Thoughts of a Taiyoukai

'You are a complete fraud Naraku; not only that you are a coward'. Sesshoumaru mused after he had encountered the evil hanyou on Mount Hakurei, just after Kikyou had been impaled and pushed into the river of miasma. 'You have also trespassed on my domain; only I have the right to cause my brother injury in mind or body.'

Sesshoumaru had watched Inuyasha as he searched hopelessly for the tragic priestess, realising that the hanyou was distraught at her death. Not that Sesshoumaru cared to know what the relationship was between them, but it was not Naraku's place to interfere with Inuyasha. He had tried before to entice Sesshoumaru to kill Inuyasha, but had only succeeded in making the Taiyoukai his enemy.

Especially when the filthy creature kidnapped Rin, and tried to set the brothers against each other yet again by using Kohaku; Sesshoumaru refused to be manipulated, he didn't need any incentive to eliminate his brother, but it would be in his own due time.

'In fact you are truly pathetic Naraku' Sesshoumaru thought, 'you war against women and pups, yet you run from a fair fight with a youkai of real power. I wonder what it is you require, what desire manipulates you?'

It was important to know how to keep steps ahead of the dark hanyou who tried to involve himself in Sesshoumaru's business. Not for the sake of the Taiyoukai himself, but he had dependents who were vulnerable; not to mention a rash and headstrong brother who often didn't think before he ploughed himself into trouble.

Inuyasha's life was not his own to risk so recklessly, it belonged to Sesshoumaru and was for him to take when he deemed fit. This was yet another reason to hunt down and eliminate the evil creature; he seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with Inuyasha; Sesshoumaru would have to find out the extent of the interaction between them.

Did something happen while Inuyasha was left to his own devices after his mother died? Did Inuyasha know Naraku previous to being sealed to Goshinboku by the living priestess, the copy of which had just died? Surely it couldn't be something as mundane as rivalry for a woman's affections; although he knew how powerful that could be, his own father...well, it didn't do to dwell on that line of thought.

'Perhaps that made sense, Inuyasha seemed very upset that the clay female had been killed, but why would you kill someone you were interested in Naraku? I know Inuyasha seeks the divided jewel and that his hatred of you is personal; were you at the heart of his tragedy? Was it your fault that my idiotic younger brother was sealed to that tree?"

That idea did not sit well with the older brother, but then a confirming thought crossed his mind concerning the spider hanyou. 'Is that the reason you have gone to such lengths to give yourself a pleasing face, no doubt stolen from some human princeling? Your arrogance wouldn't allow you to take on a commoner's appearance. You still seek to be attractive; perhaps you killed her because she spurned you again.'

That made sense as well, what human woman would be drawn to a spider hanyou made up of mismatched and low level youkai; there again, what youkai would be drawn to a human..? Again, this was a thought to leave alone. But Naraku had apparently built himself a more appealing body than when Sesshoumaru had seen him before, when the haphazard spider had organised Rin's kidnapping.

But it must have changed from only lust, if that was indeed the motive behind Naraku; it was obvious the hanyou desired power too for whatever reason, and he needed the jewel to accomplish this. Sesshoumaru smirked, Naraku would never have the innate power of a true youkai as he did, the youkai lord had no need of the jewel's influence to augment his own strengths, but the corrupt hanyou certainly did.

The fool creature had tried to absorb Sesshoumaru's own power, the incomparable power of the Taiyoukai. While the pure youkai had allowed the disgusting parts of flesh to swamp him in order to test how strong Naraku was, in doing so, he had used the spider to protect him from his brother's attack. Sesshoumaru remembered cleaving through the debris of Naraku's body with ease, unscathed and not even dirty; clear proof of his superiority.

Then suddenly like lightening, a flash of inspiration hit the Western Lord and if he had been the sort to chuckle he would have done so at the sheer ludicrous audacity of the hanyou. 'You crave the power and glory of This Sesshoumaru, do you not Naraku? And you seek to emulate my beauty of body and face along with my power?

Sesshoumaru was not being vain, merely stating a fact; over his long years he had been called beautiful many times and had had many suitors wishing to own or possess him to add to their own kudos. He had been well taught to recognise such shallow and fleeting beings and their flattery.

'So Naraku, you would set yourself up in my place; do you also wish to own This Sesshoumaru's Western Lands? I hardly expect that it is because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; you do not seek to flatter and you could not come close to This Sesshoumaru, you are a poor imitation.'

He thought on the Naraku's new form; yes, it was a gaudy attempt to set himself up on a par with Sesshoumaru, even down to the elaborate and oversized bone armour. Not like the tasteful and understated but naturally aristocratic Sesshoumaru whose final musing for the time on Naraku was, 'Pitiful creature; you are beneath my contempt, but make no mistake Naraku, I shall destroy you.'

Lj Community Iyfic Contest. Prompt-Naraku