Chapter 15

Assistance

Inuyasha whimpered into the dark navy of Shinokiri's hakama; sniffling into the saturated red and green of her obi. She did not immediately bend to comfort the young one. Instead, she saw it fit to question him.

"Why is it that you were attacked Inuyasha?"

The tiny hanyou blubbered up at her. "Kiri-chan…I caught a deer and…and they stole it….they beat me up and stole it."

"Did you fight back?"

"I…"

"Inuyasha. Did you fight back?"

"No. I ran away."

He buried his face deep into her leg with shame. It was at this point the demoness bent down, taking a knee to be closer to his level. She pulled him from her side and wretched his body to face hers. Pinching his cut and bruised face; she made the pup face her. As soon as his eyes lifted to meet hers, she gave him a swift knock to the head.

"You dishonor your father's memory."

"I'm sor—"

"Don't apologize: do better."

At that she welcomed him into her arms and nuzzled behind his ears. "I understand your instinct for self-preservation. I must admit, it is a relief to find you alive each time I seek you out…but you carry your father's legacy. You must be made of tougher stuff than that. You do not come from the stock of a coward."

His fingers clutched tightly to the fur at her shoulders and nodded weakly. "Ok."

Shinokiri took his face into her hands once more, looking at all of the scratched on his face, she began to lick them with vigor.

"Ew, Kiri-chan! Stop licking me."

"Silly child. It will heal your wounds."

Inuyasha wriggled in discomfort, "Stop, it's gross…your tongue."

"My tongue?"

Shinokiri pondered this. It must be untoward in human custom. She nodded to herself.

"Fine," Shinokiri ceased her licking and began to spit directly onto his face, fervently rubbing it into his skin. Inuyasha looked up at her horrified, flailing about, but powerless to do anything.

"Inuyasha?"

Kagome looked up at him. He almost lost his train of thought, reveling in how beautifully she wore the sunset. "Was that Rin?"

"Yeah, I think we should stop by Kaede's before we head home."

"Is something wrong?"

"I don't think so…no wrong…but definitely off."

Kagome gave a sharp nod. She trusted Inuyasha's instincts implicitly.

Rin happily twirled into the hut, looking around.

"Jaken?"

Nothing. He must have left despite her request. Humming, she returned to her koto…her weapon. Never had she felt so in command.

"Rin?"

"Kaede-baba."

"Where were you?"

Barely acknowledging her, Rin answered, "Aiko-sensei's."

Kaede's eyepatch shifted in questioning. "Where did this rabbit come from?"

Almost accusatorially, the old priestess held up the cleaned carcass.

"Ah-Un."

"Shinokiri you liar. What's wrong with you?"

Inuyasha's voice rang out as he entered the room. "That's the dumbest thing to lie about ever."

Rin's face sucked itself into a pout. "I don't know."

Kagome went next to the child and put her hands on her shoulders, "What's this all about Rin? Is something the matter?"

Rin still felt somewhat raw about her lack of inclusion in protecting the village. "Nothing. I just saw her for a bit. Nothing happened."

"Then why would you lie about it."

The young priestess was quickly shrugged off in response to her question. Rin shuffled over to her koto and began to drown everyone out.

"Hey! Kid! How are you playing that one?"

Rin didn't answer the half-breed, but furiously played. Inuyasha huffed in frustration.

"Shinokiri must have tweaked the instrument," Kaede offered. The young couple nodded in agreement.

"Do ya have to be rude about it kid?"

Inuyasha wondered at the girl. It was getting to that point where nothing she did made any sense. It was happening. There was a steely determination in the little girl's face. He hated dealing with women. The hanyou made a mental note that a headache would be approaching in the near future.

As, he and Kagome walked to their hut, Inuyasha abruptly stopped in the road, ruffled by his thoughts.

"Inuyasha?"

"What is it with you people?"

Kagome looked at him quite lost.

"Women. What is it with you guys and your moods? Look at Rin. Out of nowhere."

Kagome steamed. "Osuwari! Osuwari! OSUWARI!"

The young priestess hopped passed the crater she had just created, leaving her husband twitching at its core.

Sesshomaru had returned to his post on the hill, near the village. He had been ignoring his own lands. A horde of boar demons had been encroaching on his lands, in and out, pillaging food stocks in human villages. It was a small threat, but the damages were accumulating and his authority was being tested. They would surge in and rush back to their lands like cowards. He would have to exterminate them.

He wondered if Shinokiri was aware of it. Aware of how her presence scrambled his attentions. She always managed to capture the entirety of his focus, just in being.

Sesshomaru, pubescent and miffed, sat slumped above a battlefield observing a cacophony of gore. A single heir cannot be risked in battle. Yet, he was ready. He knew he could be of great use by his father's side. No amount of argument could move his father to allow him to fight in this Great War.

Instead, he watched the urchin, Shinokiri, fighting in his stead. It was infuriating. Inu no Taisho might have gone in alone and it would be less upsetting. It was such a monumental battle. Inu no Taisho and this upstart clan of felines. It was sacrosanct that he should be involved, as his introduction to his future role as protector of these lands. No matter, he was shoved to the sidelines.

She moved well. He was better, but she moved well. Naginata was not about brute strengths but fluidity of movement. It required a certain grace. Shinokiri handled it well. He was confused by her actions. She did not follow the great lord; charging into battle. She faced the opposite direction, picking off the cats that got passed the tremendous dog. She slashed at them before they could dent the troops for which Inu no Taisho had pledged to champion. Where was the glory in that?

It fascinated him. The way she seemed to dance on the blood saturated earth, unfettered by carrion. She sliced through meat with ease, flicking blood off of her blade. Even this action seemed efficient, the blood blinding approaching combatants. His eyes were stuck on the flush of her skin, the angle of her long neck. She was mesmerizing.

After the battle was done and won, he rushed to catch the orphan.

"Sesshomaru-sama."

Exhausted she leaned on her weapon to be able to bow.

"Why did you not rush forward?"

"Your father needed me to flank him."

"No one will remember your name."

Shinokiri only scoffed at this. She scoffed at him. "Child." Sesshomaru was fit to be tied. How dare she…she who was younger than he. She a pathetic disciple of his father. No one so thoroughly beneath him had ever dismissed him thus.

In the two subsequent battles he would fight with the same clan of panther demons, it would be her unselfish approach to battle that would prove the most effective for him. It would be the thing that finally resolved the matter. Thinking about it made him grind his teeth.

"Lord Sesshomaru! I have found you!"

"Jaken, why was Rin able to leave the village without your accompaniment?"

"Huh? That girl! She attacked me from out of nowhere!"

"Jaken, fail to carry out my orders again, and I will kill you."

Sesshomaru stepped off of the imp's body, leaving him groaning in the dirt. Jaken scrambled to recover and catch up to his master. The lord would try to pull himself back to his duties in spite of it all. As much as it irked him, she was not under his control and the more he would try to enforce control the more she would resist. The filth that was undermining his autonomy—that was something he could control. He would cut them down one by one. Their bodies would litter his lands as deterrents to their comrades. The outlet was a welcome one.

"Sesshomaru-sama, you are strong, but foolish. If we lost you, where then would be we be?"

Shinokiri's concern poured out of her as she worked to remove his armor. It was broken in several places, and she could not tell where the bleeding was coming from.

Sesshomaru weakly tried to brush her off. He felt no pain, only the rush of conquest. In one fell swoop he had added a sizable chunk onto the legacy of his bloodline. Vim, vigor, and vitality. The rashness of his youth had lent him the gall to attack a neighboring territory and swallow it whole.

Inu no Taisho looked over the waste. There was nothing left. Both demon and human had been eliminated by the hundreds, single-handedly. "This is not what I wanted. Never this."

Sesshomaru disdainfully spat blood from his mouth. "No, Father. It is what I wanted."

Shinokiri anxiously tried to ignore the stiffness of the air around the two males. She inspected the spewing wound in his side blindly with her finger. Sesshomaru neither moaned nor winced, stoic as ever he looked down at her lazily, still propped up against a boulder.

"Nothing was hit." She made fast to bind it. He had taken on a multitude of formidable youkai and evaded serious damage. She felt her breath caught in admiration.

"You disappoint me son. This is not the behavior of worthy ruler."

Inu no Taisho left them there, not looking back. Sesshomaru could feel his father's disgust and filled something within him. He could not contain his satisfaction, sparking much confusion in his mate.

"I do not like the discord you weave, my lord."

"But you did enjoy this. I can smell it." He roguishly grinned at her. A rarity. Shinokiri caressed his cheek, wiping the small trickle of blood from his mouth. She smiled at him.

"I cannot deny, you are a mighty force to behold Sesshomaru-sama."

Sesshomaru snaked his arms around her waist and brought her closer to him. She complied with a sly grin on her face, falling into his lap. Taking in each other's scent, luxuriated in the feel of their foreheads touching, her body carefully straddling his, her hands resting on his chest. Her hand loosely tugged at the yellow of his obi.

Kagome swallowed as the trembling subsided in her husband's legs. He lovingly stroked her hair as she slinked upward to fall next to him at the head of the mattress. Glistening and tired they held each other.

"I know you'd prefer not to finish this way Inuyasha…but Miroku….Sango…..I can't. Not yet. I want to be young a bit longer before I'm dripping with children."

Kagome shifted her body with a small laugh.

"Feh. You're not gonna get any objections from me."

They both stared through the ceiling.

"This would be so much simpler in my time."

"Huh?"

"They have stuff…to…you know…prevent pregnancy."

"Ohhh."

Inuyasha twisted his face and furrowed his brows.

"Or if we were both demons. It wouldn't even be an issue."

Kagome propped up at this. "What?"

"Yeah. Two full demons. I don't know. No one ever really explained it to me, but I know they have to do it in a special way to get pregnant."

Kagome tilted her head and creased her lips. "Wow. That's so weird."

"I guess."

They both fell into a ponderous silence.

"So, that's why your brother and Kiri-chan…they don't—"

"I don't want to think about that Kagome."

"No, but really, I was wondering." She paused to giggle. "I was starting to think Sesshomaru might be impotent."

They both shook with laughter. As much as he hated to acknowledge it, the thought of his older brother being deficient in that area was hilarious to him.

"Wouldn't it be weird, if they just…you know…never did it."

"Ok, Kagome, stop."

He rubbed at his temple a bit. "For good enough reason, I avoided thinking about it…but I guess they just didn't have kids on purpose."

"Both of them, though?"

This took Inuyasha aback. Oh. That asshole. It made sense. Sesshomaru, being Sesshomaru, would no doubt have dampened any hopes of offspring. It would explain how sensitive Shinokiri was on the subject. It was very likely that that was the case.

Inuyasha drew Kagome into his embrace as they both drifted off to sleep, having dropped the conversation in favor of individual contemplation. Inuyasha let the sleep wash over him…those two…Sesshomaru and Shinokiri...if Kagome was right, this would only be a drop in the bucket of the myriad of issues those two had.