Chapter 11

I don't own Inuyasha

"Challenge?" Rin asked confused. "What does he mean by challenging Lord Sesshoumaru for their homeland?" Her question was directed towards Jaken, but Ratetsurei was able to pick up on her question and decided to answer her.

"What are you, a child? Don't you know anything? Do you think he's called Lord Sesshoumaru for nothing?"

Rin could have almost burst into laughter, thinking that she was a child only a week or so ago and was now a half demon woman. 'I know he's a lord but I never quite thought about it.' Rin grew worried as she thought about it more. 'Somehow I already know though. I know about it all.'

Ratetsurei continued on with his talking. "Sesshoumaru is lord of the Western lands, where I and our Clan of dog demons live." Ratetsurei became even tenser as he thought about Sesshoumaru and the current situations going on in his homeland. "He hasn't been there in years, hundreds of years. "We heard of your father's passing. It's hard to believe that even the great dog demon himself could be brought down by such frail creatures: mortals." He got out of his fighting possession and created fists in a burst of anger and began to clench them. His nails dug into his skin and he started to bleed but he was so angry at Rin and Sesshoumaru that he didn't even feel his skin being pierced. "Yet knowing what these disgusting creatures have done, you decide to take one as your mate?"

Jaken's mouth dropped in shock and disgust, while Rin's just dropped in shock. She did start blushing though. That couldn't be denied. "Lord Sesshoumaru and I aren't mates!" she cried.

"Why would I ever take a pathetic mortal as my mate, Ratetsurei?" Said Sesshoumaru.

Ratetsurei calmed down a little and relaxed so he could fight easier. "You know what they say?" He cracked his knuckles. "Like father like son."

Even though Sesshoumaru was angry at the fact that he was insulted by Ratetsurei, he decided to smirk regardless. "Ratetsurei, you must surely know that I intend on defeating you and I very much so easily will. You never stood a chance against me and yet you persist. I must know the reason for your insanity."

"You don't know much about me anymore, Sesshoumaru. I would have been just fine with you taking your position as our leader, but you've been gone for such a long time, I decided that someone had to take over. Your father was dead and you had abandoned us. It seemed like the right move." He snarled. "But the problem was that no one wanted you to be replaced because everyone assumed that you were still coming back." He smirked himself. "But they all agreed that I am worthy enough to lead the pack if I could bring back your head!"

Sesshoumaru was actually amused at this situation now. "And they were all actually foolish enough to attempt to think for a moment that you could accomplish your goal."

"Unfortunately, some of them like Ziah don't believe that I am capable, but I do plan on proving all of them wrong."

"Ziah?" Rin asked quietly. 'Who is that? Sounds like a woman's name…' She began to pout a little bit. It couldn't be helped though. She didn't even realize that the name made her upset. She was just agitated and didn't realize why. She hadn't ever quite felt the emotion of jealousy before and she hadn't even seen the girl's face. 'Is this Ziah a dog demon like Lord Sesshoumaru?' Her frown increased. 'Is she a pretty dog demon?'

Ratetsurei took his sword and ran to Sesshoumaru without warning, but Sesshoumaru was ready and jumped back and began to battle Ratetsurei with Tokijin. Ratetsurei began swinging his sword in a rage, but Sesshoumaru stayed calm as always and was able to dodge his attacks. "You've gotten weaker, or at least I would think so."

"And why is that?"

"You only have one arm."

That ticked Sesshoumaru off quite a bit and his temper flared. He swung the Tokijin and blue energy began was flung at Ratetsurei, but he flipped into the air and dodged it. He was indeed a skilled fighter and was confident enough to start laughing at Sesshoumaru. "This is interesting. I guess that last remark made you upset."

"It certainly is interesting. You assume that I'm weaker and yet you're still losing."

"Our battle has only begun. All that matters is who walks away from this battle, and it won't be you!" Ratetsurei charged Sesshoumaru and their swords met each other and flashes of lightening shot from throughout the both of them. Ratetsurei had nothing but pure passion in his eyes. He didn't really hate Sesshoumaru all that much, not enough to kill him anyway. He did however need to beat Sesshoumaru for his home. They wouldn't respect him as a leader and they desperately needed one at this point in time. The only way to be that leader was to kill Sesshoumaru and he was most certainly willing to kill Sesshoumaru or any other demon that came in his way of ruling of the Western lands.

Jaken was in awe from both of their power, but was confident that his lord would prevail. He found all of this to be a fascinating fight, since he hadn't really had that much contact with dog demons besides his lord and Inuyasha. Rin was still wondering about Ziah and all of the other dog demons that must have lived where Sesshoumaru's home was. 'I wonder if everyone looks like Lord Sesshoumaru. What does his home look like? Are there only dog demons there? How come Lord Sesshoumaru has been gone for so long?' She suddenly grew sad. 'What if he chose to leave me and go home to the Western lands? They wouldn't accept me if I went with him. I'm too different.' She wouldn't have noticed that her appearance would have made a difference if she was a child, but she knew that now. She knew so much now. 'What will you do, Lord Sesshoumaru?'

Ratetsurei jumped back from Sesshoumaru and tried to catch his breath. He tried to make it unnoticeable, but Sesshoumaru noticed that Ratetsurei was starting to sweat while Sesshoumaru was not even really warmed up. "This is turning into a rather anticlimactic battle, don't you think? You did all that talk only to start to fail miserably."

"I won't fail!" Ratetsurei smirked. "Besides, I don't think I have much to worry about. That's not exactly the Tetsusaiga. Where is your father's sword?" Sesshoumaru grunted, which pleased Ratetsurei. "What, did it break? Did your father not give you the sword?" He smirked. "Or was it simply because you weren't strong enough to wield it?"

Sesshoumaru placed his sword back on his sash and cracked his knuckles. "I'll beat you without any sword at all, so your humiliation will be multiplied." He held out two of his fingers and his nails began to glow. "Are you ready for the depths of Hell to be opened to you, Ratetsurei?"

Ratetsurei tried not to show how nervous he was. He thought for sure he would have surpassed Sesshoumaru. He stayed calm the best he could. "Don't kid yourself Sesshoumaru. Living outside the Western lands has made you weak. You travel with a half breed, you are missing an arm, and you carry around a sword that brings people back from the dead. What could you accomplish with such a sword?" He began to become very sarcastic. "What? Did you even save a mortal's life?" When Sesshoumaru didn't reply and when Ratetsurei noticed that Rin started to blush, he began to laugh histerically. "Are you serious? That is why this half breed follows you? You saved her life? Ha! You don't deserve to lead our pack!"

"And you don't deserve to speak in my presence!" Like a bolt of lightening, Sesshoumaru's light whip quickly flung into Ratetsurei's face and split his lips in half. Ratetsurei almost panicked. He felt his lips. They would have been bleeding if Sesshoumaru's whip wasn't so hot. Ratetsurei didn't want to, but he looked scared. He had never been so afraid in his whole entire life. He looked up into Sesshoumaru's eyes and Sesshoumaru could clearly see how afraid Ratetsurei was. Sesshoumaru had disgust in his eyes. Seeing such a pathetic dog demon angered him. "I suppose it's time to put you out of your misery."

Ratetsurei was determined to make himself look good again. He put his sword back into his sheath and two of his finger nails began to glow. "Let's begin this battle." Ratetsurei flung his lightening whip at Sesshoumaru, but Sesshoumaru used his to block it. Ratetsurei was over come by a massive amount of rage and continuously kept swinging his whip forward, but Sesshoumaru blocked it every time.

"You're desperate now. You've already lost your pride. Don't seek to gain it back."

"Shut up!" Ratetsurei flung his whip toward Sesshoumaru, but instead of blocking it, Sesshoumaru let his attack fade into nothing and dodged Ratetsurei's whip. He was so fast that Ratetsurei didn't notice Sesshoumaru had moved until it was too late. Sesshoumaru grabbed Ratetsurei's arm that had created the whip and began to burn it with his poison. Ratetsurei yelled out in pain and tried to pull his arm away, but Ratetsurei couldn't. He could already feel Sesshoumaru burning through his skin. After a while, he couldn't feel anything in that area, since his nerves were being destroyed. "Stop it!"

He started to punch wildly at Sesshoumaru with his available arm, but Sesshoumaru was fast enough to dodge it without letting go of Ratetsurei's arm. Soon his grip was lost, but only because he got done melting off the bone, and then the hole forearm fell off. "Now, you only have one arm." Ratetsurei backed away from Sesshoumaru. He wasn't going to beg for his life. That would have been pathetic, and he at least wanted to keep his honor. There was nothing he could do now. Sesshoumaru had already won. Sesshoumaru clawed Ratetsurei in the face so bad that the nerves could be seen in his cheeks. After that, Sesshoumaru decided that he had enough and grabbed Ratetsurei's neck and held him up in the air.

"Go ahead and kill me," Ratetsurei said weakly. "You already won."

"I know, but I'm not going to kill you until you tell me why you came after me. You must have been feeling these emotions for a long time. What is the reason why you decided to come after me now?"

"Why should I tell you? It's not like you care?"

Sesshoumaru tightened the grip on Ratetsurei's neck and his poison began to slowly take affect. He was burning him away extremely slow and it hurt much worse than burning away Ratetsurei's arm. "I'm losing my patience."

Ratetsurei didn't want to say anything, but he failed, so Sesshoumaru was still his leader. "Lord Sesshoumaru, there is trouble in our home. We're about to enter a great war with demons from the north. They hope to take over and are extremely strong. I wanted to lead our people into victory." His nerves were beginning to burn away. "I guess that's not going to happen."

Ratetsurei lost consciousness and once Sesshoumaru knew that he could no longer get any information out of Ratetsurei, he dropped him, and as he was falling, Sesshoumaru made his light whip appear and he split Ratetsurei in half.

Jaken began cheering. "Marvelous job, my lord! That was excellent. He never stood a chance against you!"

Rin was a little shocked her Lord's ruthlessness in battle. He was so dangerous and deadly. In one way it scared her, but it mostly just made her even more attracted to him. She tried not to let it show at all. "Nice job, my lord." Her cheeks were burning.

Sesshoumaru didn't necessarily enjoy killing Ratetsurei. He was one of his own people. He was supposed to be one of his followers. Sesshoumaru hadn't been home in such a long time. He couldn't blame Ratetsurei for challenging him, but couldn't pity his death, especially since he was foolish enough to actually think that he could kill the great Lord Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumaru had left attempting to make a name for himself instead of simply just getting his kingdom handed over to him by his father. He needed to find himself. As soon as Naraku was defeated, Sesshoumaru would be on the starting path of becoming the greatest demon in the entire world. 'Making one detour wouldn't change anything.' "Jaken…"

Jaken ran over to his lord and looked up at him proudly. "Yes, my lord?"

"I'm going to be leaving for a while. You and Rin are to stay here and wait for my return I will return in a few days."

Jaken didn't want to see his lord go. It was obvious where Sesshoumaru was going and Jaken wanted to see his lord's home land. It must have been wonderful. "Yes, my lord. We will be here waiting for your return." He looked behind him to see Rin. 'Hopefully the girl doesn't go insane.'

"Lord Sesshoumaru!" Rin ran up to her lord. "I wish to accompany you, wherever you go. I would follow you to the ends of the earth, my lord!"

Sesshoumaru just simply turned away from her and started walking away. "Stay as you were instructed, Rin. Do nothing more."

Rin couldn't believe that he had nothing more to say than that. 'He's just going to leave me and Jaken like this? I can't believe it! He's going home and I can't go with him.' She frowned. 'He's ashamed of me.'

Sesshoumaru couldn't help but think of his home while he left on his journey. It had been such a long time. His father was still alive the last time he was there. Many that he had known were not going to be as he remembered. He wasn't going to be as they remembered. Everyone would ask of the missing Tetsusaiga and the missing arm, both the fault of his half breed brother Inuyasha. Many would think that Sesshoumaru might actually have an interest in mortals, which disgusted him above all. 'I and a mortal, that is truly disgusting and disgraceful.'

A few days later, Rin was bored out of her mind with Jaken. She hadn't had any sudden evil spasms and no dreams about Hikakustu. Surprisingly, that made her slightly upset. She was so bored she wished something would come along and do something. Even the tempting talks from Hikakustu made her mind wondering. She tried to keep her mind off of her lord. Thinking of how Sesshoumaru was gone to his wonderful home with other dog demons made her feel uneasy. She couldn't get that one name out of her head. "Jaken, has Lord Sesshoumaru ever mentioned the name Ziah before?"

"Not to me, but Lord Sesshoumaru does not often mention anything of his past." Rin and Jaken were sitting in the shade of the forest. Jaken missed his lord, but he started to consider this all a vacation. "Do not worry about Lord Sesshoumaru. What he does or did is not your business."

Rin smiled as she began to sniff the air. "Master Jaken, would you like to assist me?"

"Assist you with what?" Jaken turned his head away from Rin, not wanting any part of it. "I refuse! You are an insane demon. I will not assist you with anything!"

"But I wish to gather the jewel shards. Now is the best time to gather them."

"Why, because Lord Sesshoumaru is gone? He told us not to leave this spot. You would be disobeying his orders if you left." He stood to his feet and actually thought about going with her. Sesshoumaru would be angry if Rin was hurt.

"Don't worry Jaken; it has nothing to do with the fact that Lord Sesshoumaru is gone. I just simply know where there happens to be some jewel shards."

"And how would you know something like that?"

She sniffed the air again and started to smirk. "I smell wolf."

To be continued…