Kitty-chan: I updated! OMG! No freakin way! Actually... this chapter has been in the making for a while now. But the odd thing with this particular story is that if my muse is not in the right place, I can't write worth crap. It's really sad, actually. sweatdrop. This chapter came to be fairly difficult, even though I knew what it was going to entail from the beginning. Don't ask me why it took so long for my muse to get on the right wavelength. Oh! I got some emails from Sesshy fans saying that Inuyasha seemed to be getting too many shots in at Sesshomaru in the last chapter. Well, fear not, Sesshy fans! Sesshy gets his share of shots in in this chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Inuyasha characters. They are the property of Takahashi Rumiko-sama and VIZ.
Enjoy, minna-san!
The day started with a not-so-good-natured "HMPH!" as the two boys managed to enter the room set up by their father at the exact same moment. Inuyasha turned to face his back to Sesshomaru as Kagome, Sango, and Miroku shook their heads in exasperation. Sesshomaru also turned his back on his brother, though his companions seemed to praise the very upturned slant of his nose. Inutaishou entered a few seconds later, a bright smile on his face. Kagome had to sigh at his about-to-be-crushed optimistic view of the day's training.
"Good-morning to you all!" he said cheerily, approaching and clapping a hand on each of his son's shoulders. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru didn't respond. In fact, they seemed to become even more sullen at their father's bright mood. "Are you boys ready for day two of your training?" Once again, the boys made no movement. The father's mood seemed to sink a bit, not out of discouragement, but rather, out of frustration. "I said," he growled, his toothy grin turning very forced as he shoved his sons' shoulders to make them face him. "Are you ready to begin your second day of training?" The look on his face told them that they'd better say yes, or they didn't want to imagine what he'd do otherwise. The two nodded meekly, causing Kagome to launch into a fit of silent giggles. She had never seen Inuyasha cower like he did now.
Inutaishou released his sons and put his hands behind his back and assuming a very professional stance. "Now. You two are to sit down and have a meal together like normal brothers do. Once again, the rules-" He stopped, his ears picking up the sound of muttering. He looked down to see the boys hunched over at each other, muttering dark curses under their breath.
"Lousy son of a human." Sesshomaru growled.
"Stupid long-haired freak." Inuyasha muttered back.
"Long-haired freak? What does that make you?" Sesshomaru inquired harshly, grabbing a fistful of Inuyasha's silver locks.
"Let go of me!" Inuyasha growled, and jerked his head a bit, attempting to dislodge Sesshomaru's grip on his hair. No such luck. Sesshomaru smirked smugly at his firm grip. Inuyasha's rage woke and he took a large lock of hair that had fallen onto Sesshomaru's shoulder into his clawed hand. Sesshomaru grunted and his smirk disappeared. He gave Inuyasha's hair a firm tug, drawing a strangled yelp from his throat. He was desperately trying to be quiet to avoid alerting his father's attention to their miniature scuffle. Kagome noticed Inuyasha's efforts. She also noticed how miserably he was failing. Inutaishou was impatiently tapping his foot as the boys continued to yank and pull at each other's hair.
After several minutes of the hair tangle and Kagome fretting over whether or not Inutaishou was going to explode, the two boys halted their movement, caught in a stalemate. Inuyasha had locked a firm grip on hair drawing from either side of Sesshomaru's face, while Sesshomaru had taken both the locks of hair that framed Inuyasha's face into his one hand, and was gripping them rather tightly. Inutaishou was now glaring holes into the backs of his sons' heads. The two of them didn't seem to notice. In fact, they seemed to have forgotten their father's presence altogether, for they had long since abandoned their attempt to keep quiet and now made all the noise and insulting yells they thought appropriate. Now, however, they kept quiet, their frustration outweighing their desire to put it into words. They simply sat in a glaring contest allowing low canine growls to fill the air around them and trying their hardest to make the other falter under their own intimidating gaze.
Kagome looked from Inutaishou's impatient face to the glaring contest and back again. Inutaishou unfolded his arms and slowly lowered his hands to equal the head height of his sons. She briefly entertained the idea of warning Inuyasha of the impending danger of his father's mighty fist, but dismissed the idea as she realized something; he really did deserve it. In an instant of lightning quick motion, and whining protests to match, Inutaishou had established a powerful grip on almost the entire head of hair each boy had to offer. Watching the two arguing siblings go from formidable staring match to whimpering puppies, Kagome had to admit, was rather humorous.
"You boys are supposed to be listening to me!" Inutaishou growled at them. The two stared up at him, their eyes wide and pleading. After a moment, he relinquished his grip and they turned away from each other once again. Inutaishou sighed and motioned to the room around them, where four small tables had been set up. "Now, everyone take a seat, and we can begin breakfast!" Inuyasha and Sesshomaru began wandering off in opposite directions, deciding on what table to sit at, but Inutaishou stopped them. "Hold it, you two." He grabbed their shoulders and turned them to face him. "This exercise is for you. Do you think you're meant to sit at separate tables?" Inuyasha and Sesshomaru glared daggers at each other, as if blaming the other for their current predicament. Inutaishou shoved them toward the table in the center, and they begrudgingly sat down. Inutaishou smiled once they were seated, and allowed the other parties to sit where they liked. Inutaishou shared a table with Kagome and Shippo, Miroku and Sango sat together at another, and Jaken and Rin occupied the last. After they were all seated, Inutaishou stood and cleared his throat to address the room.
"Alright, this morning, we are having shrimp, rice, and miso soup, prepared by yours truly." He smiled not-so-modestly, and Kagome had to chuckle. As Inutaishou began to explain the purpose of the exercise, the two for whom they were doing it seemed to have no interest whatsoever in their father's words. They were too focused on each other, their hands grinding into fists on the table.
Inuyasha examined Sesshomaru's face and growled lowly. He couldn't believe the nerve he had to grab his hair. Of all the uncivilized actions! He finally tore his eyes from Sesshomaru's face, and averted his deadly glare to the shrimp on the plate before him. If he had to stare at his brother any longer, he couldn't be responsible for his resulting actions. His clawed finger traced over the shrimp's body for a moment, before yet another juvenile urge seized him. Slowly, making sure he didn't catch his brother's attention, he moved his finger to rest behind the shrimp, tensing the small muscle in his finger. In a flash, he let loose the muscle, forcefully straightening his finger and sending the shrimp into the air, directly at Sesshomaru's face. Inuyasha smiled at the gratifying "splat" it made as the bit of seafood splattered itself across Sesshomaru's forehead. Sesshomaru's face drew blank. Inutaishou didn't seem to notice, but the attention of the rest of the room's occupants turned to look at the mounting tension at the center table.
Sesshomaru stared blankly at Inuyasha for a long time as if his mind couldn't comprehend what he had just done. Inuyasha was doing all he could to keep his fits of laughter in as he stared at the ruined shrimp across his brother's brow. He didn't seem to sense the rage that was currently filling Sesshomaru's eyes and motivating him to act. Sesshomaru slowly drew his finger across his forehead, wiping the shrimp off of his face, then cleaning his soiled finger on the cloth before him. He took a deep cleansing breath, his mind remaining raged, but calm, as he calculated the perfect way to seek his revenge for the humiliation. He finally locked Inuyasha's focus on his eyes as he sent the most sinister glare he could manage at him. Inuyasha smirked back at Sesshomaru, his own eyes remaining playful and communicating a message that asked Sesshomaru what he could do about it without alerting their father.
"To hell with father…" Sesshomaru growled quietly, cupping his hand under his bowl of rice. "You're going to pay for that." In a flash, he had hurled the bowl directly into Inuyasha's face, shattering the bowl and showering Inuyasha with small white grains. Inuyasha shook his head, rice sprinkling from his hair as he did, and in an instant had thrown his bowl of miso soup across Sesshomaru's front. Sesshomaru stood, knocking the small table foreward, and spilling all its contents onto Inuyasha's lap. Though the move had been unintentional, Sesshomaru smiled at his masterful manipulation of the growing food fight. Inuyasha stood and glared at Sesshomaru, attempting to shake himself off.
By this time, Inutaishou was fully aware of his sons' actions and had folded his arms across his chest, that same look of impatience drawing tight across his features. Inuyasha looked ready to tackle Sesshomaru, but stopped as something lightweight hit his head and shattered, raining down onto the ground in a million pieces. The half-breed slowly turned to look at Jaken, who had two more rice balls in his hands, ready to deploy them if his master needed. A murderous look in his eyes, Inuyasha began inching toward Sesshomaru's ward, his clawed hands flexing. Jaken looked ready to soil himself, but clung bravely to his ammo, ready to defend his beloved master if need be. Inuyasha suddenly yelped as something large hit him from behind and sent him to the ground. Sesshomaru landed on top of him, and wrapped his arm around his neck, pulling his head up to face Jaken, who had moved closer, the look on his face having gone from terrified to arrogant. He tossed the rice ball in his left hand up and down a few times before slamming it into Inuyasha's face. Inuyasha coughed and sputtered a few times, attempting to both attack Jaken and throw Sesshomaru away at the same time. A few seconds later, Jaken hurled the second rice ball into his face, and reached for another, the look of excitement on his face growing. Inuyasha growled and muttered dark curses at the toad demon, but he was powerless to defend at this point. He growled at Jaken as he wound up to throw the fourth rice ball, but was suddenly gone in a flurry of motion.
Inuyasha looked up to see that Inutaishou had roughly kicked Jaken off to the side and was now lifting Sesshomaru off of Inuyasha's back by the collar of his kimono. Inuyasha smirked and started to get up when he too was lifted off the ground by his fire-rat kimono. He looked innocently at his father as the mighty dog-general shook them both a few times, barking commands at him. "What is wrong with you two? Can't you even act like civilized demons for five minutes?"
Sesshomaru pointed at Inuyasha. "He flicked shrimp at me! It's his fault this whole mess started!"
Inuyasha turned his body as best he could to look at Sesshomaru. "You mangy mutt! It's your fault it started!"
Sesshomaru refused to acknowledge him. "I was simply defending myself! You can't expect me to do nothing when he throws food at me!"
Inutaishou rolled his eyes and brought his hands together, knocking the boys' heads against one another. "Shut up, you two. Now sit down and behave yourselves!" He roughly threw them into their seats, which currently were littered with spilled soup and bits of food, and began to stalk back to his table. On the way, he pointed at Jaken, who was just now returning to his seat. "And you, you little toad… if you encourage one more fight between these two boys, so help me, I'll shove a nice piece of venison down your pants, stick you on a spit and put you before a rather hungry Ah-Un!"
Properly scolded and marveling at Inutaishou's masterful command of colorful threats, Jaken sat down and cowered behind the edge of the table. Rin scooted closer to him. "He frightens me, Jaken-sama." Jaken said nothing, but stayed completely still as if Inutaishou were hunting for him.
Inutaishou stood at his table for a moment, clenching and unclenching his fists, before turning and waving his hand at his sons. "Get out of here. Go wash up and meet me back in here in two hours! That's all the breakfast you'll have."
Inuyasha and Sesshomaru took off immediately, ecstatic to be relieved of the others' presence. Inutaishou rubbed his eyes and vacated the room as well, leaving the rest of the group to continue eating in silence.
After the spilled food had been cleaned up, the boys returned to the room, and this time seated themselves in the correct spot, not wanting to aggravate their father's anger any more then they had. Inutaishou entered a few minutes later, as well as the travel parties of the two sons. This time, the tables were not stocked with food, but with supplies to make green tea.
Inutaishou stood. "Now, let's try to have some tea without any interruptions." He gave a poignant glare at his sons, who then reflected it to one another as if reinforcing their father's point to their opposite. The tea was poured and before anyone drank, Inutaishou stood to give another speech to his sons.
Inuyasha didn't hear the first thing his father said. He was too focused on Sesshomaru and his growing desire to humiliate him as he had been. That bastard threw rice on me! And then dumped everything on the table on my lap! Damn bastard... he grumbled in his mind, seemingly ignorant to the fact that he had initiated the food scuffle. He looked at Sesshomaru, who seemed to be boredly listening to his father ramble about the proper way to prepare tea. He yawned, and leaned his chin on his one hand, closing his eyes and dozing slightly.
Sesshomaru's ears suddenly perked up. Had he heard right? He opened his eyes and looked to Inuyasha, who happened to be glaring back at him. Sesshomaru snorted at him, then smiled wickedly. He said we are to prepare each other's tea... He held in a laugh as he picked up a cup, and began to pour a cup for his sibling. As soon as it was full, and being sure that Inuyasha was fixated on another cup, Sesshomaru slowly dipped his clawed finger into the greenish liquid and began to swirl it around, releasing poison from his claw. He smirked, keeping his eye on his father as he finish and passed the cup across the table to his brother.
Little did Sesshomaru know that his sabotage was not in the least original. Inuyasha had noticed Sesshomaru's gaze at his cup, and so decided to act while he was distracted. Grabbing a rather large pinchful of the fish seasonings that sat in the center of the table (left over from breakfast), he dumped them into the cup and gently swirled the tea with his finger before handing it over to his brother. Inutaishou smiled broadly. Nothing had happened yet! They had gotten through the making of the tea, and even his speech without a disturbance from the two sons. He held up his cup, turned it a few times, then held it to his lips, saying, before he drank, "You may drink your tea."
Sesshomaru picked his cup up, turned it, as was customary, and lifted the cup to his lips, his yellow eyes fixated on Inuyasha as he did the same. Sesshomaru couldn't help the smile that crept onto his lips as he anxiously awaited Inuyasha's reaction. He noticed that Inuyasha stared back at him, the same expression of anticipation in his eyes. He paid no heed to his brother, however, and let the liquid flow from the cup and over his tongue toward his throat and Inuyasha did the same.
The tea didn't get past the tongue.
There was a long string of curses that erupted from the center table, as Sesshomaru yelled with disgust, sending his tea spraying from his mouth and all over that which was in front of him. Including Inuyasha. Inuyasha was in his own panic as he drank the tea with the horrible taste of Sesshomaru's poison in it. This, too, came flying from his mouth as he dropped his cup, shattering it across the floor, and put a hand to his throat as if he were being choked. Things didn't improve when Sesshomaru spit his tea out across his front, and some into Inuyasha's open mouth. Inuyasha wailed again, spitting and hacking, mixing in a healthy dose of curses along with it. Sesshomaru, once finished emptying his mouth of the tea, looked to Inuyasha and stood, slamming his hands onto, and breaking, the small table they sat at.
"You damned hanyou! What did you do to my tea!"
Inuyasha coughed a few times, managed to compose himself, then got up on his knees to match Sesshomaru's height. "What the hell are you looking at me for? You friggin spiked my tea! What the hell was in there?" His eyes trailed down Sesshomaru's arm to his hand, where his index claw had a tiny drop of poison hanging from it. Had he not seen it, the stench would've told him. "You poisoned my tea! You're trying to kill me!"
Sesshomaru raised a hand and stood, towering above Inuyasha. "What the hell are you yelling at me for? What did you put in mine?" He looked to Inuyasha's hand and concentrated his scent. He smelled... fish seasoning...? His eyes widened and he stuck out his tongue. "You put fish seasoning in my tea! You worthless half-dog!"
Inuyasha stood and shook his fist at Sesshomaru, tempted to stick up his middle finger. "At least I wasn't trying to kill you! You put poison in mine!"
'I would've done the world a favor, mutt!" Sesshomaru smirked as he spoke.
Once again, the two seemed to be so busy insulting each other, they didn't notice the father's rage building, and looming over them as he stood from his place and headed over to punish them. Kagome shivered. This was not going to be good...
As they continued to scream obscenities at each other, Inutaishou marched over toward them, grabbing the teakettle off the table where Jaken and Rin sat, and then the one from Miroku and Sango's table. For a moment, they wondered at his actions, but as he neared his sons, they feared they understood his reasoning. He halted next to his sons, hoping that perhaps they would notice him and calm down before he resorted to force. He glanced at Sesshomaru... then at Inuyasha. There was no reaction at all. They seemed too intent on their yelling competition to notice their father. Inutaishou waited a few seconds longer before extending his arms, kettles in hand, holding them suspended above each of his sons' heads. As if expecting them to notice, he paused for a second longer before tipping them both and pouring the contents onto the boys. With a scream, they halted their contest with each other.
Sesshomaru jerked backward as the scalding water was poured over his head, whimpering quietly. He jumped back a few feet, and proceeded to shake his head and grip at his hair, moaning at the boiling water coming off him in waves of steam. Inuyasha jerked back as well, but this landed him square on his butt. He then quickly scurried out of the path of the rest of the water as Inutaishou completely emptied the two kettles onto the floor. Kagome raised an eyebrow. Odd... normally a parent wouldn't think to do these things to a child for fear of severely harming them. But this is nothing life-threatening to a demon, I suppose. She had to laugh at the two boys attempt to cool their burning heads, whining and growling in frustration.
Inutaishou completed his task of emptying the kettles and tossed them to the sides, coincidentally hitting the two boys on the head. They each yipped quietly and began to rub their burning scalps, sending death glares at each other, and being sure that they did not look at their father. After a moment, they stood up, and looked like they were about to resume a now-soggy verbal fight when Inutaishou placed his hands forcefully onto each of their heads and gave them a healthy shove to silence any words that might've come out. The two of them looked pathetically up at him from beneath his hands. "You two are embarrassing! Why must you constantly try to sabotage this!"
Inuyasha pointed at Sesshomaru, turning his icy glare on him once again. "What else can I do! He put poison in my tea!"
Sesshomaru growled back at him. "Shut up! You put fish seasoning in mine!" Inuyasha stuck his tongue out at him, and Sesshomaru bared his teeth and growled.
Inutaishou gave something akin to a roar to quiet them down. He then gave their heads another shove before releasing them. "Every time we do one of these things, you seem to get mad at each other, sabotage it, then try and pin the blame on each other! What is wrong with you two!"
Kagome sighed. She honestly didn't believe that this plan was ever to work. More had occurred between the boys than the father would ever really know. That would lead him to believe that they got along better than they did, and he would believe that he could get them to behave. Kagome saw where this plan was going... absolutely nowhere.
The two glared at each other for a moment before deciding that they had had enough for one day, and with a loud snort from each, they turned and began heading out. Inutaishou barked a bit and established an iron grip on Inuyasha's right arm as he turned. But as Sesshomaru turned, Inutaishou made a grab for his left arm. Kagome, Miroku, and Sango almost winced when the father grabbed nothing but an empty sleeve. Inuyasha gave a yelp as his father's eyes widened, and shock caused him to give his wrist a firm squeeze. Inutaishou stared straight ahead, almost as if he was trying to accept what he had just felt. After a moment, he released Inuyasha, who set upon nursing his injured wrist, and grabbed Sesshomaru's sleeve with his other hand, lifting it up so he could look in to see why he had failed to grab Sesshomaru's wrist. Sesshomaru's smirk was one of the most wicked things Inuyasha had ever seen. And it was directed at him. Inutaishou now knew that Sesshomaru only had one arm... and he was going to be sure that Inutaishou knew full well that Inuyasha was responsible.
Inuyasha didn't quite seem to understand what was going on. All he knew was he had been punished for something, but Sesshomaru had not. That was when he noticed Inutaishou desperately searching Sesshomaru's left sleeve for the arm that was not there. He froze, the look on his face declaring he knew his father was going to kill him. After a moment, he began to silently get to his feet, but as he turned, his father's voice stopped him, "Don't you go anywhere, Inuyasha." Inuyasha froze in place and shivered a bit, eyes wide, and teeth gritted.
Sesshomaru seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this. Inuyasha was panicking immensely right now. He could smell it coming off him in waves. Once Inutaishou had confirmed his suspicions that Sesshomaru indeed only had a stub for a left arm, he allowed the sleeve to drop again, but retained his hold on it. He stared at Sesshomaru, his eyes holding a mixture of confusion and panic. "Where the hell is your arm!" He demanded, flapping the sleeve up and down. Sesshomaru chuckled.
"It was cut off in a battle." Sesshomaru answered in his usual calm voice.
Inutaishou eyed him for a moment before pity seemed to swell in his eyes and he dropped Sesshomaru's sleeve. He stared at the limp fabric for a moment before the pity in his eyes vanished to be replaced with vengeance. Perfect... Sesshomaru mused.
"Who did this?" Inutaishou growled with rage. Inuyasha seemed to shiver and a twitch suddenly developed itself in his left eye. Kagome shivered too. What would Inutaishou do when he found out the truth? And there was no doubt he'd find out the truth soon. Sesshomaru was sure to tell him, if only to sic his dad on his brother. "I will hunt the perpetrator down, and so help me, if he still walks the earth I will send him to hell faster than you can blink an eye. Who cut off my son's arm?"
Sesshomaru swore he heard a chorus singing praises to Buddha as he heard his father's threats. He glanced to Inuyasha for a moment and saw him shiver. What he couldn't see was the expression of terror on his face, the twitch in his eye growing until the eye seemed to spasmodically blink every half-second. Kagome covered her mouth as one does when seeing something gruesome. For all she knew, she was about to.
Inutaishou waited for a response from Sesshomaru, and when he got none after a moment, he repeated himself. "Who cut off the arm of my son!"
Sesshomaru looked up at him, the arrogance in his eye unrivaled with that of any other demon Kagome had seen. "You're younger son." Sesshomaru stated calmly, though Inuyasha knew that he was grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Inutaishou seemed to cough on his own saliva for a moment before he slowly turned to look back at Inuyasha's shivering form. The same twitch that had become so heavy in Inuyasha's eye was now causing Inutaishou to blink spasmodically. Perhaps it was hereditary...
Inutaishou stood there for a long moment, probably debating on what to do. Inuyasha slowly stood up, attention of his ears set on his father, but attention of his eyes set on finding an escape route. After a tense moment, they heard Inutaishou suck in a deep breath as the twitch in his eye faded and the look in them was replaced with that of rage.
"INUYASHA!" he bellowed. Inuyasha yelped and took off in the opposite direction. Inutaishou immediately took chase, while Sesshomaru stayed behind, snickering quietly, congratulating himself on the genius of setting his father against his brother. Kagome looked after Inutaishou as he began to chase Inuyasha, disappearing among the bones. She figured Inutaishou would bring Inuyasha back to where they were if only to interrogate him. That certainly wouldn't help much, considering that Sesshomaru was no doubt going to twist the story enough times to set Inutaishou on a killing spree, only one prey in mind, poor Inuyasha.
Kagome sighed. Once again, this plan was going in one direction... absolutely nowhere.
Kitty-chan: To be continued! I actually thought about putting the chase scene and the interrogation in this chapter, but it would've been freakin huge, and I thought that section deserved its own chapter.
Inuyasha: You lier. Tell the truth. You just stopped there because you really wanted to post something, and were too lazy to finish this section.
Kitty-chan: Shut up! You should try coming up with this stuff! T-T
Inuyasha: I hate Sesshomaru. Why the hell would I try to come up with ways to make us get along, you loser!
Kitty-chan: Eat lemons and die! Anyway, shouldn't you be running from your father right now? He's on the warpath.
Inuyasha: freak out KUSO! takes off
Kitty-chan: victory dance Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Woo! I love hearing your feedback! Flames accepted! Keep reviewing minna-san! poof!