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What Matters the Most	By : Avarwen Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 55388 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
- 71
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- 73
A/N: Oooh, you�re all gonna kill me. *hides beneath desk*
Anyway, I know I said this chap was gonna be longer than the last one (or at least I�m pretty sure I did)... I hope you all didn�t take that too much to heart. I mean, it might be, but I don�t think so... *shrugs* Doesn�t matter. You�re all gonna hate me anyway.
BTW, if you have confusion about this chapter, I promise that I�m gonna do my best to clear it all up in the next few chaps. It�s just really hard to get in all the important details when the perspective of the character you�re writing from is out of his mind.
Anyway, I�m a bit rushed for time right now, so...
Oh, and to the reviewer referring to themselves as �Me� just so you know when you reach this chap, I�ve responded to the reviews you�ve left so far at the bottom. ^_^

~*~

Panic

Blood.
Familiar, wet, thick... coating the air in it�s coppery, metallic tangs... the scent making him feel a bit light-headed. Well, more than he already did, anyway. And it was that, more than anything else, that drove Inuyasha forth into consciousness.
The truth is, he personally did not want to go back to being conscious. Consciousness wasn�t a good thing. If he was conscious then Naraku or someone was bound to notice him, and he�d likely have to move again... probably be hurt.
But, for whatever reason, his youki wanted to become mobile again, and it was being so frantically instant that Inuyasha found he couldn�t ignore it, no matter how much every other part of him might protest the idea; and so he found himself grudgingly rejoining the land of the living.
His eyes slid open slowly, bloodshot-gold cracking from behind bruised flesh to peer blearily at the world around him, not understanding why it was the world was currently lying on his side, and only wishing that it would just stay still for a second so he could focus on something.
He blinked, and that didn�t help all that much, so instead he simply widened his eyes as far as they could go to see if he couldn�t find something that was willing to stop spinning for five seconds that he could focus on.
He caught sight of a familiar mass of silver a little ways away, and he quickly fixed his eyes on that, pleased to see that, while it was certainly moving, that movement was clearly natural and not at all induced by the spinning inside his own head.
Blinking again, Inuyasha squinted a little until the thing slid into better focus, a little surprised to see his elder brother standing before him in full-demon form. When the hell had that happened? And why was he standing like that-- all stiff and hunched up? Where the hell was their father? Hell, where the hell was Naraku? And why was there so much damn blood in the air...?
Inuyasha frowned a little (or at least he tried to, whether the action actually occurred was beyond him) and forced his mind to pay more attention as he carefully took in his brother�s appearance.
Crimson eyes... silver hair... blue crescent moon and magenta stripes... yep, that�d be Sesshomaru all right. Only... when the hell had Sesshomaru exchanged his arm for tentacles?
Inuyasha�s �frown� deepened a little as he stared at the place where Sesshomaru�s left arm should be-- still was, actually, only now it was hanging rather oddly from his shoulder-- skin and sinews pulled taut and stretching further by the thick, black tentacles worming their way between muscles and bones. And that wasn�t right; why the hell would Sesshomaru have tentacles in his shoulder? That just didn�t make sense. Maybe it was an infection of some kind? Or... another hallucination, possibly?
Yeah, that was probably it, Inuyasha decided. There was nothing else it could be, after all. Dog demons may have a myriad of uncanny powers, but they didn�t just start sprouting tentacles at random. Or at least, Inuyasha had never seen them do it. So maybe they could actually do it, and he just didn�t know about it?
Inuyasha groaned softly and mentally cursed his youki for waking him in the first place, slowly letting his eyes slip closed. If he wasn�t allowed to see the real reality, then why the hell should he have to face it?
That decided, Inuyasha determinedly focused his attention to sliding slowly back into numb, blissful oblivion, not wanting to see anymore of his mind�s idiotic delusions.
And maybe the visions weren�t real, but the howl that erupted certainly was (it was so full of agony and rage how could it not be?), and Inuyasha couldn�t have kept his eyes closed at that if he�d wanted to.
Golden orbs snapped open again in time to see the tentacles embedded in his mate�s shoulder jerk away before blood momentarily blinded his vision.
The crimson sprayed around him like mist from a waterfall, splattering his face and forcing his eyes closed again to stop any of the metallic liquid from actually blinding him. He couldn�t get his lips together fast enough though, and before he could stop it several of the insanely large drops of blood slid past the barricade of flesh to wash over his tongue.
Inuyasha momentarily saw red at that.
And that surprised him, because, while his youki was certainly more than a little spastic whenever there was blood involved, his human side could usually keep it under control. Right now, however, it seemed that his human side was either too exhausted to fight, or had just plain given up, and it was several long seconds before the hanyou could rein his inner demon again.
In that time, what was left of Inuyasha�s mind slowly began to process that this blood not only smelled familiar, but it tasted familiar as well. And, while he certainly hadn�t smelled or tasted it in a long time, he had spilled enough of it in his lifetime to be able to recognise it now.
And maybe his eyes would lie to him, but his sense of smell, his sense of taste... hell, even his sense of touch were all telling him that this blood wasn�t fake. It was really here, coating his flesh in crimson smears and streaking his hair in red. And, if the blood was real, then it had to have come from somewhere... which meant...
Inuyasha�s eyes snapped open for what must have been the hundredth time since his youki had woken him up, quickly swivelling toward his mate, who, for some reason, was now lying on his belly on the ground, his eyes narrowed sharply in pain and his chest heaving rapidly up and down.
And that in and of itself was enough to give Inuyasha pause, because, in all the years he had known Sesshomaru, his brother had never been one to show pain. For him to do so now...
Inuyasha stared at Sesshomaru�s face for a long moment, a little startled to find Sesshomaru staring back at him, before slowly allowing his gaze to trail down to Sesshomaru�s shoulder... to the place where his arm would be... where his arm should be... Only it wasn�t.
Instead of being attached to Sesshomaru�s shoulder like a good arm should be, said appendage was lying several feet away, coated in blood, some of the severed muscles and bone peeking out from beneath torn flesh, and definitely not still a part of Sesshomaru�s shoulder.
Inuyasha�s insides froze as he stared at the gaping wound where the appendage used to be, his youki thrashing angrily within him and his mind barely able to keep it at bay as he tried to piece together what the hell had happened...
Why wasn�t Sesshomaru�s arm where is should be? The things... those tentacles or whatever, they had been there before... maybe they had done something?
Inuyasha considered this a moment, still staring intently at the wound before him, before something suddenly clicked in his mind.

Tentacles... hard and unrelenting... wrapped around his wrists and ankles... around him... holding him still while that bastard moved within him...

Naraku!

Inuyasha�s mind barely had time to comprehend that thought-- put together the tentacles that had held him before to the ones that had pierced his brother�s flesh-- before his vision again flooded with red. And this time he could tell there was no way he was going to be able to call it back.
His youki roared to life within him, pulsing against the veins and walls of flesh that encased it as it fought against the venom still holding him immobile.
Pain assaulted him as he slowly forced his muscles to respond-- to raise him up on shaky feet-- but he ignored it. Pain was the least of his concerns now. Pain was insignificant. It didn�t matter. As long as he could still move, as long as he could still fight then nothing else mattered.
The collar around his neck pulsed and tightened threateningly, spilling more poison within his veins, and Inuyasha�s back arched despite himself, a strangled snarl tearing free from his lips as he stumbled a little beneath the pain of it, before forcing himself to straighten again.
His crimson-clad gaze slid slowly over the hulking mass in front of him, nostrils flaring at the scent of blood, causing his fangs to elongate even further than they normally did as he took a small step toward the large demon who was staring at him in what he could only assume was desperation. Not that his youki really cared.
Only his mind�s frantic screams that this being was his mate from somewhere in the back of his head stayed him from attacking it. Even in this state his youki still recognised the meaning of the word �mate,� and it had no intention of harming the one it had claimed and been claimed by. No matter how good their blood smelled.
Instead he fixed his attention beyond his mate, where a familiar and loathed scent was drifting from, filling the air and making Inuyasha�s hackles rise despite his inability to see said figure.
Why this scent made him so angry, he didn�t know. All he knew was that this scent was associated with pain and fear and darkness and lonliness and despair and myriad other emotions like that. And he didn�t like it one bit.
And, as far as he was concerned, the only way to get rid of a scent was to eliminate the source of it.
Ignoring the strange, wounded-dog noises the youkai his mind called �mate� was making, Inuyasha took a few running step forward, before springing up-- leaping over the mass of silver fur in front of him-- to land easily enough on the other side, his knees bending on impact and dropping him down into a crouch.
His eyes slit and narrowed as he peered up from beneath blood-stained bangs, scenting the air again for the source of the scent, a little displeased when his eyes settled on a figure a few feet away, who was staring at him with what appeared to be a mixture of surprise and amusement.
Inuyasha glared at it.
This thing was the source of the scent?
Inuyasha let out a low snort of displeasure.
This thing was hardly worth his time. He could feel it�s demonic energy, and, as far as he was concerned, it was weak. The injured youkai behind him would have been a better opponent.
Still... that scent was irritating him to no end... And if this being was the cause of it, then, one way or another, it had to be dealt with.
Cracking his claws, Inuyasha slowly rose to his feet again... only to be knocked off of them a second later by something crashing painfully into his side, sending them both spiralling to the ground.
Inuyasha snarled his rage, the pupils of his eyes disappearing momentarily as he struggled beneath the being overtop of him, thrashing his head from side to side before freezing, his whole body tense and trembling.
He didn�t like this, he realised. This position of being held down beneath another... and not just because it made him vulnerable to the other�s attacks... it was a bad position... too associated with all those scents from before... he didn�t like it at all...
Inuyasha�s pupil�s dilated to mere slits of aqua as he frantically tried to focus his vision on his assailant. He could hear a voice above him shouting something at him-- his name maybe-- hands grabbing his wrists and pinning them down above his head... hair falling to trail over his naked chest... the scent of blood...
That was all it took for Inuyasha to lose all coherency, his mind going numb in his panic as he flailed and thrashed and kicked in vain beneath the creature over him, hearing but not understanding it�s shouts as it continued to pin him, until, in one last, desperate effort to get the thing to let him go, Inuyasha bared his fangs in a sharp snarl, and shot upward to sink them into his attacker�s throat.
Blood filled his mouth and assaulted his senses yet again, and Inuyasha swallowed it thickly, his breathing erratic as he felt the thing pinning him down go perfectly still.
Letting out a small growl that was really more a whimper than anything, Inuyasha violently yanked his head back-- teeth still clenched tightly around the flesh in his mouth.
There was an odd choking noise as still more blood sprayed Inuyasha in the face, and the body over his spasmed-- convulsing over his own body in a way that most certainly wasn�t doing anything to help his currently panicked state-- before going still, slumping down overtop of him...
Inuyasha barely dared to breathe as the crushing weight settled across his chest, forcing the air from his lungs as he slowly and thickly swallowed the blood still residing in his mouth, heedless of the flesh that slid down his throat along with it.
After what seemed like an eternity in trauma-time but was really only maybe a minute or two, Inuyasha dared to slit open his eyes.
Silver hair was the first thing to assault his vision-- not so light as his mate�s hair, but still similar enough in tones to momentarily panic him again. Golden eyes were next-- flung open wide in a face that was the very epitome of surprise and pain.
Inuyasha didn�t care.
The creature wasn�t his mate, and it was dead.
That was all that mattered to him.
Breaking his arms free from the literal death-grip the youkai hand on him, he brought his bruised hands down and shoved painfully at the body covering his own, grunting softly when he finally managed to roll it off and could suck in a breath again.
From somewhere off to his side his mate was whining low in his throat-- struggling to get up... the other youkai-- the one he wanted to kill-- was laughing low in his throat... the sound filling the air like the miasma around them...
Inuyasha barely noticed either of these things as he slowly staggered to his feet, not understanding why being held down by that youkai had effected him like that.
He decided it didn�t really matter.
Just as long as it didn�t happen again, he would be fine.
In the mean time, he had a demon to kill.
Twisting slowly around, Inuyasha again fixed his gaze on the creature responsible for the disgusting stench, his eyes bleeding an even darker shade of crimson as he caught sight of the smug look that now adorned that creature�s face.
The fool.
He�d wipe that expression right off the vermin�s face with his claws... make sure it never had the audacity to look like that again... and then he could bathe his hands in it�s blood.
Maybe if the thing tasted as good as his own mate�s blood did he would just go ahead and eat it. Then again, judging by the smell of it, he doubted it would taste very good at all.
Still, blood was blood, and he wanted more of it.
How much? He didn�t know.
But that last kill hadn�t been nearly satisfying, and now he was pumped and revved up on adrenaline and bloodlust.
Cracking his claws, Inuyasha again crouched down, bracing himself as the creature turned to face him... getting himself ready to attack... Choosing to ignore, for the moment, the giant dog struggling to rise to it�s feet beside him, more intent on his prey... on his desire to free the crimson rivers hidden just beneath it�s flesh...
He would just have to keep going until he was sated.
And this creature was as good a place to start as any.
That in mind, Inuyasha tensed his leg muscles, digging the sharp nails on his feet into the soil, before pushing off and lunging once again toward the being standing in front of him...

~*~

Glossary

Youki - A demon�s spiritual energy

Hanyou - Half-demon

Youkai - Demon

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-nette - Lol, glad you liked it. Nope, no Naraku killing yet. Hopefully soon. ^_^ Somehow I think this particular transformation of Inuyasha�s didn�t make you very happy, though... you�re right, though, they can�t get a break. >_< I�m really horrible to them, aren�t I? Don�t worry, I�m sure I�ll get back to the pups sometime in the near future... or the far future... in the future, anyway. ^_^
-kelly - Lol, well since I want you to be a happy student, I did my best to update soon! I know what it�s like living in a boring town. -_- Anything I can do to help annihilate the boredom! ^_^
-riddlestar - Lol, well I�ll try to keep updating fast... though somehow I doubt you�ll ever forgive me for my cliffies. ^_^ Really? Lol, I�m glad you liked it! And the action-scene... No, no one has ever told me that, but I imagine it must be true. It�s damn hard to write people moving at a fast pace. So I guess slow-mo is good, as long as everyone is enjoying it. : D -- Yeah, they�ve both had it pretty rough. I wonder who you�re feeling worse for now, though? Lol. Yep, inu turns too... and so far that doesn�t seem to be an entirely good thing...
-ArchNemesis - *blinks* *whistles* Wow, that�s a lotta reviews. : D Lol, thanks!!!! : D I�m glad you finally had a chance to catch up! : D Don�t worry about not being around-- it�s a busy world, and to expect someone to just drop all of their projects and other things just to come read my fanfiction every time I write a chap would be ridiculous. I�m just happy you�re reading at all! ^_^ -- Lol, that chap reminded you of daffy duck? Hm. Is that a good thing? ^_^ -- Sorry for all the cruelness! It had to be done! -- Lol, I�m glad you enjoyed the little Shippo-kouga-Rin chap. ^_^ I realise I�ve been neglecting them throughout the story, but the fact of the matter is they�re just not as interesting as Inu and Sess. -- Lol, I agree, at this point in time, Naraku really is gonna need a good life-insurance plan. He�s got ~~three~~ two very pissed off dog-demons who have gone berserker on his hands. Yeah, things really aren�t looking good for him. And as to what Inu Taisho�s doing... well, at the moment, he seems to be dying, doesn�t he? And Tsukiko is... somewhere. I�m not sure where exactly, but she�s there. Lol, don�t worry, I�ll get to her eventually. ^_^ -- I�m glad you enjoyed the chaps! Thanks so much for reviewing them all! : D
-Me - Lol, well actually by now I have had several people point out to me the whole non-existent plurals in the Japanese language, so I�ve stopped referring to them as hakama. ^_^ And as to Dai and Tai... So it is Dai for sure? I can never tell, I get people arguing from both sides, and some people saying either is correct, so mostly I just go with whatever I feel most like using at the time. Lately it�s been dai. ^_^ -- Lol, yeah, I know, Inu Taisho may have been acting kinda weird, but there has really been so very little of him that I didn�t have much to go on, so I just went mostly with what worked. ^_^ -- Lol, yeah. Myouga isn�t in the story much, but I figure he�s been serving Inu Taisho for who knows how long, so why not add him to the fic? Besides, there were very few other characters who could hitchhike on Inuyasha�s clothes without him noticing, so... ^_^ And as to imagining that happening... well, I have a sister in real life, so if it�s all the same to you, I�d really rather not. ^_^ -- Lol, yeah, I know Rumiko didn�t mean yasha in the �female demon� sense of the word. It was just one of my random musings. And I believe your right that it does mean something to do with the forest as well... Can�t remember what, though. ^_^ And don�t worry, Kagura is leaving Sess alone. I like her well enough, but not with Sess. Sess should be with Inu, END OF STORY! : D -- Lol, don�t worry about leaving a lot of reviews-- you�re not the only one who�s done it, and I like hearing all your input anyway. Although I have to admit I�m a little confused some of the time when reading them because you don�t say what chap your reviewing for, but... Anyway, no, you�re not being annoying, and again, I appreciate each and every one of your comments. I love hearing everyone�s opinions on this story, so... Feel free to leave all the reviews you want! : D

~*~

A/N: Well, I did promise you guys that somebody was gonna die... You can�t blame me!
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