Somewhere in Japan during the Feuding Era, in a home on the far outskirts of a small village, a young woman was in great pain. The woman gripped the sheets tightly as she heaved heavy breaths in and out through her exhausted body. She was in immense pain, nothing like she had ever experienced before, but she refused to let a single scream of pain escape her. An elder woman dabbed her forehead with a cool cloth and whispered excitedly "It is time now, Milady! Your child is ready to be born!" The old midwife put the cloth down and moved in between the younger woman's legs. "You must push now, Milady." she said "Come on now." The young woman growled and strained out, "If it is a girl, Old Hag, then kill it immediately! Don't even give it a chance to cry!" The midwife shuddered at the younger woman's demand as the mother-to-be squeezed her eyes shut and began to push the child out of her with all of her might, never once crying out as the child emerged from within her.
"Very good, Milady." the midwife muttered "Yes, I can see it now! A little further. One more push ought to do it!" The woman gave on last great shove, nearly letting a scream out, before she collapsed back onto the blankets. She kept her eyes closed as she heard the newborn child cry out for its first time and turned her head.
"Well, Old Woman?" she said "Is it male or female?"
"Just let me clean it off a little, Milady." came the reply "A little more. There we are!"
"Well?" the woman snapped impatiently "If it is a girl, do away with it at once! Drown it in the water basin!"
"Oh, there will be no need of that. It is a boy, Milady." the old woman said as she continued to clean it "A beautiful, healthy boy. Oh, and so strong! He's thrashing about as if my touch burns him!" The new mother sighed, either out of relief or satisfaction.
"Does he show of having any abilities?"
"He is strong, Milady," the midwife answered as she tried to calm the child down "there is no doubt about that, but other than that, he seems to be completely human. I am afraid that the demon traits have almost completely died out." The child's mother scowled.
Damn she thought Well, at least that means he can never be purified, I suppose. "Will he still be able to wield the sword?"
"Only time will tell, Milady." The old woman shuffled closer to the tired woman and knelt beside her, still hold the quieting baby. "But for now, would you like to hold him, Milady? Or at least look at him?" The mother didn't answer. "Milady? Milady?" She just stayed silent, pretending to be asleep.
The little bastard probably looks like his father she thought as she drifted off to sleep. The last sounds she heard were the quiet whimpers her son was making as the old woman tried to soothe him.
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"You really should give the child a name, Milady." the old woman said, some months later "You can't just keep calling him "the boy" or "the child", you know."
"Why not?" the mother snapped "He is only a few months old, he as no use for a name...as of yet. He does not need a name right now."
"But Milady, he will need one eventually! What are his friends to call him?"
"What friends?" the mother interrupted "He has no friends. He needs no friends."
"No friends! But every child should have a friend! Who shall he play with? Who shall he talk with? Why should he not have friends?"
"There is nothing a friend can do for him that I can not provide." the mother snapped "No, he shall have no friends. Followers, perhaps, if he chooses to become a leader, or companions, maybe, if ends up serving a worthy leader (though I doubt that will be the case). No, friends are useless and dangerous. They can be easily be used as a weakness...or turn on you at any second."
"But he will need a male figure in his life! If not a father then at least a peer. I know very well that you can teach him how to fight and defend himself and practically everything else he will need to know, Milady, but in later years, when he almost becomes a man and starts noticing the young ladies, he should have a male friend to discuss..." The old woman jumped in her seat as the younger woman quickly stood up, knocking her chair on the ground, and towered over her, her eyes blazing.
"I will never allow my son to become attracted to that repulsive sex!" she seethed "No son of mine is going to waste his time with some disgusting, treacherous, back-stabbing SLUT!" The old woman cowered under the suddenly enraged woman's gaze.
"Mi..Mi..Milady, please! You'll wake the child!" The younger woman snarled, picked up her chair and sat back down, anger still evident on her face.
"The only reason I keep you alive is because I shall need help taking care of the child." she said. She turned her head back towards the still shaken older woman "So, if you value your life at all, I'll expect you to be a good nurse to my boy. Do not fail me."
"Of...of course, Milady." The old woman tried to smile at her. The young mother looked back at the blazing fire, seeming to be satisfied. "But Milady? You really must spend some more time with your child, especially if you and I are to be family he'll ever have."
"I feed him don't I? I see him every single day."
"I mean real time. Hold him for a while. Rock him, sing to him. Give him a little more attention now and then." The mother sighed, clearly annoyed.
"Fine. Bring him to me."
"Now?"
"Yes."
"Oh, I didn't mean now, Milady." the nurse laughed "He is asleep right now."
"Then try not to wake him as you retrieve him. Bring him to me." the mother repeated sharply.
"But..."
"Now." The nurse sighed as she stood up from her place at the other side of the fire and made her way to the door across the room. The other woman continue to stare at the fire as the nurse returned with a small bundle in her arms.
"Didn't even flinch as I picked him up." the nurse said as she gently handed the sleeping boy to his mother "This boy could possibly sleep even through a thunderstorm."
"Leave us." the mother said as she took her child into her arms. The nurse then bowed her head and left, smiling as she quietly closed the door.
For the first time, the woman actually studied her son. She felt a sharp pain in her heart when she observed that he looked so much like his father. She felt hot tears filling her eyes.
He looks exactly like him she thought He'll probably have his personality, too. Se felt the tears begin to fall down her face Oh, how I loved him! At least until that BITCH came! Cold hatred filled her heart. Before she stole him away from me! I should have known that this would happen. I knew that little bitch has her eye on him, but he was him mine. Yet that didn't stop her from taking him from me! She glared down at the sleeping child in her arms To leave me with only this child and my tears! She stood up and strode over to the door and barred it before making her way back over towards the fire. She grabbed a piece of heated wood and gripped it tightly, ignoring the burning pain.
"Well, if I must suffer," she whispered to the child "then you must suffer with me." She then pressed the hot wood to the boy's cheek. The child immediately woke up as he felt the heated object burn his face and let out a shrill cry. He thrashed around, trying to get away from the source of pain, but his mother just held him even tighter. She knew that he wouldn't die from the pain or shock, because he even if he showed no signs of it, he did have demon blood in him.
"MILADY, WHAT'S HAPPENING? MILADY!" The poor boy's mother heard the nurse banging on the door, but she took no heed of it. She removed the extremely hot wood from her son's face.
"That bitch is the reason that this is being done to you." she said as she held the wood the his other cheek "Blame her for this." She removed the wood from his face again, his terrible cries and the nurse's shouting and banging pounding in her ears. She saw the new burns on her sons face, which she knew would become scars. "That's right." she whispered "Cry. Cry, and let these scars be your permanent tears. A constant reminder of your fathers betrayal." She clutched the child to her chest tightly, nearly muffling out his cries. "You will be one of the strongest men in Japan one day," she whispered "and I will be the only woman you ever love (you shall love me as a son should love his mother). No other woman shall have you."
(NOTE): Okay, this is my second Inuyasha fic (the first one was only a one-shot), and just so you know, 1. I'm still not 100 familiar with Inuyasha (I don't have cable so a friend records it for me), 2. I've never received flames before so please be gentle with me if you don't like this (but constructive criticism is more than welcome :)), and 3. I do have another fanfic (man, I really need to update that!) and school, so I definitely won't be able to post every day, week, or maybe even month. But, tell me what you think and if you're even slightly interested!
BTW: If your slightly confused of what's happening or who this is about, I'll make it clearer in the other chapters. However, if you know who these people are, please keep it to yourselves for now. I have a friend who is dying to know who this is about, but I'm not telling her :P One more thing, I'm sorry if the familiar characters are OOC, but it would be imperative to the story. Um...yeah, I think that's about it! Tell me what you think!