Author's notes:
Okay! Here is the next chapter and I promise by the end of it, it will start to pick up from here! You'll see what I mean. I don't want to ruin the surprise.
Reviewers Response:
Purplediamon: Your review literally made me crack up and burst into laughter. I scared my poor 7 month old! LOL Thanks for the great review! Made my day!
Without further ado, onto the story!
Sesshoumaru was walking down the hallway and into the spacious sitting room of their traditional home in Shiga, that evening would be the first children's festival he would be able to celebrate with his new children.
He absentmindedly noted the small podium that had been set up as Jaken took samurai dolls out of the wooden storage boxes and was setting them up. What concerned him was the number of how many boxes there were still yet to be unpacked. Coming up behind Jaken who was straightening the dolls as he arranged them.
"Jaken... what is the meaning of this?" His eyes narrowed in on one doll in particular. Jaken looked over his shoulder at his employer.
"These are the samurai dolls that Lady Kagome purchased, milord." Jaken bowed slightly. Sesshoumaru reached over the shorter balding man's head and held up the white haired samurai doll, bringing it closer for further inspection. It was situated on the top shelf along with the dolls of Kagome, Rin and Shippo. Tilting it up to look on the bottom of the wooden stand it was attached to, he sighed as he read the name of the artist.
"Totosai... that fool." He muttered darkly. Jaken was watching him with something akin to worry, until Sesshoumaru finally handed the porcelain doll back to his chief of staff who immediately placed it back on the space of honor. "Jaken, why did Kagome purchase so many of these dolls?" He interrogated his supposed to be all-knowing head of household affairs.
"She said that Totosai refused to sell only one of the dolls, and he insisted that the whole set be purchased together. " Sesshoumaru's eyes travelled to a long straight haired miko that Jaken, begrudgingly set up beside the white haired all red-clad figurine.
"The resemblance is uncanny, don't you think?" Kagome's soft voice came from behind him, earning an eye-roll from Jaken who merely grumbled unintelligibly of "filthy half-breeds" that Sesshoumaru didn't fault him for expressing it and turned to his adopted daughter.
"I do not appreciate Totosai taking liberties and profiting off of my family's privacy." Sesshoumaru informed her. To his shock she merely smiled at his chilly expression and clasped her hands together behind her back, rather than react with her usual dutiful and serious demeanor that he had instilled in her.
"Rin-chan is the one who spotted the doll that looked like you. She wanted us to get them, she was absolutely enthralled with your figurine. I couldn't say no to her puppy dog eyes." Kagome tilted her head, and then Sesshoumaru saw a glimmer of amusement in her eyes. His shoulders slumped marginally in defeat, knowing that his soft spot for his youngest adopted daughter was going to be the death of him one day.
"That may be the case, but I still do not appreciate Totosai turning us into this fairytale troupe of characters." He swept a hand towards the figurines that Jaken just finished setting up.
"I doubt he would ever allow them to be sold to anyone but you. He was highly amused by the whole thing..." She stepped up to the stand of dolls, picking up the samurai doll without armor, and clad all in red with the shorter white hair, Jaken squawking about how she was messing up his work. She looked at it then, her eyes slanting knowingly to her adopted father.
"Don't you have a younger brother?" She asked as she allowed Jaken to snatch it from her hands and place the figurine back in place.
"Half-brother" Sesshoumaru said immediately, making both Jaken and Kagome pause to look at him with surprised expressions at the obvious intense emotions in the words. Sesshoumaru sighed inwardly at his lack of composure and bristled at the thought that the whelps existence still seemed to elicit such a reaction out of him.
"He gave me one to give to Kaede-sama when we get back too." Kagome said slowly, tactfully changing the subject. To be safe.
"Very well. You may go visit her when we return." He supplied.
"Master Jaken!" One of the maids scurried into the room, looking decidedly harassed. Jaken looked up at her suspiciously.
"What is it, girl?" He replied gruffly. The maid's gaze flickered from Sesshoumaru and Kagome to Jaken.
"Um... It would appear that milord's brother is here demanding to see him.." She wrung her hands as the sound of loudly stomping bare feet on the wooden floorboards approached them. His voice following the stomping a moment later. The door to the room slammed open with such force that the maid winced at the sound of the wood squeaking as it twisted sharply. "I asked him to wait, milord! I apologize..." Her words were immediately cut off.
"Oi! Bastard, what's this I hear about you adopting some brats huh? And who is this wench? Your escort or something?" Inuyasha glowered at Kagome who was standing behind Sesshoumaru. She heard the softer sound of sliding wood, and knew without glancing back that Rin and Shippo were peering at them from a shoji door at the other end of the room. She bristled at his words.
"Excuse me?" She bit out, a dangerous gleam in her eyes. Sesshoumaru looked down at his daughter who in the past ten minutes alone had shown more spirited behavior than he had seen in her since the adoption alone. Inuyasha's eyes slanted towards her with a haughty air.
"What's your problem, wench?" He glared at her.
"Show some respect to your superiors, half-breed!" Jaken yelled and promptly smacked him over the head with the thickest part of his two headed cane.
"OW! What the hell!" He snarled and turned towards Jaken, his hand snapped out and grabbed the offending staff and swung it down towards the old man, only for Kagome to dart in between them. Deftly stopping the cane's decent in one hand, she twirled in towards Inuyasha, both of them still holding onto the cane, and she flung her elbow up, connecting her elbow into his eye. With a curse he let go of the cane and stumbled back, his hand coming up to cover his throbbing eye. With a glare he lunged at her, posture open and one hand outstretched like he was going to claw at her face. With an incredulous look, she sidestepped him and grabbed his arm she twisted it behind his back, stuck a foot out to trip him, and as he went down she followed, twisting his arm behind him tightly, hooking his foot in his elbow so that he would not have the leverage with his legs to try and twist underneath her to shove her off him. Her other knee came up and pushed painfully in between his shoulder blades. She had effectively pinned the man to the floor within a minute of his entrance into the room. She held him there and looked up to see Sesshoumaru's amused and proud expression staring back at her.
"Inuyasha... Meet Kagome. My adopted eldest daughter, and heir to our family legacy. As well as Shippo and Rin, hiding behind us." The two younger kids, at being acknowledged scampered into the room and peered around their adopted father at the male sprawled on the floor, pinned by their sister.
"That was amazing Nee-chan!" Rin exclaimed, clutching onto Sesshoumaru's pant leg as she peered down at the floor at the other two.
"You have to teach me that move!" Shippo said in awe. Kagome shook her head in amusement.
"Why the hell would you adopt this wench to be your heir?" Inuyasha sputtered, wincing as she moved her knee further up his spine to force his face to grind into the floor as she sat on top of him.
"Precisely for the reason she just demonstrated. I had no children and had no desire to marry, and needed someone to take over my businesses. The logical course of action was to adopt and train someone to do so." Sesshoumaru stood regal over his brothers sprawled form.
"Whatever... I could have done it if you had asked nicely." He hissed at him, unable to see past his brothers knee's.
"You lack the restraint to master such techniques." Sesshoumaru replied icily. His tone suggesting there were other reasons he would never have done so regardless of what he had just said.
"Can you just get off me already? This HURTS!" Inuyasha ignored his brother and complained at the girl restraining him. Kagome looked up at her adopted father and at his nod, she stood, stepping out of the way as he sat up with a groan. He glared at Kagome and when she planted a hand on her hip he quickly averted his eyes.
"Now you have met my children. What other purpose do you have for being here?" Sesshoumaru asked him coolly.
"Kikyou wanted me to come and make amends with you... Though I don't see why the hell its my fault in the first place." He glared at the floor.
"You mean other than attacked an elderly man and insulting everyone in the room?" Kagome snorted. Sesshoumaru remained quiet. Years before he would have retorted that it was his fault for being born which had incited Sesshoumaru's hatred for his father's bastard son. His eyes looked over at Kagome. She had unknowingly taught him much in the short year she had been living under his roof. And like with her unfortunate circumstance surrounding being orphaned, he supposed that his brother likewise never had been asked to be born.
"Come into my study and we can discuss things there. Kagome, I will meet you and your siblings in the square for the beginning of the parade." Sesshoumaru explained, indicating the festival parade that would take place in an hour.
"Alright. I'll get Rin and Shippo ready." She picked up Jakens cane and handed it to the older man, who thanked her with an affectionate hand pat and ushered the shocked still maid out of the room.
Kagome wandered down the darkened streets that she had travelled the host club with mere days before. The street was now lined with carp streamers, flag banners and hundreds of paper lanterns. They followed the sound of taiko drums emanating from the square up ahead. In Nagahama, the children's festival was celebrated with a parade down the main street up ahead, and there would be boys performing kabuki on travelling hikiyama floats that would be pulled through the city.
Kagome was wearing her deep ocean blue kimono that had clusters of navy, lavender and silver peonies on it, tied back with a silver obi tied into a simple bow. Her hair was up in a high ponytail that was curled and bounced as she walked. She looked down at Rin holding her hand. Her younger sister was wearing a burnt orange yukata with large cream and dark red flowers scattered all over it and a cream obi that she had insisted to have tied in the same casual bow as Kagome. Shippo was running ahead of them, and would periodically stop bouncing eagerly on his feet to try and peer at the looming crowd ahead of them, and then would run back to Kagome and grab her hand and try to tug on her hand to hurry her along. He was wearing turquoise yukata with dark green pine trees and light blue spirit fire swirls and small white fox faces. His was tied with a dark green fabric obi tied into a small bow in the front. The clack of their geta sandals amidst the sounds of hundreds of other peoples could be faintly heard over the din of conversations surrounding them.
"Will Sesshoumaru-sama join us, Kagome-nee-chan?" Rin asked, a small frown marring her large brown doe eyes. Kagome reached out and smoothed the frown line with a finger and smile.
"He got held up with his... brother.." Kagome said slowly, uncertain if the younger girl would understand the concept of half siblings. "But he said he would try to join us. He just has some business to take care of." She tried to reassure the girl.
"Okay. I hope he makes it in time..." Rin looked down. Kagome felt for the girl, unlike her and Shippo Rin's parents had given her up when she was a baby and she didn't remember them. She held a lot of insecurities surrounding her family, and between her and Shippo, who remembered what it was like to have a family. They had immediately encircled the girl into a family of the three of them and when Sesshoumaru had seen this, he knew he would never separate the trio.
The taiko drums picked up speed and intensity as they neared the square. Shippo jolted into the crowd, Kagome's blue eyes widening in alarm.
"Shippo! Wait!" She took a hurried step forwards, her hand tightening on Rin's to keep a hold of her. She watched as a tall man facing away from them, dipped down and suddenly Shippo was floating in the air, to land squarely on the man's shoulders. Kagome quickened her steps, weaving in and out of the crowd until she caught up to the man. It wasn't until she was right behind them that she recognized the tall figure and the shorter blonde with him. She let out a sigh of relief, her grip on Rin loosening.
"Onii-sama! What are you doing here?" Rin squealed in delight and lurched forwards, hugging Mori around the knee. Mori looked down at her and smiled, placing his large hand on top of her head. Hani turned and waved cheerily at Kagome, then tugging Mori's dark smoke grey yukata sleeve in some silent request, Mori lifted Shippo down and Hani took Shippo and Rin's hands in his and beamed a smile as they made their way to the front of the crowd.
"I'll keep an eye on them! We are going to get a better look, 'kay?" And with a brilliant flowery smile, the three were gone. Kagome blinked in surprise at them, and then turned to look at Mori. He was holding out a dark blue rose to her. She blinked, idly recalling from her ikebana lessons that a deep blue rose symbolized loyalty and the "unattainable." She briefly wondered if he considered her to be unattainable or not.
"Thank you..." She was about to grasp the flower he held to her when he stepped closer and with a kunai that was hidden in his yukata, he sliced the stem to be shorter, then slid it into the side of her ponytail. She bit her lip and blushed looking away, somehow not alarmed in the slightest that he had hidden weapons with him. She assumed Hani did as well. When had he gotten so bold? She wondered. She glanced back to him and took in his dark smoke grey yukata. It had some rose clusters along the front hem, and the clusters of roses were a muted grey, bronze and dark blue. Somehow it suited him. She looked up into his face to notice that there was some concern in his face, as he stared past her shoulder. She turned to look and her eyes widened and she gasped as her blue orbs met with sinister dark red burning into her.
She gasped and took a step backwards away from him, gently bumping into Mori, whose hands landed protectively on her shoulders. The dark haired figure watched all this with a keen interest and as the large crowd of people started to follow the parade as it started, watching the children's kabuki performance, the three of them remained there.
"Why Kagome... you look positively ravishing..." A dark chuckle interrupted the man's sinister purr, as red eyes narrowed down on her. She stiffened in anger and Mori's hands gripped her shoulders a smidge tighter.
"What are you doing here, Naraku?" She spat with more hatred than Mori had ever thought her capable of.
"Now, now. Is that any way to greet your fiancé?" A sinister grin split his face at the look of horror that widened her eyes.
"What?!" She felt like the wind had been knocked out of her, as her knees went weak from the shock.
Authors Note:
Well there you go! Cliffhanger! Actually I happen to LOVE cliffhangers (much to my writer buddy's annoyance at times) so you guys are lucky that I waited until now! LOL
Anyways! My reviewer numbers are dwindling! So pretty please review and let me know what you think! Also if you want LONGER chapters let me know and I can start making the chapters longer! Like this could have been connected to the last chapter but I worried it would be too much happening in one chapter and I worried it would be too long. But if you think differently let me know!
I also have a bunch of ideas started for some Naruto fanfictions I have started to write. So here is a poll question for those of you who love Naruto fic's as well! Which Sakura pairing would you like to read? I have ideas started for pretty much every pairing you can think of. So let me know which one you would like to read first! And don't worry, I'm only planning on writing two stories at once MAX, that way I can still update all active incomplete stories once a week without overwhelming myself!
Anyways look forwards to hearing your poll responses and your reviews for this chapter!
~Artistic Quill~