InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Needed Light ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

All characters relating from the Inuyasha series belong to Rumiko Takahashi and are merely used here as a way to further my imagination. No copyright infringement is intended.


Sesshomaru studied the arrangement he had been working on for an hour or more. The branch of sakura flowers stood amidst several blood red spider lilies, like a lone piece of nature that had been untouched by the many bloody wars. Which was exactly what he was looking to achieve, he thought smugly to himself, as he allowed his usually stoic self a small smirk in the privacy of his own room. As he heard the shoji door to his room slide open without permission, his smirk disappeared as if it were never there. Turning from his work of art, he faced the one youkai who had the nerve to enter his room without permission, his older brother Inuyasha, the Taiyoukai of the Western Lands. He also happened to be his best friend.
Inuyasha was the eldest son of the previous Inu no Tashio. He had long silver hair, amber eyes and a violet jagged stripe across each cheek, just like father. Inuyasha had memories of their father, but he didn’t. Although he was a youkai, his brother had married a human miko with incredible powers that sometimes let her know things before they happened. He deeply respected Kagome and he loved them both deeply, but he often wondered if he deserved their love. He felt like an ungrateful, undeserving fool because he thought of Kagome as the mother he never knew. Inuyasha and Kagome could never know that he thought of them that way or about his other ‘affliction’. He just wasn’t attracted to women of any kind. Instead, he often found himself admiring the bodies of fellow warriors in the dojo or even some of his brother’s generals. Often he would have erotic dreams, when he wasn’t plagued by nightmares, about himself and some strange male whose face was always obscure. In those dreams, the things that happened had felt good, right, not painful and degrading as he knew they did. He derailed that train of thought before he relived those memories for the hundred-millionth time. Sesshomaru wrenched his attention back to his nii-san as he began to speak.

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“Ah, so this is what kept you from your usual walk through the gardens, ototo-chan,” he said as he closed the shoji screen and sat down on the tatami floor. “It is beautiful, as always.”
Inuyasha admired Sesshomaru’s work from afar as he realized that his little brother wasn’t going to answer him. Inwardly Inuyasha went over what he came here to talk about, as he watched Sesshomaru kneel across from him and begin to prepare tea. His little brother was beautiful in an almost unmale-like way. His long silver-blue hair trailed straight down his back to pool on the floor behind him. His golden inu-youkai eyes were framed by long, thick, black lashes. His nose was perfectly straight and elegantly carved. His lips were so full they were pouty, and red; blood red. And while he was not what many youkai believed to be tall, he certainly had a lean warriors build with broad shoulders and powerful arms. His body held a grace that was, in a word, feminine. It was this beauty that was also his ototo’s curse as they had found out horribly.
Shaking such depressing thoughts from his mind, Inuyasha turned to finally address his brother, “Sesshomaru, I know you have a perfectly good reason to want to stay in this room with the annual, weeklong Cardinal Lords meeting and banquet coming up next week, however you cannot. We have to execute Naraku at midnight on the night of the new moon for what happened fifty years ago.”
Here Inuyasha paused as his brother’s aura flashed with rage and hatred, and although he tried to hide it, fear. Inuyasha continued on, although much more gently, “It took us this long to find and capture him, we cannot wait too long to kill him or he will escape. Already I have killed three traitors who would have aided him. As law states the condemned has the right to face his accuser as he dies. I want to spare you this, ototo, but I cannot. Face him this one last time and maybe you can have some peace at last.”
Inuyasha sat back as he let his brother think about his words. Thinking about Naraku and his deeds against his little brother made Inuyasha nearly transform from his rage. If only he had found him sooner. Then maybe he would still have his smiling, laughing ototo now. Instead he arrived too late. Way too late and now he was but a mere shadow of his brother, whose only joy nowadays was arranging flowers, working in his garden and practicing swordsmanship when his hands were not meant for battle.
Finally Sesshomaru spoke, his low baritone nothing but a whisper in the still air, “Hai, nii-san. I will attend all necessary meetings and banquets required this week.”
Admiring the courage his little brother showed, he nodded his head, rose and left, closing the shoji behind him. All along the hall to his private library Inuyasha pondered how to make his brother feel safer during the coming week. He slid open the shoji to his library and saw a vision of loveliness in red. His mate stood beside his desk, her slightly rounded belly held protectively and lovingly in her arms. He walked to Kagome and kissed her soundly. Then he held her for a minute, just breathing in her scent.
Kagome spoke, breaking the silence, “I dreamed of your troubles last night, love. The answer will be here tomorrow. He will come from far away, seeking sanctuary. He is the light needed in Sesshomaru’s life.”
Inuyasha nodded his head into her hair to let her know that he understood. He long ago learned to trust her at times like these. In all of her prophecies, if indeed that was what they were, she had never once been wrong. Not even about Naraku. And that had cost them all dearly.

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Sesshomaru paced angrily in his room after his brother had left. He wasn’t just angry, he was pissed. He was pissed at Inuyasha, at Naraku, at the other three cardinal lords and the meetings, but most of all he was pissed at himself. Angry because he was so terrified of the damn sadistic hanyou. Sesshomaru looked down and realized his hands were shaking. Disgusted at himself, he clenched his hands into fists so hard his claws pierced skin. Once the pain registered, he was able to think clearly and he went to his closet. He pulled out his training kimono and hakama, stripped his yukata off and changed. He was glad he had no mirror in his room, because he didn’t want to look at the body that so disgusted him. Tying the sash in a knot, he grabbed his katana and headed out of his room, down the hall and castle stairs to the courtyard bellow.
As he made his way to the dojo, he kept his eyes forward at all times, letting his other senses find and figure out all the nights sounds. Once inside the dojo, he slid off his geta sandals and proceeded to the center of the room. He then began a furious dance of moves that lasted hours, and left him with the delicious feeling of pain that came from overworked muscles. Pain was what someone like him deserved. Feet almost dragging, he made his way back up to his room and the adjacent hot springs where he bathed thoroughly, dried off, and then, tying the tie of a sleeping yukata, collapsed onto his futon to drift into the arms of his ever present nightmares, while the only echo of the innocent he once was that still remained, cried out from the pain.


In the morning, Sesshomaru woke with the dawn. He went about his daily routine, starting with stretching his overly worked muscles. As he bent at the waist to stretch the backs of his legs, his thoughts were on the planned arrival of the Cardinal Lords after breakfast. The Southern Lord, a Lion, was one of his father’s best friends, and to date was Sesshomaru’s honorary godfather. Akira was one of the two youkai that Sesshomaru completely trusted, the other being his brother. Akira, his mate Taka, and their daughter Rin would be the first to arrive as always, seeing as how their home was the closest to the West. Akira also had a son, his eldest who was Inuyasha’s age, but he would not be coming this time. He was away on the continent learning about the foreign weapons. Akihiko was also close to Sesshomaru. He could almost count him as a friend, as he did before Naraku found Sesshomaru. Then would come the Lord of the East, who was a Tiger. Hitoshi was a calm, level-headed youkai who lost his mate in childbirth with his only child Ichiro. As his mate was the love of his life, Hitoshi felt he lost his heart when she died as he became, not cruel, but impassive. It was like he had lost the ability to love anyone but his son. And while both the Lords of the East and South were powerful in their own right, no one not even Inuyasha was as powerful as the Lord of the North. A dragon youkai and older than even he knows anymore, Makoto lost his only son, Ryukotsusei, when he attempted to kill Sesshomaru and Inuyasha’s father. Makoto, to his credit, has always been a very strong ally of the West. It was he who had actually found Naraku’s hidden location, and ultimately found Sesshomaru enduring his painful, shaming punishment. Punishment he deserved for his…problem. Makoto was also the only one who truly knew the depth of his self-hatred and only because he can read someone’s thoughts and emotions. Sesshomaru lived in fear of the day when he had had enough of Sesshomaru’s self punishment and told all he knew to Inuyasha.
Finally done with his morning stretches, Sesshomaru walked to his trunk and pulled out his ceremonial garb. Shedding his sleeping yukata and tossing it onto his futon, he quickly put on his inner kosode and tied it shut so fast that he nearly ripped the silk with his claws. He had a huge fear of being naked and alone in a room for too long. His kosode was white silk with white embroidered butterfly patterned all over the fabric. Over this he pulled on a short kimono that was also white that had silver embroidered cranes on it and the bottoms of the sleeves were died a royal blue as well as a patch on the left shoulder. Closing the kimono and tying it shut, he folded his hakama and pulled them on, tying them securely around his slim hips. Pulling on his tabi socks, he picked his richly embroidered black haori off of his trunk and walked out his door and down the hall. As he was about to walk down the stairs, the sound of little feet rushing towards him were heard and he stood at the top of the stairs silently counting, 1…2…3.
“Oompf,” he said as a small, silver headed bundle launched itself into his stomach. Looking down at his small niece, Shiori, Sesshomaru smiled openly and truly as he would not for anyone else.
“Uncle Sesshy, will you take me with you on your walk this morning, pretty please?” she cried, pouting playfully until Sesshomaru nodded. “Yay,”the pup cried.
The approaching Lords probably heard that, he thought amusedly, “Come Shiori. Remember to stay close by me.” They walked down the stairs and out the door in silence, Sesshomaru just enjoying her presence while she was copying him, who was her hero.
They were enjoying their walk, Sesshomaru with his usual silence, and Shiori with her endless chattering about what tricks she had played on her youkai nanny yesterday when he smelled the scent of an extremely powerful demon nearby. The scent was strange and slightly exotic, nothing like any scent he had smelled before. While he was contemplating this he felt the first brush of this demon’s aura. It nearly brought him to his knees with its intensity. Although the mere feel of the aura was enough to send his heart pounding in fear, he stood straight in a defensive position and pulled Shiori behind him.
“Stay quiet and still,” he commanded her gently and felt her nod her head against his back.
Then out of the trees walked a giant. Well a giant of a man, as he had to be pushing seven feet tall. His features, his clothing, everything about him screamed non-Japanese to Sesshomaru. He was breathtakingly handsome, almost making Sesshomaru sigh in pleasure at the sight of him. His face was strong and tanned, with an arrogant, strongly square-cut jaw. His nose was slightly crooked, as if it had been broken and set incorrectly. His eyes were not almond shape, but shaped in a way that the Chinese described the European traders. His hair was shamefully short in a country where the length of your hair reflected just how powerful a demon was. His woefully short hair was the shade of fire. He was powerfully built; his shoulders impossibly wide, his arms extremely huge and covered in ropes of steely muscles. Slim hips and powerful thighs were covered in some kind of form fitting hakama made of leather. Thick boots that looked too hot for even the winter months here in Japan encased his feet and legs all the way to his knees. Sesshomaru found himself extremely attracted to him and began to fantasize about what he would look like without all his strange garments on. He surprised himself even more when he realized his beast had stirred and had taken a liking to him and that he felt no disgust with himself for lusting after the red haired male.
Shaking thoughts like those out of his mind before his thoughts were betrayed by his scent, he turned his attention back to the present. All through his inspection of the strange male, the stranger’s aura radiated no malice or any threatening intentions of any kind. Indeed, all it radiated was extreme exhaustion. Sesshomaru caught the unmistakable scent of blood and a lot of it. Then to shock Sesshomaru even more, he knelt on the ground, seemingly recognizing who Sesshomaru was and held out a rice paper scroll. Cautiously approaching the male, Sesshomaru found himself wondering what this proud male kneeling before someone who he could easily dominate; putting himself at the mercy of a strange youkai in a strange land, was doing.
Once Sesshomaru had the scroll, he turned slightly to his niece and said, “Go get you father Shiori and tell him he is needed here. Run quickly and don’t come back.”
Nodding her head she turned and ran as fast as her little hanyou body could tolerate. Once he was sure she was safe at the castle, Sesshomaru opened the scroll and recognized Lord Makoto’s fluid script.
Reading through the letter quickly, Sesshomaru then tucked the letter up the sleeve of his haori and spoke to the demon who now had a name, “Please stand Lord Takeo. I am Sesshomaru, brother of the current Inu no Tashio, Inuyasha. Your request for sanctuary will be put before my lord and he will make the final decision. The fact that you have obtained Lord Makoto’s trust and friendship will help you greatly. It will eventually come down to whether your intentions here are trustworthy. Until my brother arrives, I will welcome you to The Western Lands, home of the White Dog youkai.”
Sesshomaru bowed to show respect and was pleasantly surprised when he bowed back. Sesshomaru felt the approaching brush of his brother’s aura and turned his head towards the castle, silently calculating how long the wait would be. As he was turning back around, he became aware that Lord Takeo was staring at him. Chalking it up to simple curiosity, Sesshomaru ignored the feeling until he met his eyes. He blushed, as he realized that Lord Takeo was not merely curious but was actually staring at him in a way that suggested he was intensely attracted to Sesshomaru. Once Lord Takeo noticed his blush, which only intensified it, he smirked in an entirely unsettling male way that let everyone know he enjoyed what he saw. Bristling slightly but not at the smirk, more at the fact the youkai had managed to make him respond emotionally and even more at the fact that the interest that Takeo showed not only made him want to show his emotions more often, but that it sent his beast into submissive growls of pleasure.
“ If I may ask, what brings you to Japan?” Sesshomaru asked in honest curiosity.