Strength of Ages - Chapter3

Here is another chapter of "Strength of Ages"!

This was interesting chapter to write I'm pretty sure this is the first fic to have a Jeff Hardy x Naraku scene.

Let's hope Matt and Inuyasha get to him in time!


PLEASE! PLEASE! Comment on the drawing I think it's one of my best coloreing jobs and I really want to know if you think it fits the scene! Please comment!

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***

Ew, what's that smell?" Rin grimaced and covered her nose and mouth with her hands.

"I don't know." Jeff slowly stood up and turned around.

Standing before them was a strange figure. It appeared to be a man dressed in the skin of a baboon.

"Who are you?" Jeff asked warily.

A small smile pulled across the man's face and he spoke in tones of poisonous silk. "I am Naraku... And you are another being from the time beyond..."

Jeff frowned. "How did you know?"

"I have my ways."

"I bet you do."

"Jeff-sama..." Rin said warningly as she back away from the two men toward the rock.

" I understand you have talents far beyond those of the average human in your time." Naraku said.

Jeff grinned. "That's right."

" It would be a shame to lose such talents when they remove your jewel shard..." Naraku shook his head in a mock sympathetic manner.

Jeff frowned again. "I'm not going to lose anything."

" You think? If you do not cooperate, they will take it from you by force." Naraku said spreading his seeds of doubt into Jeff's already suspicious mind, and his tentacles to ensare the young Hardy.

"Yeah..." Jeff nodded slowly, as the strange man before him seemed to be confirming his worst fears about Inuyasha and his group.

"Perhaps the girl Kagome might not," Naraku offered to keep Jeff from running of straight away before, he could get his tentacles around him. "but her demon friend Inuyasha would. You see he wants all the shards to turn himself into a full demon."

"Yeah?" Jeff gulped, not taking his eyes off Naraku as the tentacles began to wrap around his legs.

"That's not true, Jeff-sama!" Rin shouted from behind the rock. "Rin-chan knows Inuyasha-san and he may be an idiot, but he wouldn't do that."

"Ah, poor innocent child," Naraku faked the concerned tones of a parent, all the while seething inside. " She does not know that Inuyasha, killed the one he loved in the effort to get the whole jewel, and every person he has come across with a jewel shard he has killed. "

Rin shook her head. "No.." Though her voice did not have the conviction it did before. She coughed as Naraku's shouki was starting to really get into her lungs and pass into her blood stream.

"Dammit!" Jeff shouted horrified. 'I left my brother with him!"

"I on the other hand like to keep talent alive an well, I could use talent like yourself." Naraku stated matter-of-factly. "I will be glad to help you." He held out a hand to Jeff. "Come."

Jeff stood still for a moment thinking it over. Kagome and Inuyasha had told him Naraku was dangerous, but Inuyasha had already proven himself to be untrustworthy. Kagome had seemed like a nice honest girl, but she was friends with Inuyasha so what did that make her?

Jeff found it was getting difficult to think straight. The air seemed to be getting thicker and harder to breath in, he felt strangely tired and dizzy. In his dazed stupor he failed to notice the tentacles wrap around his waist and right arm.

"Well?" Naraku gently prompted.

" Ummm.... " Jeff hesitantly reached out his left hand toward Naraku's.

"Don't go, Jeff-sama!" Rin shouted before passing out from the suffocating shouki.

Jeff pulled his hand back and finally noticed the tentacles growing around him. "What the...?"

Naraku grinned as he pulled the tentacles tight around Jeff's body, pulling his legs out from under him and effectively suspending him within the grasp of the spider demon. Naraku threw off the baboon pelt, to reveal himself in full warrior regalia complete with spiked armour and tentacles growing out of his back.

"What is this?" Jeff growled as he frantically struggled to get free, but the tentacles held fast. "You said you were going to help me!"

The grin on Naraku's face remained as he leaned forward and exhaled more shouki directly into Jeff's face. It was one of the most potent forms of delivering the drug-like substance apart from somehow injecting it directly into Jeff's bloodstream.

"I am going to help." Naraku smiled, cupping Jeff's chin. " I'm going to take your jewel shard off your hands so Inuyasha won't come after you anymore."

Jeff tried to concentrate, but it was almost impossible, his mind was a cloudy as if he had been given a dose anesthetic, plus three vodka Martini's

"Now tell me." Naraku said gently, tilting Jeff's face up to his own. "Where is your jewel shard?"

Despite the shouki drugging his mind, Jeff was still coherent enough to register the question in his brain. However with his executive functions dulled considerably, his mind automatically afterwards.formulated an answer without thought of the circumstances. Despite his best efforts to stay coherent, and close himself off to suggestion, Jeff began to answer Naraku's deadly question.

"In my..."

"Let him go Naraku!" Inuyasha leaped out of the tree brandishing Tessaiga.

"JEFF!!" Matt screamed upon seeing his little brother in the clutches of a monster.

"Stay back!" Inuyasha shouted at Matt, while Kagome ran forward and fired one of her purity arrows at Naraku, severely weakening his barrier.


"You stay back!" Naraku snarled, "Or I will crush the life out of him."

A tentacle came up to wind around Jeff's neck. One contraction from it could easily strangle Jeff and break his neck completely.

"Stop!" Matt stepped forward. "I'll give you my shard, just let Jeff go alive."

Naraku lifted an eyebrow looking pleased at this proposition. "Very well, I--"

He did not get t finish as a giant black sphere ripped through the forest toward him, forcing him to let go of Jeff and get out of the way. Out of the forest stepped Inuyasha's older brother, Sesshoumaru.

"Sesshoumaru! What are you doing here?" Inuyasha snarled.

"Looking for looking for a member of my group." Sesshoumaru stated coldly, then without another word walked over to where Rin was lying.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at his brother's back before turning and attacking Naraku. The spider demon stood up and lashed out his arm which turned into spikes and slashed at Inuyasha.

Naraku did not want to stick around and fight just yet, particularly since Sesshoumaru had shown his face and his complete meidou. With a crack and a puff of smoke, Naraku was gone.

"Dammit! Coward!" Inuyasha shouted into the empty space, before turning around and spotting his brother heading back into the depths of the forest with Rin in his arms. "Where are you going with her?"
"None of your business," Sesshoumaru stated coldly.

"She's been exposed to shouki, she needs help!" Inuyasha called after him, some concern for rin showing in his voice.

"I have my own ways of dealing with shouki." Sesshoumaru continued walking without looking back, until he disappeared into the forest.

"Jeff!" Matt ran to his prone brother, and gently shook him hoping to get some sort of response. "Jeff! Come on Jeff, talk to me!"

Jeff stirred and opened his eyes starring dimly at his older brother. "Matt..."

Matt Hardy let out the breath he had been holding, his brother was still alive, completely out of it, but alive.

"Something's wrong with me..." Jeff rasped. "I feel sick..."

"Sssh." Matt whispered, picking him up. "I'm bringing you back to the others. Once you've rested you can tell me what happened."

"No!" Jeff shouted, suddenly coming alive again. "Don't go back to them they'll kill us! they want the shards!"

"What? What are you talking about Jeff?" Matt looked at his brother true concern written all over his face.

"he said that Inuyash was after the jewel shards so he could complete the jewel and become a full demon. He killed the one he loved to get the whole jewel, and he's killed everyone he's come across bearing a shard. Now he's after..." As quickly as Jeff adrenline rush had come it ebbed away and his breath came out in ragged pants and his body started to sag. Jeff rested his head on his brother's shoulder before finishing his statement. "Now he's after us..."

.
"What?!" Matt gasped more out of puzzlement than shock. "But that doesn't make any sense..."

"Are you guys all right!?" Miroku came running up to them.

"Something's wrong with my brother." Matt explained worriedly. "He's weak and he's shaking all over."

"He was exposed directly to Naraku's shouki." Miroku said gravely. "That's one of Naraku's methods of controlling people. It's a poison.

Matt Hardy felt himself stop breathing for a moment. "Poison? Is there something we can do for that?"

"We need to get him back to the village." Miroku started back in the direction of the village, urging Matt to follow along after him."

"Don't go with him..." Jeff murmured tiredly into Matt's shoulder. "He's allied with Inuyasha."

"It's all right, Jeff. Miroku isn't going to hurt us." Matt said gently. I hope...