Author's Note:
Woah, I now officially have followers for this story. Really awesome, thank you. Thanks for waiting so very patiently all this time. Even if I was a few weeks late in uploading, huhuhu... There's really no excuse, but I hope the length of this one makes up for it. Here's another chapter for you fellas, hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.
Anyway, the Inu brothers finally make an appearance and they are soooo very OOC, especially poor old Sesshomaru. I hope this won't bother you because this is their character for the rest of the story (or at least up until the part that I have somewhat thougt about already).
Chapter 4
Clang, clang, clang!
The all too familiar sounds of swords clashing rang throughout the village. A great battle was being fought just by the outskirts of town. The residents are now long accustomed to the sound, as it had been so once a week, every week, for the past two years. At first the idea of two incredibly strong demons turning their humble village into a battleground scared them. But since one of the participants were their resident guardian, they felt at ease. Now the weekly battle of the inu brothers are part of their routine.
"Faster."
Inuyasha charged again. He swung Tetsusaiga over his head and down onto his opponent. Sesshomaru easily caught the attack with Tenseiga. He started to swing Bakusaiga at Inuyasha's side. Inuyasha' eyes grew wide. He immediately dodged, but only barely missed being cut by the dangerous blade.
"Try harder. Again."
Inuyahsa examined his side. His Robes of the Fire Rat barely missed the swing of Sesshomaru's lethal blade. "Keh," he scoffed and charged yet again at his brother. He faked swing at Sesshomaru's left, but, at the last second, spun and aimed for his right. Seshomaru fumbled slightly, but managed to block the attack with Bakusaiga, the metal cutting into the sleeve of his kimono.
"Good, again."
Inuyasha smiled a triumphant smile, as he pushed harder, tearing more at his brother's sleeve. Sesshomaru's visage hinted at the tiniest smirk in the pup's action. With a burst of strength, he pushed the puppy off him and swung at him with Tenseiga. Inuyasha jumped away from the attack. "Keh, close. But not close enough, Sess." He landed a few feet away from the older inu, skidding a few inches before coming to a full stop. He was now panting softly as he stared the daiyoukai down. Still the mocking smile stayed on his lips.
Sesshomaru stood regally in front of the younger inu. Both of his blades held at the ready on either side. He narrowed his eyes at the nickname. "You insolent pup. How dare you abbreviate this Seshomaru's name into something so shameful?"
Inuyasha smirked at the remark. "Come at me, then, ya bastard!"
Sesshomaru glared harder at his half brother. "Prepare yourself, pup!"
He flexed his finger around the hilt of his swords, then charged at the younger with incredible speed. Inuyasha scrambled to get away, but try as he might, a few blows managed to hit their marks. Sesshomaru was conscious of the blows he lands, though. He only ever hit the younger with the broad side of Tenseiga, a sword that cannot cut, either way. The attacks were meant only to teach the arrogant puppy some humility. In one swift motion, Sesshomaru slapped Tetsusaiga out of Inuyasha's hand, then kicked his feet from under him.
"Ow!" Inuyasha stumbled backwards and landed in his rump. He rubbed furiously at the throbbing flesh when the tip of Bakusaiga touched his neck lightly.
Sesshomaru raised an elegant brow at him. "Do you yield?"
Inuyasha fumed. A growl erupted from his chest. How could he have beaten me so easily? He turned from his brother with a small pout.
Sesshomaru threw down both his swords, each sticking into the ground on either side of him. He then stretched out a pale arm at his brother. "Come, that's enough of that."
"Keh." Inuyasha thwarted the outstretched hand and stood up on his own, dusting himself off.
Sesshomaru inwardly chuckled at the immature act, although none of his features expressed the amusement outwardly. "I must commend you, otouto. Your swordsmanship has improved tremendously."
"Of course it's improved! What do you think I've been doing for the past two years?"
"Very well, onto our next line of business." With that, Sesshomaru turned and started off deeper into the woods, never once looking back to see if his brother was following him.
Confident in leaving their swords where they lay, as no other being could possibly be strong enough, nor foolish enough to touch them, Inuyasha followed the daiyoukai into the woods.
"'Naraku'…" Youko tested the foreign name on his tongue. Such a presumptuous name has been unheard of for the last couple of centuries. Taking up such a name is indeed very old-fashioned.
"Bwahaahaha!" Kuwabara busted, clutching his stomach as he bent down and tears streaming down his cheek in laughter. "'Naraku?' What kind of a name is 'Naraku?'"
"An old one, I am afraid," Naraku mock calmly replied, shutting his eyes to ignore the shrill laughter. "I have been around far longer in this world than you obviously have been, little one." His voice with the faintest, almost undetectable hint of annoyance.
"I don't think I've heard of you before," Hiei hostilely rebutted. He's been patrolling Makai for the last year, and he's been familiar with all creatures and demons that prowl the four corners of the realm, yet never before has he heard of anyone with such a peculiar name.
"You can say that I've ben away for quite some time," Naraku shrugged, finally cracking one of his eyes to study the smaller demon. He might be useful…
"And where, pray tell, have you been?" Hiei challenged.
"You guys, I don't think that this is the time to be putting our possible ally in the hot seat," Yusuke intervened. He turned to talk to Naraku directly, "If you could tell us anything, anything at all to help us catch whoever did this to our friend, we would really appreciate it."
Naraku smiled. "I can do more than simply tell you more; I might actually have a way to track your culprit." His eyes glinted with barely concealed mischief. He folded his hands into his sleeve to retrieve a small item. He held out his hand to reveal a pink crystal shard.
"I found this on the ground right by where I found her. Unless this is hers, this could only be from her attacker," Naraku reasoned, fondly fingering the shard, before picking it up between his index gingee and thumb to hold. It sparkled beautifully as it caught some of the light that filtered into the cave.
Youko extended an open hand, "May I take a look at that?" The other handed him the shard. He closed his eyes and focused on the scent coming off the sharp piece of crystal. The dominant smell was from Naraku, he now recognized, but there was also another scent underneath. Faint, but definitely there. It's him! The scent that just vanished in the clearing, I'm sure of it!
"What do you think, Kurama?" Hiei asked as he took the shard from the fox and examined it in the light.
With cold determination in his eyes, Youko firmly nodded and said, "It's him. It's definitely him. It's the scent that just vanished from the clearing."
Hiei drew his face into a frustrated frown. "Even if we did know that this belonged to him, we still have no way of tracking him!"
"Not exactly," Naraku chuckled. "I've tinkered with this a bit and found that it's so much more than simply a piece of broken glass."
"Oh yeah? And what more is there to it, huh?" Kuwabara butted in, crossing his arms over his chest, shifting his footing to lean more towards Naraku in a mock hostile way.
Naraku tried to ignore him and walked over to Hiei. He held the smaller demon's hand in his and coaxed it gently to open. He took the shard from Hiei before he spoke. "It would be better if I showed you." Swiftly and forcefully, he brought down the shard across Hiei's palm. A thin, deep wound was left in its wake which immediately bled profusely.
Hiei hissed more in shock than in pain, but instinctively withdrew his hand, clutching it close to his chest.
"Hey, what was that about, you jerk!?" Yusuke stomped closer. He grabbed Naraku by the collar and posed to smack him in the face.
"Yusuke," Hiei's voice called out.
Yusuke turned to look at him. Hiei opened his palm to let everyone see. The deep gash was stitching itself up in front of their eyes. Tendrils of flesh shot out from either side of the wound to knit the flesh back together. Despite Hiei being a formidably strong demon, no one they knew should be able to heal so fast, not without consuming human flesh, anyway. All four men, except Naraku, stared at it with awe.
"Wha-wha-... How…?" Yusuke stammered. His grip on Naraku loosened and he dropped the older demon.
To answer Yusuke and the rest of the group, Naraku spoke up, "This is a shard of the Shikon no Tama, a sacred jewel said to hold immense power. Even such a small shard could easily amplify a demon's power two-threefold. It also enhances a demon's natural healing capabilities."
He turned to face Hiei. "You are a jaganshi, are you not?" Hiei remained fixated in his palm, testing its strength and how well it had actually healed.
"How did you-?" Yusuke started asking before Naraku continued, cutting his question off.
"You can use that to both increase the strength of you tracking abilities, as well as home in to your target." He nonchalantly stated, ignoring the surprised and suspicious gazes the others were giving him.
This snapped Hiei out of his trance. His head whipped up and he snatched the shard from Naraku. "Give me that."
He undid his jagan seal and held the shard between his index and thumb. As his eyes closed, bis jagan opened. It shone a blinding white light as it focused onto the shard. The shard responded with pulsating energy. Tendrils of pink smoke rose up and out as they swirled a few feet in front of Hiei. Electricity crackled at the vortex. The space around it started to warp as the energy slowly ripped a hole through space and time, creating a portal in its wake.
Hiei was panting slightly. He grunted, but caught himself before his knees buckled on him. He knew that this portal led back to the Ningenkai, but somehow opening this specific portal took a heavy toll on him.
"Alraight, let's get this party started!" Kuwabara shouted excitedly as he stepped forward.'#
Hiei placed a hand on his chest, stopping him. "No, I need you to stay here and keep Mukuro company."
"Babysitter duty? Seriously? You insult me, midget!"
Hiei fisted his hand around the collar of Kuwabara's jacket before forcefully jerking at it to face him. "Listen closely, for I will not be repeating myself. That is my mate I am leaving in your hands. Should anything else happen, I will have your life. Is that understood?" He sneered venomously. Kuwabara was about to rebut with some stupid remark when they felt a gust of otherworldly wind swirl by the cave's opening. Suddenly, the space ripped and a portal opened. Through it emerged a teenage Koenma and Hinegeshi.
"Now, now, boys, there's no need for such violence," Koenma cooly said, "I will personally see to Mukuro's wellbeing. Besides," Koenma turned towards the portal from which he and Hinegeshi had come from, which had been left open. "I have some other business here myself."
At this point, Hinegeshi chimed in, "We've been tuning into you guys through your communicators, so there's no need to brief us about what happened." Her sad eyes met Hiei's, just be sure to make whoever did this pay!"
What else did you think I was planning on doing, little brat? Hiei bitterly thought to himself, but chose to nod curtly, instead. He let go of Kuwabara, who stumbled back slightly at the sudden shift in his center of gravity, before he turned his head slightly towards the direction of Naraku. "You, on the other hand, will be coming with us."
Author's Note:
Okay, so I haven't really proofread this chapter all that properly, even though it is super late (watchu been doin', me?), so I'm not all that sure how it sounds overall. Lemme know what you guys think. Until the next one (which, hopefully, won't take as long to upload). See you!