InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Hanyou of the Future ❯ Just Another Hostage Cliche ( Chapter 18 )

AN: Thank you to Isis-Kitty for the beta job. A lot of people ask me if I'm going to finish this story. Yes, I very much plan on it, and I'm close to being finished too. I'm working on the next chapter now, and I have about three chapters left after that. They shouldn't take more than a couple of months to be updated. Please see my user info page on FFnet or my Yahoo Group for more status updates. Thanks!

 

Hanyou of the Future

 

Chapter Eighteen: Just Another Hostage Cliché

 

Fifteen minutes wore off, and he returned to his youkai form. Inuyasha lumbered to his feet, still feeling a residue of the pain caused by the Sealing Blaster. He popped a few creaks in his neck and then stretched before returning to Kagome's side.

 

He glared at their fox demon prisoner, and he smirked at the fear on the guy's face as he started to spill.

 

“Okay, the old man and kid aren't that far off. The boss keeps them separate, on odd ends of the building,” he rambled. Kagome's mother seemed satisfied with the answer, but in her continuous aim, she expected him to nark some more.

 

Suddenly, Inuyasha heard a crackle and looked around the room cautiously, before realizing it was the radio on Aki's arm.

 

“Hey, Aki-san, are you there? It's Ayame. Please confirm your position. Over.”

 

“I'm here,” she said, still keeping her mark on the prisoner. Kagome aimed too and didn't move a muscle. Inuyasha was impressed.

 

“We're still at the entrance. Inuyasha caught some fire. Where are Kouga and the others?” Aki asked, and Inuyasha noticed she seemed a little perturbed.

 

The radio crackled slightly, and then Ayame answered. “He got caught up in an ambush. I'm sorry about that, Inuyasha.” The hanyou harrumphed, but he was sure she couldn't hear him. “He's helping out some moles that got caught in the crossfire. If it wasn't for the boys, we'd have causalities.”

 

“No worries, Ayame-san,” Kagome piped in to reassure her. She glanced at Inuyasha with a confident smile. “We got to him in time.”

 

“Good, now you three can look for the hostages. We're going to filter out moles out and then go back in to find Naru. Okay?”

 

“Copy that,” Aki said in her smooth voice. She eyed the prisoner as Ayame signed off. “Alright, my friend, I suggest you keep talking.” Before the poor bastard could even open his mouth, Inuyasha heard a disturbance sneak up behind them.

 

“Look out!” he screamed, and he pushed Kagome out of the way as Aki dove for the floor as well. A shot rang out, and Inuyasha could see a golden beam fly in the corner of his eye as he was shielding Kagome. Suddenly, he smelled ash again, only this time it wasn't from the wall. He looked up with surprise. The fox demon they had taken prisoner had exploded into a burst of dust.

 

“Oh no!” Kagome yelled, and Inuyasha held her tighter to protect her as they jumped to their feet. Aki aimed her weapon at the cause of the disturbance, and instinctively, Inuyasha put himself in front of Kagome.

 

“Who's there?” Inuyasha demanded. In response, he heard a deep, throaty chuckle. He finally came face to face with the enemy who had been targeting them for so long. Inuyasha growled.

 

“So, we meet again, Inuyasha,” he said, and Inuyasha didn't like how this human sounded so much like Naraku, who had long been dead by his own power. He resolved to Sesshoumaru's warning that this incarnation was just as dangerous, but so far he wasn't convinced. When he finally got a good look of this so-called nemesis, he looked nothing more than a dull and modern adult Japanese business male. He didn't look like the intimidating presence that Sesshoumaru and his group was having so many problems locating.

 

“Heh, I've never met you before in my life,” Inuyasha spat at him. “Where are the old man and the kid? We ain't playing games here.”

 

The crooked smile on the man's face seemed to get wider and more sinister. Inuyasha felt an unusual spark of youki from the man, and he realized that it was the same kind of youki he sensed since they came back from his era. He narrowed his eyes at Naru, and he couldn't hold back the instinctive growl. So this was the bum who'd been stalking them since they came back with a completed jewel!

 

“Oh, come now, surely your brother has told you all about me,” he said with a cackle. He looked pointedly at Inuyasha. “Unless you're too stupid to remember.”

 

“Bastard! How the hell can you remember who your incarnation was anyway? It's not possible. Who told you?”

 

Naru chuckled. “You're not as dumb as I had foreseen. Of course, you have fought many battles and have been through many tough trials.

 

“But you are correct at the moment. Pity your past self was too ignorant to realize what he had left behind when my former self was destroyed.” The man eyes sparkled blood-red, and he didn't look so harmless anymore. His power was increasing by the minute. Even more so, his arms and limbs were starting to wobble like noodles, and Inuyasha thought for a moment his eyes were deceiving him. He felt the muscles in his body tense. Something bad was going to happen. He moved in front of Kagome, shielding her as best as he could.

 

Then, as the bastard continued to smirk at him and get off a few guffaws, a thought dawned on him. Kagome made a gasp next to him as if she had the same thought.

 

“Byakuya! We never…” Inuyasha met her frightened eyes. “We never saw where he went. I just assumed he was killed too.”

 

Naru laughed darkly. “No you got to him, but hundreds of my other minions were left behind with nothing to live for, except for one thing: the hope that I would someday return to this world in another life. So they waited for me, and when my soul was reborn they stole me away from my human mother and the ritual began all over again.”

 

“The ritual?” Kagome asked.

 

“He took in the demons, just as Onigumo did. He gave them his fresh and corruptible soul,” Aki chimed in. Kagome turned her head, and Inuyasha saw her look to Naru with pity. He growled, instead, and felt an entirely different emotion than pity for the man.

 

“Alright, alright, so you got a fresh start and your goons remade you into another Naraku, but there's something your lackeys were too stupid to figure out the second time around,” Inuyasha said. He looked to Kagome and gave her a light nod. Her eyes confirmed what he was going to ask.

 

“And what was that?” Naru asked, sounding almost bored, as if he wasn't intimidated by Inuyasha's words at all.

 

Inuyasha chuckled. “It means that I kicked your ass once, I can do it again.” Then, Kagome handed him his prize that she was hiding all along, and once he felt the sword in his hands, he felt a part of himself return. He almost sighed in relief as he held it again. Bringing it out of its scabbard, it transformed and readied into its most powerful form, the Meido Zangetsuha. He pointed it at Naru, who merely scowled at his defiance.

 

“We'll see about that, my old friend,” Naru said mockingly. Suddenly, the air around them felt denser and heavy with a sulfuric smell. Inuyasha leaned back, still protective of Kagome after hearing a light cough. The room filled up with classic violet miasma, and Aki whispered to hold their position. A change was occurring in Naru; Inuyasha could hear it, and when the smoke cleared, they weren't expecting the image in front of them.

 

He was no longer just a dull looking man. Now, his half-demon blood had shown through, only he was much uglier than his previous incarnation. Instead of being made of just tentacles and parts of other demons, Naru had combined himself with this modern demon technology, some of which Inuyasha still didn't fully understand.

 

“He looks like a Cyborg,” Kagome commented, and her mother nodded in agreement next to her.

 

“I don't care what he looks like. I'm just going to rip him to shreds with the Meido Zangetsuha. I'm tired of this shit,” Inuyasha complained.

 

“Wait, Inuyasha!” Aki warned. “You don't understand what he's fused with." Aki squinted through the smoke as Inuyasha held back. “I - I don't even recognize some of it.”

“Right you are, woman,” replied Naru, well aware of their conversation before him. “I have designed some of the technology myself; stealing the youki of other lesser youkai and combining it to fuel the power cells of these metal arms.” He whipped the metallic tentacles around, teasing and taunting them as they quickly ducked and dodged when he jabbed at them.

 

“Huh, so what? It's all the same to me, stupid computers and witchcraft! I've had enough of it!” Inuyasha said, making to charge. Aki yelled to hold him back again, but he was impatient.

 

“Don't, Inuyasha! We can work together! Fight him as a team!” Aki exclaimed. Inuyasha hesitated, and he looked back at her before dodging another one of the tentacles swipes.

 

“Alright, Kagome stays back, you do whatever you want, and I go toward the center!” he said, content with his impromptu plan. Aki tried to protest, but he was already running full speed toward the mechanical hybrid.

 

“Wait!” Kagome yelled, and she watched as Inuyasha slashed a few metal tentacles off with his sword. Her eyes widened as the arms quickly grew back. Inuyasha jumped back to their circle, and then he swore softly under his breath. Aki sighed.

 

“Okay, now that you have that out of your system,” Aki said. “Let's work out a plan.”

 

Inuyasha fell back, shielding them. There was trepidation in his voice. “No time for a plan.”

 

“Why not?” Kagome asked, but Aki was already pushing her back.

 

“Get back! He's going to explode!” Heat licked at their skin as Inuyasha tried to keep his eyes open. A blast knocked them all back, and Kagome was pulled out of his reach. He screamed for her, but within the black acrid smoke, he could only discern that one of the metal arms had grabbed her while they were distracted from the explosion.

 

“Kagome!” he screamed, but her voice was already fading in the distance as the monster dragged her away. He could hear the fiend's laugh echoing throughout the building, and his horrible stench masked the scented path of his precious Kagome.

 

“Kagome!” He made to leap off after her, but Aki pulled him back. He pushed her hand off his shoulder, and he looked into her regretful face as the smoke cleared.

 

“Inuyasha, I'm sorry,” she said. “We should go back to Sesshoumaru, see what he wants to do.”

 

“Fuck him! I'm going after her; she's still in this building. I'll find her. I don't care what I have to do,” he said.

 

“You don't get it, Inuyasha.” Aki's eyes left his gaze for a moment, and she looked up at the top of the room. He followed her line of vision, and he saw a black screen at the top of the wall, scrolling a red warning. Suddenly, strange annoying noises went off, and a voice told them to evacuate the building. “Naru set off a bomb. We have ten minutes to get out or this place will blow.”

 

Inuyasha screeched in frustration. “What about Kagome and the old man and kid? What the hell? What are we going to do about them?”

 

“We can only pray that Kouga and the others found them and got them out. Otherwise, Naru won't want to kill Kagome. He's going to use her as a bargaining tool.”

 

Inuyasha looked at her with confusion, but she grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back toward the door. The noises grew louder, and the warning became stuck in his head. His feet moved in pace with Aki's, and soon they were free from the facility. When he heard that they had ten seconds to spare, he picked up Aki and bounded them far from the facility. They watched as the warehouse began to explode, and then Aki received another transmission on her radio armband.

 

“Aki-san, are you there? Did you get out in time? Over.” It was Ayame's voice.

 

“Ayame, yes, we got out in time.”

 

“Good! We have your father and the boy. Did you see Naru?” Ayame asked, sounding elated. Inuyasha knew that she wouldn't be cheerful for too long.

 

“Yes, copy that. We saw him, but there's been a problem,” Aki said dejectedly.

 

“What's wrong? Are you okay?” Kouga was talking now. He seemed worried, and Inuyasha hadn't heard him that worried in a long time.

 

“We're fine, but Kagome was kidnapped. Naru has her, and it's only a matter of time before he asks for ransom,” Aki answered. He saw the tears forming in her eyes as she spoke.

 

There was a long silence over the air waves before Kouga finally responded back. “Understood. Let's get back to base. We have to plan out a new mission to get her back.” Aki sniffled and suddenly, Inuyasha was taking the woman into his arms as she cried.

 

“We'll see you back at my brother's place, wolf,” Inuyasha said gruffly, and as the connection was cut, he held the crying mother in his arms until she was ready to go.

 

--

 

It was déjà vu as they circled around Sesshoumaru's desk in his poorly lit office.

 

He folded his hands over his desk and stared at the phone. Aki put her hand on his shoulder, and once Inuyasha saw him lift up his own hand and pat her comfortingly.

 

“I've received the call. He wants to meet back at Tokyo Bay at his last remaining warehouse in the Chiba Prefecture. He wants one thing, and one of us has to go alone.”

 

“I'll do it,” Inuyasha said, stepping up.

 

“I know you would, brother, but you cannot,” Sesshoumaru said, giving him a dangerous glare. “We cannot give him what he's asking for under any conditions. At least, we have to come up with a plan before we do.”

 

“Screw your damn plans!” Inuyasha yelled, his fists shaking at his sides. “I already know what that bastard wants, and Kagome's life is worth more than that stupid jewel!”

 

“Now, Inuyasha, you know what happened the last time Naraku got a hold of the completed jewel. He was almost unstoppable,” Aki countered.

 

“I can't believe I'm hearing this! This is Kagome we're talking about! You want to sacrifice her life for the jewel!” he raged. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to meet Kouga's icy blue gaze.

 

“Nobody is sacrificing anyone, idiot! We all care about Kagome, and we will get her back - our way, not yours.”

 

Inuyasha pushed his hand off his shoulder and pointed a claw at him. “I don't want to hear that from you. Your ways, all your modern magic and technology have failed, now it's my turn to do it my way!”

 

Sesshoumaru leaned back in his chair, and he put up his hand to dispel and impending argument from Kouga and Inuyasha. “Alright, little brother. What's your plan? How do we save Kagome you way without giving up the jewel? I'm all ears.”

 

He looked around the room before staring into his brother's challenging expression. His eyes narrowed, and he cracked his knuckles.

 

“I fought Naraku with the sword before and beat him; I'll do it to this guy too. He wants one person and one person only to make the exchange? Let it be me. Kagome's mom here said I can cloak anything in that ninja suit, so I'll keep my sword there and pull it out when I need it.” He paused and he looked at Kouga and his lackeys, who didn't seem to be on board for his plan. “You guys just have to trust me to go alone with the transaction. As for coming as my backup, well, I'll leave that up to you and your fancy technology. I'm sure you can think of something, but you have to let me deal with Naru and rescue Kagome.”

 

“And what about the jewel, dog turd? You're just going to give it to him? Then what? He becomes some super powered monster with all his technology so we can't even take him down? How is that for a plan?” Kouga taunted as he crossed his arms. The wolf demon still didn't seem convinced. Inuyasha turned to him and met his demanding stare close to his face.

 

“I'm going to trade the jewel for Kagome, but I never said I was gonna let him use it, wolf piss,” he said.

 

The two dominant males became locked in a momentary stare-down before Kouga backed off and gave Inuyasha a mocking smirk. “Whatever, let's see what the old dog can do.”

 

“Yeah, and you can worry about your own damn plan. I'm getting Kagome,” Inuyasha promised. He spun around and held out his hand to Sesshoumaru. “Give me the jewel, and we can get started.”

 

Sesshoumaru considered him for a long pause and then nodded his head. “You better not fail little brother. I will place the blame and the fate of the world directly in your hands.”

 

Inuyasha scoffed. “Ha, not like that hasn't happened before.” Sesshoumaru raised a single eyebrow in amusement. Inuyasha frowned. “You don't have to be a jerk about it either; now pony up that jewel or do I have to dig it out of your ass?”

 

To be continued…