InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Nigatsu no Hoshi (Stars of February) ❯ To Lose a Friend ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: I don't own inuyasha, so don't sue me dammit!

Suteki: hey there! Alright, I'm sorry if the stories going slow, but I promise it will get exciting soon. Shizuka is visiting family out of town, so she will not be gracing us with her presence. Helper my ass…oh well. I guess I'll shut up and let you get on with the story ^_^

Chapter 5: To Lose a Friend

Inuyasha and kagome continued to run through the trees as fast as light, dodging limbs and tree trunks. Suddenly, inuyasha came to an uncomfortable halt. "inuyasha?! What's wrong?"

"I…I smell wolf boys blood…"

"what!?"

"its not a lot of it, but its fresh and nearby," inuyasha said reassuringly, and immediately bounded off again, now also sensing a familiar presence in front of him.

"the pull of shikon shards, they're close now. We must be near Naraku."

Inuyasha leaped out of the trees and started to run and jump on top of them, trying to see ahead. They soon came upon a large clearing, where they could make out a few figures that were fighting. Actually, two were fighting while the other stood at the sidelines.

As they landed at the edge of the clearing, they watched as Kouga was fighting with Kagura, dodging her "dance of blades" attack. Then, they're attention shifted as they heard a familiar voice, "ku ku ku, its about time you got here, inuyasha. Oh, and how kind of you to bring me the remaining jewel fragments, miko."

"Naraku you bastard. We finally found you. I'm surprised to even see you here, thought for sure you'd be in hiding. Cowering while you let one of your incarnations finish us off, like the damn despicable coward that you are.

"fool, inuyasha. I couldn't let them fight this battle, this one is special. I want to wring out your neck with my own two hands."

Meanwhile, Kagome's main focus was on Kouga, who was having a hard time dealing with the wind sorceress by himself. "Kouga-kun! Are you alright?!"

Kouga was slicing at Kagura with his Kantana when he heard Kagome's voice. He was so busy trying to save his life that he hadn't even noticed them arrive. "Aa, kagome. I'm fine. What took you guys so long?" he paused as he avoided another assault, "did dog boy get lost?"

Kagome didn't answer, she was too intent on trying to help Kouga. `I'll have to distract her, Kouga's waring out quickly'. With that resolution, she notched an arrow into her bow, and let it fly at Kagura. She didn't really have any intention of actually hitting her; she knew well by now that Kagura was able to deflect attacks that traveled through the air. As expected, Kagura's evil wind spun the arrow off course, but since she was fighting Kouga, the arrow barely missed her, whizzing past her face.

Kagura spun around angrily, not liking being caught off guard like that, and she was still pissed that the miko who killed her sister was still alive and well. Kagome's plan worked though, she had obtained her full attention, and Kouga was allowed a moments rest. "kagome! What are you doing?!"

"Saving your ass Kouga!" she yelled back as she dodged the mad-woman's sporadic attacks. Kouga's yelling caught Inuyasha's attention, who at the moment had been staring down Naraku. "kagome! Be careful" Naraku was mad that inuyasha had ignored him and turned his attention to that, girl. He silently lunged at him. His right arm turned into a large, green, tentacle, and he slashed out at inuyasha.

"AGH! You bastard!" inuyasha had been caught in the side by the attack, and the blood was already starting to soak into his outer haori. "ku, you should pay more attention to your own life then, shouldn't you?"

"shut up Naraku," inuyasha unsheathed the tetsusaiga, and swiped at Naraku, who easily avoided it.

Meanwhile, Kagura was becoming more and more aggravated since she had hardly landed a blow to kagome. `this girl, I've never fought her one on one, how could a human be so strong? Even if she is a miko, she's even stronger than that Kikyou bitch ever was…' But, little did she know, that kagome was more human, than Kagura was giving her credit for…she was getting tired. `I don't know how much longer I can hold up like this. I need to hit her, and stop running! Come on kagome, play some offense, and lose some defense.' She pulled an arrow back as the battle paused for a second. Kagura saw this, and wasn't about to let her carry through with the attack; she flew infront of her as fast as she could. Kagome jumped back, not used to Kagura fighting at close range. She lifted the bow over her head, trying to back away enough to fire, and that's all Kagura needed, she let loose one of her blades, slicing the girls' bow clear in half. `NO, not my bow! How am I going to fight her now? That was my best weapon!'

"HA! Now what are you going to do miko? No more purifying arrows, this is going to be over very fast. Don't worry though, I'm going to make sure you die slow and painfully. I would have saved myself the trouble, but you took the only company I had in the world from me, you will pay"

"Kagome!" Kouga tried to stand, but he had been sliced in the back of his calf and hamstring from Kagura's attempts at his jewel shards before they're arrival.

"Kouga-kun! Stay back! You're in no shape to fight, just let me handle her!"

Kagura was now getting annoyed by the sound of the worried wolf. `Why wont he shut up!' and she diverted one of her attacks towards him instead of the girl. "Kouga! Abunai!" but it was too late, he couldn't get away from it. "SHITA OTOKO!" and Kouga fell flat on his back and the blade slammed into his chest instead of his face, where it was heading before. Luckily, his armor blocked most of the attack, although it ended up shattering, but it kept the blade from slicing him through nonetheless.

"Kagome, " he tried to stand again, but quickly met the ground. `Dammit, I can't protect her, I'm useless. I wish that I could have had some part in revenging what Naraku had done to clan, but it seems as if I have failed them again…wait!'

Kagome was back to evading Kagura's attacks, since she wasn't sure if she had enough strength to create a shield again, she was just waiting for herself to think of a plan. She prayed that Kouga was alright, he didn't seem to be bleeding too bad, and he didn't appear to be in that much pain.

Inuyasha was having a hard time with Naraku, who had now turned both his arms, and legs into about 20 deadly tentacles. He'd cut one off, just to have another 2 grow in its place, he wasn't getting far. Although, he was able to protect himself from further injury, he only had 2 large gashes in his sides, but nothing that would immobilize him yet. When he saw what Kagura did to Kagome's weapon, his heart missed a beat, but he had convinced himself that she was strong enough to handle herself. Besides, it was better that she was fighting Kagura, and not Naraku as well, as would be the case if he were to assist her. But, seeing Kouga unable to help wasn't very settling. `the faster I deal with this asshole, the faster I can get to kagome…I just hope we both last that long'

"Kagome!"

Kagome looked over to where Kouga was, and noticed that he had crawled closer to her, but he was still a good 40 feet away. "What is it Kouga?!" she was worried by the sound of anguish and haste in his voice.

"Kagome, you must come closer." She tried to get closer to him, Kagura didn't really seem to notice them talking, she was still fighting blindly, her eyes flashing a more fierce-some red than ever before. She was about 10 feet from the injured wolf, not wanting to get too close, for fear he become involved in the battle again. She watched as he sat up, and to her horror, dug into his own shins with his claws. "Kouga! What are you…" she was silenced as she saw him pull out, his jewel shards, holding them in his palm while sheer pain crossed over his features. With the last bit of strength, he tossed them towards the horrified kagome.

"here, kagome…this way…at least part of me can help you…and revenge the death of my comrades…I'm sorry I couldn't protect you more…looks like dog boy actually won this battle, in this lifetime anyways…I hope he treats you well…or I'll kill him again when he joins me in hell…no matter what, don't give up…remember that you're fighting for the both of us now…I was privileged to be your friend at least, and I wouldn't give that up for the world…my dear kagome…" and with that, he fell to the ground, landing on his side.

"kou-kou…Kouga-KUN!!!" kagome forgot all about Kagura, and dashed to her fallen friends' side. She lifted him into her lap, and looked into his face. He had stopped breathing, and she felt for his pulse, only to feel the final beat of his heart. `Kouga, no! how? He was doing fine!' she looked down at the jewel shards, `those must have been keeping him from giving into his injuries…he must have had internal injuries from that last attack too…'

"I'm sorry Kouga. You didn't deserve to die…"

Kagura watched in curiosity as the wolf prince extracted his own jewel shards, and then died in the girls arms. But she was quickly overcome with her hatred when the girl spoke to her. "how could you Kagura?! Why did you kill my friend!?"

"foolish bitch! For the same reason you killed my sister, he was in the way! Like how it feels?!"

Kagome laid Kouga back on the ground, filled with a new resolve, she could feel the power surge through her as she placed her friends' two fragments of the jewel in her hand, and then fused them into the half sphere of the others.

The power was felt by all three of them, causing even Naraku to stop his assault on the dog demon and look up. Kagome was looking straight into Kagura's eyes, and they could see her tear stained face, even though she had stopped crying. Kagura didn't like the way kagome was glaring at her, so she decided to do something about it. "stop staring bitch!" she rushed at kagome, "DANCE OF DRAGONS". As the funnels came close to kagome, they hit a shield of purified energy, and disappeared. Kagome ran at her and clutched onto the other girls shoulders. She stared into Kagura's red eyes, and Kagura was now officially scared when she noticed that the girls eyes had turned from a light brown, to a dark violet. "This is for what you've done to all of us in the past, and for what you did to Kouga and his comrades" they all stood in shock as Kagome's hands crackled purple on the wind sorceress' arms, causing her to scream in pain. She refused let go, until Kagura's eyes went black and she fell lifeless in her hold, then she stepped back and let her fall to the ground.

Kagome stood above the dead girls body, and stared at it indifferently. She then moved her glaze to Naraku, who practically had his jaw on the floor internally, although he wouldn't let it show on his features. Naraku had never seen anyone with that much power before, `how could her frail being withstand holding all that pure energy? I feel like I'm suffocating just from the pure aura that surrounds her…damn her'.

Inuyasha did infact, have his jaw on the ground, he knew she was strong, but not that strong. `she took care of her in a matter of seconds, when even a direct hit with my windscar barely fazed Kagura!' he then noticed her staring knives into Naraku, which also made him feel a little uncomfortable, `if looks could kill, Naraku wouldn't still be standing…'

Naraku was getting more pissed off by the second, he couldn't stand the look in the miko's eyes, a look like she knew something he didn't. And what's more, she had single handedly discarded of his two most powerful incarnations. Without warning, Naraku disappeared, only to reappear next to kagome. Kagome's eyes showed no hint of fear when she saw Naraku standing so close to her, which made him even more furious. He slammed his hand into her throat, and clutched it as hard as he could. "You should have more respect for me. Why don't you quiver in fear, you for one know what I am capable of. Now hand over the jewel shards like a good little girl"

"Get your filthy hands off her!!!" inuyasha screamed as he ran to her defense, but before he could get there, he saw Kagome's eyes flash with power again. She didn't even lift a finger, and Naraku's hands began to sizzle against her flesh. "AHHG! YOU LITTLE BITCH!"

Inuyasha swung his tetsusaiga in the air, "KAZE NO KIZU!!"

Naraku was still holding his hands in pain when he saw Inuyasha's attack. He tried to jump out of the way, but the last blast hit him in the side, shattering the armor that he wore on his upper torso.

Inuyasha ran to Kagome's side, who looked a bit faint and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Kagome?! What the hell was that? Are you all right? Say something dammit!" she stood there, staring right through him for a moment, until she spoke. "Inu-inuyasha? What happened? Why am I so tired?" she said warily. "You don't remember? You don't remember doing that?" he pointed at Kagura's dead form. "Its so foggy, it was like…I was watching myself from behind my own eyes. I don't know what happened, I've never felt that much power before. But, she killed Kouga…Kouga's gone…" her voice started to crack as she remembered the face and words of her dying friend. `I loved him so much. I could never love him the way he claimed he did me, but he was one of my truest friends, he was always here for me…'

Inuyasha stood in silence, half because he was a little annoyed at how emotional she was getting over Kouga; but he also gave a moment of silence in Kouga's behalf, although he wouldn't show it, he had had a lot of respect for him.

Naraku wasn't liking the way this was going. He was sure that he would be able to ware down the dog demon, but this girl was throwing a wrench in his plans. `She's strong, stronger than she herself knows. Her powers are growing even more from seeing her friend killed, foolish human. I'll have to take care of her first then.' Without being noticed by the still mourning couple, he began to move towards Kanna's dead corpse. He picked her up in his arms, and then swiftly moved to where Kagura was. This caught Kagome's attention, when she felt his presence behind her, and she spun around, expecting him to attack.

Inuyasha and kagome both watched in curiosity as Naraku picked up both of his dead incarnations and held them for a moment. `what the hell?! Is Naraku having an emotional moment over the loss of his creations? Keh! Of course not, he's up to no good, I can tell by that look in his eyes, he's planned something. But what do those two half to do with it?' kagome was also having the same thoughts, and couldn't get why he would need the dead girls.

The worse of they're thoughts came true as they watched as he transformed into a being with the upper torso of his usual appearance, and the lower half made purely of green tentacles. He held each girl in one clutch, and they watched horrified as, what looked like a mouth appeared in the center of his lower body, baring teeth and all. He threw both of his incarnations in the pit one at a time, each time a body was consumed, his body flashed in newly found power.

"This isn't good inuyasha, he's using their energy to strengthen himself." Inuyasha heard her, but didn't reply. `Shit! How are we going to defeat him on our own when he's this strong?'

just as his transformation was complete, they felt a familiar presence approaching them from behind.

"Kirara!?"

Suteki: alright, I know I said that you would see Kohaku in this one, but I cam up with this first. Kohaku will be in the next chapter for sure. Thank you to all that have reviewed! Be patient though, I work fulltime now so I don't have as much time to work on these, but I'll still give my all. So, thank you!