#aka: Naraku hides behind Kagome while she girlbosses

[kagekitsuneoflight]

I prommie I didn’t forget about my role reversals I just have not been able to write it <3. Take this as my apology <3.

For those who don’t know, the roles being reversed are Naraku and Inuyasha, because protagonist and antagonist role reversals are criminally under appreciated.

Unlike Inuyasha, canon!Naraku doesn’t really go hard with combat until midway through the series, well after he’s introduced. He opts for schemes and trickery and runs away when he feels like things aren’t going his way. And consider this, unlike his canon self, Reversed!Naraku hasn’t had those fifty years to help him understand what he can do. He’s had a couple weeks at most before he gets pinned and sealed to the tree.

The beginning of this story will be far rougher on both Kagome and Naraku, with two inexperienced powerhouses running around feudal Japan. A lot of “wait, you can DO THAT?!” From the both of them.

Naraku will be younger here! He doesn’t have an official age listed on the wiki, simply a very unhelpful “late teens to early twenties”. (Note: this is not about Kagewaki Hitomi, who is 23, and who’s body Naraku stole). So I’m just shrugging and saying he’s around 16/17 for this.

Consequently, Inuyasha will look older here. He wasn’t pinned and frozen in time for 50 years, and fighting to survive can really age a person. He’ll look like he’s 20.

Reversed Naraku will also be much less composed. He’s still young, still discovering what his chimaera of a body can do, and he’ll have to confront his past and learn to move beyond it.

The power dynamic between Kagome and Naraku will also be different than Kagome and Inuyasha’s. Kagome will end up being the heavy hitter between the two of them. Her abilities are much more straightforward, even unrefined as they are. Once she manages to aim properly she’s easily going to be the bigger threat than Naraku, who’s abilities are much more defensive and geared to crowd control.

The incarnations will show up! But not how we remember them :)

Of the original Inutachi, only Shippo will join their group. Sango will make guest appearances and will occasionally join up (maybe), but with her clan alive and well, she has no revenge to act on. As for Miroku, there’s a question on if he would even exist! Without a curse to fuel a vendetta that must be passed on to a child, there’s no reason for a child to be born, even if perversion runs in the family. And if a child IS born, what reason does he have to go back and claim them?

Inuyasha will take up the role of antagonist. He’s angry and bitter and he wants revenge on Naraku and if he can’t bring back Kikyo he may as well become the full demon like he always wanted, and he doesn’t care about who gets hurt or killed along the way. But… maybe there’s still kindness buried deep within him?

Sesshomaru has never been terribly interested in the group with Inuyasha in it, and I highly doubt that he’s even bother to remember them without Inuyasha. Though with how often Inuyasha seems to go out of his way to attack them, he knows it’s a surefire way to find his brother eventually. Naraku and Kagome get caught in the middle of their death battles constantly, with their go to strategy being “run away” “hunker down and try not to get caught in the crossfire” and “that one time we got accidentally pulled into their dead father’s grave to fight over a sword and we tried to hunker down but Kagome almost got killed so she accidentally yanked out the sword they were fighting over but both (half) brothers couldn’t even touch so then they were both getting ready to actually trying to kill her but thank god Naraku can fly with his barriers apparently? And while they were running Kagome and Naraku played hot potato until he accidentally absorbed the sword (two abilities discovered in one day. Jackpot) so now he has this super important sword in him and he can’t get it out so then they both lied and said they threw it into the sea the next time they crossed paths with Sesshomaru”.

Naraku also just supports Kagome pursuing education. In fact he gets pouty when she doesn’t do a review of her lessons with him.

In short: a whole lot changes but some things stay the same.