Disclaimer: This fanfiction is based on "Inuyasha", copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement of copyright intended or implied.

Blood Unbound, Part XI: Kitsunes

Hah! Rikaru grinned savagely as the inu-hanyo fell. Landing lightly on a branch overlooking the stream, the blue-eyes kitsune ignored the youkai owl he startled into flight, smirking as he looked down at his coughing, sneezing companions.

"What is that stench, Rikaru-sensei?" demanded the dark-red haired Masaki, staggering over to drop to his knees by his older brother, who was frantically pawing his muzzle. "Make it go away!"

"It's just an illusion," he said with another smirk. "But you'll need to get that hanyo out of the water and pinned down before I release it."

The young kitsune muttered something under his breath, which sounded like it included "do it yourself", and then joined his other brother in dragging the taller and heavier inu-hanyo onto dry ground. Rikaru watched them struggle with their task, secretly amused, though silently acknowledging to himself that he might have to do something to mollify Masaki. The youngest of the three brothers was hotheaded and could be rather indiscriminate in his use of his foxfire, which was quite powerful for someone of his youth. Fortunately, the boy was as susceptible to flattery as his next older brother. A pity Eijimaru, the oldest, was not so inclined, but he was a worrier, which was another way of saying he could be distracted.

The kitsune pulled the hanyo onto his back, and then started to tie his wrists together. "That will never hold him," called down Rikaru, trying to not roll his eyes. "Find some stones, and magic them up to boulder size. Big boulders."

"Yeah, stupid," said Shinkubi with a whack to his younger brother's head, "go find some rocks."

"Hey, you go find the rocks!" retorted the younger fox, shoving his brother in retaliation.

"You both go get rocks, and now," snapped Rikaru. "Before the illusion fades? I'd hate to think of an unbound inu-hanyo deciding he wants kitsune for breakfast."

Startled yips and a mad scramble to obey broke up the incipient squabble. Small stones were fished out of the creek and placed over the outstretched hands and feet. The first one had to be re-magicked three times before its apparent size and weight were sufficient to satisfy Rikaru. With that example, the other three needed only one attempt apiece.

"Good enough," allowed the elder fox as the two looked up for his approval. A 'pop' sounded as he broke the illusion spell. "Now go get your brother on his feet and go find Akeneka."

"You're going to be all right by yourself, sensei?" asked Shinkubi.

"Of course I will," snorted Rikaru. He dropped down from the branch, landing on the hanyo's stomach. "Now find her."

* * * * *

The last thing he recalled was the overwhelming stench, and falling. He coughed, almost gagging. A weight was lying on his stomach, making it hard to breathe. Gasping for breath a little, he tried to sit up, and realized that he was pinned to the ground. He tried to move, and realized that his hands and feet were pinned against the earth by massive weights. He couldn't move—

No! Panic flared through Inuyasha as he realized he was once again captive. He bucked against his restraints, desperately struggling to free his limbs. Pain pulsed up from his hands and legs, but the pain was eclipsed by the fear and the memories of much more savage pain, deliberately inflicted. A voice babbled, "Let me go, let me go!" A distant thought recognized the voice was his. But all he could feel was the terror, and the thundering beat of his racing heart. He had to get free!

Claw tips sank into his throat, and instinct stilled his struggles. He panted, struggling to focus his eyes on a face. It might have been familiar. It grinned at him. "Well, aren't you a pretty sight, little Inuyasha. And here I'd heard you were such a ferocious hanyo, slayer of onis, the terror of properly incensed youkai everywhere. And what do I find? A little boy, whimpering for mercy because of a few rocks on his hands." The face looking down at him smirked, and the hand released his throat and moved up to touch his bangs. "A little boy who let someone cut his hair—and oh, look at that poor little ear." Fingers touched his ear, still split from Sesshomaru's poison claw.

Panic and red rage flashed through Inuyasha in equal measure at the touch. Without conscious thought, he snapped his head up, sinking his fangs into the unguarded arm. The other person shrieked in pain as he bit down hard, flinging his head to one side. Abruptly, the weight vanished from his hand as the body of his foe fell sideways. Another shriek ripped through the air as he sank his freed claws into that body. The rest of the weight trapping his limbs vanished, and he flung the body aside as he surged to his feet.

Red hazed his vision as he whirled to face his fallen foe. He snarled, cracking his knuckles, splaying his claws. He wanted to kill, wanted to destroy this creature that had dared try to capture him. He wanted him dead, wanted his blood spurting under his claws, wanted to smell it, taste it—

"Inuyasha-sama, no!" A figure dropped down between him and his target. "Please, my lord, please don't kill him!" A small, slender woman with a triangular face stood before him, hands up in entreaty. "It was wrong for Rikaru-sensei to knock you out and pin you down, but, please don't kill him!"

He hesitated, struggling to remember whom the woman was, trying to remember where he was. His blood was burning, a hunger for death and destruction was gnawing at his mind, but he knew he didn't want to hurt a woman. Though something in him said this wasn't a woman—a human woman, anyway. "Who-are—?" he managed to grind out.

"Akeneka, my lord." She looked up him with anxious eyes. "Don't—"

"Rikaru-sensei!" "Sensei!" "Akeneka!"

The voices were coming from behind him. He stiffened, and then bolted.

* * * * *

Akeneka stared after the fleeing hanyo, but before she could decide what to do, the three brothers galloped into the clearing. "Akeneka, we heard screams!" "Akeneka, we were searching for you!" "We heard Rikaru-sensei scream!"

The three voices overlapped, making it difficult to understand. Ignoring them for the moment, the vixen concentrated, and popped back to her preferred fox/human form. Twitching her tail, she walked over to where the older fox had landed. Gesturing, she formed a tiny ball of foxfire, setting it to hover above his prone form. "Please let me see your arm, sensei," she said politely, kneeling next to him.

He snarled, clutching the bleeding arm to himself. "I don't need a vixen hovering over me, Akeneka!" he snapped, pushing himself to a seated position. "Damn stinking dog—he's going to pay for this!"

Akeneka tried to keep her expression calm, though she felt the fur on her tail bristling. "Sensei, why was it necessary to knock I—the hanyo out and pin him down? He wasn't doing anything."

"He's a dangerous killer and an insult to every youkai!"

"If he's dangerous, sensei, then why were you taunting him?"

Rikaru stiffened, glaring at her, and then, without warning, struck her. "Don't you dare take that tone with me, little vixen!" he snarled. "I am your sensei, your elder, and you will not question me!"

"Sensei!" "Rikaru-sensei!" "Akeneka!"

Stunned, she touched her cheek, which had been slashed open by his claws. She felt the blood trickling down from the cuts, absently noting that dampness now dotted the top of her kimono from the blood flung from his bleeding arm. Disbelieving, she stared at the two-tailed kitsune, as the trio yelped questions and protests. Rikaru-sensei, in the years he had spent training her and the others, had been caustic, demanding, and sarcastic, and quite willing to play humiliating tricks on his students. He had never praised her skills, always finding fault, but he had never humiliated her, and had never struck her.

Until now.

"Quiet!" Rikaru cut off the trio's voices with a cutting snarl. Akeneka watched him get to his feet, noticing that his tails were both bottled to their fullest extent. "Shinkubi, you take Akeneka back to the elders, and tell them to make sure she stays in her den. Then collect the rest of the hunters and tell them to grab their best weapons and bring them back here."

Akeneka gave the older kitsune a disbelieving stare, before gracefully standing up. Pivoting on one foot, she walked over to the creek and picked up the clothes Inuyasha had abandoned when he fled. "Akeneka, what do you think you are doing?" demanded Rikaru. "I told you to go home."

With her back to him, the young kitsune folded the two garments neatly, draping them over her left arm. She looked up towards the eastern sky, which was showing the first hint of dawn, her right hand searching the inner pocket of her kimono. "You cannot tell me what to do, Two-Tails," she said. "You are no longer my sensei. You are not my father, nor an elder of the clan."

"I am the one who decides who my students are," he snapped in return. "You are my student, you will obey me, and you will go home, or I will have you tied up and returned to your cave like a piece of firewood. Do you understand?"

She considered the leaves in her hand. "Better than I used to, Two-Tails—split image!" She swept her arm out, scattering the leaves in her hand, as she spoke the last two words. Pops sounded around the clearing, as over a dozen leaves transformed into identical images of the vixen. "You are a bully!" said a dozen voices in unison.

And then the images fled.

* * * * *

Rikaru Two-Tails had never been a patient or even-tempered kitsune, nor one who spent time on introspection. His temper frothed inside him as he glared at the retreating back of the middle brother, and the silent, subdued vixen lying over his shoulder. It had taken most of his will power to not grab her by her pretty neck and beat her until she groveled at his feet. The prettiest, cleverest vixen in the clan, and she dared to spurn him? How dare she!

He'd felt contempt at her attempt to escape with the multiple images. It had failed, of course—no two-tailed kitsune could be fooled by the leaf-illusions—a fitting reminder that the vixen was still barely more than a kit, to be using such childish tricks. He'd immediately recognized the 'real' image and chased after it; and of course she had no chance to outpace him. He grabbed her, hit her hard once, and she had dropped, whimpering. The other images popped back to the leaves they truly were. He had bound her wrists and ankles, before tossing her to Shinkubi with orders to take her back to the clan home, while he and the two others chased after the treacherous hanyo.

Forcing himself to turn away from the problem of the vixen he had chosen years ago to woo as a mate, Rikaru told Eijimaru to start tracking the hanyo. The dark-haired kitsune had nodded curtly and transformed, putting his nose down to the leaf-litter and starting in the direction they'd seen the hanyo flee.

It turned out to be a more tedious process than he liked. The hanyo might have fled in a panic, but his flight was neither a straight line, nor on the ground. Eijimaru shifted back to his half-human form into order to climb the trees, to find traces of the hanyo's scent. Rikaru kept himself from snapping at the other kitsune only because he found it preferable to think about what he was going to do to keep his vixen from defying him again.

What was it about kitsune vixens and that stinking piece of excrement known as 'Inuyasha'? He'd had every right, that time, to punish the hanyo for trying to steal his den, that winter. The ugly hanyo would have been stripped of his clothes, beaten to a bloody pulp, and hung in a tree for the carrion crows to finish, had he had his way. But no, the stupid vixens of his clan had been so foolish and weak-minded, that they'd been swayed by tears and a pretty face, and had insisted on rescuing the disgusting half-breed. Bad enough that, but they'd used that as an excuse to banish him from the clan itself! Just because some of the other dogs had been jealous of his potential, and because the elders were more interested in peace instead of what was right, he been tossed out of his own den, his own clan.

Someday, he fully intended on going back to the clan and show them the errors of their ways. But for now, he'd concentrated on mastering his skills, and then finding a fox clan that he could lead. The isolated forest clan, who had no experience at all with humans, had been perfect. They'd listened with wide eyes to his stories, and the younger dogs and vixens had jumped at his offer to teach. A few more centuries to develop his powers, to mate his vixen and raise a few litters, and he would be ready to show everyone how stupid they really were.

And now, she'd dared to defy him? Over that hanyo? How dare she? When he got back—

Padding feet running at top speed and the scent of a heated kitsune jolted Rikaru out of his brooding. Whirling, he faced down his back trail. A galloping kitsune leapt into view, saw him, and skidded to a halt to avoid running into him. The figure riding the kitsune's back was less fortunate: with a squawk, he lost his seat and catapulted into Rikaru, bringing him crashing to the ground. With an oaf, the kitsune shoved the green-skinned figure away. "What are you doing back here, Shinkubi?" he demanded. "And where's Akeneka?"

The panting kitsune abased himself. "Sorry, sorry, sorry!" he whimpered. "It wasn't Akeneka—it was only her kimono!"

"What?"

"I met this Jaken-dono, and he asked if I could help him find the hanyo Inuyasha, and I told him I had to take Akeneka back to our clan, and he asked what I was talking about and what I was doing carrying a kimono tied in rope over my shoulder, and I looked and it was an illusion it wasn't Akeneka! Sorry, sorry, sorry!"

Impossible. Rikaru stared at the middle brother, disbelieving. That had been Akeneka he'd bound. No simple kitsune illusion could continue after being touched. It took a very skillful kitsune to craft an illusion that was solid to the touch. Akeneka was only a vixen, barely more than a kit—no way she could have done that!

A wooden staff thumped the ground. "Are you the leader of these foxes?" demanded the small, green, vaguely toad like youkai.

Rikaru glared at him. "And what is it to you, beak-face? We're busy—find someone else to bother."

The globular, vertically slit yellow eyes glared at him. "I am Jaken, servant to the great Sesshomaru-sama, the inu taiyoukai of the western lands. I am on an important mission to find the hanyo Inuyasha, and I demand your help."

"Demand?" Rikaru lifted one corner of his lip in a sneer, showing a fang. "You think you can demand of me?"

"You will help me, or suffer the consequences," declared the diminutive youkai.

"What consequences?"

The small youkai raised the staff and slammed the end into the ground. The mouth of the carved head of an old human male dropped open, and Rikaru dove for the ground with a yelp as a long stream of fire spouted from the carved mouth.

"Are you trying to burn the forest down?" he demanded from his prone position.

"I do not have time to bargain with you, kitsune," said Jaken. "I can locate Inuyasha, but he moves quickly and it is vital I catch up with him quickly. One of you will carry me, while I cause the staff to lead us to the hanyo."

Rikaru studied the youkai, eyes narrowed as he thought. A magical staff that could seek their prey would be much faster than than the tedious job of sniffing out the hanyo's erratic trail. The little green youkai did not appear to have any strength other than his staff; at four to one, it would be simple to overpower him. Then the hanyo would be his, and the staff as well—it would be useful tool, once he figured out its secrets.

And he was fairly certain, that where the hanyo was, the treacherous Akeneka would be as well.

Standing up, Rikaru dusted himself off. "If you will use your staff as you say, Jaken-dono, I believe we can easily accommodate your need for speed. Eijimaru, since you are the largest, will you do me the favor of carrying this Jaken on your back?"

The eldest brother sighed. "Since you ask, Rikaru-sensei." He dropped down from the tree he'd been examining. He bowed slightly to the small youkai. "Please try to avoid pulling my fur, Jaken-dono." Transforming to his true form, he held still as Jaken crawled onto his back, save for the pair of large, twitching ears that signaled his discomfort. Settling himself, Jaken shifted his grip on the staff, muttering something unintelligible. Two tiny, clawed fingers and a thumb released the staff, and it remained upright. The eyes in the male head began to glow red, and the staff began to rotate. It stilled for a moment, then shot forward, barely missing the trunk of a nearby tree.

"Go, go, go!" squealed Jaken, wrapping his arms as far around Eijimaru's neck as far as they would go. "Follow it! Follow it!"

Quite ready to end this chase as soon as possible, Rikaru dropped to all fours and transformed. Growling, he charged into the lead. Inuyasha wasn't going to escape him again, and neither was Akeneka. She was like the vixens of his old clan, and it was obvious where he was going to find her. Neither of them would ever escape him again. And as for the little youkai, well, a few kitsune tricks would be enough to leave him dazed and witless, and if he died in the youkai forest, it would hardly be his fault, now would it?

Meanwhile, it was time to catch up with a hanyo.