Chapter 12: Where's Inuyasha?

Disclaimer: I'm too poor to own anything -.-

(Naraku POV)

"Kana," Naraku said as he reached a room's sliding door where kana stood on the other side of. "How is Inuyasha?" he asked opening the sliding door and entering the Japanese styled bedroom. In the middle of the room laid the white haired hanyou who he spoke of, panting with sweat dripping down his forehead. His usually tan face was a ghostly pale and his lips were blue. He almost actually looked dead, almost. A feral smile graced naraku's features as he looked down at the feeble hanyou, before he turned to the black eyed girl.

"Inuyasha is… dying." She said softly. What kana said caused naraku's smile to dissipate as he looked at kana, questioningly. He didn't like what he was hearing; Naraku had plans, very good plans that seemed nearly impossible with the new information.

"Why Is Inuyasha dying?" he hissed out trying to hide his displeasure. Kana features remained the same, impassive, as she seemed to contemplate the answer to naraku's question

"I'm not exactly sure," she answered. "But, I do know that it must have something to do with that cliff." Naraku wasn't exactly catching on but he stayed silent for her explanation to her theory. Kana, seeming to understand what naraku's silence meant; continued what she was saying by telling him her thought. "When I had entered the cliff it had an ominous aura. I don't know what that aura was but it made me feel weaken." Naraku's jolly mood changed to displeasure as he looked at the now defunct hanyou. It was all useless now. "Dispose of the boy; he's useless to me now." Naraku spoke firmly before he turned and left the Japanese styled room.

Kana silent, as she looked at the hanyou, Inuyasha, contemplated the requisition she was given "his life is like a story," she said looking down at him with drear. "Mysterious often with undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever so profoundly interesting: as interesting as the forlorn tales that Naraku sometime spawned during his free time, when he chanced to be in good humour." Kana closed her eyes before she exited the room torpidly. She normally was not one to slug around but she found herself feeling for the hanyou, and so she went and did something she knew she would be gravely punished for. She had planned to save the hanyou, though she was not sure what inspired these feeling. It was something she felt strongly needed to be done.

(Sesshomaru POV)

Sesshomaru no longer had peaceful dreams. They were all filled with Inuyasha and what he could have done to save his brother. Most of them involve Inuyasha dying multiple times and multiple different ways. Like for instance tonight. Sesshomaru dreamed that Inuyasha was falling in lava and burning to death, nothing he could do but watch and they never ended until Inuyasha completely died. At the cracking of dawn, Sesshomaru pulled himself up from his bed and leaned himself against his head board, in a sitting position, depleted from sleep. It had been like that the last couple of weeks. Sesshomaru waking up from sleep exhausted as though he had not been asleep at all. His dreary mind was muddle with thoughts of Inuyasha, and he did not try to push them away. He felt mortified by his behavior and felt as though he had disgrace the inu family name by not saving him. Petulantly, Sesshomaru removed himself from his bedding. He had more important things to do than to lay in bed torpidly.

Sesshomaru slid on his formal clothing before he went on to exiting his bedding chambers. He had to begin the preparations for his brother's funeral. Sesshomaru, himself, was surprised by how much this forlorn situation affected him. He felt frazzled; even though he had barely removed himself from his bed since he had left forte's office.

Sesshomaru walked through his castle walls and headed to his director of celebration, Misaki; a river nymph. His most trusted man when it came to decorating any very important celebration. This was important, it was Inuyasha's funeral. Sesshomaru entered the ballroom where the ballet dancer practice for their next performance at the winter ball of royals; at the sight of their lord, immediately, they all stopped and bowed to him. Sesshomaru paid them little mind as he walked over to the director of celebration, Misaki, who in turn bowed to him.

"My lord," he said, the question hinting in his coffee brown eyes. "What brings you're here?" everyone stared at the two, curious as to the lord of the west answer. He wasn't ready, he didn't want to talk about it but the funeral had to happen. So Sesshomaru said to Misaki that they 'speak in private, in his office'. He then turned on his heels and made his way to his study chambers. Sesshomaru was sure that his lack of speaking was confusing Misaki, and was assured that he was correct when he notice the nymph nervously bite his lips.

As they entered Sesshomaru's study chamber Sesshomaru took a seat at his desk and gestured for Misaki to sit at one of the two chairs on the other side. Misaki fidgeted and looked at Sesshomaru apprehensively; he looked as though he dreaded what Sesshomaru might have called him for. Sesshomaru laid his hand on the desk before he looked the river nymph in the eyes; scaring him half to death.

"Did you know I had a brother?" Misaki seemed surprised at the random question but seemed to have relaxed a little.

"Oh no, my lord, I had not known you had any siblings. Why is he not in the castle?" he asked daringly, knowing there was always a reason for royalty not being in the castle; and it was normally not a good reason. Sesshomaru sighed at the response, understanding why Misaki was so shocked. Since, he never did speak of his brother.

"Yes, why indeed?" he said to himself before he continued with the news he going to tell Misaki. "Yes well I do have a sibling, a brother. His name is Inuyasha" Sesshomaru said as Misaki face lit up in excitement. He seemed as though he was excited Sesshomaru mentioned Inuyasha.

"My lord can you describe him?" Sesshomaru subconsciously smirked as he thought of ways to describe his half-brother. Unnoticed by Sesshomaru, Misaki gasp at the small smile. He had never noticed his lord show emotion. So, to see the lords face made him wonder what kind of person this, Inuyasha, was.

"He's… irrational, impulsive, imperceptive, petulant, and exasperating," Sesshomaru paused and slowly looked at his balcony before standing up and walking onto it, Misaki following close behind; curious as to what was to be said next. "My baby brother is luminous, ambitious, strong-willed, loyal, brave, and honorable…" Sesshomaru leaned against the balcony gracefully as the wind blew his silver locks. Misaki stood beside Sesshomaru and looked at his face. It was passive as it always been, but something felt different. The air that his lord had been one that was… well he didn't how but it felt wrong.

"My lord, what is that you want me to do?" Misaki asked his face serious and his tone was worried. Sesshomaru turned and looked at him. His features were stoic and slightly frightening but it was different from before. Sesshomaru gold eyes burned into Misaki and all he wanted to do was look away. But in that moment Misaki notice how slow Sesshomaru movements were. It wasn't until Misaki noticed that he realize the slow beating of Sesshomaru's heart. It perplexed him, the unusual behavior but he kept his mouth shut about it.

"I want you to prepare my brother's…funeral." Misaki's eyes widened in shock, He could not believe that Sesshomaru's brother was dead. Slowly Sesshomaru's eyes gave up eye contact and continued to look up at the sky. As Misaki watched Sesshomaru he finally understood; his lord was grieving. Misaki swallowed the lump in his throat before he bowed on his knees to Sesshomaru.

"It would be an honor, my lord." Misaki said firmly. He couldn't believe this was happening, Inuyasha's death. He had hoped he could spend his career not having to bury any of the royal inu's.

"You may leave" Sesshomaru said not moving an inch from his position as Misaki stood up and walked over to the office door, then left.

Instantly after Misaki's departure, Sesshomaru took to the skies. He flew to the place he was expecting Inuyasha's pack to be; the Edo village.

Entering the village was not nearly as much work as Sesshomaru thought it would be. He had thought that Inuyasha being gone would make the villagers upgrade their defenses. Considering how many enemies Inuyasha and his group of humans had. Sesshomaru walked through the gate before he looked at the villagers who were preparing for something. Sesshomaru walked up to one of them before he spoke.

"Where is Inuyasha's pack," the old man turned around before he looked at Sesshomaru fearfully.

"Demon," the man yelled before he ran off and caused every other villager who was around to run away in a chaotic mess. Sesshomaru, with annoyance, walked toward the area where humans pointed their torches and spears in fear. Not feeling the slightest bit threatened, Sesshomaru walked up to the 'humans playing brave', with a passive face. He kept his voice steady as he calmly asked the humans his, less than pleasing, question.

"Where is Inuyasha's pack?" with the question asked, heads turned to one another in slight confusion. Whispers of Sesshomaru and Inuyasha's resemblance were one the main topics of their conversation.

"What do ye want with Inuyasha and lady kagome?" Sesshomaru twitched in irritation at the sound of the miko's name. As much as Sesshomaru tried to ignore the girl's presence as much as possible, the aggravating child always managed to stick her nose in places it did not belong. Frankly though, Sesshomaru knew that kagome held a very large place in Inuyasha heart. So allowing that screeching girl to live was one of the ways Sesshomaru respected Inuyasha's wishes after his death.

"This Sesshomaru wants Inuyasha's body." The old miko looked at me suspiciously as though I was not supposed to know of my own brother's death. With her hands behind her back, the old women walked over to me and looked at me analytically. The women seemed wise and seemed to understand that Sesshomaru was not in the mood for small chit chat. Though she seemed slightly taken aback by the fact that I knew Inuyasha was dead, and so did the other villagers.

"And what does ye want with young Inuyasha's body," Sesshomaru contemplated strangling the women until she gave him his brother but something about those old, brown eyes. They seemed to know to understand things that surprisingly Sesshomaru wasn't sure he knew. With this realization Sesshomaru gave the women his respect.

Sesshomaru let out a small sigh that was barely audible for the human ear before he looked the women in the eyes. "I want to give my little brother a funeral." Gasps over took the crowd as murmurs of understanding from their previous questions. Though the women only seemed to nod in understanding. She had not seemed surprised at all.

"No!" the voice shrieked in Sesshomaru's ears causing his eye to twitch. "You have absolutely no right to have Inuyasha's body," Said the emerging bratty girl. Sesshomaru laid a glare at the girl as she walked up to him with a confidence that disgusted him. She was too used to Inuyasha. The child walked right over to me and stopped when she was right up my face. I looked down at the puffy eyed girl, my anger slowly beginning to boil. I looked down at the girl quickly composing myself as her, more than wise, monk warned of her close proximity to me. But of course as the ignorant child she was she pushed on.

"You have absolutely no right to be anywhere near Inuyasha's body. After everything you've done to him. Ha! Don't make me laugh. You're cruel, vindictive and just down right horrible to him." Sesshomaru looked down at her passively as she went on about how he had no right to bury his younger brother. She disgusted him to very high degrees. Slowly it began to feel as though every fiber of his being abhorred her. "You do not deserve to see him. You are not honorable enough to see him, okay. After everything you have done you do not deserve anything you disgusting, evil, horrible, bastard of a man." The anger that Sesshomaru had tried to hold back the entire time this human sat there and insulted me was no longer able to be held. His tolerance was gone. 'I held my ground and kept my mouth shut for Inuyasha's sake. But I change my mind instead I'll give him a parting gift.'

The wench was about to speak some more but just the mere thought of hearing her voice made Sesshomaru's hand shot out and gripped her throat. Kagome struggled clawing at his hand so that she could be able to break free. But, she only managed to make Sesshomaru tighten his grip on her neck. Everyone in the area freaked and Sesshomaru already heard weapons being drawn and pleads being said. Though Sesshomaru heard none of that, instead Sesshomaru focused his mind on one task, and one task alone, ending that girl's life. But no, no this was too quick. Slowly Sesshomaru's grip loosened slightly allowing kagome to breathe, though he did not ease the pain, not one bit.

"Listen child, do not take the fact that I had not snapped you neck the moment you uttered a single word an allowance for you to run free with the words that come from your mouth. I allowed you to speak to me because of your relationship with Inuyasha." Sesshomaru said passively. The villagers hollered at Sesshomaru to let down their priestess but it was all put under foot as Sesshomaru continued. "Do not miss understand-" gasps over took the villagers as a hand was placed on Sesshomaru's shoulder. Sesshomaru deadly slowly turned his head to the side to look at the human with the bravery to actually lay its hands upon him. But as Sesshomaru looked at the person his breath was caught in his throat.

"Let Kagome go," Sesshomaru dropped her, too surprise to even think about his actions.

"Inuyasha…" Sesshomaru wondered if anyone else could hear the shock from his voice. He stared his brother who looked beaten and messy. His white hair was dirty though it seemed as though Inuyasha had tried to fix it, if even a little. His skin was dirty and his clothing was torn and raggedy. Though what had captured Sesshomaru the most were Inuyasha's eyes. They looked beaten and tired as though he was just tired of everything as if he had given up.

"Inuyasha!" the miko screeched jumping into Inuyasha's arms, clearly not noticing the slight sway as he hugged her back. Inuyasha tried to hide the fact that he had held on to kagome to make sure he himself did not fall.

As Inuyasha tried to calm down the miko, Sesshomaru began to smell the faint scent of blood, Inuyasha's blood. Sesshomaru looked down at Inuyasha's foot and began to make his way up naming all of Inuyasha's injuries; a sprained ankle on his right leg, a deep gash on his left thigh, a crack in his femur. Inuyasha also had numerous cut and gashes on his abdominal region and arms. And let's not forget the fact that Inuyasha right arm was broken.

"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru said silently causing the miko to let him go, which Inuyasha visibly sighed from. "You are not dead." Sesshomaru stated not exactly sure what to say to Inuyasha, since they had never actually had a real conversation before.

"You care?" Inuyasha said his voice rough and dead as if he had not spoken in days. Which he probably hasn't. Inuyasha looked up at Sesshomaru with his cold emotionless eyes. Sesshomaru took a few steps closer to his brother, stopping just a few feet away. The miko seemed as though she was about to say something but Sesshomaru settle a quick glare at her before he looked back at Inuyasha.

"Yes, Inuyasha, I do." the reply seemed to shock most of the humans who already encountered Sesshomaru before. While the miko scoffed at my comment. Inuyasha on the other hand did not seem to react at all by my comment. Instead he looked to side where a fox demon child appeared out of nowhere and jumped into Inuyasha's arms causing him to whence silently. But the child didn't notice as he cried into his arms. The child seemed to try to form words but gave up after he realized his tears wouldn't let him. It wasn't until the child came that Inuyasha's facial expression softened before it hardened again.

"It's okay, Shippo." Inuyasha said softly trying to be strong even though the child was hurting him. It was getting pitiful, watching Inuyasha pretend like the miko holding onto his broken arm to her breast and the fox child, Shippo, leaning onto his injured abdominal wasn't as painful as hell itself. Sesshomaru having seen enough pulled the miko's arms off of Inuyasha's causing her to gasps annoyingly.

"Stop acting strong around me." Sesshomaru said gripping Inuyasha's arm and causing him to gasps in pain so great that he almost cause him to drop the fox demon. The child seeming to understand slowly began to remove himself from Inuyasha.

"How dare you! Do not touch Inuyasha!" she said yanking Inuyasha's arm out of my grasps.

"Ahh!" Inuyasha yelled unable to contain the grips and grabs of his broken arm anymore. Though the instant he yelled he tried to pretend as though he was fine as the rest of his pack walked over to him.

"Oh my god, Inuyasha, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were hurt!" the miko screeched.

"Yeah Inuyasha if you were hurt you should have said something." the demon slayer said.

"Perhaps we should all call it a day, right lord Sesshomaru." The monk yelled to everyone, seeming to be the only one out of Inuyasha's traveling pack to understand Inuyasha's preference to not having everyone know he was injured. Sesshomaru turned and looked at the monk before he looked back at Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha, I'll come speak to you again." Sesshomaru said before he took to the skies not leaving room for debate. He knew his brother and he knew that Inuyasha most likely did not want to speak to him again, but Sesshomaru was done with the brother feud. It was strange thinking it but he couldn't be surer about his decision. He knew it would not be easy, letting his brother in his life. But he also knew that it would be more difficult shoving him away. Especially after Sesshomaru's reflection. Plus there was more at stake now; like his father never being to rest and his brother's soul. It was strange, yes, but when Sesshomaru looked into Inuyasha's eyes he saw more than just someone who was tired he saw his brother fading into the darker part of his heart and beginning to believe that there was nowhere left for him, and that was all Sesshomaru's fault. Though he preferred making his brother believe there was a place for him, not as Sesshomaru's brother but as Inutaisho's son.

A/N: geez that took forever. Though that was my fault for making it so darn LLLLLLOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGG. Anyways I wanted to hurry up and answer everyone's question. Is Inuyasha dead? The answer as you have just read is no! I'm not crazy enough to kill Inuyasha and if I did? You have full permission to punch me in the throat. Anyways Inuyasha is not dead, kagome needs to get punched in the throat, Sesshomaru is a jerk (as always), I suck at writing in third person, and hopefully Sesshomaru wasn't too late in saving Inutaisho. Now I want yaoi already! Don't worry guys I'm just as eager to get yaoi as much as you guys. Plus it's winter break, you know what that means? Quick posts, yay! Anyways that's chapter 12. I love you all see you next chapter. R&R

brz : I absolutely love Strength and the Sacred Trees. Please if you find more tell me. thank you.