Bijin: Okay... I noticed that no one reviewed for chapter five. I don't know if that's cause Cate insulted you or if you just didn't think it was good enough for a review (which makes me sad but anyway)... If Cate insulted you... I sincerely apologize. As long as I live, she will never again respond to my reviews. XD Well... either way, here's the sixth and final chapter of Sibling School. Hope you've enjoyed it so far... and now for the end!
"Get offa me, bastard." Inuyasha growled, shrugging his brother off of himself. "You keep doing that, and we're gonna end up finding every single damn hole in this area."
"Well, either I tackle you into all the holes and cause bodily harm, or I let you wander into all of them by yourself, dragging me with you." he chuckled. "At least this way, I'm causing you pain."
"Oh shut the hell up." Inuyasha snarled, leaping out of the pit and roughly yanking Sesshomaru out. "I think I have an idea. Let's try jumping to the other side of this clearing."
Sesshomaru stared at Inuyasha. He then stared at the distance required to be covered. "You're some new kind of stupid, you know that? There's no way either of us could make that jump."
Inuyasha glowered at him, but took off anyway, dragging Sesshomaru after him with a yelp. The two flew overhead, watching the sunny and deceptively peaceful area below them pass by. But as the arch of Inuyasha's leap began to decend, he saw that his brother had been right. He wasn't quite going to make it. He would fall at least ten meters short. He rolled his eyes, figuring that he would never hear the end of it once they landed, but the landing... didn't quite come right awy. His foot touched the ground, but felt air again shortly afterwards as the groud gave way to yet another pit and they tumbled about ten feet down into the hole, landing with an odd splat at the bottom. Sesshomaru landed seconds afterwards, but the method of his arrival, was rather inverted compared to Inuyasha's position.
Meaning... he landed head-first.
Into a shoulder-deep pit of soggy and smelly mud.
Inuyasha stared at Sesshomaru's twitching feet for a moment, debating weather or not he should dislodge him. He had decided against it when one of the feet suddenly kicked at his head, smacking his dog ear against his scalp. He growled, but gave his left hand a tug, pulling Sesshomaru out of the mud and setting him upright again. Inuyasha bit back a giggle. The aristocratic assassin was barely recognizable in the mud, simply a tall, and rather dashing pillar of soil and muck. If the word dashing could be used to describe such things, it was certain Sesshomaru would be the perfect example of a dashing pillar of mud. He took a deep breath, spitting mud from his mouth, and reaching out with his right hand to grab Inuyasha's hair and shove him face-first into the mud that surrounded them. Inuyasha popped back out of the mud and glowered at him, and with his free hand, scooped up a handful of the muck they rested in and without hesitation chucked the ball full-force into Sesshomaru's smirking face. Spitting out more mud, Sesshomaru took a few seconds to calm himself, attempting to control his feelings of anger and resentment.
Oh to hell with it!
Sesshomaru used what little footing he had and launched himself foreward, tackling his brother to the mud-covered ground, burying them both in the muck. neither of them surfaced for a few monents, tusseling about beneath the top of the mud soup. After a moment, a form rose from the muck and shook itself off, revealing itself to be Sesshomaru. He smirked down at the mud surrounding him, but barely had any time to congratulate himself before a small fountain of mud shot from below him, pelting him right in the face, and undoing his job of shaking himself off. He growled, but at this point could not see where the enemy was. Suddenly, a form suddenly exploded upwards, spraying mud everywhere, and Sehssomaru was soon dragged upwards in its wake. Once on the top, the two once again stooped to shake themselves off.
"Okay, so maybe jumping was a bad idea." Inuyasha admitted.
"Do it again and I'll rip those ears off your head!" Sesshomaru threatened. Not that he hadn't been wanting to do that for a while now...
Inuyasha wasn't sure if he meant the mud fight or the jump. Either way, he didn't really care.
"At least I came up with an idea, you moron!"
"Try using your nose, idiot. If you smell mud getting closer, just redirect your steps." he instructed, sniffing the air, and looking at the ground which corresponded to the scents wafting up.
"Water... I smell water." Inuyasha muttered. "They have water-filled pits?"
Sesshomaru's steps slowed significantly, as his nose continued to twitch. "Do you smell... frogs?" He inquired.
Sesshomaru's next step sent them tumbling down into another pit where they landed in a bed of none other than the object of Sesshomaru's last claim. Inuyasha squirmed. "FROGS!"
He immediately built energy in his ankles to leap out, but that required some measure of crouching down. His eyes gave a slight twitch as he felt several of the small green amphibians slide into his kimono top and even a few in his pants. Sesshomaru wasn't doing too much better. Not only was he receiving plenty of guests into his kimono top and bottom, he was helpless to do anything about it. His left sleeve flapped up and down desperately, as if trying to shoo them away with his stump of an arm.
"Damnit, get away!" He shouted angrily. "Inuyasha, get us out of here!"
Inuyasha growled back at him, and launched them upward and out of the pit. Once out, the two of them took several moments to rid themselves of the frogs, shaking out pant-legs, and pulling kimono tops off and dumping the small creatures from within. Once they seemed relatively frog-free, Inuyasha looked at Sesshomaru.
"Think you could've warned me about that a little sooner!"
Sesshomaru growled. "I didn't see you avoiding that damn thing either, stupid half-breed!"
Inuyasha turned away, looking about the area. They had fallen into several pits now, and he was certainly getting tired of them. Course, it wasn't just the pits he was getting bored with. The entire ordeal sucked. Not only were they forced to head through rediculous traps, but he was handcuffed to the one person he hated most in the world; his older brother. Something fidgetted in his shirt, and he growled, pulling a tenacious frog from within his white top, tossing it over his shoulder with a disapproving croak from the small animal. Mere moments afterward, something small and soft hit him in the back of the head, emitting a croak as it did.
He turned.
Sesshomaru was armed with a single frog, tossing it up and down like a snowball as the poor creature frantically kicked its legs in an attempt to escape.
Inuyasha scoffed. "What's your problem?" He demanded roughly.
"Why the hell did you throw a frog at my head?" He demanded back.
Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "Why would I throw a frog at your-?"
He was roughly cut off as a small green creature plastered itself, spread-eagle, to his face. The small frog gained its sticky feet and hopped off the face and back to the ground, leaving in its wake a rather nasty expression.
"Bastard." Sesshomaru retorted.
Inuyasha said nothing, oddly enough, and pulled a second frog from his waistband, suddenly happy that he had missed a few in his cleansing. He chucked the poor creature full force at Sesshomaru, who dodged and threw one back. His hand flashed out and caught the thrown frog and threw it as well. Inuyasha simply leapt backward and caught the two thrown, jerking Sesshomaru foreward and winding up to throw again. But this, of course, didn't quite work as Inuyasha's footing landed them right above hallow ground and they tumbled downward, Inuyasha first, and Sesshomaru second.
Inuyasha surfaced and spit a small fountain of liquid out. "Water... at least it's not mud."
Sesshomaru growled. "I've had enough of this. Let's get the hell away from this place."
Inuyasha rolled his eyes and vaulted them out and onto solid land, glancing about for an escape route. He spotted the nearest patch of forested area and pointed at it. "I know we can make that jump. Come on."
With no more than a grunt from Sesshomaru, the two of them crouched down and launched themselves into the foresty area and darted away from the minefield of dark pits.
"How far do you suppose we've got to go?" Inuyasha inquired flatly. Sesshomaru didn't reply.
Finally he growled. "Keep your eyes out for more traps, idiot."
Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Oh shut up, Mr. High and Mighty. You've been falling with me into these traps the whole way. Don't act like some kind of EXPERT!"
His condecending tone turned to one of conversational tone and volume to a complete yell of surprise as something snagged his ankle and he was yanked off his feet and into the air, completely inverted. As he continued to climb, Sesshomaru sweatdropped.
"Oh damn."
His right arm received a painful jerk and he was pulled off his feet to hang below his captured brother by his right wrist.
He growled. "I may not be an expert, but you suck."
Inuyasha said nothing, and for a long while the two were silent, not only unable to do anything at the moment, but also caught in a rather odd position. Inuyasha hung from his right ankle, while his left wrist bore the entire weight of Sesshomaru's body which was dangling several feet off the ground, hanging directly below his inverted brother. Finally, Sesshomaru broke the silence and growled.
"This is all your fault, you know."
Inuyasha's face jerked downward to growl at him. "Excuse me? Who's the one who opened the portal and let Chichi-we through?"
"I meant the trap." Sesshomaru corrected.
"I'm talking about the whole damn thing! Not only did you pull Chichi-we into this world, but you also tried to get him to kill me by lying to him about your arm!" He accused. "I'm so sick of you! Once we're done with this stupid trial, I'm going to slice you in half!"
Sesshomaru rolled his eyes. "Assuming we can get through this. We have to get to the end first. So get us down."
Inuyasha groaned. "And how do you propose I do that? I can't see above my ankle. I could end up slicing my foot off."
"And I should be concerned about that because...?"
Inuyasha growled at him. "I wouldn't be making smart comments like that if I were you. You're hardly in the position."
Sesshomaru's left sleeve flapped up and down slightly. "Damn right I'm not you, filthy half-breed!"
"Pompus windbag!"
After his insult, Inuyasha's neck grew suddenly tired and relaxed, shifting his head and causing his hair to slip off where it rested on one of his arms and flop directly onto his brother's head. Sesshomaru growled silently at the indignation, but remained quiet. There was a long and rather awkward pause between the two of them as they hung from a nearby tree, Inuyasha hooked by the ankle, and Sesshomaru by the right hand. Sesshomaru was the first to speak.
"This has GOT to stop." He declared darkly. "I can't take this little school Chichi-we's set up, and he's not going to give up until he's convinced we've learned some type of lesson."
"So what do you suggest?" Inuyasha demanded, not looking at him.
"A truce... temporarily." Sesshomaru answered quietly, clearly rather humiliated he was making the suggestion in the first place.
Inuyasha was silent for a long time as if trying to compute what had been suggested. He opened his mouth several times, trying to come up with an answer, but it was several minutes before he actually did. After all, though he knew the only escape would be to at least pretend to cooperate, even stooping to that level was rather... disgusting. He wanted nothing to do with his brother. However, looking at their current position, inverted as he was, and getting more than a little dizzy from all the blood rushing to his head, he almost felt like he had no other choice. "A truce, huh?"
Sesshomaru nodded slightly. "At least pretend to work together for Chichi-we's sake, and once he leaves, the truce is done."
Inuyasha mulled it over for several minutes. Though the idea of working with Sesshomaru was rather detestable, he was in a fix that didn't allow him much room to negotiate. He sighed and grunted. "Fine. Truce."
"Now get us down from here." Sesshomaru commanded.
"I don't know how to do that. I'll slice my foot off since I can't see the rope."
Sesshomaru sighed and glanced around, trying to see if anything around could help. But considering he had not an arm to actually grab anything, he soon gave up, figuring it pointless. He glanced up, an idea sparking in his head. "Inuyasha, hang your hand down and let me use it as a step-stool and I'll jump up and cut the rope with our chained hands."
Inuyasha didn't protest, and hung down his right hand. Sesshomaru took a few swings back and forth to gather a bit of momentum, then swung his leg up, landing his foot in Inuyasha's hand. He forced his upper body to follow, and soon stood, full weight on Inuyasha's right hand. He thought he heard a crack, and couldn't stop a smirk from curving his lips.
"CUT THE DAMN ROPE!" Inuyasha cried, his voice strained. His fingers trembled beneath Sesshomaru's shoe, threatening to release him and drop him back toward the ground. Though he feared that as well considering Sesshomaru's entire body weight would jerk down on his left arm, most likely dislocating his left shoulder, wrist, and probably his right ankle as well.
"I'm cutting. Don't be so impatient." Sesshomaru chuckled smoothly. He pulled on his right wrist and heard a second grunt from Inuyasha. To allow Sesshomaru to cut the rope, his hand had to be at least near the rope. This caused Inuyasha's arm to be pulled up between his legs. Inuyasha's eyes went wide as his body seemed to be pulled in far too many directions. The rope itself was pulling upward on his right ankle, keeping them suspended. His right hand was being savagely pushed downward by Sesshomaru's weight, his free leg was pulling him doward somewhat, and now Sesshomaru was tugging his left hand upward in an attempt to cut the rope.
He felt oddly like one of the rubber strings Kagome used to tie back her hair from time to time.
A small string of poison erupted from the tip of Sesshomaru's index finger claw and with a small snap, the rope had been cut. This worked out rather nicely for Sesshomaru, since he was already on his feet, and simply fell straight downward, but the inverted Inuyasha had no such luck. He landed with a dull thud on the ground, crumpling into a pile at Sesshomaru's feet.
"Ow... I hope you appreciate what I went through to make that possible." Inuyasha growled.
"You? You didn't actually do anything." Sesshomaru retorted.
Inuyasha didn't argue. He seemed a bit worn out, so he simply muttered, "Bastard."
Sesshomaru smirked as it seemed to be his turn to drag Inuyasha to his feet. "Now let's get out of here."
They took one step...
And screamed.
Inuyasha heard his left ankle crack.
Sesshomaru heard his right ankle crack.
Inuyasha felt a powerful tug on his left wrist.
Sesshomaru felt a powerful tug on his right wrist.
Inuyasha and Sesshomaru exchanged a pathetic look. Two ankles had been caught... by two different traps. The boys were slung helplessly between two trees, an ankle each pulling them into the air, and toward the tree that bore the rope, and their bound wrists pulled them toward each other, leaving them suspended between two trees like a clothes line. Inuyasha whined, "You have GOT to be kidding me."
"Where the hell do they come up with this shit!" Sesshomaru cried in an abnormaly loud voice for his personality.
Inuyasha's right hand balled into a fist. "That Monk's dead."
Sesshomaru sighed. "Now what?"
"Well, I can see the rope on your ankle from here. I can..." He raised his right hand, gathering energy into his claws. Sesshomaru frantically shook his head.
"Wait! Wait, damnit! You stupid-!"
"Sankoptessou!" Inuyasha shouted, sending three razor-sharp blades of energy toward the rope that held Sesshomaru's ankle suspended. The trap released and Sesshomaru dropped down to hang below Inuyasha again, his feet dangling a few feet above the ground and growling up at Inuyasha.
"Bastard Hanyou." He muttered.
"Shut up! I didn't see you doing anything to get us down, moron!"
"I tried to tell you, but you went on ahead! Now you're gonna have to let me use your hand again."
"Hell no!" Inuyasha shot back. "You're not doing that again! I'll do this myself!" He craned his neck upward, flopping his hair into his brother's face again. He wound up with his right hand and gathered energy to his claws. "Sankoptessou!" The top of the tree that hung them was roughly chopped off, dropping them both down to the ground, Sesshomaru feet-first, Inuyasha face-first.
He regained his feet and glanced around. "I'm betting those damn things are all over the place."
Sesshomaru rolled his eyes and crouched down. "Come on. Let's use the trees, but we have to jump at the same time." Inuyasha sighed and obliged, gathering energy into his ankles. On a small countdown, the two launched into the trees and made their quick way away from the area and came to a clearing. Sunlight bathed this area, and the boys found themselves shielding their eyes from the brilliant light.
"Sesshomaru-sama!"
Sesshomaru looked up and nodded subtely to Rin, who was jumping up and down, waving her arms at the other end of the clearing.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome called, waving an arm also. Beside the two of them were Sango, Miroku, Kirara, Shippo, and Jaken hopped about near Rin. The two made their way over to the group and Inuyasha's fist came down on Miroku's black head.
"Bastard Monk!" He shouted. Sesshomaru rolled his eyes. "What the hell was with the traps!"
Miroku whimpered and held a hand to his head. "Ow... come on... Inutaishou-dono asked me to set them up. Don't blame me."
"What was with the sutras? And the pits! A concoction of yours, I assume." Inuyasha growled.
"Actually, the pits were me." Sango volunteered meekly.
Inuyasha stared at her for a long moment. "FROGS?" He demanded. Sango just chuckled along with Kagome and Miroku.
"You seem to have made it through alright." A deep voice chuckled from behind them. "I have to say I'm proud of you. Your efforts to escape the ropes were excellent. You really worked together on those, didn't you?"
Inuyasha and Sesshomaru seemed speechless. Finally, Sesshomaru gulped and said, "You were right there the entire time?"
Inutaishou smiled. "Well, I was nearby. I didn't hear any conversation beyond your yells, but I did see what you did. And you two exercised some excellent teamwork back there."
"Sesshomaru-sama worked with a half-breed! Unacceptable! Disgusting! How could you Sessho-!" Jaken's rants were silenced by his Lord's foot coming down firmly upon his mouth and nose. He fell over and Sesshomaru shrugged.
"We just took a few moments to sort out our differences... that's all." Sesshomaru growled. "I still think this entire thing was unnecessary."
Inuyasha nodded. "No kidding."
Inutaishou chuckled. "I wondered what you two were doing hanging from that rope on Inuyasha's ankle. You must've had quite the conversation."
"Yeah... right." Inuyasha agreed hesitantly, glancing nervously to Sesshomaru, who simply shrugged.
Sesshomaru looked to their father. "It was simple really. We just needed to work together or we weren't going to get out of that damn forest. So we figured the best way out was to follow what you had been shoving down our throats." He rolled his eyes slightly.
"Not quite pleased with it being put that way, but at least you got the idea. But... there is one more trial to pass." He smirked. Before they could react, Inutaishou had raced behind them and shoved them both to the dirt. Inutaishou stood and held up a small key. "This is the key to your shackles. Get it from me, and you'll be free of those cuffs... and of me." He patted the two scabbards at his hips. "Oh... and you can try and take these back anytime."
Inuyasha and Sesshomaru picked themselves from the dirt and exchanged a glance. They leapt to their feet and held up their cuffed hands. Energy charged into their claws.
"Make it look convincing, mutt." Sesshomaru growled so only they could hear.
"Same to you, moron." They brought their hands down in a unified slash.
"Sankoptessou!"
"Poison Claws!"
Three shining blades of energy shot out, each one surrounded by Sesshomaru's deadly poison. Inutaishou chuckled and swiftly dodged, stopping as he realized they were no longer there. He glanced around, suddenly spotting them (a little too late) behind him.
Inuyasha gripped the two swords in his free hand and unsheathed them both, flipping over his father and landing with a thud nearby. Sesshomaru landed silently behind him and Inuyasha shoved the Tenseiga into his hand, moving the Tetsusaiga into his cuffed hand as well. "I pick the direction we jump next, pretty boy." Inuyasha muttered in the same hushed tone.
"You wish, half-breed."
Inuyasha snarled as they both held up their swords.
The spectators were in shock. Not only were the boys actually working together... it was effective. Two moves and they already had their swords back. Had the boys truly come to a truce? Jaken of course had no such thoughts on the situation. Of course... he was unconscious. Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Shippo, of course were more than delighted. They had gotten into their share of scuffles with Sesshomaru, and saw no reason to be upset about the end of those fights if the two really had settled things between them.
"Kaze no Kizu!"
"Cho Ryu Ha!"
A blast of blue and yellow energy erupted toward the father, who simply held up a hand to stop the energy's progression. The energy was reverted down to the ground, creating an explosion of dust and dirt. Waving away the dirt, Inutaishou glanced around, not noticing the green string that shot at him. It wound around his wrists, pulling them together, and as the dust was blown away, he saw Sesshomaru's poison whips had wound around them and now held his hands still. His wrist then gave a jerk, throwing Inuyasha, by the wrist, right at Inutaishou's middle. Inuyasha's free hand grabbed the key, and the momentum of the throw landed the two of them mere feet from their travel parties.
"Nicely done." Inuyasha spit sarcastically.
"Same to you." Sesshomaru returned. He then muttered under his breath, "Useless half-breed."
Inuyasha forced himself to remain still and simply unlocked the cuffs, rubbing his raw wrist. "How was that, Chichi-we?" He inquired. He received (much to his horror), a pat on the head from the older dog demon.
"I'm very proud of you, sons, and I see that my job here has been completed." He looked to the travel parties. "I appreciate your help in bringing my sons together and I will remember you always."
Kagome bowed. "Thank you, Inutaishou-sama."
Inutaishou clapped the two of them on the shoulders with a hearty laugh. "Now... I should get going. But before I do... would it be possible to see my sons hug once before I go?"
Inuyasha's eye twitched.
Sesshomaru's breath caught in his throat and he gave a heavy cough. "N... not really." He answered nearly silent.
Inutaishou's pointed ear perked up. "Huh?"
Sesshomaru shook his head. "Nothing." He gave Inuyasha a looked mixed with disgust and a message. 'If we don't do this, he'll never leave'.
"Damn." Inuyasha swore under his breath, staring up at him. Being cuffed to Sesshomaru was as close as he ever wanted to get to him, and even that had been pushing it. He stared at him for a long time, trying desperately to think of a way out of it. Nothing came to mind. They had to , or like Sesshomaru's eyes said, he'd never leave.
Kagome, Miroku, and Sango were not quite sure what to make of the situation. Even if Sesshomaru and Inuyasha had worked out a few differences, there was no way they would be comfortable with a hug.
Luckily for the rest, Jaken was still unconcious.
Rin was sitting off to the side picking at a flower, not paying any attention to the situation, and no real motivation to pay any attention.
There was a long and heated glare shared between the two for a long moment, both expecting the other to come up with a good enough excuse not to do this, but none came to mind. Inuyasha's eyebrows came to a point, and his right hand was raised up, offering it to Sesshomaru.
Sesshomaru stared at the hand for a moment. Just looking at it was rather displeasing, and he could smell the human on it. Hesitantly, he raised his own right hand and clasped his against Inuyasha's. Now came the hard part.
Before god and the groups, the two brothers came together for a few seconds in a one-armed hug.
Kagome bit back a laugh.
Miroku chuckled silently.
Sango simply stared.
Shippo collapsed to the ground in a fit of silent giggles.
Kirara hopped onto Sango's shoulder and mewed quietly.
Jaken just laid there.
Rin yawned and stood.
The boys broke apart and Inutaishou looked overjoyed. "You two have become true brothers! I am so proud of you!" He embraced the two of them for a moment, then motioned to Sesshomaru. "Would you do the honors, Sesshomaru?" He requested in a tone plesant enough to make Sesshomaru's mood sink about seven levels. Sesshomaru nodded solemnly and withdrew his sword, taking a slice at the air and opening up the bizarre gateway once again. Inutaishou waved and was gone.
Inuyasha snorted and looked to Sesshomaru.
Sesshomaru gave a deep sigh and looked to Inuyasha.
"That's that." Sesshomaru stated.
"You ever touch me again and I will take off your head." Inuyasha continued.
"Likewise." Sesshomaru growled.
Kagome blinked. "You guys faked that!" She demanded angrily. It wasn't so surprising, really. She had found it odd that they seemed to have gotten along for whatever short time they did, but it also seemed strange that they had pulled it off with such believeablility. Not to mention they had suffered a hug through their despise.
Inuyasha shot her a glare. "Of course we did! What in the hell makes you think that he and I could ever possibly get along!"
Kagome crossed her arms.
Inuyasha shivered slightly. "I will never speak of this again for as long as I live, and you'd better do the same."
Sesshomaru ran a hand through his hair. "Indeed. One thing we can actually agree on." He turned. "Now… if you'll excuse me… I must have at least a two-hour bath to rid myself of hanyou stench."
Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "It'll take longer than that to get rid of your smell, Sesshomaru!"
He turned and stomped over toward Kagome and the others as Sesshomaru began to head off toward his castle. Rin quickly gathered Jaken up and took off after him, meeting Ah-Un along the way and they vanished away from the site.
Inuyasha marched right past his travel party and headed off toward where, somewhere in the distance, the hotsprings lay. He shivered again. "I am never going to be able to get that out of my head."
The others followed in silence. They knew that it had to be rather traumatizing to embrace the brother he so hated and who so hated him. Kagome was the first to speak and she only did so quietly.
"You know… the two of you did make a really good team…" She muttered.
"SHUT UP!"
Bijin: There you have it. The end of the fun. Hope you guys enjoyed it cause I had a hell of a lot of fun writing it! Now... without further ado...
Bijin and Cate throw Sesshomaru and Inuyasha back into the mudpit, then shove Miroku down there as well HOT GUY MUD FIGHT!
Much tusseling and drooling ensues.
JA NE!