Naraku

"I have often heard you humans refer to this as fate or destiny. Only the weak utter such nonsense. It is different for the truly powerful: they create this so-called destiny with their own hands."

- Naraku

was the main antagonist of the entire series, until in the last Episode. He was directly responsible for the death of the character Kikyō and the seal placed on the series' protagonist, Inuyasha. He was also the cause of most of the problems and struggles facing the other major characters, making his destruction the main focus of their quest due to the pain he has personally caused them.

As half-demon and later a demon, Naraku desired the Shikon-no-Tama (also known as the Jewel of Four Souls in the English version), a jewel that would be able to grant him near-invincibility should he acquire all the pieces of it. Although early in the series he desired the jewel to purge his half-human self from his body, he also sought the jewel to enhance his strength even further. He is repeatedly opposed by Inuyasha and his friends, along with several other characters in the series.

Onigumo
Once, there was a man named Onigumo, who was full of deceit and hatred for others. The manga tells us almost nothing about his life before he meets the protagonists, but the anime adaptation shows him in a flashback associated with a group of roaming thieves. It tells how he tricked his bandit leader, Rasetsu (the elderly man in the anime who gives Kikyō his top knot to be sent to Mount Hakurei in order to purify his soul) into approaching Kikyō and attempt to obtain the Shikon no Tama, or Jewel of Four Souls; however, Onigumo did not warn him that there was a half-demon named Inuyasha keeping a watchful eye over the priestess. Rasetsu survived the encounter with Inuyasha, lost an eye, and returned to his camp only to find that Onigumo had made off with his troops. Rasetsu discovered Onigumo and his troops at an inn down the road celebrating their change in leadership. Enraged, Rasetsu blew up the inn, but the charred body of Onigumo somehow managed to survive the blast. Rasetsu then threw the barely-living Onigumo off a cliff. (This, however, does not explain his spider scar, as Onigumo had the scar before he met Rasetsu).

By either chance or fate, the badly burned Onigumo was found by Kikyō, who slowly nursed him back to the point of being able to speak. Onigumo developed feelings for Kikyō, but knowing that he could not move for the rest of his life, he summoned countless demons using his corrupted soul. He then had them devour his body in exchange for giving him a new body with which he could claim Kikyo and the Jewel of Four Souls. Thus the countless demons were bound together in one body with Onigumo serving as a connector.(In an anime special, it is implied that a spider demon, which looked like a small replica of Naraku's spider form in the second movie, was in fact the leader of these demons.) This resulted with Onigumo being reborn as the half-demon Naraku.

In the Beginning
Naraku's very first action after being born was to one of the two things Onigumo had wished for: To obtain the corrupted Shikon no Tama. However, Naraku had no desire to have Kikyō for his own, as Onigumo did. He disguised himself as both Inuyasha and Kikyō and tricked them into hating each other, as he describes that "the Shikon Jewel is the most beautiful when it's tainted by the hatred Kikyō and Inuyasha have toward each other."

He mortally wounded Kikyō while disguised as Inuyasha, took the Shikon no Tama and returned it to the village, then disguised himself as Kikyō and attacked Inuyasha. Inuyasha, sensing something was wrong, instinctively went back to the village to retrieve the Jewel. However, Naraku disguised as Kikyō, told the villagers that Inuyasha would come for the Shikon no Tama at any cost, thereby forcing Inuyasha to use force to obtain the Jewel. As he was getting away with the Jewel, Kikyō, with her remaining strength, sealed Inuyasha to the Tree of Ages. Naraku, who desired both the Jewel of Four Souls and Kikyō, thought that she would use the Jewel to heal herself, but he miscalculated as she instead requested Kaede to cremate the Jewel along with her dying body, so that it would be taken to the afterlife with her.

Onigumo's soul, within Naraku, objected to Kikyō's death. At this time, Naraku took action to prevent Onigumo from consciously influencing the half-demon's actions. Onigumo perceived this process as imprisonment in a deep dark place where he proceeded to sleep.

For fifty years after Kikyō's death, Naraku secretly plotted and waited for the Shikon Jewel to appear again. After the appearance of Kagome as the present-day reincarnation of Kikyō and Inuyasha's awakening, he moved forward with his plan of gathering the shattered shards of the Jewel. Knowing his weakness as a half-demon, he relied mostly on evil tricks and traps while gathering information on his potential enemies that would stand before his insidious plot.

Being a half-demon like Inuyasha, Naraku also sometimes experiences a period of weakness. During those times, he loses all his demon powers and reverts to his human "form". While in this form, he is composed of his head attached to countless random demon parts. Naraku has the freedom of choosing this time, unlike Inuyasha, and since he is made up of thousands of demon, each time he "experiments" and "reconstructs" his body, he gets rid of weak and useless parts while keeping the vital ones to get stronger. It is possible that during each of these periods he expelled more and more of his humanity. This process ultimately led to the creation of his stronger form.

Disposal of his human heart
After InuYasha was able to break his barrier with the red Tessaiga, Naraku was greatly injured. He then retreated to Mountain Hakurei for many months. While he was reconstructing his body, he resurrected the Shichinintai to keep his enemies occupied. To better protect himself from powerful demon enemies like Inuyasha, Sesshōmaru, and Kōga, he deceived the lost soul of a dead priest, Hakushin, into creating a barrier so holy, that it would purify and cleanse any demon that came close to it. The closer Naraku's enemies came to the core of the barrier, the stronger it's effect was. This was also the most powerful barrier in the series as its reach extended over the perimeter of an entire mountain and much of the land around it. The stronger a demon, the deeper into the barrier they could go until they got to a specific sort of critical point where anything with even the slightest bit of demon energy would be utterly purified. Naraku himself hides within a cave inside the mountain which is not affected by the purifying barrier. Kikyō gently persuades Hakushin to remove the barrier. After the barrier vanishes, his soul ascends to Heaven.

When Naraku separates himself from his heart, it renders into two pieces. The physical heart (心臓, shinzou) he imparts to one of his incarnations, "The Infant", rendering Naraku effectively immortal unless The Infant is destroyed. The spiritual heart, or soul (心, 'kokoro'), which he inherited from the human Onigumo, is discarded inside Hakurei. In the process Naraku becomes stronger, much like a full demon. (Comments later made by Abi and Tekkei revealed that Naraku was still technically a half demon). Furthermore, he now possessed an even stronger personal barrier than before, which would prove impenetrable to anything except for the Tessaiga's Kongōsōha. Naraku then takes advantage of his heart's absence and strikes down Kikyō.

Re-absorption of Naraku's heart
Following the death of Kagura in the manga, Naraku becomes largely absent from the series, and the focus shifts to Akago's and Mōryōmaru's quest to absorb demon and Shikon shards. Naraku finally reappears, reviving a tree demon known as Yōmeiju, a tree which devoured humans and demon alike. But this time, as Inuyasha and his group watched, Naraku devoured the tree. Shortly thereafter, he and Mōryōmaru squared off for the first time in an open battle. Naraku then reveals that the reason he created Akago as an infant and purposely made him so weak, while providing him with a powerful barrier that he had the power to disable, was because he always knew his heart would turn against him. Taunting Mōryōmaru about his shell, referring to it as a castle and to Akago as a king who has grown fat inside a castle, Naraku at first appeared to be trying to reabsorb him. But this clash ended with a shocking twist: Mōryōmaru absorbed his maker, supposedly defeating him for good. Naraku soon revealed that he was in fact alive, having allowed Mōryōmaru to absorb him in a Trojan Horse-style ploy in order to then devour Mōryōmaru from the inside. He then used the Yōmeiju's barrier-dissolving abilities to reclaim Akago and then fully assimilated Mōryōmaru into his being.

In Chapter 452 of the manga, "Spider Web", Naraku returned to Hakurei-Zan to reabsorb the heart of Onigumo which he discarded there. Onigumo speaks to him, gloating that Naraku still needs this discarded human heart to avoid being purified by Kikyo, because of Onigumo's intense negative feelings. The human heart says it possesses more intense negative feelings, and these can prevent purification by bringing darkness to the Shikon Jewel. Naraku seems to confirm this analysis. He intends to exploit the emotional connection between the hearts of Onigumo, Kikyō and Inuyasha to destroy both Kikyō and Inuyasha. The re-absorptions may mean that Naraku has lost the invulnerability he obtained from keeping his heart outside his body. However, the Shikon no Tama also allows it's possessor to survive otherwise fatal injuries. The diamonds on Naraku's new body, along with his armored shell, may also add some extra protection (due to the former being the hardest substance on the planet, and the latter easily able to swat off even the destructive brunt of the Kongōsōha).

The Shikon Jewel's Completion and Death
In chapter 463 while battling with Inuyasha, Naraku takes Kōga's shikon shards because he placed his Jewel shard inside Kikyō. After he placed it in Kikyō, Kagome shot Kikyō with her last sacred arrow to purify her, then Naraku used Koga's shards to corrupt the Jewel as Kikyō plans to purify the Jewel. But Naraku's evil overpowered Kikyō's holy aura and allowed him to reclaim the Jewel, leaving only Kohaku's shard.

However, in chapter 475, Naraku blames Kikyō for a purity inside the Shikon Jewel. To prevent him from losing, he forced Kanna to sacrifice herself to destroy Tessaiga. However, Kanna told Kagome about the light in the Shikon Jewel instead.

He is dead-set on decapitating Kohaku in an attempt to get his shard without becoming purified by Kikyō's presence in the jewel, however a light from the shard prevents him from doing this. The light/purity of Kohaku's shard (though Kohaku needs the shard to stay alive) is the work of Kikyo but whether it is her soul or her "light" is a matter of debate.[citation needed] Magatsuhi, the demon sealed inside the Shikon jewel by Midoriko, escapes the gem and creates a new body for itself using some of Naraku's spare parts. Technically this would mean he is not truly Naraku's as he reveals he is merely borrowing a body from Naraku. Magatsuhi is able to, in contrast to Naraku, not only touch the shard in Kohaku's back, but corrupt it as well. In chapter 528, Naraku succeeds in removing the shard from Kohaku, though Kohaku is able to survive the loss of his shard with the help of Kikyō's light.

Naraku completes the Shikon-no-Tama and uses the fully dark jewel to begin his final transformation. Before that, when asked by Byakuya what he would do with the jewel, Naraku admitted that he had no real plans for it and wondered what would be left for him when he killed all the people who hated him. Following his completion of the Shikon no Tama, Naraku takes on the form of a gigantic spider. However, within this new body his opponents meet several variations on his traditional humanoid form. After the defeat of Magatsuhi by Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, Kagome's spiritual powers return and a small light returns to the once completely corrupted Shikon Jewel. Naraku planned to use the hope of this light to trick Miroku into killing the others with the last use of his Wind Tunnel. Although things do not go as he originally plans, Naraku finally eliminates the last traces of light within the Shikon-no-Tama and fully fuses with the jewel.

Kagome asks Naraku what his true wish was, since it seems that the Shikon-no-Tama has not granted it. This question startles him greatly. Kagome tells Naraku that he seems to know a lot about relationships because he focused so much on tearing people apart, and mentions that this is because of his human heart, which the Shikon Jewel may not have removed. For the first time, Naraku hesitates to attack Inuyasha and Kagome. Inuyasha attacks him with a variation on the Meidō Zangetsuha more adapted to his fighting style, and seems to damage even Naraku's most powerful form. Although he regenerates from this repeatedly, Sesshōmaru takes note of Naraku's vulnerability and uses the Bakusaiga on him. Because of Bakusaiga's decomposing powers, Naraku's large outer body begins to fall apart. As Naraku weakens, the curse on the Wind Tunnel begins to break as well, and Miroku uses it to absorb much of the deadly shouki.

Naraku becomes cornered as much of his body deteriorates, he uses the Shikon no Tama to grant him more power. He uses this power to stall the others from killing him so he can prepare to crash his gigantic, shouki-filled body into Kaede's village. Though he intends to use this threat of destroying the village to prevent Inuyasha from killing him, Sesshōmaru ignores him and strikes his main body with the jewel with Bakusaiga. Sesshōmaru's sword, however, doesn't even scratch the jewel, which prevents Naraku's death. As his massive body begins to fall onto the village, everyone escapes from within and tries to protect the villagers. Kagome sees the Shikon no Tama within Naraku and shoots an arrow at the jewel. Prior to the arrow hitting the jewel, Naraku thinks to himself that indeed the Shikon no Tama did not grant his true wish: he wanted Kikyō's love, and laments that he won't be able to go where she is in the afterlife. Naraku's body is completely purified and most of the village is saved from destruction.

Naraku, appearing as only a head above the pierced jewel, hovers above the bone-eater's well and says he made a different wish upon the Shikon no Tama earlier in the battle, and that when he dies that wish will be granted. He finally dies, and a stolen meidō appears to swallow Kagome as the well disappears. It is revealed the wish Naraku made was actually the wish of the Jewel itself: that the souls of Naraku and Kagome would replace it and Midoriko, or merge with them, continuing their battle inside the jewel. This revealed that Naraku was, in fact, another pawn of the Shikon Jewel's quest to maintain its own existence, making the Jewel itself the real antagonist of the entire story. But with help from Inuyasha, Kagome instead makes the Jewel vanish or turn into light. In the manga, what became of Naraku's dead form is never revealed; but in the anime, Naraku's dead form, inside the Jewel, briefly awakened, remarking that he feels warm and is at peace before disappearing forever.

Appearance
When Naraku first appeared in the series, he wore a white baboon cloak-like outfit that hid his face. He was a shape-shifter and as such, no one knew what he actually looked like. Naraku then possessed the young lord Kagewaki Hitomi, and kept that form for the rest of the series. Because he took over Kagewaki's body, he has Kagewaki's long black hair and pale skin, as well as his build and voice. The only difference between them is their eyes; while Kagewaki's eyes are brown, Naraku's are red with white pupils with blue eyeshadow. Later on, he dresses in a simple, common outfit. It was dark blue with a purple vest on top.

Once he had gained more power during his state of dormancy at Mount Hakurei, his appearance changed completely. His outfit then turned purple and light blue, but with boned armor. It has three green tentacle-like arms coming from his back, several large hoop bones and leads to a red-eye on his chest, and two gauntlets on his arms. After he absorbed Mōryōmaru, he gained a gigantic spike of diamond armor on his right arm and his tentacles and the majority of his bone armor were discarded, with only his gauntlets on his arms and his eye remaining. After Kikyō's death, the spike was discarded and his current form became a simpler version of his post-Mount Hakurei outfit.

When he absorbed the Jewel, he became a gigantic spider with eight large horizontal "fangs" and an armored abdomen, his core form within the spider however, was his true body with tentacles connecting him to the spider form. During the final battle, he turned into his normal form but with several diamonds forming the armor and a gigantic armored spider web that replaced the connecting tentacles, he then took on an oni-like appearance and his hair turned white, he also gained a rib cage on his body, but this form was just a head. After Kagome shot him with her arrow, he was reduced to a head with a spine and his face returned to normal. His dead form within the Shikon Jewel was his head and a giant spider web, though it had a more normal appearance.

Power & Abilities
Naraku has shown to be a master at manipulating demons and humans alike. Throughout the series he manipulates many people to get what he wants and to not get his own hands dirty. Possibly the most important instance of his manipulation is when he tricked Inuyasha and Kikyō into thinking they had betrayed each other. Naraku transformed into Inuyasha and cut Kikyō down, fatally wounding her. He then transformed into Kikyō and attacked Inuyasha. This caused Inuyasha to feel resentment toward Kikyō and he went to go steal the Sacred Jewel. Kikyō, in turn, thought that Inuyasha had betrayed her and used the last of her strength and spiritual power to shoot a sealing arrow at Inuyasha, pinning him to the Sacred tree. This, ultimately, was to make the Sacred Jewel tainted for Naraku and to get rid of both Kikyō and Inuyasha. This one instance put the entire series in motion and set Inuyasha and the others on their quest to destroy him. Though, there are many other instances in the series where he manipulates others, for example when he offers the Saimyōshō to Sesshōmaru, when he forces a grief-stricken Kōga to confront Inuyasha, and the numerous times he controls Kohaku, just to name a few. Naraku's minion wasps from hell. They are useful for stopping Miroku's Wind Tunnel, spying on his enemies, communicating with his subordinates, and gathering Jewel shards. Their stings are fatally toxic to both humans and demons alike, but they are rather weak as far as demons go. Many of them are killed by Inuyasha and his group.
 * Master Manipulator 
 * Saimyōshō (Hell Wasps)

He can take the form of anything he chooses, usually a humanoid, and change his voice along with his physical appearance. He possesses the young lord, Kagewaki, and remains in that standard form for the rest of the series. We're told by Miroku that every time his grandfather battled Naraku, the demon appeared in a different form, being defeated when Naraku took the form of a beautiful young woman. The most important instance of his shape-shifting would be the time Naraku disguised himself as Kikyo & Inuyasha and made them hate one-another.
 * Shape-shifting

Puppets which resemble him. He controls them from afar and can see through their eyes. They are mostly made of mud and soil, and are able to spring roots in order to attack opponents. They will only disappear if their heart is destroyed, which is a golem with a piece of Naraku's hair wrapped around it.
 * Demon puppets

Much like Sesshōmaru, Naraku is far stronger than a normal demon and can move faster than the eye can see, both in the air and on the ground.
 * Superhuman strength and speed

Similarly to Sesshōmaru, Naraku possesses the ability to float midair, and to ride upon a cloud of his own shoki. After his transformation into a full yōkai, Naraku never chose to employ his shoki-sustained flight, but flew only by the strength of his will.
 * Flight

As he is made up of multiple demons in one body, Naraku is able to manipulate their body parts at will in order to restructure and strengthen his body, and he can also regenerate himself from injury and reform his body parts if they are cut off. He most commonly uses these parts to form tentacles which he uses to attack.
 * Demon parts

Naraku is able to absorb other demons into his body, adding their powers and body to his own. This is primarily how he gains strength, by seeking out and absorbing strong demons, giving him access to their powers. Naraku can also expel weaker body parts in order to rid himself of them.
 * Absorption

Naraku has shown using various psychic powers and capabilities; including levitation, telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, mind control, illusion-casting, and astral projection.
 * Psionics

He can make incarnations out of his own body to do his dirty work for him. Most have a spider mark on their back which is a result of being born of Naraku when he still was a hanyō with Onigumo inside him.
 * Detachments

A barrier which prevents the foe from finding and/or attacking him. At first his barrier was only useful in hiding his presence. As he gathered more shards of the jewel, he became powerful enough to erect a barrier strong enough to survive the Kaze no Kizu. After Naraku purged his human heart, the barrier became so powerful that nothing but the Kongōsōha and Kikyō's Sacred Arrow was able to penetrate it.
 * Barrier

Whenever someone sends an attack of yōki into Naraku's barrier he can channel the flow of the attack into his own jaki and then attack his opponents with it. However, this can only be done with attacks that cannot penetrate his barrier, which means it's useless against Inuyasha's Kongōsōha.
 * Deflection

Naraku can quickly heal his own wounds and also put back together severed pieces of his body. He can control 100% of his body all the time, even when his body parts or even head are severed, which comes in handy when he is trying to absorb someone. However, there is a limit to how much he can regenerate. The more damage he takes, the more time he will need later on to recover. Too much damage can kill him, which is why he had to flee from his enemies in the beginning of the series. Usually, he will absorb demons to speed up his regeneration process. However, after he removes his heart, which comes out as Akago, he was able to regenerate no matter how much damage his body took since his life force wasn't in his body.
 * Regeneration

Unlike Inuyasha, who is forced to become fully human on the night of the new moon every month, Naraku, as a half-demon with Onigumo inside him, could choose what time of the month he lost all of his powers. Unlike Inuyasha who became a normal human, he was merely a human head attached to a mass of yōkai parts during this time, which he used to experiment with his body and rid himself of any unnecessary parts. Since the events that have transpired on Mt. Hakurei, he no longer has to become human at any time..
 * Human/Demon shift

Naraku sends out one or more of the horns on his elbows in a zigzag beam attack or extends his fingers into tentacles with a glowing attack at the tip of his fingers to attack his foe(s). In the manga this attack was of a silverfish color and in the anime it is of a purple color.
 * Beam attack

Naraku's trademark, a poison which kills anything that touches it. It's what makes his poisonous gas. Naraku uses it to cover his entrances and exits, and can surround himself with the gas while flying. He created a "false Shikon shard" for Kōga with this substance. It was able to power Kōga in the manga and anime for a while until it backfired, poisoning him, and ultimately leading him to remove it with the help of Kagome. Naraku's body is filled with it, which is why when a foe bites him or even touches him he/she gets poisoned. Later on, as his power grew upon his transition to full demon, his shōki is able to take on a liquid form and acts like a river of acid. His shōki is so strong that it allows him to break away pieces of the nearly completed Shikon no Tama to use in his schemes. In the current manga, he can melt entire mountains. Over time his shōki has become so dangerous that after he infects Kikyō with it, neither Kagome nor Kikyō's purfication powers seem to be able to purify it. Kikyō absorbs Midoriko's soul in order to protect herself but she comments that she doesn't know how long Midoriko's power can last against Naraku's venom, in the regard that she and Midoriko remain at the same strength while Naraku continues to increase in power. Eventually, even the influence of Midoriko is nullified with Naraku's absorption of the tree and Mōryōmaru.
 * Miasma (Shōki)

After absorbing Akago/Mōryōmaru, Naraku gained the power to merge pieces of his body with other demons, thus giving him control over them and increasing their regenerative abilities. He can send pieces of his body abroad to scout for new demons, for him to add into his body. It is important to note that these pieces, after becoming separate of Naraku's body, became living beings that can move and fight on their own.
 * Live Body Pieces

This power is only displayed in the Playstation 2 RPG InuYasha game; InuYasha: Secret of the Cursed Mask. He obtained this power by deceiving Utsugi, a 'hitogata' duplicate of the original Utsugi, who was created by the priest Kakuju to ease his/her suffering when his/her real wife/husband died. Utsugi, the hitogata, required the soul of a relative of the real Utsugi, and a large portion of the Shikon Jewel, which Naraku provided, and helped in retrieving shards from Kōga to become a true, live human. When Naraku supposedly died, with the jewel in hand, at the hands of Inuyasha & co, the leftover jewel was retrieved by Utsugi behind the scenes. When Utsugi finally retrieved the soul she/he needed, which as it turns out was Kakuju's, Naraku's voice began echoing from the Sacred Jewel, and Naraku took over Utsugi's body rather than absorbing her/him to acquire her shikigami-channeling powers. He became able to use the destructive power of an unknown variety of shikigami, and would time-to-time spout out a long verse when he attacked during the fight in the game. Because this only happens in a game based on the anime and the events of the game stray away from the actual cliffhanger ending of the anime, this power is un-canon.
 * Shikigami

Naraku is seen having the ability to create various "Phantom Castles" as a temporary headquarters throughout the series.
 * Phantom Castle

Naraku has the ability to hide himself within one of his servants and make it appear as though he has disappeared, or have been killed. A simple task; he gets himself "killed'" and hides within the body of a servant of his choice. The only instance we see this is when he hides himself inside of Kohaku. When he was close to emerging from Kohaku a spider mark appeared on his back. To further this scheme, he makes Miroku's Kazaana disappear and returns Kagura's heart to her. This ability has only ever been seen in the 2nd movie, and can be considered non-cannon.
 * Dormancy

Naraku knows many different spells and curses, a prime example being the Kazaana, and the Illusory Death, as seen in Episode 33.
 * Black Magic

Upon absorbing Mōryōmaru, he gained the Armor Shell. Upon absorbing Mōryōmaru, he gained the ability to cover himself at will with Mōryōmaru's impenetrable shell. It has been revealed that Naraku is hiding the Shikon Jewel underneath this shell.
 * Armor Shell

Relationships
Naraku's relationship with Kikyō is very complicated and changes quite often in the series. After all, Naraku was born out of Onigumo's desire to take Kikyō for himself. And yet, Naraku seems to despise her to his very core. For the first half of the series, Naraku feels compelled to eliminate her, as she poses a threat to him and his goal of destroying Inuyasha and getting a complete Shikon Jewel, but he is unable to cast a finishing blow on her because Onigumo's human heart remains inside him. As the series progresses, Kikyō takes many different stances against Naraku, first by convincing Inuyasha that Naraku will never be able to kill her, because Onigumo's heart still beats within him. Later, she steals Kagome's Sacred Jewel fragment and gives it to Naraku, telling Inuyasha that when Naraku completes the jewel, that will be the moment of his undoing, when she can purify both him and the jewel together. On Mt. Hakurei, where Naraku is able to expel his human heart, Kikyō is seemingly killed by Naraku, and he exudes a new found confidence since the one person who he felt was a threat, is now dead. Kikyō miraculously survives the miasma at Mt. Hakurei and gives Kagome a sacred arrow. When Kagome uses the sacred arrow, Naraku is almost killed. He then realizes Kikyō is still alive and makes it his main goal to kill her once again. Soon after, Kikyō merges souls with Midoriko, in an attempt to bring the Jewel together and defeat Naraku. Eventually though, Naraku is able to kill the reborn Kikyō just as he did to her 50 years ago, but the Light she leaves inside the complete Shikon-no-tama is ultimately one of the key factors that causes his own demise. Upon his death, Naraku states that the wish he made on the Shikon Jewel was to have Kikyō for himself, but, like all others, the Jewel didn't grant his wish.
 * Kikyō

Naraku feels superior to Inuyasha in every way. In the beginning, both of them sought the Shikon Jewel for the same purpose; to become a full blooded demon. However, after Inuyasha's many transformations, he decides against using the sacred jewel. At first, Inuyasha has little regard for human life, but in his travels with Kagome and friends, he begins to become more sensitive, caring, and more heroic, where as Naraku seems to take the opposite path, leaving more blood and death in his wake as his power grows throughout the story. The main reason Naraku sought to destroy Inuyasha, though he denied it at every turn, was because he was jealous of the love Kikyō and Inuyasha had for one-another. He wished to have Kikyō for himself, and thus saw Inuyasha as a meddler.
 * InuYasha

The first time they meet, Naraku is shocked by Kagome's appearance. He believes Kikyō has returned, more determined than ever to kill him and seek revenge for her death. But soon after, when the true Kikyō (who was resurrected) seeks him out, Naraku dismissed Kagome and her spiritual powers, swiftly judging her as an inferior reincarnation whose powers pale in comparison to the original. All of the interactions Naraku has with Kagome early in the series are merely coincidence because she is the one who holds the group's sacred jewel shards; Kikyō steals the shards from Kagome to give them to Naraku, had they been in anyone else's hands, Naraku would have stolen them anyway. After the battle with Kagura & Kanna however, Naraku changes his mind about Kagome's weakness. Naraku and his incarnations were able to defeat every member of the party but Kagome: Reflecting Inuyasha's Kaze no Kizu back at him with Kanna's mirror, reflecting Sango's Hiraikotsu back at her, and poisoning Miroku with the Saimyōshō venom. Despite stealing a portion of Kagome's soul, Kanna was unable to contain the entirety of it, and Kagome's sacred arrow proves to be the only thing capable of freeing the souls within the mirror. Around that time, Naraku starts to find her a nuisance. He then starts to use her as a way of manipulating Inuyasha, most of the time in a way similar to the way he tricked Kikyo and Inuyasha 50 years ago, such as when he has Tsubaki place a curse on Kagome so she can shoot Inuyasha with an arrow.
 * Kagome

The first encounter Naraku has with Sesshōmaru is when he offers him a human arm strengthened by a Shikon Jewel shard, which would allow Sesshōmaru to wield the Tessaiga, Inuyasha's sword, which Sesshōmaru covets. Naraku states that he despises Inuyasha, and wants to use Sesshōmaru to exact his revenge. He also gives him a hive of Saimyōshō in order to prevent Miroku from using his Kazaana. Sesshōmaru fails to take Tessaiga though, and Naraku gets back his jewel shard. Later, He kidnaps Rin to lure Sesshōmaru to his castle in order to absorb Sesshōmaru into his own body and gain his demonic power. When Naraku escapes, Sesshōmaru feels that his pride has been tainted, and begins to pursue Naraku. Naraku is mildly amused by this, and uses Sesshōmaru as a pawn many times later in the series; he uses him to test his new powers at Mt Hakurei, and he tries to get him to kill Inuyasha numerous times.Sesshōmaru's other sword, the Tenseiga, ends up being the only thing that can destroy Magatsuhi, who had sealed Kagome's spiritual powers. Without Sesshōmaru, Naraku might not have been killed, as Kagome wouldn't have been able to purify his soul. Sesshōmaru's final sword, Bakusaiga is one of the key factors in destroying Naraku's body toward the end of the series.
 * Sesshōmaru

Detachments
To get rid of unnecessary parts as well as keeping a better eye on his surrounding situations, Naraku was constantly releasing detachments of himself to carry out his bidding. Only a few of the detachments truly live up to their purposes as most betrayed him or were quickly disposed of by the people going after him. As of Chapter 548, with the death of Byakuya, Naraku no longer has any living detachments:

Kanna is an albino girl that barely speaks. She is a demon of mu, "void" or nothingness. Kanna comes from an old word meaning "godless world." She is Naraku's first detachment, and remains utterly loyal to him while knowing that they are just used as tools in his schemes. Representative of the void in which she controls, Kanna herself is completely devoid of any emotion, never questioning any orders given to her by Naraku. In chapter 480, after a failed attempt to destroy Inuyasha's Tessaiga, Naraku orders her to commit suicide by shattering herself—as a final attempt to destroy Inuyasha's group (In the anime he destroys her heart). In her final moments, however, Kanna seemed to display some signs of emotions, as if she really did not wish to die. It is in her death that she commits her only act of defiance to Naraku: As a shard of Kanna's shattered body flies into Kagome's eye, Kanna uses this opportunity to show Kagome the light that is present within the Shikon no Tama, which could be the key to defeating Naraku.
 * Kanna

Kagura is a powerful wind sorceress and the first of Naraku's incarnations to appear in the manga and anime. However, she is his second detachment. Naraku endlessly uses her as bait to test the enemies' strength and, aware of her betrayals, keeps good watch over her. Because of this, he keeps her heart outside her body to squeeze it to death should she be of no further use. She constantly schemes of ways to get rid of him, some of the schemes being known by Naraku himself. However, when she let Mōryōmaru escape the cell he put him in, Naraku decided to get rid of his most irritating incarnation and gave Kagura back her heart, but poisoned her with miasma to make sure her freedom was short lived and painful. He didn't know, however, she died content with seeing Sesshōmaru one last time. She lived the second longest of Naraku's detachments.
 * Kagura

The third detachment of Naraku and the first male one, Goshinki was a large horned ogre with the ability to read minds and the only one of his siblings to lack a human appearance. He was extremely agile, very powerful, and had teeth so strong they ultimately broke the Tessaiga, which ended up being his own undoing as InuYasha transformed into a Yokai due to Tessaiga being responsible for sealing his demon blood. After being defeated, Sesshōmaru contracted Kaijinbō to create Tōkijin from the fangs of Goshinki's head once the head was resurrected. He later possessed Kaijinbō to get revenge via Tōkijin, but was subdued by Sesshōmaru's powerful aura.
 * Goshinki

Naraku created this fourth incarnation following Tōkijin's creation to take advantage of Inuyasha's inability to wield his reforged sword properly. Unlike his other detachments, this one lacked a great deal of intelligence, making it no more less than a simple-minded beast. However, he made up for it with great agility and strength, making him a match for Inuyasha. It also had a twin brother called Kagerōmaru, who lived in his stomach. Naraku kept him shackled to better control him during battle and keep Kagerōmaru asleep in his gut. He and his brother Kagerōmaru were both killed in battle by Inuyasha with Kaze no Kizu (Wind Scar).
 * Jūrōmaru

A small, insect-like demon who loved to feed on the intestines of others and the fifth incarnation of Naraku. He was quite fast, making him a worthy opponent for the wolf demon Kōga. Unlike his twin brother Jūrōmaru, Kagerōmaru was highly intelligent and the only one who could control his mindless brother, Jūrōmaru. Like Kagura, Kagerōmaru wasn't loyal to Naraku, even beheading him after his creation, only to have his heart squeezed as punishment. Naraku had him sealed inside Jūromaru's gut to keep his brother under control. He and his brother Jūrōmaru were both killed in battle by Inuyasha with Kaze no Kizu (Wind Scar).
 * Kagerōmaru

The sixth incarnation of Naraku. However, unlike the others, this one acted on its own and lacked a face, prompting him to steal one he found attractive enough for himself. He had the ability to regrow his limbs and mortph his body however he chose, but preferred simple banditry. In truth, this was Onigumo reincarnated and expelled from Naraku's body to be rid of his heart to kill Kikyō. Upon regaining his memories, Musō sought out Kikyō to claim her and to kill Naraku for killing her. However, Naraku reabsorbed him to reclaim the bridge holding his body together as the demons composing him kept trying to leave.
 * Musō

He is a child that has the ability to corrupt the hearts of people into doing his bidding and the container of Naraku's life-force. He was cut in half by a priest, which led to the creation of Hakudōshi. After being cut in half, the left half (which regrew into the same infant) was taken by Kanna, and Kanna told Kagura to take the right half (which became Hakudōshi). He later is placed inside the haku (life force) puppet, Mōryōmaru in his bid to take his creator's place. However, upon trying to take Naraku into himself, Akago was swallowed back into Naraku instead with Mōryōmaru. NOTE: The status of Akago as this character's actual name is contested, since akago is standard modern Japanese for baby (whereas all the other characters' names have obscure and / or archaic meanings). In the official English translation, he is called "the infant".
 * Akago

The eighth incarnation of Naraku, whose named literally means "white child". He was created from the right side of his previous infant form and matured into the form of a young boy. He has retains the ability to create a barrier, along with the ability to regenerate his body on the same level as Naraku as his heart, along with Naraku's still resided in his infant half. He loyally served Naraku, taking advantage of his link to him to punish Kagura when she stepped out of line. However, he began plotting to overthrow Naraku along with his other self when they created Mōryōmaru to protect him. However, his overconfidence proved to be his undoing as Naraku was still linked to him and disabled his barrier when he took Kagura hostage, allowing him to be blown to bits. As he tried regenerating, Naraku withdrew the Saimyōshō to allow Miroku to suck him into the Wind Tunnel.
 * Hakudoshi

Naraku's ninth and final incarnation, created to replace Kagura following her death. Unlike other incarnations, Byakuya was loyal to Naraku, though he did voice his opinions time to time. He also was directly linked to Naraku; if Naraku lost an arm, Byakuya loses the same limb. A powerful sorcerer, Byakuya could control vines, people, dimensions and copy techniques with his blade-less hilt. His right eye turned into a winged demon to observe others. His jobs merely were to observe and give "gifts" to Naraku's foes to help get rid of some of them. He died when Inuyasha sucked him into Hell via the Meidō.
 * Byakuya

Other
The demon sealed within the Shikon Jewel centuries ago, it appears in Chapter 513, borrowing flesh from Naraku to craft a temporary body, an armored man with white hair and claws. Upon being free, Magatsuhi attempts to kill Kohaku, and engages Sesshōmaru in combat only to have his borrowed body destroyed. Magatsuhi is later in its true form inside the Shikon Jewel locked in eternal combat with Midoriko, revealing to Inuyasha that when Kagome makes a selfish wish on the Shikon Jewel, she will take Midoriko's place, with Naraku's soul replacing Magatsuhi thus allowing Magatsuhi to finally escape from its imprisonment. But in the end he and Naraku were destroyed forever by Inuyasha when he cuts the point of light in the darkness inside the Shikon no Tama with the Meidō Zangetsuha and arrives in the meidō outside the jewel to save Kagome. Afterwards, Kagome's selfless wish dissolved the rest of the jewel.
 * Magatsuhi

Foil to Inuyasha
Naraku is naturally, in all aspects, a foil to Inuyasha. Both of them are half-demons that sought to become full demons, but Inuyasha ultimately abandoned that goal when he found being a full demon to his dislike and possible detriment, because losing his human side meant losing his human feelings. In a contrast, Naraku welcomed losing his human feelings, having always despised them.

Quotes

 * "Help each other and think of each other... then... because of that... end up dying."
 * "How touching... betraying your companions for your little brother's sake."
 * "I must separate her from Inuyasha... or it might mean my life."
 * "Resentment... for humans... and for the world."
 * "Jealousy? Is this, too, part of Onigumo's grubby heart?"
 * "Your time has come Kikyo. Now, Naraku returns you to the underworld forevermore."
 * "I will not kill you... I will break you."
 * "You have served me well, Princess Abi. Here is your reward: You shall not suffer when I kill you."
 * "Foolish creature... it never realized that it was being consumed from within..."
 * "You bother to worry about a comrad during a time like this? Your unfailing stupidity never ceases to amaze me."
 * "Kikyo, even after death, you..."
 * "Fools. Do they pity Kanna? But Kanna cannot feel a thing, be it pain, fear or sorrow. She cannot even understand the reason for your pity."
 * "My actual wish, you say? That's right. All I wanted... was Kikyo's heart. It looks like I won't even be able to... join her in death either."

Trivia

 * Naraku's "true form" (a giant horned spider) has appeared twice in the series
 * This form also looks like the same yokai spider that transformed Onigumo into Naraku
 * In a certain flashback, it is revealed that Naraku had the spider mark on his back prior to being burned
 * He is renamed as Narak in the Korean Dub (Due to the term 'Naraku' being prounounced as 'Narak' in Korean.
 * Naraku shares similarities to Sephiroth, the main antagonist of Final Fantasy VII and related spinoffs. While they can be considered opposites before their life-changing event (Sephiroth being a good-willed person revered by his peers while Onigumo was feared and hated by his fellow bandits), they are very similar after their transformation. While Sephiroth was known for his Masamune, he ceases its use upon absorbing Jenova and relied on his shapeshifting powers and ability to produce copies of himself to combat his enemies similar to Naraku's incarnations and amalgam-based forms. Both also share a connection to the main protagonist and manipulated them to their own ends. They also coveted a very powerful gem capable of terrible power (Sephiroth wanting the Black Materia and Naraku the Sacred Jewel, which also eventually turned black as well). Both also have the ability to produce a very hazardous substance (Sephiroth's Geostigma and Naraku's miasma). both share the same Japanese voice actor.
 * Additionally, both shared a connection with female leads, with Naraku wanting to originally take Kikyo for himself while Sephiroth is of the same species as Aeris although early drafts and a rare artwork render shows that the two would have shared a relationship beyond that.
 * The word Naraku is derived from Sanskrit language, "Naraka", which bears the same meaning as Naraku.