Tonzura koite!
By: HopePoe26
Blanket disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha.
A/N: This story is loosely based on two factors: one; what would happen to the story if InuYasha was a girl from the very very beginning? Two; this story was birthed by reading the stories made up by Sueric… so any other idea written here will have some sort of correlation to her stories… but not one specifically. Any other questions…?
Chapter I
My loyalty is deeper than love.
It was night. He could see it; he was after all no puny youkai. He was the son of the Inu-Taisho, Sesshoumaru Lord of the Western Lands. His father was attending his new mate's birthing. They were going to have a hanyou, but it was his father decision: his decision to mate with a human. A human by the name of Izaiyo.
He looked on at the full moon and wondered what this new brat would look like. He was curious. Yet, he felt nothing. There should have been some kind of sentiment in his heart, but he really felt nothing as of yet. And though he was more than one hundred miles away from the castle where his father's mate resided with the rest of her family… he heard it.
The cry. It was a howling so deep yet so soft. And he knew without a doubt that the whelp was going to be a serious pain in the ass.
InuYasha sat. Looking at the big tall man with long silver flowing hair looking down at her. Yes… InuYasha was a girl. A one-year-old inu-youkai hanyou. Her hair was as silver as the man who was looking back at her. Her eyes the color of honey. His eyes were a golden shade that she had seen before. Perhaps in her dreams… she looked back at him unblinking and then yawned. Though there was something threatening about him that kept all the servants away from the little girl, she was unafraid.
She scrunched up her nose and before she could ever utter a cry though… her mother was there to pick her up having sensed – through the parent-child bond that mothers' always had – that she was ready for a nap.
Izayoi looked up and tried not to flinch at the cold look her mate's first born son was giving her daughter.
"You coddle her too much onna." – was the words she heard him say.
"She's just a child." – then she turned her back to him as she walked on to the makeshift crib that stood nearby. She turned back to see him and was not surprised to see him looking up at the sky.
Since his father's death, Sesshoumaru came by every time he could. Well… to say that he could didn't actually mean that he would. Which meant that he came every other month… for whatever reason she couldn't fathom, her daughter was always excited to see him. Even if he despised every single human around, InuYasha was always happy just to be around him all the time. She stifled a sigh as she thought of how he even knew of her father's contempt. The way her 'old man' wanted her dead. And though he probably should've said something about it, he kept it to himself. And she was glad for that. Her dead mate's son was as stubborn as she was. But she knew that her time was coming because she was always cordial to him even when she didn't totally trust him and vice versa. But for the sake of InuYasha's safety she would do what she must. Even if it meant socializing with the Lord of the Western Lands.
"I Fear for her safety."
"You have nothing to fear." – the only soothing words that he had ever offered to her. Even at the death bed of his father, he had not said such a thing. Now she knew without a doubt that though Sesshoumaru may never come to love his half-sister, he would not let harm come to her.
"Thank you."
To her, Sesshoumaru was never one to feel anything. He had for the most part always been a quiet child and when his mother died at child-birth (his birth), he learnt to do without. Without love. Without caresses and good-night kisses. Without stories being read to him and such and such. Or so her mate had told her so in few words…
But InuYasha was different. InuYasha never disliked anyone despite the fact that she was always despised. They threw rocks at her and she just learned to dodge. Anything they did to her made her stronger, more agile, thrifty, smart. Everything seemed to be like a game to her. Even trying to dodge sleeping hours.
On the night of her fifth year, she ran away from her mother for a full day. Surprisingly… nothing happened to her. It was a shock to Izaiyo to realize that her daughter was very independent. That she had – all by herself – managed to reach the outer boundaries of the Western Lands. And even more shocking was the fact that Sesshoumaru brought her back safe and sound.
"You will need to show her that you are in command or else she will probably pull this off every single time she feels like this."
That was all Izaiyo heard from the Tai-Youkai. But it taught her to have some resolve… she would teach her daughter things that'd be necessary for her to understand. And it was these teachings that would help her all through her life. To keep her safe from deeper harm.
It was a chilly spring morning when Sesshoumaru opened his bedroom door to see a child laying on the cold floor sleeping. He knew without a doubt that InuYasha was not in his castle because she was on an adventure, but because her mother had been slaughtered. It was in the way her haori closed around her. Or the way her ears were still bleeding… but in the end – though he tried to hide it from his young companion later on that he cared – he tried to control the deep urge to slaughter those who had harmed her.
His youki wished for revenge. But he could not. He would not. He would keep his promise instead. He would honor his father's wishes for InuYasha to be safe at all times. That she would grow into a young woman someday. And when that day came when he would have to send her to have a family… she'd be ready.
