A/N – Thanks for the very encouraging response to my first chapter. I'm glad you have enough faith to venture into the child!Sesshoumaru genre with me. Please note that I've gone along with the shattering of Tokijin in ep.407, thus ridding Tenseiga of any competition.

I've also linked this a little to Eccentricities, in the sense that in this story, Sesshoumaru looked after Inuyasha for a small time.

Disclaimer – I don't own. Don't sue.

Chapter 2

The silence alerted him to trouble.

In the cool, scented dark of the night, he missed the constant drone of cicadas and the rustle of the wind in the trees. He lifted his head, scenting the air –

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" the little girl's scream pierced the night.

He shot upright, scattering sparks and embers from the fire, and his hand flew to Tenseiga. Reacting instinctively to the terror in Rin's voice, he flew out into the night, only to come up short at the sight that greeted him.

Four men, clad in all-enveloping black, stood just before the tree line. One man, the leader, wore the robes of an onmyoji mystic, and the other three wore acolyte robes. Jaken and Ah-Un were black, too-still lumps in the firelight, and Rin was struggling, kicking and screaming as she tried to escape from the acolyte who held her tightly in his arms.

"Sesshoumaru-sama," the masked onmyoji purred, inclining his head in a mockery of respect.

"Who are you?" Sesshoumaru asked, very softly, his hand clenched tight on Tenseiga's hilt. "What do you want with this Sesshoumaru?"

"Oh, no, Sesshoumaru-sama," the onmyoji replied obsequiously, "we have no grievance against you. We have come for the girl."

Sesshoumaru's eyes darkened and a low, primitive snarl rumbled in his throat. He flicked Tenseiga's locking hilt free of the sheath, a cold, unmistakable threat –

The other two acolytes held their palms together and intoned a low, droning chant. Sesshoumaru could feel power gathering around him, feel the binding charm settle upon him.

"We do not wish to cause trouble. If you do not struggle, Sesshoumaru-sama, if you let us take your troublesome mortal follower off your hands, then it will be easier on all of us…"

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" Rin screamed again, her eyes wide, dark, and pleading.

Sesshoumaru's eyes flashed red, and his snarling intensified. He flared his youki, testing the binding charm – he was the Taiyoukai of the West, and no petty incantation could hold him. But as he struggled, the binding tightened, and tightened…

"Very well, then. You have chosen the hard way – the harder you fight, the more you will lose. The binding will wear off at dawn, but don't try to follow us. Forget the girl, Sesshoumaru-sama; you will be better for it. She weakens you. We have merely taken her off your hands."

And they began to edge backwards into the trees, carrying the screaming girl with them. Rin screamed and cried, and Sesshoumaru struggled uselessly against the binding, expending nearly every bit of strength he had. But the barrier held firm, and he grew steadily weaker and weaker.

He watched, maddened, as they vanished into the forest. He could hear Rin's screams echoing for a long, long time, before the binding finally dissipated.

But when he could move again, he discovered a terrible, shocking change…

"How did this happen, Sesshoumaru?" Inuyasha asked, uneasily fascinated by the change in his brother. They were eating bowls of ramen, quietly provided by a still-embarrassed Kagome. At least Inuyasha and the others were eating – Sesshoumaru had stared down at the proffered bowl, before slowly turning his head away. On any other kid, it would have been insufferable – but this was Sesshoumaru.

And Sesshoumaru, maddening as always, only blinked and refused to answer.

"What happened to Rin?" Shippou dared to ask, half-hiding behind Inuyasha. "And that toad?" He cringed, ducking down out of sight when Sesshoumaru turned his eyes towards him. Inuyasha scowled and pulled him back up by his tail –

The only thing Sesshoumaru despised more than weakness was cowardice.

"Jaken is dead," Sesshoumaru said flatly. "And Rin is gone."

There was a small beat of silence, before the questions came thick and fast. Shippou, Sango and Kagome – all of whom had been enchanted by the young girl – were genuinely dismayed, demanding to know what had happened, and why, and how. But Sesshoumaru merely veiled his eyes, and said nothing.

A small, serene spring lay near their campsite, and Sesshoumaru stumbled over towards it, collapsing on his knees by the bank. Bending over the water, he peered at his wavering, blurred reflection, not willing to believe what he knew to be true –

He looked upon his face as it had been in his youth, before he reached his full growth. Flexing his claws, he called forth his poison with some difficulty – it had flowered in his adolescence, and as he was now he could produce only a weakened version. Less confidently, he tried to create his energy whip, but with no success. Unlike Dokkasou, his whip was formed of his youki, and in this body his youki was not yet strong enough for such manipulations.

Frustrated, he reached within himself, triggering his transformation. His eyes bled red and his markings and features grew jagged, his body stretching, growing – and then he snarled, and halted the change. He would become a half-grown, uncoordinated pup, his coat bright white. And in this region, so far from his own territories, there were enemies on every side…

"What about Tenseiga?" Inuyasha, still subdued, managed to look remarkably awkward. He gestured uneasily at Tenseiga, discreetly not mentioning Sesshoumaru's white-knuckled grip. "Why didn't it…?"

Sesshoumaru wondered why the hanyou was so uneasy. It was intolerable to think that Inuyasha would pity him.

"I tried," he said flatly. "It didn't work."

He was much smaller, and his muscles much weaker: drawn, Tenseiga had been heavy and unbalanced in his wavering grip. He'd slashed the air over Jaken and Ah-Un's body, but nothing had happened –

It was enough, apparently, that his father's fang had preserved his own life against the binding spell. Perhaps it was no longer strong enough, now that he was a child, to wrench souls back from the Underworld – or perhaps it was an omen that he would need to focus on his own survival before worrying about anyone else's.

In the course of his life, in his pursuit of power, he had amassed quite a number of bitter enemies. Once word spread that he was somehow – miraculously, they would think it – rendered vulnerable…

The dragon was an unnecessary indulgence, and the toad would only serve to slow him down.

It had been a long time since he'd found stealth necessary, but he still remembered the way of it. Slipping cautiously through the shadowed woods he'd followed in the onmyouji's wake, determined to track them to the ends of the earth if need be. It was a goal, in this strange new reality, and he focused the entire extent of his formidable will upon it.

He'd not gone far when he heard the forest grow still and felt the approach of several low-grade youki. He bent his knees, concentrated, and leapt upwards, cursing as he misjudged the necessary height before gripping onto the tree trunk with his claws, scrabbling for purchase on a lower limb – then, slowly, carefully, he flattened himself along one of the branches, straining his ears to listen as they spoke.

"…ridiculous. I don't believe it. Never trust human sorcerers…"

"…the girl. He would never leave her. …watches over her…"

"It's another girl…thousands of them around… This is Sesshoumaru! You can't believe…too dangerous…"

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed. The speakers, a rough, undisciplined rabble – common bandits, by the look of them – passed under his perch as they argued. Had the onmyouji sent them after him, with promises of the wealth and power they would gain, once they were known as the men who slew Sesshoumaru of the West?

"Stop! What's that? Did you hear something?" The bandits hesitated, drawing into a tightly packed group bristling with crude weapons.

Sesshoumaru became aware that he was growling, his claws slicing deeply into the branch below him. He forced his hands to loosen, and clenched his teeth shut, clamping off any further noise. But it was too late – they'd already heard him.

"Spread out! Search the forest – shout if you see anything!"

"You won't see anything," another hissed. "He'll kill us all before –"

"Shut up! You heard what the humans said. He's helpless!"

Sesshoumaru's claws flexed, his whole body tautening as he longed to show them just how helpless he truly was, but circumstances and a healthy dose of practical realism forced him to stop and think, to evaluate his chances – he was no longer a hot-blooded, reckless pup, to charge in heedless of the odds.

There were twelve of them, full-grown. Once, he would have killed them all with a negligent flick of his wrist – but now, his eyes feral amber, he glared down at them in furious frustration, knowing that there was nothing he could do. He was actually considering working his way around them, no matter how much it stung his pride, when there was a shout, and he saw one of the bandits pointing up towards his hiding place.

"He's up in the tree! He's been watching us all along!" There was a shrill note of terror in the bandit's voice.

"Well, bring it down! We'll overwhelm him on the ground!"

Sesshoumaru felt shock vibrate through the whole tree as the youkai below him attacked it with their swords, trying to cut through the trunk, or rammed into it with their full strength, trying to uproot it. He prepared to jump to another tree, but jerked back in surprise as an arrow whistled past his nose, missing him by a hairsbreadth. He snarled, swaying precariously as the tree rocked; another arrow barely missed him, and he gathered himself for the jump –

"There he is! There he is!"

He jumped, but had a bad start, and could feel himself falling – he reached out, his claws extended, hoping to find a grip as he fell, and he jerked and cried out as an arrow grazed his arm, distracting him so that he missed his mark. There was a great deal of pain and noise as he plummeted, crashing into branches and ripping leaves as he went –

He hit the ground with a great thump, his breath driven out of him, his body heaving as he tried to gasp in air. Painfully, he pushed himself back to his feet, pushing the hair out of his eyes – and then came face to face with the bandits, who were staring at him in undisguised shock.

"Get him!" The leader shouted. The bandits roared in approval, running towards him, swords and spears waving.

Sesshoumaru ran.

"Not long after that, I encountered the bandits. The rest you know."

"You mean you just left them there?" Kagome exclaimed indignantly. "You didn't bury them or anything?"

Sesshoumaru eyed her strangely for a moment. "I had other things to worry about, miko."

Kagome, Inuyasha noted, did not recognize Sesshoumaru's sense of humour.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin whimpered, shivering and afraid. She didn't like it here. She wanted to go back to Sesshoumaru-sama, and Jaken-sama, and Ah-Un, and dance through sunny fields full of meadow-flowers. She couldn't sleep in this stuffy room, enclosed in screens and walls, instead of out under the stars by Sesshoumaru's side, with the cool night breezes and the crackling warmth of a fire…

Sniffing, she felt a big fat tear roll down her cheek. Defiantly, she scrubbed it away. Sesshoumaru-sama did not cry, and so nor would she.

She would be brave. Sesshoumaru-sama was not dead, and he would come to rescue her.

A/N - Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers. Feedback of any sortis greatly appreciated.