InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A New Sibling ❯ Ah...Love...And Weapons! ( Chapter 7 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Anyways…Sorry, RFP, I'll try the whole "liking" thing, but I'm not that good at that kind of writing…don't know why…I love reading those kinds of fanfics…ok, so…I apologize for the grammar mistakes in the last chapter…and…if you didn't know, it was backhanding not backhanded (*to hit with the backside of your hand in an upward swinging motion-think "Pirates of the Caribbean" bad pirate backhanded Elizabeth Swan when she spoke to him about her parley*)…stupid "Word" didn't catch that and neither did I…ok…um…that's about it…just remember to review, I'm getting a little lonely…only rfp reviewed…soooooo………sorry if Sesshoumaru seemed a bit OOC…it couldn't be helped…

Disclaimer: It burns!!! It BUUUURRNNNSSS!!!!

You know the drill:

<Ayumu>

`Kagome'

`Anyone else'

**But there's one new one!

*~* = some time passed

Just so you know, I also have no life so I added that there is this second language spoken…it is the demon noblemen's native tongue…the no life part comes in that I made it up…don't be too confused because if you email my pyro_scout account at sailormoon.com, I'll tell you what they mean…if you don't…then good luck guessing!!! ^.^

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

*Somewhere in Northern Japan*

Ayumu opened her eyes to display a strange show of grey speckles amongst the gold of her eyes.

"Nnnn…Dako kish Eh?"

<Shit…I forgot myself…> Ayumu closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she opened them the silver flecks were gone.

She sat up and looked around her. Ayumu was in a dark room with walls covered in black drapes. When she stood, blood rushed to her head and she fell back onto the black bed from dizziness. Ayumu waited on the bed until her head stopped spinning, then got up once more to explore.

She went to a set of curtains that blocked a window that allowed her to smell the forest beyond. When Ayumu pulled back the curtains, she found a set of double glass doors bordered by black metal framing. She swung the doors open and stepped out on a black marble balcony, lined by a force field that shone a dark purple in the moonlight. <Do I sense a theme here?>

As Ayumu stepped towards the barrier to lean over and observe her surroundings, she felt a presence enter the room. When she turned around back into the room, it was gone. She closed the double doors and looked around, still feeling a slight bit of the presence at the edge of her consciousness. <Come out; come out, where ever you are…>

"I know you're here. You might as well just show yourself."

A tall, thin man-dressed in a dark purple and black kimono that blended superbly with the room-stepped out of the shadows to her left and stood waiting for Ayumu's next move. She turned her body towards him and walked within one foot of him and stopped, staring upward to keep eye contact.

She was caught in the blood red of his eyes and found that she was unable to look away. Something was familiar, but she couldn't place her finger on it.

"I see you are finally awake."

Ayumu gave a curt nod and continued to stare, narrowing her eyes to practically slits. She tested the air for his scent and found it to be one that she already knew. She was finally able to place the eyes of this man to a body she knew from a very recent and indecent encounter.

"You are the baboon costumed man from the river, yes?"

She was barely growling out her words, unbridled anger was flaring up inside of her as her memories began to return to her.

"That is correct in a sense. My name is Naraku. And I believe that you are known as Ayumu?"

"That's Lady Ayumu to you, baboon-boy!" She punctuated each word with a sharp jab in the chest, claws extended. (A/N: Not the best thing to do…)

Naraku grabbed her wrist before she had a chance to react, and he twisted it to force her arm behind her back. He grabbed her other arm and stood slightly stooped over with his face next to her right ear. `She is not resisting me…what is this…?'

"No, I won't resist you. I may be youkai, unlike yourself, and more than able to overpower you, but even a master at barriers, such as myself, is not daft enough to take on such a barrier as your own. Kudos on such workmanship. I've never seen any that came so close to my own before. I admire the clean cut ends and stealth of it all. It went almost undetected, even by myself."

"I see you know your barriers well, Lady Ayumu." Ayumu could feel his breath on her ear as he spoke. His voice, just like at the river, brought a chill down her spine.

"One question though…" Ayumu leaned her head to the left, trying to avoid his, and turned it to get a better look at his face as she spoke.

"And what would that be…?" He gave a small smirk at her request to question him. `Interesting…'

"Why the memories…? I mean, while I was unconscious, why did you choose to show me my own childhood memories…?" Ayumu controlled her voice as it began to shake from remembering the look on her childhood friend.

"Why," Naraku released her arms and spun her to face him once more. "I thought it might be nice for you to have a little reunion with your old friend, Ichido."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather not have another." Just as Ayumu pushed against Naraku's chest to get away, he released her arms, sending her sprawling into the wall. She hit her head, slid down to the floor, and glared at Naraku from her sitting position as he gave a slight chuckle and exited the room.

*Somewhere in Western Japan*

"Oi, Sesshoumaru!" InuYasha jogged up to Kuzume and Sesshoumaru from his position farther back to speak with him. "Why, exactly, are we headed west and not north, where the trace of Ayumu's youki went?"

"Because, dear brother, to face Naraku, we must make sure that your…accompaniment…is properly equipped."

"Lord Sesshoumaru, what is that supposed to mean?"

Sesshoumaru stopped in his tracks, turned around, and motioned, with a wave of his hand, to all the humans behind them.

"Kuzume, I do not believe that these humans will be any help as they are currently. As I said, they must be properly equipped first."

He turned back around and they continued on their way to his citadel. Sesshoumaru would need to see if Rin and all else was well in the citadel before equipping the humans for a proper battle.

InuYasha continued to walk next to his brother and finally decided exactly how he would phrase the question he wanted to ask. He didn't want the same thing to happen that did when he spoke of Sesshoumaru's arm. `It wastes too much time to argue…'

"Sesshoumaru, if we don't have much time to spare, shouldn't we be moving faster than a human pace?"

"You have means by which you can speed up the humans of this group?"

"We have our own system of traveling faster than normal humans, if that's what you're asking."

"Indeed, it is."

Sesshoumaru stopped once more to allow InuYasha and the others to get ready for faster travel. He observed as Kagome got onto InuYasha's back with Shippo on Kagome's shoulder, and Sango and Miroku leapt onto Kelala's back.

"Interesting…" Sesshoumaru said, and then muttered a few words under his breath and a wisp of clouds appeared beneath him. He stretched his hand out and offered it to Kuzume. She reached out her own hand and placed it in his. Helping Kuzume onto the cloud, Sesshoumaru directed the cloud to rise into the air and start forward. He sat down and pulled Kuzume with him, wrapping his left arm around her waist and right one around her shoulders. She, in turn, wrapped her hands around both of his wrists and rested her head on his left shoulder to listen to his heartbeat. Kuzume almost started giggling when she heard it speed up, but was startled herself when Sesshoumaru place his chin on the top of her head.

Sesshoumaru removed his head, though, to glance at the flying neko beside them. Sango had steered Kelala next to his cloud to ask him if they were nearing his citadel yet.

He pointed straight forward and a citadel appeared far off on the horizon.

"I keep my citadel well hidden from prying eyes." Sesshoumaru gave a slight flick of his wrist and the citadel jumped to stop directly in front of them.

"…very well hidden." Miroku said under his breath, but still audible to the taiyoukai and the youkai in his arms. (A/N: Arms…as in plural!!! Hurray for Sesshoumaru-sama!)

*~*

Sesshoumaru kept a brisk pace down the corridors closely followed by Kuzume. InuYasha and the human group all followed about five feet behind them.

He finally stopped when he got to a shoji door at the very back of the citadel and opened it to reveal a stone path that lay through a garden next to a koi pond. Sesshoumaru led every one down the path, to another building, and through another shoji door where he stopped in the middle of the room. He shed himself of his armor and placed it in a corner to be replaced on his body later.

The group looked around at the walls that reached to the ceiling about 25 feet above them. It looked to them to be nothing but a huge, empty room, nicely decorated by paintings of battles and mythical creatures. On one panel, there was painted a picture of a great white dog climbing to the heavens by means of a tall mountain.

"Sesshoumaru, all intentions of bursting your bubble, this is just a big, empty room with a bunch of pictures on the wall paneling."

Sesshoumaru glanced at his brother, then at Kuzume. "If you be so kind as to assist me, Kuzume."

"Of course, Lord Sesshoumaru."

They both walked around the room and placed their palms on each panel then lifted, revealing a wall covered in weapons of various sizes, shapes, and origins. They continued this until every one of the hundreds of hidden cabinets was uncovered.

Sesshoumaru called across the room, "Now, if you would supply the women of the group with weapons that suit their build and structure. I will deal with the men."

"Sure thing!" Kuzume bounded over to Sango and Kagome and started to bounce around them, searching them with her eyes from head to foot and back again.

*~*

Sesshoumaru and Kuzume departed to an unknown section of the citadel in the west wing, where no one else was allowed-not even the servants of the household. He had instructed a few of said servants to show every one to the empty rooms in the east wing and to take their new found weapons to the front of the citadel to wait for their new owners after cleaning and readying them.

`I wonder where Sesshoumaru and Kuzume are going…'

*~*

Sesshoumaru stood next to the pond in the light of the full moon, staring at the heavens. His attention was diverted to Kuzume as she walked up behind him. He turned around fully and she wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Must we really go to battle with Naraku? We might not make it back…"

Kuzume placed her forehead against Sesshoumaru's chest, but he lifted her chin to make her face him with his hand as he wrapped his other hand around the small of her back. He stared into her eyes, observing everything she held within them, before he answered her.

"I must rescue my sister. You know this, Kuzume."

"I do. I just don't want to take any risks in losing you."

"Do not worry," Sesshoumaru leaned his head down, his mouth a hairs breadth away from hers, "I will be protecting you with my life no matter what."

Before she could reply, he closed the distance between them and pulled her closer to his body, wrapping his tail around both of them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Wow that's one big time lapse!

Anyway…I hope that that makes up for the casual acquaintance-ness between Sesshoumaru and Kuzume in the last chapter, RFP…so…I guess, in the next chapter, we'll have some more traveling and maybe some more elaboration on Ayumu's end of the line…I don't know…I'm kind of in the dark here, myself…hope you guys liked this chapter!

I'll try to get the next chapter out as fast as I did this one! Byes!

Happy Reading!

Taiyoukai Ayumu of the Northern Lands

P.S. - REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!