Lesson 9: Pain and suffering

AN: Okay, this chap is sort of sad in one part of it, but it wouldn't be, you know, half-breed like if none of it happened. Thank you so much to KatrinaKaiba and Kewsithydragon for telling me what Bankotsu was like. It's really going to help me a lot and there is Jakotsu bashing in this chapter because of the last rumor which I just had to put in. Please review if you want and enjoy this chapter. The pain and suffering isn't all getting hurt by the way.

It was almost nightfall and it was a November's eve, but only Kagome knew that. Rin got a cold, Toki was becoming closer to Sesshomaru and Inuyasha was bashing Jakotsu more and more. Kouga and Ayame split up from them and Inutaisho and Fiera were getting much closer and everyone was playing match maker.

"Must you always hit me? I was inspired to hug you by those three and then that strange black dog named Shadow Fang showed up out of nowhere. I'm being honest!" Jakotsu said annoyed and pleaded.

"Yeah, you should know what it feels like to be bashed down into the snow to I think." Bankotsu said evilly. He then jumped straight into Inuyasha making him go crashing into the ground. Jakotsu cheered him on while they went into another fight. Sesshomaru rolled his eyes and Kagome decided to ask Sesshomaru a question. She was very curious about it.

"Hey Sesshomaru, can I ask you a question please?" She asked to the young boy who had a girl on either side of him sleeping close to him. He nodded and so she asked away.

"You seemed to have two very loving and caring parents. How come you seemed so cold hearted and evil? Why didn't you ever speak about your mother or even see her at times?"

"For the cold hearted and evil, thanks for the compliment (he said sarcastically) and for my mother in that question, I wanted to protect my pride. Around her, she usually shattered it. After father met that human woman, he didn't pay any attention to me anymore and only did to criticize me. He also made me power hungry like he used to be and then made me feel bad later." Sesshomaru sighed at his childhood. He knew he didn't have the best one, but he couldn't complain because he knew he didn't have it as bad as Shippo, Rin, Toki, Inuyasha or Suluko. It seemed like no one had the best childhood ever.

"It's getting dark out, how about we stay at the nearest village and stay for the night?" Inutaisho said suggesting but kind of ordering at the same time. (Okay, I got no responses last time, can someone please tell me if someone else had used this exact same plot please! I don't want to be copying anyone else and if there is anyone, I will discontinue this story. Thank you!)

"There should be one just up ahead. By the way do you hate me?" Miroku said wisely and then like a little kid forgetting what he was talking about.

"Good and yes probably." Inutaisho said simply. Miroku sighed and walked up next to Fiera, the beautiful demoness, and who just became Inutaisho's girl again, not being able to control his temptations groped her. He had never groped a demon before so this was new to him. She of course didn't like it, at all. Neither did Sango, Suluko or Sesshomaru. Inutaisho was going to have his head now. Fiera then shrieked.

"You pervert, can't you keep your hands to yourself?" Fiera screamed slapping him. Of course, a demon's slap is much more effective then a human slap. He went flying into a tree. Then it was Sango's turn who hit him with her excessively large boomerang as Miroku just noticed. After Suluko did a rabbit kick and crashed Miroku down. Bankotsu felt left out so decided to join with a punch. Jakotsu slapped and then finally, it was Inutaisho's turn. Miroku tried to coward away and begged for mercy. Just as Inutaisho was about to do the job, his neck felt really itchy. Inutaisho looked and surely enough, there was Myouga, happily feasting on his blood. Inutaisho slapped Myouga and let him fall right into his hand.

"Master, it's so good to know you're alive once again. Totosai has been too. Then Totosai was on his cow and dropped by completely in awe. He didn't believe that it was his master. Then, Totosai hid behind Inutaisho in fear out of no where.

"Totosai, what are you doing?" Inutaisho said impatiently.

"I'm afraid you never knew that you're oldest was evil. I see his companions here and I fear that he's going to slice my head off because I didn't make him a sword that rivaled Tessaiga!" Totosai said barely being able to even speak he was so afraid. Inutaisho rolled his eyes.

"Sesshomaru, come here please." He said looking forward to seeing the look on their faces. Sesshomaru got up and ended up waking the two girls as they clonked heads together when he left. They kind of sounded like coconuts banging against each other (My friend told me to write that, Rin isn't stupid but just to warn you, Toki is so yeah.) When the two saw him, Totosai almost fainted, but then Myouga started to laugh along with Totosai. They were laughing so hard that by the end, they were crying. Sesshomaru felt bad and started to sniffle a bit. Inutaisho noticed this and clonked them both on the heads and they also sounded like coconuts. They stopped laughing then stared at him. Myouga jumped off and started sucking Sesshomaru's blood and of course, got slapped but not caught. He just floated to the ground, Sesshomaru stepped on him and wouldn't remove his foot.

"Sesshomaru, what are you stepping on?" Toki said concerned because she could hear the screaming coming from under his foot.

"Nothing important, nothing important at all." Sesshomaru said proud of himself. Inutaisho decided to experiment, and help his poor idiotic friend (in some ways).

"Lets continue on to the village shall we?" He said ordering, suggesting and curious at the same time. Miroku struggled to get up and went along with them. Sesshomaru only went forward with one foot while holding his other one firmly on the ground. It looked quite funny and no one could help but laugh (except Myouga and Sesshomaru).

"You have to catch up son, unless you want to be left behind." Sesshomaru picked up the pace until he tripped down the hill. It started to hail so Inutaisho simply picked up Sesshomaru and they all went for cover, except for poor Myouga who was still healing. They were accepted into the castle and stayed there that night and decided to stay there for the next night also.

As soon as Kagome woke up she had to resist saying a loud and long 'Aaawww!' because she saw Sesshomaru and Inutaisho. They were both sound asleep and Sesshomaru was curled up to his chest while Inutaisho was half hugging half shielding his son. It just looked cute. She decided to get up and go outside to resist the urge, only to let out an aaawww at the little kids playing catch with a ball. Soon after, everyone else woke up. Inutaisho encouraged him to go out and play with the other children but he was still nervous that they would pick on him.

"You know, I saw some really nice kids outside playing catch, why don't you go outside and play with them?" Kagome said trying to help Inutaisho who was becoming very frustrated with Sesshomaru so he could spend some 'quality time' with Fiera. Inutaisho nodded and Sesshomaru left outside finding his own way. Everyone left the room while Toki and Rin decided to do some competition together for Sesshomaru. No one knew about their war and no one knew that it wasn't going to stop any time soon.

"Hey can I play with you guys?" Sesshomaru asked nervously. They were about to reject him until they saw Suluko keeping a glaring eye on them. They accepted him and decided to wait until he left. Once he did, that was their chance. One took the ball from the happy then confused Sesshomaru and hit him.

"Ow, what did you do that for?" Sesshomaru said sadly, almost crying because it really hurt him.

"Don't play with us, because we don't want to play with a stupid half-breed like you!" One of them said.

"Instead, why don't you catch these?" Another one chimed in evilly and threw a rock at him. It hit his arm and that too hurt Sesshomaru and knocked him to the ground. They all started to laugh throwing rocks at him. Once they got bored, they left him there to cry, all bruised. Rin came back to get herself some water until she heard his quiet sobbing. She went and tried to comfort him, telling him to look at her. He looked up and she saw all his bruises. She knew exactly what happened.

"You don't have to worry about those mean boys anymore Sesshomaru! I promise that I'll always be by your side no matter what!" Rin said trying to cheer him up, and knew that what she promised was true.

"Do you really promise that?" Sesshomaru said hopefully. Rin nodded, and then Sesshomaru leaned close to her and pecked her a kiss (little kid romance.) Rin was shocked but extremely happy at the same time. She finally scored! Sesshomaru was hers, or so she thought. Sesshomaru smiled back at her and they both left. They were hiding in a cold damp and dark place that wasn't very good for humans. It was soon dinner and Rin and Sesshomaru sat right next to each other. Everyone was silent for a while until Bankotsu broke it.

"Hey Kid, why do you have those bruises?" He said annoying everyone at the table and then everyone else noted them too.

"Nothing really, those boys just weren't as nice as they seemed." He said casually. Inutaisho was enraged and same with Suluko. Mind you, both Suluko and Inuyasha understood his pain. It was never fun being a half-breed or basically the same thing as one. Sesshomaru had learned to put up with pain and suffering. Soon they all went to bed. It was very late and Toki noticed Sesshomaru and Rin suddenly being so close. She decided to sleep alone and started to remember her mother, and how whenever she was alone she'd come to comfort her. She let a single tear fall, hoping no one would notice, but Sesshomaru did. He invited her over through body language (with the first couple of tries) and she did. She decided to only stay close to them because she figured that she knew what happened. It didn't matter though. He liked Rin so she wasn't going to stand in their way. She wasn't going to try and be to annoying. (She wasn't like Kikyo). As soon as they were going to get up, they were going to have a whole new day. Will Sesshomaru and Rin's relationship work? Will instead Sesshomaru make them a love triangle? Will they meet up with anyone else?