Animal I Have Become

Inuyasha cried out in pain. The group had gone out because Kagome sensed Naraku close by, and Inuyasha wanted to defeat him once and for all, but it turned out to be a trap. Naraku immobilized Kagome and the others so they couldn't move at all, and then struck out at the only able-bodied one left; Inuyasha. Naraku struck out with one of his tentacle- like arms against Inuyasha and went right through his stomach, causing Inuyasha to fall to his knees.

"Inuyasha!" everyone cried out, and Kagome started to cry. He had left his sword with Toutousai because the old guy insisted that it would break the next time he used it if he didn't. Meaning Inuyasha didn't have the sword that suppressed his demon inside.

Inuyasha suddenly stood up, his hands curling into fists, Shippou, not understanding what was happening, cheered, drawing Inuyasha's attention to the group. Kagome was the closest one to him and saw two jagged purple stripes across his face, he stepped towards her and gripped her shoulders tightly, and she let out a soft cry.

"Ka...go-me...help...me...I can't..." Inuyasha forced out.

"Inu...Yasha..." Kagome whispered, and then cried out in pain because Inuyasha's demon side had clearly completely taken over, as he gripped her shoulders even tighter, causing blood to run down her arms and on Inuyasha's claws, which were longer than when he was a half-demon.

Naraku's voice rang throughout the cave he had lured them into, " HAHAHA! This is what I have wanted all along! How does it feel Kagome, about to be killed by the half-breed that you have trusted, and Inuyasha, you, will kill the girl! Don't you see? Humans and half-breeds such as yourself are not meant to be together!" And he turned to leave.

"You-you...YOU HYPOCRITE!" Sango screamed, "You sacrificed yourself to demons! Your half-demon as well, and you call Inuyasha a half-breed!"

"I'm not the one trying to fit in, I am not the one that can't control themselves, that, would be Inuyasha," Naraku said as he left the cave. As he did, the group was no longer immobilized, and the cautiously stepped towards Inuyasha, Miroku coming up behind to try and hit the possessed half-demon with his staff, but Inuyasha spun around and knocked them away, and Kagome fell to her knees, completely dumbfounded.

'He is being possessed by his demon, he doesn't know who we are, we-we're all going to die, by Inuyasha's hands,' Kagome couldn't help herself, she started crying, and Inuyasha whirled back onto her, picked her up by her throat, and threw her against the cave wall.

"Kagome!" Sango ran to her friend, and Kagome got up to her feet using the wall as support.

"He...doesn't realize...he doesn't want to be...causing us pain. Leave Sango and take the others out...I have to try...and bring him back..." Kagome rasped, her breathing becoming more and more difficult.

Inuyasha stood in the middle of the cave; never before had he felt this before, not the other times he transformed. It was pain unlike anything he had ever felt before, and he wanted it to stop.

'Kill, then it will stop. You are suppressing your true nature, kill the ones in the cave, and then go out and kill more pathetic humans, your demon now, what you have always wanted' his demon spoke to him, and Inuyasha felt compelled to obey, so he turned around to Kagome. He wanted the pain to stop, and so he would kill this pathetic human girl, and stop the pain.

He ran towards her with incredible speed, and lifted his hand to kill the girl; she closed her eyes and screamed two little words.

"SIT BOY!" she said it with such force, and Inuyasha was brought down. As he fell, his upraised hand scratched her shoulder, and she fell unconscious, and Sango caught Kagome in her arms.

"Kilala! Miroku! Shippou! We have to get out of here! Sango cried, and they ran over and got Kagome and Inuyasha onto Kilala's back, and Sango, Miroku, and Shippou ran beside, until they got to Kaede's hut, not too far away.

At The Hut

Kagome awoke, wincing at the pain in her shoulder, just as some of the villagers were helping Miroku set Inuyasha down gently on the floor of the hut. Sango was sitting next to her. Kagome sat up and crawled to Inuyasha, ignoring everyone's protests, and she picked up the bandages and towel next to him and started wiping off the blood, cleaning his wounds, and bandaging him up. He was alive, but unconscious.

"Kagome, please, will you rest now?" Miroku asked when she was finished tapping his foot. He had been trying to get Kagome to stop the whole time, but she ignored him. Kagome nodded, but sat in the corner the way Inuyasha would when they slept in a hut. She started to cry, he was hurt, and it was her fault. Naraku had been so far away, if she hadn't said anything, they wouldn't have turned around, and... Kagome fell asleep before she could finish the thought.

A few hours later, the others had gone to bed, and were asleep. Inuyasha woke with a start and then winced. The pain in his stomach where Naraku attacked him stung. Inuyasha lifted his hand to brush the hair out of his face and he saw the blood. He brought it to his face, thinking it was Naraku's blood, but it had a different scent. It was Kagome's blood.

Inuyasha stared at his hands in terror, had he done this? He couldn't help himself, he screamed, he was terrified. He could face a hundred demons and laugh, but the sight of Kagome's blood drove him to a state of fear and madness he never felt since he was a pup and his mother had been killed.

Kagome woke to the sound of Inuyasha's howling. She saw him, hand outstretched, backing into the wall behind. She crawled over to his side, and placed a hand on his shoulder. He spun around, and then backed away from her.

" N-no Kagome, stay away from me, GO!" Inuyasha scrambled to his feet and knocked over a bucket of water on his way out the door. Outside you could hear shouting from the villagers, and things being dropped and knocked over, and Inuyasha's reply of, "Just leave me ALONE!" when someone asked if he was alright. To Kagome, he sounded on the verge of tears.

Clutching her shoulder, Kagome walked outside and followed the mess Inuyasha had left behind to a stream, and he saw Inuyasha kneeling at the side of it. He was scrubbing his hands, even though they looked clean enough to Kagome, she stepped over to him, gently scratching his ears like she did with her cat, Buyo, but he didn't seem to acknowledge it, he was too busy trying to get the scent of Kagome's blood of his hands.

"Please stop Inuyasha," Kagome asked him, but he just pushed her away, "Go away," he snarled through clenched teeth, and then he heard a gasp, stood up, and turned around. He saw Kagome softly kneel in the grass, clutching her shoulder. At first he didn't know why, and then he saw the bandage and figured he had scratched her when he was a demon.

'Great,' he thought, ears drooping so they were almost flat against his head, 'she's going to leave, she loathes me, absolutely loathes me. I'm nothing but a half-demon, too human to be considered demon, but too demon to be considered human. When I am demon, I end up hurting the ones I care about, all because my human blood can't handle the demon blood. I'm a monster!' a tear slid from his eye, and he dropped to his knees, eyes covered by his bangs.

"Inuyasha," Kagome said, her voice had a slight hint of irritation, and Inuyasha knew what was going to happen. She was going to 'sit' him into oblivion. At that thought Inuyasha's ears got, if possible, even closer to his head.

"Inuyasha, I know what you're thinking, and it is not your fault, you didn't have your sword, there's no way you'd have been able to hold your demon side back," Kagome walked over to Inuyasha and started to reach out to scratch his ears again.

"No Kagome, I should be stronger than this," Inuyasha replied, dodging out of her reach. Then he gave a small gasp at the sudden movement, and blood started to flow from the gaping wound in his stomach. You couldn't see it yet, but Inuyasha could smell it.

"Kagome," Inuyasha couldn't believe what he was about to do, but he stood up and looked her eye to eye.

"What?"

"Just-just sit me already! I know that you want to cause me pain for all the pain I caused you, so just do it already!" Inuyasha snarled.

"No! Your hurt and I am not going to si- uh, that word, you when it could kill you!" Kagome shouted, nearly slipping up on the word 'sit' causing Inuyasha to wince.

"Dammit wench! Just do it already! That's what I deserve anyway! All I am is a worthless half-demon who can't even protect you guys! I could have killed you Kagome! Don't you realise that?" Inuyasha's wound started to flow freely and stain his Robe of the Fire Rat.

"Inuyasha! You-your-" Kagome started to cry.

"Whoa! What- what's with the tears? Don't cry!" Inuyasha started to reach out to try and comfort Kagome when he felt a sharp pain in his stomach, and he doubled over. And Kagome cried harder.

At that moment Kouga came up behind Kagome and kissed her. "And how is my beautiful woman today? "He noticed the bandage on her arm, and when he sniffed, he smelt Inuyasha's scent in the cut, though the scent was a little different.

"What The Hell did you do to my woman Mutt?" Kouga yelled, and his two followers turned around to warn the other people in Kagome's group, and soon there were five demons, including Kilala, and three humans surrounding the poor half-demon.

Inuyasha was blinded by his pain, but he sensed the presence of 5 demons, one of which was very hostile, and he dug his claws into the ground. He wouldn't, no, he couldn't become full demon. He'd end up killing everyone in the village, he just knew it.

"How do you explain this, you tried to kill my woman, didn't you Half-Breed?" Kouga shouted.

Shippou jumped onto Miroku's head, "H-h-his scent is changing! He's gonna turn again!" Shippou cried out.

Inuyasha didn't hear any of this; he was putting all of his energy into suppressing the demon within. It was no good though, he was fighting the impossible battle, and he threw his head back and screamed. The pain was worse than before, he couldn't stand it. The stripes on his face appeared, his claws and teeth grew longer, and his eyes turned a light red, and were getting redder every moment as Inuyasha lost control.

Kouga stepped back at the sudden change in Inuyasha's scent, he hadn't been paying attention, just yelling at him.

Kagome got to her feet as the pain in her shoulder caused her to fall; she ran to Inuyasha and cried into his Robe of the Fire Rat, gripping it as hard as she could, and started to cry. Inuyasha raised his hand to kill her, but was stopped. He sniffed the air and smelled her blood. He lowered him arm, and his eyes started to turn back to normal.

Her scent, it brought him back. The reason he had turned was because he had felt threatened, but with her here, he no longer felt that way, but still, he wished she would sit him. Then he would no longer be able to hurt her. But she was too damn stubborn!

"Don't do it Inuyasha! Don't give into your demon side, I know this isn't who you are," Kagome sobbed.

"Get away from her mutt! You've already hurt her enough!" Kouga walked over and pulled Kagome behind himself to protect her. "I'd never hurt Kagome, not like you, you have nearly killed her so many times, and whenever you pledge to protect a woman, she ends up dead by your hand! Remember Kikyo?" Kouga smirked.

"It wasn't me!" Inuyasha shouted, and then whispered, "N-not directly at least..."

He started to feel light-headed and sick, and stepped back. His footing slipped and Inuyasha fell into the stream, unconscious.

Later

Kagome sat by his side in the hut when he awoke. "Are you alright now? No one else is around; they all went to get food and stuff"

Inuyasha just nodded, he was ashamed of himself, twice in one day he nearly killed Kagome, and yet she still stayed with him, he didn't deserve her.

"Inuyasha, I know you're still blaming yourself for this morning, but really, if it's anyone's fault it's mine. I should have known you'd want to go after Naraku if I said something, but we're all alright, so stop blaming yourself,"

Inuyasha just sat dumbfounded, and there was silence until,

"Inuyasha, can I ask you something?"

"I guess,"

"What's it like, when you change into a full demon I mean," Kagome blushed, "If you don't want to answer that's fine, I just thought-"

"No, it's fine..." Inuyasha sat silent for a moment, and Kagome started to scratch his ears with her good arm.

After a few minutes of silence Inuyasha spoke, "It hurts,"

Kagome pulled her hand back, "Sorry," she said, putting he hand down.

"Not that...the last two times I changed, it hurt, bad. I-I don't understand, it didn't before, I don't like it much, it makes me feel, I dunno, weak I guess," Inuyasha looked away.

"I-I didn't realize it hurt you so much," Kagome looked away, and Inuyasha could smell salt-water on her.

"Oi! Wench! No tears got it? It's my problem; I'm the one that turns into some wild animal, not you!" Inuyasha yelled at her.

"You're not a monster Inuyasha, you just-"

"There's nothing you can do, it's who I am, I'm an animal, I don't want to, but I am! I don't want to be a full demon if this is what it's like! It scares me Kagome, please, help me." Tears came from Inuyasha's eyes. "I told you, I want you to sit me, but you won't listen," Kagome crawled over and wrapped her arms around him, but he pulled away.

"Inuyasha, please how can I help, without hurting you?"

"Stay away, take this damn necklace off, and let me get away, I'm an animal Kagome, I nearly killed you. All anyone sees is a half-breed, I'm no good to anyone, I can't protect you, instead, I nearly kill you, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did that," Inuyasha was crying more now, "I-I don't want this, I want to be a regular demon, like Shippou, or Kouga, even like Sesshomaru would be better than this, ever since my sword broke that day, I've become an animal. I feel like I'm trapped in a nightmare Kagome, and I can't get out, I'm scared Kagome,"

"Inuyasha, you're fine, it'll be alright, you won't hurt anyone, you're a good person Inuyasha, it's alright," and with that Kagome hugged him, while he cried.

A few minutes later, Inuyasha's breathing had regulated, he was asleep, the last thought before he had fallen asleep ran through his mind, 'She isn't afraid, she might be able to help me get a hold of myself, maybe, one day when Naraku no longer threatens our existence, I'll ask her to stay with me, forever.'

THE

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