InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Blood Bond ❯ Chapter 1

Sesshomaru woke slowly. The last thing he remembered was Naraku nearly killing him, and leaving him for dead, at least he thought Naraku had left him. His only comfort had been the knowledge that he'd bought time for Jaken to take Rin far away from the battle, to take his human cub to his hated hanyou brother, Inuyasha.

 

He wasn't hurting, that was his first thought, not even the distant ache he'd become accustomed to in his lost arm. And he felt a strange presence in part of his mind, along with a sense of restriction. `Please kami, not Naraku. He can't have learned how to bond youkai, he's too powerful, and with too many serving him already.' He quickly wove another strand into his glamour, hiding the submissive scent markers, as well as the ones which said whether or not he was in heat, specifically feminine scent markers - his glamour had probably been the only reason Naraku hadn't raped him as well as tortured him. Very few youkai could resist a female youkai in heat; some even had trouble resisting human females in heat.

 

He forced himself to calm, forced his incipient panic away to assess the situation. There were people moving around him, but that only meant whoever owned him had companions, and they'd set up camp. But he could feel a small hand petting his tail, a familiar hand, Rin, and when he cautiously sniffed the air he could smell his brother, and the Miko. He opened his eyes and pushed himself up on one elbow, noting absently that they'd had the kindness to put him on his side to rest, albeit in a strange position, not on his back, exposing his throat and underbelly.

 

“This Sesshomaru is…grateful for your assistance, but how did you know to come to my aid?” He forced himself to act as if the restriction he sensed was not in place, to act like his normal, arrogant self - or rather to act as his father would have. He didn't really know what he would be like if he didn't have to put up a front. If he was lucky his brother wouldn't know what feeding a hanyou's blood to a full youkai could do, or the Miko wouldn't realise that healing him like that had put him in her power if it was her doing.

 

“Rin told us you were in trouble. Jaken said you'd sent them away to protect her, so we left them with Shippo and Miroku while we came to look for you.” Kagome was the one who explained - his hanyou brother was perched in a tree looking sulky, almost as if he hadn't wanted to help Sesshomaru. If Inuyasha had been forced to help his brother against his will, or it was Kagome's magic that had healed him it was looking more and more likely that Sesshomaru belonged to the Miko. He quickly controlled the fear he felt at the thought, Mikos were cruel, he knew that from personal experience, and he'd seen what Kagome did to his brother. `But he was probably insolent, that or insulting - he might not even realise it if he belongs to her.'

 

“The last thing I, Sesshomaru, remember is fighting Naraku and being defeated, he `played' with this Sesshomaru for a while, and then he left.” He hinted for more information, without actually asking for it, because asking would show weakness, and it had been far too dangerous for him to show any weakness for the last sixty years - and he was already pushing the boundaries of what he could get away with already by taking in Rin, most demons would consider that a sign of weakness, to take in and protect a human pup. But she'd been abused, by the people who should have taken care of her, and it struck a chord in him, then her death, and his use of the Tensaiga to bring her back tied her to him.

 

“Feh! He'd just about killed you. But he ran off like the coward he is when he saw us.” Inuyasha sounded scornful, contemptuous of his brother's failure to protect himself from the hanyou, but Naraku hadn't been alone.

 

“After your brother had killed the three demons with him.” Kagome's words were almost like an echo of his thoughts. “Sesshomaru stayed and sacrificed himself to give Jaken time to get Rin to safety, the way you've sacrificed yourself to protect me, and the others.” Sesshomaru flushed slightly, embarrassed to hear his actions painted in such a noble light, he hadn't seen them that way, but as the only thing he could do and he was immensely flattered to be compared to his brother positively, rather than being told that he wasn't as good as Inuyasha.

 

“Feh! I still wouldn't have needed someone to run him off for me.” That was more like the sort of thing he'd learned to expect when his brother was involved - and he half thought it was true, he'd never actually won against his brother unless the hanyou wasn't in his right mind. Sesshomaru had been struggling to avoid acting submissively since he realised what had happened, he decided that a question would help distract them.

 

~~~***0***~~~

 

“How did you heal me so well?” Sesshomaru directed the question halfway between Kagome and Inuyasha, but it was Kagome who answered.

 

“I tried to heal you myself, but I couldn't, so Inuyasha gave you his blood.” And she'd been feeling something strange in her head ever since, almost as if she was feeling someone else's emotions - two other people's emotions rather, she'd been feeling Inuyasha's emotions since she'd brought him back to himself after his youkai blood consumed his mind. The new emotions had to be Sesshomaru's, but they weren't what she'd expected - panic when he woke up, and fear when she'd answered his question, both quickly suppressed. Embarrassed and flattered when compared to his brother, resigned acceptance when Inuyasha put his achievements down. And now he seemed a little relieved, but it was tentative, and mixed with apprehension. Nothing that fitted with his projected image of a coldly confident, ruthless and calculating lord, but rather the reactions of someone who'd been told he was worthless so many times he'd begun to believe it. The youkai's eyes flicked immediately to his brother, who'd been sulking since she forced him to help his brother.

 

“I would not have expected that.” Kagome could sympathise with that, the only reason she'd even thought to ask Inuyasha to help his brother was that she'd asked Myoga why he followed the hanyou a few days earlier, and learned about the healing properties of hanyou, and to a lesser extent youkai, blood. And then she'd had to almost order Inuyasha to give his blood - only the possibility that Sesshomaru would stop attacking him for Tetsusaiga (and Rin's pleading eyes) had prevented that. Kagome had learned that if she gave an order and *pushed* it along the link that let her sense the hanyou's feelings he had no choice but to obey, although she didn't know why, and she tried not to do that except in the most important things. She thought it was wrong, a sort of rape, and Inuyasha was much harder to deal with afterwards, but to save a life she would have gladly used it.

 

“Feh! The wench nagged at me until I agreed. She kept your worthless carcass intact while she did it too.” And there was a flash of something strange from Sesshomaru; as if he half thought Inuyasha was right in his assessment of the Taiyoukai, mixed in with quickly suppressed fear. It didn't make much sense to her, and she didn't understand why Sesshomaru could ever believe Inuyasha's words, or why he denigrated hanyous so much if he felt that way, but that was what she could feel.

 

“I hoped you would be willing to swear not to attack Inuyasha for Tetsusaiga, and told him that, or he wouldn't have agreed.”

 

Sesshomaru smiled at that, and Kagome could feel his relief, something that puzzled her, but she was ready enough to let it go.

 

“Then I, Sesshomaru swear by my honour and on our father's grave that this Sesshomaru will not try to take Tetsusaiga from Inuyasha. After I saw what being without it does to him I gave that up anyway. They have a lot to answer for.” The last sentence was almost whispered, bitterly. But Inuyasha and even Kagome caught it.

 

“Who have a lot to answer for?” The two spoke simultaneously and Kagome felt a passing sense of amusement.

 

“The people who altered you when you were a child so you would have at least the potential to face most youkai in a straight fight. No other hanyou has ever been able to do that, they usually used their stronger magic to compensate. But you are the only hanyou who has ever been overwhelmed by his youkai blood, and I think that is the reason.” Sesshomaru had begun petting Rin, reassuring her, shortly after he sat up, but he paused now. “I cannot tell you who they were; they put a gaes on me to prevent that.”

 

Kagome started at that, and let her sight slip into the seeing/not-seeing that she used to observe magic, and recognised a foreign aura entwined with Sesshomaru's own, in two ways, one an external restraint, like the restraint Kaede's power on the prayer beads around Inuyasha's neck represented, and the other that had become integral to Sesshomaru's being, centred low on his body, where a womb would have been on a woman. And when she turned her eyes to Inuyasha she noted much more extensive intertwining of this strange power with his being, in different places, including parts centring around his nose, his eyes, his ears, and parts that weren't specifically centred anywhere. Both brothers also had a touch of Kagome's own power in their auras, but she didn't know whether that was connected to her own aura or not, as she had a blind spot around her own power.

 

“What else did they do to you?” Kagome knew her question was blunt, and rude, so it was a surprise to her when Sesshomaru answered.

 

“They made me into a hermaphrodite.” He blushed, and bowed his head as he spoke. “I can both sire, and bear children - although I never have. It was their idea of a joke.” Kagome recognised his embarrassment, would have even without the glimpse she got into his mind, and refrained from mentioning that she'd thought he was a girl at first, and for a miracle no one else said anything either.

 

~~~***0***~~~

 

Sesshomaru stood outside the Higurashi's shrine, carrying a bundle of clothes more fitting to his status than the skirt and blouse he wore now, reluctant to visit them for the first time, because this time he would have to see his master in her own time, and he was so scared that she'd only been pretending to be kind and gentle in his time, that here and now she would hurt him, abuse him the way he'd seen other Mikos abuse their youkai slaves. He knew there was no real basis for his fears - his master had given him so many gifts, including the ability to disguise himself almost totally as a woman when he needed to, at least after he'd given birth, and her claim had protected him from others who would try to enslave him, but still he was scared. Finally he shook his head and walked forwards, raising his hand to knock at the door - this was the only time he'd been specifically ordered to visit the shrine, and what to do while he was there, he *had* to obey.

 

“Mara! Please come in.” Kagome's mother had opened the door to him, and greeted him with a smile. “We haven't seen you for a while.” He'd been reluctant to visit in the last month he could pretend to be independent, and so he simply hadn't, he'd never considered that by doing so he'd denied his master's family the reassurance of knowing when she'd be back. He dropped his glamour, the illusion that made him appear human, once the door was shut behind him, enjoying the acceptance he'd won from the family. “I suppose this means Kagome won't be back for at least a day.” He'd never visited less than a day before Kagome would be returning through the well, because Inuyasha might otherwise scent him when the hanyou came looking for her.

 

“Actually, she's due back today, in just over two hours time.” Sesshomaru glanced down at the ground as he knelt on the floor in the living room. “Forgive me, but I need to change back to what I looked like in the Sengoku Jidai, so I am recognisable to my master, as she commanded me to do on this date.”

 

“So she's already enslaved you back then?” There was a note of disapproval in the woman's voice and Sesshomaru winced, realising that he'd never told his master's family how she came to be his master, and her mother had never been happy about his status - although her grandfather had approved, strongly. The only reason he'd started to tolerate `Mara' after he'd learned she was a demon was that Sesshomaru was careful to be submissive around his master's family, and made sure to show them that he knew his place.

 

“She saved my life; it wasn't her fault that she didn't know what the method she used would do to me. And when she found out that she owns me she was generous about it, and agreed to let me hide the fact until I had an heir.” Sesshomaru smiled up at the lady, praying that she would accept his explanation, and that she wouldn't shout at her daughter. He'd liked her since his friend, Tomo met her, even if he had asked `Mara' to marry him first, and they'd only become closer since he'd gone to the family to explain where Kagome had disappeared to the first time she went through the Bone-Eaters Well, and why, despite the fact that he'd refused to see her daughter, something Minako had understood once he'd explained his position, and her daughter's powers. “Please, is there somewhere I might go to change my clothing?”

 

“Use Kagome's room, it's not as if that should be a problem.” Sesshomaru couldn't imagine it being a problem either, it was fairly common for claimed youkai like him to sleep at the foot of their master's bed, but he would be in her territory without her permission, and part of him was terrified by the prospect. He bowed his head in acknowledgement of Minako's command, and left to walk upstairs.

 

Sesshomaru stripped quickly when he got into his master's room, looking about nervously, relieved to find no evidence of any perversions. Then for the first time in over fifty years, since he'd been raped and impregnated by American servicemen, he let his female attributes reabsorb into his body, looking once again as he had before he carried his first child, at his master's command. He'd managed to get the hanyou daughter who resulted from the rape adopted by one of the more prominent inu hanyou families, saying that he did not feel himself fit to raise her under the circumstances; he was too upset at the rape, and feared he would blame her for it. Finally he dressed, pulling on a pair of cream leather pants, and an unbleached linen shirt, left open to display the rising phoenix over his heart that was his master's claim marking. They made him look rather fragile and vulnerable; he knew that his master liked that because she had said so before.

 

Sesshomaru returned to the living room, to amuse his master's family, until the time his master had specified. “Your daughter will arrive in ten minutes Minako-san. I must prepare for her arrival.” And he knelt, facing the door then bowed forward until his face was pressed to the ground, crossing his wrists behind his back.

 

~~~***0***~~~

 

Kagome knew there was something wrong as soon as she stepped through the well. First because she could sense a youkai waiting in her house, and secondly because her mother was standing outside the well-house, hands on hips, a disapproving frown on her face. And then she realised that she could feel someone else inside her head, in the place she'd felt Sesshomaru after Naraku had almost killed him, she could feel someone's stifled terror. Knowing what Sesshomaru was feeling had faded once he got beyond a hundred or so yards away, but, just like with Inuyasha she'd known where he was, until she entered the well. Then she realised that he was the youkai she could sense, he was waiting in the living room.

 

“What's wrong, Mom?” Kagome knew she sounded every bit as puzzled as she felt, and there was something else as well. “And how did you know when I'd get back?”

 

“Your slave told me. He's waiting for you in the living room. And we are going to have a long talk about that.” A sense of vague confused hurt surged through Kagome, mixed with anger, she didn't understand why Sesshomaru would want to tell her family that particular lie, or how he knew where, and when she lived for that matter. She could feel an increase in his fear in response to her anger, and somehow that made what her mother said seem real, or at least vaguely possible.

 

“What do you mean my `slave'? I don't have a slave, or at least I didn't think I did. Considering the way Sesshomaru just reacted to my anger I might be wrong.”

 

“He's in the living room, how could you know how he reacted?” Kagome knew she'd managed to confuse her mother nicely with that comment. It got the older woman to calm down, and think about why she was angry with Kagome.

 

“I have a link to him that lets me know how he's feeling, and probably lets him know how I feel. I didn't realise what it meant, I still don't really understand it.” Suddenly the anger disappeared from her mother's face, and understanding replaced it.

 

“Oh, you invoked one of those youkai rituals, and you didn't realise it. Mara - that's what your slave was calling himself when he met your father - mentioned them. He was a great help in reassuring us that you'd be safe, or at least survive back there.”

 

“Mara, wasn't that the woman my father asked to marry him before he met you?” Kagome spoke idly as she walked towards the house. “And didn't she refuse to see me once I was born? I suppose that's explained now.”

 

“Yes, to all three questions.” Her mother sounded amused, but Kagome stopped thinking about that when she saw how Sesshomaru had prostrated himself to wait for her, and stopped physically too, dead in the doorway.

 

“Sesshomaru! What are you doing?” Her outrage and shock were in her voice, and she knew they would reverberate along her bond to the youkai.

 

“I was greeting you the way a claimed youkai greets his master, Kagome-sama.” He knelt up so he was sitting back on his knees, but he kept his head bowed submissively.

 

“Don't do that. And explain why you think I'm your master.” Kagome cursed to herself when she realised that her words had just scared Sesshomaru more. She reached out to stroke his hair and scratch behind his ears in apology and the hope that it would soothe him. “I'm not angry with you Sesshomaru-sama, I'm angry with my Mom, and that spilled over onto you. That might happen again, but it won't be more than words I swear it.”

 

“Thank you Kagome-sama, but it is not proper for you to address me as Sesshomaru-sama. I am your slave, and you should not use any honorific for me. I…the instructions you gave me said that I was to present myself to you when you returned to this time on this date. I thought that meant you had claimed me in the Sengoku Jidai by now, or at least knew that you had the right to do so.”

 

“Explain what you mean, on this last trip I tried to heal you after Naraku almost killed you, and when I couldn't I had Inuyasha give you his blood to heal you, is that how I…claimed you?” Sesshomaru seemed to be calming down; he seemed very jumpy in her time, and more submissive than Kagome could ever have imagined him being.

 

“Yes and no. Technically you did claim me then, and certainly had the right to do so, but it isn't considered to be official until you put a claim marking on me. This marking.” And he pointed to the golden phoenix on his chest. “You were gracious enough to permit me to conceive an heir and raise him at least part way before you marked me.”

 

Kagome shook her head, almost in denial, but not quite, more to put something she didn't want to think about off. “What exactly does it mean that I claimed you?”

 

“That I belong to you totally, and must obey you. You have the right to treat me however you please, but you are expected to protect me from other Mikos, and hanyous, not physically, but with your magic. My place is to serve you and please you in whatever way you desire. I arranged training in the ways you might wish me to serve you in the years since I saw you last.”

 

“I've got no idea how I want you to serve me. This is all coming a bit fast for me. What exactly would you suggest?”

 

“Usually those who claim youkai keep at least one as a body slave. A body slave has the highest position a claimed youkai can have, and serves his master personally, doing such things as dressing her, tending to her hair and make-up if she wishes it. They usually sleep at their master's feet and sometimes warm their master's bed.”

 

“Warm their master's bed? You mean have sex with their master. That would be rape - I won't do that. You've been hiding the fact that you've been claimed so far haven't you?”

 

“Yes Kagome-sama.” Sesshomaru still seemed wary, but he wasn't anywhere near as terrified as he had been.

 

“Then keep on doing it while I'm in the Sengoku Jidai, until I feel ready to cope with this. You can act as my body slave in this house, but nowhere else while I'm home from there, and I'll try to deal with that. But you'll sleep in the spare bedroom for now, not at my feet.” Kagome frowned then. “At least as long as Mom doesn't mind. Now, do you know exactly when I'll be here, and when I'll be back in the Sengoku Jidai with Inuyasha? And if you do how do you know?”

 

“You gave me a number of scrolls, as well as a dozen CDs, the scrolls contained instructions for me, including the times when you passed through the Bone-Eaters Well up to twelve years in the future. The CDs I was told to tell you about now, and I am to give them to you when you instruct me to. I think they are instructions on how you can develop your powers, the equivalent of a Miko's spell books back then.”

 

“Then bring them to me next time I return. We got five shards this time, while I'm here you can explain about the reason youkai are slaves here and now. But I really need to catch up on my homework, go and make arrangements with my mother for the stuff we've talked about. I don't expect you to start until tomorrow.”

 

“Yes Kagome-sama.” Sesshomaru seemed to be content and Kagome left him as she walked up to her room, where her homework would be.

 

 

~~~***0***~~~

--> [Author:J R]

Begin part 1 4008

Begin Part 2 3776