Bark at the Moon

an Inuyasha fanfiction

by: Sakura Onna

A/N: Sorry it's been so long, everyone! Things have been kinda busy lately and I wasn't able to find as much time as I would like to write, but please don't lose faith! I haven't given up on this story yet! One of the poems I've written for this story shows up in this chapter.

Chapter 9: Lessons

"Stand firm my child/ even when the four winds blow/ don't let yourself fall." Kimiko recited as she wrote the haiku out in the patch of dirt in front of her and Rin with a twig. It had long been her favorite poem.

Rin sat next to Kimiko with wide eyes as she watched Kimiko's hand gracefully create each little mark in the dirt. Kimiko's writing was pretty, and Rin had never seen a woman write before. Her family had been mere peasants that had to hunt and farm for every morsel of food they could to survive and as such there was never really enough time for even her father and brothers to learn, much less her mother, and if any of the female servants at Sesshomaru's fortress knew how to they made sure not to flaunt it. As far as Rin knew it was rare for females to have any reading or writing skills, much less ones that appeared to be as good as Kimiko's. She pointed to Kimiko's writing.

"What is that, Lady Kimiko?"

"A haiku, a short three line poem. I thought it would be a good starter reading lesson for you because of its length," Kimiko replied with a small smile as she looked at the little girl by her side.

"Did you write it?"

"No, I found it in Father's study when I was around your age, or at least the equivalence of it. I was old enough and strong enough by then that Father felt he could start taking the risk of leaving me alone for a few days without him. He was away from the fortress at the time making negotiations with the Northern Lord at the time. This was written by a woman with the name of Kou," Kimiko's smile widened a bit with her pleasure in Rin's curiosity about the haiku.

Jaken humphed from the stomp he sat on clutching the Staff of Two Heads. He hoped Sesshomaru would return soon and catch Kimiko in the act and put her in her proper place. Kimiko was too bold for Jaken's liking. She didn't act like a woman should. She was impudent and challenging Sesshomaru's authority over the girl with what she was doing. Jaken hoped she would be the one getting a lump on her head for a change instead of him.

Sesshomaru paused at the edge of the treeline near the camp Kimiko had made at the sight that was before him. Kimiko and Rin sat next to each other in a companionable way almost like sisters or the best of friends or maybe even how a mother and daughter would. A slight sense of peace washed over him in knowing that the two females were safe and unharmed and an unfamiliar emotion rose to the surface as he watched the lesson Kimiko was giving Rin. He had never really thought of teaching Rin to read or write since few women were ever educated in such things among their kind. What had prompted Yukimaru to teach his daughter such skills when they weren't seen as being appropriate for females to know?

-----

"Why do you tremble so little foxes?" Naraku's voice sent icy tendrils of fear coursing even stronger through the veins of the two fox youkai cowering in the hollow beneath a tree. They had fled from their lord and hidden for days petrified with fear of what Bakusui would do to them for their failure to capture Kimiko and their cowardice for running from battle with her. Now to be found by the hanyou that was a shared plight of all the Lords seemed a fate worse than what Bakusui could deal them. They knew the stories and rumors of Naraku, and knew that whether they talked or not he would find a way to get the information out of them. "Come now perhaps I can take your fear from you. . ."

"No!" the first fox cried.

"Please don't, Lord! It was the daughter of Yukimaru and the Western Lord! They cut down our ranks like a hot dagger through lard. There is no way we can even stand a chance against them no matter how strong we become!" the second fox begged.

"Yukimaru's daughter?" Naraku asked intrigued. "A woman devastated a group of well trained warriors like your lord's?"

"She inherited her father's legandary skills." "She was personally trained by him." the two foxes said at the same time.

This caught Naraku's attention even more. He knew enough of the tales told among youkai to know of the foreign dog demon who managed to gain great power in the Eastern Lands and become their lord many years ago who met his demise around the same time as the father of the wretched dog brothers who kept finding ways to interfere with his plans and schemes. He also knew of the tales that the foreign dog demon had a unique power that ran in his bloodline, one that tended to kill pups if they didn't inherit an accompanying power. If this female that the foxes were talking about was really one of the foreigner's pups. . . Perhaps her powers would be a good addition to the ones he had already absorbed in the past 52 years and make him even stronger.

"Tell me more about this daughter of Yukimaru. . ."

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A snarl rose from Bakusui's throat and he half stood from his seat. No! This was not supposed to be happening! He was about to throw the blood red crystal against the wall in his rage when a far away sound came through it to him making him pause. He slowly lowered the crystal in his hands and gazed in it. A small image appeared in the dead center of the crystal orb.

"If you still want to go through with your plan, you will only have to work a little harder to achieve it. You know what the appearance of an eighth ray to the sun mark means. Especially when it appears at maturity," the image stated in its small far away voice. "I'm sure you can still complete your little plan if you speed up your pace, young lord."

Bakusui moved over to a chest on the right side of the room and not so gently put the crystal inside. He slammed the lid shut on top and covered the chest with a large piece of white cloth. "I don't need you to tell me that, you old doddering fool! I spent most of my life as one of Yukimaru's men, didn't I? I was one of the few that left Italy to follow him, wasn't I? I dedicated my life to him and his family only to get no thanks and repayment in return. I was the one who stole him his wife poet, Kou, from her homeland of Athens, for gods' sakes! That surely had to be worth something."

He then moved over to the pile of bedding and pelts that covered most of the floor on the other side of the room, and flopped down on them in weariness. The jackal youkai then proceeded to bury himself in his bedding to the point nothing but a few locks of his hair were visible.

"If Narau gets too close to what in mine, I will kill him with my bare hands. . ."

---------

Sesshomaru silently entered the camp and sat a short distance from Kimiko and Rin. Kimiko glanced over at him from the corner of her eye then returned her attention back to the girl. She could sense a slight agitation in his aura.

"Now see this?" Kimiko asked pointing to one of the words she had written. "This is how 'wind' is written in Japanese. And this," she picked up her stick again and put a few new marks in the dirt above her original writing, "is how 'wind' is written in one of the two foreign languages Father insisted that I be able to read, write, and speak. You may not have the most use for it, but then again who knows where you might travel in the future."

This caught Sesshomaru's attention, "And where did he learn them?"

"I would assume his travels, Lord Sesshomaru," Kimiko replied coldly casting a glare in his direction.

Sesshomaru glared back but didn't say a word. She probably had zero idea anyways of what he'd asked. It was clear when she tried to speak the foreign words she had written that neither of those languages flowed nearly as well from her tongue as Japanese did. Why would Yukimaru want her to know so many languages? What purpose was there in teaching her those ones specifically anyways? How did he learn them?

Sesshomaru remained silent through out the rest of Kimiko's lesson until Rin started to yawn severely and he told her to get to sleep because studying when she was so tired wouldn't do her any good. Rin reluctantly when to bed and curled up against Ah-Un's side. (She wouldn't sleep by Sesshomaru until he himself tried to go to sleep.) He didn't mention the skirmishes he had with Bakusui's men or the growing frequency of them. She was bound to have felt their presence at some point. He let her lessons with Rin go without comment as well. Perhaps there was a possible useful benefit that could come from it. He and Kimiko as usual assumed places across from each other to cover two directions at once, but this time Kimiko didn't settle into a tree like she always had. She set herself at the base of a tree like Sesshomaru. This made him curious but still he remained silent in seeing that there was still a glare to her gaze when it landed on him. It was much later when everyone else was asleep that he finally gave in a temptation he had been fighting for a few nights now.

Sesshomaru crouched in front of Kimiko letting himself get a really close look at her for the first time. If any of the others were awake he wouldn't dare be this close to the sleeping inu female. He did NOT want to let on to them that he had any interest in her. Kimiko looked oddly so relaxed in her sleep and...looked...pretty. He tilted his head to the side as his eyes slid down her form. She looked deceptively like she couldn't harm a fly and peaceful like she didn't even know the meaning of the word fight. It was his memory of how easily she really could kill that kept him from believing the illusion the moonlight cast on her in her sleep. As his eyes returned to her face then traveled to her unusual hair, he was struck by the urge to feel it between his fingers. His hand was almost to her golden locks when her eyes suddenly snapped open and he froze.

All Kimiko saw was a face only a few inches from her own before her instincts took hold and she punched it. She blinked a few times then fully sat up from her slightly slouched position with her back to a tree that she had fallen asleep in. She looked around and all she saw were Sesshomaru sitting on his butt on the ground not that far from her with one of his hands rubbing the side of his face and the others asleep near the fire, or what was left of it.

Sesshomaru sat rubbing his jaw trying to determine if she had broken his jaw. Note to self don't get so close to a sleeping Kimiko again with I can't react quick enough to get out of the way of her right hook. Damn she can hit hard! He could feel the developing bruise along his jaw and knew the others were going to ask about it. What the hell kind of excuse could he give them?

"What do you think you're doing?" Kimiko finally asked glaring at him and he froze once more. Actually on second thought, what the hell could he say to the angry female inuyoukai that might keep her from trying to kill him first?!


A/N: Yes. I did it. I had Kimiko do a variation of something Kagome did to InuYasha in an early episode of the anime. :] The episode Kikyo's ashes are stolen to be exact. And I decided to make Bakusui a jackal, which looks a lot like a coyote, and I realise that Italy is a little further east than what the jackal's range is but since it's a youkai I'm talking about such a thing shouldn't make much of difference. And yes I finally made a reference to Kimiko's mother and her origins. And yes this took too long for me to get done. Oh, and, gnarley, your comment a while ago about you being curious about how I envisioned Kimiko has made me curious about how you she her looking.