Disclaimer

Inuyasha (c) Rumiko Takahashi

Author's Note

I am back with another chapter (yay me!). To tell the truth I have a hard time with this one, because all the fun will officially start here. I want to write about Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha, when placed in my story, lost as little of their original personality and behaviors as possible. I went about how they acted so out of character here and there, and this and that. All in all I was messing around with their lives, and my own head.

Then the fighting with swords, and stuffs...

Guess you all, my readers, may have to bear with me again for my lacking of skill in writing again. And I thank you for that.

Warning

Nothing that I can come up with about warning anyone about what (shrug), should I just settle it down to, "Be ware of dogs!", and "Don't try it on your sibling(s) at home."? Oh... well...

Chapter 4

Dwelling in the past was not something one at his station would do. But he was committing the act nonetheless as he searched himself for one reason that would be convincing enough to fool both the world and his rational mind.

He knew very well that he'd been lying to himself.

One lie could make a truth if belief overwhelmed what laid behind. To cover his actions' true meaning by deviating it as something else, something that others would think of as what he'd wanted them think it to be. And no one had ever question his actions, as none was foolish enough to risk their life in the process for inquiring. Had the dead hanyou known he'd been taunting the taiyoukai time after time by hitting the truth fair in its face thorough their encounters, would he still want to become a full youkai then. If Naraku had ever wanted to become a full youkai at all. For all that overstaying his welcome damnable hanyou ever did was using the Shikon no tama to create demon off springs, only until when he was chased into the corner in his last breath he'd fused himself with the jewel to momentarily obtain full youkai's potentials. Now that spider hanyou was no more, curiosity about it would do him no good, only good enough to be a distraction from his current object of problems. Inuyasha.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

He glanced over his shoulder, the hanyou was looking at him with a deep frown, the look that one would throw at someone who'd lost his mind, while the hanyou's aura emitted confusion, careful buried anger, and... something else, something the youkai could not place the correct word to fit in.

The hanyou, on his part, told himself repeatedly to be patient, but the effect only helped it running thinner at the youkai's tendency to stay silent. What the fuck was wrong with him?

Finally decided to himself that this asshole of a brother of his was till acting like an... asshole, he irritated ran one claw hand through his own silver tress, suddenly temping to rip them out of his skull. Seriously, what was wrong with him? "This is the place I had my first kill! That was a bunch of youkai, those went after my half-breed ass! The day my...", the hanyou swallowed hard, "… My mother died! And I ran from the castle! The village hu-!"

"The humans chased after you. You ran and ran and ran, until you lost them just to find yourself in somewhere you did not know for the life of yourself that never ventured out of the human's castle and it's futile barrier that offer useless safety haven for those who resided inside.", Sesshoumaru said in one breath. Fixing intense gaze at Inuyasha, his expression as cold as usual, belied something in the edge of his voice that unexpectedly slipped away from his control.

But the hanyou was too astonished to catch on the different, his eyes widened as his whole body started to shake in suppressed rage, "How did you know? How much did you know?"

"Where you were standing did not provide you any safe assurance because your own blood invited everything that could smell. You, like the prey you were, kept running.", Sesshoumaru turned away from the hanyou as his eyes trailed the past's imagine of the small figure in fire rat robe, with puppy ears suddenly popped out from one of the bush nearby, and stared at what was in front of his young amber eyes in wonder. The taiyoukai closed his eyes, successfully blocked the flow of memories surged at the front of his mind.

He heard the hanyou laughed bitterly, "Yeah? Did you expect a kid to know something else? The kid that knew not how to defense itself. Know not how to fight. Know not about what inside the world outside the castle wall. Or did you wish they would just kill me back then and saved you all the hassle later?"

"No.", was the quiet reply, "I would not allow you die by those pathetic weaklings to further embarrass the blood that ran in our veins."

"Yes. You always want to kill me by your hands.", Inuyasha said softly, he felt something stung in his eyes as he looked at the taiyoukai in anger defiant. "Even after all these shits, I am till the dirty half-breed to you!"

As the words left him, Inuyasha found his chin was in an iron grip of poison seeping claws and his face was pulled close to a flashing red eyes of his brother. The taiyoukai's fangs bared and a deep growl escaped his throat, the vibrant of it echoed through the woods, disturbed the water's smooth surface, and seemingly overwhelmed everything surrounding them. "Had it ever occurred to you that if I wanted you die, your filthy self would not be standing here talking to this Sesshoumaru the way you've been?"

"Now you are acting all honorable? What about honorable when you made that thing imposed my mother just so you could stick your precious fingers in my eyehole?", Inuyasha spat, hatred more than evident in his eyes as he brought his right hand up and grip the hand holding his chin, while his left hand flew upward as his gaze narrowed. Sankon Tessou!

Sesshoumaru had frozen at the mention of the unmother youkai. At that time he'd wanted to just beat the hanyou until the pup spill out about the grave, but he went along with Jaken's annoying plan. He'd approved of the idea, not because it may give him the whereabouts of what he'd been seeking, it was purely the enjoyment of watching the hanyou's suffer, of messing up with the hanyou's brain... by his attachment to the human woman who had given birth to him. He had never felt any remorse then, why he was uncertain now? A sticky feeling on his face brought him back to the fuming hanyou, who was now crouching low on the ground glowing at him.

He smelt his own blood.

On his face.

And the hanyou's bloody claw.

The surprise of breaking free from Sesshoumaru was overwhelmed by the fact that not only he was succeeded in doing so, but also landed a direct hit right on the face of that fucking asshole of a brother had given the hanyou a very, veerryyy goood ego boost. His stomach bubbled with excite, damn it, he felt like he was gonna all giggle anytime soon! Sweet mother, now I can die happily! He laughed his ass off inside his head.

But his blood ran cold by the time he actually looked at Sesshoumaru. A very big mistake, he concluded. As his rational mind, any part that has recovered from the triumphant feeling from scoring Sesshoumaru's first blood, for the first time in his life, was screaming like crazy at him one word. RUN!

Too late.

The taiyoukai jumped up, Bakusaiga drew and flashing with demonic aura, descending with a speed that purely purpose was to end one's life, right on the top of his twitching madly ears.

The swords clanged against each other as blows exchanged, along with colorful curses from the hanyou part and silent snarls from the taiyoukai. Miraculously there was no life in the area that was currently suffering little to no mercy blasts from both Tetsusaiga and Bakusaiga but those innocence as they looked being woods, rocks, and a stream. If before the time both the taiyoukai and hanyou landed their foot in this place, the thick forest that permitted no light from the sky shined through any opening from above to reach the ground or that stream which was there from the joining of numerous ways from the cracks of what look suspicious like a very ridiculous big boulder, so big that could match with a mountain, but its own shape was too misshapen to be one, now there was nothing to shield the landscape against the knowledge of the sun, which was greedily studied the place that was so long denied its advance, hiding away what was covered in its depth.

"Why?!", the hanyou yelled as he sprinted back for momentum and blast another Kaze no kizu at his brother, "Why weren't you there when I needed you most?!"

Sesshoumaru coldly brought Bakusaiga down at him with his usual expressionless gaze. Sometimes the taiyoukai almost seemed like he'd wanted to say something, but he never said anything, just continuous strike after strike at the hanyou for all he'd worth.

That only fueled the hanyou's burning blood further.

"And you looked like you would rather die in that girl's stead!", the hanyou roared, his face tainted with his own blood, the copper smell mixing with sweat and salty liquid leaked from his eyes. His vision suddenly flashed red as Tetsusaiga pulsed and at the moment the edge of the crystallized blade hit the ground, endless diamond spears shot out in Sesshoumaru's direction. Kongousouha!

Which the taiyoukai outwardly calm dodging with his unmatched speed and deflecting almost all with Bakusaiga, for some had managed to scratch his cheek and two even pierced through Mokomoko and stayed lodged in his shoulder. His face till and he expressed no pain nor acknowledged any injury in his person.

The hanyou's focus was no longer on the taiyoukai. His vision started blurring around himself in flashing red and clear from one blink to another. What did he just say? Sesshoumaru would rather die in whose stead?

And suddenly he was not standing in where he thought he was anymore.

There was no Sesshoumaru. No stream, no forest…

Nothing.

... But a flash of white and a small figure in similar garment as Sango's taijiya attire from a far. Kohaku?

Wind blew deafened at his ears as he strained his eyes to see through darkness from his standing. He tried to reach out, to catch up to them… to no avail.

Watch. A voice whispered clearly in his ears, no, he could almost touch the owner of that voice… in his head. And he obeyed it, just because there was nothing else he could do.

He watched the white figure kneeled, what looked impossible like Tenseiga was in the ground of darkness some distance away, his head down, his fang bared, and most, he felt it, that same feeling that he'd felt when Kikyou laid dying in his arms the last time he'd seen her smile, that same feeling was oozing out from that figure holding the dead girl so dearly near his heart.

And he no longer felt anything anymore.

Inuyasha turned away and closed his eyes. I am tired.

Watch. He heard the voice again, more clearly.

I … can't. His hands dropped at his side. He never realized Tetsusaiga was no longer in his possession.

His vision inside the protection of his closed eyelids turned white, the suddenness of it sprang his eyes open to witness a blinding light coming from behind.

And everything turned back to the familiar darkness. No Sesshoumaru. No Kohaku.

No… Rin.

"So…", he breathed, "That was how the Meidou Zangetsuha…", he found himself unable to voice his word at this new discovered information.

Incompleted. His head turned frantically around, hoping beyond hope to catch a glimpse of what he thought, something, to prove him wrong, that he was having something talking inside his head!

As if to answer his desperated attempt to cling into the last bit of his sanity, a wind blew passed his face and now he felt it… something… something very big… behind him.

He turned quickly around, prepared to face whatever it was, something was enjoying to mess with his head. Whatever thing, with Tetsusaiga he would… Tetsusaiga?

His eyes widened. Where is Tetsusaiga?

A growled above reined his attention as he looked up to face to face with white fur of a mother fucking extremely fuck large… dog?

Its lids opened, animalistic red with blue pupils boring into his soul as he saw the reflection of himself in the hound's eyes.

Come to me. He heard that voice in his head again as the white dog stalked over in his direction. Come!

And he was back, with Sesshoumaru's fist contacted straight in his face.

The hanyou was threw again the large boulder, which cracked further by the force of the impact, and was leaking out more water by the look of it, and instead of washing away his own and his brother's blood that was clinging on his flesh and robe, it seemed to be drawing more of blood out of him from the cuts he'd gotten, no thanks to the one who'd inflicted those, said youkai lunged at him again from above. That fucking bastard sure loved to land his finish attack from high up a lot. With a hiss the hanyou leaped away from where he was.

And Sesshoumaru had seen it coming, for he unsheathed Tenseiga and threw it at the hanyou, aiming his left shoulder.

Inuyasha's eyes widened at the move, out of instinct than the fact that he knew Tenseiga could not harm him in any way possible, he swinged Tetsusaiga up to block the hit.

As the edge of Tenseiga collided with Tetsusaiga's, both fangs pulsed, and the pulse of it ran through Inuyasha.

Tetsusaiga's blade turned pit black as Tenseiga slowly disappeared into the Meidou through Tetsusaiga.

Sesshoumaru's eyes widened slightly. What?

When Tenseiga reappeared, its blade was painted the very same black color as Tetsusaiga and pierced through Inuyasha's heart, pinning the hanyou into the boulder in the process.

No!

Was the only thing in the taiyoukai's mind as he leaped toward the pinned-by-Tenseiga hanyou.

He was panic.

Inuyasha.

That was not what he had intended. He was pissed at the mention of Rin from the hanyou. But he was thinking clear enough through his rage that the hanyou was in noway to know about that. He wasn't there. He couldn't have known. And there was no time for the hanyou to inquire around during their last moments with Naraku until now.

The hanyou had a look of lost then, as if he was not there anymore and only came back to reality the moment before that punch of the taiyoukai hit him. The water trickled through that boulder would heal some of his wounds if he stayed long enough… but knowing the hanyou, he would jump right back to spill another of Tetsusaiga's ability at him as soon as he regained his standing again.

Talking about the obvious… The taiyoukai sighed at the hanyou's attempt to leap away. Maybe Tenseiga would keep him in place for a while… and he threw it at Inuyasha's left shoulder.

Neither of them had expected it.

Inuyasha had not expected Tenseiga was aiming at him.

Sesshoumaru had not expected the fool would use Tetsusaiga to block something that couldn't-cut.

The taiyoukai's blood ran cool at the sight of black Tenseiga came out through Tetsusaiga and pierced the hanyou's heart with its edge.

He was near enough to grab the hilt of Tenseiga with all purpose in the world to pull it out of the hanyou as a pulse followed with a burst of youki emitted from Inuyasha forced him back away to land on the ground. The bewildered taiyoukai looked up at the pinned hanyou to watch said hanyou loosened his grip on Tetsusaiga and threw it to his left hand as his right hand now was free to come up and grabbed the hilt of Tenseiga, slowly pulled it free from his body. When the swords were secured in both hands, the hanyou dropped artlessly to the ground in front of Sesshoumaru.

The taiyoukai could not know how to explain the sight before him. True that it was not the first time he had looked at it, but that was when Tetsusaiga had lost its power, or Tetsusaiga was too far away from the hanyou. But he was face to face with the purple jagged stripes on the sides of his cheeks, crimson eyes hanyou-turned-youkai Inuyasha, till holding Tetsusaiga in all its glory.

"I had always wanted to say it. Just to know how it feel to say it to your own brother.", the hanyou turned youkai stated in Inuyasha's voice with a deep calm tone, hold its gaze fixed sole on the taiyoukai as a smile lacked sanity crept in the corner of his lips. He raised both pit black Tetsusaiga and Tenseiga over his head and brought them down in front of the seemingly frozen taiyoukai.

"Die. Sesshoumaru!", the words were spoken with so much hatred directed at the taiyoukai as a large black orb appeared in front of the two that suddenly was cut into hundreds of smaller orbs by over dozen of crescent shape black moons flying from inside out and all shot at the taiyoukai's direction.

"Meidou Zangetsuha!"

To be continued...

Author's rant

I will mark this day as the day I made my first clip hanger in my life.

Review reply

To mangafan, thank you for your support of my story. I would like to give you a bear hug for your reviews. So far I am working good with my ideas, but to word ideas into words need time, and I enjoy having my time. It was okay with me if not many read my story, because first of all I write for myself. So I won't stop writing this anytime soon.

Once again thank you.

And thank you for those who've been reading.