Kaede's Village.
At the shrine by the Bone-Eater's Well.
Naraku had unleashed his body of myriad demons, growing dozens of meters tall, with all manner of limbs and lumps of flesh spreading and writhing everywhere. Seeing Li Xia swiftly go from furious to calm, then look thoroughly amused... left him utterly puzzled.
With the vast majority of the Shikon Shards now enhanced and in his possession, shouldn't this young human Little Monk have been afraid, terrified?
Surely he wasn't still thinking of fighting him?
Was he really that ignorant of his own limits?
After all, Naraku had gone to considerable lengths to scheme against Inuyasha and the others for today's operation.
On one hand, using his little-known pets, tiny spiders, as sentries, he had eavesdropped on their conversations and learned much more detailed information about the man before him.
On the other hand, he had needed that uncanny Tessaiga, capable of breaking his powerful barrier, out of the village to avoid unnecessary trouble. He had also wanted to fool the Little Monk before him more smoothly! He had risked using the few shards he had painstakingly collected recently as bait, luring the impatient Inuyasha, the evil-hating Kagome, and the others elsewhere to get those nuisances out of the way.
He trusted Kagura wouldn't let him down anytime soon.
Even if Kagura failed, it didn't matter.
She only needed to buy him enough time.
Yes, he was staking a little to win a lot.
He was gambling those few shards on a big win, to see whether he could win here. As long as he could seize enough Shikon Shards from Li Xia, even losing the few in Kagura's possession would be acceptable.
After all, this could already be considered his last chance to obtain a large number of Shikon Shards.