A Kings Journey

AN: Welp, not many reviews, only one. T--T O well, I suppose a review is a review.

Disclaimer: I had forgotten to do this last chapter, so here I go! I do not own Inuyasha or The Lion King; no way would I be so creative! But I own the original characters in here such as Nakao (he's only semi-original, since he's mentioned in the anime, but what the heck ever! He's only mentioned, not named nor described! --hmphs--) and any others I may put in later. Story line is also mine, NO TAKING! (Of story or original characters.)

Ch. 2: Surprises

"InuyaSHAAAAAAA!"

Some people would be alarmed if they were to hear such an enormous yell, no matter where it came from. But in the Kingdom of Dog, this was a daily occurrence.

The market place right outside the palace gates hustled and bustled with the everyday sounds and smells. People bargaining, children laughing, food being cooked and sold. But one of the more unusual happenings was about to take place, though not to the surprise of the villagers.

"INUYASHA! Get back here you little mutt!" could be heard all through the town as a tall, handsome young man with long silver-white hair chased a smaller, cuter boy who also had long silver-white hair. These two were none other than the two sons of King Inutaisho and Queen Izayoi, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha.

Everyday Inuyasha would do something to rile up the older boy, be it pour honey on his toes while he's sleeping, or steal his robes while he's bathing. Needless to say the younger prince was quite the mischievous little runt.

"There they go again." Said a villager, taking a break in his bargaining with a shop owner to look out the window to watch the chase scene. The shop owner laughed heartily when he saw what it was the young prince had done today to anger the older one, and stuck his head out the same window. "A wonderful job today Master Inuyasha!" he shouted after the two boys, knowing they could hear him easily. He quickly ducked back into his shop when he got an icy glare from Sesshoumaru, a warning that although he wouldn't stop, he would certainly do something.

But indeed, it was ingenious, what Inuyasha had done to his brother this day. While Sesshoumaru lay asleep in his bed that morning, the small boy snuck into the room and set to work.

The product of his work? An extremely feminine Sesshoumaru.

The boy had tied ribbons of various colors into the long mane of his brother, all of which he stole from the palace seamstress. He had also taken some of his mother's makeup, the brightest of the bunch, and applied it to Sesshoumaru so that he looked like a true woman. The young prince had an odd taste for art, though the colors were still extreme.

Sesshoumaru's face, adorned in the bright makeup, was twisted into a scowl as he chased his little brother through the streets of the market. "When I get you, you're DEAD!" Inuyasha only laughed at his brothers heartless threats. "Yeah right! That's what you said yesterday PUFF!" He called the older boy by his chosen nickname, one which he never got away with saying in public.

Everyday Sesshoumaru said the same thing, "You're dead." And everyday, after a good chase, the only thing he did was give the little boy the worst noogie session of his life, which grew worse everyday. Inuyasha knew, better than anyone, that Sesshoumaru didn't have it in him to seriously hurt his little brother, and although he took advantage of that, he was also secretly happy about it.

True, anyone would be happy if the Great Sesshoumaru didn't want to hurt them, but to Inuyasha, it was different. His big brother treated him special. Sesshoumaru was the only person who would give him a noogie, and Inuyasha, the only person who Sesshoumaru would give a noogie to. Although they masterfully disguised they're great care for one another with brotherly feuds and romps, they still had a relationship that was among the greatest of the era.

Brotherly love.

Indeed it was a marvelous thing, and one of the most cherished things in Inuyasha's little heart, as well as Sesshoumaru's, but at the moment, it was the last thing that was on the older boys mind.

Sesshoumaru's scowl deepened and he quickened his run, catching up to his little brother every second. "Yeah well its different today runt! And I told you not to call me that!" Inuyasha turned around in his sprint, not alarmed that his brother was catching up, and stuck his hand up in his face, making the disrespectful sign where your thumb lifts your nose and you wiggle your four fingers. "NYAH!" with that he spun back around and made a jump onto the roof of a nearby building.

"You little-!" without another moments hesitation, Sesshoumaru jumped after him, weaving and dodging the clothes and beddings that were hung up on the roofs. They leapt from building to building, leaping four foot gaps every few seconds. Sesshoumaru had to marvel at how his little brother could run and jump so well at such a young age, he was only seven years old after all. 'Then again, he did have the best teacher.' He thought with a smirk.

It had been seven years since the day his father had told him that he would be his brothers protector, he hadn't taken it very seriously back then, but now he saw it as his sworn duty, at least until Inuyasha could take care of himself. But after a few years or so, Inutaisho had given the job of training the boy to him as well, because he himself wouldn't be able to with the uprising of the East.

Not too long after Inuyasha had been born, an assassin had been sent to the west, intending to kidnap and kill the new born prince. The killer had gotten as far as the palace gates with the prince before the King had caught him and slain him on sight.

After that incident, a war had been declared between the East and West, they had become sworn enemies from that day forward. And so, because the war took up most of his time, the King never had any chances to train his youngest son himself, and thus left the that responsibility to his eldest. It was just as good, Sesshoumaru had been taught a lot, and was still learning, but even at the time he was already an amazing fighter, able to take the middle ranked soldiers in the Kings army.

The last seven years had served as a bridge between the brothers, something that held them both together. Because Sesshoumaru had been forced to teach the runt, he had grown to like him and gradually felt a sense of protectiveness grown within him for the boy. There were many times, while his father was away, that he had to protect his little brother from a stray attack of the enemy. How they had ever gotten into the town, or knew the precise time to hit, he would never know, but nevertheless, Sesshoumaru had saved Inuyasha's life on more than one occasion.

Sesshoumaru had to admit, he was proud of how quickly his little brother was learning, it made him feel good to know he was making a difference for him.

Without realizing it, a smile was beginning to creep onto Sesshoumaru's normally stoic face (in this case, angry. XD) but he quickly caught himself and slapped it off, returning to his scowl. He had had enough of chasing the boy; it had already gone longer than it usually did.

With a final over the head leap, Sesshoumaru landed in front of his renegade brother and caught him in a strangle hug when he couldn't stop himself. "Gotcha!" he declared. Inuyasha squirmed and kicked, though never once aiming to kick Sesshoumaru. "Augh! Lemme go lemme go! Not another noogie!" he yelled.

Sesshoumaru cackled with false sadism, "You should have thought about that before you put all this junk on me!" before Inuyasha could utter another word, he found himself in a headlock, getting the life noogied out of him. "Auuuuuuuuugh! Get off me!"

Sesshoumaru let a true bark of laughter erupt from his throat, and tossed Inuyasha over his shoulder. "Now then, were going home to get started on your lesson, after I get all this crap off." Inuyasha let a loud sigh of protest out, and started squirming and kicking all over again. "I don't want to practice today! Cant we just play?" he made an attempt to turn around on his brothers shoulder to give him his infamous puppy dog pout, but only got the back of his brothers ribbon clad head, which shook in a negative. "No way, you've already skipped yesterdays because it took me forever to get all that paint off." He sent a playful glare at Inuyasha at that, thinking back to the boy's choice of prank the day before.

Inuyasha chuckled nervously and took to looking at the ground while Sesshoumaru made their way back to the palace. "By the way," Sesshoumaru spoke up again, "You know I'm going to drill you extra hard for this stunt." He ripped a couple of the ribbons out of his hair while he said this, making sure to keep a firm grip on the boy over his shoulder. Inuyasha sighed in exasperation and completely slumped on Sesshoumaru's shoulder. 'Why did I have to end up with a drill sergeant for a brother?'

…………One hour later…………..

After getting back to the palace and making sure he was completely free of ribbons and face paint, as he liked to call the awful makeup women wore, Sesshoumaru stalked up to Inuyashas chambers and rapped roughly on the door.

"Alright runt! Time for your practice!" he yelled at the double oak doors. He couldn't hear anything from inside the doors, not even the sound of rustling material. Sesshoumaru creased his brow in irritation and grabbed the handle of the door, moving to barge into the room for the boy. But the door was locked, only adding to his irritation. "Inuyasha open this door before I break it down!" he yelled again, feeling like he was a father calling to his delinquent son. And again, he heard nothing.

With a sigh of immense annoyance, Sesshoumaru stepped back a few paces, getting ready to ram the door through. Although he was a demon and could easily pull the doors off their hinges, he didn't want to ruin them. Simply plowing through them could do just fine.

He silently counted to three and charged at the door. But then at the very last moment, the doors were thrown open and the demon prince found himself falling unceremoniously and extremely ungracefully onto his face. It was incredibly surprising to find the Great Sesshoumaru any lower to the ground then a kneel.

Choruses of laughter rung behind the prince, he shot up and around to chew out the perpetrators, already knowing who they were. And there he was met with the already familiar face of his little brother, doubled over in side-splitting cackles, and across from him, on the left side of the doors, was his little fiend of a friend, the priest in training, Miroku.

Sesshoumaru's brow twitched, and his fists clenched. "How did you get in here rat?" he ground out, referring to the black haired boy. Said boy looked up, knowing Sesshoumaru meant him. His laughter died away just a tad on his lips. "The way I always do Puff, through the window." Sesshoumaru let the Puff remark slip this one time, favoring to look at said windows. He lowered his brow and turned back to the eight year old boy. "How in the world does a tiny human like you climb up four stories of flat wall?" the boy only chuckled and shrugged his shoulders, telling the older boy he wasn't saying any time soon.

Sesshoumaru sighed and calmly fixed his clothes and straightened his hair, eliciting a few utterances of "He's such a girl." from the two boys, but he paid them no mind. He made his way back to the doors, stopping right outside them. "C'mon runt, time for your lesson." He said with an eerily soft voice. Inuyasha and Miroku both looked at him with he's-up-to-something expressions. "You coming rat?" Sesshoumaru called back, already making his way down the long hallways, lavished in rich colors of red and gold. Miroku shook out of his reverie and nudged Inuyasha, who also shook his head. "I'll come, but I think I'll just watch this time." He said, talking to Sesshoumaru but looking at Inuyasha. His face seemed to say to the boy 'you're crazy if you think I'm gonna go through another session with him.' Inuyasha sighed and trekked sulkily out of the room, followed by his black haired best friend.

Sesshoumaru had already made a pretty big distance between himself and the boys, about two whole stories to be precise. Today was going to be a special lesson, one in which he taught Inuyasha to respect his elders.

The elder prince made his way to the kitchens and opened the door with barely a sound. Almost at once the work within the kitchen stopped and everyone turned to give him a bow of respect, before returning to their work. It was here in the palace that Sesshoumaru got the most respect, for it was here, that everyone knew almost exactly how powerful he could be.

But, Sesshoumaru paid no mind to the chefs and maids, and set to work on finding his item of choice. Once he found it, he smirked to himself and trotted outside to set it up for his revenge.

A few minutes later, Miroku and Inuyasha appeared outside, the latter changed into his training attire, which consisted of a sleeveless cream colored tunic and a pair of baggy black trainer's pants. His feet were bare, as they always were, and his hair was pulled back into a tight braid. Sesshoumaru had also changed, after getting all the ribbons and makeup off him, into a training master's ensemble. The same color as Inuyasha's, but the tunic which he sported had elbow length sleeves instead of none. His hair was also in a braid, and his feet were also bare.

There was no other time where they looked more like brothers.

Miroku stepped to the side of the training yard, taking up a seat under a nice shady tree. There was no way he was going to get suckered into training with Inuyasha this time. Just remembering what Sesshoumaru did to them last time made a shudder run up his spine. All the mud, and all that soot. And there was no way he could forget the leeches. "Auuuhgh." Miroku rubbed his arms desperately.

Sesshoumaru crossed his arms and nodded his head, the ritual signal to tell Inuyasha to come forward. The boy did so, dragging the wooden sword he had brought along with him, the tool he always used during practice. But when he reached his brother, the older boy swooped down and snatched the little sword from Inuyasha's hands. The boy looked at Sesshoumaru with confusion. "What are you doing?" he demanded, trying to get the sword back, but to no avail. Sesshoumaru held the wooden tool above his head, much too far for the little hanyou to reach without climbing on him. "You won't be using this today; I have something a little different planned for you." A tiny smirk snaked onto the demons face. "Instead of battle training," he tossed the sword over his shoulder, aiming right for Miroku, who, after getting over the surprise, caught the sword clumsily. "You're going to go through a little survival training instead."

One of Inuyasha's little eyebrows disappeared above his hair line. "Survival training? What are you talking about Puff?" Inuyasha suddenly found himself being thrown into the brush not too far from where he was standing, right behind Miroku's spot under the tree. Sesshoumaru dusted his hands and straightened up, a slightly perturbed look on his face. "What I'm talking about is, you're going to go into the forest for a couple hours, and try to hide from me, elude my attacks, and when the time comes, find yourself some nourishment."

Inuyasha popped his head out of the bush, plucking twigs and leaves from his hair. "So, basically I'm going to be surviving out there?" Sesshoumaru sighed and nodded his head, "Of course fool, why else would it be called survival training?" Inuyasha chuckled nervously, only now catching the name of the exercise. "But I'm going to be out there by myself? I don't want to go by myself!" Sesshoumaru shrugged his slender shoulders. "I'll be out there you know." Inuyasha shook his head vigorously. "But you're going to be attacking me the whole time! You said so yourself."

Inuyasha hopped out of the bush and turned to his best friend, the famous puppy dog pout in place. "Miroku?" the priest in training took one look at his face before jumping up and taking up a pose of defiance. "No way! No way am I going out there with you, having that guy attacking me the whole time!" he threw his hands around and pointed accusingly at Sesshoumaru. "Last time I trained with you, I had to take bathes in COLD water for a month!" Inuyasha suddenly grabbed a hold of his legs, crocodile tears streaming down his face. "Please Miroku! Don't let me go out there alone with that maniac!" Miroku squirmed and hopped, trying to dislodge the boy from him, but only ended up falling on his rump.

"Uh uh! No way, I am NOT going out there!"

…………Thirty minutes later…………

"How did I end up out here again?"

Miroku trudged along behind his best friend, he had been whining the whole time and it was starting to grind on the other boys nerves. Inuyasha's eyebrow twitched because of his irritation. "Would you stop asking that Miroku? You're just a weak minded fool that's all." Miroku puffed up at the insult and crossed his arms in a huff. "You didn't give me much choice in the matter, you tyrannical…doody head." (Big words for such little boys, no? X3)

Sesshoumaru had sent the pair out into the woods, with only a couple of knives to protect themselves. (In case they were to encounter any REAL danger.) And now they found themselves wandering about, trying to find some water and food. Sesshoumaru kept himself hidden, and neither of the boys could tell where he was, being the master of stealth that Sesshoumaru was. But he always kept an eye on the two, making sure that while he was not attacking them, nothing else did either.

Finally after ten more minutes of searching, the boys came across a little stream, and a couple bushes of black berries. "Ooo! I love black berries!" Miroku exclaimed and nearly dove into one of the bushes. Inuyasha shook his head and stalked over to the water, needing to wet his parched throat. He kneeled down and cupped his hands and brought the water up to his dry lips, savoring the taste of the cool liquid.

Sesshoumaru sat in a tree on the other side of the stream, carefully hidden behind the thick branches. He would let them relax for a few minutes before making his move.

"Ah! That feels great!" Inuyasha declared after splashing himself with a little water. Deciding it would be better to feel that more than just his face; the little boy pulled off his tunic and dunked his head into the shallow stream without any hesitation.

Miroku watched him from his spot by the bushes, his mouth full with the sweet, dark berries. "Do you think he's going to come at us any time soon?" the black haired boy asked, popping another berry into his mouth.

Inuyasha pulled his head from the stream and shook it, sending droplets of water everywhere, a few even landing on Miroku, who yelped indignantly. "I don't know." The half demon prince said placing his tunic back on his torso before trekking over to Miroku and taking a seat beside him. "He hides himself so well I can't tell if he's even still out here." He reached over and plucked a berry from Miroku's hands and tossed it into his mouth, earning an annoyed "Hey!" from the other boy. "He could be anywhere right now." Inuyasha said, chewing on the berry thoughtfully.

Suddenly, the ground started shaking with an unimaginable force. The two boys shot up immediately only to be thrown back onto the ground with a particularly sharp jolt. "What's goin on?" Miroku shouted over the sound of the rumbling. Inuyasha's ears swiveled to the right, where he could swear the source of the earthquake was coming from. "Something's coming!" he shouted and pulled Miroku with him back into the forest.

Sesshoumaru sat where he was in the tree before, looking the same direction Inuyasha had detected the sound. The kid had been right, something was coming, something he himself had not planned on. And it didn't feel like something the Great Sesshoumaru could take on by himself. Not wasting anymore time, he bolted off after the two smaller boys, intent on taking them back to safer grounds.

Miroku was running for all he was worth, but Inuyasha, being a hanyou, couldn't go as fast as he normally would because he couldn't leave his best friend behind. "Hurry Miroku!" he could still here whatever it was that was coming, they had gotten further from it, but it was still coming nonetheless. "I'm running as fast as I can!" Miroku shouted back at Inuyasha.

Suddenly, the two felt themselves plucked from the ground, as easy as a little girl plucked a daisy from the ground. They looked up and saw Sesshoumaru there. He had caught up to them and placed them under his arms. They were moving much faster now, the two boys noted to themselves. "Sesshoumaru?" Inuyasha exclaimed. "Where did you come from?" the older boy said nothing, only kept his gaze on the path before him, trying to get back to the palace and quick as he could.

Within minutes, he broke through the bushes of the training yard, but didn't stop there. He made a beeline for the back entrance of the palace which led to the grand hall.

Coming to a stop, Sesshoumaru dropped the two boys on the ground and turned to the guards in the hall. "Quickly! Gather all the guards of the palace and head to the back!" the guards wasted no time in questioning the prince, knowing well that when Sesshoumaru raised his voice he was either extremely angry, or extremely anxious. The two dog youkai guards bolted off in separate directions, leaving the threesome alone in the great hall.

Sesshoumaru then started for the large staircase located in the middle of the hall, but was stopped by Inuyasha's shout. "Sesshoumaru! What's going on?" Sesshoumaru didn't turn around to address the boy, and started back up the stairs. "Don't worry about it Inuyasha, just take Miroku home quickly and get back as fast as you can!" and he disappeared behind the curtains of the next hall.

Inuyasha and Miroku both blinked in the empty hall. "It must be big if he actually called us by our names…" Miroku noted. Inuyasha only nodded before pulling Miroku off the ground and started for the front of the palace.

"Let's do what he says Miroku."

……………….

As Sesshoumaru made his way down a dimly lit hallway, a stray thought suddenly crossed his mind. 'I guess I won't be able to teach Inuyasha respect today after all…'

AN: Haha, I didn't want to end it there but I just…did anyway! XD So, what do you think reader? Getting interested? There's more to come! REVIEW and I shall put up the next chapter. Arigatou minna-san!

Inuyasha: Why in the heck am I so nice to that bastard? And what the heck is he doing noogieing me?

Sesshoumaru: I concur, what are you doing making this Sesshoumaru treat that little piece of trash so kindly?

Inuyasha: What was that? --Glare--

Sesshoumaru: …. --Glare back--

--Rumble! Cloud of smoke with stray limbs flying out everywhere--

Me: Welp! Until next time folks! --Waves-- Move over guys! --Jumps into ruble--