InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Invitations to Trouble ❯ Dog is God Spelled Backwards ( Chapter 19 )

Chapter Nineteen

Seated uncomfortably beneath a tree, Anbu was busy devising new and unusual means of death for the currently absent lord Sesshomaru-sama.

The very least of those idle plans involved honey, chains, the severed head of a cow and an active bed of ants.

Since they were the only things free, she kicked her feet in frustration. "I cannot believe that asshole left me tied up!"

Tightly too.

No matter how much she strained against the ropes, they wouldn't give an inch. 'As if I could go anywhere with this stupid necklace on. If I get further than a few miles from 'his majesty', this stupid thing damned near chokes me to death!'

Muttering lengthy diatribes about Sesshomaru and his conception under her breath, Anbu pulled forward against the ropes once more and was surprised when they fell away.

'Huh?'

"I believe I shall make a throw rug out of his skin for treating a lady with such disrespect. Don't you agree Anbu?" Stirring with faint traces of macabre humor, the calm voice sounded from overhead.

"Daddy?" Quickly getting to her feet, Anbu looked up into the interwoven branches of the very tree she'd been imprisoned on. High in the gloomy canopy a hooded figure watched her with a cool smile.

"When did you get here father?" Tossing the lengths of sturdy twine aside, the girl rubbed her arms to restore circulation.

"Just a little while ago. It seems that one of the players in our game has arrived a bit early. No matter though. If you and I proceed as planned then everything will come to fruition soon. But first…" From above, a small sack dropped down into her waiting hands. "As promised, father has brought you a treat."

After tucking the bag into her sash Anbu asked coldly, "What about the girl Kuroi?"

"She was hidden from my attentions for a brief time but now she has resurfaced someplace very surprising. Do not concern yourself with her Anbu, she will be taken care of shortly. Concentrate only on the dogs and the goddess." Without a sound, he slipped to the ground to crouch next to her and gently fingered the healing bruise along her jaw.

"Why do you not simply remove the beads? You know as well as I do that they cannot bind you if you do not wish it." Although his voice had lost none of its neutrality, two eyes glowed faintly with carefully concealed anger from beneath the desiccated mask of a long dead simian.

Anbu gave a calculated smile in return. "As long as he thinks he has a means of controlling me, Sesshomaru pretty much dismisses my presence from his mind." Digging into the bag at her side to pop one of the fruity delicacies into her mouth, Anbu tilted her head sweetly. "That will be his mistake."

A dark chuckle rippled through the air as Naraku stood. "Ah, I believe I shall have to watch you more closely from now on Anbu. That statement was almost worthy of me."

Getting to her feet, the girl stood on the tips of her toes and kissed the shadowy man on his chin, mindful not to touch him and accidentally transfer his scent onto herself. Drawing away, Anbu gave a wicked laugh before pasting on a false, vacuous smile.

"Like father, like daughter."

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Shippo was fighting a demon.

Every attack he threw at it fizzled and died in mid-air as the hulking beast obliterated the meager illusions that were in its path. Watching as another decoy was ground ruthlessly into the dirt, the kitsune cowered in fear as a massive hand descended towards him.

As he wailed in terror within the depths of the nightmare, the demon opened it cavernous mouth and said in a booming voice loud enough to shake the foundations of heaven:

"My fluffy."

}

Outside in the courtyard of the mansion, Kirara rolled over onto her back to really work the ash into her fur. A puff of the soot got into her nose and brought a delightful, tingly sneeze. Content to bask in the residue of one she felt she had known all of her life, the neko youkai curled back up and slept on.

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In his own little corner, in his own little bed, a purple hanyou smiled as he dreamed a red, fluffy dream.

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The Lord Yamatsu was torn between two very necessary facts in his life at the exact same time.

As a commander, he knew that he should be checking to make sure that his men were unharmed as well as sending scouts out to see if the explosion had given away their position.

As a leader of this mixed force of both raw and seasoned soldiers, he knew he should be suited up and issuing orders that would gear the men into action as well as assure them that if he wasn't fazed by the pyrotechnic display in their midst, then by God they shouldn't be either!

He knew that he should be searching the surrounding countryside for the remains of his first born.

He knew that he should be preparing for a possible retaliatory attack from the Bas'tian legions of the South.

Oh, he knew a lot of things that he should be doing.

Except that if he moved his mouth from the lips of the catatonic woman he held in his arms, he knew for a damned fact that he was going to die.

'Oh well, I've lived a good life.' Lifting his head up, he felt a touch of dread build within him as the wide eyes staring blankly up at him regained their former focus and a dark hand rose up through the air. Yamatsu closed his eyes and braced himself for the inevitable.

'I wish I could have gotten to see my grandchildren though.'

}

After an obligatory round of passing the blame for the fire back and forth between themselves, the soldiers quickly moved on to the secondary stage of any disaster situation; namely, lending another living being a helping hand. As the men picked each other up out of the dirt and minor wreckage, some of the humans couldn't help but wonder why their youkai and hanyou counterparts were usually found smiling or openly laughing.

Despite the fact that everyone had sustained a few scrapes and bruises of one kind or another, the inhuman soldiers were the only ones wearing similar looks of barely contained mirth.

Needless to say, after miraculously coming through such a powerful explosion practically unscathed, humor wasn't exactly the reaction the humans had expected of their unorthodox compatriots.

A slight shift in the wind brought the answer to the perplexed humans in the form of a well-known sound and a poorly whispered conversation.

The smoke laden air that hung around the camp was still ringing with the echo of something that any creature who walked upright with a reproductive sac between its legs would recognize immediately.

The slap of a very angry woman.

}

Not caring in the least where they both were, Niambi hauled off and did it again!

"H-How dare you k-kiss me?!" Rubbing the back of her knuckles furiously across her lips, she watched as the rugged cheek she'd hit swelled up in the unmistakable shape of a handprint.

Amazed that he was still alive, Yamatsu hissed right back as he nursed his 'wound'. "Damn it Hizashi! That almost knocked my jaw loose!" Scowling when she continued wiping her mouth, he snorted rudely. "Oh stop it. It's not like I haven't done it before."

"That was then and this is now you idiot!! Not to mention the fact that you completely lost that privilege when we broke up and it is definitely not permissible since you are now married!!" Satisfied that she had obliterated as much of his touch as she could without actually cutting her own lips off, Niambi glared at the inu youkai.

"What in the names of the glories of the Old Ones possessed you to do something like that anyway!"

"You make it sound like I tried to slip you poison or something." Scrubbing his head irritably, Lord Yamatsu frowned as he answered. "I knew that being close to you was the only way to avoid getting roasted alive for starters. Since you're damned near impervious to physical harm of any kind, my only choices for stopping you before you killed my son were kissing you or grabbing a breast."

Raising one dark brow, he asked flatly, "Now which one would you have preferred?"

The conversation suddenly reminded Yamatsu that the son in question was nowhere to be seen. Before he could move to order a search for the younger lord, a scandalized gasp drew his attention back to Niambi.

"Neither one is acceptable to me you imbecilic jackal!!" Edging away from the taiyoukai, she gave him a look that he recognized because he usually saw it on the faces of the female servants after Miroku visited the mansion.

A look reserved for perverts of the highest degree.

More than a bit offended, he watched Niambi defensively clutch the front of her dress as though he might make good on the second option at any moment. For a moment Yamatsu wondered if he should tell her that she was about to expose one the guarded mounds through the armhole of the loose garment. Glancing up at her alarmed face, he decided against it.

'If I say anything right now she'll probably shove one of those fetishes someplace that promises to be both sadistically creative and unpleasant as hell.'

The lord didn't have long to fret because once she was safely out of the range of his arms, Niambi let the fabric go. Regaining her composure once more, she gave him a cool look.

"I might have been a little upset with the child Yama but I would not have killed him." Smoothing out her clothing as she talked, she said politely, "I only desired to scare the proper respect into him."

Before the lord could say what he thought of her methods, Yamatsu heard a snatch of distant conversation.

"I thought Lady Shinaki was blue?"

"She is."

"Ahhh…."

Whirling to face the direction that the voices were coming from, Yamatsu barked out a sharp order while his face flushed angrily.

"Get your asses to work straightening this place out, NOW!! If the bunch of you feel up to standing around idly gossiping like a pack of old ladies with a fresh pot of tea, then you should be able to drag your sorry carcasses around well enough to clean up this entire area from tree branch to grass root!!"

At the poorly hidden groans of protest, he completely snapped. Any remaining vestiges of smoke billowed away on the tails of the invisible wind issuing from Yamatsu himself. Amber eyes blazed like beacons in the night as the flowing silver hair stood on end, crackling with the ephemeral electricity brought forth by the internal conflict of being both a kindly lord and a hard-nosed leader of his men.

The leader won hands down.

"Unless some of you men have been operating under the mistaken belief that you enlisted in a day spa and not a war, I expect you to act like the soldiers you claim to be!! That means that I want to see every last one of you prepped, packed and ready to march out of here within the hour! A half hour if I hear even one of you open your mouths about shit that does not concern you! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"

"Sir, yes sir!!"

With only a minimal amount of scrambling to get out of the line of that fierce gaze, the audience dispersed to fulfilled the assigned task within the time allotted to them. Passing a hand through his hair in an effort to smooth it down, Yamatsu huffed in annoyance before facing the silent woman beside him.

"I don't believe you Niambi."

"As though I care what insane men believe?! Bas'ti fetish spirits do only what they are told to do and I told them to scare that insufferable pup of yours." Much of the wounded pride had left her voice and revealed a faint trace of exhaustion.

Pointed ears pricked at the sound but Yamatsu was still too caught up in his adrenaline rush to acknowledge it. "Bullshit Hizashi!" A square finger stopped just inches short of her nose, "The last time I saw you look at somebody the way you did at Sesshomaru, the man couldn't even be buried properly because his remains were fused into the ground!! Now if you'll excuse me, I want to try and find the nearest ash pile that might be my son."

Satisfied that he'd made his point, the Inu No Taisho turned on his heel and strode away to fulfill his lordly duties and oversee his men.

Limbs trembling with renewed passion, Niambi exuding a vermillion light that trailed behind her like the tail of a comet. When she came abreast of Yamatsu her stiff-legged stride did not falter one iota as she swept right past him.

To say that the large man was caught off guard when he was yanked into the air by an invisible force would be putting things mildly.

"Hey! Put me back down!" Sputtering a bit as he left terra firma, Yamatsu felt the instinctive spike of fear that most land-based creatures experience when the ground issues a notice of separation from their feet. "Put me down Niambi!"

"I was not going to kill him Yama and I cannot believe that you would dredge up an incident that happened close to 600 years ago!" Leveling off a good distance from the bustling camp, it was Niambi's turn to point the finger!

"How many times do I have to say it before it finally sinks into that thick head of yours that I would not harm one of your children?!" A derisive snort preceded her next comment. "Besides, if we had stayed together a few more centuries, Sesshomaru might have been my insufferable pup instead of Haniko's"

The almost mournful note caught Yamatsu by surprise. Did she regret their breakup, or that she had not been the one to bear a child of his?

Or was it something else entirely?

Niambi continued on before he could bring himself to ask. "Now if my memory serves me correctly the only reason that man got killed was because he thought it would be a brilliant idea to sneak into my bedroom at night and sample a taste of… now what did he call me again?"

Settling them both on the ground, she tapped her chin speculatively before brightening a moment later. "Oh yes! He wanted to have a night with a dark tennyo! Unfortunately for him, he went to the wrong place."

"Yeah. What moron would try to force himself on a goddess?" While inwardly marveling at how the tension between them had lessened, the inu youkai couldn't help but wonder why he didn't sense any ookami. Surely one of Gorotsuki's men had seen the explosion?

Mumbling something along those lines under his breath, Niambi surprised him yet again.

Circling around beside him, she reached out in front of them as they headed slowly back towards the camp. The air wavered and rippled under her touch like a heat mirage before settling back to normal. A dark brow rose slightly as he glanced at her when the before unnoticed absence of noise from the camp resumed.

'A soundproof magical barrier? What the hell did she expect to do here anyway?'

"I had Keimba erect a barrier for up to six miles around the perimeter of your tent." At the admission, the goddess had the good graces to appear slightly embarrassed.

"Originally, the barrier was to prevent you from trying to escape from me." Her laughter died when she saw the dirty look aimed at her. "Well, I needed you to give me a real answer and not some half-cocked line of charming whatnots!"

Fighting the urge to laugh aloud at the curious phrase, the lord kept his twitching mouth firmly under control. 'Charming whatnots? Good lord, am I really that big of a flirt?' Idly musing on his past experiences with women, Yamatsu blinked. Six miles? If Sesshomaru had been blocked in mid-flight by the field, then he should be able to sniff out his errant son!

Except that he couldn't.

'I know for a fact that my nose is good for ten miles at the very least, so Sesshomaru is a lot further away than the edge of this field.'

"For a barrier that supposed to stop a taiyoukai, how did my son get through it after your arrival?"

Recalling her servant's excited face when simply looking at a picture of the younger lord, Niambi rolled her eyes. "A little kitten with a big crush."

"You don't say?"

"Oh shut up! You are just mad because I brought up some unpleasant memories."

"Huh?" Confusion replaced any previous emotions in the honey-gold eyes. "What unpleasant memories?"

By this time they had meandered their way back to the charred remains of his ruined tent. With a distracted pass of her arm before she walked inside, the damage was instantly undone and all appeared to be as it was before. Yamatsu took a minute to gape at the casual display of power before following Niambi inside.

He found her in the process of picking up that blasted scroll since it had been restored as well. Glancing at him, hazel eyes widened in genuine surprise.

"You mean you don't remember?"

"No, I don't." came the exasperated retort.

Those multi-colored orbs narrowed slyly, "Well of course not!" she said soothingly. "After all, who would want to purposely recount such a traumatic event?
When Yamatsu saw the expression on her face, something dark and wicked in the back of his mind whispered half-remembered tales to him about how the wrath of the gods came in many, many forms.

Ignoring the feelings of misgivings while taking the chance to put on more appropriate clothing, Yamatsu watched Niambi's smile grow more secretive. "Traumatic?"

Yanking on a pair of dragon-skinned boots after securely tying his hakama, Yamatsu shook his head slightly, "I've seen countless people get killed in front of me Hizashi, so why would that one time be any different?" He couldn't see her face through the armor sliding over his head, her voice did nothing to alleviate his apprehension.

"Oh no Yama. Me killing him didn't bother you in the least, although you were a bit miffed that I got to him first." Each word that fell from those lips of deepest rose practically resonated with a an amusement that was starting to annoy the shit out of him!

"Quit being vague and just spit it out Niambi!"

"Not if you're going to be rude to me." Tucking the rolled parchment away in the pocket of a cloak she drew from thin air, the chocolate-skinned goddess went around him and out the tent. Like a dog with an old bone, the inu youkai was not about to let the conversation go that easily!

"What do you mean? I don't remember anything outside of us making lo-" he paused when the nimbus of light around her went bright pink and the pale prismatic eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Ahem. I don't remember anything outside of staying for the night as your guest."

"Don't tempt me to throw a fetish at you Dog."

"What?"

Giving a gusty sigh at the innocent tone, Niambi rubbed her forehead where a mild pain had started developing. 'Damn. I have been away from home for far too long and this man will not stop pestering me until I tell him something he does not want to know! I shouldn't have brought it up in the first place.'

"Yama, please. Just let it go." The weariness in her voice was more pronounced.

"Not if you're going to laugh about it every time you lay eyes on me" His hand traced a vague circle in the air as he moved to place himself in her path once more. "Besides, I'm still not a hundred percent convinced that you didn't blow my eldest child to ash since I can't seem to locate his scent."

One insult a day was Niambi's personal limit and her old lover had just handed her the second one within so many hours. 'Scorn, wrath, anger, ire; the dog will wish I had used the fire.'

The transformation that her features underwent was breathtaking in its simplicity. Instead of the scowl that had been building, her eyes shone with affection and kindness while her skin glowed with the warmth of her benevolent light. Fisted fingers uncurled first in a wave of relaxation that flowed through Niambi until she seemed as boneless as a placated cat. All traces of any previous irritation was replaced with understanding as she bestowed Yamatsu with a smile containing the loving wisdom of the ages.

That special voice that usually warned him about danger on the horizon gently informed the lord that he'd seriously fucked up.

Practically chirping, Niambi continued to smile up at him, "Well since you are being so insistent about this minor thing, I suppose that I should not be so parsimonious with information on my part. After all, as two fellow rulers it would behoove us to keep all lines of communication between us open, would it not?"

'Why don't I like where this is going?' he wondered.

Stepping closer to him, the smile playing along her lips mellowed as it took on a sultry quality. "After all, what could have been so bad about a kiss?"

Relief shot through his rigid body in a heady rush. 'A kiss? I've been worried about a kiss?!' His concerned frown disappeared into an easy grin.

After all, what could be so bad about a kiss?

'Wait a minute.' the relief was rapidly draining away the longer the question repeated itself in his mind. 'There was never anything bad about a kiss from Hizashi and I know for a fact that we did a lot more than kissing that night.' Golden eyes narrowing in suspicion, Yamatsu tilted his head to the side.

"What do you mean exactly?" Although the question was far too calm to be believable, the lord suddenly realized that they had managed to acquire an audience again. A meaningful glare reminded everyone near the pair that there were other, safer things to pay attention to.

Even with the warning, Yamatsu could still see a few inhuman ears angling towards them. "Lady Niambi, maybe you're right. I think it would be best if we talked about this later."

Lost in some distant memory, she only shook her head a bit, "A kiss is fine of course Yama, but you are right about the man being unfortunate. I mean the room was very dark that night. So when he saw someone with long, flowing hair inside my bed, it could have all been an honest mistake."

Like a nightmare from hell, the suppressed memory shot straight to the front of his disbelieving mind. 'Oh dear God! Kami, don't let her say it.' His eyes widened when it was Niambi's voice that responded to his supplication.

'Kami is not here at the moment, but if you would like to leave a prayer, he will get back to you as soon as possible.'

That sultry smile turned positively demonic.

'But I promise he won't answer before I do Yama.'

"Niambi…?" More of a plea than actual words, Yama could only watch her lips move in a kind of hallucinatory daze.

"What? I'm only being a good neighbor by giving you the answer you seemed to be dying to know. Don't worry so much about the past Yama." Playfully poking him once in the chest, the brown woman said lightly, "After all, I am sure that no one would think any less of you if they knew you had been pinned down and kissed by a m-!"

Once again, the panicked youkai did the first thing he could think of that guaranteed instantaneous silence.

From the other side of the camp, a lilting and oddly familiar voice broke up the lip-lock with a single question.

"Can someone please come and help me dig Lord Sesshomaru out of a tree?"

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Waking up slowly, Sesshomaru tried to figure out why he couldn't move a muscle. Not to mention why he felt like grilled tuna!

'Hebiki, Anbu, father and that insolent ningen…the ningen!'

The memory of tiny figures of stone dancing their destructive way towards him came back in a rush along with a recollection of pain, fire and unwilling flight.

'So the blast threw me beyond the perimeter of the camp? That woman was indeed more powerful than I guessed. When I get free, I will remember not to underestimate her again.'

Which brought up the current situation. He was trapped. By the fact that he could see the sky and foliage above him, not to mention the billions of splinters digging angrily into his flesh, he knew exactly what he was imprisoned in.

A tree.

'Absolutely wonderful.' he thought wryly, 'As though I did not have to contend with enough dog-based humor before. I refuse to let anyone see me like this!'

Since the mighty Lord Sesshomaru, heir to the ruler of the Western Lands and future Inu No Taisho in his own right would never stoop to something so undignified as wiggling to get himself free, he opted for another means. Utterly composed, he released the corrosive poisons within his hands and waited for the noxious fluid to eat through the wood and free him.

Obviously, the explosion and head-first projection partially through a massive hardwood had impaired the young lord's judgment. Under normal circumstances, he would have noted the slight downwards angling of his body in comparison to the tree trunk and made adjustments for it.

However, neither of those things happened.

As the Dokusou ate through the fibrous mass holding Sesshomaru hostage, a loud and protracted groan rang thorough the woods as the great tree shuddered and swayed. Feeling the space around himself start to widen, Sesshomaru closed his eyes in concentration while he flexed his arms in order to facilitate the process.

The groan deepened to a thunderous rumble.

At that particular pitch in the sound, Sesshomaru's eyes flew open a second before the falling timbre clipped him solidly across the head as it fell.

Right before unconsciousness claimed him, he thought he heard a woman laugh.

What bitter irony that in setting himself free, the lord also knocked himself out.

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Full, warm and guaranteed by a lower page that there wasn't a cat around for miles, Hebiki settled contentedly into bed. After a grueling week of dealing with one insane feline after another, the thought of being troubled be an irate inu youkai had never occurred to him!

"Can't a man be entitled to an uninterrupted breakdown in his lifetime?" while a bit rattled at first by the young lord's sudden appearance, Hebiki had quickly switched his fractured mind into automatic when Lord Sesshomaru's tone had become more than a little insistent.

'I don't care what he says. I was not babbling.' Hebiki thought defensively. 'Perhaps I did ramble a bit now and then, but that is to be expected of someone who has had such a stressful week.' Coiling up in the center of the futon, the exhausted messenger wondered about the odd girl who had departed with the young lord.

'She looked just like the Lady Kuroi. I know she wasn't the lady but I swear the two could pass for sisters!' The mystery woman might have had the exactly same face as the lord's wife, but Hebiki recalled that her scent was drastically wrong.

'Hmm, wrong is not quite right. Too strong is more precise.' A tongue of brilliant blue flickered briefly. 'Yes, the girl smelled too much. Normally I would have to struggle to get even a whiff of the Lady Kuroi, but this girl practically flaunted her scent all over the place.'

Wondering if his lord had recognized the telling difference, Hebiki was preparing to nod off when a knock sounded at his door.

"Kami in heaven… Have I not earned a night of rest?!" he grumbled as he rose to answer the door. Pulling it open with his tail, he gave a hard hiss.

"What?"

Unfazed by the abruptness of the senior servant, the lower page informed Hebiki that there was a guest requesting an audience with the Lord Yamatsu in the Great Hall. Curious and more than a little concerned, the serpent youkai quickly slithered into his dress clothes before following the waiting page through the palace.

While not as lavish as Lord Enjuku's home, the Western shiro was a study in quiet elegance coupled closely with hidden strength. Passing a beautifully arching wall that would thwart even the hardiest attacker, Hebiki attributed it all to the former Lady Hanikp's influence.

'The Lady Ukiyo may have favored the mansion but the Lady Haniko preferred the palace for her home.' Moving forward sleepily, he reflected on the first Lady of the Western Lands.

'So refined! The Lady Ukiyo was not a slovenly wreck but she would have needed a hundred years to match the Lady Haniko at her best!'

Sliding past the door that lead to the eldest lord's suite, Hebiki swung his head back and forth in amazement. 'Refined right down to the day she gave birth to the Lord Sesshomaru.' The serpent youkai recalled the way that the midwife had gawked like a fish when the hot water that awaited her arrival for the delivery had been scented.

Even the clean towels had been lightly perfumed as well.

The earlier meeting with the aloof nobleman somewhat dimmed the fulsome memory. 'The very first things that the Lord Sesshomaru smelled coming into this world were sandalwood oil and his mother. No wonder he is such a difficult person to understand.'

More than a bit saddened as he finally arrived at the Great Hall, Hebiki stiffened his spine resolutely to combat the creeping fatigue he felt.

'Interview the guest, give them quarters and go back to bed. A simple plan that is short and sweet and I will not be detracted from it."

Pushing open the heavy doors, he slid across the lush carpet and stopped in shock.

There was no one there.

'I swear I will kill that page for trying to play a very unfunny joke on me!'

About to leave, he noticed that the room seemed a bit gloomy. The rumble of distant thunder caught his attention as well.

'Is it raining outside?' Heading for a nearby window, Hebiki realized that the hall had managed to acquire four new stone columns.

Furry, stone columns.

Rainbow-colored eyes slid slowly up one of the unusual columns and found a furry ceiling overhead. A ceiling that tapered off to a large tail. The need for sleep was instantly forgotten when a purring voice sounded from above.

"Hello little messenger. I have a message for you."

Twisting around to face the transformed Lord Enjuku, Hebiki marveled that he could speak since his lungs seemed to have frozen in his chest.

"A m-message for me milord?"

Oh Kami. What did I do to deserve the torment that you have deemed necessary for me to endure?

"What kind of message?"

Luminous eyes of gold and green crinkled happily. "I have a message that you will take to your Lord Yamatsu."

"And w-what will I be telling the Lord when I leave in the morn-

"Tonight."

"That's what I meant to say. What will I be telling the Lord when I leave tonight?" Willing to agree to anything short of being eaten, Hebiki awaited the message in abject terror.

Enjuku looked as happy as a cat could be when faced with a small, cowering creature. "You will tell Yamatsu that Lord Enjuku requests his aide in an upcoming battle."

Disbelief brushed fear aside as the servant stared up at the smiling taiyoukai. "You want to ask for the Lord Yamatsu's help after denying him yours?!"

Those massive eyes narrowed dangerously at the incredulous tone. "Yes I do, snake. Tell him that Lord Enjuku, the Neko no Taisho of the Eastern Lands is formally asking for the assistance of Lord Yamatsu, Inu no Taisho of the Western Lands." Transforming back to his near human state, Lord Enjuku stared down at the befuddled serpent before turning towards the door.

Hebiki's confused frown vanished at the lord's next statement, replaced by a knowing smile.

"Tell Yamatsu that I have recently declared war against the Northern Lands."

At the self-satisfied words, Hebiki felt something that he never dreamed he would feel in a thousand years towards any neko youkai.

Admiration.

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A/N: Okay, so maybe I went mega-loony in the last two chapters. Hey! I'm creative so just give me a tiny break! Ka says hi and he told me that he constructed a device that will change the molecular structure of anything into chicken. I asked him why he thought that would be a good idea but I never got an answer.

For those who think I was a bit too cruel to Kenami, you won't believe what's in store for her!

I got the idea for the devious twist in Enjuku's request from one of my other stories. It's an original fiction that I am not posting anywhere. When that baby gets finished, it's going straight to a publisher!

This chapter was a bit odd but don't worry about Shinaki, Yamatsu and Niambi. They get to clear the air real soon. Oh, for those of you who are curious about Anbu and Naraku, here's a special tidbit.

She is NOT Kuroi or Kenami's evil twin sister!!!

I'm not kidding about the evil twin thing!! I absolutely detest that particular piece of lazy-ass soap-opera inspired story plot!! Anbu is evil, but not a twin to anybody and Kenami and Kuroi aren't twins to each other or anything remotely like that.

They are all more alike than they know though.

They're more alike than anyone can even guess.

Even Naraku doesn't know what he just set in motion, but he'll find out soon enough.

No, they're not a part of an alien race out to conquer ancient Japan and the rest of the world by obtaining the shards of the Shikon no Tama.

I swear to god, where do you people get these ideas?

Oh, the same place I got the one for this story?

Well then, that's alright.