Title: The Inyoukai Way

Author: landofthekwt

Songfic: The Day That Never Comes by Metallica

Rating: R (child abuse)

Warning: Child abuse; Inuyasha Songfic Week 7,Love Theme All characters treated OOC for the purpose of this songfic.

Summary: Sesshoumaru learns some lessons that his father never taught him

A/N When I was reading some notes about the meaning of this song, some of members said that it was about a father beating his son. Even though it is not canon, I thought it might be a motivation for explaining why Sesshoumaru acted the way he did and what he was trying to do with Inuyasha.

Disclaimer:The Author Does not own Inuyasha et al or The Day That Never Comes. Rumiko Takahashi and various corporations own or have the right to use Inuyasha et al. Metallica and various corporations own or have the right to use "The Day that Never Comes." The author does not profit from this fanfiction.

Inuyasha's mother had taught him to love his brother. She told him that his brother was the Lord of the West and a powerful tai-youkai. Inuyasha could not wait to meet him. He was told that you could see the reflection of his father in him. Inuyasha's father had died shortly after his birth. Apart from his mother's descriptions, he had no idea what his father or his brother looked like. Sesshoumaru's father had ruled the West as the Leader of the Dogs. He had loved Inuyasha and his mother so much that he had sacrificed himself to save him. But his brother knew better he had been raised in the inuyoukai way. It had been practiced by the dogs forever in pack memory.

Born to push you around

Better just stay down

You put away,

He hits the flesh,

You hit the ground

His father had taught him the inuyoukai way. When he was just a boy he taken him from his mother's home in the clouds. The Inu no Taisho found his son dressed like a girl and almost indistinguishable from his mother. That day was one Sesshoumaru would always remember. His father was beaten him within an inch of his life. His mother stood silently and pretended not to watch. That was not her place. Her place was to obey while the father taught his son discipline. The beatings continued until the boy had become a man. Always it was the same. He was to stand while he endured the beatings. He was not to cry out. He simply must endure. From that time he and his father hardly spoke until their last conversation.

Mouth so full of lies

Tend to block your eyes

Just keep them closed,

Keep praying, just keep waiting

That day had been the day that Sesshoumaru had waited for. It was day that he would fight his father. He had trained for that day. His father was no longer a match for him. He would yield his power to Sesshoumaru or die. But his father was already dying from his fight with Ryuokottsei The time had come for the old man to yield power. He had endured all of the beatings for this day. His father knew that his time had come. Yet instead of yielding his power to his son as inuyoukai way taught he was leaving to protect his human wife from her relatives and Takemaru of Satsuma. who were keeping her from him. They both knew that the old man would never return. At the first least he should have yielded the swords, his symbols of power. But instead they were stolen from his father's funeral pyre by his father's retainers.

Waiting for the one,

The day that never comes,

When you stand up and feel the warmth

But the sunshine never comes, no

No, the sunshine never comes

His father's death had ruined everyone. Instead of bringing him the glory he deserved for all his suffering, it brought him only hardship. The dogs refused to recognize him as their leader because he had never beaten his father. And so he set out on his quest for power. In the end all he found was his brother. The little hanyou was an outcast little prince when he found him. Dressed in girls outfits by the fools mother. All Sesshoumaru could see was the shame his father felt about himself in a similar circumstance. And so he beat the boy senseless. He too must learn the way of the inuyoukai. Sesshoumaru would be his teacher. In the pack one did not survive unless one was willing to endure the hardship and the beatings. The boy's mother was dead.. The humans had thrown him out. There was no place for him with the inuyoukai. The boy must learn to survive on his own or die. Sesshoumaru's job would be as the punisher. The boy must know that he was his brother and that he was the bringer of pain That was the inyoukai way. If he survived he would live...

Pushed you across that line

Just stay down this time

Hide in yourself,

Crawl in yourself,

You'll have your time

And so his brother came to hate him. He hated knowing that his brother inflicted the pain . The taunts caused him to hate being a hanyou. His brother told him that he was a dirty being. That the mixed blood made him an outcast. He hated being human. Sesshoumaru told him that was what made him weak and why Sesshoumaru was able to beat him so easily. Eventually, he would become ashamed of his own mother because she was being. He dreamed of being a demon like Sesshoumaru. Then, Sesshoumaru would no longer be able to beat him. He would make Sesshoumaru pay for each and every beating that he had inflicted on him over the two hundred one years that he had been on earth. And so he sought the Shikon Jewel to obtain the power to become the demon of power that Sesshoumaru. Then he would be the one doing the beating.

God I'll make them pay

Take you back one day

I'll end this day

I'll splatter color on this gray

For fifty years the war abated while Inuyasha slumbered and Sesshoumaru resumed his quest for power. It was only Kagome awoke and that their battle could continue. One would pull out the others eyeball while the other cut off his arm. One would put his hand through the others stomach while other ripped off the arm of the other. Each found a sword which blasted the other. Each found someone to protect. Sesshoumaru began to wonder whether war was all that there was between him. He began to follow his brother to protect him from himself. It was unseemly that Inuyasha should be destroyed by becoming a false demon. His life belonged to Sesshoumaru and he would not let anyone else kill him. Inuyasha had come to realize that in spite of his hatred for Sesshoumaru he could not kill him. He found that he no longer wanted to be a demon so that he could become equal to Sesshoumaru because he realized that in realizing that power he would destroy everything that was valuable to him.

Waiting for the one,

The day that never comes

When you stand up and feel the warmth

But the sunshine never comes, no

After their last battle in the meidou when Sesshoumaru saved him, they realized that the battle for power between them was over. Each of them had achieved their own level of power without destroying the other in the process. Inuyasha had become one with Tetsusaiga and Sesshoumaru had become a tai-youkai when he had received Bakusaiga when his arm regrew. Sesshoumaru had always assumed that he knew what his father was trying to teach him when he taught him the inuyoukai way. Maybe he had been wrong.

Love is a four-letter word,

And never spoken here

Love is a four-letter word

Here in this prison

He had learned more in the last year than in the hundreds of years that he had been alive. He had learned that protecting someone was important. That having compassion for the suffering of another being was not weakness. That the life of a single little girl was worth more than any weapon. That it was more important to achieve power on your own rather than taking it from your father or your brother. That saving the life of your brother and depending on him to save you was worth risking your own life

I suffer this no longer,

I'll put an end to,

This I swear, This I swear

His life had changed. He and his brother might never be friends, but they no longer needed to prove their power to the other. Just like his father he had found someone that he needed to protect. Eventually she would be his. When they mated things would be different. Their childrenwould never be raised in the inuyoukai.way.

The sun will shine

This I swear, This I swear,

This I swear