My Protector by LadyOrduno

Final Battle Remembrances

Chapter 1

Final Battle Remembrances

It had started out as a beautiful day in Sengoku Jidai. It was a sunny late spring morning and Kagome and the gang was enjoying some much needed R&R after the final battle with Naraku. It turned out that it was not much of a battle to begin with. Kagura turned her Dance of Blades attack on Naraku, cutting the large chunk of the Shikon-no-Tama from his flesh. It had sailed through the air of what seemed its own volition and merged with the much smaller chunk resting around Kagome's neck. Once it touched her skin the putrid blackness of the tainted portion flashed pink and glimmered with new light.

Without the Shikon to give him unlimited power, Naraku was relatively easy to defeat. The demons that made up his body began to separate to be purified by Kagome's arrows and the others' weapons. Soon there was not much left of the feared hanyou Naraku. Even the Saimyoushou had abandoned the battle when Naraku's control over them vanished. Once all of the demons that made up Naraku were defeated all that was left was a scarred and shriveled being, too weak to even lift his head to face the ones he had toyed with for three long years.

The sounds of battle had faded to nothing as the Shikon warriors stared at the being that they had feared and hated for so long. Gone were the shiny black locks of hair and muscled body. They were replaced by a skeletal figure with parchment thin skin seemingly stretched to its limit and dirty iron grey hair that hung limply to those narrow shoulders. A gnarled hand shakily rose up to push at the hair that obscured the figures face. Slowly, as if a stiff breeze could knock him over, the figure straightened his hunched back and looked at Kagome with clouded eyes.

"Pleassseee..." wheezed the decrepit figure of Naraku, "Kill meeeeee...."

Pity shown brightly in Kagome's eyes as she knocked an arrow in her bow, the tip glowing with a pale pink light just before she loosed the arrow, the bow twanged in the still silence of the battlefield. It flew straight and true and embedded itself where Naraku's heart should have resided. The arrow pulsed once, twice and turned Naraku's body to dust. The breeze picked up and for a moment you could have sworn that there was a whispered "Thank You" before drifting to silence once again.

After what seemed an eternity, birds began to chip and sing from the branches of the trees. Kagome lowered her bow and bowed her head, her bangs covering her eyes as one solitary tear traced its way down her cheek to drip off of her chin. It landed at her feet and the salty smell drifted to the twitching nose of the inu hanyou standing to the right of her. He turned to look at Kagome with wide eyes, seeing the trail that one tear made on her cheek.

"Wh...what? Are you crying? Why are you crying? He does not deserve your tears and sorrow, Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled in disbelief. "Naraku was a monster and here you stand crying now that he is dead, never to bother us again? You should be jumping for joy and celebrating, not weeping like a child with a lost toy."

"Sit." Kagome whispered, "For your information, Inuyasha. I was not crying. Yes, I shed a tear, one tear. But, it was not for the monster Naraku that the tear was for; it was for the heart of Onigumo. That one tear held all of my hatred and pity for the man that was Onigumo, the heart that was possessed and became the monster we defeated today, Naraku.

I don't expect you to understand, Inuyasha. But know this; my feelings are not as easily hid as yours. I cannot push them out of my heart and head as easily as you seem to. By letting that one tear go and to fall on the ground I have released my feelings about the weak man who let lust and greed take over his entire being to become a monster." Kagome's voice grew stronger as she said this; she looked at the hanyou still lying on the ground. His ears were twitching so she knew that he heard her.

Slowly Inuyasha picked himself up from the ground and proceeded to dust himself off muttering under his breath. Once he was done, he turned to glare at the Miko still standing next to him, "Feh. Whatever." He said as he turned away and began to walk from the battlefield. He turned around at the tree line and yelled, "Well are you coming or not? We still have a few jewel shards to find!"

That motivated the others to turn and follow Inuyasha into the forest away from the clearing that has become the final resting place of a human, turned evil demon back to human again. Kagome paused just inside the tree line and looked back one more time a small smile graced her lips as she turned back around and followed her companions to new adventures and almost certain peril.

TBC

Well, this is the first installment of my first ever Sess/Kag story. Hell, first ever Inuyasha story. Hope you like it and would like to read more. I would like to apologize for the short chapter, but I hope as the story develops they will get longer.