InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Come Home Puppy ❯ Finding the Truth ( Chapter 3 )

Finding the Truth
"Where's the old hag's hut? I want to sniff the truth out for myself!"

The gang looked at the ookami as if he had finally lost it before the taijiya caught on that they had been stupid in not believing Shippou. With their anger at Inuyasha they had forgotten the fact that there were two other demons that could collaborate or discredit the inu-hanyou, but they had completely neglected those thoughts. She had a feeling that they were going to be headed up shit creek in the looming future.
They led him to the hut, only one of the group pondering the consequences of what they did, the others still blissfully ignorant, but not for long. Kagome's and Miroku's thoughts were running along the same course thinking about how Inuyasha hadn't brainwashed the wolf demon and would be proven of having lied to their faces. Only the third of their group seemed to recall the sparse information that Inuyasha had revealed of his heritage, such as the fact that the White Dog Clan were a bluntly honest family of demons.
Kouga looked at the hut that reeked of death, blood, and a scent that was similar to Naraku's but noticeably different. He can't put his finger on where he has smelt it before, but he knows that it a scent he has come into contact with before. Walking closer and finally inside the hut, he observes and spreads out his senses to examine the scene around him. The inside of the hut was a blood bath, red sprayed its walls clear to every corner and seeped into the grain of the wood flooring. The ceiling had not been spared in the downpour either, it was a deranged sight, even for a demon such as himself. Whoever wanted the old hag dead, they had wanted her to suffer as well and that just didn't jibe with Inuyasha. He was abrasive, rash, and most of the time thick headed, but even with his demon in control he had never, could never be that cruel to his chosen victims.
THAT SCENT! He knows now where that scent had come from. It smelt different from Naraku because it was female and it was one he had met before. He remembers her scent as the one that had set him onto Inuyasha, had him accusing the pup of killing his brothers when in fact it had been the she-demon herself-Kagura! No, this scene was not Inuyasha's fault. For now he would see what the humans would say before he decided to go ballistic and tear into them for running off the heir to the Western Lands and then begin his search for Sesshoumaru. That was one thing he was to dread.

Shippou and Kirara continued to float lazily down the stream as they paused in their exploration for Inuyasha and someone that could help. They mainly wanted to find Sesshoumaru, since by demon law Inuyasha was still a pup and therefore under his brother's care. Shippou felt himself being pulled in by a stronger current and yelled for Kirara's help, afraid that he would be pulled under. The fire neko adhered to his call, but was dragged into the current herself. They clung tightly to each other trying to keep their heads above the water. They couldn't die, not only because they wanted to live, but they needed to find Inuyasha, they needed to make sure he was okay and that he knew that they still cared for him. Shippou loved him like a father and kirara felt him to be the only companion to understand her as they would often go hunting together for the raw meat that kept them healthy. She was also the one to hide the meat they had gathered so that Shippou would be able to eat as much of it as he needed since the ningens didn't know, or want to know that they were stunting his growth by feeding him all that cooked food.
The current rammed them into rocks and low hanging branches over the turbulent waters until they finally were stopped in a shallow pull that was already occupied by a regal looking demon, a small girl in an orange kimono, and a dirt green imp that was trying to avoid the rocks being thrown at its head and not be cajoled into the water by the girl. They had found him, they had found Lord Sesshoumaru. 'Kami-sama, don't let him kill us before we tell him everything.' Shippou grimanced at his dark thoughts before taking a fortifying breath and following Kirara out of the waters and towards the impassive TaiYoukai.

"When you got to the hut, did you actually see Inuyasha kill Lady Kaede?" The three ningens looked back and forth between each other before Kagome spoke up, her voice drowning out Sango's quiet one.
"No, but we saw the blood on him. It was even on his hands and in his fingernails!"
"But, you don't actually know if that was Kaede's blood under his nails. You said it yourself that there were demons attacking the village. Why wouldn't Inuyasha have killed them and gotten blood under his claws?"
"...."
"Another thing is the scent of Naraku and Inuyasha not far from the village, yet you don't seem to have been in a fight with him because his stench isn't on either of you. Just throwing this out there, but from the fact that Kagura's scent is in this hut, quite heavily, I would say this was one of Naraku's traps and you fell right into it." He looked at them with dawning disgust on his face. Kagome was beginning to look remorseful, appropriately so, but the vibe he got from her was not that she wanted the half-breed back, but the power she had lost over him when she unknowingly renounced him. Those beads at the moment are completely useless.
"Where is Inuyasha," the ookami lord asked darkly. The three ningens had the decency to looked abashed before they tried to look him in the eye.
"We don't know where he is. He ran off after we caught him with Lady Kaede's blood all over him," the monk spoke up for the first time. Kouga's look of disgust didn't lighten. To have sent the hanyou running off, they would have had to of said some really hurtful things or had tried to hurt the inu himself.

Screams echoed throughout the stond corridors of the ancient, well hidden castle. High pitched, agonized whimpers followed softly after before another blood curdling howl started the process over again. In the furthest room on the lowest level of the dungeon, two demons were locked within its bowels. The smaller of the two lay upon the ground body twitching in response to phantom remembered pain and bleeding from many fast healing wounds. The ruby-eyed male standing away from the mess of blood and flesh held a nine-tails that was dripping crimson life onto the cold stone floor and looking at it, it had several chunks of flesh still captured within it sharp, crooked embrace. Naraku watched with malicious glee and an evil, delighted smirk across his lips.
Naraku stood back for a couple of moments more before returning to the table with his 'tools'. He laid down the nine-tails and carefully laid a hand over each item on the table before picking up the sharpened, dragon magic reinforced metal pinwheel. At first glance the little instrument would look just like a child's innocent pinwheel, but upon closer inspection, it can be clearly noted that it is not with the razor edges that were meant to rip, shred, and tear. It was designed to be a messy tool. Gold eyes watched in fear and cracking resolve as the kumo held the wheel up to his face for inspection. Smile widening as if please with the results of the inspection, the larger hanyou walked back toward the naked form on the floor of his dungeon. 'Ningen torture methods are worth more than they are given credit for'. Naraku grabbed the manacled wrists off the floor and hoisted the inu-hanyou into the air to hand from the ceiling.
Naraku's handsome features contorted into a thoughtful expression as he stroked the, as of yet, unmarked and untouched arms. A soft whimper escaped full lips gone pale with blood loss. Naraku was disturbed from his thoughts of his ruined plan to ravish Inuyasha, the pup had too much strength, but he was remedying that now. The kumo stopped his caressing of the unmarked arms and took up his modified pinwheel. He pressed the into the tender flesh on the underside of the smaller male's arms and pressed until little riveluts of blood ran down the appendage. He then began to press the tool up the tanned flesh and back down watching as flesh and muscle became separated from itself and bone. He stopped destroying the flesh of the arm he was on and began on the other, smiling with childish glee at howls coming from the young hanyou. He made sure that the flesh closest to the armpit remained untouched, he wanted to break the puppy, not kill him.

Sesshoumaru listened to the kit's tale with narrowed eyes and wary suspicion. He smelt no lie during the entire story and decided that for now, he would help the young demon find the filthy half-breed that he looked up to as a guardian. The only redeeming feature about the hanyou in this situation was the fact that he had raised the kit with royal standards, and those especially catered by the White Dog Clan. Gathering up Rin and Jaken, he had the kit show him the last place he had seen Inuyasha, though the kit had warned they would need about two days to get back to that village that the half-breed had been kicked out of.
"We got to the village after he did, but he didn't have enough time to wash away her blood, so he thought to use the attack on the village to say that Naraku had done it. That demon had no rhyme or reason to attack this village because we weren't here." Kouga stared at them as if they were stupid. They wouldn't have really done the mutt like that, would they? He would have thought that they would at least have the common sense to know that the half demon has never lied to them before, only when his personal health was involved, but never beyond that. Inu-demons especially those of the White Dog Clan are know for their blunt honesty.
"Where's the old hag's hut? I want to sniff the truth out for myself!"