Naraku was beyond furious; he had just made the unpleasant discovery of his book being gone. After searching it didn't take him very long to found out that Kohaku was missing and after that he realized that the boy didn't escape after Hakudoshi was killed, Inuyasha must have sent him here after he freed him from his control.

"I underestimated him once again, but no more. I'm done with these games", he said standing in the center of the cave containing the hundreds of various demon parts he kept stored. Gathering up his power he slowly consumed each and every limb, organ, and appendage. Naraku knew that he would need them all to battle Inuyasha for the final time.

THE GROUP

Inuyasha sat away from the others. Ever since he began examining and reading the Book of Darkness, he stayed away from the humans, mainly for their safety. There was no telling what dark evil may be lurking in this book; he needed to make sure there would be no repercussions for being near it. The pages of the book were old, faded and dirty, stained, smeared and splattered with ink and blood.

"Aha!" the half demon exclaimed.

"What is it?" Kagome asked walking over to him.

"Take a look at this", he showed her a page from the book that depicted a human skeleton surrounded by what looked like demonic limbs, some partly attached to it. "This is how Naraku can change his form; he's using the stolen body parts of demons".

"We figured that part out already, doesn't it have a way to undo that?" Miroku asked.

"It doesn't say", Inuyasha said frustrated that this book didn't have any secrets on undoing the horror's that it caused.

"We have the book, let's just destroy it", Sango said. Inuyasha looked at her like she was crazy and then made a big show of tossing the book on the ground and unsheathing Tessaiga.

"Well if you insist", the half demon spoke with heavy sarcasm. He then slammed the large fang shaped blade on the book in an attempt to cut it in half. Kicking up a bunch of dirt everyone watched holding their breath only to gasp when the dust cleared and the book was still there completely intact.

"What the hell!?" Kagome blurted out instantly covering her mouth and muttering an apology for the language.

"Here let's cook", Inuyasha picked the book up and tossed it into the camp fire, but it would not burn. "I think I proved my point, this book can't be destroyed with normal means, and magic can only be destroyed by magic".

"So how do we do that?" Kohaku asked.

"I'm not sure how, I would need to neutralize or counter act the dark magic to annihilate the Book of Darkness, somehow", Inuyasha picked up the book and continued to thumb through the pages. He accidentally cut his finger on the edge of one of the pages, but ignored it since he healed so fast. What he didn't notice was that the drop of blood from his finger turned completely black once it hit the ground and slithered away unknown to everyone there.

"There has to be something in here we can use against Naraku at least", Inuyasha found an image of a hand with a hole cut through it. After interpreting the language next to it he figured out that this was the curse of the wind tunnel. Unfortunately just like all the other magic in the book, it couldn't be undone unless the person who cast it was killed and that couldn't happen until the book itself was destroyed, Naraku is connected to the book he won't die unless the book is destroyed.

"We should probably prepare for Naraku, he'll come here looking for his book", Miroku commented reminding everyone of the impending danger.

"He's right, this book is the source of his power, he'll stop at nothing to get it back", Sango said slapping the monk's wandering hand away.

"I doubt he'll let us run and hide, so we'll have to make a stand", Inuyasha continued flipping through the book. He stopped at an interesting and grisly page different than the rest. All the writings and illustrations were drawn in blood, his gaze stopped for a moment on the bloody pentagram drawn on one side and after reading the details of this ghastly ritual his eyes widened for a moment. Inuyasha quickly memorized every line and symbol.

"Well that's it, there's nothing in here that tells of a way to destroy the book", he said slamming it closed.

"That's it there's nothing we can do?" Kagome questioned, it seemed like such a waste to go through all this trouble to get the Book of Darkness only for it to be utterly useless to them.

"Well there's always something, but I need time to think and meditate on this, time that we unfortunately don't have", Inuyasha paced the ground rubbing his head in frustration.

"You said we have to make a stand so let's do that", Kagome spoke up again. Everyone stood looking at her like she was crazy, how were they supposed to take on Naraku and every demon that he would possibly bring.

"Wait that's brilliant!" Inuyasha exclaimed interrupting them.

"It is?" Sango chimed in.

"Yes if we could keep Naraku busy long enough, we might be able to drain his powers, then we can destroy him and the book at our leisure. We just have to keep the book away from him so he can't restore himself", Inuyasha explained his plan.

"That's good, but to keep Naraku and his minions at bay we would need an army", Shippou said.

"How about a pack!" a voice shouted from the woods. Out came from the trees was an entire pack of nearly a hundred wolf demons led by Koga himself. "Yo! Cool plan, mind if we join in?" the wolf said walking up to the group with a cocky smirk.

"Only if you don't get in my way", Inuyasha glared at the intruding wolf demon. Koga immediately went up to Kagome much to the half demon's ire.

"Hello my dear Kagome, did you miss me?" Koga spoke smoothly while grabbing the cat's hands with his.

"Uh not really", Kagome said rolling her eyes at him. Before the wolf leader could continue he was zapped in the leg by Inuyasha.

"Keep it in your skirt wolf", Inuyasha fired another magic bolt from his finger tip at his rival.

"Watch it with that", Koga ducked his head dodging it easily.

"Now that we have a strong enough force to take on Naraku, what's our next step here?" Miroku asked aloud.

"Well Naraka is a huge coward, he won't stick around when he realizes he's at a disadvantage. We need a way to keep the bastard here when he tries to make a run for it", Inuyasha said tapping his chin in thought.

"I believe I can be of assistance", another new voice said. Kikyo appeared from the trees atop a horse. Dismounting she approached the group, while the wolf demons grew wary seeing a powerful well known priestess in their midst.

"Kikyo? What are you doing here?" Inuyasha asked walking up to her, much to Kagome's displeasure.

"I came looking for both you and Miroku, the fact that you two are together is a good sign", she explained.

"So this is the legendary Kikyo huh? She doesn't look like much", Koga said condescendingly, Kikyo just shot him a blank stare.

"What did you mean when you said you could be of assistance?" Inuyasha asked.

"You said you needed a method of keeping Naraku in one place so you can defeat him. I can make a spiritual barrier large enough to encompass this whole area, all I need is a place to stay and concentrate while I hold it together", the priestess explained.

"That seems doable", Inuyasha smirked as seeing this strategy come to fruition was something he was looking forward too. Naraku wasn't the only one who could scheme and make plans.

LATER

Everyone was ready for the upcoming battle now. A powerful demonic aura was approaching the area and the wolf demons were ready to fight against Naraku's forces, Koga would lead the charge. Inuyasha would confront Naraku himself, while Miroku and Sango would deal with the demon's incarnations Kagura and Kanna. Kagome, Shippou and Kohaku would protect Kikyo from another location away from the battle while the priestess erected a large enough barrier at the proper moment.

"You should be safe here Kikyo", Inuyasha said Looking down at her as she sat down on a mat, hands held together. "Here take this", the half demon handed her a pendant made of silver and cold connected by a chain, the medallion was covered in carvings of clouds and a moon, with a single eye in the center.

"What is this?" Kikyo held the object examining it with interest.

"It's called a dream pendant, you wear it and it helps a person concentrate and reach a deeper meditative state. It should help you", he explained.

"Thank you", Kikyo smiled up at him putting the pendant around her neck.

"Your welcome", Inuyasha blushed at her gratitude, Kagome turned green with jealously watching the display until Inuyasha walked straight up and kissed her slowly while she was distracted and then she went from green to red.

"Stay safe Kagome", was the last thing he said before dashing off to the soon to be battlefield. Kagome watched him leave thinking about what he told her earlier.

FLASHBACK

"Kagome there's something I want you to have", Inuyasha handed her his enchanted bag that contained everything he owned.

"Why are you giving me this?" Kagome asked holding it like a treasure.

"This bag contains all my stuff, my books, potions, mystical item, my silver and gold pieces. With this fortune you would have no problem living well anywhere you wanted", he paused to let his words sink in. "I'm giving you all this in case I fail to destroy Naraku and die, I want you to leave this place, go far away to another country and take Shippou with you", he was giving her everything she would need to flee should this plan go wrong, she realized that now.

"You won't die, you're too strong to die", she argued.

"Everyone can die, even me, just promise me if that happens you'll take care of Shippou and yourself far away from here", he looked her straight in the eyes pleading for her to answer him.

"Alright, I promise", Kagome said quietly as she looked down her bangs covering her eyes.

"Hey cheer up Kagome", he tilted her chin up to look at him. "I don't plan on dying anytime soon, that's my promise", he said with confidence.

FLASHBACK END

That was a promise she planned on holding to him. For now she would do as he asked of her and make sure Kikyo was protected.

Back at the battlefield the demonic aura was almost upon them, suddenly hundreds of lower demons appeared from the sky, they didn't attack they just waited in front of the line of wolf demons. Soon a cloud of miasma descended from the clouds stopping in front of the demons, out of the toxic vapor appeared Naraku with both Kanna and Kagura standing behind him. Inuyasha stood next to Koga, gave him a quick nod and walked out to the middle to confront his enemy while Naraku did the same.

"You look ridiculous in that getup" , Inuyasha commented seeing that the demon was dressed up in a bunch of spiked armor, eyes on his hands, one big one on his chest, and three serpent tales sticking out of his back.

"Funny, I barely recognize you without the cloak you normally hide behind. Are perhaps ashamed of your appearance?" Naraku smirked. "I've come for my book and the secret to Kagome, give it to me and I'll let most of you live".

"I've got a better deal, how about you undo the curse you placed on Miroku, call off your demons and I'll let you live only if you leave these lands and never return", Inuyasha gave his ultimatum, Naraku just laughed at him.

"Just remember Inuyasha, you brought this on yourself!" the demon floated up into the air and encompassed himself with his dark magic barrier, he then raised his hand signaling the demons to attack. All hell broke loose as the wolf demon tribe charged forward to meet them head on. While the battle was going on around them Inuyasha and Naraku threw their magic at each other. The half demon's magic couldn't break through the barrier, but Naraku's dark magic was countered and repelled by Inuyasha.

"Try this!" Inuyasha unsheathed Tessaiga and unleashed a large wind scar at his enemy. Naraku smirked seeing the attack coming, the spikes on his forearm armor extended out of the barrier and he used it to slash at the air, the result was that Inuyasha's wind scar got caught in the vortex of his demonic power, splitting up into four pieces and hurtling around the area destroying everything it passed through.

"I like this wind scar, I think I'll keep it!" he chuckled while Inuyasha was forced to dodge his own attack, easier said than done as it kept coming back around to strike at him.

'Time to get reckless', Inuyasha thought letting the first piece of his wind scar come at him, instead of dodging it he held his sword up defensively to absorb the blow. Since the attack originally came from Tessaiga its power was easily drawn back into the blade.

"What!"

"That was risky, I wasn't sure that would work", Inuyasha smirked seeing the demon's annoyed face. Dozens of tentacles suddenly emerged from Naraku and whipped forth to attack him. The half demon easily sliced them all into bits with his sword.

"It's futile, you're just slicing away tentacles, to which I have an abundance of. These appendages are easily sacrificed, you'll wear yourself down before I run out of parts", Naraku explained arrogantly.

"Well at least I know you'll run out, so let's see who can last longer", Inuyasha infused some magic into his fist and tried to punch through the barrier. Like all his other attacks before it was repelled.

"Is that the best you can do?" Naraku said looking down on him.

"Not even close", Inuyasha jumped a few yards back to get some distance and think up a plan.

"If you wish to cut me so badly I'll happily indulge your request", the three serpent tales on his back began to stretch and extend outside the barrier, the tips split open and formed a vicious maw of teeth. Three large mouths came chomping towards Inuyasha intent on biting him in half.

"Idiot, lining them all up", Inuyasha sliced every head off in one swing of Tessaiga. Naraku just grinned at him, before he could wonder what he was smiling about a bunch of poisonous miasma came spewing forth from the severed neck holes right on top of the half demon.

"You fool", Naraku chuckled.

"Who's a fool? Me?" Inuyasha appeared when the miasma completely fine, not even choking or gasping for breath.

"Impossible, my miasma should have killed you", Naraku stared completely caught by surprise.

"Luckily for me that you stupidly use the same poison as your wasps, the antidote I gave Miroku works just as well for me", Inuyasha chuckled seeing the look on the demon's face. The half demon then pulled out a glowing red rock and tossed it towards Naraku's barrier, it exploded on contact obscuring the demon's vision, but his shield still held strong.

"How do you like my fire blast rocks?" Inuyasha asked from the smoke, they were simple rocks that he infused a bunch of explosive fire spells into making them extremely unstable, one must always be careful when using them, they tend to blow up on contact.

"A few magical bombs won't be enough to get to me!"

"Then how about this!" Inuyasha leaped out of the smoke bringing Tessaiga down in a stabbing motion. This time his sword managed to pierce the barrier running straight through, the tip stopping just a few inches from Naraku's shocked face.

"Is…is that all?" Naraku chuckled slightly relieved sweating just a bit.

"That's a tough barrier alright. Tell me, is it just as strong from the inside!?" Inuyasha pulled out Tessaiga and threw all six of his remaining fire blast rocks into the small hole that it made. He quickly jumped away as the explosion erupted from within Naraku's barrier, the force completely shattering it apart. The half demon waited holding his breath for the smoke to clear, there's no way he would be defeated that easily. He got his answer when he saw what was left of Naraku, his head with part of his face blown off, connected to his neck and part of his chest, the rest of him floated around in bits and chunks of flesh.

"Damn you Inuyasha!" Some of the pieces tried to regenerate and reattach around him. "This isn't over I'll be back!" he tried to float away, but didn't see Inuyasha smirking as he tried to flee. Naraku collided with an invisible spiritual barrier that revealed itself to be covering the entire battlefield. "When did this get here?"

"Looks like you won't be running away anytime soon you cowardly shit!" Inuyasha watched him float down glaring daggers at him.

"I see, you must have a powerful priestess creating a barrier to keep me trapped here", he then ordered a group of his demon's to go look for the person doing this and kill her. In the meantime he pulled all of his fleshy pieces into himself and formed another body. This time the lower half of him resembled a large red scorpion without the claws and dozens of tentacles slithering out of the center. "Looks like only one of us can leave here alive then".

"This ends here!" Inuyasha brought his sword up and the two sorcerers charged each other yelling battle cries with sword and claws aimed for one another.

ACROSS THE BATTLEFIELD

The wolf demons led by Koga tore through the demons while Sango and Miroku were still fighting against Kagura and Kanna. None of them noticed a small group of the low level demon's break off and head towards where Kagome and the others were protecting Kikyo who kept the barrier in place.

"Looks like we got enemies incoming", Kohaku said pointing to the vicious creatures speeding towards them.

"I see them", Kagome readied her bow and fired her magic arrow at the first demon in front. She figured out how to use her special magic to increase the speed of her arrows making them go much farther than normal and made them three times as powerful. Her arrow cleaved through the head of the demon leaving a small hole through its head before piercing the head of the demon behind it, killing two with one arrow.

"On the left!"" Kohaku threw his sickle at the demon's that tried attacking from another direction. He managed to decapitate one, but the other came close to knowing off one of his limbs. Luckily for him Kagome saw it and shot another of her arrows at it, this arrow glowed white like the others, but turned into a long spinning blade just before reaching the target, cutting the creature in half.

"That was too close", Kagome sighed in relief.

"Um guys", Shippou caught their attention when they suddenly saw a group of Naraku's poisonous wasps attempt to attack Kikyo from behind. The priestess simply turned her head and focused her power, the insects didn't even stand a chance every single one was purified into dust. With her meditative concentration broken the giant barrier she casted over the area dissipated.

"Oh great what do we do now?" the fox boy asked aloud.

"Hurry you need to go to Inuyasha and make sure Naraku doesn't get away!" Kikyo said urgently to Kagome.

"Kilala!" Kohaku called the big flying demon cat over.

"Go on ahead we'll be right behind after we deal with the demon's here", the priestess watched the cat girl nod her head and leave to go help her half demon companion.

Back at the battlefield Naraku was missing several appendages and tentacles while Inuyasha suffered a few wounds himself, but not enough to take him down. Suddenly the barrier that surrounded the whole area fell apart and the evil bastard took the opportunity to try and escape.

"You won't be so lucky next time", was Naraku's parting words as he levitated into the air.

"Oh no you don't!" Inuyasha summoned a bunch of chains from the ground and sent them to wrap tightly around Naraku. "Get back down here and fight me!" he yelled pulling on the chains.

"Damn you!" Naraku couldn't break free so he doused the chains in his miasma dissolving the links so he could escape. Once he was free he laughed as he floated away once again, however this time a large ball of energy colliding into him from behind him sending him crashing into the ground, an explosion of demonic power followed upon impact.

"Who the hell did that?" Inuyasha asked looking around for who caused the destruction. His question was answered when his half-brother Sesshomaru appeared in the air floating on his cloud.

"Naraku is my prey", the dog demon spoke coldly landing next to Inuyasha.

"Get in line, he pissed me off first", Inuyasha said pointing Tessaiga at him. Their argument was interrupted when a barrage of tentacles attacked them from the smoldering crater Naraku lied in. Sesshomaru used his recently acquired blade Tokijin to blow them all away in one swing. Inuyasha didn't bother asking where he got the new sword, he took his chance and charged towards the source of the appendages through the smoke and began hacking away at Naraku's main body. The demon was cut in half below his waist, he quickly summoned four large spider legs to hold back Inuyasha's Tessaiga from coming down vertically on him.

"You're not looking so good Naraku", Inuyasha spat noticing the demon's torn appearance as they were stuck in a dead lock neither giving an inch.

"A minor setback, nothing more", Naraku didn't seem to understand how problematic his situation was. Inuyasha smirked at him and quickly pulled back, Naraku grinned thinking he had a chance to counter attack, however his smile soon fell when he saw Inuyasha leap out of the way and Sesshomaru standing directly behind him sword raised.

"It appears you don't have any more strength to create another barrier", Sesshomaru said bring the sword down sending a massive wave of demonic power that sliced through Naraku cutting him in half right down the middle.

"GAH!" Naraku screamed as his face was split in half, the rest of his body completely shredded now nothing more than a few floating pieces of gore.

No one appeared to notice Kagome hiding behind the corpse of one of the serpent like demons a distance away. Kagome watched the battle going well so far, but she knew Naraku was tricky and a cornered beast is more dangerous the more desperate it gets. She reached behind her to the quiver of arrows only to realize that she had just one left.

'Only one arrow left, I have to make it count', Kagome thought anxiously wiping the sweat from her forehead while keeping her eyes peeled for the right opening.

"You'll all pay for this!" the two halves of Naraku's head spoke coming back together.

"Give up you've lost", Inuyasha watched the view bits of flesh he had left put itself back together. Naraku's eyes zeroed in on the corner of his book sticking out of Inuyasha's robe and he acted immediately sending his last appendage at the half demon. Inuyasha easily sliced the chunk of flesh in half, but that was what the demon wanted, the severed pieces flew towards the book and grasped ahold of it bringing it back to Naraku's disembodied head.

"Finally", the Book of Darkness levitated in front of his face opening by itself and flipping through the pages until stopping at the one he needed, his aura began to grow dark and heavy as he chanted an evil spell. All the demons he brought with him were summoned to their master, each and every one that was still alive was absorbed into Naraku forming his new body. A colossal monstrosity of tentacles and flesh with Naraku and his upper body at the top holding the book of darkness in his wicked grasp.

"It doesn't matter how big you make yourself", Sesshomaru commented not even fazed by the demon's new appearance. More tentacles went for him keeping the dog demon busy while Naraku turned to his real opponent Inuyasha, looking down at him with a sneer.

"Let me show what dark magic can really do!" chunks of his giant body broke off filled with miasma and homed in on the half demon below. Inuyasha was forced to go on the defensive, the wolf demon pack wouldn't be much help here since they were all busy with getting their wounded away from the battle, Sango, Miroku and their respective opponents were nowhere to be seen. It looks like he was on his own with this one. The clumps of miasma were not that difficult to dodge, but they kept circling back around to attack him again. 'Dammit if only I could just get close enough to the bastard', that thought suddenly gave him an idea. He quickly turned away from his enemy secretly taking a drink of his antidote and turned back letting one of the ball of flesh and poison strike him exploding in a cloud of toxic miasma.

"Not so powerful now are you", Naraku laughed seeing the half demon laying on his side coughing and gasping for breath. One of his tentacles extended out and impaled Inuyasha through his stomach. The appendage slowly lifted his body into the air carrying him like a rag doll towards Naraku's main body. When he was a few feet away the demon could finally let his guard down while facing the half demon.

"Now tell me, how did you make Kagome?" Naraku asked the one thing he needed to know more than anything, he needed this now if he had any hope of making a new body for himself that wasn't constantly rotting.

"Alright you win, I'll tell you", Inuyasha smiled as he choked up some blood. "The truth is I don't know how I made Kagome".

"What!?"

"Yes, the ritual I invented Kagome was the first and only, it was original meant to be an experiment I didn't really have that much hope that it would even work the first time. In a way she was the perfect accident, even if I tried to make something like her again it wouldn't work, and if it won't work for me again that magic would never work for you", Inuyasha explained with finality.

"You lie!" Naraku didn't want to believe it.

"It's the truth, on my honor as a sorcerer", Inuyasha chuckled, it appeared he didn't have the strength to raise his hand.

"Very well then, I'll just devour you and absorb the information you hold", He pulled Inuyasha closer to himself.

"Don't count me out just yet", the half demon smirked with his bangs covering his eyes.

"Oh please what could you possible do in your weakened state?", Naraku glared at him.

"I can take one more shot…at destroying your BOOK!" Inuyasha shouted bringing his hands up to reach for the book. Naraku was surprised to see Inuyasha still had strength in his body, his shock soon turned to fear as the dog eared man grabbed ahold of the book of darkness and began channeling as much raw magical power into it, doing everything he can to burn the book out of existence with magic. The power around him glowed and crackled, Naraku tried to pull his book away, but Inuyasha refused to let go. Eventually the energy died down to nothing, Inuyasha's magical power was completely exhausted and the Book of Darkness was still there in his enemy's hands, the edged singed, but the book was still whole. Naraku laughed in his face seeing Inuyasha fail to destroy his book.

"You lose Inuyasha!" the demon continued to laugh.

'Sorry Kagome I failed, I won't be able to keep my promise', Inuyasha thought as he was pulled closer to Naraku who was still intent on absorbing him. A white arrow came flying in between them striking the book dead center in the front cover, all the dark magic was quickly sucked out of it and used as pure magic to completely obliterate in one burst.

"What have you done?", Naraku said as his shocked face went from the rapidly disintegrating pieces of his book, the source of his power to the cat girl a short distance away standing atop a demon's carcass holding her bow in a strong pose with a determined look on her face. "Do you know what you've done!" his giant body of demon parts began to melt and dissolve away into a gross soupy sludge of flesh and blood. All the appendages fell and became lifeless as the skin and muscle melted right of the bones, Naraku was swallowed up into the sea of his dissolving body while Inuyasha finally dislodged himself from the creature, luckily Koga appeared to catch him and drag him away from the decaying mess. When there wasn't much of Naraku left, the last remaining pile of demon split open into a large maw of teeth and vomited out a figure before melting away like the rest.

"So this is the real Naraku?" Inuyasha stood up and walked over to his now defeated enemy who now tried to crawl away on clearly crippled limbs. The man was barely recognizable as a human being as his skin was scarred and burned from head to toe.

"What is this?" Miroku asked coming over along with Sango.

"I can answer that?" Kikyo appeared before them. "His real name is Onigumo, he was a human bandit. When he attempted to betray one of his comrades they turned on him. He suffered from terrible burns and was thrown off a cliff and in his madness and pain he used the power of the Book of Darkness to fashion himself a new stronger body out of the demon's he summoned, however most of his original personality was devoured by the power he acquired", she explained.

"Still no excuse for being an evil little shit", Inuyasha stomped over to the pathetic creature and kicked him in the stomach turning Naraku over on his back, he glared down at the man's hideous burned face before pressing his foot to his throat.

"Wait…please", Naraku tried to plead for mercy struggling with the half demon's heel on his wind pipe.

"No more, this ends here", Inuyasha didn't even bother listening to what bastard had to say. Naraku's glanced around desperately looking for a way out of this until his eyes landed on his only two incarnations he had left Kagura and Kanna.

"Help me, Kagura do something", the wind sorceress looked indecisive for a moment until Inuyasha interrupted her thoughts.

"You'll die if you so much as lift a finger to help him, or you two can leave now and live in peace, I want follow you", that was his final word on the matter. Inuyasha understood full well that they were just pawns in all this, but they could still make decisions for themselves. Kagura didn't have to think about it anymore she quickly pulled a feather out of her hair, and flew off taking Kanna with her. The two left and never looked back.

"And now for you", Inuyasha watched Naraku squirm under his foot.

"Please don't"

"You know I don't take pleasure in crushing a worm beneath my foot", Inuyasha said darkly pressing his foot down on Naraku's throat.

"Please", the man wheezed out.

"And I see no reason to start now", the half demon suddenly lifted his foot off Naraku's throat, turned around and walked away. Everyone watched him with confusion, they all thought he would kill Naraku himself after all the grief the demon caused.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome questioned walking up to him, she was also worried about the hole in his abdomen.

"I'm not going to dirty my hands with his foul blood, besides he'll die in a few moments without the Book of Darkness keeping him alive", he explained, even Sesshomaru seemed to be satisfied with that, putting his sword away. Right on cue Naraku's true body began to dissolve away into ooze starting with his hands first.

"No…no, no, NO!" Naraku watched his flesh melt right off his bones, he tried to struggle, but it was pointless. After a few seconds of screaming the others watched him until there was nothing but a skeleton sitting in a pool of liquefied organs and skin. The bones quickly dissolved into the gross sludge, all of it soaking into the earth where it might one day become a tree or some grass.

"It's over now", Inuyasha sat down completely exhausted, he winced holding the wound on his stomach.

"Take your robe off", Kagome helped him take off his top where she gasped at the horrible wound. She reached into Inuyasha enchanted bag to get some medical supplies and help with this.

"Hey Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha turned to where his brother was standing, he was actually surprised the dog demon showed up to this fight and he wanted to express his gratitude only to find his brother had already left the area and was nowhere to be seen. "Thanks!" he shouted at the empty space with a smile.

THE NEXT DAY

The group was rested and healed, they soon left the field where Naraku had fallen. Inuyasha complained about how Miroku left a stone as a grave marker at the spot where the demon had dissolved away into nothing. The monk said that despite what Naraku had done he would prefer his soul rest for eternity than continue to haunt the world. Kikyo had stayed behind to help heal some of the more injured wolf demons as a thanks for their help. Koga went to go meet up with another wolf tribe vowing that he would soon return to make Kagome his wife. The dirt road they were on came to a fork, one path went left the other right.

Sango and Kohaku went right with Kilala. They wanted to go back to their former village and pay their respects to their now avenged fallen comrade's graves. Miroku went with them, he wanted to go visit his master in the temple he trained to tell him that he finally broke the curse from the wind tunnel. They said their goodbyes with the promise to see each other again.

Inuyasha and Kagome along with Shippou went down the left path, they wanted to return to Kaede's village and rest and relax for a bit before they went travelling again. With their enemy now destroyed there was no reason to stick together anymore.

"Looks like we're back to how things were before this started", Kagome commented. "Although I have a feeling we'll meet them all again soon".

"Hey Kagome I wanted to tell you something", Inuyasha turned to look at her while they walked. "If you want to leave and take Shippou I wouldn't be mad".

"What on earth are you talking about", she looked at him like he was crazy.

"You've seen the life I live now, it's very dangerous being around me, and Naraku wasn't the first dark sorcerer I fought. If you don't want to travel with me I'll understand", he was really actually asking her if she still wanted to be with him after everything that happened around them.

"Of course I still want to stay with you, if a little danger made me run away I would have left a long time ago", Kagome smiled up at him grabbing his hand. Inuyasha breathed a sigh of relief, he didn't have to worry about going back to being alone ever again.

"Can I ask you something Inuyasha?"

"What is it?"

"What did you mean when you told Naraku that I was an accident?" She wasn't mad, Kagome just wanted to know.

"Well you see, I meant what I said. When I created the magical ritual that made you I never had any hopes that it would really work. Imagine my surprise when you appeared", Inuyasha smirked at her. "Even if Naraku did the exact same thing I did it would never work for someone like him".

"I'm not sure I understand", Kagome had difficulty grasping this.

"Well I have theory on why it worked the first time. You see we already had formed a strong bond between us, bonds like that are sometimes more powerful than magic. Someone like Naraku could only make incarnations because he had no love for anything but himself", Inuyasha explained.

"So that means that you love me?" she asked grinning like the cat she was.

"Of course I love, I never tried to hide it", he said simply.

"Love you too Inuyasha", Kagome said standing on her toes to give him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Hey lovebirds let's get moving!" Shippou yelled from up the path. The two grinned and hurried along to catch up to the fox.

"So where are we going now?" Shippou asked jumping up on Kagome's shoulder.

"We can go anywhere", Inuyasha said grasping Kagome's hand tightly. "Let's go there together".

THE END

Wow this was the longest chapter I've ever written for this story. It was originally two, but I made one single final chapter.

The story is not over I will begin the sequel Magic Mirror in a few months after I work on my other stories. The summary for the sequel is posted on my profile if you want a little teaser of what that's about.

The group has split up for now, but they'll be back in the next one. Also Naraku is dead and gone, he wont be coming back I'm moving on to other villains. Inuyasha couldn't use the robe of the phoenix magic tool since he just used it the other day and it takes a toll on him.

I would like to thank everyone who followed the story to the end and even took the time to review or simply just to read it. This is my personal favorite story and it was a pleasure to entertain some of you fanfic readers.

See you all next time in Magic Mirror, peace.