InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Hidden Strength Within ❯ Chapter 23 ( Chapter 23 )

As the sun had begun to raise over the horizon two small balls of light, one green the other blue, darted towards their goal; the one to protect their mistress. Their mistress sent them to protect the one that was to come and help her rid the world of Naraku and Onigumo once and for all.

“Virbius are you sure we are doing the right thing? With us gone the protection spell isn’t going to be quiet as strong. That is the whole reason Goddess Selene gave us to her but she made us promise not to tell Kagome.” said the blue light.

“Egeria you know as well as I that Kagome is stronger than Naraku. Her chosen champion is not far from here. Though I wonder if he is going to rest soon; I can tell that Kagome’s aura gave him strength but his natural strength is running low. We should protect him while he rest for a few hours.” stated Virbius, the green light.

Sesshoumaru suddenly stopped in his tracks. He could feel powerful beings; two to be exact, nearby but he could not see them. It was disturbing him for they were coming straight towards him; however he could tell they meant him no ill will it was just the fact that they possessed such strength that they could completely hide their forms from even him.

As soon as he felt they had arrived to the clearing he was in he stated, “Show your forms or leave my presence.”

Egeria looked to Virbius with the look of ‘how does he know we are here?’

Virbius simply shrugged his shoulders before he did what the demon stated. He revealed his true form to the demon, followed by Egeria reluctantly.

Before Sesshoumaru appeared two balls of lights. The green light slowly began to grow in size until a pale man stood with rich brown hair and eyes, while clothed in a deep forest green shirt and pants. The blue light slowly began to grow as well. A female emerged from the light; her skin was so pale that Sesshoumaru swore it held a blue tint to it while her hair was a soft blue. Her eyes were the color of a stormy sea, a rich gray blue. Her clothes flowed from her body almost like liquid of the deepest blue.

The male stepped forward and bowed slightly, “I am Virbius, a woodland god, and this is Egeria, a water nymph. We are from and have traveled here to help you assist in our mistress’s rescue.”

Sesshoumaru took in what they had said and knew that they were not lying, he knew immediately from their clothing that they were not from this continent; though the one question remained.

“Who is your mistress and why do I need to rescue her?” he asked rather coldly.

Egeria’s blood boiled, ‘That arrogant, self-centered ass. He knows damn good and well he was going to rescue Lady Kagome so why the cold attitude now.’

“Our mistress is the one you seek to protect; the one that gave you energy last night.” Egeria spat out angrily.

“Your mistress is the Demigoddess then? Why would she need my help when she has the two of you?” disgust was clear in his voice for he did not like the idea of his ward using her powers to give him strength when he was strong enough on his own.

‘Does Kagome really think of me as such a weak being?’ he thought disappointedly.

“The Goddess Selene sent us to Lady Kagome to help keep her protected from the vile creature named Naraku. However she has sent us to you, not knowing who you were. She has asked us to help you along the way so that nothing happens to you; not knowing that she has put herself in more danger by doing so.” stated Virbius.

“Then why do you not go back and protect your Mistress?”

“We can not disobey her orders.” Egeria stated as she came to the conclusion that this demon just made himself appear cold to strangers; protecting his weakness from those that would use it against him.

“My Lord if I may I can tell you that she is stronger than Naraku but that is only in her true form, she needs the night hour to be able to protect herself from him and his evil deeds he plans to do to her. Though you are the only one that can kill Naraku, Lady Kagome is the one that will make Onigumo answer for all he has done.” Virbius said as he quickly shot a glance to Egeria, who nodded her head in response.

Egeria stepped towards Sesshoumaru and simply said, “You need your rest good Lord for you will need all of your strength for what awaits you in a few hours time.”

Before Sesshoumaru could block the attack he felt coming, Egeria blew some blue dust from her hand straight into Sesshoumaru’s face and he fell into a deep sleep.

Virbius created a barrier using the forest while Egeria called upon a storm to wash away his energy trail so those that were trying to follow could not track him while those who weren’t expecting him would not sense him.

For five hours Sesshoumaru would sleep to regain his strength so he could kill Naraku once and for all.

In Sesshoumaru’s dream:

The words echoed in his head: “Don’t be foolish and let her get away from you again my son. Have you forgotten what you said to the Goddess when she came to stay with us those few hundred years ago?”

‘What had father meant by that.’ he wondered.

Suddenly he found himself in the study of the . His father was sitting in the chair behind the desk while he was standing slightly behind and to the right of his father. In front of the desk stood a strangely dressed woman with long brown hair and a white dress that draped over one shoulder.

She held a lot of power but it was different than demonic power and more pure than the holy power of a priestess. She bowed her head to them and stated that her name was Naxos and that she was a Goddess from

“I thought it impolite to intrude on your beautiful land without properly introducing myself, my Lord. I am just on an adventure to be away from the mundane of Greece; if you would be so kind as to allow me to travel the western lands, of this beautiful continent, than I would be forever in your debt.” again bowed her head in show of her respect for the demon lord before her.

The Western Lord laughed light heartedly. “I assure you Goddess Naxos, the pleasure would be mine. I have always wished to meet with the Gods and Goddesses of my own land but I will settle with that of another land!”

could not fight the smile the spread across her face.

‘So that is where Kagome gets her smile from.’ Sesshoumaru thought before he realized what he was thinking. He quickly glanced over to his younger self who was enjoying himself in the conversation.

“Who is the handsome young lad you have here, my Lord?” asked.

“This would be my son, my heir, Sesshoumaru. It has been far and long since I have heard so much come from him and at one time so I am sincerely indebted to you Goddess Naxos!”

At that comment both Sesshoumaru’s turned a scowled face to the lord.

The younger Sesshoumaru then spoke up, “Well if I had a lovely lady such as the Goddess Naxos then maybe I would finally have someone worthy enough to talk to father. By chance do you have a daughter Goddess Naxos?”

smiled softly to the young lord and replied, “I am afraid I don’t even have a mate, young Sesshoumaru but I do promise if and when I have a daughter I will let you have her if you so wish!”

“That would be an excellent idea Goddess! What do you say Father, would you like to have demigods and demigoddesses for grandpups?” the amusement was clear in his voice as his father shuddered at the thought of being a grandfather.

“Please Lady Naxos; don’t have any daughters for a few hundred years. I am not sure I am ready to be a grandfather just yet.” They all started to laugh at the comment.

The dream quickly changed to the night his father would breathe his last. Sesshoumaru remembered he grew colder and more distant when his father took another mate, a human none the less.

“Do you desire power so much? Why do you seek power my son?” his father asked him

“The path I walk is the way of supreme conquest and it is power that will reveal the way for me.”

“Supreme conquest? Tell me Sesshoumaru have you someone to protect?” his father finally asked him.

“Protect?” Sesshoumaru paused. “The answer is no, I Sesshoumaru have no need of such.”

After watching his father transform into his beast form Sesshoumaru’s dream went to the first time he met Kagome and they were in this father’s grave. Kagome had just pulled the sword out where neither he nor Inuyasha could.

He remembered thinking she had to have been very powerful to have done such a thing and even thought about taking her with him to test just how powerful she was but his bastard half brother pissed him off and he thought it better to just kill her than allow his brother to have a strong ally.

When she emerged from her acid grave that he dealt her he again wondered if he should just take her to see if she would be a great asset to the western lands or just end up throwing her out of his lands and let her fend for herself, more than likely die if she was truly weak.

However his anger rose when she handed the fang to Inuyasha instead of him. ‘Why did Inuyasha always get what he wanted?’

As the fight between the two brothers continued he heard everything that was said between Inuyasha and Kagome. Once they were outside their father’s belly he barely heard Inuyasha tell Kagome that he was going to protect her, after that statement the sword pulsed and transformed into the fang of legend.

‘Because Inuyasha had someone to protect, the sword gained power. Needing to protect someone is more powerful than fighting for one’s self.’ he understood.

The rest of his sleep continued in peace. His energy was restoring faster than Virbius and Egeria thought that it would.

Naraku woke suddenly. The purified jewel was lying on the floor beside his hand.

He tried to touch it but was repelled by its purity; so he began to long process of trying to defile the purity once again.

He summoned Kanna, Kagura, and Kohaku to his study once he finally got the jewel a little tainted with his poison.

When everyone was there he sent Kanna to check on the wolf princess and the monk. Though he wasn’t sure if he wanted to kill them, if he did then it would stop Kagome from coming into existence and the jewel would never be there but neither would his “messenger of death” so he figured for now he would simply watch their moves.

Kagura was sent to cause trouble with Inuyasha and Sango. He just knew that those two would do whatever they could to try and save Kagome once they found out he had her.

When his eyes landed on Kohaku he could tell that something was different about the boy. ‘I can’t figure out what is different but there is something not quite right about his appearance.’ he thought.

“Kohaku you will stay here and watch over the demigoddess. Make sure she does not try to escape.” Naraku ordered.

Kohaku nodded his head as he turned to leave the room to do just as he was told.

He stopped though when Naraku changed his orders, “If she causes any trouble I wish for you to kill her.”

Kohaku could not nod his head in confirmation and refused to do the order but he simply told himself, ‘I am going to protect the demigoddess from you, Naraku.’ With that thought in his head he nodded his head and proceeded to walk out the door.

What Naraku did not know was that though Kagome left the shard in Kohaku’s back it was no longer sustaining his life. Naraku had no more control over the boy, it was a poker game at this point; Naraku would be fooled until Kohaku dropped his poker face.

The boy remembered that while he slept the night before that Kagome told him in the dream that this was his clean slate. “Make the best of your life for what happens from here on out will dictate how you are judged in the end. Live a long and happy life and never regret a minute of it!”

‘I shall do all I can to make you proud of me Kagome!’ Kohaku thought silently as he made his way to her room to begin his protection of his lady.

Author’s Notes
Well I hope you all liked the two new chapters!!! Sorry for the delay but I am finally finding the time to write more and guess what…my writer’s block is gone now too. Figures I come to the end of the story and I finally break through my writer’s block LOL!!! Par for course for me I suppose. Well read and review!!! Let me know what you all think and it should be a few more chapters until the conclusion is posted. Next chapter gets a little graphic just a warning though.

One other note, the conversation that took place between Sess and his father on the night that he breathed his last breathe was straight from the Inuyasha Movie III. So again I don’t own that conversation or that characters…enjoy!!!