A*/N* There have been a few comments and messages regarding Shippo's sexuality. So here we go…in the anime and manga its obvious Shippo is a child. In feudal Japan the idea of gender roles and sexuality particularly among the warrior classes was rather ambiguous when looked at with western eyes. Google Bushido and homosexual relationships within Japanese culture. Education is a wonderful thing. I thought since we never see Shippo as an adult wouldn't it be neat to screw with the conventional assumption he was hetero? Obviously in feudal Japan there was a great deal of bi sexuality and ambiguity. Just relax and before you tell me he was obviously straight, take a step back and consider the possibilities with new eyes.

Thanks.

"So what the hell is wrong with you anyway?"

Sesshomaru stifled a snarl. No matter how much he wished it, his brother would always be lacking the ability to be couth. The Lord of the West sat in a shady glade with his Inuyasha just outside the monastery, so they would be able to talk without the ningen monks overhearing them. As accommodating as they had been, especially since finding out they were Inu youkai, or gou mogui as they called them here on the continent, he did not want them to know too much about his current state.

After waking in the infirmary, Sesshomaru had slowly gathered his bearings and spoken with the head monk. The elderly ningen reminded him oddly of Totosai. Not that the man had been anything but impeccably polite, but there was a mischief behind his bird bright eyes that told the taiyoukai he was not above teasing and playing stupid.

He had been testing his youkai abilities bit by bit over the days as they passed and found that his blood-borne abilities still worked well. His hearing, smell and the poison. His reflexes were stiff, but he could tell even through the wounds that he still had his preternatural speed and strength.

His youki however was another matter. No matter how he flexed it and coaxed it, his beast remained mute. He was not able to speak with his inner self, and neither was he able to speak with his mate. Sesshomaru found that whenever he attempted to use his youki or contact Kagome through their mating mark, he was hit by a backlash of unbelievable weakness that left his limbs shaking and his head spinning.

He passed several days observing the monks, finding their quiet routines and unassuming lives surprisingly soothing. They revered him. They were fascinated by him. And they expected nothing.
He had a sneaking suspicion they were relieved he had not turned out to be a tyrant or despot of some kind.

Sesshomaru was, for his part, silently grateful that the ningen did not attempt to take advantage of his infirmity, although he imagined they did not understand the extent of his handicap. Then again, perhaps they just understood the nature of a cornered beast well enough not to push their luck.

One afternoon, he had accompanied Nianzu to the training courtyard to watch the exercises led by the senior monks. He was about to see a fighting art not shared with anyone outside of their order. There had been a time the monks found themselves under siege by every power hungry warlord who came to the holy mountain. Over many centuries, they had developed a way to defend themselves without the use of blades or weapons, although in recent years there was a push to incorporate swords into their martial art.

Sesshomaru was intrigued. He had heard stories of cloistered communities developing way of defense in response to repeated murder and pillaging, but this was the first of these he would be witness to. He settled on the stone steps that ringed the sunken courtyard and waited. The monks assembled silently as was their custom and before beginning, the senior monk who was to lead them turned and bowed in acknowledgment to Sesshomaru, who nodded minutely in return.

Without further ado, they began and the taiyoukai was riveted. He knew each and every movement and step before they were performed. The swinging of the monk's long braids were hypnotizing, a pendulum, countering their body's movement, swaying to and fro. He was suddenly painfully reminded of his mate, fighting Kenta and Takeshi those many years ago in Nippon. The comparison was eerie he suddenly remembered a conversation they had and that her fighting style had been learned on the continent far in the future.

The Inu lord realized then he was sitting in the very place his own mate stood hundreds of years from now, before they had been mated. The paradox boggled his mind. These men of the continent were the predecessors to those who would ultimately take her in and train her allowing her to impress him in the past.

Frowning he stopped pondering the implications of the changes he might affect inadvertently. He had to admit it was an aspect of time he had not considered. One wrong action could prevent his own children being born.

Sesshomaru found himself again disconcerted. This was becoming far too common of late, and the unpredictability of his youki was beginning to unravel the cloak of stoicism he not only presented to the world, but incorporated into his thoughts. He was regressing into the thought patterns of his younger years and that would just not do.

His brother had arrived not long after the demonstration and was immediately welcomed, it being glaringly plain they were related. Inuyasha, he learned, had awoken near the sea in almost the exact place they had landed upon their arrival. He had tracked his own scent back to the site of the ambush and then followed Sesshomaru's trail to this mountain.

"So...what is wrong with you that you don't want those monks to know?" Inuyasha's voice cut through the fog of Sesshomaru's mind like a keen blade. He met his brother's eyes and frowned.

"Don't just sit there and glare at me jerk! Even I can feel something's not right with you." the younger Inu snapped. "What the hell happened to you? It's like half of you disappeared."

Sesshomaru inhaled and counted to five in his head before replying. "I cannot speak to my beast." This simple sentence was enough to shut Inuyasha up for a few blessed moments.

"You can't...can you hear it?"

"No."

The horror that crept into his brother's eyes was reflected in the taiyoukai's thoughts and scratched across his mind painfully. He had been the one to acquaint Inuyasha with his own beast upon his transformation into a full youkai and Inuyasha could not imagine life without constant contact and interaction with the baser creature within him. He knew this had to be utter torture for his elder brother who had never known life without it.

"Well what do we do to get it back then?"

Sesshomaru jerked his head and stared at his brother in poorly masked surprise. Inuyasha's matter of fact tone and the unspoken expectation that there was a perfectly reasonable way to fix this sounded so much like Kagome the taiyoukai almost choked.

"What?" Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably and eyed his brother. "You mean to tell me you've been here with these houshi for a month and haven't asked?"

Exasperation overrode Sesshomaru's surprise in an instant. Resisting yet again the urge to sigh openly at his younger brother, he instead gritted his teeth and replied.

"The monks speak of a tribe of bird youkai to the south close to where we were ambushed. It is said they have sorcery that can steal a man's life energy." he paused struggling internally. "Or a demon's youki."

This was a revelation that had shaken Sesshomaru to the bone. He knew full well the youkai that had attacked them in the clearing were nothing special. Their youki level barely registering in his senses, to think they had been able to overwhelm him, a taiyoukai, didn't bear thinking of. To be honest, he was embarrassed that he had been overwhelmed by such lowly creatures.

Inuyasha watched the byplay of emotions on his brother's face. Not that it was easy to decipher, but he did have the benefit of several centuries to figure out what a certain twitch of the brow and direction of a gaze meant in 'Sesshomaru speak'.

He knew his brother was angry and extremely uncomfortable. He could see worry for his son and frustration at being so handicapped. It was strange. Inuyasha had spent his entire life either looking up to or trying to surpass his brother and now that he sat across from him, stripped of his great power, the younger Inu found he no longer wanted what he thought he did.

"Can you still smell?" His question seemed to jerk Sesshomaru out of his internal struggle.

"Hai."

"And your hearing is still sharp?"

"Hai brother, what of it?" Sesshomaru's tone was flat and short, and after a moment of silence he looked up at Inuyasha and was startled to see a wolfish grin spreading across his brother's face.

"Then you can hunt." The satisfaction in his voice stirred something deep within the taiyoukai. He could hunt. He could hunt. He could hunt for his son and the ookami ranger who were still missing and perhaps they could together find the birds and kill them for their insolence. With a whisper of silk Sesshomaru stood and looked out toward the wooded mountainside below them.

"Come brother." he said suddenly determined, he looked down at Inuyasha, golden eyes blazing. "We hunt!" Without another word, Sesshomaru began down the mountainside, Inuyasha following a step behind repressing a grin. It was good to see the fire back in his brother's eyes.

Shippo forced himself to walk slowly and calmly through the halls of the Western Manor. He had just returned from a patrol with Satoshi and what they had seen had made his blood boil.

He and his partner had taken it upon themselves to leave Kagome's guard to the ever capable neko siblings; rumors had been reaching them through the servants regarding the state of affairs in the surrounding villages.

They were disturbing to say the least.

The two kitsune had departed in the gray pre-dawn hour and after securing their disguises as two ningen laborers, they made their way into the sprawling farmland where Kagome's experiment in cooperation had been thriving for almost a century. Once they arrived, it was obvious to both of them that things had changed drastically for the ningen who lived here in the short weeks since Suzaku's appointment as regent.

There were falcon and crane youkai guards ringing the settlement keeping perfectly stil,l save for their restless watching. Shippo shared a disturbed glance with his partner and moved with him toward the center of the square where the post board stood, again flanked by armed youkai. Both rangers were shocked to see Suzaku's guard already a solid presence in the town.

"Not wasting any time is he?" murmured Satoshi darkly. Shippo shook his head minutely to indicate silence, before realizing that the two of them were now the center of attention, not only for the guards but also the other youkai around them.

Shippo looked around him with increasing uneasiness. Every face he saw belonged to youkai, young and old, feline, canine, avian and elemental each one looking as though they dropped whatever they were doing to stare at the two of them. His steps slowed and he felt Satoshi draw even with him, both of them thrumming with sudden tension.

"You there." The pair spun to meet the speaker, the larger of the two guards by the post board stepped forward, his hand hovering over the hilt of his katana. "What business have you here?" The falcon's voice rang in the still air.

"Why...the business of finding work friend." Satoshi's reply was quick and glib, accompanied by a sideways smile and a twinkle in his eyes that never failed to put his audience at ease. The falcon narrowed his eyes and lowered his hand to grasp the hilt of his weapon.

"There's no work here for the likes of you ningen." he sneered. "How dare you imply you are equal to the youkai and expect to find a friend." The guard stepped forward as he spoke and Shippo saw the other guards begin to move in from the fringes flanking them silently. He could see the fear and regret in the eyes of the villagers as they watched the two 'ningen' come under the aggression of the guards.

"Easy there." protested Satoshi, lifting his hands palms out and backing away in the direction of Shippo's tugs on his haori sleeve. "We meant no insult youkai-san. We heard there was work to be had here to any who were willing."

"Well you heard wrong ningen." The words grated out and mixed with the sibilant sounds of blades being drawn.

"Right...we'll just be going then. Not to worry youkai-san you'll not be seeing us again!" With those words, the two of them dashed as fast as could be expected of ningen back out of the village the way they came.

After traveling a fair distance from the settlement into the wooded hills that surrounded the Western Manor, the two rangers let their disguises drop and stopped in a clearing to catch their breath.

"The reports were true." huffed Satoshi, disbelief sharp in his tone.

Shippo did not reply, just nodded and thought hard. Going over the events in his mind, he felt a rage begin to build within him. Just who did this filthy bird think he was, destroying everything Kagome had worked so hard to create?

Frowning, the auburn kit stood and gripped his pale partner's shoulder briefly. "Kagome must be told of this."

Haruko moved steadily north. The site of the ambush had been cleared of debris and dried rushes put down over the bloodstains, but his sharp nose was able to pick up the scent of not only his father, but of Inuyasha and Kenta as well. The ookami ranger's scent led west while his uncle's was to the east. The scent trail of his father was the faintest being covered by more of the bird smell then the others.

'Makes sense.' he thought. 'Otou-san is the strongest of us after all.'

Haruko stood stock still and tested the breeze while considering his best course of action. He had to decide which of them to track first; he had no way of knowing what shape they would be in, if they were even alive when he found them.

He found oddly that he was most concerned for his father who was the strongest of them all. His sister Maeko's warning rattled around his head. She had told him they would be attacked and that their father would lose control. She had also told him he would battle Sesshomaru to protect the lives of the innocent. The first part of her warning had proved true, so now all he had to worry about was this upcoming battle.

'Oh right.' He thought. 'Just battling Otou-san, nothing to worry about there.'The Heir of the West stood and tested the wind trying to figure out what he should do first.

'Get off the road!'

He obeyed the internal voice without thinking, and dove into the cover of the forest. Just in time too. His keen ears picked up the sound of horses approaching on the road. Haruko crouched down in a nearby thicket and waited silently, golden eyes watching.

"Why do we have to come all the way out here again?" the voice was reedy, nasally, clearly whining. It grated on Haruko's ears harshly.

"I told you fool, this is the way the wolf was headed." Haruko's breath caught and he stilled himself, straining as he listened.

"Yeah but why would he come back here?"

"To find his companions idiot!" the second speaker grumbled, as they neared the spot on the road covered by rushes.

"I still don't see why we have to ride these damnable beasts; flying would be so much easier."

"The wolf isn't flying! We would never find him that way, we have to track. that's why the elders sent me; I still wonder why the hell you were sent along with me."

"You know damn well…."

"Hold on!" The whining youkai stopped speaking immediately. "There are new tracks here." A few moments of silence followed, and Haruko remained still as stone willing them to misread his tracks.

"These are not the wolfs, but definitely not human."

Haruko could see them through the gaps in the leaves and thanked the Kami for once that he had inherited his mothers ebony hair, making it easier to hide in the shadows or the woodland. The Inu prince knew he had an advantage on these bird youkai even if they saw him. They were slower and clumsier on the ground than he was, as well as having to track him without scent.

Of course if they took to wing they would be able to keep up, but if he kept to the wood and moved in an irregular pattern like his father had shown him, there was no way they could catch him. The hard part was getting enough of a lead on them that they could no longer see or hear him.

Silently he waited part of the shadows.

The tracker bent down and touched the depressions in the packed earth. He looked into the wood, trying to separate the shadows. Haruko saw him signal silently to the bird still on horseback who slid off his mount and walked over to where his partner crouched.

"He's nearby. I'll bet my beak on it."

"Just give me a direction brother." replied the other slipping a blade from his sleeve. Haruko used every curse he'd ever heard his uncle utter in that short moment before the tracker pointed straight at his hiding place.

'Of all the shit luck!'he thought as the second bird's blade darted through the foliage straight toward his face. He dodged and then immediately fled for his life. Stealth was not a concern anymore, the two birds were close enough to have heard his body shifting in the brush and Haruko knew if he didn't escape them, it would probably mean his life. He ran faster than he could recall ever running, black hair streaming behind him like a banner. He could hear the sound of the two hunters pursuing him; they were close.

The whine of an approaching blade made him shift to the left to avoid being hit and he felt the fabric of his tunic shred as the blade narrowly missed his skin. 'They're not aiming for vital points.'he thought knowing that most likely meant they were using poison. Haruko abruptly changed direction and leapt up into the trees springing from branch to branch just long enough to draw their attention up and then dropped back down to the brush of the forest floor.

Hearing again the sound of a blade cutting air he shifted right this time only to realize too late there were two blades just as the second one struck him, burying itself in his right shoulder joint. He rolled forward with the momentum of the attack and was up again after a short second on the ground. Haruko yanked the blade from his shoulder as he ran waiting for a chance to fling it back on his attackers.

His ears picked up the sound of pursuit falling back from him slightly as though waiting for something. 'Probably waiting for me to fall from whatever they put on the blade.' he thought and he noticed a slight sluggishness in his movements. He grinned knowing that unless it was formulated specifically for him it would not have the effect they desired, at least not as severe. Being half demon, the son of a mighty taiyoukai gave him resistance to poisons anyway, as part of his heritage was being able to call forth poison from his own body. His mother's blood as a hanshin made it incredibly difficult to attain the right balance of chemicals to affect him unless the alchemist had a sample of his blood.

Haruko poured on more speed, intending to take advantage of his lead when the ground fell out from under him. He felt himself falling and realized too late the reason for his pursuers' distance. His attackers obviously knew the land better than he did and had herded him to the edge of a cliff. He could see the ground rushing up to meet him and in an act of desperation shifted.

He was not concerned about surviving the fall. He was a demon after all, but the question in his mind was whether or not he would be able to move once he landed. In human form, the answer to that was a resounding no. In his bestial form, however, he could probably get away with only a few cracked bones and some bruises. The tightness of his own skin during the transformation never ceased to surprise him.

Haruko grunted as he felt his joints cracking and expanding. The ground was fast approaching, but he could not rush the change, no matter how much he wanted to. He felt the barrier within him that contained his sister's essence tremble under the onslaught of his youki, but hold firm. His father had poured the strength of his youki into it and Haruko felt oddly comforted by the knowledge that he did not travel alone, but carried not only the wisdom of his sister but also the strength of his great and terrible father.

His shift completed a few stories from the ground and he landed heavily, shaking the trees around him and flushing a flock of small birds from the trees with indignant cries. He shook his heavy sable coat and stretched his spine. He needed to move at once, lifting his muzzle skyward he scented the wind. His sense of smell was far more acute now and he detected a hint of Kenta to the west. Without another moment's hesitation, Haruko moved off through the trees, still manifesting his beast. After almost three Ri, he shifted mid-stride and leaped from the forest floor into the boughs of a nearby tree carefully avoiding breaking the small branches.

'That should throw them off my trail.' He thought. 'Now to find Kenta.'

Two pairs of jeweled eyes watched the boy fall. Now all they had to do was retrieve his unconscious body and return him to the elders.

These eyes widened in disbelief, however, as they watched the boy shift into the form of a great black furred beast and land without injury on the forest floor. The huge creature awed them; they watched as it scented the air and moved off into the shadows of the trees.

"The elders didn't say anything about him being one of the great ones…" the first spoke softly.

"I thought the only great mogui was the silver Lord." The tracker nodded, frowning.

"We must tell the elders of this." he replied grimly. "It seems as though the Phoenix did not tell us everything." The tracker paused, considering.

"I will go back." His companion spoke before he got the chance to. The tracker opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off. "You're the tracker after all, brother. I'm just here for the knife work." A cocky grin flashed across his face for a moment before he sobered and clasped his brother's forearm.

"Take care with this. Something doesn't seem right."

A curt nod between brothers and they parted ways, the tracker gathering his youki and flying down the cliff face to pick up the track of the beast.

Kenta's head jerked up. His nose filled with a familiar scent and before he could register who it was, Haruko dropped silently from the trees in front of him. The ookami ranger breathed a deep sigh of relief.

He had been working his way back to the site of the ambush for several days after waking in a strange place. He gathered from the scent trails he had been taken far to the west and left for dead. He had no idea how much time had passed since the attack, he just knew he was terribly sore and completely alone. No watcher had been left.

Or perhaps there had been one who had given up on the big ookami waking and had gone home to his village. Either way, Kenta was extremely relieved to see Haruko appear seemingly unhurt as the afternoon sunshine dappled through the leaves.

"It's good to see you, lad!" He smiled and clapped the young inu on the shoulder. Haruko looked at Kenta with serious eyes.

"We must move Kenta, someone is tracking me."

The ranger was instantly alert, listening to the sounds of the wood and searching for strange scents. "How far behind you?"

"Probably less than two Ri." His tone was tight and strained.

"Which direction did they take you?"

"South."

Kenta nodded. "So which direction shall we go?"

Haruko was quiet for a moment. "North." He replied "They would not have taken Father toward home, not where the chance of a search party finding him is greater."

Kenta looked sidelong at the young prince, pleasantly surprised by his astute observation. "North it is then. Let's go."

Without another word the two of the took to the trees, moving with preternatural speed and determined silence.

A/N Many thanks to my lovely beta Creature of Shadow. Please review folks! I appreciate feedback and will reply to questions and issue as you saw at the beginning of this Chapter. Much Love!