InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Road to Remembrance ❯ The Scar that Binds ( Chapter 22 )

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

Chapter 22

“Inuyasha!” Shippo cried alarmed as he saw his friend collapse on the ground with a painful cry. The hanyou's left arm had bent back awkwardly, trying to grope his back.

Shippo didn't understand what had happened. One minute he and Inuyasha were talking, catching up on old times in Kaede's hut while the woman was out in the town's pastures collecting herbs, and the next minute Inuyasha was writhing on the ground in distress.

“Inuyasha what's wrong?” he tried again. Inuyasha didn't answer, he just continued to growl and hiss in pain while clawing at his back. Shippo, frightened, turn and ran out of the hut in search of one of the adults.

“Kaede! Sango! Miroku! Somebody please help!”

Miroku was the first to respond, stepping out of his hut in a hurry.

“Shippo what is going on?” he asked, concerned. Sango stepped out shortly after.

“It's Inuyasha!” Shippo rushed, “He's hurt. Something is wrong with him and he's in pain.”

“I'll get Kaede,” Sango said quickly.

“Mother?”

Dai stuck his head out of the door and looked at his parents in confusion.

“Dai, go inside and watch over your brother and sister. I'll be back later.”

“But mother—”

“Now, Dai,” she commanded, leaving no room for question. The child obeyed and retreated back into his home. Sango ran out to the gardens while Miroku and Shippo raced into Kaede's hut. They spotted Inuyasha panting, trying to pull his shirt out of the sash tied around his waist and over his head.

“Inuyasha!” Miroku exclaimed at his strange behavior. He swiftly moved forward and helped Inuyasha get the shirt off, “Inuyasha, what's happening? Are you in pain?”

The half demon gritted his teeth and slammed his back against the wooden wall, trying to relieve some of the unbearable burning.

“My back—,” he ground out, screwing his eyes against the pain, “He—He's back...Oh God, he's back...”

“What are you—? Who's back?” Miroku asked, not understanding the problem. Shippo stood away from them, somewhat horrified at the situation. He had never seen Inuyasha seem so vulnerable or so...weak. It was like something was attacking him that he couldn't defend himself against. It was in that moment that Kaede barged into her hut with the fervor of someone thirty years younger, Sango in tow. She was at Inuyasha's side in an instant, nearly knocking Miroku on his ass in the process.

“What ails you?”

Inuyasha cracked his eyes open through the agony his back was causing him. Golden orbs, swimming in pain, managed to convey a silent message to the old woman, causing her pale face to whiten further.

“He's...returned...” he whimpered before a wave of unimaginable agony filtered through his body, causing him to howl out in pain. The cry died on his lips as he fell into blissful oblivion, slumping against the wall. Silence reigned in the tiny hut as the four stared with wide eyes.

“What...what was that?” Sango asked shakily. She was afraid to approach her friend.

“Turn him on his stomach,” Kaede ordered. Miroku and Shippo obeyed, moving their friend as quickly and gently as they could. The second Inuyasha was stretched out before them, three of the occupants of the room gasped loudly in horror.

“No—!” “That can't be...is that...?”

“Yes,” Kaede cut off their unfinished or silent questions with a short reply. They all stared at the large, spider-shaped scar that was inflamed in an angry red. Kaede reached out a hand to touch it, withdrawing at the demonic aura that sent a warning shock at her spiritual powers.

It didn't take Miroku long to piece things together.

“When we took Naraku down...,” He began in an awed voice of sorts, “it was that stray tentacle that struck him in the back...Naraku was marking him in a way, wasn't he?”

“Never letting Inuyasha forget him or how he destroyed a part of his life,” Sango added in a hushed voice, “Kami...why didn't he say anything? How could we not know of this?”

Her hand stretched forward, as if itching to touch the mark to see if it was real, but thought better of it.

“He asked me not to speak of it,” Kaede replied, managing to lay some salve on the wound. While it would not be rid him of the scar, it would obligingly reduce the swelling, “I believe he preferred to bear this burden alone.”

“So that's why he refused to let Kagome near his wounds after the battle,” Sango said, feeling decidedly bad for her anger at him that day. “And here we thought he was being petty about Kouga...”

“What's done is done,” Miroku whispered. He couldn't seem to tear his eyes off the offending scar that caused his friend so much pain. While he had escaped his own curse, Naraku had bestowed one on Inuyasha without any of them knowing. All this time, and he never said anything...

“He was saying, `he's back',” Shippo said quietly, speaking for the first time, “Does that mean...Naraku...?”

Everyone in the room slowly looked at one another, sharing the same horror-struck appearance.

0o0o0o0o

Kouga had made good time on his way to Kaede's village despite no longer having his jewel shards. He was nearly reaching the point where he would pick up the familiar scents of the small settlement when a familiar scent reached his nose, causing him to slow. Putrid, revolting, undeniably familiar...

“It...can't be...” he said dazed as he finally stopped in order to take a few more sniffs. There was no denying it; the scent of Naraku was present in the air.

Inuyasha could wait as far as he was concerned. Kouga turned to where the scent was strongest and began racing to the west. In a matter of minutes he found himself in the exact same spot he last saw the dark hanyou. Only this time, instead of victorious comrades and naked ground where the foe once stood, there was a man, wrapped in a white baboon pellet, smirking as though the holidays had come early.

“Greetings Kouga, wolf-prince of the northern lands. I cannot tell you how pleased I am that you came to welcome me back to the land of the living,” he said in a deep, oily voice.

“Naraku,” he spat out, bending his knees in a defensive position, “What the hell are you doing alive? We killed you!”

Naraku threw his head back and laughed; a derisive, malicious laugh that chilled the wolf demon's core.

“You did not kill me. You merely sent me into another dimension. And then you all moved on with your insignificant lives; believing you had seen the last of me...” the expression on his face grew dark and crimson eyes widened, slightly maniacal, “But you did not realize the curse I placed upon my greatest enemy...kukuku...no one did.”

Kouga straitened out of his defensive position and narrowed his eyes. Curse? There was no curse...

“He,” Naraku continued, “my equal in everyway possible, is bound to me in body and soul. As long as he remains close by I can escape even the confines of hell. We are entwined,” the bone chilling laugh reverberated around the vicinity once more before he added in a hiss, “he will never be rid of me.”

“Who?” Kouga snarled, although the little speech had given him a pretty good guess.

“It is my brother, is it not?” a cold and calculative voice asked from the other side of the clearing. Both Naraku and Kouga looked over to see Sesshomaru standing with his sword drawn.

“Ah yes, Sesshomaru,” Naraku purred, “We are trespassing on your lands, no? I see not other reason for you to grace us with your glorious presence.”

The inuyoukai did not reply, but instead looked on with steadfast indifference. Naraku smiled coldly and carried on.

“Well to answer your question, yes, it is indeed Inuyasha. I must admit, I am disappointed he did not come looking for me the moment I returned to this world. Pity, I will simply have to seek him out myself.”

“You will be dead before you leave these grounds,” Kouga growled. Sesshomaru too looked as if he would be putting up a fight. Naraku looked between the two full fledged demons and couldn't contain another laugh.

“You dare to challenge me? The thought is laughable,” at this he paused before laughing again. Sesshomaru and Kouga managed to share a look across the large distance between them. Both silently agreed Naraku had been laughing far too much for his normal character. As if reading their thoughts, Naraku plunged onward.

“You did not honestly think I would leave Hell unchanged, did you?” he asked with fake curiosity. The attitude dropped and a mad glint fell across his eyes, “It was not only the tortures of hell that drove me to this state...no, no...the tortures Inuyasha endured had an effect on me too.”

“Tortures...” Sesshomaru trailed. He had just seen his brother and he did not look mad.

“The majority of my madness is purely a result of his own. Yes, Inuyasha is indeed mad,” he replied at their looks of disbelief, “He hides it well through an obscure training of the mind, but there is no doubt for anyone who takes the time to look...he is not sane.”

Kouga narrowed his eyes. Sure, mutt-face was weird. He fought for months over a girl he had no intentions of mating with and he jumped into fights with demons on his human nights. But insane? No, not Inuyasha.

“I can see you don't believe me,” Naraku stated carelessly, “No matter. I will kill the two of you, and then find Inuyasha and bind him to me completely. He will make a most extravagant trophy for my body.”

Sesshomaru let out an unexpected snarl, nearly shocking himself. He quickly composed himself and set on glaring at the hanyou before him. He was merely upset at the thought of a son of the great Inutaisho at the mercy of this vile creature and nothing more. Naraku's lips curled into a cruel smile.

“A bit late to start caring about your half-breed brother, don't you think?”

“Do not delude yourself into believing I care for that vile whelp,” Sesshomaru replied stiffly, “I will kill you before you even attempt to defile a member of the noble line of my father, half-breed or no.”

Naraku let out the unrelenting chilling laugh once more.

“It will take far more than two of you to take me out.”

“How about five, then?”

The three demonic beings turned to see Kirara land close by to Kouga with Miroku and Sango on her back; both humans had their weapons at the ready. Shippo appeared seconds after, slightly out of breath.

“Six,” he hissed, glaring at the two ningens. Naraku grinned. They could fight him all they want, but they were missing a key player, and that would most certainly cost them their foolish lives.

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