InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A New Sibling ❯ A Small Brother Brawl... ( Chapter 20 )

Let's get this crap over with…

Here's this chapter's quote:

"Even the tiniest Poodle or Chihuahua is still a wolf at heart." -- Dorothy Hinshaw.

Here's the movie quote…er…this time it's an anime quote:

"This isn't Fairyland, Mr. Elf!" - Harriet Bartholomew in Argentosoma.

Okay, I'm not going to use Japanese suffixes ( -sama, -chan, -dono, etc.) in most cases. Sesshoumaru, sir = -sama; Lord Sesshoumaru = -dono; Sesshoumaru, my friend = -chan…etc.

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*Deep in the mountain pass*

"Where the hell are we going, Suzuka?!" InuYasha yelled in vain, trying to get the lead taiyoukai's attention.

They were stuck, seemingly lost, in the middle of the mountains, during a blizzard. InuYasha's yelling was carried far behind him on the wind as they each struggled to fight the whipping winds.

Sesshoumaru suddenly turned around, yelling something incomprehensible to the others, but pointing off to the side of the pass. He turned back around and grabbed Suzuka's arm, dragging her farther into the blizzard in the direction Sesshoumaru was pointing.

The small group fought to keep up, slowly losing sight of the two taiyoukai in the white of the storm. (A/N: Just try to think how hard it would be to pick some one out of a blizzard that had almost white skin, silver-white hair, and white clothes. Thank Kami-sama they were wearing black armor. Or at least Sesshoumaru was…)

About an hour later, the Inu-gang finally caught up to the two taiyoukai who were situated in a large, cavernous hole in the side of a mountain. They watched as Suzuka and Sesshoumaru stood and shook the melted snow from their clothes and hair. InuYasha and Shippo soon followed suit, slinging water over the cave, adding to the droplets from the two taiyoukai.

Miroku and Sango simply brushed at the water hopelessly.

"How did you find this cavern, Sesshoumaru, sir?" Miroku asked as he looked up from his saturated clothing with a frown plastered firmly on his face.

Sesshoumaru glanced up as he sat on the ground, his back against the wall.

"I did not. Suzuka," he waved his hand toward her as she took a seat next to him, "found it."

Suzuka also looked up, finding that everyone except Sesshoumaru - who decided to look at the ground again - was looking at her for an answer. She tilted her head back, resting it against the wall of the cave, staring at the ceiling.

"Suzuka," Sango stepped toward the two resting youkai, "are you two alright?"

They both looked up at her with equal looks of curiosity and confusion on their faces. This show of emotions quickly passed, and Sesshoumaru looked back down, leaving Suzuka to answer.

"We'll be fine by dawn, but until then, we need to rest."

Shippo bounded over and into Suzuka's lap, causing her to have to fight the strong urge to send him flying back into the blizzard.

"What happened?"

This time Sesshoumaru looked up and replied, "The storm would have been much worse had we not been shielding most of the snow and wind from getting to you. That took too much energy and put a strain on our bodies."

InuYasha turned away from the entrance of the cave, looking at Sesshoumaru with an evil smirk on his face. "Feh, so you are vulnerable, ne, Fluffy, my friend?"

Everyone stared in open mouthed horror as the hanyou took a huge risk with the weakened taiyoukai. InuYasha was positive that Sesshoumaru would feel too tired and drained to do anything about it.

"InuYasha," Sesshoumaru stated in a deadpan, ice-cold voice, sending shivers down InuYasha's spine, "would you mind repeating that?"

InuYasha stared as the inu-youkai in front of him spoke so coldly and calmly without even raising his head. Then, he decided to just go with it.

"Sure, `Feh, so you are vulnerable, ne, Fluff-` Erk--!"

As soon as the horrendous nickname started to exit the hanyou's mouth, Sesshoumaru grabbed a spell scroll from Suzuka, darted across the chasm, and began to shove it down InuYasha's throat, listening in satisfaction as the hanyou made very interesting gurgling noises as he gasped desperately for air.

"Sesshoumaru," Sango and Miroku ran across the cave, each grabbing one of the taiyoukai's arms, "release him, please!" Sango pleaded.

Shippo sat, horrified, in Suzuka's lap, watching as the group struggled in vain to try and get the taiyoukai off of the hanyou. He looked up in realization when he felt Suzuka's chest heaving. What met his eyes was Suzuka, covering her mouth, trying -- to no avail -- to stop a torrent of laughter begging to escape. But the kitsune, being as young and naïve as he was, mistook her for crying. He reached up and patted her shoulder, shocking her from her stupor.

"It's okay, Suzuka. I'm sure Sesshoumaru won't kill InuYasha."

She looked down at him, clearly confused, but then understanding suddenly dawned, and she went into an all out laughing fit. Her laughter rang likes bells on a crisp morning, drawing the attention of everyone to her, even InuYasha and Sesshoumaru - who had his hand most of the way down the hanyou's throat already.

"Is she okay?" Sango looked over to Miroku.

"Maybe she used a little too much energy on the way here." Miroku looked back at Sango, and they both dropped their arms as Sesshoumaru loosened his grip on InuYasha.

Suzuka slowly stood up, holding her aching side, and walked over toward the fighting pair. She placed her hand on Sesshoumaru's upper arm, and he quickly looked back to the now dark-purple InuYasha. He gave one last, vicious shove, and then released the air-deprived hanyou.

Both taiyoukai retreated to the back of the cave, sitting with their backs against the wall, watching as Sango and Miroku helped InuYasha stand up.

"Mistress Suzuka," Shippo crawled back into her lap and continued when she acknowledged him with a curt nod, "which spell scroll did Lord Sesshoumaru use?"

The kitsune nervously glanced between the woman under him, the taiyoukai beside him, and the hanyou that was still gasping for air, but seemingly not getting any.

Her eyes shot open and she began to frantically search her scrolls, trying to find which one was missing. She finally found it and her head shot up to glare at a very smug-looking taiyoukai. She jumped up and raced across the cave, Shippo on her heels.

"InuYasha," Suzuka pushed the humans away from him as he crumpled to the floor, turning a greenish-purple color, "open your big, fat mouth!"

He complied and - cringing - Suzuka reached down his throat and pulled out the intrusive spell scroll. No sooner had she pulled her hand out than InuYasha's face was beginning to turn back to its original color, sitting up slowly and holding his dizzy head.

Suzuka marched angrily across the cave, stopping just before Sesshoumaru - who had been watching the entire ordeal. She bent down and showed him her bloodied hand with the spell scroll in it. He looked at her with an utterly bored expression.

Before he had time to react, she had pinned the spell scroll to his forehead, muttering the holding words in her ancient tongue.

There was a temporary surge of electricity through his body, and then he fell onto his side, Suzuka flumping down next to him, patting his shoulder as if he were an old pet. Sesshoumaru did not react, but kept his eyes straight forward, a look of utter shock covering his features, unmoving.

"What did you do to him?"

InuYasha walked over and sharply jabbed Sesshoumaru in the stomach a few times with his toes. Seeing that the taiyoukai did not respond, he prodded him some more, listening as Suzuka answered his question.

"The spell scroll that he shoved down your throat casts a sealing spell. With out the words in the ancient demon tongue, all the scroll does is block things, like your throat. With the words though, my spell scrolls can do much more. This particular one restrains things, holds them still. And if you don't stop kicking him, so help me, I'll rip your foot off and shove it into your stomach!"

InuYasha immediately ceased and crossed the cave to sit with Miroku and Sango, watching as Suzuka fell asleep with Shippo in her lap and Sesshoumaru still restrained.

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*Naraku's castle*

Ayumu woke up with a tear-stained face, looking around at her surroundings. The only things she could smell were moisture, mold, and Kuzume.

<Kuzume, what is she doing here?!>

Ayumu's eyes darted wildly around the room until they landed on the still unconscious fox youkai across the room. She was chained to the wall by her wrists, suspended above the ground, her toes barely touching the cold stone floor. When Ayumu started to go to her, she soon realized that she was also chained to the wall behind her.

"Kuzume," Ayumu called quietly across the room, trying not to alert anyone to her consciousness, "wake up, Kuzume!"

Ayumu looked to the large, wooden door nervously, shaking her head to try and rid her eyes of the foggy haze in them. She looked back at Kuzume when she decided that no one was coming.

"Kuzume, please, you have to wake up!"

The fox stirred in her sleep, her breathing started to quicken as she came back into reality. Her eyes opened and immediately locked onto Ayumu's.

"Where are we?"

Ayumu looked away, toward the door as she said, "I don't know, but obviously Naraku wants me for something, as well as you. Can you," Ayumu closed her eyes, not turning her head back toward Kuzume, "see anything to help us?"

"Ayumu," worry laced through Kuzume's words as she watched Ayumu lower her head, "you're half-cat. You should be able to see better in the darkness than I can."

Ayumu slowly shook her head in the negative.

"Naraku must have done something to me. There's a fog over my eyes. I can't see very well."

Kuzume nodded her head and began to search the room for anything of use. In the far corner next to the door was a rotting, moldy, wooden stool. There was a window in the door that was covered by a small flap that was on the outside of the room. Other than those things, the rest of the room was just like a stone hole in the ground.

Ayumu's head shot up toward Kuzume when she heard her gasp.

"What is it?!"

Kuzume continued to stare at the door as she answered, "I found something that could be the death of us, Ayumu."

"What are you tal-"

Ayumu was cut off by a deep, throaty chuckle coming from the vicinity of the doorway. She looked up to see a baboon-pelted man standing with the door closed behind him.

"Welcome to my dungeon, ladies."

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This has got to be one of the biggest cliffhangers ever!

Okay, I seriously apologize for this chapter taking so long, but between school ending, a cold, new fanfics to read, and my computer breaking, it's been hell trying to update this story! But I did it, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'll try to update the next one within a week, but no promises. My sisters like to steal the computer from me a lot! It's a miracle that I even made it this far in the fic!

Well, keep on reading!

Happy Reading,

Taiyoukai Ayumu of the Northern Lands