InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Chancery ❯ As We Hurt ... ( Chapter 4 )

Chancery
- Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon. - Woody Allen

Chapter 4
As we hurt ...

Miroku and Sango dragged the unconscious Inuyasha onto Kirara's back and decided to carry him back to Kaede's village. For good measure, they curled his right hand around the Tessaiga's handle, just in case he woke up and went on a rampage again.

With Inuyasha out cold, there was not much they could do to locate Kagome. All of the shard hunters prayed sincerely for their dear friend to be safe as they waited for Inuyasha to regain consciousness within Kaede's hut.

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Nearly a whole day since they got back to Kaede's village, Inuyasha was finally jerked out of deep slumber by terrifying dreams of Kagome's death. Upon waking, he was near youkai rage all over again, but his grip on the Tessaiga stopped him. The rest of their little group released a collective sigh of relief that they had enough foresight to place his hand on the sword's handle.

Inuyasha clutched the sword with a death grip, as he took deep calming breaths to force back the red threatening to take over his mind again. He had seen a bloodied Kagome being tortured and torn apart by Naraku, and it was way more than enough to make his youkai blood roar bloody murder and pursue Naraku mindlessly until one of them parished. With the help of Tessaiga, he was able to not succumb to the calling of his blood, knowing that it would be of no help in finding Kagome if he went insane.

"What happened after I lost control?" Inuyasha growled when he had calmed down enough to speak coherently.

"Well, you seemed to be tracking someone when we found you crashing through the forest. We guess it was Naraku?" Miroku took it upon himself to find out what had happened when they were not around.

"Yes ... that BASTARD!!!" Inuyasha suddenly increased his volume, growling his answer in feral.

Miroku gulped, as him and everyone else backed up from the enraged hanyou.

Inuyasha closed his eyes, seeming to remember. In a broken voice full of pain, regret, and guilt, he relayed what had happened to the others.

"No ... Kagome-chan, please be alright." Sango broke into tears as Kirara mewled at her, trying to give some comfort to the distraught taijiya. After the pain of losing her village, her family, and Kohaku in Naraku's hand, she did not think she could take it if she lost her best friend and adopted sister to him too.

"How could you, Inuyasha?! How could you have just stood there, and forget about Kagome just because your undead bitch was around?!" Sango screamed accusingly at Inuyasha, who flattened his ears even deeping into his silvery mane.

"Don't you think I ask myself the same thing over and over again?! Don't you think I hurt because the first and only person who had accepted me for who and what I am, the one who taught me the meaning of friendship and love, the one who had always stood by me no matter what is hurt and taken because I Failed Her?!!" Inuyasha lashed out at her in anguish and pain, over bright golden eyes reflecting his inner turmoil.

Too pained to sympathize with the one who she saw as the guilty party for Kagome's disappearance, Sango regarded him coldly.

"Then why did you? Why did you not notice her injury, not smell her blood, not remember that she was with you when you saw Kikyou? It was all your fault!!!" Her voice, which started off as a hoarse whisper, steadily grew in volume until she was screaming at him again.

"I don't know! I don't know why or how it happened!" Inuyasha howled in desperation, his guilt growing by leaps and bounds to hear those he considered his friends blame him as well.

"I have failed the one I loved once again ..." Inuyasha let out a broken whisper, claws digging painfully into his palms as he fisted his hands.

His head bowed, Inuyasha let out a heart wrenching whimper.

/I truly am worthless. I am not deserving of their friendship, nor of her love./

In a flash of red and a sudden displacement of air, Inuyasha was gone.

Left behind in the old hut, Sango cried into Miroku's chest while Shippou sat sobbing in her lap and Kirara mewling in sympathy.

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After days of trying to track the jyaki of Naraku unsuccessfully, Sesshoumaru finally conceded that he would not be able to find Naraku using his current method. The jyaki had led him on a merry goose chase, going all over the place yet nowhere. The trail was obviously left to confuse and throw off any pursuers. After tracking the slimy hanyou for so long, it was only too apparent that it was near impossible to find him without his consent.

Deciding to try a different, more organized approach, Sesshoumaru returned to his castle and summoned all his runners and spies. They all had one specific order.

Don't come back until they have found Naraku.

Meanwhile, Sesshoumaru continued his own search, hoping Naraku would show himself. Why would he have taken Rin, if not to draw Sesshoumaru to him?

/I will find you, Naraku. And when I do, you will wish you have never set eyes on what is mine./

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"What is the meaning of this, Kagura?" Naraku demanded in a deceptively calm voice as he backhanded her viciously into the wall. "I do not remember giving you an order to retrieve her."

Naraku had left Kagome's side to personally prepare more medicine for her wounds, and was shocked to discover the unexpected addition to his dungeons. He had detected a foreign scent in his castle, and went to investigate. Who would have thought that Sesshoumaru's little human girl would be residing in one of his cells without his knowledge?

Regaining her composure, Kagura support herself lightly on the wall. That blow had been hard enough to send her mind reeling, and she felt slightly nauseated.

"I'm sorry. I came upon her, unattended, and just thought that you might want to take her again. You had ordered to take her once before." Kagura weakly tried to explain herself.

/With that girl here, Sesshoumaru would surely not stop at anything to hunt you down and tear you apart./ She took care not to let her smug thoughts show on her face.

"I cannot send her back without giving myself away, and he will not take kindly to being fooled. Since the damage is done, she will have to stay here for now. Take care of her needs, I do not need Sesshoumaru going into a rage because his possession has been damaged and come after me right now." Naraku said with a frustrated sigh.

"You have picked a very bad time to bring Sesshoumaru upon us, Kagura." He said darkly, "Is it truly coincidence?"

Kagura's heart would have turned cold at this, if she still had her heart of course. Her eyes widened in fear, previous smugness dissipating immediately.

"Of cou-rse not, Naraku-sama. I would n-not dare." She was slightly stuttering as she tried to defend herself.

"Good, I would hate to have to remind you of who owned you now, don't you agree?" He purred, her heart appearing instantly in his hand as he gave it a painful squeeze.

Gasping in pain, Kagura fought from kneeling over as she answered. "Y-es, Naraku-sama."

Her heart was gone in a flash from his hands, as Naraku left to prepare the medicine he had original came for, leaving Kagura leaning against the wall of his hallway.

/I will not let you succeed, you bastard! I know you want to have the miko reincarnation for yourself, that you plan to somehow turn her loyalties. I am not stupid enough to let you slowly brainwash her without disturbance. Now that I have taken that little girl, Sesshoumaru will surely hunt you down and stop you before you gain even more power!/ Kagura's mind raved in hatred as she glared burning holes into her master's retreating back.

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/Why is it so hot ...?/

Kagome's first thought was that she was burning, that she felt as if she would suffocate.

/What is going on? Did I really go to hell?/

She tried to gasp for breath, but could not seem to control her body. Then she felt a surge inside herself, as if something was trying to escape, to demand release.

/What was that? It felt ... familiar. When had I felt that surge before?/

Kagome tried to remember, as a stronger surge pulsed through her again. Strangely, that pulse made her breathing somewhat easier.

/That's it! It's my miko energy! But why is it acting like this?/

Before she could make head of tails of what was going on, a third burst of energy seemed to finally break whatever it was that kept it in confines. As her power exploded within her, she was engulfed in an excruciating pain as her blood seem to turn to lava. Her body burned with such an intensity that she was positive she had gone to hell and was suffering for whatever sins she had committed in life.

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Naraku came to a jerking halt just outside the room as he felt the sudden pulse of energy from inside. Eyes widening in surprise, he burst into the room, promptly dropping the medicine and bandages in his arms as he took in the sight in before him.

Kagome was levitated a few centimeters above the futon, eyes scrunched shut and limps thrashing as her mouth opened wide in a silent scream. Her breathing was sporadic and laboured. She almost radiated agony.

At once, Naraku rushed to her side and tried to hold her. However, he was singed and repelled by her miko energy, which covered her body in a faint glow of azure. However, he noticed there were writhing tendrils of ominous dark purple laced through her azure aura. The two clashing energy was fighting each other, causing Kagome to be in such suffering.

Unable to touch her, Naraku could only watch as the girl started to sob brokenly in pain while her power fought what could only be Kikyou's dark energy. It had been poisoning her, restraining her own pure energy from healing her. Now that her body had slightly healed and was no longer on the brink of death, her own power had broken free of Kikyou's and was trying to eliminate it from Kagome's body.

Just as suddenly as it came, all came to an abrupt stop as Kagome gave one last blinding flash before crumpling back onto the futon. Naraku was by her side, enfolding her into his embrace in an instant.

All her bandages are now blood soaked, since she had reopened almost all her wounds during her thrashing. However, she seemed to be breathing better and was now sleeping peacefully instead of remaining in a deep coma. Her body just needed to heal and replace the lost blood.

Naraku gingerly set her back onto the futon, as if she was so fragile she would break at any sudden movement. Then he gathered the medical supplies he had dropped on the ground previously, and set to work on carefully replacing all her bandages.

/Soon, you will wake. Very soon, we will meet face to face, my dear little miko./

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There goes anther chapter! I kinda like it ^^

Well, hope you people like it too!

I hope you people don't think Naraku is Too out of character, he's still not a great guy (if his treatment of Kagura's any indication), but then, Sesshoumaru's not the best of people either ^^;; Obsessions and Love and stuff do strange things to a person ... or youkai ... or anything in between!

And I still retain my (albeit possibly delusional) view of Naraku as not Purely evil. I mean, even pure evil can have infatuations that might develop into just a bit of something more from time to time ... right? Neways, his darker side will probably come about in this other fic that I'm working on, though its hard to find time. (Nar/Kag angst fic)

Thanks for all the reviews, I love you all! <3

- Kura

Mailing list at: http://kura-sama.notifylist.com