I don't own Sesshomaru, Kikyo, or Rin. I promise I don't.

Chapter 6

Itachi and his wife were situated in their bedroom. They were both frustrated from their days and decided to share their lack of information with each other.

"The priestess purposely withheld facts from me. I'm not sure if it's because she was being cautious or because she simply doesn't like me," Lady Kaori stated with a frown.

Itachi grunted. "The damn mutt was the same, but then again, the stupid dog doesn't like me enough to share much anyway."

"Well, he doesn't like anyone from what I can tell.

Itachi nodded. "I didn't even get the feel he enjoyed having Kikyo around. He actually seemed rather apathetic in regards to the priestess. Even when she comes around, he doesn't pay her much mind. It's like he tolerated her presence, more than likely for her spiritual power."

"How powerful could the wench be for someone like this mutt to keep her around, even though he doesn't seem to care about her? In fact, he goes so far as to keep her brat around," Kaori pointed out.

The weasel lord shook his head because he seriously did not know what to think about what was going on. "He has to be keeping that human bitch around for some malevolent reason. Why does the priestess stayed, though? Is she just looking to slay demons and willing to serve Sesshomaru just to do that?"

"It doesn't seem that way. If she were looking to slay demons, why has she not slain us? Or even your guards who violated her space?" his wife pointed out.

He grunted. "She knows better than to touch my guards," he stated.

Kaori figured it would be best to not argue with her husband on that subject. He was bewildered and curious by whatever motives made the priestess stay and not harm anyone in the process. She was more of a mystery than he liked. He at least could assume what was going on in Sesshomaru's head, but there was no way of him knowing what was going on in her mind. He was already aware women were mysteries point blank, but she pushed that to the limit.

"Perhaps, I should speak with the human," Itachi suggested.

"You can try. Don't go to her when she's with that girl. The girl's discomfort affects that woman," Kaori informed him.

"I suppose that should be expected. The girl is her daughter, after all," he replied. He considered that the priestess might be a bit of a wanton wench to have a child and she had only just been married to Sesshomaru. There was a chance she gave herself to Sesshomaru for physical pleasure and in exchange he got to call on her to use her powers.

"I don't believe they are blood relatives in any way. Their blood doesn't smell remotely similar," she commented.

His face twisted and he arched an eyebrow. "Then why would Sesshomaru claim the human brat as his daughter?"

"I don't know. Do you suppose those rumors from a couple of years ago were true?" she countered.

"That Sesshomaru was traveling with a little human girl? Not likely. That sadistic bastard would've killed any human that got within ten feet of him," he replied.

Kaori conceded with a nod. She did not know what to make of Rin in the picture. She assumed Rin was Kikyo's in someway because it made no sense for those rumors about Sesshomaru to be true. It was confusing.

Everything in the dog demon's household was beyond puzzling. It was pretty much unheard of, in fact. Sure, every now and then a demon married a mortal like Sesshomaru had done. Sesshomaru had to be the first demon in existence to marry a priestess, though. To make matters more bizarre, Sesshomaru had adopted a little human girl that was not related to him or his bride in any way. He should not care about that child, yet he had claimed her as his daughter. It did not make any sense! Nothing made any sense.

-8-8-8-8-

The next day, Itachi and Kaori went to find out answers. Well, they hoped they would find out some answers. Itachi decided he would speak with Kikyo and maybe find out why she was in the demon society. He doubted she would be as complex as Sesshomaru. She would not be able to lie to his senses if she chose to withhold the truth. He would be able to read her body language, note any changes in her smell, or hear her heart rate speed up. He would discover what he wished to know.

Itachi located Kikyo in the room that she had been in yesterday with Rin. She read quietly to herself and stroked the back of Rin's cat, Ran. Ran relaxed on her until the weasel lord approached the door. Kikyo cut her eyes toward the door. The kitten turned her head to the door also and hissed angrily when the aristocrat stood before them. Kikyo ran soothing fingers down the creature's back to calm it down, but that was not working.

"Milord," Kikyo said without standing up or bowing to the man.

"Milady," he replied with a slight bow.

"Is there something I can do for you?" she inquired politely. She wondered how long it would take Sesshomaru to just get fed up with providing the weasels with life's essentials and bark at them to go back home. She would second the suggestion the moment that it came up.

"I was wondering if I might be able to ask you a few questions," he answered honestly.

"About Sesshomaru?" she guessed.

"I suppose," he replied with a smile. She figured he tried to appear friendly and charming, but he was succeeding in looking more conniving.

"What do you wish to know?" she asked as if she seriously planned on telling him anything at all about anything. She was not sure why the man would assume she was stupid enough to share information with someone her husband clearly disliked.

He smiled and stepped further into the room. She watched every move he made. He sat a respectable distance from her. Ran buried herself deep into Kikyo's waist. She continued to caress the kitten, taking note of the feline's reaction.

"So, I was wondering, how does a priestess come to be married to such a demon lord? Surely, there must be some rule against that," he remarked, attempting to win her over with humor, she supposed.

"No, there isn't," Kikyo replied dryly, her eyes drifting back to her book.

"Well, then, someone of your kind must see something very deep in Sesshomaru."

"My kind?" she echoed, tilting her head slightly.

"A priestess. Someone very pure at heart," he elaborated.

Kikyo nodded, if only to show she heard him. She doubted a demon would comprehend human purity. She barely understood it anymore. But then again, most of the world no longer made sense to her since she was not really living in the world that she was accustomed to anymore.

"You must see something in Sesshomaru or perhaps he lied to you," Itachi commented smoothly, like she was meant to miss that last part.

"Perhaps," she offered, trying to see where he was going with his statements. He could be looking to get her to reveal some secret weakness or he might just be looking to make her doubt her husband. Either way, she wished he would leave her to her book. She did not get much leisure time with Rin and Sesshomaru around; the former wanted her to play and the latter wanted her to learn all about her new world.

"I mean, as an ordinary human being, you couldn't possibly know much about him."

"That is plausible."

"Surely he has not revealed his true nature to you."

Kikyo wondered what the point was in trying to make her curious of her husband. She did not see what he could accomplish in making her doubt her dearest. It seemed he was trying to play a mind game with her. How sad for him since from what she could tell he did not have much mind to play with.

"You know that Sesshomaru can't possibly want you as an actual wife," Itachi stated.

"Why do you say that?" she inquired, still not bothering to look at the man. She kept her eyes focused on her book and she actually still read it, just not as quickly as before. Sesshomaru and Rin had taught her to never let an annoyance get in the way of what she was doing, especially if she was reading a good story in Rin's case.

"Well, you are human."

"I've noticed."

"You must know that he would never have a child by you," the lord pointed out.

"No?" she asked in her usual plain way of speaking, so she did not sound very curious about his declaration, which he noticed.

Itachi wondered why the woman was not more interested in the things that he had to say. She should have practically demanded to know what he meant since her role as Sesshomaru's wife would be to produce his heir and as a woman, she should want nothing more than to fulfill such a role. She did not seem to care, though. He figured if he continued on then she would be interested because she could not possibly know anything about Sesshomaru if she was actually married to him and this whole thing was not some farce. He thought if she remained uninterested in the topic then she was using the dog demon or they were cooperating to do something nefarious.

"Sesshomaru detests hanyou children," Itachi informed the priestess.

"Does he?" she asked in a dull tone, eyes still on her book.

"Has he told you that he has a brother?"

"No," Kikyo replied honestly. Sesshomaru tried his best to not mention his brother. His brother had been the one that mentioned Sesshomaru the first time. The full demon occasionally brought up Inuyasha, but he preferred not to think about his little brother, claiming that the younger male just made his head instantly hurt. When he said such things, it truly amused Kikyo.

"Well, he does. He has a younger half brother, who is also half human. I know for a fact that he has tried to kill him," the weasel lord said.

"Really?" Kikyo replied. She felt he downplayed it by making it seem like only once. Inuyasha would argue that it was hundreds of times, at the least, as he had a bit of a habit of exaggerating. Sesshomaru liked to point out that if he was trying to kill Inuyasha, he would have only required one attempt.

"He has openly attempted to murder his own flesh and blood because his young brother is a half-breed. Now, do you understand why he would never allow you to bare his child?" Itachi pointed out.

Kikyo nodded for lack of a better thing to do. He did not present her with any compelling information as to why Sesshomaru would not reproduce with her. She knew why Sesshomaru disliked his little brother and the main reason had little to do with who the younger brother's mother was. Sesshomaru's number one reason was that he truly believed Inuyasha was a brain-dead idiot. He would not be surprised if Inuyasha's head was cracked open and his skull was found to be completely empty or full of crumbled up paper. Sesshomaru would not mind so much that Inuyasha was a moron if only he did not actually have the ability to learn, but he seemed just to choose not to do so. Inuyasha seemed to like being stupid, Sesshomaru thought.

"I'm sure Sesshomaru hasn't truly told you what kind of man he is," Itachi said. Kikyo noticed the lord disliked silence. If she sat there without saying anything, he seemed to need to fill the air with words.

"I'm sure he hasn't," Kikyo concurred. Sesshomaru more showed her what type of man he was rather than saying it in plain words. She wondered what the thin lord was going to tell her about her beloved now.

"He has done some of the worse things imaginable, worse than attempting to kill his little brother," Itachi stated.

"Has he?"

"He slaughter many of his father's most trusted samurai as soon as he came to power," the lord informed Kikyo.

The priestess knew the story behind Sesshomaru's battle. It had led to one of them reasons he detested Inuyasha so much for so long. He doubted he had ever been so angry and disappointed than the day his father ran off and gave his life to save Inuyasha and that woman. It was the one time he found himself calling his father a fool because the man had set himself up, not only for his own demise, but the chaos that his lands broke into and he left Sesshomaru to deal with such a mess. The worse of it for Sesshomaru was that his father left him to keep the west together with a sword that did not cut. Sesshomaru still had land to rule mostly to spite his father, to show that his will was strong enough to hold together anything despite his father's irresponsible behavior.

Sesshomaru did not mean it was irresponsible of his father to go protect his offspring and woman. He thought it was irresponsible of the so-called great dog demon to leave them in a hostile environment in the first place. He should have kept his woman with him at all times. If Kikyo was carrying his child, Sesshomaru would not let her ten feet away from him, even though he knew she was capable of taking care of herself, and he told her such. She believed him.

"What did he do after slaughtering so many men?" Kikyo inquired as if she did not know Sesshomaru had killed everyone trying to break his father's lands apart for their own personal use.

"He subjugated the people under his rule, demons and humans alike," the weasel replied.

"How so?" she asked. From what she had seen, walking through Sesshomaru's lands and such, there was not much dissension. He was a very hands-off type of lord because he never stayed some place long enough to truly understand what people required. He always placed trustworthy and competent samurai on the lands to take care of local matters. He just made sure to keep in touch with those samurai and get many reports from them.

"Do you doubt my word?" Itachi asked. It seemed that he required time to think of reasons to back up why Sesshomaru was a tyrant.

"I merely request facts to support the statement, like any other semi-intelligent being would," she answered. She guessed he assumed she was just outright stupid and would take everything he said as the truth.

"He has murdered hundreds of his own people," he declared.

"Has he now?" she asked. She had no doubt that Sesshomaru had a high body count on him, but she was convinced he would never just slaughter those in his care for no reason at all. Those not in his care, well, that was another story and she was well aware of that.

"He has," Itachi replied with conviction.

"Has he ever gotten around to slaying his brother?" she inquired to feign interest in the conversation.

"I'm sure he has," he stated confidently.

Kikyo nodded again. Sesshomaru had, of course, not gotten around to killing Inuyasha. In fact, he made his little brother a samurai and gave him land as a wedding gift. Inuyasha had married that girl from the future and they trotted between times, even though they seemed to be spending more and more time in the feudal era. Sesshomaru informed his brother that it was rather dimwitted of him to take a bride and have nothing to offer her. He had described the actions in a clipped tone saying, "…such shortsighted foolishness was just like Inuyasha." The half-breed took offense to the words and rudely accepted the present, making sure to use several profane words.

Kikyo thought that Sesshomaru was actually a softie when it came to the right people and as hard as he tried to deny it, Inuyasha was on that short list. The full demon constantly sent word to Inuyasha, claiming it was business, but he was really checking on the younger dog to make sure everything was all right. The brothers had to keep up the appearance that they detested each other, though.

Sesshomaru was a protector, plain and simple. Kikyo understood that was his nature and it was one of the reasons that she was with him. He did his best to make sure that those in his care were safe and secure no matter what. He just had a very odd, cold, detached way of showing it a great deal of the time.

"Sesshomaru sounds rather malevolent," Kikyo commented.

"He is," Itachi assured her. He considered he might be able to frighten her away from that haughty dog.

"Sir, you may find this hard to believe, but my husband has kept me well informed of his affairs," Kikyo told the weasel demon, just to watch that confident look in his beady eyes whither away like a flower in the frost.

"Meaning?"

"You can't surprise me with information, unless of course, you lie," she said, glancing up to look him dead in the eye for the first time since he came into the room. She could see how confused he was and he did not know what to do.

"Madam, I don't lie," he huffed for lack of a better riposte. He was flustered and it was visible on his face, which turned a bright red. He did not know what make of the woman or her relationship with Sesshomaru.

"Well, then, we have nothing to discuss as I know my husband's business, so you can't tell me anything new," she pointed out.

Kikyo noted she offended Itachi with her words from the way that his body jerked ever so slightly. He hastily bid her good day and exited the room, much to her delight. She wondered what the point of his coming into the room in the first place. What was the purpose of trying to make her doubt her beloved? She could not guess what Itachi might be attempting to achieve in making her faith in Sesshomaru falter.

-8-8-8-8-

"Kikyo, have you stayed in here all day?" Sesshomaru asked as he came by the room that the priestess and the kitten lounged in.

"I have," she replied while Ran the cat hopped up and slowly made her way to Sesshomaru's leg. The feline rubbed against the dog demon and he did his best to ignore the creature.

"You had nothing better to do?" he asked, staring down at her.

Teasing him a bit, she kept her eyes on her book. "No. Something's been bothering me."

"What?" he inquired while going to sit down next to her. She leaned against him as soon as he was settled.

"Your guest has some strange interest in us."

"I know."

"Today, he seemed to try to make me think that you have not been honest with me and that you are some kind of a beast on two legs," she reported.

"You believed him?"

"No, of course not. He didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. But, why would did he do it?" she wondered aloud.

"I'm not sure," Sesshomaru admitted. He could not see why the other lord was so interested in Kikyo. She was only a human woman, after all. What could they want her for?

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Itachi stalks Kikyo while Kaori harasses Sesshomaru. How much longer will the dog demon put up with this?