A/N: This fic was heavily influenced by Fox in Umei no Mai's One Piece fic Unintended Consequences. The rules are modified from her fic (I am nowhere near awesome enough to have come up with them myself).
Nine year old Kagome closed her eyes and meditated as the rules her sensei was drilling into her echoed throughout her mind in a smooth, strong cadence, his voice reminding her that no matter how unlucky she was to have been stolen from her family and sold into slavery there was always a bright side. She still had a roof over her head. She still had a soft-ish bed to sleep on. She had friends. She was learning important things. She was being given an opportunity – her sensei had somehow seen potential in her, despite only being an untrained miko-child, and was teaching her both how to use her powers—for the entertainment of her Master and his family—and how to be a perfect servant, unseen and unnoticed.
He was also teaching her how to kill, for those abilities were necessary in an assassin, as the first rule indicated: the first duty of an assassin is to strike unseen and to be unknown. An assassin does not ever, for any reason, make public their moves, motives, or employers. An assassin is completely anonymous.
She had an opportunity – given enough time and planning, she would be capable of not wasting it.
Learn what her sensei had to teach her—all of it—and she could learn how to escape.
"You are dead, Kagome-chan." Naraku-sensei was not angry – after all, even though he was a stern and hard man, he was also patient and she was only ten and had not been learning the Way of the Sword and the Art of Killing until this past year. She had much longer to go before she was proficient; although her skill with a bow was better than it had ever been before and he was unrelenting in teaching her to perfect it.
An assassin pinpoints weakness and attacks it precisely. No move is wasted, no target is missed, no trail is left behind.
She got back up and settled her mind, the second rule of assassination steadying her. She would do better. She had to.
Kagome had a break from her regular duties today, as Sesshōmaru-sama was here, and while he would tolerate servants, slaves, with their tattoos around their wrists – when Kagome escaped she was going to flay hers off and heal them with her miko powers, so that she could never just be repossessed like a stray wind again – were intolerable to him and thus her Master hid them from sight. Sesshōmaru-sama was different, for a yōkai, and did not condone unnecessary cruelty in any form. His shiro was (supposedly) populated by slaves he had purchased, found, or stolen, and then freed somehow.
Manten, her Master's brother, could not stand Sesshōmaru-sama, but that was likely just because Sesshōmaru-sama was as beautiful to look at as Manten was distasteful to gaze upon. Hiten adored Manten, so he only had Sesshōmaru-sama over when Manten was at his own shiro.
So she hefted her sword up – she was using live steel now that she was twelve, and a kind of light katana that was built for speed rather than strength. After all, that was what an assassin specialised in, she thought, as her sensei's words echoed through her mind. An assassin is not the strongest of fighters, but is instead the most accurate. Speed is preferable to strength at all times, and a flexible mind stands above both.
She just prayed that her mind was flexible enough to survive the onslaught she would have to undergo when she completed her training.
Kagome poured tea for Sesshōmaru-sama, and saw him glancing at her wrists – could he see?
No – stop, Kagome. Patience. Courage. Be a good little slave and do your duty so that Hiten does not suspect your true motives. Sesshōmaru-sama cannot see through the illusion placed upon your wrists, even if he can sense it and suspects why it is there. He cannot do anything. You must not get your hopes up over something that is likely only a rumour anyway.
She poured tea for her much-despised "Master" and slid back into the shadows, erasing her presence completely by using her reiki to aid in concealing her scent, muffling her sounds, and wrapping it around her miko-ki to completely erase any sense of her very being having ever have existed as she crept back to her bedroom, that having been the last serving of tea she needed to pour today. Her ability to erase her presence was one reason why she was so called for outside of her much-needed resting hours and her demanded-for training hours. She was asked if she wanted a boon and was given hours for training under Naraku-sensei, which had almost been taken away now that she was thirteen and a competent little slave.
However, she was yet to be able to beat her sensei in more than half their fights; she would not be ready to escape until she had surpassed him.
An assassin remembers the mission at all times, and does not ever become sidetracked by petty distractions.
Dead. Naraku-sensei was dead, and at her hands.
An assassin knows their heart and their emotions intricately and completely, but is not weakened or controlled by them; rather, they are strengthened by them.
In order to prove that she had surpassed her sensei, she had been forced to kill him, just as he had been forced to kill his own sensei. When the time came to pass on her skills, her student would have to kill her as well.
Sadness is pain. What does not kill you makes you stronger. Pain is the path of life, and in order to kill you first have to die.
She had died when she was stolen off the streets and sold into slavery aged nine. She had died again when she had killed her sensei aged fourteen. Her heart was hardened against pain and pain could not kill her, although she would always grieve those she killed in her own way.
She had a duty to rid the world of corruption, and she would fulfil it.
I will not let you down, Sensei.
Patience.
Kagome was not naturally a patient person, but her patience had been trained into her, been honed by blood, sweat, and tears.
An assassin does not assume, but investigates thoroughly and verifies as far as they and their resources can before taking any possible action.
Sakura was planning on drugging Hiten and Manten in an attempt to escape tonight, with iocane. It was lacking in any scent and taste, so they would not be able to sense it; also, whilst deadly to ningen, it was only a sleeping drug to yōkai, so Sakura did not believe she would be punished for attempting to kill her masters if she got caught.
Of course, Kagome would be killing them for her, but she had already made arrangements – not that he was aware of it yet – with Sesshōmaru-sama to have all of the servants freed and the slaves taken into Sesshōmaru-sama's home. He would free them and then either employ them in his own shiro or give them safe homes in his lands.
After Sakura got back, Kagome silently waited for her to leave again and then knocked her out with the hilt of her katana. Kagome had no clue where she had gotten the iocane but was grateful that her first assassination targets would not be killed using her miko powers. Those were a cheat. If one was to kill then one had to take responsibility when necessary.
It was time to kill those who had enslaved her and escape.
Twenty. She was twenty now. She was twenty, and had killed over five hundred corrupt yōkai and ningen since she had escaped her master when she was fifteen.
Sesshōmaru-sama had shown up at her family's home today.
An assassin is always ready for change no matter the situation, but does not plan so extensively that they become mired in unnecessary details and ruin their chances.
Kagome knew that better than most. However, she also knew the next rule, which was why, when faced with the might and power of the Lord of the West, she was unflinching and unafraid, and would have been even had she not come to know him well through their correspondence over the years – correspondence that he might now know was from her.
An assassin is unafraid, because they walk with Death every day and know it better than any other being.
She would forge onwards regardless of if he knew or not. She could not be stopped – not even by the daiyōkai of acid claws.
Although, admittedly, he was not of lesser ability than her, like everyone else was. They were equals – but an assassin can always beat a swordsman in a fight because the focus they have is different.
Kagome struck home, the blunt edge of her sword caressing Sesshōmaru's arm as she encircled him, and she leapt away before he could counter-attack, dashing across the dojo as he stared at his arm before raising an eyebrow and smirking at her. He sheathed Tenseiga and tilted his head towards the exit, while she sheathed her own sword, Kietsu – which meant "enjoyment", and was an apt name – and followed him out of the dojo.
An assassin does not brawl; neither do they show off their skills to those of lesser ability – and she would have broken that rule for Sesshōmaru, however he was not, as she had mused on her birthday a year ago, of lesser ability than her – because an assassin's anonymity is their greatest treasure, for absolutely no one can guard against the unknown.
Which would have been a problem if Sesshōmaru had not already known who she was; apparently from the moment when she was serving him tea at thirteen and Hiten had informed him that Naraku-sensei was the one teaching her her serving skills.
His father had been Naraku-sensei's first employer, and Sesshōmaru-sama had been his second one. He had apparently been investigating how Hiten and Manten treated their slaves, when he had come across Kagome and decided that she would make a suitable student, which had ended his contract with the daiyōkai. She currently had a similar contract with Sesshōmaru – taking care of those who were corrupt and those who abused others, while he used her abilities to aid those in need of aid and simultaneously gain more power so he could better protect that which he felt needed protecting.
It was a good deal; for both of them. Kagome would never be able to cease being an assassin, having been one for so much of her life and when she enjoyed killing so much, and Sesshōmaru needed someone with her skills.
She had a good life, now.