Cure For The Poisoned Heart- A Naraku x Kagome FanFiction

Chapter 3: Naraku

 Shippo woke when the doors to his barren room were opened. He was so...bored. It wasn't any fun being stuck in a cage, and he hadn't been able to find any means of escape, no matter how he tried. He shrank back in his cage when Naraku entered, and then blinked. Naraku smelled like Kagome. And blood. But the scent was strange, and Naraku himself carried a similarly strange scent.

"What did you do to Kagome?!" Shippo demanded as he mustered his courage. Naraku balked just inside the doors, eyes narrowing.

"I've merely ensured her power will not bring me harm." he said, and then entered the room fully, closing the doors behind him. There was a long silence as Shippo tried, and failed, to understand how Naraku could have taken Kagome's power without her dying.

"You hurt her." he said instead.

"She'll recover by morning." Naraku said. Shippo was startled by that. Naraku wasn't the kind of demon to just easily reassure someone like that. Naraku gloated in the pain he caused them all. He certainly wouldn't care if Kagome recovered from an injury. And it couldn't be too bad. Supposing Naraku wasn't lying, Kagome was human, not a demon. If she would be fine in a day, the injury couldn't have been deep. Shippo looked at the floor of the cage between his loosely crossed legs.

"I won't forgive you if you hurt her again." he muttered.

"I would assume as such from a friend." Naraku sat next to the window, one leg bent, his arm resting lightly atop his knee as he looked out the window. Silence filled the space between them. Shippo swallowed hard. What was Naraku doing?

"That cage does not look comfortable." Naraku said.

"It's small!" Shippo complained, "And I'm bored!" Naraku looked startled by the outburst. Then a small smile curved his lips. Shippo jolted backwards. This couldn't be good.

"You are a feisty one." Naraku said, "What gives you confidence, fox?"

"My name is Shippo!" Shippo cried, "If you're going to ask to have it, you might as well use my name!"

"Very well." Naraku sounded amused, "Answer my question, Shippo." Shippo crossed his arms in his sleeves and crossed his legs.

"My friends give me confidence." he said sharply. "If you had any, you'd know that."

"Is that so?" Naraku's voice was almost...pleasant. "How does one...have a friend?" Shippo blinked at Naraku in surprise.

"You've never had a friend?" he asked. That sounded...lonely.

"I do not take it upon myself to invite meager mortals to my home in the instance of friendship." Naraku said.

"Home?" Shippo looked around. Naraku never seemed to call any place home. Why did he call this castle home? Wasn't it just a place he'd taken from some lord or another?

"Yes. This place is the last place I shall call my own." Naraku said, his smile a little cold, "And I shall defend it and its inhabitants jealously." His last place? Was that like saying the key to killing Naraku was somewhere in the castle? They needed to find it so they could tell Inuyasha. "Were you thinking, perhaps, that the key to my death lies within these walls? That would be a mistake on your part." Naraku's tone became colder. Shippo cringed back.

"No!" he said, "I...I wasn't thinking about that at all!" Naraku chuckled.

"You don't need to lie." he said, "I don't intend to hurt you, so long as you behave." Shippo flinched.

"I don't really have a choice." he mumbled. If he even wanted a chance at seeing Kagome again, he needed to listen to Naraku.

"So." Naraku said softly after a while, "How does one have a friend?" Shippo was startled. That was a genuine question? What had happened to Naraku after the Shikon Jewel vanished? What had changed the terrible demon into a shadow of his former self, sitting wistfully wondering about something as simple as friendship? Naraku knew about trust and friendship. He used the love people had to make them betray friendships and other relationships. It was something Naraku understood very well, was friendships.