Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Higurashi	By : WillowCarlisle Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Sessh?maru/Kagome > Sessh?maru/Kagome Views: 21294 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
- 5
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- 7
"So this is it, old friend?"
Inuyasha looked into the aged eyes of the once-holy monk and smiled. "Like you'd miss me anyway. Can't say I blame you, either."
Miroku laughed, accepting the hand Inuyasha lent him as he struggled to his feet. "These legs aren't quiet what they used to be..."
They trudged back toward the village, the usual comfortable silence engulfing them both. The moon rose beyond their shoulders, it's light vying with that of the festive lanterns lining the village square. Children laughed as they raced past, playing their games amidst the hustle and bustle, presents and toys clutched in their hands.
"There you two are," a woman's voice met them as they neared the houshi's hut. "I was beginning to worry..."
The woman watched them with smiling eyes, the wind catching the ends of her graying hair, sweeping them back from her face. She reached for Miroku's hand, helping him through the doorway. She looked back and gestured for Inuyasha to come in.
"Thank you for finding Father and bringing him back home," she murmured, hugging the elderly man as she helped him into a sitting position near the hearth. "Where did you find him this time?"
"Same as usual..." Inuyasha muttered, looking down at his old friend. "You can never separate those two. Forty years she's been gone, and he still swears he can feel her soul at the top of that hill."
Kimeko nodded slowly, stroking the older man's hair gently as he drifted off to sleep. "He hasn't the strength he used to... He's lucky to have you, Inuyasha. We're all lucky to have you."
The hanyou grunted, brushing off the sentiment. "Feh. Doesn't matter much. He can make it just fine by himself. I'm heading out in the morning anyway."
She turned to him, smiling as she rose and strode back toward the doorway.
"So it's that time of year again, is it?" she mused, looking out at the activity beyond their door. "Where does our Lord Sesshoumaru plan to go this time around?"
They stood side by side. "Who knows. Used to be he'd say there's this war here or that matter there. But since Rin... He's pretty much just been wandering. Nowhere to go now, I guess. But that won't stop him from going anyway."
"And you plan to follow him still?"
He grinned. "We gotta stick together... I'm all he's got, even though the bastard won't admit it. And I know what it's like... He lost somebody special to him. He's too damned proud to admit that he loved that kid, but I know it hurt him bad. I can... feel it... It's the reason why demons and humans shouldn't mix... Time goes on forever for us, but you all die off so quick..."
"Yes... too quickly sometimes..." she looked over her shoulder to where her father lay. "But my, aren't we beginning to sound a great deal like the demon Lord himself? Don't tell me you, too, have begun to detest our 'feeble' race, Inuyasha..."
"Feeble my ass. Even Miroku still has a good 10 or so years left in him. He's healthy and he's safe here, though. You keep seeing to that, and everything will be fine."
"Does that mean this is our last visit together... Uncle Inuyasha?" she inquired softly, looking into the face of the man who'd helped to raise her. "Because we've grown old, and you've remained the same... You'll leave us all behind?"
He frowned, looking away. "I can't risk it. I can't stay here. I lost too many people already. And nobody understands but him. Even Shippou..."
"They're expecting, you know," she sighed. "His first kit. She's months away from giving birth, but he's so proud..."
"Another hanyou to get rejected by the world. And him having to sit by and watch his mate die a little each year."
"Tsuyako is a miko," the woman corrected, slipping into a sitting position outside the door. "They've experimented with her powers for years already, searching for a way to stay together. I have this feeling... I don't know. It could be the ramblings of an old woman. I see them lasting throughout time, Inuyasha. Some day maybe... he'll be the one to find a way to keep his mate by his side."
"Wouldn't surprise me in the least," he chuckled.
They sat in silence. He could feel the morning coming.
*~~~

Years of following in his brother's steps had done him good, he grudgingly admitted to himself. His senses had heightened, having to stay constantly alert while on the move. It hadn't been quite as bad before, even though he knew without the strict regime, he would eventually lose the skills his brother had beaten into him. Their pace was significantly slower when the girl traveled with them. They'd stop and make camp, and she would sing and play the flute for them. He'd actually grown close to her, marveling at her unflappable devotion to his big-headed brother.
He smiled slightly. It hadn't been Sesshoumaru's idea to invite him into their little group. After a month of trailing them, staying close enough to feel his presence, but far enough not to be seen, the girl had made her way to him, offering a meal and a fire and promising "good behavior" from her lord. The power that girl had over the great Lord Sesshoumaru...
He'd resented it, his brother had. When the girl had returned, dragging Inuyasha behind her, the scent of the demon's anger was almost enough to knock him on his ass. But she had pleaded, giving him a smile that could melt a block of ice, and in an instant the beast was tamed. He could have seen the two together, mated and living almost happily ever after. But he knew deep down that would never happen. It wasn't the hatred of humans that kept Sesshoumaru from it. It was the fear of loss... the fear of death... not for himself, but for the woman he so obviously loved.
They'd made a sport of their journey together. Every year, his brother would "stumble" into Inuyasha's range of senses. And every year, he would leave the village and follow the invitation to his brother's side. They would meet with a clash of blades, a test of the strength gained that year, and move onward in silence once each one had proven their ability to hold ground against the other.
Until that one year... He shuddered to think on it. Sesshoumaru had been late that year. The year the girl had died... He'd waited three months past their usual meeting time, thinking nothing of the matter until the familiar aura had reached him. But it was not the same. This time, the scent was stronger, closer, and reeking of death and a viciousness he'd never known before. He'd hesitated, fear stopping him in his tracks. But this was the way it was. The way it would always be.
He had died that year. The experience was one he hoped never to relive. He'd known the instant he set eyes on Sesshoumaru that the battle awaiting him would be his last. His brother stood, silent and calm as he usually would, in an empty field waiting for him. But that within itself was utterly wrong. That field... that flat, dry expanse of nothing... it had only a day before been a lush and thriving forest of grandly sweeping trees. And as his nose adjusted to the sickly sweet scent of poison, he knew that it was the demon before him that had done it.
The wind that crashed about them, uprooting earth and stone, was in fact the demon's own youki. The maelstrom was deafening, crackling and fuming about them; lashing at his skin and tearing at his hair. And before he knew it, he was trapped. With the current of energy came the paralyzing wave of noxious fumes that sent him to his knees in agony. He'd remained like that for only an instant, but in that instant he'd left his own mind and entered his brother's. The visions that assaulted him were raw and binding. He was there, feeling the surprise Sesshoumaru had felt as life was renewed within the little girl he'd met before. The rage as he faced off with none other than himself, looking at his own feral form through Sesshoumaru's eyes the day he'd transformed, Tetsusaiga no longer in his hands. And the deep set sorrow, the pain and the anguish, looking down at the girl as a fever consumed her; helplessness as she tried to say his name; and an emptiness that echoed painfully deep as she smiled at him, her eyes losing their shine, her hand falling limp within his own.
But then he was thrown back. Violently tossed from the vision into his own reality. The scowl that graced his brother's face told him that the demon knew what he had seen. And that he would regret invading on something so sacred.
It hadn't taken much in the end. He knew that day the true power that flickered just beneath the surface. As the blade drove through his chest and into his left lung, he felt strangely at peace and in awe of the strength the blood of his father could bring. As the vicious searing tore an arch along his side, the pressure bursting a vein somewhere within his chest, he met his brother's eyes and saw no anger there. This was Sesshoumaru's pain. This, the only way he knew to show the emotion he felt.
He was dead before he hit the ground. And revived a mere instant later. His soul had not wandered far when light filled his aching eyes, and breath filled his fully healed lungs. They'd stood together in the blood and the pain, just staring into each others' eyes.
"You could've killed me all along," he'd whispered, looking down at his tattered clothes and bloodied hands. "You could've left me to die here."
His brother had made to walk away, sheathing Tenseiga without a word, but Inuyasha went after him. "You could've left me to die, Sesshoumaru."
"Leave me be, hanyou," the growl was almost too low for him to hear, but he'd heard it all the same.
"You'd better come back next year," he yelled after the demon, knowing full well he would return. "You're stuck with me now, Sesshoumaru! Can't pretend you hate me anymore after you saved my life!"
"What's given can easily be taken away."
That's all that was said before his brother vanished...
*~~~
"I'd better go," Inuyasha stretched, shaking himself from his daydream and looking over as Kimeko yawned lightly. "Take care of him for me, ok?"
She nodded. "Will you at least promise to come back for Shizuka's wedding? She's so very fond of you, Inuyasha. It would break her heart if you missed it."
"That's right... The old man's granddaughter... I can't promise anything, with the way he's been. But I'll do my best, Kimeko."
She nodded, rising and hugging him tightly. "Be safe."
He nodded as well, taking a final look back and making his way toward the village gates.
"Inuyasha!" a voice called to him.
He turned to see a young man running toward him. The younger Kohaku's son, he believed. "Inuyasha. Papa said to give you this. It's from Lady Tsuyako, Shippou's mate."
He took the little bundle from the boy and nodded his thanks, waving to the figure that stood in the village square watching them. He thanked the boy and turned to leave.
Sesshoumaru awaited him in the usual place, the field that remained from their battle years before. He studied the man before him, pausing a moment as his brother lifted not his right hand, but his left to the hilt of his sword.
"Present from the gods?" he joked, grinning at the scowl that was sent his way. "You know you didn't have to take that dare so seriously. I would have helped you get it back. Eventually. Well anyway, just gimme a minute. Got a little gift myself."
He tugged at the cloth that held the bundle together and peered inside. A small golden stone lay nestled beside a roll of parchment, and he picked them both up, staring at the gem. Untying the parchment, he read to himself:
I hope this small token will help to lighten the burden for you. I'm sure Lord Sesshoumaru will know what to do with it after you're through. May the Gods bless your journeys and brighten your paths.

-Tsuyako

He stared at the thing, poking it lightly. In an instant, he was blinded by a brilliant light, a warm shiver running along his spine. Deep within him, something gave way, and he stumbled, dragged to the ground by the beads at his neck.
"What the--"
He tore at the thing, hooking his fingers beneath the string and pulling sharply. Without warning, he felt it give way, the pieces flying every which direction as he stared at the string in his palm. The spell fully broken, he could feel the energy of his youki rise to a level he hadn't known it could attain. He looked up as Sesshoumaru stood over him.
"The kotodama..." he murmured, watching as his brother picked up the golden stone.
"It seems your woman no longer holds control over you," Sesshoumaru remarked blandly, eyeing the glowing stone.
"It says you'd know what to do with it," Inuyasha murmured, picking up a bead and staring at it blankly. "Sesshoumaru...?"
He could have sworn he'd seen a smile on the demon's face, and wouldn't know why until later when the bastard had taken hold of him, using the same method he'd done to steal his father's black pearl, to insert the golden pearl into the hanyou's left eye.
- 5
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- 7
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