Naraku smirked underneath his pale baboon mask as he faded into the mists.
Of course, the answer couldn't be any clearer. Inuyasha's strength was getting to the point where the hanyou began to become more unyielding and resistant to his weaker magics and spells, in battle or otherwise.
That insolent insect of a hanyou was beginning to get on his nerves, and it was becoming a real strain for Naraku to scrape at him. The foolish hanyou kept on coming back for more.
The answer wasn't to seek another battle with Inuyasha right away- he would undoubtably be even stronger, but it's not as if Naraku truly feared that petty nuisance, Inuyasha; he could always wipe Inuyasha out if he wished with a great onslaught of his true essence in one coup de grace.
No. It would be absolutely foolish to unleash his full might to destroy someone like Inuyasha- it wouldn't even require half of his full abilities. However if Naraku exerted himself so, he would be disabled for quite a while: too long for his comfort, for he had many other enemies other than Inuyasha, and they were surely much more stronger and powerful than a pathetic half dog demon.
But Naraku wanted Inuyasha to be eliminated as soon as possible. Again, it was true that Inuyasha was strengthening himself every day, and it was also true that Naraku was tired of confronting him.
Direct fighting with Inuyasha would be very impractical if Naraku wished to withhold his dominance as the great demon he was while knocking down the hanyou as quickly as possible.
All he needed to do to take down Inuyasha was to approach him in an altogether new fashion: the secret arts of curses and spells. Naraku would strike his unsuspecting prey like a poisoned knife in the dark: a double clencher. He would have to cast a spell on Inuyasha that would disable him greatly... and he had just the curse in mind.
The only light in the dark chambers of Naraku's castle was a dim candle, pulsing pale oranges through the cold, damp walls. Devious darkwaters dripped on the floor behind Naraku's back. With deft fingers, he extracted the knuckle bones from a pickled kappa hand with seemingly no effort. The kappa knuckles soon found their way into a mortar and were crushed calmly by the pestle Naraku grasped.
Then, using his concentreted deliberation, a glass vial containing graveyard soil flew into Naraku's hand. With accurate precision, he mixed the correct proportions of each substance together. Naraku was quite the master of poisons and the arcane, as he was of many things.
Naraku carried a vase with the mixture he had just created upstairs to a large room full of shelves containing all kinds of scrolls, his study. Of course, to the naked eye, these tomes were nothing but useless sheets of paper, scrolls probably stolen from some lord's castle, which some were. containing the frivolous blather of compassionate poetry, holy sutras, and love for transient things like nature, of course, Naraku was unmoved and untouched by such things. Not one appeared to be a spell scroll, which, of course, was the very nature of every scroll in the room, albeit for a very special one.
Ripping a red bond scroll off the shelve, Naraku placed it on the floor and sat down, breaking the seal with his unique charm that involved casting around dark intentions and pressing his finger down on the seal.
As the dry parchment unfolded, Naraku sneered in pity. The characters scrawled across were that of a romance novel. How pathetic. With great care not to spill any of the powder, Naraku put the entire powdery contents of the vase in his palm. Then, with great flourish, he cast it down onto the paper, which enveloped it into a thick cloud.
"Reveal your true nature!" Naraku whispered with no emotion whatsoever. The entire cloud was absorbed into the paper as it turned blood red. The characters rearranged themselves until they transformed from traditional Japanese into a strange dark script, long forgotten by the land and only remembered by a few, lonely, obscure priests, who struggled to linger onto life itself with their dark magic, which of course, took a toll on their souls because of their improper usage of the spells.
Naraku slightly grinned as he saw that this was indeed the spell he was looking for. Once cast, it would put Inuyasha on the path to destruction at his own hands. No, it would not cause the young hanyou to commit seppuku, although it would be quick, it would be too noticable and brash.
At its climax, this spell would cause Inuyasha to want to do nothing at all but eat. Inuyasha could care about nothing at all except for stuffing his face. At first, it would be barely noticable; Inuyasha's appetite would just be slightly larger. But day by day, the hanyou would think less about others and more about his stomach as his tough character and body deteriorated into an absolute soft glutton. He would slowly lose interest in that remarkably powerful Kagome girl, leading them to fight. He might just drop the whole quest of finding the Sacred Jewel shards in favor of finding more food. Then, slowly but surely, Inuyasha would be at a point where he would keep on gorging himself until he burst.
Naraku smiled a grisly smile. It was perfect. Raising his hands into the air, he began to cast the spell, reading the words perfectly and cursing the garments Inuyasha wore to bind him to that very spell...