked. Naturally their efforts were futile and so naturally they called him in to do the job.



The man was insane. He loved the fact that she couldn’t die, finding this out after having filled her with lead, dismembering her, and eating her whole.



~____~



“For God’s sakes, Alucard, let her go!” Integra demanded, as Alucard drifted into her office, a big smile on his face as he waited for Kagome to start up again.



“At least do it somewhere else, if you must insist upon it!” Integra growled, bringing her fist down upon her desk to show how serious she was.



But Alucard ignored her as his smile widened.




“Please, Master, it’s sickening!”




Alucard’s stomach bulged., and he began laughing.




“Oh god.” Integra moaned, giving up the fight as she began removing valuables from her desk.




Victoria said nothing and only turned a sickened face away from the oncoming massacre. Although she didn’t see it, she heard it. The sound of tearing flesh and the gasping of a girl free from her prison, and then the sound of a body’s innards scattering throughout the room and onto the floor.



Kagome stood in the middle of the room, breathing heavily and covered in gore while holding Alucard’s rib in her hand, the same rib she used every time she hacked her way out of the vampire’s body.



She couldn’t understand why he loved this. It happened everyday since she had arrived to this place. After he ate her the first time and she broke free, she thought it was over. But oh and behold he could regenerate and start the process all over again. And he would laugh and laugh and make sure that they would have an audience every time. He loved it and she couldn’t understand why.



“H-hi Kagome.” Seras Victoria greeted, looking as sick as she always did when Kagome would appear.



“How do you tolerate him?” Kagome grumbled, peeling pieces of Alucard off her shoulder.



“We have no choice.” Integra said, glaring at the mess on her desk.



“Is everything alright…oh dear.” Walter entered the office and cast an unsurprised eye at the Alucard covered occupants. “I would say good to see you Kagome, but we never meet under good circumstances.”



Kagome grimaced at the elderly butler, but her face turned distraught as the laughter began again. That could only mean one thing…Alucard was ready to play again.



Tossing his bone to the floor, Kagome took off at a dead run.



“Not the window!” Integra yelled, but it was too late.



Throwing her arms up to protect her head, Kagome smashed through the window. The night was dark except for a few stars, but no moon there could be seen. The night of the new moon, and directly below her, waiting to catch her falling body, was the door to the In-Between. Twisting in mid-air, Kagome caught sight of the maniac vampire, smiling down at her from the broken window, making no attempt to retain her.



As Kagome watched him get farther and farther away, she found herself smiling back at him in earnest. She was going to miss that smiling bloodsucker.