Lord of the Tattoos
Crossover: InuYasha and Rurouni Kenshin
This was re-posted on July 2nd, 2011
Prompt idea: Sesshomaru becomes Shinta/Kenshin Himura in order to learn what it means to be human. He does this to save the only person he ever showed kindness to, Rin.
Disclaimer: No money, no fame, and no glory to be made by these works. Only mystification at how complicated it is to be kind. Also there is swearing in this...
Lord Sesshomaru is forced to abandon being lord of the western lands to InuYasha after Rin is kidnapped, In order to save her he must first learn humility, for that he must be human. Sesshomaru, being a demon lord refuses to give up everything for the girl, however he agrees to take the place of a human during one of the bloodiest battles of all time. Bakamatsu.
Chapter 1-How This Begins
The Lord of the Western Lands was not amused at the plot that had started to unfold around him, this had started off as a semi pleasant day with more than enough reasons to keep it that way. Of course when things go that well they are destined to go bad early on. When Jaken approached him that afternoon during the break in his duties was when the notion struck him, it was far too quiet.
Jaken had been threatened into silence long ago, but Rin had always managed to either visit by this time or to land herself in trouble that reached his ears by now. He looked at the small impish aid that awaited his orders, he looked uneasy, Sesshomaru frowned. The only reason for that expression was when the small aid had bad news…
"Jaken, what has become of Rin?" he asked dryly. The little imp was wringing his hand like appendages together, he was also emitting the irritating musk of fear. Under reasonable conditions, the little imp only preformed tasks that he himself had no time to do, this left only the demon's normal scent.
"Uh, you see Sesshomaru sama, it's an interesting story…" the advisor begun, Sesshomaru sat up straight looking over at the demon with a solid 'get to the point' glare. "She was kidnapped it seems, and after having breakfast with you my lord. She's been missing since, and A-un has been looking for her, but to no avail."
"Then I suggest Jaken, that you get out there and look, if she isn't found in an hour I am feeding you to A-un. Do you understand that?" Sesshomaru leaned in on his laced fingers with an imposing face. The Daiyoukai then did something more terrifying to the little demon than anything else he could do, he smiled. The small advisor shook with fear before doing a great impression of Myoga the flea.
"That was just a might bit cruel, don't you think, Sesshomaru sama?"
Sesshomaru looked up at the sound of the female voice that had filled his room momentarily. He set down his brush, and cracked his knuckles ready to poison whomever had dared to sneak up on him in his home.
"Show yourself," he growled, he had spent too much time around his younger brother. His patience had deluded to nothing, and his anger was easy to rouse from where it used to lay mostly dormant. The female chuckled, but still there was no one to be seen and no scent save his own pissed off. He stood and walked to the door, slamming it open and looking down to each end of the hallway. Still there was nothing, the Lord of the Western Lands growled. No one played mind games with him and lived to tell the tale.
He stalked off down the hall, fully preparing to take off when he was stopped by members of his court. They didn't detain him long when they noticed the look of utter malice raging behind his eyes. Two headless morons later he was flying out towards something he could always vent his frustration on. When a sacred arrow just missed his left ear he decided that just maybe he should leave his idiot brother alone this time.
"Sesshomaru, hey SESSHOMARU!" the annoying wench of a miko called up to him. He wasn't sure whether he should ignore her or behead her for her insolence… As another arrow passed the crown of his head he decided beheading sounded really nice to him at the moment. "I'm trying to get your attention down here for a reason you stubborn jackass. I need your help!" He drifted towards the ground wondering why on earth the day just had to take such an irritating turn. As he touched down the bow was lowered and the miko sighed deeply.
"Out with it then, I do not have the luxury of wasting time on you right now human," Sesshomaru stood straight making the human girl hunch in slight fear even if she didn't totally realize it at the time. She placed the bow on her back and approached cautiously.
"I need your help, InuYasha's been killed and its all my fault," the girl was on the verge of tears, and with her statement Sesshomaru felt the hair on the back of his neck rise in anger. His eyes narrowed, he gave her the motion to continue. "I need you to use the Tenseiga on him and bring him back to life, it was my fault he was there in the first place…"
"Never mind the sob story human, where is he?" Sesshomaru fought down the urge to smack the woman's head for being so stupid, "InuYasha is mine to kill when I choose, not by some other demon when you get in way over your head. Do you understand this? The Tenseiga's powers are not limitless, it will not work on the same person twice, not for bringing back from the dead. Otherwise I would have killed Jaken fifty times over by now."
The human nodded, and she lead him deeper into the forest. Sesshomaru doubted her at first, he could not smell InuYasha's peculiar half demon scent anywhere in here. Then there was the sound of running water, he then realized that had he killed the girl for her stupidity that he would never have found the body. Lodged beneath the surface of the water, blood still tainting the liquid was his brother's lifeless corpse. A rock the size of A-un weighing down the thing so it could not simply be removed or washed away by the current.
"I suppose you expect me to retrieve it as well?" the demon voiced annoyed, she nodded falling to her knees tears streaming, "you need to move back, wouldn't want that rock to land on you next after all." Sesshomaru examined the scene, there were far easier ways to go about this, such as simple grabbing the rock and throwing it aside, however that option did not bode well for the fact that Sesshomaru only had one arm.
InuYasha would have drifted down stream, lost to the current as Sesshomaru hurled the stone away. That meant he would have to do this some other way, either divert the water long enough to move the stone and the corpse or block the water's path enough to reduce the level and current to where the human could be of use. The thought of either of these in combination with the fact he was going to get wet either way made him that much more irritable.
He took the drew the Tokijin and walked upstream, determining that it was the simplest way he charged the sword. He heard the miko scream as he unleashed the Dragon's Strike shortening the water's path, sure enough the deeper trench did most of the work. He dammed up the remaining flow of water using nearby trees and a sword's swing of mud. The result was instead of the water level being taller than him it was now ankle deep in residual water. He let the frown disappear at the success of his semi involved plan.
He kicked the boulder off of InuYasha easily, examining the wounds and conditions of the corpse for the first time closely. Arrow wounds, several sword slices, and possibly lungs full of water, that sounded like a pitiful way to die… He placed the Tokijin in his teeth and drew the Tenseiga, the messengers from the underworld looked somewhat puzzled at the body and never saw the heavenly sword swing through them. He sheathed his swords as InuYasha started coughing up blood and water as he expected.
"That will teach you not to die by someone else's hand little brother," Sesshomaru was about to stalk off when he ran face first into a barrier. "Is this some kind of joke? Release me wench!" The horrified miko sat on the shore line puzzled, meaning that she had no hand in this annoyance. The daiyoukai swore, this day was turning out to be oh so fabulous…
Crimson Choucho: This fic is based around Sesshomaru, not InuYasha.