InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Daimyo's Son ❯ Chapter 8 ( Chapter 8 )

CHAPTER EIGHT

"I've considered your request, lord Himishima." Inutaisho looked up and met the old lord's eyes. "I can't think of one good reason I should allow it."

Himishima smiled, but Inutaisho could tell the man was gritting his teeth. "I'll admit we've had our differences in the past, my lord Daimyo. It isn't easy for me to come to you for help in a delicate personal matter."

No, I bet it's not, the Daimyo thought. He folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. "You're asking me to accept a member of your clan into my household. Despite your unwise alliances of a few years past, I have been lenient with you, letting you retain your holdings and your head. I know a great deal about what you and Kashikoto plotted and I'm not inclined to be forgiving when it comes to treachery."

The older youkai looked away and Inutaisho allowed himself a grim smile at Himishima's discomfort. "My lord Daimyo, I was hardly involved in Kashikoto's plots. As a fellow clanlord, I advised him against moving against you so precipitously."

"And yet, you felt no inclination to advise me that I was being moved against. Instead you sat comfortably in your lair and waited to see who would come out the victor."

Himishima shrugged, a falsely confident smile on his face now. "Is there anything wrong with protecting one's interests? I had no way of knowing how the cards would fall, my lord Daimyo. It hardly seemed prudent for me to risk everything when I couldn't be sure who would prevail."

Inutaisho snorted rudely. "Himishima, you knew my father well. How could you have any doubt about the outcome of a rebellion against his son?"

He grinned, watching the old lord flush and sweat. This was the most fun he'd had in days. Himishima was squirming in a most amusing fashion. Unfortunately he couldn't enjoy it long, he had a busy schedule for the day and had only worked the smelly old bastard in for a meeting because he was curious about how much he could make him sweat. It was, perhaps, a bit cruel of him to play with the man, but quite satisfying all the same.

"My lord Daimyo, I apologize for ever offending you. You have been indeed merciful. Now I'm begging for your help, not as a clanlord or subject under your rule, but as a father. Barou and Chinatsu are going to kill each other if I don't remove one of them from my household. You have no idea what its like living with the constant assassination attempts. It's nervewracking."

Inutaisho favored his vassal with a sour look. "And you expect me to accept one of them into my household because you can't seem to discipline your children? Great gods above, man. Show some backbone and give them a good thrashing."

Himishima sighed, running a hand over his greasy looking hair. "I'm too old for this. I have chosen Barou as my clan heir, not just because he's my son, but because he has more ability. Chinatsu is ambitious and intelligent but she resembles her mother far too much for my people to ever trust her. Surely you, of all people, can appreciate the difficulty of having an Azaryu female in your household?"

"I seem to recall some difficulty," Inutaisho said in a laconic voice. He really didn't want to discuss Seshiko with this man. "And that is exactly my point, why should I want someone like that here? She'll get her throat slit within six months after offending the wrong person. If she stays here, I will not offer her any protection. I'll expect her to behave herself and answer to the household guard and staff like a well-bred, polite creature. No tantrums or she's right back in your lap."

Himishima looked startled by Inutaisho's rapid switch of tactics. "You mean you'll allow it? My lord Daimyo, you have my utmost gratitude!"

He waved his hand dismissively. "I'm hardly thrilled to have it, Himishima. However, I don't see the point in having two children attempting to slaughter each other. Ambition is all very well, but I don't enjoy the thought of having to settle the matter myself when you die. It does no good to have a territory at odds over a family dispute. Have you spoken to any members of my court? The girl will need a guardian and someone to answer to. I don't need another wild pup in my household."

"Councilor Tashiki has very generously offered his protection for my daughter," Himishima said, relief evident in his features.

"Tashiki, huh. Why am I not surprised?" Inutaisho contemplated this new twist of plot. Better and better, he decided. I'll find out what you're up to, you old dog. I'll just have to lay the trap for your bait.

*****

"Lord Sesshomaru!"

Sessh groaned inwardly and turned around. She'd caught up with him even though he'd been avoiding her for the past few days. "Hello Chinatsu."

She smiled at him, her dark eyes wide and sweet. "You're always running away from me, lord Sesshomaru. Why is that? Don't you like talking to me?"

He sighed. "No, it's not that. I'm just very busy these days. I don't have much time for socializing." She smiled and fluttered her eyelashes at him. Gods he hated that. He'd decided that his father's assessment of Chinatsu had been dead on except for one small detail. The girl just wasn't very bright. Ambitious and manipulative maybe. Enough so that her own father didn't want her in his home, but most of her attempts at intrigue were clumsy and obvious. She'd openly been trying to start a friendship with him since she'd arrived, but Sessh wasn't having it. No way. He simply couldn't stand stupid females.

Chinatsu tucked her hand into his arm before he could pull away to a safe distance. She liked to cling to whatever male was handy, that much was obvious. Chinatsu had worked herself into a near state of exhaustion her first week at the fortress. She flirted with every single male of rank and then started in on the staff. Sessh snorted to himself, disgusted. Even female members of the household were doting on her, finding her so sweet and helpful, and well, just so damn innocent that even people who should know better we completely besotted.

"You have to admit it, Sho-kun, she's adorable." Jano was one of the currently besotted. Chinatsu hadn't even turned her charm on him yet, but Sessh was annoyed with the way his best friend seemed to turn to jelly whenever the girl's cheery voice echoed in the room. Luckily, Namichi seemed to share Sessh's opinion and didn't hesitate to let Jano what an idiot he was.

"It's got to be an act, nobody is that sweet and innocent all the time," Namichi said darkly, repairing a piece of her armor. The girl had taken to training with an unusual gusto and enthusiasm. She patently enjoyed trying to beat the spit out of males twice her size.

Sessh grinned at her. "I don't think it's an act, she's too dumb to put on an act for that long."

Namichi gave him a withering look. "Sho-kun, you don't understand women. The dumb part is an act too. As long as she pretends to be too dizzy to understand anything, nobody will ever think she's plotting."

"You're not being fair, Nami-chan," Jano protested. "You don't know her well enough to know for sure that's what's going on."

"I don't need to know her, I can tell because I'm not besotted with hormones whenever I see her," she shot back at him. Nami blew a chunk of unruly reddish hair out of her eyes. "You should be concentrating on your swordwork, Jano. Not thinking about bits of fluff that don't even know you're alive."

Jano looked sulky. "She does so know I'm alive, she talked to me just the other day. Sessh was there, he'll prove it."

Sessh grinned at them. "You mean when she snuck up on us and tried to hug me? I believe she said excuse me when she stepped on your foot. That was the great conversation, right?"

His cousin sighed and rolled over, hanging his head over the side of Sesshomaru's bed. "It was a beautiful moment. Our first meeting. I'll treasure the memory."

"You make me want to puke," Namichi snapped, gathering her things. "Even Naota isn't as big of a fool as you, Jano-kun!"

Jano's head popped up. "Speaking of him, where the hell has Naota been? I haven't seen him in three days, you don't suppose he's gotten himself locked in a storeroom again?"

Sesshomaru snickered. He'd forgotten to let them in on the secret. "Naota has been…training."

"No way," Jano said in shock. He bit his lip and looked frightened. "Tell me they didn't give him anything sharp to train with."

Namichi gave them both her sternest glance. "Jano, don't be such a jerk. Naota needs training if he's ever going to grow out of his clumsiness." Her light brown eyes took on a concerned expression. "But, they wouldn't really give him a blade, would they?"

Sessh shook his head, letting his topknot flop around his face. "No, its just unarmed combat training."

"Who's training him?" Jano said, frowning slightly. They'd all had unarmed combat training since a young age, but Naota didn't have claws or anything to fight with.

"That's the best part," Sessh said, enjoying their confusion. "You haven't heard about the human, have you?"

"The what?" Namichi and Jano jumped up and cornered their cousin. "Sessh, you ass, how could you keep this from us?" He grinned. "Because it's supposed to be kept quiet, the Daimyo doesn't want a big deal made about it. Of course, all the guard knows, so most of the staff too, but last week the Daimyo brought a foreign human back with him. I haven't seen him up close but Izitaki says he's from far away, across the ocean even, and he's a master of martial arts. That's who's training Naota how to fight."

"Wow," Jano said, looking eager. "Can we see him? I've never seen a human up close before."

Sessh's grin faltered. "I have. They aren't very nice to look at and they smell terrible."

"When did you see a human, Sho-kun?" Namichi sensed there was something else behind Sesshomaru's expression. He looked away, he had never told them about what his father had done to him in the woods. It was private, between them only, and he didn't want to bring it up with his cousins. "Nevermind when, I'll tell you about it someday."

He wasn't sure why he didn't want to discuss it, other than it still embarrassed him about how weak and helpless they'd been. It wasn't the blood or the act of killing that had troubled him. It was the fact they hadn't been able to fight back. He knew his father had stunned them with his youki, it wasn't exactly hard to do for a Tai-Youkai on Inutaisho's level. Sesshomaru wondered if he'd ever achieve that finesse of control. When he practiced his own youki skills, he was far more likely to light something on fire or scorch the furniture. Inutaisho laughed and said it would come to him someday.

"Sesshomaru, are you listening to me?" Chinatsu looked at him, concern ruffling her pretty face. He snapped back to himself with a start and immediately tugged his arm free of her grasp. "Chinatsu, I thought I told you not to grab onto me like that," he said in a sullen, sulky voice.

"And I thought I told you to start calling me Chi," she answered lightly. "Quit being so stuck up. We're cousins, why can't we be friends?"

He glared at her. "I don't want to be friends with you. Why can't you just back off and let me alone?"

Chi returned his glare, her arms folded over her chest. "You are such a stuck up little snob," she said finally, her eyes glinting in anger. "I've done everything I can to be nice to you and you just shove me away."

"So I'm not falling for your little act," he sneered, reacting more to her angry stance than her words. "Does it hurt your feelings that I don't buy it?"

She flushed. "What act are you talking about?" Sesshomaru rolled his eyes and let his voice grow chill with a venomous lack of emotion. "The one where you flirt and flutter your eyelashes at every male in the fortress. The one where you pretend to be so damn dumb that nobody would ever suspect you of anything. Don't think you can pull your little game on me. I'm not as stupid as the rest of them."

She looked shocked, her eyes going wide and hurt. "Is that what you really think I'm doing? I've done everything I could think of to fit in here. I thought since we were cousins it would be a good idea to be friends as well."

Sesshomaru had had enough of her for one day. "Save your breath with the friendly little girl routine. I told you, I'm not falling for it. And quit playing stupid all the time, it turns my stomach. Dizzy little brats like you make me sick."

Her face grew angry, her eyes snapping at him. "You think this is easy for me?" she demanded. "Maybe I am trying to be friendly and make people think I'm dumber than I am. I don't know any other way to survive. You have any idea how many enemies my father has here? You think any of them want to get on the Daimyo's good side by arranging for me to die? I don't have any protection, I don't know who I can trust. I just figured that you might be the only person here who doesn't have a reason to use me."

He stared at her. "I knew it was an act. I can't believe it's not part of some plot. You do the poor little me act really well, Chinatsu. Too bad I don't believe it."

She slapped him. Sesshomaru's eyes went wide in surprise. Of course there was no real weight behind the blow, he hardly felt it but it was more the fact that she'd actually hit him that had him frozen in shock. Chi looked furious, no longer the pretty little demoness, her eyes were teary and her cheeks were flushed and he noticed that her lips were held together in a tight line.

"You spoiled conceited little snot, you think you can judge me when you don't know what's going on? The only reason I'm here is because my brother is going to kill me. I did everything I could to defend myself against him and I've lost. I know that now, there's no chance of my father ever making me his heir. I begged him to get me out of Barou's reach and this was the only option he gave me. You've never spent a day without your father's protection, how the hell would you understand how it feels to be utterly alone? You'll never know, because you'll always have everyone in this whole damn fortress to look after you. I'm just trying to survive and if I have to flirt and play dumb to make sure that nobody thinks I'm a threat worth taking out, I'll do it because I don't want to die!"

Her face went an ugly shade of red then and she turned and stamped off, leaving Sesshomaru staring after her and wondering if there was any chance she was telling the truth. If she was, he wasn't feeling any too proud of himself. The young lord turned and walked away slowly, rubbing his cheek lightly.

"Did I see her hit you?" a voice asked softly from behind him. Sessh turned to Naota, his cousin had a hesitant, almost worried expression on his face. Normally Naota seemed to be oblivious to any tension in the fortress and Sessh scowled at him. "You spying on me, Ta-kun?"

The hanyou boy rolled his eyes and trotted over to him. "You are a spoiled conceited little snot if you think I want to spy on you." Naota grinned suddenly. "I was just hiding behind those tapestries, but it wasn't so I could listen in on you. Not that I didn't like it, she really told you off, huh?"

"Leave me alone," Sessh growled, walking away from his cousin. Naota fell into step next to him, occasionally skipping ahead to compensate for his cousin's longer legs. Sesshomaru glanced at him. "What you hiding from?"

"My sensei." Sessh stopped at looked at his cousin in confusion. "Your sensei? You mean the human?"

"Yeah, he's not very nice. Likes to smack me with a rod when he thinks I'm not paying attention." Sesshomaru felt a waver of sympathy for the man. "He hits you all the time then."

Naota sighed dramatically. "Pretty much. I don't know why the Daimyo is making me do this. He makes me stand still, sometimes for up to an hour!"

Sesshomaru snickered. Perfect hanyou torture, Naota's exuberant energy could hardly deal with being told to stand still. "So you ran away from him? Real mature, after all that whining about not having any `training' like mine."

"I know, but I haven't learned anything," Naota said seriously. "I want to learn how to fight, but he keeps telling me I've got no discipline and it's an embarrassment for him to have to teach me. All I can guess that the Daimyo must have blackmailed him into being here. He's not really happy about it."

*****

"My lord Daimyo, while I appreciate your kindness and your trust in me, I cannot teach that boy!"

Inutaisho gave the human a level glance. "Tsing Pao, you have barely been here a week. Don't tell me that Naota defeats even a master of your skill. I won't believe it."

The elderly Chinese human had an expression of pure disgust on his face. "The child will not listen, my lord Daimyo. He stares off into space when I'm trying to teach him to focus, he laughs at me when I try to explain philosophy. No matter how I seek to hold his attention, his mind is like a cloud."

The Daimyo sighed heavily and leaned his head on his fist. "I don't recall telling you it would be an easy task," he said dryly. Naota needed training on how to defend himself, given his nephew's complete lack of demon characteristics, he'd thought human teachings might be the answer to his dilemma. Not one to have an interest in humans, he had thought himself lucky when he'd heard of Tsing Pao. A human fishing village far to the south of his territory had been attacked by a neighboring force sometime in the last six months. It had come to his attention via his patrols that some of the human army hadn't been human at all.

Invading foreign youkai were a constant annoyance and even Inutaisho didn't have the manpower to protect every square inch of inhabited territory. The village should have been wiped off the earth. Aggressive human warlords had somehow made a pact with some of the foreign youkai who had disguised themselves so to slip past the Daimyo's notice. However, they'd made an error in attacking that particular village. The humans had defended themselves vigorously enough to keep from being slaughtered by the time one of his patrols had intervened. His men had immediately called for reinforcements and, in an unprecedented event, stood side by side with the local humans to drive off the invaders and then chase them all the way to the border before decimating the retreating force.

It had been an unusual enough occurrence for him to personally visit the village and praise the humans for defending themselves so aptly. He smiled to himself, remembering the awe in the eyes of the village headman at a personal visit from the great demon general. Although more than a little uncomfortable, he'd done his best to be diplomatic and not scare the living hell out of the peasants. He'd even gone so far as to drink their bad sake to show them a more reassuring presence. Terrorized humans did nothing to enhance the security of his territory. He wanted them nice and quiet, happily farming or fishing or whatever the hell they did. Quite honestly, he had nothing to gain from killing them or letting them be slaughtered by lower forms of demons. Once you let that start happening there would be all kinds of unrest and he would have to focus on keeping them subdued rather than giving his attention to purely youkai matters of importance.

Inutaisho had also been curious as to how the village was able to defend itself so well. Although outnumbered, they'd managed to hold their own until his forces were able to arrive. What he found had intrigued him. Tsing Pao.

The old man had been found drifting in the sea, clinging to life and a small broken raft. The fishermen had rescued the old man and brought him back to the village. In repayment for their kindness, the elderly man had begun teaching the people a form of martial arts. They had taken to it with dedication and been proud to give the Daimyo a personal demonstration of their skills. He had been impressed, both by their efforts and the elderly sensei. That was when the idea had started to form his mind regarding Naota. If Tsing Pao was able to teach common peasants such skills, he could certainly find a way to teach his somewhat thick-headed nephew.

"Tsing Pao," he said finally, looking up and fixing the human with his golden eyes. "You are not a prisoner here. At your word, I will have you escorted, alive and unharmed, back to the village where we met. But I ask you, as a personal favor to me, please make another attempt with Naota. As you can see, he's not like the rest of the youkai in this fortress."

"For which you should praise the gods," Tsing Pao muttered darkly. "My lord Daimyo."

He nodded easily. "The boy is the only surviving child of my

brother. His mother was one of my dearest friends. I have been, well, I've been extremely tolerant where it comes to his behavior and I've never disciplined him as I have my own son. I may have done him a disservice in doing so, as he now has no discipline of his own. I'm asking you to help rectify that. Naota's life is important to me, I don't want him to be weak or helpless when compared to full-blood youkai. It could mean his life someday and I would be very unhappy to fail him or his parents."

Tsing Pao was moved by the Daimyo's quiet passion. "My lord Daimyo, I also have had young ones I cared for. And ones I have lost. You are not like any demon I've ever heard of before. For that alone I will make another attempt with your nephew. I will use every technique I've ever been taught if that's what it takes."

"It probably will," Inutaisho said with a grin. Naota, you are going to hate this. "Spare nothing, I completely release him to your instruction. Tell him that I expect him to pay attention and once he's developed the skills and discipline he needs, I look forward to watching him demonstrate his techniques. In fact, tell him I'd like him to demonstrate them on Sesshomaru, that should hold his interest."

The elderly human's smile matched the Daimyo's. He'd already heard a lot from his young pupil about Sho-kun. He bowed low and tried not to laugh. "My lord Daimyo, you are indeed a devious creature. It will be my pleasure to train the young rascal for just such a contest."

END CHAPTER EIGHT