InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Hidden Past, Hidden Self ❯ For Setsuna's sake ( Chapter 7 )

I don't own any of the InuYasha characters in this fanfic (though my characters and the other new ones in here belong to me and my friends).

Last time on The Hanyou's Little Sister:

InuYasha remembered how the boy had looked at him in fear and anger, tears rolling down his face from more than just the battle. He had come to help his family, and they still abandoned him….

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"Just like a mutt to deny all of his wrongs!"…

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"I feel nothing but hatred toward you, you filthy bastard…You deserve to die for your transgression!"…

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"He's strong; maybe he can defend this village while I'm gone." InuYasha stood. "You can tell him; if I stay around him when he wakes, I'll strangle him."

Kagome nodded. "Okay, I'll suggest it…"

"NO! Tell him he is staying! I'll feel guilty for the rest of my life if I don't give him some kind of hospitality!" InuYasha stormed off in a fury….

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"You bitch!" Kane jumped up to drop kick Mika as she stood there cockily. But when she was only centimeters from her head, Mika stepped aside and let her fall on to the ground. Kane landed hard on her bottom after hitting her foot on the rock hard ground. "Itai!" She growled at Mika who now stood much taller than her.

"You'll never match my power you half-demon!"…

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"Sorry." Kane said mockingly as she stood up over her brother's form. "Guess I don't know my own strength." She laughed a little.

`What have I gotten into?' Mika let one giant sweat drop fall down her face as she stared at the duo of siblings. `Kami in heaven help me.'

Chapter 7: For Setsuna's sake

One week later, Kane's training was well underway. Her skillfulness in fighting had improved slightly, but her landing skills and jumping ability were, well not doing so great.

"For God's sake, learn how to land!" Mika shouted out to Kane from her own perch in a tree.

"I'm trying my best!" Kane was only a branch below Mika, and was shakily hanging on to the trunk. Her jumping had improved, but her coordination wasn't anywhere near good enough to pass off. She always miscalculated her landings.

"Try it again; only this time, use the muscles in your legs. Then maybe you won't miss the branch when you jump back in."

"Why do I have to learn this anyway? I can do fine on the ground and I can jump okay in trees, but in and out of trees, that I can't handle!" Kane looked up at Mika, who stood there with the explanation right on the tip of her tongue.

"Take in every situation. Say you're battling two enemies at once; one's in the trees, the other is on the ground. You need to be in two places at once, so learn how to do it!" Mika ordered.

Kane took in a brave breath and jumped out of the branch. She landed on the ground and started sprinting. When she saw another branch to jump into, she leapt up. `I can do this!' She smiled when her jump was higher than it had been last time. Unfortunately, it was now too high. She overshot her branch and hit the limb above it chest first. It knocked the wind out of her, caused her to fall back out of the tree and settle hard on the ground below. Mika was right above her, looking down on the cloud of dust as it came to rest. She saw Kane on her back with her eyes swirled; at this she slapped her forehead.

"You're just as bad as a cat! No wait, you're worse than a cat; they have nine lives and they can land on their feet!" Mika yelled down at the stunned girl.

"A cat, better than me?" Kane stood up; coughing a couple times to regain the breath she had lost. "I am not worse than a cat!" With great determination, Kane leapt back into the tree and started sprinting in the branches. She then leapt onto the ground and ran on that for a while before leaping back into the trees again.

Mika stared as the young dog demon raced away from her. "Hey, one little insult and she's one hundred times better than before." She thought of more insults that would probably motivate her into training harder and faster. `I'll be home before I can say house broken.' Mika noticed that Kane hadn't stopped running and was, in fact, far out of sight and hearing range. "Kane; you can stop now!"

Kane didn't respond. Either she was too far away, or she wasn't listening. Mika started running in the direction Kane had taken and caught up fairly quick to her. Kane was back in the tree tops, running like it was the only thing in the world that would keep her alive. "Kane, can't you hear me? You can stop now!" Mika yelled up at her.

Kane jumped back onto the ground and kept running. Without stopping, she turned around quickly to say, "Mika, can't you smell that awful stench? It's blood and the aura of a demon of some kind; we need to help." Kane turned around again as to keep from running into a tree. "I'll go ahead and meet up with it. Go find my brother and bring him there."

"And what if…"

"Listen to me! I smell human blood, lots of it. And it's mixed with two kinds of demon blood; we need to hurry before they get too far ahead of us!" Kane sped up as Mika slowed down and turned around to find InuYasha.

Kane knew whose scent this was. She sped up even more to find out who had spilt Setsuna's blood.

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"InuYasha! INUYASHA!!" Mika yelled as she searched for Kane's older brother. She was looking everywhere; up, down, side to side. The only place she forgot to look was right in front of her. As you might've guessed, InuYasha has very good hearing and was already looking for Mika after he heard her the first time; he just didn't know that she wasn't watching where she was going, so she ran right into him and knocked him over because of her speed. She landed right on top of him, making the whole scene seem inappropriate for younger viewers.

"Get off of me, wolf!" InuYasha literally threw Mika off of him as he stood up. "Watch where you're going!" He dusted himself off as Mika lay on the ground, swirly-eyed. But she regained her senses and returned to reality.

"InuYasha, Kane went ahead with the scent of a demon; she told me to come get you." Mika quickly stood up. "We need to help her."

"Help her with what? If she wants to look at an ogre, she can look at an ogre." InuYasha huffed. "I honestly don't see what you're so excited about."

"But that smell wasn't just a demon; it was mixed with human blood and a second demon's blood. Some of it smelled familiar."

"Listen, I…"

"No; the smell was Setsuna's blood! We have to help!" Mika shook the hanyou's shoulders.

`That cat?! Why does she think that we need to save him?' InuYasha whirled around to walk away from Mika, but when he looked up into the sky, he saw that a full moon was beginning to rise. `No, a full moon; that can only mean…' He turned around again to start racing towards the scent of Setsuna.

`That was a quick change of heart.' Mika stared as InuYasha's form got further away from her. "Hey, wait for me!" She started to run in her whirlwind, just as her brother had taught her, to catch up fairly fast to the hanyou. "Why did you change your mind all of a sudden?"

Still running at full speed, he pointed at the full moon. "Tonight, my sister will become human. She needs our help." InuYasha held another kind of sword in his left hand; he had probably taken it out of his haori only seconds ago, and Mika had to marvel at its incredible hilt. It was curved downward in a U shape, covered in gold. Hell, it was probably made of gold for all Mika knew. There were little diamonds hanging off of the tips of the hilt; they sparkled when the last of the sunlight hit them just right as they swung with the hanyou's leaps. The sheath was the same as InuYasha's Tetsusaiga's, only it had two rubies hanging off of two red ropes.

"Hey, InuYasha, what's with that sword? Mika asked curiously.

"This is Kane's inheritance from our father. It's kind of like Tetsusaiga, only it has different special abilities. Not to mention, it only works for her, nobody else." InuYasha gripped it tighter. "I only found it yesterday in my father's tomb; it's called Teretsu*; Golden Fang. It'll enhance her special attack once she learns it."

Mika looked down at her own sword, Zei**. `I wish my sword looked like that, but I'll bet mine is more powerful.' Mika smirked to herself. `I can't wait to challenge her to a battle later.'

"You're slowing me down Mika; try to keep up because I'm going to accelerate." InuYasha tucked Teretsu away in his haori as he picked up his pace.

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"Huff…huff…" Kane was breathing hard by the time she found the source of the stench of blood. It was in a little village similar to Kaeda's, and her nose was almost overpowered by the horrible, disgusting odor that covered the area like perfume.

"Setsuna, are you alive?!" Kane called out, desperate to find him in one piece. She saw all of the dead people lying on the ground, the blood soaked ground. The trees had been sheared by some kind of flame attack. `Is anybody even left alive?'

Her question was answered when she heard groaning from behind one of the demolished houses. She rushed over there, not even half expecting it to be Setsuna. He was in terrible shape; lying in a pool of blood that was spilling from a wound in his abdomen, his shoulder looked as if it had been bent the wrong way, and finally he had cuts and bruises all over his body, most of which were located on his arms. Kane was surprised he was alive, let alone conscious.

"Oh Kami, Setsuna; are you all right?" Kane knelt beside him as he looked at her approach.

`An angel, I must've died.' He thought lethargically. His hand went out to touch her face and when his eyes focused a little more, they popped open even farther. "Kane-Sakura; you died too?" He said out loud.

"Died; what do you mean? I'm still alive and so are you." She rubbed his hand with her thumb, trying to comfort and ease his pain. "Tell me what happened to you."

"A demon attacked me while I was here. He had said that it was for vengeance against me." He winced in pain from his wound. It was very hard for him to breathe because of his puncture.

"What did you do to upset him?" Kane looked around at the destruction. "He must've been pretty mad to do all this."

Setsuna nodded. "It was the brother of the demon I killed earlier to save you and your brother from death."

Kane mentally took a step back. `He…he protected me?' She thought. `Why would he do something like this?' Her thoughts were interrupted by Setsuna when he painfully sat up and tried to stand. "What are you doing?! You're injured and losing a lot of blood!" Kane attempted to keep him on the ground by putting weight on his shoulders (which wasn't a good idea).

"Ow! Watch my shoulder!" Setsuna cried out in agony.

"You should rest; you're nuts if you think you can defeat that demon!" Kane kept a firm, yet gentle, hand on his shoulders.

"What else am I supposed to do?! I need to avenge myself and Atsuko!" He yelled at her.

`Atsuko; isn't she Setsuna's girlfriend?' Kane asked herself. Then an idea struck her. "I'll go for you."

Setsuna looked at her like he'd seen her for the first time. "Would you really do that for me?" He winced again.

"Of course I will; you saved me and my brother so it's my turn to pay you back." She smiled real big, reassuring him that she would do everything in her power to kill that demon.

He sat up excruciatingly, and wrapped his good arm around her shoulders. A little taken back by his actions, she asked, "Setsuna, what're you doing?"

"Don't do this as pay back; do it just because you care." He continued to hug her, his grip tightening as if she would disappear if he let go.

"But, what if…"

"I was so afraid for my life. Never in my existence have I been so troubled by death." He let go and looked into her eyes as his own glistened with ready to spill tears.

Kane stood up. "Don't worry; I'll avenge you and Atsuko." She turned and sprinted into the forest again, following the scent of the other demon.

She was excited; but she was nervous. Was she really ready to battle such a strong demon? The thought disturbed her deeply. Yeah, she knew one attack, her Diamond Claws, and she could sort of jump and land, but she was very inexperienced. She also remembered that she didn't have a sword to depend on like her two older half-brothers did. InuYasha had Tetsusaiga, with three special attacks; Wind Scar, Backlash Wind, and the Red Wind Scar. Her other older brother, Sesshomaru, which she had never met, had two swords. One was called Tenseiga, the life giving sword; the other was called Tokijin. For some reason, InuYasha had never told her about the attacks of that one, except that it was forged from the fang of an enemy of InuYasha. She slowed her pace down, feeling less and less self-confident. `What did I get myself into? Perhaps I should get InuYasha to help.' Then she remembered how InuYasha had said not to overexert herself after getting injured, even though she knew she was fine. Then Mika calling her worse than a cat came flooding in. `I don't need them for anything! I'll show them how strong I really am!' Kane thought as her pace regained speed.

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"Do you have her scent?" Mika asked InuYasha as he sniffed the ground feverishly.

"Yes, but I won't be able to follow the trail with your talking all the time!" He barked at her.

"Touchy; you know you don't need to bite my head off every time I say or do something you don't like!" Mika exclaimed. She crossed her arms behind her head as she walked. "I know you care for Kane, but do you need to overreact like this?! Man, I'd hate to see the girl who mates with you and bears your young!" A fist from InuYasha sent Mika on a one way ticket to pain when it landed straight on her head.

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?!" He continued his campaign until he came to where the scent of the other demons was the strongest. He put his nose in the air and sniffed hard. "I smell a cat." He leapt over to the house Setsuna was lying behind.

"There he goes again." Mika said to herself as she slowly approached the hut.

InuYasha knelt by the bleeding cat demon as Mika came around the corner. "Well, if it isn't my old friend Setsuna." InuYasha said sardonically. "Is there some reason you're laying in your own little pool of blood? And is there some reason you smell like my sister?"

Mika could also smell her scent heavily on him. She looked at him as he blushed a brilliant red. "Um, I-I…"

"Where the hell is she?! InuYasha grabbed Setsuna by his shoulders; he winced when the hanyou began to shake him. "And you better not have done something to her, or you'll end up in the flames of hell, which I know even you wouldn't be able to stand!"

"InuYasha, I may hate you-ugh-but you know I would never hurt her, even though she is your sister." Setsuna tried to keep himself conscious as InuYasha shook his badly injured shoulder. "'Sides, she's not the type I'd like to fight."

Mika climbed in between the two boys and got really close to Setsuna's face, her nose almost touching his as she said, "Then what type is she to you?" InuYasha thought she was being not only rude, but very annoying; he stepped on her head and smooshed it into the ground to muffle her yells of protest.

"Shut up, wolf-girl. Now, back to my original question; where's my sister, Kane-Sakura?" InuYasha had long let go of Setsuna's shoulders, but he was still in great anguish.

"Ugh-She went off to defeat that demon that attacked me and this village." He propped his head up with is good arm. "I kind of told her to do it for me since I was injured and all."

InuYasha stared at Setsuna for a couple seconds like he was crazy; then he exploded and had an episode. "Are you insane?! This wolf over here set her a week behind on her training and you sent her on a dangerous mission for your damn sake?!" InuYasha grabbed Setsuna by the neck this time and let his feet dangle in mid-air. "You're asking for an even worse injury than what you already have pal!" He whispered through clenched teeth.

Setsuna struggled to breathe as InuYasha's death grip tightened. "Listen, I'm sorry…I…didn't know…she wasn't…experienced." He gasped.

"InuYasha, forget it! You go find your sister; I'll take care of this cat!" Mika shouted to the dog demon.

"Fine; I'll let you take over for me." InuYasha spit on the cat just before dropping him. "Make it good, or you'll answer to me." He bound towards Kane's scent as Mika cracked her knuckles.

"Okay kitty, you heard what he said." She brought up a fist, preparing to bring it down on his head.

"Hold up; give me some time to explain my actions!" He held his good arm in the air in defense.

Mika relaxed her arm, and then asked him, "Why'd you send Kane out to kill that demon? And why do you smell so strongly of her scent, like you've bathed in it several times?"

"I know she'll have to battle by herself someday, so why not give her a chance to try it out?" Setsuna held his wounded belly as he lay on his back.

"That doesn't explain why you smell so powerfully of Kane; so tell me…"

Setsuna interrupted the demon by saying, "I hugged her; got a problem with that?" He stared into the sky as the sun set and the full moon became more perceptible to the eye. "She reminded me of death and life at the same time. At first I thought her to be an angel; then she told me I was still alive. I couldn't help but embrace her in relief."

"Oh, really?" Mika looked at Setsuna in doubt. "What were you really thinking about when…?"

"Don't go there wolf girl!" Setsuna blushed slightly and looked away. `If this wolf finds out that ever since I've met Kane I haven't been able to stop thinking about her, she'll tell that bastard InuYasha and he'll never let me live it down; not to mention I'll never have a chance with Kane-Sakura.'

`Weird; I'll have to ask Kane what really happened. There's a good chance she'll tell me.' The sky darkened more as the sun sank into the west, revealing a radiant full moon. A shiver ran up her spine when she saw it for what felt to her the first time. `Something doesn't feel right.' She questioned her senses for the moment, thinking she must've been crazy to be so concerned about somebody she hated. She couldn't drop it though. `Kane might be in trouble; but how?'

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Another chapter of the Hanyou's Little Sister is complete. Our internet has been acting really funny lately and our computer is having problems; it's really slow for no good reason. If any of the readers out there know what might help, please e-mail me what could help.

I hate to repeat myself since I'm planning on going to college for English, but please R&R this story! Even if you thought it stunk, put it out there so I can improve upon it! Thanks to those who have reviewed though; it makes me happy to know that some people really like this story.

Also, here are some notes about some of the Japanese in here:

*=Teretsu doesn't really mean Golden Fang; in fact I don't really know what it means, but it's better that what it could've been.

**=Zei isn't really a Japanese word. It's supposed to mean Zero to signify her special ability of an ice apparition. My friend Stephanie came up with the name after I mispronounced zero in Japanese. I'd said Zei instead of Rei, but she liked the first one better, so it stuck.