The Path of Forgiveness

Disclaimer: Not mine, but I do have a niffty Sesshomaru key ring.


A/N: Just a bit of a warning. The parts with Naraku *may* be a bit graphic for some people. I don't think they are, but I sat through Silent Hill and giggled.
Also I'd like to thank my reviewers. I would like a few more, I enjoy the feed back.

The grief in the tiny cave was palatable, even to Sesshomaru. It swirled around and constricted him like an invisible miasma. He had never been around such raw human emotion. At the first hint of sunrise he rousted Rin.

The others had slowly started to move about, packing up the few things that were still scattered about. The tears had stopped flowing as steadily. A random sniffle punctuated the noises from the clean up.

Sango paused as she went to fold up Miroku’s blanket, a fresh bout of tears threatening to break free. She looked at the prayer beads she had wrapped around her hand in the same manner Miroku had worn them. Her last conversation with him had ended in a slap and her frustrated. Guilt washed over her. She never should have ended the conversation the way she had. The slayer was drained. She had never fallen back to sleep that night and cried steady for most of it. It didn’t make her feel better. She fought the urge to just sit down in the cave and not move. Naraku was still out there. With Miroku’s death, they had found the motivation to search harder for the hated creature.

The decision had been reached to continue their search of the abandoned hut, if it had survived, that morning. Maybe it was the grief speaking, but none of them expected to find so much as a stray hair from the wind demon or child at the hut.

Sesshomaru watched as the slayer almost broke down again. Some how, some way, her grief was feeding her determination. It was one of the attributes his father had admired in humans. One of many. He almost growled. Being so close to the grieving humans had kicked in some long dormant instinct to comfort. ‘This Sesshomaru will not do any such thing.’ He mentally took the instinct and shoved it back into what ever dark recess of his mind it had crept out of, just like he did every other emotion that wasn’t useful.

Rin hugged the other pack good- bye, including Inuyasha, before Sesshomaru took off. She wasn’t quite sure what had happened that night, but she knew Miroku hadn’t returned and the others were very sad about it. She had seen funerals before and knew people were really sad at those. This had the same feel to it. No one had spoken out loud about the monk actually being dead.

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The black gem pulsed as Naraku tried to draw even more energy from it. It refused to give any more. He knew the potential it stored and was frustrated that he couldn’t tap it.

He shifted slightly in the goo filled sack he had surrounded himself in after the last battle. That arrow had done more damage than he cared to think about. He had been milking the jewel’s power to help heal. Now the jewel was refusing him. It almost felt like it was mocking him.

Damn it, he needed more energy. He could feel the pull of his incarnations, each one containing a bit of his essence. A wicked grin spread across his face. Yes, maybe they contained enough energy to finish his healing. He followed his connection to each one, drawing them back into himself. The last one to be drawn back was Kagura. His consciousness reached out along the connection, feeling her power. Her powers were at a peak, a violent storm feeding them. Yes, this would be exactly what he needed. The extra energy he was feeling spiked when he felt her fear. Yes, this was going to be fun.

The wind witch had betrayed him in the hope of winning her freedom. Amusing that she didn’t think he knew this and had planned on it. With the addition of Sesshomaru’s power, Naraku would finally be able to use the jewel to its full potential. He had used Kagura to keep the Taiyoukai interested. Yes, he had planned on the hanyuo and his half brother to be there. He hadn’t planned on the strange new attack from that sword, nor the powerful arrow that reeked of Kikiyo’s power.

The tendrils from his mind wrapped around Kagura’s essence and pulled it back to him, slowly. Naraku savored the slow building of fear in his traitorous incarnation. As her terror grew, so did her power. The malevolent hanyuo savored it, bringing her into a dark cavern formed in his mind’s eye.

“What do you want?” Kagura spat vehemently at him.

“It is time, Kagura. Time that you fulfilled the destiny I set before you.” A single tendril reached out and brushed her cheek tenderly.

Kagura’s eyes widened. “No!” She tried to summon her powers. To her horror, nothing happened.

Two of the tendrils thinned out until they were needle sharp. They whipped out at her blindingly fast. One hit in each shoulder, causing pain to shoot through her body.

Kagura screamed.

Naraku shuddered as the energy washed over him. He opened his eyes and looked at Kagura. She was still alive, and more power just begged to be drawn from her. A sadistic smirk formed on his face.

He formed another needle tendril and slowly moved it toward her. “Someplace painful, yet non lethal…” The needle hovered around her midsection for a while before slowly coming to rest just above her knee. Slowly he pushed the needle like appendage through skin, ligament and bone, drawing another intoxicating scream from his incarnation.

“Just kill me.” Kagura hissed at him, her eyes flashing angrily.

“This is so much more fun,” he replied. Another needle formed and he repeated the slow insertion above her other knee. “Amusing thing is, I could do this to you forever and you would never die.”

More terror, another spike of power. Naraku basked in it. A new needle, this time just above her navel. He pushed on it ever so gently. “Can you feel it slipping into you? Is the pain exquisite?”

Kagura screamed, but it was lost in the darkness of Naraku’s mind.

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Sesshomaru was following the coast line north to his personal manor. His demon cloud took him above the still flooded low lands and valleys, Ah-Un with his ward and retainer followed behind.

From this vantage point he would be able to see any minor demons that were out taking advantage of the chaos from the storm. Not that they would bother him, but on occasion one without any common sense would tempt its fate.

A flicker of a demonic aura caught his attention. A single flicker then it was gone. It was too brief for him to tell if it was familiar or not. Deciding to ignore it, Sesshomaru continued.

A few seconds later, it flickered again. This time Tenseiga pulsed. Sesshomaru scowled at the fang. “It is not any concern of mine.”

The aura flared again. This time it was stronger. He could tell it was a youkai of some power, not one of the scavengers, but it felt unlike any other aura he had ever felt, yet it reminded him of something. Something he had buried in the deepest part of his mind.

Tenseiga remained quiet. A strange aura on the boarder to his lands, it was too close to ignore. What ever it was, needed to be dealt with.

Sesshomaru descended, Ah-Un following. The beach was covered in what looked like bits of a ship wreck.

The group landed, the still soaked sand sinking a bit under the weight. The aura hadn’t pulsed again, and all he could see were bloated human corpses strewn about. He was sure the aura had originated from this location.

“Stay here,” he ordered the trio behind him. The tall inuyoukai walked carefully along the beach, looking for some sort of trap.

He walked by a large piece of hull. Two feet stuck out from under it, one minus a boot. Tenseiga pulsed.

With a low growl at the sword, Sesshomaru used his poison whip to get rid of the annoying bit of hull. A human female laid on her stomach, her inky black hair fanned out in clumps around her. Bits of sea vegetation clung to her.
The aura pulsed. Sesshomaru’s eyes widened a bit, it was coming from this strangely garbed human. The body wasn’t bloated like the others. In fact, it didn’t even smell dead. He inhaled the scent again. His inner demon stirred in anticipation.

The demon lord growled, forcing his youkai down. Yes, it made sense now, the flickering aura, the human guise, and the pheromones. He recognized this demon.

The female started coughing and pushed herself up slowly, muttering something in a strange language. She flung her hair away from her face angrily, and turned to face him. A pair of strangely colored green blue eyes blinked at him a couple of times.

“What are you doing back here?” Sesshomaru demanded. The tone would have frozen Hell itself.

“Nice to see you too, Lord Sesshomaru,” the woman replied, her voice laced with sarcasm.


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From her vantage point on Kirara’s back, Sango observed the devastation below. Trees lay broken and scattered. The little fishing village had been destroyed. The fishing boats smashed to pieces by the wind and waves. The survivors picked through the debris, slowly trying to put their lives back in order.

The slayer felt the wind on her back, something she hadn’t felt in a long time. Drawing a shaky breath, she managed not to cry again. They had changed plans and headed back to Kaede’s first to build a small shrine to their dead friend. It had ended in a fresh batch of tears. They had left his staff there as part of the memorial. Sango still had the beads wrapped around her hand.

A glimpse of a thatched roof through the trees caught her attention. She called down to Inuyasha. “I think I found it.”

She shifted directions to the right slightly. Kirara landed in a clearing not too far away from the shack. Inuyasha was there a second later.

“Weird, I don’t smell anything, except dust,” Inuyasha looked puzzled.

“It’s been raining for two days. It shouldn’t smell dusty. I don’t feel any auras either. If they were here, they aren’t now.” Kagome adjusted her quiver and bow. She had forgotten to pick up more arrows while they were in the village. She smoothed out the feathers on the end of one of the arrows. She only had three left. Judging from what they could sense, she wouldn’t even need that many.

The group walked up to the hut, surprised it still was standing. It was small, one room. The door was hanging ajar, moving slightly in the breeze.

“Feh, come on, are you afraid of something?” Inuyasha pushed the door open and walked in. He stopped suddenly causing Kagome to run into him. “What the…?”

Kagome’s hand went to her mouth. “Oh!”

“Are they statues?” Shippo asked.

Sango shook her head to try and clear the bizarre images from it.

The young child demon, Hakudoushi, was standing there frozen in place, a look of shock on his face. Kagura looked like she was backing away from something, her arms held up defensively.

“Are they dead?” Kagome asked.

Inuyasha poked at Hakudoushi with his Tetsusaiga. Hakudoushi’s body slowly started to turn into black dust, bit by bit rolling down to the floor in a cloud.

“Ack!” Inuyasha coughed out as he jumped away from the cloud.

Sango tapped the Kagura figure with her boomerang. Another pile of black dust started to form. “Is- was this really them?”

Shippo’s eyes were wide. “Do you think Naraku reabsorbed them?”

“I think maybe we should have left them alone.” Kagome added, pulling an arrow and knocking it. “There is a demonic aura headed this way and fast.”

“I don’t smell nothing.” Inuyasha’s tone was skeptical.

“That’s because it’s underground.” The miko replied heading back out the door, Sango on her heals. Inuyasha followed.

The tightly formed cluster was forced to roll away from each other when a plant like demon erupted from the ground and threw two foot long spines at them.

Five arms, or maybe they were tentacles, had sprouted from the ground. Each one sported the long spines. A glistening liquid tipped each one.

Kagome fired her three arrows in quick succession, taking out three of the arms. Sango easily took out another one and Inuyasha the last.

“That was easy,” Inuyasha commented as Tetsusaiga transformed back.
The ground shook again and two more of the arms burst out and sprayed the deadly spines right at the miko. Sango had pushed her out of the way last time. Kagome froze up as the spikes raced at her.

“Kagome!” Inuyasha shouted, panicked, as he jumped at his friend to knock her out of the way. A burning pain ripped through his chest just before he pushed her to the ground. The spines sailed harmlessly over their heads.

Sango and Kirara quickly finished off the rest of the demon.

Kagome kneeled over Inuyasha. The spine had not impaled him all the way, but the hanyuo wasn’t moving. His eyes were slightly glazed over, but he was breathing.

“Hang on Inuyasha, hang on,” she urged as she tried desperately to figure out what to do about the wound. It wasn’t like him to be so quiet about an injury. The young miko refused to loose two friends in less than one day.

“Kagome?” Inuyasha said softly. “I can’t feel my arm…”

************************

Naraku had finished drawing all the energy he could off his incarnation. He was now fully healed and felt stronger than he had in a long time.

The storm outside had let up and a half moon was peaking through the thinning clouds.
It had lasted long enough that Kagura had been able to channel the energy of the violent winds for him.

Naraku rolled the now complete jewel between his thumb and forefinger. He hadn’t been able to absorb it after it had been completed. It just sat there, swirling, inky, hypnotic, and stubbornly quiet.

Why couldn’t he use the tainted gem? He hissed at the suddenly fire hot gem. It dropped to the floor and rolled away from him.

The sound of crystal cracking reached his ears. The Shikon jewel fell into quarters, a dark shapeless mist floating up from each piece.

Naraku’s eyes narrowed. “What is this?”

A well muscled humanoid arm, blacker than the darkest part of the night reached out of the cloud. The fingers were tipped in blood red claws, dripping with fire.

Naraku found himself inexplicably hanging in the air, this creature’s hand wrapped around his neck.

“You dare to try and possess the power of the gods?” a disembodied voice whispered in his ear.

Naraku tried to reply, but the iron grip the creature had around his neck wouldn’t allow it.

The mist slowly solidified into a humanoid form, just as black and muscular as the arm it was attached too. Deep purple hair fell to just below his shoulders. Matching eyes regarded Naraku with open hostility. The other three forms writhed and hissed in anticipation behind him.

The creature’s other hand shot forward, breaking skin and ribs before closing around Naraku’s heart.

The hanyuo could feel the thing’s hand in his chest, wrapped around his heart. Naraku’s eyes widened in horror. For the first time he could taste his own fear.

With a sickening, wet sucking noise, the creature pulled Naraku’s still beating heart from his chest.

“You seem to think you don’t need this,” the creature tilted his head back and held the heart above his open mouth, allowing the blood to drip in and run over his sharp fangs. The dark purple eyes closed as he savored his first taste of blood in hundreds of years. “I will show you the error of this belief.”

The creature flung Naraku’s limp body back to the eagerly waiting forms. “Feast, my brothers”

Naraku’s dieing screams echoed off the walls of his lair.