InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Between Darkness and Light ❯ Naoki ( Chapter 12 )

Ok, whoever wished that I wouldn't have a writer's block, jinxed me (j/k). But yea, I had a really hard time writing this chapter, so sorry about it being out a little late. I didn't think you guys would give me my reviews so quickly (and for that I'm very grateful = ) )

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahashi does.

Between Darkness and Light

Chapter 12: Naoki

By Cataluna

She took a deep breath and began her story, a tragic tale that she had long ago memorized by heart. This was her reason for fighting, to prevent something like this from happening ever again. "Naoki was a happy man, with a beautiful wife and a sweet child who was unusually bright. They were poor, but content for their home was filled with love. His wife was a member of our clan. It was through her that he first came across the information on the Ring of Midoriko. Being a scholar, a man with a passion for learning, he was instantly drawn to its intriguing story and origin-"

"Will you get to the fucking point of the story already?"

Kagome shot him a warning look, and pinched him on the arm, "Inuyasha!"

He ignored it, though knowing full well that she would make him pay for it later somehow, and leaned back on his seat, hands cradling his head. He bit back a grin as he pictured the punishment she would bestow on him for being "bad."

Shaking his head to clear his vivid imagination, "Well, I'm not exactly big on stories you know. It's getting late, and we're wasting time here storytelling when we should be securing the ring before the other bastards can get to it."

Her hands gripped tightly at the armrests, nearly ripping into the fabric, she was having a hard time keeping her rage from boiling over. Here she was trying to help them, telling them a story that not many people knew, and he was saying that she was wasting their time.

She looked over at Kagome, who was sending her apologetic looks, and at Miroku who looked as though he was ready to slap him silly. `She seemed like a nice person, well when she's not busy kicking my ass. Why she would want to be with such a hard-temper jerk, I don't think I'll ever understand.'

Taking deep breaths to keep herself from punching the light out of the hanyou, "The ring is safe with my tribe member for now. We were able to protect it for almost a century, and we'll continue to do so with or without your help." She gave Inuyasha a pointed look in which he responded with a loud "Keh." Continuing, "I refuse to bring you guys especially you to its location until you know the ring's history."

He yawned loudly, and waved his hand at her to finish telling the story, as thought he was a king giving his servant permission to breathe. "Fine fine, just don't take the entire night to do it," Inuyasha mumbled the last part softly.

"Sango, please go on. Unlike someone I know, I am very interested in learning more about the ring and the jewel," Miroku requested.

He couldn't resist at using this opportunity to get back at him for making fun of them earlier, and always interrupting them at the most impromptu moment. Smirking, "You're just trying to suck up to her now so she'll re-"

Kagome clamped her hand over his mouth, muffling the last part of his comment, then turned to the red-faced exterminator, "Just ignore him."

He snorted, and grabbed the hand that was holding his mouth shut. `Try and ignore this!' His tongue darted out and licked the center of her palm sensually.

She drew in a sharp intake of air, and her eyes involuntarily rolled up to the back of her head as the wave of heat spread fire through her veins.

He snickered arrogantly at her reaction, and kissed her hand once again before releasing her, while Miroku and Sango watched helplessly at their display. Remembering that they had an audience, she quickly recovered and glared at the hanyou, completely mortified by what she had done. But she found that she could not stay mad at him for long, as he stared innocently back at her.

"I'll try," Sango finally said dryly at what she had just witnessed, before giving Miroku a curious glance. She did not miss what Inuyasha was trying to imply earlier. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind when she saw them looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to start.

"Anyways, as I was saying…eventually, his research led him to information on the Shikon no Tama. Naoki quickly discovered its power to grant wishes, and became obsessed with finding it so that he could better provide for his family. The obsession soon became madness. He turned from a caring father and husband to a "monster." He even took the ring, claiming he wanted to study it. She pleaded for him to give it back, that's when he finally snapped…

>>>>>>

"Naoki, you do not know what you're doing. Put the ring back!" she pleaded tearfully at him from the floor, one of her hand tugging on his leg, the other cradling her stinging red cheek.

He kicked her off of him in annoyance. "Stupid bitch, I'm doing this for our family," staring at the glimmering jewel in his hand. He clenched his hand tightly into a fist, and burst out laughing

She stared in horror at the man her husband had become, a total stranger. His laughter thundered loudly in her ears. The ring and the jewel had destroyed him, turned him mad. She knew right then and there that she had to stop him, no matter what. Taking advantage of his distraction, she suddenly pushed herself off the floor, and threw her small frame at him.

Naoki fell to the floor with a loud thud, the ring rolled out of his hand to across the room. He cursed loudly, as he recovered from having his breath knocked out of him. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" opening his eyes. He saw that the room was emptied and she was nowhere in sight.

With a loud angry roar that could be heard from miles, he took off after her. "Come back here with my ring you little whore," his eyes searching, knowing full well that she couldn't have gotten very far. A loud crash from the kitchen quickly informed him of her whereabouts.

He chuckled at her pathetic attempt to get away, and tackled her down to the floor. Naoki forced her head back by painfully grabbing her hair.

<<<<<<

SANGO:

…He strangled her with a sick smile on his face, unaware that they had an audience, his daughter. She stood frozen in fear at the entrance to the kitchen, wondering what he was doing to her mother, and why…

>>>>>>

He took a step back from his wife's lifeless body, and stared in amazement as the ring began to give off a bright glow. `The Shikon no Tama must be nearby!' He heard a loud gasp from behind, and spun around.

His daughter was glowing just as brightly and maybe even more so, as she stared in absolute horror at her mother's lifeless body, tears spilling like a waterfall from her eyes. "Mommy?" she whispered softly, and dropped to her knees.

"Daddy, what have you done to Mommy?" her eyes searched his, only to find him looking at her with a strange smile on his face. She felt weird, feverish, like she was burning up inside, and the side of her stomach seemed to be pulsating with a life of its own.

Not a word was uttered as he calmly took a knife from the kitchen drawer, knowing what he had to do.

"Daddy?"

<<<<<<

…His daughter turned out to be the carrier of the Shikon no Tama. It did not matter; all he cared about was getting the jewel. He used its power to command an army of demons and vampires. Fortunately for the world, we, along with the slayer, were able to stop them. Many lives were lost during that battle, including the slayer and my great-great grandfather. The jewel simply vanished once again and we were entrusted with the task of protecting the ring once more," she finally finished, and discreetly wiped away the tears that had formed at the corner of her eyes.

Naoki's story still managed to affect her strongly every time. She looked around the room for her listeners' reactions. They sat in silence digesting what she had just told them.

Miroku and the slayer both appeared remorseful and sad, stunned at what they had just heard. But the one person that this story was meant for, the person who needed to hear this story the most, appeared unaffected, maybe even annoyed by all this. She sighed, `Was this for nothing?'

Kagome shook her head in disbelief, and grabbed a tissue from the side table to wipe her eyes. "He killed his own daughter…" she whispered to herself, her voice trailing off.

"Now do you see why? Naoki had wanted to use it for the good of his family, and look how it turned out. He killed his family for the jewel." She turned to Inuyasha, needing to see his response, anything. "It doesn't matter what your intention is…if you use the jewel, you could end up like him and kill the one person you truly care about. You could kill Kagome!" she shouted at him.

"You don't know anything about me or Kagome, so you should fucking keep your mouth shut," he growled back, baring his teeth. She could see that he was shaking, trying to keep his anger from boiling over.

Inuyasha stood up and stomped outside to the balcony, desperately needing fresh air and just to get away. He closed his eyes to the feel of the summer breeze against his face, and ruffling his hair. No matter how much he tried to hide it by acting indifferent, her story shook him.

He was used to dismissing the jewel's warning as a sort of tall tale or urban legend dreamt up by some paranoid lunatic, but now… He gripped at the railing, almost bending the metal to the shape of his palm. Now he was no longer alone, he had someone he cared deeply about, someone that he could end up hurting if what wench said was true. `I need to get out of here.'

Before he could take off, Kagome appeared behind him, her gentle scent soothing his nerves. She closed the glass door gently, and stood by his side.

He glanced over at her, "You should go back in with the others, I need to think."

She rested her arms on the railing, her eyes staring up at the moon above them. "It's pretty out here, but if you really want me to go…"

He said nothing.

Taking that to mean he wanted her to stay, "Inuyasha…" locking eyes with him. "Do you still want to use the power of the jewel after all?" her voice quiet and cautious.

"Feh, don't fucking worry about something like that!" he shouted.

She flinched at the tone of his voice, her face saddened. "Well I'm scared! You heard what Sango said and what happened to Naoki," she yelled back.

His eyes widened, the muscles around his jaw tightened. `She thinks I'll hurt her?'

Seeing that he completely misunderstood what she was trying to say, she quickly added, "I'm not scared that you'll hurt me…" She left out a dry chuckle, "I'm not some helpless girl you know." Kagome gently touched the side of his face, "I'm scared that once you have the Shikon no Tama, your heart would go somewhere far away. That you might forget about me," her eyes began to fill with tears.

Her confession surprised him. `How could she think that? How could I ever forget…' He cupped her chin and gently brushed away her tears with his thumb, before taking her close in his arms, resting his cheek on the top of her head. "Don't be an idiot. Whatever happened, I am me. There's no way I would forget about you," he said softly before lifting her chin up to fasten his mouth over hers.

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They watched as the couple outside embraced. Sango wanted to tear her eyes away and give them some privacy, but found that she couldn't.

She envied them.

She wanted what they have.

Being a demon exterminator didn't really allow her time to meet a guy and fall in love. In fact, she could count the number of guys outside her clan she had talked to on one hand. She was always too busy training and hunting.

Glancing shyly at Miroku, `Well I can certainly add to that number.' She blushed with embarrassment when he suddenly turned his head and caught her staring. Her eyes dropped immediately to her lap, wondering why she was suddenly acting like such a girly-girl.

"Sango."

"Yes?" her stomach fluttering.

"About the story…" he began, rubbing his chin.

"Oh," trying to hide her disappointment. "What is it?"

"The ring reacting with the girl…does that mean the carrier and the ring would glow immediately when they're in close proximity with each other?"

Shaking her head, "No, from what I was told, something traumatic has to happen to the carrier…a strong gush of emotion, else they could be in the same room and not response to each other."

He nodded, his brow knitting at her answer.

Her eyes darted around the room before settling on Kagome and Inuyasha once again. They were still wrapped around each other tightly and passionately, as though they were fused into one person, completely in their own world. "They really care for each other," she finally said.

He gazed at the loving couple for a while before replying, "I've never seen Inuyasha show that much emotion towards anyone before. He's much more opened now. She had changed in a way him for the better." Miroku gave her a wistful smile. "I'm really happy for them, now that they finally decided to stop being stubborn and realize that they belong together. Despite the difficulties that they'll have to face in the future…sometimes I wish I had what they have. Maybe remaining a bachelor isn't as appealing to me anymore," patting one of her knee gently.

Her eyes widened at what he had just said and did. She felt her face redden, and could hear her heart beating loudly in her ears. `Why do I feel like this, maybe it's because I don't talk to guys much and I'm getting influenced by the lovebirds over there. But then he does seem like a really nice guy, handsome too. And he-`

Her pondering was cut short by the feel of his hand rubbing higher and higher up her thigh. She reacted the only way she knew how.

//SLAP//

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Sorry about this chapter being a bit short. Okay, it's gonna take me a little longer to get the next chapter out, so don't be mad *cowering on the floor in fear* I need a break and work on my other stories. I'm not being fair to my "Yours Always" fans. So review as much as you like, but remember guilt is a good incentive for me to continue. So if a bunch of you guys are reviewing I'll try to get the next chapter out right away.

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