InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Vengeance ❯ Chapter Fifty-Seven: Glare ( Chapter 58 )

A/N: I truly apologize for the length of time it has taken me to update. My muse fled the country, and I have spent the last few months scouring the globe for her. I have made up for it by posting quite a few chapters all at once. For those of you awaiting more S/K interaction, that will be coming up in the next post. XD Extreme thanks go to Vyncent and Fairia for much inspiration, encouragement in dark hours, and editing. Other thanks are showered among all of the people who urged me to UPDATE, lol - not the least of which was #1 Vengeance Fan. I also want to thank all the S'Spark fans out there for nominating Vengeance for seven different categories in their third Annual Awards. I almost had a cat when I saw that. HOLY FART!!! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!! Just being nominated is one helluva honor, and I really, really thank y'all!

 

Fate

 

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

 

Japanese Words

 

kotodama nenju - rosary around InuYasha's neck

 

WARNING: Some dark imagery, some squeezed lime added (not truly lime, but alluded). No one under 17, please!

 

Chapter Fifty-Seven (Glare)

 

Hooded eyes stared into the blue-white blaze of the mirror held before him. His red eyes glowed faintly with calculation as he studied the huddled mass of wolves trekking their way across the barren wasteland that housed the current site of his lair.

 

They were a pathetic lot, these northern wolves. Mangy and grey-haired, they were weak youkai he could kill with a word, or absorb into himself at will...

 

He toyed with the idea. It might be fun to have them flee in terror before him, watching as each of their brothers were snatched up in his entrapping tentacles, drawn in and fed to his body, their screaming howls of terror and fright echoing in their panic-filled minds, savoring their horror as their jyaki fed his strength...

 

He licked his lips sensuously, delighted anticipation making his crimson eyes glow bloody for a moment, before his more practical mind dismissed the idea. They were weak, hardly worth the effort. He could find better uses for them. The ambitious greed of their pathetic leader, a young ookami named Katashi, could be put to good use.

 

That pathetic wolf thought to ally himself with him, desiring vengeance on what the pathetic fool thought was a common enemy: Koga.

 

A slight smirk curled the sensual mouth. As if he, Naraku, would have any need for such a worthless youkai as that ookami pup.

 

And yet...

 

His mind seethed with possibilities. Intriguing notions that delighted him as much as the thought of maddened terror did. Intricate plans circled through his mind, drawing out his cleverness with wooing intensity...he loved to tangle the webs of deceit.

 

*After all, I am but a spider...* He grinned to himself, feeling the burnt mark on his back tense in anticipation.

 

He dismissed the mirror with a wave of his hand, and his eldest daughter, his first incarnation of the Void, Kanna, lowered her shining mirror and hugged it to her child's chest, her black eyes dead and emotionless, a reflection of the soul of the dark hanyou before her...

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

Hearing a faint rustle above him, Miroku looked up, instinctively grabbing his staff where he had thrust it beside him in the damp earth as he knelt beside the spring over his morning ablutions. Blinking back surprise, he watched in amazed silence as InuYasha---whose sleeves had caught his attention as they snapped against the wind of his aerial passage---arched down to land with his usual gravity-defying softness in the browned grass beside him.

 

What had the monk staring was that Sango was clutched in the hanyou's arms like he would never let go. A slight flush stained the taijiya's pale cheeks, and she dropped her brown eyes from the houshi's shyly. Miroku took in InuYasha's smug smirk and realization smacked him up-side the head as hard as Sango's open-handed palm ever had.

 

"Morning." InuYasha said, carefully setting the demon slayer on her feet, casually curling his arms around the taijiya's thin waist when she tried to move away. Sango's fingers were clasped tightly over the hilt of the katana held in her arms, and she wouldn't meet Miroku's eyes.

 

Miroku hesitated a bare moment, before his usual charm reasserted itself. "Ah...yes...a fine morning to you both."

 

"She's mine, monk." White fangs gleamed as InuYasha tossed that volley out with characteristic grace.

 

Sango's face flamed, and her voice was low with admonition. "InuYasha..."

 

InuYasha stepped back away from the slayer and put his hands on his hips. "What? It's not as if Miroku won't know that we---"

 

The houshi's blue eyes went from one face to the other with intense interest. InuYasha looked smug as he said companionably to Miroku, "You know, monk, she's in love with me."

 

Sango looked as if she were contemplating murder. Her brown eyes were alight with a warning that had Miroku backing up a good half-step in instinctive reaction. He had seen that look before.

 

"InuYasha." Sango's soft voice was dangerous.

 

"What?" InuYasha gave the taijiya an irritated scowl. "I can read your thoughts, you know, and I am not about to let you thrust that damn stick in my belly."

 

Honey-brown eyes narrowed in calculation, and the slayer dropped her sword and leapt at the cocky hanyou, knocking him down on the ground where she held him pinned beneath her.

 

A graceful black brow rose as the monk regarded his friends with more than a little interest. He considered the pair of them, his indigo eyes caressing the soft contours of Sango's backside, which was perfectly angled for him to ogle.

 

He flushed when he caught a pair of golden eyes glaring at him from around Sango's shoulder. "Damn hentai." The hanyou muttered darkly under his breath as Sango stiffened. She turned her head to stare at the intrigued monk as well.

 

Miroku tried to act nonchalant, and shrugged it off. "I see things have...ah...changed...between the two of you."

 

InuYasha chuckled, before his claws wrapped lightly around Sango's pinning arms and he had her toppled over and under him in less than an eye-blink. Sango's protest was muffled when the silver-haired hanyou promptly kissed her mouth.

 

Miroku smiled wryly as he scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably with his bead-wrapped hand.

 

*Damnation, it's been too long...*

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

It was with some trepidation that Sango followed InuYasha and Miroku along the stoned path to Kaede's small hut. Nervously tracing the worn hilt of her katana with her fingers, Sango's steps lagged. For an instant she had regret in her choice last night. Doubts seeped through her tumultuous mind, and she wished she could be anywhere but right there.

 

*I betrayed my sister.* A picture of Kagome, eyes sad and expression hurt, flickered across her mind, and Sango's shoulders tensed.

 

'I'm sorry' didn't really seem adequate...

 

She almost bumped into InuYasha, who had turned around abruptly, crossed his arms over his chest, and scowled at her. "What the hell are you talking about?"

 

Sango blinked with surprise, before scowling herself. *I don't like him reading my mind one bit.*

 

InuYasha just grunted, before uncrossing his arms so he could curl his claws around Sango's bent shoulders and stare into her wary brown eyes. "Quit worrying. I'm here."

 

Miroku raised a single brow at the pair of them. Sango's heart welled up, and she suddenly wanted to cry at the tenderness and strength in the hanyou's voice.

 

InuYasha's right hand slid down the slayer's shoulder and grabbed her hand in his, tightly. “C'mon, damn it."

 

Sango glared.

 

Give it to InuYasha to ruin a beautiful moment.

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

Shippo's tiny fangs appeared as he opened his mouth in a wide yawn. Blinking the sleep away from his green eyes, he stretched out his paws and wiggled his toes before jumping up with his usual early-morning exuberance.

 

"Morning, Kaede!" He called out, smiling. Everything always seemed all right in the morning. The terrors of the deep night had faded, and his fears for Kagome seemed to have sorted themselves out.

 

His okaa-san, his real okaa-san, not his adopted miko, had once told him not to worry, that everything worked out with the dawn of a new day. Boy, had she been right! Just look at Kagome. She was sitting right there beside Lady Kaede, smiling wistfully at him. Her beautiful brown eyes were clear of fever, and he could no longer sense the anger in her sacred aura. Rather, it seemed to come out and enfold him in soothing warmth, and Shippo's smile widened into brilliance.

 

"Okaa-san!" He attacked her with a tight hug, and Kaede chuckled as the little russet head buried itself in Kagome's kimono.

 

Kagome smoothed her fingers over the rusty-orange locks and whispered, "Shippo-chan."

 

Something moved under Shippo's little body, and he giggled against his adopted okaa-san's white robe as he felt the faint push again. He would never get used to how active Kagome's belly had become, taking on a life of its own. He wondered idly if the inside of her belly was bruised from all of that kicking.

 

"I was worried about you, okaa-san." Shippo reached up and played with a long black curl that hung down his okaa-san's shoulder. "But now you're okay, and I'm hungry."

 

Kagome shook her head at the little fox cub, and whispered conspiratorially, "Me, too."

 

Kaede took that as license to spoon out the miso soup she had set warming by the fire. Fabric rustled, and the old miko got to her feet. Picking up bowls in her worn hands, the priestess bent over the fire and swung the steaming iron pot closer to her.

 

Shippo turned in Kagome's lap and took a deep sniff, happily wondering what was for breakfast. As the kitsune's nostrils expanded, he paused a moment and then bounced off Kagome's knee with a loud call of welcome.

 

"Kirara!" Shippo's green eyes fairly danced with delight as he took a deeper sniff. "And Sango! Okaa-san! Kirara's here! And Sango! And---InuYasha!"

 

*My family's back!*

 

And suddenly, they were there, parting the bamboo that hung across the doorway, and InuYasha was glaring at the little fox cub, his white ears flattened to his silver head.

 

"Damn it, Shippo! Can't you keep it down to a dull roar!"

 

Shippo leapt, and InuYasha caught the kitsune on his red-robed chest with an audible thud of impact. The hanyou scowled at the little fox, but Shippo just hugged him tighter. "InuYasha! I'm so glad to see you!"

 

The amber eyes softened for a moment, before the scowl reappeared. Never easy with emotions, InuYasha just shrugged. "Feh. Whatever."

 

Shippo giggled. InuYasha never changed.

 

Turning his little head, Shippo's green eyes widened as he caught sight of Sango, who hung back hesitantly at the doorway, only moving forward to get out of the way as Miroku stepped in behind her. He stared at the taijiya for a long moment, and his little mouth fell open in surprise as he caught a glimpse of something that gleamed silver-white at the crook of her neck and shoulder, half-hidden by the collar of her black armor.

 

Without hesitation, Shippo jumped from InuYasha's arms and onto Sango's shoulder. Extending his little paw, he pushed aside the black fabric and stared in fascination at the unmistakable mating mark that pulsed at the base of the slayer's throat.

 

"Sango-chan?" He blinked as everyone in the hut suddenly stared at the pair of them. Sango's cheeks flamed, and Shippo wrinkled his nose as he took a deep sniff.

 

"InuYasha?" He blurted out in surprise before a white-clawed hand clamped down on his furry little tail and pulled him off of the blushing taijiya.

 

"Damn it, Shippo!" Amber eyes blazed into green ones as the hanyou held the little kitsune up by the tail, the better able to glare at him.

 

"InuYasha!" Both Sango and Kagome's voices rang out at the same time, full of exasperation, and suddenly everyone relaxed as they all laughed, releasing the unspoken tension that had sprung up between them.

 

InuYasha just scowled and opened his claws. Shippo dropped with a yelp, but rolled to his feet quick as a flash.

 

*Dumb dog!*

 

Shards, InuYasha never changed!

 

Shippo stuck his tongue out at the hanyou, and InuYasha just crossed his arms over his chest and glared back. Shippo just wished he was bigger, so that he could bop that stupid hanyou over the head!

 

Shards, he was glad InuYasha was back!

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

"So, old hag, what's for breakfast?" InuYasha finally quit glaring at Shippo and flicked his golden-amber eyes at the old miko, who just shook her head in wry amusement at the hanyou's obnoxious behavior.

 

Kagome glared.

 

How could that stupid boy come striding back in here, scuffle with Shippo, and then demand breakfast? He had the manners of a barbarian! He wasn't even acting like he had been gone for the last five months, making them all worried sick over what might be happening to him, and just look at him!

 

Kagome saw red. "InuYasha!"

 

InuYasha looked irritated. "What?"

 

Must she always recall that idiot to his senses? Stupid jerk! Kagome took a deep breath and shouted, "SIT!"

 

Nothing happened.

 

Kagome blinked. A look of pain flashed deep in the amber eyes even as the stupid hanyou scowled at her. Kaede straightened from beside the fire and spoke. "InuYasha, the kotodama nenju is gone. What has happened?"

 

"It's just gone, okay?" The hanyou became defensive, and he jerked when a small, calloused hand gently touched his arm. His reactive scowl eased a bit when he glanced down at the taijiya, whose brown eyes were lightened into cinnamon when she stared up at him, wordlessly offering him her support and comfort.

 

Kagome's brown eyes widened as she stared at the both of them, and realization suddenly dawned. Sango and InuYasha were...

 

Eyes unfocused, Kagome examined the sudden wealth of strange emotions that enveloped her mind. She felt a stab of sadness, at the loss of something precious, and also relieved, as if a burden had been lifted from her heart. Her heart ached, for a love that she had come to realize had been too drowned in old pain and twisted memories to ever been able to survive the doubts and fears that lay between them. She had loved InuYasha at one time, loved him with all the first flower of her innocent, young heart. But his betrayal in the woods, when he had called her Kikyo, had made her realize that she and the dead miko were too twined in the hanyou's memory to have ever been seperated.

 

She had, over time, come to understand that her tenderness for InuYasha could never be truly returned by the temperamental hanyou. She had also realized that her love had been an almost automatic reaction to the circumstances of their friendship. Not that it hurt any bit the less as she had realized it was never meant to be. She had mourned its loss, and her heart would always ache just the tiniest bit when she thought about her silver-haired hanyou.

 

But more than that, much more than that, was the fact that she cared about InuYasha. Cared about his well-being and his happiness. He was her friend, as Sango was her friend. When she thought about the solitary loneliness of both of them, and thought that maybe they just might be able to heal the pained longing that lurked in the back of their stubborn eyes, Kagome felt an overwhelming sense of joy bubbling up inside of her.

 

Her pure heart had ever been large enough to embrace the world.

 

Tears sprang to her eyes, and Kagome sniffled, wishing she had a stupid tissue right now. Why did she always seem to never have a handkerchief around when she needed it!

 

She blinked up at Sango, who was suddenly there, bowing her head as tears fell freely down her pale cheeks. Black tresses tumbled down over her back and shoulders, and the taijiya trembled as she said softly, her heart's pain in her words, "I am so sorry, Kagome. So very sorry."

 

*Sorry?*

 

Kagome blinked in surprise, her tears suddenly drying. Awkwardly leaning forward---dang, but her belly always seemed to be in the way these days!---she put her arms around the taijiya and protested. "Onee-chan!"

 

Something broke inside Sango, and the taijiya clung to the little miko, sobbing in relief. The two young women clung to one another and cried together while the three males---kitsune, hanyou and houshi---looked on in consternation.

 

InuYasha gave Kagome and Sango a sour look. "All this fuss over nothing. Damn!"

 

Miroku shook his head at the irrepressible hanyou. "InuYasha, you will never change."

 

InuYasha just rolled his eyes---toward Kaede, who still stood over the cook-fire, dripping spoon in hand. The old priestess returned his scowl with a faint smile as the hanyou's belly rumbled---loudly.

 

Flattening his ears to his silver head, the hanyou gave the elderly miko a look of pleading only an inu could give. “Breakfast?”

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

"So you are the one they call Naraku." The ookami youkai looked over the unprepossessing figure shrouded in the white cloak of a dead baboon with a sneer. Yellow eyes glinted his scorn as the wrinkled mask covering the hanyou's features nodded once in acknowledgment.

 

"I have that honor." Was that irony in the dark voice?

 

"Huh. You're not what I expected." Katashi smirked, folding his muscled arms across his grey-furred chest.

 

The white figure remained silent.

 

Katashi let out a loud bark of sudden laughter. "You have nothing to say to that, eh?"

 

The youkai around him shifted uneasily, re-gripping their weapons with sweating palms and licking their (suddenly) dry lips. They twitched uncomfortably under that baboon's cold-eyed stare. This seemingly innocuous hanyou had slaughtered over three-quarters of the northern tribe just over three years ago. Katashi, though brave, was reckless. He was taking their lives into his hands, and there HAD to be more to this monkey than seemed apparent at first glance.

 

The wolves told all, and their slinking posture, ears laid back and belly-crawling into hiding behind their ookami brothers wasn't an encouraging sign to the nervous northerners.

 

The baboon said nothing, and it was Katashi who finally growled with impatience and said gruffly, "You should be surprised by my offer, hanyou." The black-haired ookami's fangs flashed. "We SHOULD be enemies. I SHOULD be killing you now where you stand. You have the blood of my tribe on your claws, baboon, and I SHOULD be collecting that debt by taking yours."

 

Faint growls of agreement from the wolf pack behind Katashi made the eruptive leader clench his fists over his braced arms before turning around and snarling the uneasy clansmen silent. A few ookami muttered under their breath, but Katashi's dominance over the northern tribe had been settled by combat long before and none would dare stand up and challenge his decision now.

 

The mutters died, and a grey wolf whimpered plaintively at the tension and danger in the air.

 

Katashi's yellow eyes glinted menace before he whipped back around to address the silent figure cloaked in white fur, a faint mocking grin curving the lips that showed beneath the baboon's snout. Katashi braced himself so that he stood taller than the hanyou.

 

"I have never done what I SHOULD." He paused, awaiting the hanyou's reaction to that dramatic statement, and his anger glowed in his hot eyes when the baboon made no reply.

 

Finally, the ookami leader spat out, "I propose an alliance."

 

"Why?" The baboon asked mildly.

 

"Why?" Katashi snarled. "Because we have a common enemy---" He paused again and said the hated name with venomous rage, "KOGA. That foul wolf thinks he can cross me and get away with it. I'll pull his guts right out of his stomach and spit on his corpse. And then I'll claim that kaze bitch as my own---"

 

The white baboon stiffened, and the bloody gaze suddenly glowed. "Kaze?"

 

Katashi scowled, the red streaks flashing across his yellow eyes. "Yes. That wind witch, Kagura."

 

"Kagura." The hanyou hissed the name.

 

"Yes. That bitch dared to deny me. ME!" Katashi struggled to keep the fury he felt at that betrayal of his ookami superiority out of his voice, but his hands were fisted at his sides with impotent rage. Some of his men eyed each other uncomfortably, and a skinny wolf whined under its breath at the tension in the air. The other wolves huddled behind their wolf-brothers, ears flat and the whites of their eyes showing their discontent. They could sense the danger that came from the dark hanyou, even if their alpha leader refused to acknowledge it...

 

Katashi made a sharp gesture. "I've brought you a gift. A token of our---association." He pulled the glinting Shikon shards from inside his belt-pouch. Fuchsia light glittered balefully from the jagged gems he held out on his open palm.

 

"This should seal our bargain. I know you seek the Jewel shards, Naraku. I took these little beauties from Koga myself---"

 

"From Koga's grandfather, perhaps." White fangs glinted in a mocking smile. "That is old blood I smell on your Jewel fragments, ookami."

 

Katashi's fist closed over the cracked shards in his hand, his yellow eyes beginning to boil into crimson with the rage that welled up inside of him at the hanyou's mild retort. His snarl of anger turned into a sharp hiss of surprised pain as his curled fist jerked open, showing the bloodied wound where the sharp end of a malevolent Jewel shard had pierced the tough callouses on his palm. Blood welled out of the deep wound, and the Shikon fragment's fuchsia light became fierce and glinting as if it welcomed the ookami's blood and gathered power and strength from it.

 

With a suddenness that stunned the watching wolf-brothers, the dark hanyou swept the Shikon shards up from Katashi's opened palm and held them delicately between his own claws. The staring ookami gasped and shrank back as Katashi stared, dropped-jaw in shock at the monkey's speed. He snapped his mouth shut on a heated growl and grit his teeth hard against spitting angry words out at the presumptious hanyou, whose mobility proved just how dangerous he truly was.

 

Which was all for the better, in Katashi's opinion. With Naraku's help, he could destroy that bastard Koga and take the spiteful bitch for his own. With that kaze witch as his mate, he could claim both the eastern and northern tribes as his own. With such a large clan, he would be unbeatable, and could turn his attentions to the more scattered tribes of the south and west. Never had there been one strong enough to unite the various wolf tribes under one claw, but with Naraku's help, his secret ambitions might come true! With the ookami united under his dominion, he would be unstoppable. He could become Taiyoukai in his own right, and then would the lands tremble---for the dark hanyou would be the first of his enemies to fall, and with the Jewel of Four Souls in his possession, he, Katashi, would be able to claim the whole of Japan!

 

The blood seeped from his eyes until the yellow shone unfettered once more. The baboon had ignored him, his attention riveted to the Jewel shards he held in his hand. Turning them this way and that, the stupid hanyou seemed caught up in their pulsating light.

 

Mesmerized.

 

How predictable. Like a moth caught by the flicker of firelight.

 

*Stupid monkey. Hanyou half-breed.*

 

That was exactly why a true youkai should never consider mixing his blood with a ningen's. It diluted the pure strength of a youkai and tainted the honor of his heritage and line...

 

Katashi suddenly grinned, feeling superior. Naraku was a worm not worthy of his notice. Actually, the ugly little monkey was only a HALF-worm. It had been pure luck that such a puny little bastard had taken out the northern wolf clan before, nothing else. But Naraku better beware...it was past time for the Fates to be gracing him, Katashi, with their favor, and then would the monkey pay for his crimes against his father and his ookami brothers.

 

Though, to be honest with himself, Katashi didn't really care. He should actually thank the white baboon for his aid. Without Naraku's murder of the northern tribe, Katashi would never have been able to seize control over his clan and his innate worthiness might never have been recognized for what it was: destiny.

 

It was with an almost negligent air that the northern leader said expansively, "Those Shikon shards are yours, hanyou. Our gift of appreciation for certain, uh, aid."

 

The worm finally spoke, though his attention was still affixed to the Jewel shards in his hand. "And what is that, Katashi of the North?"

 

"I want you to kill Koga." All of the northerner's anger and frustration burst out, and his eyes glittered a promise of bloody death in their crimson glower.

 

The dark hanyou's eyes finally left off their preoccupation with the Jewel fragments and pierced the angry ookami with their own bloody light. His voice was bland, however, as he said off-hand. "That is not my concern."

 

Katashi's fists clenched so tight that his sharp talons dug a tatoo of welts across his palms. Several of his grey wolves shied back, away from their fearsomely volatile leader. "What do you mean, hanyou half-breed?"

 

Naraku ignored the taunt, but his eyes glinted crimson behind the wrinkled mask of the baboon. "You will kill Koga."

 

"And you?" Katashi bit out.

 

"I?" Naraku's eyes flicked to the Jewel shards in his palm. "I will help you."

 

Katashi just snorted his disbelief.

 

"With these." Naraku's claws twisted the broken Shikon shards so that the weak light of the waning day glittered malevolently from them, making them blaze with a furiously fuchsia color.

 

Katashi's brow wrinkled in puzzlement.

 

"You are too quick, ookami, to throw these 'little beauties' away," Naraku scolded mildly, "when they are the key to granting you wish for vengeance on the eastern wolf."

 

"Huh?" Katashi could only stare as the baboon casually twisted his fingers so that the Shikon shards now seemed aimed like tiny arrow-heads at the grey-furred ookami's thighs. The monkey's mellow voice twisted in a cadence of mesmerizing words as he spelled out his plan.

 

"Would it not be pleasant if you, Katashi, defeated Koga with the very thing that always set him above you? The power of these Jewel shards is inherent. Take them. Use them. Kill the eastern dog with his own Jewel shards. Just think of the delightful possibilities such power would bring you..." The dark, velvety voice purred.

 

Katashi's only answer was a slowly dawning smile...