The Sword that Kills (Satsujen no Ken)

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha

:OoO:

"The great Uesugi Sesshoumaru is your brother?" In shock Kagome sputtered her words.

Inuyasha looked at her sharply. "Half-brother! And why are you so surprised over this? Our features are quite similar, I'd been told, and what's the title supposed to mean?"

Kagome remembered slightly that Sesshoumaru had indeed golden eyes and silver hair like Inuyasha's, but she hadn't actually noticed other resemblances between the brothers. Now when she thought about it, to picture them together, maybe-

"Brat! You haven't answered me yet! What is so great about him?"

Kagome jerked up in surprise, she started to defend her legendary hero. "What's so great about him? Why! Haven't you ever heard about his combat skill, and not to mention his domestic skill; I heard once how my father used to talk about him; he's unconquerable in everything he did. Someone told me once that he's seven feet tall and his body's made from steel, the best they used for making the sharpest katana. It was also said that he once stared down the birds in the sky that they started to dive down for the ground in suicidal attempt."

Inuyasha smirked and then he began to laugh so hard that tears were leaking out of his eyes. Kagome stomped her foot furiously. "What? What are you laughing at?"

"He…he…he… Is that all he's good for, staring little birds down?"

Kagome gasped. "That was certainly not what I meant! I meant he was feared that- oomph!"

Inuyasha had tackled her down to the ground, and now he was straddling her victoriously; she narrowed her eyes on him and started to speak when he suddenly cut her off. "He's not that fearsome or great you know; in everyway perhaps I'm better… I was the loved one, not him." He looked at her closely; the mood was beginning to tense.

Kagome smirked. "Jealous?"

Inuyasha huffed and rolled off her. "Why should I be jealous over him? It only ticked me off that you were talking about him as if he is some god or something."

"Inuyasha, he has the power to raise the dead. He is God." Kagome teased him.

"Keh! Just because he had that sword from father; people started to think of him like he is God. If he is God then the world is an apocalypse!"

Kagome stifled her giggles as she shrieked out her fake gasp of shock. "But Inuyasha! That was blasphemy!"

Inuyasha began to sputter, but when he caught her expression, he realized she was making fun of him. He tackled her again and began to attack her belly in ticklish torture.

"Stop! Stop! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! You are the God, not him!" Inuyasha stopped his assault as he himself was breathing hard from his mirth; he dropped his head down in the crook of her neck and woofed softly.

Kagome smirked as she continued. "Well, since you are half related to him, so that would make you the weaker god?" And with her last sentence she made her escape as fast as she could.

"KA-GO-ME!"

She ran until she spotted her shoto. She examined the poor sword and started to cry; Inuyasha walked behind her and pulled her into his embrace.

"That sword really meant a lot to you, huh?" Kagome nodded through her tears. "They said that a sword is the soul of the warrior, and if it's broken then so would the soul of the owner."

Inuyasha smiled; she was really taking the bushido to the heart. He was sometimes stunned over her display of pride and bravery; the innocence that she possessed to view the world, the faith that she still had, even after all the losses she suffered. She would never know how perverse the world was. She would never understand the greedy purposes of war.

Inuyasha never felt possessive over something or someone before. All the things he needed were freedom, the air and the sun. That was why it was easy for him to refuse his half brother's offer to rein the land beside him. It was easy to leave all the comforts of excessive wealth behind. He almost even felt relief to give up his rights. He thought that this was the way of life; enemies and wars were not destined for him then life itself was immense enough to satisfy him.

That was once his principle.

But now as he held the fourteen years old, strong, yet trembling girl in his embrace, he felt a surge of possessiveness and ambition for succession he had never known before. He wanted supremacy because of her. This was wrong, he thought; such things would only mean his downfall, so he tried to quench these feelings inside. He wouldn't give up his freedom, and not even the girl's doted admiration for his brother that caused his jealousy would be enough to break his principle.

So he offered her one thing that he could only offer, comforts of console, but he knew that one day this would not be enough. An aura that was dark and disturbing was slowly gripping over their fates; someday he would have to offer her more.

The secret cave was dark and cold, but to them it was the only place on earth where they had found each other. It shielded them from the world that had cast them away. So their sun was the fireplace, and the green was the moss. In a place that was untouched by the four seasons of the year or the changing weather; in a place that was only touched by the history of times; in a place that was slowly eradicating, they had thought they were safe. But in a castle behind the mountains; a beautiful lord watched stalkingly over her; thin hands caressed the feature of her face, the line of her body, reflected from the mirror.

:OoOoOoO:

In her room Kagome had found a regally wrapped gift. She opened it carefully, still enchanted by its appearance.

Inside she found a daisho consisted of a katana and the companion sword wakizashi; the scabbards of the swords were black and lacquered, matching with the handles of the swords. On the surface of the scabbards a character of Chuu (loyalty) was written, indicating its name.

Kagome unsheathed the katana. She gasped over the delicate craftsmanship of the blade; she examined the broad elongated point of the blade, the smooth grain of the sword's steel, and the beautiful clawed line on the tempered edge of the blade. The lightness of the sword was unusual; she swung it and savored the gentle swish of the sound. The blade that was able to separate the thinness of air; she trembled when she realized that she was holding a most powerful katana ever made.

There was one package left inside the wrappings; she opened it deliberately slow. Inside was a white baboon pelt, designed as a cape with a hood; the softness of the fur was delicate to her touch, and the whiteness of it was like a new fallen snow of the winter. Who could've given her such gifts?

:OoOoOoO:

"Kagome." A deep masculine voice called out to her.

"Naraku-sama." Kagome smiled and walked up to him. She stopped at a close distance, but the hanyou closed the distance and pulled her into a light embrace.

He smiled when she tried to escape him. She was blushing furiously. Ever since their first encounter when she was twelve, he always visited the palace regularly and never missed the chance to see her.

Even though Kagome felt a little bit uneasy whenever he touched her, she had to admit that it felt good to be cared for; the hanyou always showed her deliberately his affection. When to others he had seemed so cold and detached, almost cruel, but this side of him that he had kept hidden was only there for her to feel.

Before she had the chance to flee he kissed the tip of her nose lightly but longingly, and only then would he loosen his hold.

Kagome looked at him reproachfully and walked a bit faster away from him, but he managed to overtake her with little effort and stopped in front of her.

"Kagome, did I do something to displease you?"

Kagome lifted her eyes. She felt a little bit lost. "I don't know."

Naraku stepped closer towards her; she began to back away.

"I mean; why are you being so affectionate to me, Naraku-sama? What is the meaning of your conduct?"

He caught her again, and she began to struggle her way out of his hold. "Don't you like the way I hold you? Can you not feel that I want you?" He whispered against her ear as he nibbled her tender lobe.

She gasped; a feeling of panic crept its way inside her when she felt the dangerous nearness of his body, the heat and the unwelcoming hardness of it, but he pressed her harder against him as his hands began to roam her young curves. The hands that were warm and kind a minute ago were now desperate and bruising.

Kagome shook her head desperately; the fear that was always there whenever he was with her was now stronger than before. She was afraid of the way his touches made her body feel; the way they clung to her skin; the way that they were making her feeling unclean.

"Naraku-sama! Please don't do this! I don't want to hate you…" She had whispered the magic words as she felt him jerking his hands away. He stepped abruptly away from her and smiled a bit dejectedly. "No, I wouldn't want that." He traced the curve of her jaw. Kagome tried hard not to flinch from his touch.

"Lord Naraku!" She was glad to hear her father's voice in a far distance; she gave the hanyou lord a brief nod and fled his presence.

:OoOoOoO:

"I thought we discussed this before, Naraku-sama. I'm not trading off my daughter; I have offered you my eldest, my rightful heiress of this fortress but not my Kagome." Shinosuke bit his lip when he realized that he was giving away how much he loved his second daughter.

The hanyou lord smiled coldly; he narrowed his eyes briefly when he heard the mention of Kagome as his possession. He had to remind himself that the lord was his father. So he pushed back the jealousy that was starting to crawl in.

"Lord Shinosuke, would you not want to give your daughter a better future? Or would you be contented if she is to marry a low rank retainer of yours?"

"My daughter will marry whom she would like to marry, regardless its rank. I will see that she will find her happiness." Shinosuke made his statement and gazed hard at the hanging scroll on the wall.

They were waiting for the arrival of the tea master, Murata Sei. Wabi-cha or a tea gathering was the new fancy of the lord of Owari; he believed in the power of purification of one's soul after the ceremony, and at the age of a warring state he could only find his peace in this small ritual.

The tea room was scantily decorated with only a hanging scroll and an ikebana arrangement. The lack of the decoration of the room was only to urge the participants to be more aware of the details and to be awakened to the simple beauty around them and to themselves. This and the simple style of the tea preparation was the concept of Wabi, or literally meant 'desolation', which was a philosophy of Zen that the greatest wealth was found in desolation and poverty, because one could only find the spiritual wealth inside himself when one had no attachment to materials.

A vassal was informing them of the arrival of the tea master; their disagreement was put aside for the time being.

:OoOoOoO:

Someone was entering the castle stealthily in the darkness. Kagome had sensed this aura ever since she had tried to train her senses by meditating. She had done this every night before she slept, and now something inside her was trying to warn her of the danger they were about to encounter.

She hadn't known yet that the danger was actually already awakened in that time. Warring lords were fighting over lands and power; humans fighting their wars against demons; the chaos of the era was never fully revealed to her. She understood the concept of war and to die honorably defending their lands, but that she had never seen death herself on the war fields was probably her greatest weakness, that she had never taken lives despite her skill of fighting would never really prepare her for the reality of the era.

She tried to discern the aura of the offender, and she was shocked to find that it was an aura that she knew very well; the one she held close to her heart. Why was he trying to make his way in like a thief?

Kagome gazed at the other side of the garden to find her step sister was walking toward her way; was it because of her?

Her heart hurt when she tried to imagine them together. She was already taking away everything that she had; did she have to take him too? And after all those years she had confined in him; how could he shatter her like this? He knew from the beginning the schemes Kikyou had planned against her, but he still betrayed her like this.

Rage was slowly filling her, against her step sister, against him, but she wasn't helpless now as she had been then. She reached for her wakizashi and began to make her way behind him. He suddenly sniffed the air, and she knew that he had sensed her. The moment he turned his body she mounted him, holding her unsheathed wakizashi against his neck.

Inuyasha looked at her in shock, but her eyes were clouded over as she pressed the dagger against his skin. She hissed. "Had it been anyone else but her…"

end of chapter

Bushido: the way of the warrior; the philosophy about an upright and honorable way of life.

Daisho: the pairing of katana and wakizashi blades worn by the samurai warrior.

Wakizashi: the shorter of the two swords carried by the samurai, almost identical in design to the katana.

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AN: Please read and review; I thank you, all of you. And after this chapter I'm afraid I have to up the rating.

One more thing, I forgot to mention this, but thankfully a nice reviewer (thank you, Mysticalflame) reminded me of this; Kagome is now fourteen going on fifteen.