Forbidden Desires
An InuYasha alternate by Wolfye Productions.
All InuYasha characters are © Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Communications, Inc., Shonen Sunday, Sunrise and Nihon TV. Characters are used without the express prior permission of the aforementioned. Story concept, other characters and original situations are © Wolfye Productions; this fanfic is written for entertainment purposes only.
Chapter Two
How dare he.
How dare this insufferable creature put his disgusting paws all over her delicate body. From outside, he could hear his beloved scuffling around as she attempted to stop the vile thing from whatever he was doing. With her, he could smell the bodies of two of her companions, but InuYasha was nowhere to be found. Where in seven hells was that blasted hanyou? And how could he have left her side for her to become kidnapped in the first place?
Pulling his youki in close to his body, Sesshoumaru quietly stole into the small shack. The poisonous fumes within the hut, coupled with the creature crying and babbling nonsense, allowed for the perfect cover for him to walk up behind the thing undetected.
Pure anger, cold and calculating, overcame him when he saw the thing's despicable hands wrapped around her throat, slowly choking her to death. Without any hesitations he flexed his claws, bringing forth his dokkasou, and slashed at the back of the creature. Immediately, the creature dropped Kagome, obviously in shock that he had not noticed him enter the hut before. But his ire was not yet sated, and he grew even angrier at the fact that the creature was still upright.
Summoning forth more of his deadly poison, he instead plunged his claws through the creature's chest, passing right through where the heart should be. Or rather, where it should have been. Sesshoumaru's lip curled in disgust. He had not felt anything as his hand had passed through the body.
Quickly pulling his hand back out, he watched in satisfaction as the creature finally went sprawling, and his gaze fell on the eyes of his beloved. Without words, he attempted to convey to her with his eyes alone that everything would be okay, and that he would not let anything more happen to her from that vile creature. He watched as her eyes widened in surprise, likely due from the fact that he was rescuing her instead of the pathetic hanyou. No matter; InuYasha was no longer competent at carrying out his duty as her protector. Speaking of which...
"Where is InuYasha?" he asked, attempting to ascertain the whereabouts of his bastard brother, softening his tone while he questioned her and her friends.
"Who are you?" the creature asked, staring up at him from his position on the floor, bulbous eyes blinking back in shock.
Slowly, he allowed his gaze to travel down from Kagome's face to land on the thing that had spoken to him in such a disrespectful tone.
"That is my question to you," he stated, narrowing his eyes at the creature, pleased when it sweated profusely as it sat up in terror before him, clutching a canister to its chest.
"You don't know me, yet you'll..." it whimpered in fear, before grabbing a box of other canisters to itself. Without warning, it launched its hideous form out the front door of the tiny shack, ripping the bamboo covering off the doorway in the process.
Curiosity overcame Sesshoumaru as he watched the creature stumble out, only to come to a stop a few paces away.
"I stabbed you with my toxic claws, and yet you are still moving?" he pondered aloud, following his prey out through the open doorway, his steps as graceful as ever.
Ah, now he knew why. Before, the toxic fumes inside the hut had masked the creature's true scent, but now, out in the open, he could smell the thing more clearly. It was dead, much like the woman whom InuYasha still chased after, and that was the reason it was still living even after he had stabbed the thing through the chest.
Before he could think any further, the creature rounded on him with two of his canisters, halting him in his steps.
"Die!" the vile thing shouted, followed by its disgusting laughter. "Serves you right!"
Patiently, he bided his time, waiting for the poisonous fumes to dissipate. When it did, he fixed a glare on the creature, now fully intent on sending it back to its grave. He knew not how the creature had come to be reanimated, but now he was determined to end its new life not only for insulting him and daring to even think that the fumes would actually kill him, but also for the fact that it had touched and attempted to kill Kagome. And that in itself was entirely unforgivable.
The creature drew back in shock and horror when it discovered that Sesshoumaru was still standing and very much alive, and once again he resumed his advance towards it, claws flexed in preparation for the final kill. Its pathetic screams for him to stop fell on indifferent ears as he approached the huddling figure on the ground, hands raised in pacification.
Pathetic, he thought to himself as he stopped within mere feet of the thing, which had crouched and turned its back to him, trembling in fear, its head buried in the bushes to the side of the road. It continued to scream nonsense at him, as if he would ever accept this thing's apologies for what he had done.
Of course, he wasn't surprised when the thing launched itself back around, a large canister in its hands seconds before the tube exploded, showering him with even more putrid poison. The creature's sickening laughter erupted in the clearing, and he waited yet again for the fumes to level out.
"Even demons will die from this..." the creature sang out, assured of its victory.
Sesshoumaru resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Perhaps the poison would have worked on a lesser demon, but he was Sesshoumaru, eldest son of the greatest demon to have ever lived in Japan . Something of this magnitude was merely annoying to him, and he off-handedly thanked his own mother for giving to him the gift of blood poison when he was borne, thus making him naturally immune to nearly all toxins. Anger boiled in him at the audacity of the thing, thinking that it could defeat him of all demons. He pulled Toukijin from his sash and waited.
At long last, the fumes faded, and he heard the thing gasp in surprise when it saw him still standing there and yet again still very much alive. Pathetic creature and its misguided assumptions.
"Why won't you dissolve?" it cried out in anger, sweat pouring down the sides of its face as it soon realized its own impending death. "Its toxin was made by the Poison Master Mukotsu!"
Now he really wanted to roll his eyes at the creature's ignorance. But instead, with a flick of his wrist, he swung the tip of hs blade up in a graceful arc, immediately slicing the creature in half. He watched as the thing screamed in terror and pain once before disintegrating back into its original form of dust and bones. At last, his beloved was avenged.
"As if poison made for humans would work on this Sesshoumaru," he spat out in disgust at the pile of dust while sliding Toukijin back to its rightful place at his side, not caring in the slightest that he had answered the creature's question, albeit a bit late for it to have heard.
"KAGOME!"
Sesshoumaru grimaced at the obnoxious cry. InuYasha was coming, and that now foiled his plans of being able to attend to his beloved. He waited, and it wasn't long before his detestable half-brother came tearing into the clearing with the little kitsune in tow.
"Sesshoumaru?!" InuYasha shouted when he finally skidded to a halt next to him, surprise at seeing him evident on his youthful face. But before he could reply, InuYasha's attention was diverted to the little hut behind him, its front facing wall having had been blown off from the noxious explosion from the creature's final blast.
He watched from the corner of his eye as his half-brother knelt down next to Kagome's prone form, his heart aching from the knowledge that it should have been himself in that coveted position next to her.
"Everyone's dead!" the kitsune exclaimed in dismay, making him frown slightly. Obviously the hanyou hadn't taught the young kit to use his nose properly. Then again, it was InuYasha, whose own senses fell far short of his own highly trained ones.
As expected, InuYasha whirled on him in anger, obviously coming to the nonsensical conclusion that he had been the one to wreak havoc upon the group. He mentally scoffed. As if he could ever do such a thing to her.
"Why you! What'dya do to Kagome and the others?" InuYasha accused, the half-breed's rough language making him cringe yet again. He frowned even more, but was saved from rebutting when Kagome interfered.
"That's not it," she said, struggling against the paralytic poison to raise herself weakly from the ground. He secretly admired her strength and resilience in this situation, and how she was able to act and speak calmly even after her near death experience. It was what he had almost come to admire most about her character.
"Sesshoumaru... saved us," she breathed out, her voice straining against the effort of using it. He watched from the side as she glanced from InuYasha's puzzled face to his own, their eyes meeting just briefly, and his heart soared at the warmth and gratitude that radiated through her gaze. But, he would save both of them face, for he had yet to show to anyone exactly what she meant to him, even if it would hurt him to do so.
"I did not save you," he stated, tearing his gaze away from her own. He couldn't bear to see her reaction from the words he would say; it would hurt too much. Schooling his features into his usual mask, he continued.
"He did not tell me what I needed to know. That is all," he replied, his voice dropping slightly into a softer tone, for her sake.
"Needed to know what?" InuYasha inquired, his tone still slightly unbelieving.
Sesshoumaru let out a slight breath of air in a semblance of a sigh. Must he tell him everything? But then, he told himself, any information he divulged would also be for her sake, and that made it okay. But he needn't tell them the whole truth, now did he?
"I can smell that kid, Kohaku, in the area," he answered, apparently shocking the whole group with the information. Of course, he had left out the fact that, while it was true he had been following the boy's scent to this location, he had given up his search the moment he had smelt her scent coming from the hut and knew she had been in danger. Let them believe for now that his only motive had been to seek out the slayer child.
His gaze turned to locked onto InuYasha's, his eyes narrowed as the heat of his glare transfixed the young pup, and he watched as the hanyou attempted to suppress the shiver he had provoked.
"Does this mean that Naraku is nearby?" he asked none too subtly, his voice cold with his barely suppressed rage and distaste for the dark hanyou. "Answer me, InuYasha. Where is Naraku?"
"We haven't found him either," InuYasha replied, the hanyou's own anger and frustration surfacing just slightly in his tone. "Just some spectres possessing Shikon shards have come after us lately. I'm sure that Naraku is nearby."
"That is all I needed to know," he said curtly to his brother, then, after one last glance at her prone form on the ground, he swiftly turned around and began making his way away from the group.
His heart was torn from the anguish he felt in leaving her behind in the hanyou's care, but he knew that InuYasha would go to extraordinary lengths to keep her safe from harm. For now, he had to content himself in the knowledge that he had saved her from yet another untimely death at the hands of their enemies.
He heard his brother call after him once but he didn't bother looking back, nor acknowledging the call in any way. Instead, he focused on his feet, commanding them to continue taking each step forward, away from his beloved female.
And it hurt like hell.
