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Love\'s Consequences	By : Sylean Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Naraku/Kagome Views: 10437 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha nor do I make any profit from this story.

Chapter List
- 22
- 23
- 24
Love's Consequences
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha nor do I make any profit from this story.
Warning: Spoiler alerts! Just make sure you've seen the whole series, Final Act and Movies included, for I touch upon pretty much everything at one point or another.
Warning: There will be lemons in this story later on. Also, there will be character deaths in this story at a later time.
(A/N: Ah! Sorry this is a few days late. I got completely caught up in moving. But here you go.)
Previously:
"Wait," Hitomiko's bells rang with every step. "If you will forgive my earlier assumptions, you have yet to relay your purpose on Mount Azusa?" Kagome looked away, not wanting to get into that topic, especially with one who would likely turn it around on her again.
Sensing the turbulence in Kagome's aura and knowing that tears would soon follow, Naraku responded in vague words to get them away quicker. His voice slithered out in sensuously low tones that could make a person's insides quiver in both desire and terror at will, "To seek counsel."
Like a alarm chiming in a void, that voice brought the distant, but vivid memory forward; the day fighting demons became her purpose, whether it was desired or not. Every detail played out in her mind in that instant, from the white-clad demon's attempt on her life, to the way the other children melted down to bones around her, and lastly to her master's death. Hitomiko gasped sharply, "I know, that voice!" It was the same voice that disturbed her nightmare-filled sleep; the haunting sound that made her wake in a cold sweat. "It couldn't be. You- you're that demon from twenty years ago!"
Chapter 23: Confrontation and Counsel
They had been so close to slipping out undiscovered; but apparently it was not to be. 'So, she remembers,' Naraku sighed inaudibly, knowing this was not going to be pleasant to get out of. An artificial laugh, the very makings of toxic nightmares, escaped Naraku's throat. "It's been a long time, Hitomiko," the wicked grin on his face and flash of red in his eyes sent a new wave of fear down her spine, just like it had twenty years ago when she was a small child. She had not seen his entire face then, but that grin had been visible out of the haunting baboon skull he wore. Now that she did see his face, those narrow, red eyes and cruel expression, she almost wished to be unaware of his true appearance. He was truly frightening.
"Na-Naraku!" she stammered out, fighting the urge to run away. But she was no longer a child; it was her job to fight him. She was so very tired of the non-stop fighting, but what else did she have; it was her responsibility. She had no choice; you can't change your fate.
Even behind the fear, her fatigue shone through. As a child, her eyes had been bright, full of conviction; now she looked no more than a lifeless puppet in comparison, "It would seem time has not been kind to you; you appear no more than a servant to this village, doing as is expected of you with no life of your own to speak of." It was not a trait exclusive to her; Kikyo had been the same way, desiring to live normally. It was easy to identify the exhaustion she exuded.
"Why you-" Hitomiko sobered. It was his fault she was like this. If it wasn't for him showing up, she may have had the choice to live differently, but he killed her master, forcing her into the role of protector for the village. She could not leave, and as a child, would have had nowhere to go. It was all his fault! She slashed the weapon suddenly and began chanting out a spell. Just as she had done to try and immobilize Kagome earlier, the blood splatters formed a circle and a wall of holy energy rose up to keep him in place.
Raising her bells in front of her chest, gathering her energy, she honed in on the training she was forced through for the past 20 years, training that would finally culminate in destroying the start of it all. Or so was the plan, except that other priestess barred her path.
"What do you think you are doing? Stop it!" Kagome spread her arms out wide, standing in front of Naraku as he tried to escape from the blood barrier. Hitomiko had grown much stronger than before, a troubling fact he had not wished to test.
"You, why do you interfere? I seek to free you from your slavery to this fiend! Move," Hitomiko ordered but Kagome stood her ground under the threat. Her protective powers flared up in response to this hostile priestess. "Does this demon force you to act so? Let me free you."
"No one forces me to do anything; I will not let you purify my mate!" she screamed back.
"How absurd," Hitomiko remarked on the preposterous statement. "A priestess mated to a demon, such a thing is unspeakabl-"
Kagome shut her up by drawing her neckline away to reveal Naraku's black and red spider mark on the crease of her neck, "Just because something has not been done before doesn't make it wrong."
"You fool," Hitomiko spit, "you think that because you foolishly give love to a creature that it will love you in turn?"
"I don't expect you to understand; you live in a world were the two sides refuse peace, it's all you know," Kagome pitied the limited perspective these people had. "But whether you acknowledge it or not, I love him and will not let you do anything to harm my mate."
"That demon is a murderer," she accused, her memories as a child flooding forward. The children around her had melted down to the bone while her barrier left her unharmed. "Why do you defend such a monster? It does not deserve to live."
Naraku grit his teeth, thoughts of tearing Hitomiko apart for blurting out his unsavory past danced around his mind. He didn't want Kagome to know that he didn't always spare bystanders or use discrimination in his targets; sometimes, he killed just for the enjoyment of it. H never told her about such things. How dare Hitomiko try to turn his Kagome against him!
"I'm not as naïve as you paint me to be. I know about his past; I know he has killed people before. Some that probably had little reason included," Kagome admitted. This was Naraku they were talking about, after all.
Naraku's attention was focused keenly on the little woman that defended him, 'She knew?' He had always expected her to turn from him if the real truth came out.
"But that makes no difference to me," Kagome shook her head. "Everyone has a past, and it can't be changed. What can be changed is the future, but only if you choose to look forward and make something of the life you are given." Yes, Naraku had been a mass murderer, it was a hard truth to reconcile, but he wasn't anymore. She had seen the changes, little by little, where his cruel tendencies were channeled only to the deserving. He was still a demon, through and through, but he even helped people sometimes; she had seen it with her own eyes. If she was going to get him out of this, she would have to fight; she would fight a fellow priestess to keep him safe. Drawing an arrow from her quiver, the first hostile move she made since meeting this person, Kagome slowly knocked it into her bow. "Last chance; let him go."
Hitomiko responded by erecting a barrier around herself; her belled relic held at her side and two fingers before her chin. She was not worried, this priestess did not exude very much power, and having given herself to a demon, her powers would be even more diluted.
From memory, Naraku knew he could not break this barrier; he had tried when she was weaker. Kagome didn't want it to come to this, but she had no choice. Drawing the string back, she let fly her arrow with the whisper in her mind, 'Let him go.' The arrow did not even seem to register the barrier as it flew straight through, shattering the blessed relic and cascading bells to clink against the dirt ground.
The barrier collapsed, allowing Naraku movement, but that was not what caused Hitomiko to wear such a shocked expression, 'It was only in the moment she released the arrow that her power became visible.' It had been far greater than she could have imagined. Naraku stepped forward with a growl but Kagome's hand on his sleeve stopped him. She just wanted to get out of here already and tugged enough to get that point across. It was only when they were a few steps away that Hitomiko spoke again, "Mount Azusa will never accept someone tainted by the touch of a demon such as you."
"That is for the guardian to decide," Kagome countered evenly, "not for one filled with hatred."
'Kagome, a person of true mystery; the source of her power, and even her name,' Hitomiko pondered over the enigma. 'Perhaps she can see something I can't.'
'That was annoying,' Kagome sighed to herself. It never ceased to bother her how much people could hate what they didn't understand.
"How long have you known?" Naraku spoke, referring to her knowledge of his shady past.
"How long did you think I didn't?" she countered with a smile. 'You're not the only one with secrets, either.' "When you let me in your heart, I saw more than you intended. It was quick, and didn't make sense to me until later, but I saw some things."
"I see," he hummed to himself, wondering just how much she saw.
"How did she know you?" Kagome asked. Apparently, that was one scene she had not caught sight of.
"I kept close watch for every powerful priestess born during the fifty years I waited for the jewel to resurface," he formulated his story carefully, wary of telling her the exact details, but also of saying something she would know to be a lie. "In order to determine their strength, I would appear and threaten their lives. Hitomiko's barrier withheld my miasma with ease, but she did not have the jewel, so I let her be."
Kagome thought about it in silence before stating her summary, "In other words, you traumatized the poor girl."
He chuckled, "Ay, I suppose I did."
"Maybe I should have let her zap you," Kagome mumbled jokingly under her breath, knowing her would hear.
"Would you have been able to handle the guilt from such actions?" he posed. "She is alive, is she not? I let her live, when taking her life would have been a simple matter."
Kagome couldn't argue with that. After her relic was shattered, her powers were cut drastically, just as hers would be without her bow. "So, where had you run off to last night?" she changed the subject.
"I have found the shrine we seek."
Standing at the bottom of an extensive staircase several hours later, Kagome tried to peer beyond the thick fog that shrouded the structure. Supposedly, there was a shrine up there, but she couldn't see anything. She gulped nervously; she was both fearful of what she would find and anxious to get moving. Would the guardian help her, or turn her away, were they dangerous, would it only tell her there was nothing she could do? Standing here was not helping anything, "Okay! Let's go."
Naraku just stood there as Kagome began climbing. She stopped after a few and looked back, wondering why he wasn't following. There was no telling what she would encounter at the top, however, "I cannot enter," he could not follow. Kagome must do this on her own; he could not step foot on grounds this pure.
"Oh," she hesitated, looking back and forth between the mist-covered stairs and her stationary mate. She became unsure of herself; she should have known otherwise, but she had it in her mind that he would be by her side for this. "Right." She retracted her half step and bit her lip nervously as the reality set in; she had to do this alone. His restless eyes belied of a similar struggle, and the last thing she wanted was to worry him. Taking a deep breath, she tilted her lips up in what she hoped looked like a confident smile. "Well, here goes nothing."
"I expect you will return unharmed," Naraku alluded. Hidden in his words was the meaning only Kagome would catch; she was the only person who knew him inside and out. He not only trusted in her ability to do as he stated, but also wished her well. It was his way of showing concern and trust in one assertion and she smiled back down at him before taking the first step to a long trek. Several dozen steps later she looked back, but could no longer see the bottom, it seemed like the staircase went on forever. There was no going back now; all she could do was keep climbing.
Her thighs burned and her breath came in ragged pants by the time a figure materialized before her. Kagome gasped loudly for the being had no face. It must be the spirit guardian of Mount Azusa; the figure was robed in all white, flowing clothes that resembled holy attire. "A human," the guardian spoke to itself and Kagome felt as if it was invading her very being, probing and searching her heart for a purpose. She forced herself to remain calm, but her physiological reactions could not be calmed.
"Ar-are you the spirit guardian?" Kagome's quivering voice betrayed her put-on show of confidence. The being raised one sleeved arm, covering its non-face, and when the sleeve dropped, the unique features Orora are what showed. Kagome's eyes shot wide, for up until now, she had forgotten that despite their difficulties to conceive, her and Naraku were practically guaranteed to have at least one child, for they would have a granddaughter, Orora. The question was, 'How?' The figure began climbing and Kagome quickly caught up, following the being into a wooden shrine.
"You seek a way to conceive a child with a demon, do you not?" the spirit guardian with Orora's face spoke evenly; lacking the life the real demoness had exuded. It simply had her face, but not her heart, mind, or soul.
"Y-yes," Kagome's voice wavered. It wouldn't be this simple, would it?
"There is but one way," the spirit stated.
"Please tell me what I need to do," Kagome begged, gazing up to the tall guardian looming above her.
"Are you prepared to do anything in your power to achieve this goal? Anything at all?" the white clad being probed.
Kagome's voice held no doubt, "Yes!"
"Then you must corrupt yourself," it told her plainly.
"Wh-what?!" she nearly stumbled back down the shrine stairs.
"Your body is too pure as it is to house a demon's offspring," the guardian explained what Kagome had feared to be the case. "In order to carry to term, you must become a dark priestess."
"But- there has to be another way," Kagome pleaded, refusing to let go of that last shred of hope.
"There is not," the being held her stare. "Did you not say you would do all that was required to meet your goal?"
"I did say that…" Kagome mumbled and the stolen visage of Orora motioned for a young shrine keeper to step forward. A girl no older than 10 and dressed in a similar white style approached with her head bowed respectfully.
"Then in order to corrupt yourself, you must kill an innocent with this bow," the young girl looked up with frightened eyes; her hands trembled in their grasped position. The spirit handed over the sacred bow that she retrieved casually from a small, enclosed stand. "What say you?" Kagome gripped it tightly, but knew she could not possibly kill someone. She was not naïve; she knew killing was necessary. Naraku had shown her that much, but as of yet, she had never hurt anyone that was not actively trying to kill her, and that was just a handful of mindless demons. This was not just about her, though. This was about making the future come to pass. If she didn't do this, she would never have a child, and Orora would never be born. By not doing this, she would be killing Orora. Naraku was waiting on her; trusting her to do what was necessary. If she went back empty-handed, would he, would he ever forgive her? She had this opportunity, one that would only be given once, but… looking up her eyes locked with those of the frightened child and any reason she mustered evaporated into nothing.
There was no way she could kill this girl. Letting her head roll forward, Kagome extended the bow back to the spirit, "No. I can't, it's wrong."
"You understand the consequences of your decision, do you not? Your very existence may cease to exist with the changing of the timeline, this descendent," the spirit referred to the face she wore, "will cease to exist."
"I understand," Kagome raised her eyes determinately, "but the consequences of letting my heart get corrupted are much worse. I carry with me the potential destruction of this world." She gripped the Shikon jewel that nestled beneath her clothing. "Were I to darken my heart, the entity inside will escape, and nothing could stop him." She turned to walk away, wanting nothing to do with the dark nature of this spirit. "I decline."
"You pass," it declared to her turned back.
"What?" Kagome whipped around to see that the temple she was standing in was no more than a collection of vines, as was the young girl. The spirit had reverted to her faceless visage. It had all been an illusion.
"Your heart has proven pure; and with it you are destined to be granted what you desire," the spirit guardian informed her.
"I don't understand," Kagome's mind struggled to make sense of all this, "if I'm pure, how can I-"
"Had you chosen the easy path," the spirit referred to the path of corruption, "you may have birthed a child, but it would not have led to the future you saw. You have but to be persistent and you will surely be blessed with a true miracle."
"Really?" Kagome's eyes lit up.
"Take this; you have shown your worth," it extended the bow back to Kagome who gingerly took hold of the enchanted wood.
"Th-thank you," Kagome still wasn't sure what to think of this bow.
"You may return now; your demon worries," the spirit guardian dismissed her by redirecting her attention.
Kagome turned and headed back down the extensive staircase, with her original problem still prominent; her purity was still too strong for an unborn infant to survive. What was she going to tell Naraku? The path down took significantly less time, and before she even felt she treaded half way down, she caught sight of Naraku pacing back and forth at the bottom. His gaze shot up to her, but she could not meet his eyes. She continued down until she was standing in front of him before reluctantly meeting his gaze. The question was evident in those red depths, asking her if she was granted a solution. Kagome looked down and slowly shook her head; she still had no solution. She could not stand to see the disappointment on his face; tears welled in her eyes at her failure to attain what they were after. He enveloped her within his arms; it didn't matter if they couldn't conceive, at least he still had her. Her hands fisted into his silk clothing and the tears flowed freely; relief that he was not upset touched her deeper than displeasure could have. He wasn't mad at her, even though she failed.
"Perhaps we shouldn't keep trying for a child," his words startled her and she met his gaze looking for an explanation. "There are herbs you can take to prevent pregnancy." He couldn't stand the thought of losing her, like he almost did. Futilely trying for a child was not worth her life.
Kagome saw the fear in his eyes, the fear of losing her. "But, I can heal myself now, Kikyo taught me how," she tried to assure him there was no risk, and she knew, somehow, they would succeed. If only she could tell him that. He didn't look convinced. She gave him a gentle smile, pleading with her eyes, "Can we try again, please? I'll be more careful this time. I know we can do it."
He couldn't tell her "No," even though he could already see where this was going to go. She would only be causing herself more heartache, but for now, "If that is what you want, we will try again."
But as the years passed, they had ceased actively trying to conceive. It only caused more anguish with each miscarriage.
(A/N: Obviously, they end up having a child eventually, but there are other things to sort out first. Demons age so slowly (in my version of things) so time will start passing much quicker. Mortality = fatality; be warned.
On a brighter note, I'm finally writing Sesshomaru back into the story; his reentrance will be in chapter 33.)
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Love\'s Consequences