A/N: I'm really churning these chapters out. Dragon and Sword Master was the only one that had a chance to review before I got this one out. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Inuyasha characters, manga, anime, movies, etc. They belong by copyright laws to Rumiko Takahashi et al.

One Hanyou Too Many

She Did Not

Myouga and Jaken stared down at the scroll that described the information they were looking for. It had been sitting out on the desk in the records room, the first in a neat pile that gave lie to the Lady Mother's ascertain that the place had been a mess. "She's plotting something," the older demon moaned, his expression telling Jaken that his master was about to be very displeased.

"We must warn Lord Sesshoumaru right away."

"Don't you see the note? Her ladyship has given strict instructions that we are to say nothing. If we disobey her, we'll end up going directly to the Underworld through a one-way portal she wears around her neck." He had never told anyone about the Meidou Seki.

"Surely…"

"And that's after she toys with us using her ki whip. Where do you think your master got his ability?"

"We must do something. Lord Sesshoumaru and the half breed are not going to be pleased that she's planning something behind their backs. My master has no sense of humor."

"I don't think mine does either," the flea moaned again. "We cannot tell them outright, but perhaps we can give hints. Despite their behavior sometimes, the boys are not stupid. Their noses are sharp too so if we hedge, they'll catch on to there being something that we cannot tell them."

"We don't know what it is that we can't tell them."

"Let's put our heads together and think, Jaken. What is most likely to cause the boys the most aggravation? She's already sent the young lady after both, so it can't be that. She has them both right where she wants them. I know she does get lonely here and is quite pleased for the company. If she had only asked, I'm sure Lady Kagome would have forced Inuyasha to come without too much fuss."

"The priestess does know how to twist him to her will."

"Yes, yes. I don't think she intended to turn Miroku into a hanyou as she did find this right away, so it's not to cause harm to my master's friends either. Oh, dear me, what does she have planned?"

"Whatever it is, I hope we live through it," the elder brother's retainer commented.

"Agreed."

Sesshoumaru returned to his mother, the harried maids gathering refreshments quickly thanks to his snarled command. He had not intended to be so harsh with them, but after realizing that his mother was up to something nefarious, he had become foul tempered, and no one was escaping his mood. "Entertained, are you, Mother?"

"Oh, yes. It does get lonely on this mountain, son, and having these guests has been so delightful."

"We could not have asked for a better hostess, my lady," Miroku complimented. His new ears were picking up a wealth of new information from the nuances in both voices.

"Inuyasha, I would have a word with you. Excuse us, Mother."

The half demon looked at his brother oddly, but for once didn't protest. His brother's demeanor had drastically changed in the last ten minutes, so he knew something was off. Miroku seemed to have sensed it too and he cocked his head toward the girls before getting up and going inside.

"What's wrong?" he asked his brother, not raising his voice above a whisper. The elder dog demon's ears were sharp so there wasn't any need.

"Follow me," the demon lord commanded and took his younger sibling down several corridors until they came to an office that was far away from the others.

"Sesshoumaru…"

"Mother is plotting something, and it cannot be good for either of us. I have narrowed the possibilities down to three things." Sesshoumaru opened the office door and after a quick sniff, led his brother inside.

"I thought we'd already realized that. You warned us that she likes to play games."

"Her game is far from over." Sesshoumaru began rifling through the papers on the low table, golden eyes narrowed in concentration. His mother's handwriting was ridiculously small, and it took time to read through things.

"Okay, so what are these three things that you think she might be up to?" Absentmindedly, Inuyasha began straightening the pages his brother was strewing across the desk. The Honorable Mother would smell that they'd been pawing through her papers instantly, but there was no need to make a mess.

"A party. As she said, she gets lonely and likes the occasional company. Since she's finally got me where she wants me, it would be the perfect time to show her heir off to the demon nobility. Having you here with Father's heirlooms would be a coup for her as well."

"And what about my friends?"

"While the monk is a hanyou, his spiritual powers are not easily detectable. Your priestess has never been able to physically manifest hers unless in battle, so they too are not easily seen or scented unless you know what to look for. As for your slayer friend, the scent of dead demons is not something most demon nobles would think twice about. That she has a nekomata at her side would make them think twice about testing her strength. They wouldn't think anything of your fox cub. All in all, your little group would amount to nothing more than conversation pieces."

"So it's a power play."

"Indeed."

"What else?"

"A war conference. Naraku has made himself a nuisance on several fronts and she likely has a group that are more than willing to take over for us should we fail one too many times. Mother may seem like she is content to let us handle things, but I have a feeling that is not the case. With us here, we'd likely be called out for not getting rid of him sooner."

"Not exactly been dragging our feet. Can't kill someone whose heart can't be crushed. If we could find that…"

"I know. His incarnations are a problem too."

"Maybe we should ask for their opinions. Hard as it is to ask for help, your mother and her lot are older. They have more experience. Father probably would have stuck his nose into things by now if he were still alive, right?"

"If Father lived, Naraku would not have come into being. Or at least would have been deceased shortly thereafter."

"Guess he took his job as Inutaicho seriously, huh?"

"To the point of annoyance," Sesshoumaru returned and swore under his breath when he couldn't find anything incriminating. No doubt she was hiding it in her quarters; someplace she knew they wouldn't trespass.

"Okay, so what's the third?"

"A wedding, although whose remains to be seen."

Inuyasha choked on a gasp, coughing for several moments before getting his breath back. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"I do not jest about Mother's plots."

"You got a lover hanging around I don't know about?"

"No."

"Then who could she… Kuso."

"It has crossed my mind she made a political match for me when I was not around but rumors of that sort travels far in a short time. I likely would have heard about it before now. You on the other hand, have been attached at the hip to your miko for some time. It would not surprise me if Mother intends to tie powerful spiritual energy to our bloodline. Pure blood is not tainted because you are already half. However, bringing one of your miko's level into our clan could give us an advantage in a battle."

"There is one other possibility."

"Your monk friend and his slayer. Yes, that is possible, although remote. Because of his curse, there is no way to know if he will win in his battle. I do not think Mother would tie them together as I think she means to without a guarantee. That is assuming a wedding is what is in that deranged head."

They exited the room, slowly wandering back to the group. "You speak harshly of her almost constantly. Was she not a good mother when you were small?"

"Do not mistake me, Inuyasha. I hold a great deal of affection for her, but I am not blind to her faults. Mother's methods of training are odd to say the least, and Father often had to rein her in when she pushed too far. She also loves to twist things to her advantage. Court intrigue is her favorite cup of tea."

"We're going to give ourselves headaches if we think about this too much. I can run it by the others, see what they think. We can ask the runt and Rin if they've heard anything. Adults tend to ignore children when talking as if they aren't there."

Sesshoumaru stopped in his tracks and turned his head sideways to look at his brother. "Why can you not use that brain more often?"

"Haha. You've got your skills, I got mine. I got ignored a lot in my grandfather's home so it wasn't hard to find things out that a child shouldn't. You'd be surprised by what I found out while living with my mother's family."

"I see."

"Let's just say that after Ofukuro died, I had no problem passing some of that information along."

"Did you now?" Sesshoumaru was well aware that Lady Izayoi's family no longer existed, save for his brother. "Was the revenge worth it?"

"No, didn't make a difference in how I felt. Just one less noble family trying to hurt the common people." His world had crumbled with the death of his mother, and he had been running for one reason or another ever since. It hadn't been until Kagome that he truly felt that he could stay in one spot for the rest of his life. Kikyo might have offered a chance, but he hadn't really seen himself living in the village until now.

They were silent for the rest of the way back, lost in their own thoughts of the past. Inuyasha hadn't meant to tell his brother all that. It wasn't even something he had told his friends about yet. Once on his own, he had run as far from his mother's people as he could. During one memorable human night, he had ended up in the territory of an enemy of his grandfather's. Somehow he had ended up in the presence of the emperor's men. His grandfather had always claimed that he was loyal to the Chrysanthemum Throne, but his secret meetings that Inuyasha had overheard told a different story. He had passed along what he'd known, unsurprised that the throne had already suspected his grandfather of duplicity. He'd never felt that he had betrayed family because they hadn't seen him that way. With his mother dead, he'd had no ties to her clan.

"Inuyasha, you may wish to move to your left." Sesshoumaru spared his brother a glance as the younger Taisho almost ran into a wall.

"Couldn't warn me sooner?"

"With your cat-like reflexes?"

"Not a cat," Inuyasha shot back, only to have his brother chuckle and his mother sigh from her seat.

"This again?" she asked.

"He rises to the bait so easily," Sesshoumaru defended, a speaking glance towards Inuyasha.

"And you're easily amused," Inuyasha shot back, catching on to what the elder was doing. If they were in solidarity upon returning, the Lady Mother might become suspicious.

"Perhaps. By the by, Mother, we used your office for our conversation to keep things private. I hope you do not mind. We also straightened your desk while in there. It was a bit cluttered." There had been no "we" about it, but Inuyasha didn't correct Sesshoumaru. Obviously, he was good at the half-truths since his mother didn't call him out. "You know I despise disorganization."

"You were always a neat child." The elder dog demon seemed to dismiss the incident in favor of pouring tea for them both.

Inuyasha's friends gave them strange looks in turn but did not voice their questions. Obviously, something was up, but it was equally clear that they couldn't talk about it in front of the Honorable Mother. No doubt he'd be inundated later. "This that tea you were going on about?" he asked to distract the demoness.

"Yes. Come and drink before it cools down any further. Tea must be consumed at just the right temperature. Scent and taste change as it cools, and usually not for the better."

"Tea is an art form, my lady. My mentor at the temple drilled the proper method of preparation into me many a time. Lady Kaede rarely lets any of us do so without her supervision."

"Understandable," she nodded, handing her son and his brother delicate cups that would shatter if they weren't careful. Both men found a perch on one of the walls, feeling better if they weren't sitting like the rest. Being at eye level with her seemed best. They were content to let things lie for the minute and bide their time until she gave them a clue as to what was going on in that head of hers.

"Oh, no!" Rin suddenly said and the rest of them focused on her as she was trying to blot the tea out of Yukari's outer kimono. "We must get that out or it'll stain. My lord, might we be excused so that we can tend to this?"

"You may," he agreed, hoping that his mother would insist on helping.

"I do not need your help, human." Yukari stood and shook out her robes. She made to return to her room but froze when her brother growled at her.

"Need I remind you of your punishment?" Sesshoumaru intoned, peaking their mother's curiosity.

"Punishment?" she asked.

"Yes. Lady Yukari and I fought when we first met and angered my lord something awful. He has forbidden us from being separated from each other for the foreseeable future, except at night. It is rather inconvenient at times," Rin sighed.

"Perhaps you should be staying together at night, as well."

"Please, no, my lord." Rin gave him a beseeching look and he felt himself cave. "Very well. However, it is very much day, and you will stay together. Perhaps you should go with them, Mother, and ensure nothing amiss happens."

"Perhaps," the lady agreed and rose as well. "We will return, everyone."

Sesshoumaru waited until he could not hear them anymore before clearing his throat and glancing at Inuyasha. "There is something you must know," he said, although he was loathed to admit what was going on.

"It must be quite serious. You two don't often stay together without fighting for more than a few minutes. What's up?" Kagome asked, setting aside her cup.

"It seems that we are all here under false pretenses."

"Oh?"

"Sesshoumaru has concluded that his mother has something cooking. He has three theories, and none of them are good news for us."

"Go on," Sango ordered.

"Mother loves a good plot, and court intrigue. She also has no use for Naraku. She could have arranged a noble demon party, a war conference to rid the world of the foul beast, or a wedding."

"Has she now?" Miroku mused.

"She did not," Kagome gaped.

"She did," her half demon's brother admitted. The sigh he gave afterward was enough to tell the rest of them that things couldn't be more serious. "We have yet to establish which one. Without that information, we cannot plan a counteroffensive."

"So that's what they meant…" Shippo murmured, not realizing he'd said it out loud.

"Shippou…" Inuyasha zeroed in on the child.

"Who meant what?" Sesshoumaru demanded.

"Uh…"

"Spill it, or no pocky."

"No pocky?"

"No pocky." The threat was real, so hippo spilled what he knew.

"Told you kids get ignored," Inuyasha said as he watched his brother rub his brow.

"I cannot believe she would do that." Kagome shook her head in disbelief.

"Believe it," Sesshoumaru growled.

"What are we going to do?" Sango petted Kirara, who didn't seemed all that concerned.

"We turn things to our advantage."

"I'm all for it. Any idea how we do that?"

Sesshoumaru debated whether or not to lie, but finally relented and admitted, "No."

"She's got us over a barrel and knows it," Miroku growled, surprising himself.

"Only for the moment. We're all intelligent beings. I'm sure that we can think of something before this event occurs. She mentioned a week, remember? That means we have a few days to figure things out."

"Do we? Was that a slip of the tongue or was she toying with us? Either is possible." Sesshoumaru began pacing. "I should never have come."

"She'd have just dragged you here." His brother's words made him flinch and he hoped that they hadn't seen the reaction. The sad truth was, she really would have dragged him back here. She'd already done it once. His dignity had barely survived the first time.

It wouldn't survive a second.