InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ History of the Generals: Lord Inu no Taisho ❯ Secret Mission to the Wolf Demon Tribe ( Chapter 2 )

History of the Generals: Lord Inu no Taisho

Inu no Taisho; arguably the most powerful daiyoukai of time. His journey has taken him across the land of Japan where he earns the respect of many, but the hatred of more. His story begins hundreds of years ago, when he was born in a village on the night of the New Moon. STORY I OF III.

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Secret Mission to the Wolf Demon Tribe

"Ready, dogs?" Inutaisho roared imperially as he stood before his Legion of Dogs. Simultaneous howls erupted as the legionnaires voiced that they were more than ready to teach the mangy wolves a lesson. Nobody touched the Dogs and got away with it. Behind Inutaisho were the other higher officials of the Legion of Dogs: Inu no Muteki, Ounou, Kuro-Inu, and Koroshiya. The Daiyoukai had decided to send the best of the best in this little warning.

Inutaisho turned back to the officials of the Legion. "We're ready to head out."

Ounou smirked. "Then lead the way, great Leader."

Inutaisho matched Ounou's look as he turned around to face his dogs. "We're going to use the element of surprise. The Dogs trained in tactical marine spying will reach the North byway of the river's path." A small group of demons that were trained heavily in the art of fighting in the water let out a yelp. "The Dogs that are trained in tactical areal spying will reach the North byway of the sky path." This time, a larger group let out their roars.

"And lastly," Inutaisho bore the smirk that he was known for, "the rest of us who are masters of stealth will sneak up to their cave from all around. There are three deceptors that I've already sent to the Wolf Tribe. They're going to blend in—pretend to be wolves."

Demons that had been part of the Legion of Dogs for thousands of moon cycles were still unfamiliar with how the deceptors manipulated scents to blend in and deceive certain races of demons. Maybe that was what made them so deadly: their secrecy and many abilities. Inutaisho turned back to the officials once more. "We're each taking a certain rout. Father and Ounou, both of you will take the Miyaji River's path. Kuro-Inu and Koroshiya, you both will scale through the mountains, take out any wolves you see."

"And you?" Koroshiya asked.

"Me and my dogs are going through the forest."

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The other groups had already departed but Inutaisho made his group linger back in the castle for a few hours longer. He strategized that dispersing the dog demons would play to their advantage a lot better than everybody leaving in chunks at once. Some of his dogs were sparring in the courtyard while others were bidding their mates farewell. Inutaisho had a small tankard of sake and he sipped it carefully as he overlooked the courtyard. He was on the upstairs balcony, just north of the Diayoukai's bedroom.

His nose caught the scent of Inu no Kimi but he made no move to acknowledge her.

"Taisho?" Her voice was meek and questioning. Inutaisho glanced over his shoulder and saw that she was standing directly behind him.

"Kimi." He greeted before taking another sip of his sake and turning back to watching his dogs. He heard movement before finding Inukimi standing next to him, too close for comfort. He took a step away from her and saw her stiffen slightly. Inutaisho took another sip of his sake and thought of what his father always said to him:

You'll drown yourself in alcohol whenever you're faced with a situation you'd rather not be in.

Inutaisho took another sip of his sake before realizing what he did. Keh, he thought, inwardly. Kimi sighed loudly and leaned onto her arms that were on the guardrail of the balcony. "When are you dogs leaving?"

Taking a moment to answer her, Inutaisho watched a few of the dogs pull out their swords and spar in the courtyard; they were bidding their time until they had to hack through the forest to take down the Wolves. "Sundown," Inutaisho answered and glanced at Kimi, "your uncle made sure that we had a plan ready to take down the Wolves. Yorozoku doesn't have a chance against us."

Kimi made a sound and exhaled loudly. "Think you'll be gone for long?"

Inutaisho shrugged. "However long it takes." He pushed himself off of the guardrail and looked over at her; she was beautiful, without a doubt, but she wasn't the one for Inutaisho. Pushing his bangs out of his eyes, he crushed the tankard in his hand with no effort at all. "Weeks, months, maybe I won't even return at all."

Kimi's eyes widened and she took a step towards Inutaisho. "No," she whispered, "stay safe… please…"

He took a step back and said: "No guarantees, Princess," before turning around and leaving the vicinity. He wasn't in the mood for Kimi's advances—she never understood that she'd be nothing more than just a good friend to him.

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Susamajii-Inu was trained in the art of aerial fighting and had already left with Kuro-Inu and Koroshiya early in the morning. By noon, Inu no Muteki, Ounou, and the rest of the marine fighters had departed and the dogs trained in the art of stealth were bidding their time before their departure. Yabai, who was one of the stealth masters, approached his best friend as Inutaisho descended the stairs from the balcony.

"Sometimes you're kind of mean, Toga," Yabai stated as he playfully punched his friend's arm. Inutaisho shrugged.

"It isn't my fault that some demons cannot take a hint."

Yabai snickered, "She's gorgeous, though."

"Then you mate with her."

"I would, if she didn't have eyes only for you."

Inutaisho sighed. "Drop it, Yabai. Did you bid your mother farewell?"

Yabai nodded. "Yep, and my sisters too. Did you know that they have a crush on you?"

Inutaisho smirked. "I did, actually. Yuna asked if I was willing to wait for her to grow up so that we could mate and live happily ever after." Yuna was Yabai's youngest sister—only six hundred moon cycles old, whereas Inutaisho was well over ten thousand moon cycles.

Yabai gagged. "Tell me you said no!"

"I said that you'd be overjoyed that I could potentially be your dog brother-in-law and that I'd wait as long as it takes for her to grow up." Inutaisho burst into laughter as Yabai began coughing uncontrollably.

"You didn't actually!"

Inutaisho shrugged. "Go ask her—" whatever he was about to say next was cut off when some of the Legionnaires called out Lord Inutaisho! Smirking, and playfully shoving Yabai, Inutaisho marched off, his hair flowing in the light breeze. Yabai merely glared at his retreating figure.

"Don't scare me like that, ever, Toga!" He called out, faux menacingly.

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Inukimi retreated to her bedroom with a heavy heart. No matter what she did, or how hard she tried, Inutaisho would not give her a sparing glance. Curling up onto her futon, she traced patterns onto the cushion beside her, wanting to forget her conversation from earlier. What was she expecting? That he'd hug her and tell her he'd miss her? That he'd bestow upon her the love and affection she was yearning?

Get a hold of yourself, Kimi, she scolded, he would never act like that.

But a part of her yearned, and hoped, that he would. She blinked back her tears, feeling stupid for crying over a demon that didn't reciprocate the feelings she displayed. Was there anything wrong with her? She was told she was beautiful, she was the most educated demoness of all time, and she was the next in line to become the Daiyoukai.

So why didn't Inutaisho want to be with her?

Sitting up, Inukimi blinked to rid herself of the blurriness her tears had caused. Perhaps I should speak to mother, she thought. It would be the perfect time since father and the rest of the Legionnaires have gone to the East.

She had decided; she'd speak to her mother that very night, after Inutaisho and the rest of the stealth masters departed.

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Inutaisho and his dogs decided to don free flowing garb that the human peasants wore. It allowed them a free range of motion, and that was exactly what they needed for the mission that they were undertaking. Inutaisho decided to split up his dogs; as there were only seven of them. Inutaisho was certain that it'd be best to cover the area of the forest on their trek to the Eastern Mountains.

With the Blade of the West slung over shoulder and resting against his back, Inutaisho led the stealth masters into the forest before splitting them up—he decided to keep Yabai and another strong Legionnaire, Shōbō, with him. After a few last words to the group as a whole, Inutaisho, Yabai, and Shōbō headed northeast.

"Do you have any possible explanation as to why the Wolves attacked in Panther territory?" Shōbō inquired. He was generally one of the quieter members of the Legion, but his comments and advice were worthy and duly noted. Inutaisho, quite early on, established that Shōbō was a bright and intelligent demon.

"Nothing that makes sense," Inutaisho murmured. "The only explanation I have is that Yorozoku wanted to cause uproar…"

"Do you think it could have anything to do with you becoming leader of the Legion?"

Shōbō shook his head. "No, nobody knows about the service, Yabai," he reminded. "And even if they did, nobody knows about the leaders. My own brother has no idea that Lord Inu no Muteki was the previous leader of the Legion."

Inutaisho snickered. "Your brother's head is always in the clouds though, Shōbō."

"And he has no idea when shit's going down," Yabai nudged his friend and Shōbō rolled his eyes.

"He doesn't know where he is half the time." Shōbō added, snickering with the other two. Growing up, Shōbō didn't have many friends until he signed up for the Legion of Dogs. His father worked for the Daiyoukai and was aware that the secret service was accepting applicants for Legionnaires. After discussing it with the Daiyoukai, Shōbō was taken in as an applicant. Shōbō's brother, however, didn't seem physically or mentally fit to take on the stresses of being one of the members of the Daiyoukai's secret service.

He was a quiet one, always picking herbs and trying to discover their magical properties.

"He'll be a great demon one day, and then he'll have the last laugh," Inutaisho said in a teasing fashion. Shōbō merely snorted in response. The three demons resumed walking in silence, their ears and nose on alert for any oncoming and approaching threats. Yabai raised his arms and put them behind his head, crossing them in the process.

"I still think you should give Kimi a try, Toga."

Inutaisho's eyes flickered to his best friend and then back onto their path. "We've been through this. No."

Even Shōbō had a say: "She swoons in your wake, Inutaisho."

"You think I don't see it?" Inutaisho growled. "Now, drop the damn topic."

Shōbō and Yabai exchanged glances but decided to heed what their leader had requested. It was a topic that Inutaisho hated talking about and the two Legionnaires would respect their friend's wish. Inutaisho, Shōbō, and Yabai walked a couple hundred yards further before Shōbō stopped dead in his tracks. Inutaisho, within a split second, hurtled towards Yabai and pushed him to the ground as a barrage of poison-tipped arrows whizzed by.

Shōbō howled loudly before unsheathing his sword. Inutaisho jumped up and wielded his Blade of the West. Yabai, unlike the other two, enjoyed face-to-fist combat: his fist to his opponents face.

Inutaisho circled his index finger in the air, signalling his warriors to split up and cover more ground of their surroundings. As Yabai went to make a move, another arrow was shot towards them and with lightning speed, Yabai caught it.

Rustling was heard and the three Legionnaires caught the distinct odorous stench of wolf. But as fast as they had come, the wolves were gone…

Inutaisho, who refused to sheath his sword, approached Yabai as Shōbō did one last scan of the territory. He darted to the left and quickly ran a short circumference around where Inutaisho and Yabai were standing. After being content with the fact that the danger was gone, Shōbō returned and examined the arrow with Inutaisho and Yabai.

"The Wolf crest is on it," Yabai commented as he held the arrow in the air. "They know we're coming. Maybe Yorozoku didn't want to cause uproar—he intended on harming our dogs."

Inutaisho's eyes darkened. "If that's the case, this just became very personal. We're going to run, boys, and we're gonna make it there before sundown. Anybody attacks, we kill. Understood?"

Yabai and Shōbō nodded and, within the blink of an eye, the three warriors were off, running faster than a tumultuous gale.

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Characters mentioned in this chapter:

Kuro-Inu (high official of the Legion of Dogs)
Koroshiya (high official of the Legion of Dogs)
Shōbō (member of the Legion of Dogs)
Yuna (Yabai's youngest sister)