InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Moonrain Fireflies ❯ Found Out ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Miroku, Sango, and Shippo are left to decide how to deal with the problem that they are now faced with. A nice soothing hot spring should help sort out criss-crossed thoughts! Or not when lecherous monks are lurking... Naraku remains in dark isolation, scheming against the foe he knows least of. Where does Kagome routinely disapear to? If the sinister half demon finds out, we're all in trouble...

Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Romance / Thriller | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.22.2006 | Updated On: 01.22.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.5K | Visits: 335 | Status: Completed

Chapter 2: Found Out

One thing was decided: Sesshomaru was evil and must be stopped.

Just how the three would go about doing this was the problem.

A ghost of the moon hung in the watercolor sky, a mix and match of pinks and deep ocean blues, halos of angels faintly floated around the moon. It was twilight, the monk, demon exterminator, and little kitsune all sat around a roaring campfire in deep speculation of the past events and what should be done now. Food sat on plates around them, untouched. Owls laughed at their feeble attempt to accomplish anything, and crickets sung a cheerful tune in an attempt to raise spirits. The fate of night and darkness was creeping closer and closer like the fumes of a vile poison. The arrival of night meant that the three had failed to do anything to stop what might enfold.

A comforting thought was the undeniable proof that none others had ever been able to travel to the future in exception to Kagome and Inuyasha. Upon thinking of them, however, the three only began to envision horrible fates befalling their beloved friends because of the Tokijin. Sitting on their butts was truly getting them absolutely nowhere. But the strain tightly sticking to each one of them like an especially good plastic wrap, flattened thoughts and squeezed out perspiration. Relaxation was chased away by thoughts of the worst. A large wavering sigh signaled Miroku's standing. Sango and Shippo peered up at him questioningly.
"This isn't right," he breathed, his voice border lining on whiny as it sometimes did, "I need a trip to the hot spring to collect my thoughts." Both Sango and Shippo felt a pang of regret at their failure to think of this first. There was a long pause as sadness and craving for a few minutes before in time where either Shippo or Sango could have made the suggestion first filled them both. "Well, Sango," Miroku said suddenly, looking her way with an intent look in his eye. Averting her eyes, Sango's face flushed and her face twisted. "Why not join me for a dip?" No sooner had he finished then he was met with a rock colliding with his nose. The reason Sango and Shippo hated the fact Miroku had thought of the idea first was neither was willing to go with him at the same time, which only meant they had to wait.

"So Shippo, there's two of us and one of him," Sango observed, smiling evilly at Miroku. Sweat lined the monk's forehead.

"Wh-what are you saying?" stammered Miroku, suddenly letting go of much of his calm. Now the kitsune was also grinning malevolently at him, as well.

Miroku wasn't sure what happened, but he reasoned he had gotten knocked out somewhere along the line. When he opened his eyes his head complained with a painful throb and the world was spinning about him slightly. The image of woods warbled before him unsteadily before he could focus and he made a move to rub his suffering head. Only he couldn't. He was tied to a tree.

Now, for one instant Miroku considered that, once again, he had been found by a village he had cheated in the past. Of course, anytime that had happened he had always been able to make a speedy getaway. He had never been knocked unconscious and bound to a tree before…except one time, which had lead him to the first conclusion that it had happened once more. Slowly, slurring thoughts dragged up the memory of the suddenly sinister Sango and Shippo. At first, he couldn't help mentally commending them for their craftiness and sudden conniving. As a fellow swindler and con, Miroku found himself having first more respect for them than anger---but that of course quickly vanished when he realized he could have been in an nice, warm, hot spring instead of tied to a tree...

Sounds of splashing and Sango giggling wafted into Miroku's ears and he suddenly forgot his fury. Lust replaced it. Nothing else could have made Miroku more intent on escaping his imprisonment. He cut through the ropes using a small dagger he had quite forgotten about, tied to the back of his robe by the over-fabric, which decorated the outside. After wondering what had been poking at his hands so persistently, Miroku had tried to remove it, finding it was a dagger. This will come in handy. I better remember it next time. Of course, he didn't, but oh well. His mind quickly discarded the thought and traded for far more dirty ones as he crept quickly, but silently on his toes toward the source of the sound of girlish laughter.

He soon arrived at his destination, sneaking quietly behind a thick collection of bushes. (There are always bushes around hot springs, at least when someone intends to spy on someone in them there is) Brushing some leaves aside, Miroku could get a rather clear view of a particularly luscious body, unveiling from the water. It wasn't Sango, he could tell immediately, but this didn't stop him (as usual) from leering to his heart's content. He finally got a look at the girl's face, and saw that he didn't recognize her from anywhere--but the first thing that struck him about it was how beautiful she was. When he saw another equally attractive girl approach, and the two begin horse playing, Miroku lost all reasonable thought and considered jumping in too. That was when he felt a rather cruel cuff to the back of his head. He felt the back to check for blood, there was none. He didn't dare turn around.

"MIROKU!!!!!!!"

Squeaks and gasps sounded from the hot spring. "Who's there?"

"A perv, that's who!" Sango snarled, glaring down at Miroku who was still perfectly hidden by bushes. Open mouthed and wide eyed and appalled the girls gawked at Sango who was very visible from where they were standing.

"Excuse me?" one of them asked suspiciously.

"She is...that kind..." the other whispered urgently, causing Sango to blush furiously and quake with rage.

"I AM NOT!" she hollered, grasping the back of Miroku's robe and pulling him up. "He--" but Sango cut off. Miroku had escaped from his robe. She held an empty one, which blew in a dead sort of wind, where Sango felt her face becoming redder and redder and the girls nearby were simply shocked.

"Who?" one inquired, crossing her arms and snarling at Sango. The demon exterminator shuddered, and took a step behind her.

"I gotta go--" She wasted no time in escaping. And no time in pursuing the monk who would soon be in great need of a tombstone.

"Shippo--you gotta hide me!" Miroku demanded, looking far more panicked than Shippo had ever seen him.

"I thought of a way to stop Toki—”

"Not now—”

"Miroku interrupted, casting paranoid glances swiftly around him. He could sense a powerfully dense aura—a sinister aura—a very ANGRY aura...

"Since when did Sango have an aura?" Shippo asked blankly, picking up on it too. Miroku didn't answer, he was pacing around in circles, heatedly muttering to himself. "And why are you in your underwear?" Miroku continued pacing.
“Miroku!!!!!!” echoed Sango's far away scream. Shippo frowned accusingly at the monk who was still walking quickly back and forth.

"What did you do this time?"

"What?" Miroku said distractedly, stopping briefly to acknowledge Shippo, then continuing in his quest to pace until some sort of escape plan came to him. Shippo sighed.

"How did you escape the ropes?" Again stopping, Miroku gave him one of the worst looks Shippo had ever seen on him.

"It wasn't my idea!" squealed the kitsune, suddenly very afraid for his life.

"Do you think I could get on my knees and beg for her forgiveness?" Shippo gave him a doubtful expression in response. "then what should I do?" he demanded, looking on edge.. At the time, he looked quite insane, his hair somewhat askew, and eyes bulging in a fearful mania, quivering slightly, eyes still darting around as if at any moment Sango could appear and deprive him of the little life he had left.

"Write a will."

The shadows were his friend. They were a blanket of mystery, separating him from his enemies, which were countless. Besides being far more powerful than the majority of his foes, he also used deceit, the night, barriers, and others doing his dirty work to serve as a thick shield of protection. In a tangled web of schemes and ensnarements, the overall goal of Naraku became somewhat blurred. It was clear he wanted the Shikon Jewel, and now Inuyasha and the greatest threats to Naraku knew the motive behind this desire. However, so many times had Naraku compromised getting a jewel shard, all for his intricate plots, seemingly for a deep pleasure in seeing the suffering of others. Another idea that Naraku was infatuated with was the demise of the half-dead priestess Kikyo.

No one knew, but at times Naraku could never sleep, thinking of the ghostly maiden whose skin was so pale she looked as if al life had been leached from within her. Her eyes stood, crystallized memories of pain and sorrow, turned and contorted until they were forced into a hatred, lying lifeless and frigid, turning into a passionless contempt for all things. Inside this woman lie no soul, instead was a senseless hatred, the only fuel for her survival. Without a reason for hatred any longer, and with a disregard and detachment from things she once cared for, her attempt to survive became a great paradox, which Naraku often toyed with in his mind. He didn't even realize in sleepless nights when his eyes, unmoving rubies of blood lust and emptiness lying open, challenging the dark through long hours of sleeplessness, that he was entirely obsessed with Kikyo.

His desire to kill her was only a yearning to kill the obsession. His hate, a hatred of a twisted longing for the priestess which encompassed him. The riddance of a human heart did not destroy the fixation his thoughts had with her. There no longer existed the love of Onigumo inside him, but a distorted cross between loathing for and captivation with her had arisen and the great Naraku was trapped between two opposing dimensions within himself. And a great fear he held of the priestess and emotions in regards to her.

A rare moment occurred with his thoughts deep within the dark isolation of his newest place of hiding. In this place, with only his thoughts for company days were immeasurable, the only things he knew of the outside world were those seen in Kana's mystical mirror. Naraku's eyes had been fighting the fathomless darkness all around him for days. His thoughts finally left Kikyo. This was something that didn't care to occur much at all, especially when the ponderings whispered to him through the dark with no one else to hear. Naraku began to mistake when he spoke aloud or when the thoughts remained in his head in this place, where no one was there to hear him.

His mind didn't make a great leap from Kikyo, in fact they touched upon a quite related subject. Kagome. He didn't feel anything near the same obsession for the teenager that he did for Kikyo, but he was very frightened of her. Out of all of his foes, he knew the least about Kagome. Naraku had had much time to do his digging about the remainder of his enemies, and he could basically tell you a chronicle of each of their lives. He knew where each was born, their parents, what they feared most, where they had lived throughout their lives, he knew all of their relatives and what had befallen them, he knew the people they treasured most, he knew why each had an interest in the jewel, their separate reasons for their desires to defeat him, and he knew so much more. But he didn't know so many of these things about Kagome. The majority of those opposing him had been watched by Naraku even before they had known about him. Kagome, had risen from absolutely nowhere. He had seen her in person before he had even been aware of her existence.

Somehow Kagome had shielded herself from his knowledge. And somehow she was still succeeding in it. No one knew of this strange girl, who was supposedly the reincarnation of Kikyo, as anymore than that. Her reasons for searching for the jewel were hazy and unknown. Where she came from was a mystery as well, and the very fact she disappeared for an amount of time where she could not be traced at all, was also very foreboding to Naraku. Her clothes were foreign and so was an amount of her speech. She had almost succeeded in killing him far earlier on, and for all these reasons and many more, Naraku feared her. One of the things that puzzled him most was her contempt for himself. Before this, he had done little to inflict her, so he often puzzled over what her motive was. There had been a few occasions where Naraku had targeted Kagome, and it was because he knew nothing of her, and saw her as more of a threat than most others did. He did not like the enigma that surrounded her. He did not like her origin being unknown. He did not like her ability to sense and purify jewel shards. He did not like her likeness to Kikyo. He HATED her likeness to Kikyo. He hated being unable whatsoever to uncover anything about her. The juvenile mannerisms she had struck Naraku as treacherous and deceitful. Scanning over all these things, Naraku felt more than ever that the girl must be destroyed.

Kana was surprised to be summoned by Naraku. It had been such a long time since he had last called anyone to his dark little sanctuary. It made perfect sense to her, however, that she and not Kagura had been called first. She saw, and was certain Naraku was aware of it, that Kagura's loyalty had been waning. Though she had been more careful since Naraku threatened her life and revealed he had her heart where he could destroy it, Kagura had been showing rebellion and disobedience in smaller ways. She also had a vehement and very clear disdain for him that was showing more and more, distancing herself from the vile half demon as much as possible.

The little youkai walked without much speed, so the journey was rather tedious. It seemed ages before she found herself face to face with her master. He didn't seem in good spirits at the prolonged wait, either. Kana could sense the restless shiver of air that occurred in Naraku's aura when he had a new scheme or idea. It amazed her how long it had been since she had felt it. A slight tremor of happiness erupted within her stone emptiness. She was needed. "Kana, I need this Kagome girl...dead...forever. I don't want any failures this time. I can't have someone like her running around, out of all those after me, she is the greatest threat."

"I don't understand, master," Kana returned emotionlessly.

"Kagome, that impudent reincarnation of...Kikyo," he spat the priestess' name as if he despised it more than anything, "I want her annihilated. We've made our attempts in the past, but I realize now that she is a force to reckoned with. I know nothing of her, this means that she has an advantage over me. She knows more of me than I of her. Our schemes before were failures because we underestimated her power. Who is this girl, tell me, Kana? Do we even know if she is indeed the reincarnation of Kikyo? Do we even know where she came from? I know a few of her weaknesses but it isn't enough. This girl has the power to escape my sight. Why? How does she hide her past so thoroughly? These questions may not be able to be answered, and even if we can answer them--I reason this girl has such power we can't handle--that perhaps she is unaware of. We must smite her before she realizes her full potential. I have devised a plan..."

"But Naraku..." began Kana, suddenly, but still without any fragment of urgency. Her voice remained entirely flat. Naraku clenched his teeth at the interruption.

"How dare you interrupt me, Kana!" he thundered, thoughts scanning over possible punishments for the infringement.

"I apologize, master, but Kagome has gone where she cannot be seen once more." All that could be heard was a sinister nothingness, coupled with a frustration so vehement within Naraku, that Kana could feel it.

"What"?" he hissed, sounding murderous.

"She cannot be seen within the mirror."

"Dammit..."

"Neither can Inuyasha." Flames seemed to flare inside the pools of blood which we Naraku's eyes.

"Once more--the two have disappeared..." The worlds fell into a ominous thud, which seemed cool and level enough, but the tone lashed at the end, searing the darkness and quiet. Nothing was more infuriating as the enemy playing the same game he was.

"But the others...?"

"The mirror never fails to show their faces." Naraku's conniving mind delved back into a vast analysis of the situation which ordinarily would take others days. The despicable creature managed in a few minutes.

"Can the mirror show us the entrance to this place?" It was clear that Kagome and Inuyasha were going to a place that only the two could access, otherwise they would have been bringing their companions along with them. Another thing was the length of time the disappeared, a few days at a time, with long intervals between, as if it were a place of restock or rest. Was it where Kagome had come from? This would be logical as normal person would return to their home at about the rate she was leaving. What was there, however? Her family? This made absolute sense, yet this meant that her family was untouchable, and alive. What manner of place was it that no one else but she and Inuyasha could go to? Was it a place at all, or was it a shield? Naraku at first had assumed the girl had some sort of shield, but what would the motive be behind only using it the rare times she did and only for a few days. He considered she used it whenever she tried to look for him and got near to his position, ensuring he wouldn't know, and perhaps she could somehow share it with Inuyasha. These ideas had little merit, though, as why would she always only take Inuyasha? And so often Inuyasha disappeared a day or more after her. Naraku was certain it was a place. He knew Inuyasha well enough to know that he wouldn't let Kagome go alone to fight him... This was one of Inuyasha's many weaknesses.

"...I have tried to see the entrance, master, many times."

"Yes?"

"...and all the mirror has ever shown me is a well," as Kana said this, she turned the mirror from herself to face Naraku, and on it was a clear, but ordinary depiction of a well. Naraku's eyebrows furrowed in bewilderment. A well? it was ludicrous to think that Kagome and Inuyasha would stay in a well for days at a time. It seemed the mirror was either being manipulated by the magical properties of the real location to confuse it or that there was something in that well that allowed one to travel to the hidden sanctuary the girl continually returned to. It was then Naraku struck upon gold. He had once heard of a well known as the Bone-Eaters Well, which villagers placed the bones of demons they slaughtered in. The bones would disappear to somewhere unknown. Near to this well was the Sacred Tree which Inuyasha had been shot to by Kikyo. Were the tree and this well somehow connected? Another strange thing was the fact that Inuyasha had come back to life from the mystical arrow, was that due to the tree, as well? It became clear to Naraku very quickly that this well was not ordinary and there was merit in the idea it was the same that was shown in the mirror.

"Kana, show me the Bone-Eater's Well." The mirror did absolutely nothing, a slight panic arose out of Kana's lack of emotion.

"The mirror. What is wrong with it? Who has tampered with my mirror?" she studied it with eyes slightly widened, gripping it tightly. She failed to see the very evil and elongated grin on Naraku's face.

"There is nothing wrong with that mirror at all, Kana," he told her, looking far more pleased than Kana had seen him in the longest time, "that is the Bone-eater's Well." Kana, like the majority of the time, was silent. "And that is the entrance to where Kagome and Inuyasha are hiding."