InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Daimyo's Son ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

CHAPTER FIVE

A heavy blow caught Inoki full in the face and sent him flying painfully against a table. He pulled himself up, tasting blood in his mouth only to be hit again even before he could focus his eyes. This time the boy fell hard on the floor, his cheek pressed against the cold stone. Maybe this will be the time he kills me, Inoki thought wearily. It would so good not to hurt anymore.

A sharp kick to the ribs caught him by surprise and stole the breath out of his body. "Get up," the harsh, demanding voice said. "You weak piece of shit, I'll have no son of mine cowering like a beast on the floor." Inoki winced, unable to move, he was so, so scared. If he got up, the demon would just crush him again. If he lay still, the bastard might just get bored and leave him for dead. It was the best he could hope for under the circumstances.

"Father, stop it! You're going to kill him!" A new voice invaded Inoki's fading consciousness. No, Inu, he thought, desperately trying to push himself up. His brother was standing over him, facing down the monster that had sired them both. Inoki weakly opened his swollen eyes to watch as his father grabbed his older brother by the hair, twisting it brutally. Inu wouldn't cry out, you could tear his skin off, you could set him on fire, his brother didn't know how to relent, not even to save his own life.

Father's voice was hard and deadly, mocking and horrible. Inoki flinched, just the sound of his father's laugh was enough to make him cringe inside. "Protecting your little brother again? Sickening, haven't I taught you not to feel pity yet?"

Inu stared at his father, the brutal demon loved nothing as much as torturing his own sons. "You want to hurt someone, hurt me," the boy ground out, his young voice hoarse and thick with hate. "I'm stronger than Inoki, you can hurt me a lot more before my body gives out. Go on, you bastard. I want you to do it. Hurt me!"

Their father swore and Inoki felt hot tears leak out of his eyes at what his brother was trying to do. Father saw them and sneered at him. "Crying now, you useless half-breed? I regret the day I ever laid my seed in either one of your whore mothers. I should have twisted your heads off when you were born. Watch me, hanyou, while your brother takes the beating for you once again."

His heavy fist smashed down on Inu's defenseless face, blood poured from his brother's nose and splattered him. The demon lord held the boy by his hair as he hammered him over and over, beating him savagely even after the boy had already lost consciousness. Inoki felt hatred welling up in his body and crying incoherently he flung himself at the monster even though he knew he was going to die, at least he and Inu could die together and be free of the bastard at last.

*****

Inutaisho opened his eyes, staring blankly into the darkness of his bedroom. The demon lord's body betrayed no sign of distress, his breathing remained as deep and even as it had been when he was at rest. If anyone had been observing, they would have seen no change in his expression, not a flicker in his eyes betrayed the turmoil that seethed in his mind. He'd been dreaming of Inoki again.

He sighed lightly and sat up in bed, his hand rubbing the back of his neck, trying to ease the tension that had seized him. It was no good to dwell on the dream. Gods above, he hated remembering anything about his childhood. What had happened to his brother had soured any pleasant memories he'd ever had and dreams like this only served to remind him about the darkness that lurked within his own youkai soul. He was filled with sudden annoyance. All the power of Tai-Youkai and the lord of the Western lands couldn't even put to rest the ghosts of his father and brother or ease the pain that haunted his mind.

He sent a flicker of youki across the room, lighting a candle with a bare snap of his mind. Inu grinned to himself, it was a neat trick that never failed to amuse him. Few and far between were youkai who had his level of control over their own demon energy. Of course, he could have simply gotten off his ass and walked across the room to light the taper in the usual way, but where was the fun in that?

No, it was going to be a long night. He couldn't go back to sleep, not after that wretched, unpleasant memory. Of all the damn times, why did it have to surface now? He had a full day planned tomorrow, meeting with councilors and advisors most of the morning, battalion commanders and support staff in the afternoon. He'd really rather skip the councilors. Such meetings always put him to sleep and he didn't relish the notion of trying to keep his eyes open while some fool like Tashiki wanted to prattle on about resources or border disputes. He scowled. Tashiki was still on his shitlist over the discussion they'd had the week before and if the pompous ass was foolish enough to bring up the subject one more time, he was going to do more than just scorch him.

Like most of the other pure-blind fools in the court, Tashiki and his cronies kept harping on the issue of human settlements cropping up on youkai-held territory. He quite honestly didn't see the problem. The peasants were just trying to scratch out a living without getting trampled or conscripted into the nasty little human conflicts that erupted over the countryside. All the creatures wanted was a chance to live peaceably, most tended to fall over in a dead faint at the sight of youkai anyway. Inutaisho didn't see any purpose in butchering them or running them off when they kept to themselves and caused no problems. It was a stupid waste of time and energy even worrying about the humans, Tashiki and his prejudices be damned.

Inutaisho sighed, settling back against the pillows. Maybe he should give Izitaki the assignment he'd been asking for and let him take care of the old fool. He himself wasn't normally so intolerant, Tashiki was old and of a different mindset. Unfortunately he also had no sense of discretion and probably no idea how close his rambling tirades were getting him to an unexpected demise. The youkai lord grinned to himself. Izitaki was one for solving problems wherever a quick blade would suffice. His bodyguard was discreet, loyal to a fault and never took his instructions beyond their intent, but damn, even he had to wonder about the man's sense of humor sometimes. Assassination was not supposed to be one's primary form of entertainment, not even for a demon.

No, if he sent anyone it was going to be Ari this time, but he hadn't quite made up his mind on the subject and mentally filed it under his list of things to think about later. Inutaisho stretched lazily. Such a pity he couldn't sleep, all he could do was lay here and stew. Or he could get up and go down to the guards' barracks and see if anyone was awake enough for a sparring match. He doubted he'd find anyone up for much of a battle at this time of night. Neither option appealed to him in any case.

"My lord?" a sleepy voice asked from the other side of his bed. He started, having completely forgotten about the young female who had joined him earlier that evening. He honestly thought she'd slipped out when he fell asleep, she'd been so quiet he'd not even noticed her sleeping presence. Inu grinned, a third option to occupy his time had presented itself and was far more palatial than what he'd been considering. She blinked at him, pushing a tangle of dark hair out of her eyes. "Is everything all right, my lord?"

He stretched out his arm and tugged her closer, gathering the sleepy young lady into his embrace and rolling her on top of him. "Everything is perfectly fine," he said, tracing her cheek with his fingertips.

*****

Naota found himself running across the wide courtyard, deep gray stones surrounded him on all sides and the sky was a brilliant clear shade of perfect blue. His breath came hard and fast in his throat as he ran, hoping to outpace his cousins. Their longer legs gave them a decided advantage, but no one would ever accuse this hanyou of being slow. They'd catch up with him eventually, and he was almost certain he deserved the beating he was going to receive. Could he help it if he thought it would be funny to douse his cousin that morning? So what if the water had just been used to wash down the stable floors, no one was going to die, Sho-kun was overreacting as usual. And he's not going to catch me today, Naota thought, grinning as he spotted the outer courtyard gate beginning to open. He could hide all day in the orchards, even Sho-kun wouldn't find him in the branches of the tall apple trees.

The gate opened as the hanyou boy sped past, he was busy watching to make sure his angry cousin didn't catch sight of him. Wouldn't do to ruin the escape plan. As he was so busy making sure that he wasn't followed, he managed to forget to look where he was going and ran smack into Ari-san's legs and bounced hard onto the ground, whacking his head against the unforgiving stone.

Naota saw stars dancing before his eyes and a pair of hands reached down to set him back on his wobbling legs. Ari-san brushed him off, the bodyguard's dark face crinkled in amusement. "Naota, you are going to kill yourself if you don't start looking where you're going."

"Uh," Naota said thickly, wondering why his tongue didn't work. He'd bitten it rather hard when he went down. His eyes focused on the man walking up behind the bodyguard. The Daimyo himself.

"Uncle!" he shrieked joyfully, launching himself at the armor clad figure. His uncle laughed loudly at the enthusiastic greeting and tossed his young nephew high in the air. Naota giggled wildly, throwing his arms around the Daimyo's neck in a hug. He adored, no, he worshipped his uncle. "You were gone so long!"

The Daimyo's golden eyes lit up with affection. "Not so long, Naota. What mischief have you been up to this time? Not harassing your cousin again, I hope."

Naota blinked at him. "Who me?" he said with the flawlessly innocent expression he'd mastered before he could even talk. The Daimyo chuckled, amused again by his nephew's ability to charm or joke his way out of any situation. "What am I going to do with you, Naota?"

The hanyou giggled as his uncle set him on his feet, one large hand cupping the boy's shoulder. "I've been bored, uncle. Everyone is so busy and no one has any time to play with me anymore. Even Jano and Namichi are always busy `training' they say. When am I going to start training too?"

The Daimyo sighed, one hand absently ruffling the boy's thick dark curls. "When you've convinced me you aren't going to cut your foot off if we put a sword in your hands. I've never seen anyone so accident-prone. You don't do it on purpose, do you, boy?"

Naota sniffed, youthful dignity in question. "Of course not, uncle. It just seems like my feet have a mind of their own and my hands don't remember what to do. I'm not really clumsy, I just forget to watch where I'm going."

"That is what concerns me," Inutaisho said dryly. "You've got to learn to control your body before you can even think about controlling a blade. Just because it looks flashy doesn't mean it's easy. I don't want you getting hurt."

The boy sighed. His uncle was always right. That's not what Sho-kun liked to say, he liked to say that it was Naota's human blood that made him trip over his own feet and run into walls. Like what does blood have to do with anything, he wondered, confused as ever by his cousin. His blood looked just like anyone else's. He was also at that gawky stage where one body part seemed to grow overnight and outshadow the others. He'd outgrown his clothes twice since the end of winter and his shoulder blades already felt tight against the fabric of his yukata.

Inutaisho hid a grin at the boy's heavy sigh of frustration. The hanyou's natural exuberance made him more dangerous to himself than anyone else. He liked the boy's ready acceptance of everything and everyone around him, he didn't want to see that open-hearted smile of his ever twisted into a warrior's blood-rage. The thought pained him greatly and not for the first time he wondered what Anuki, Naota's mother, would have wanted for her boy. He owed it to her to make sure his nephew grew up happy and strong, able to defend himself, but he couldn't quite see Naota ever taking a place in the household guard or his patrols.

Still, it was to Naota's benefit to have some kind of training. The Daimyo shook his head ruefully as it was to his household's benefit to have Naota's time occupied by something, great gods above, the kid could stir up more trouble than an angry nest of hell hornets. Left to his own devices for very long, the bored hanyou could get into serious trouble. So far his only real interest in life seemed to be finding new ways to annoy his cousin, but with Sesshomaru spending all his waking hours in some kind of combat or tactical training, Naota's usual outlet for amusement had been frustrated. Inutaisho wasn't entirely unsympathetic to his son on the subject either, he just couldn't help himself. He got a kick out watching the hanyou needle and provoke his full blooded youkai cousin.

Sesshomaru had always been a little stiff when it came to his demon dignity anyway. Inutaisho reflected that it was probably his fault that Sessh was so good at keeping everyone at arm's length. He'd learned it from watching Inutaisho juggle the affairs and demands of the court, ruling his fortress and his territories with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Among youkai, there simply wasn't any other way to be and he'd far rather have his son be considered aloof and proud rather than have his display a vulnerability that might someday cost him his life.

END CHAPTER FIVE