InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Needed Light ❯ Chapter 2

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.
***words like this are the words spoken by Naraku in Sesshomaru’s head. Words like this are spoken by Makoto and Sesshomaru in his head.***


Takeo was exhausted; there was no other way to describe it. A weeks travel from Lord Makoto’s northern castle through, what had to be, the most rogue demon infested section of land in this country. He had to fight nearly every step of the way. He may be as powerful as Makoto at his best, but that many continuous battles with low level youkai would even weaken him. It was all he could do to stand up straight in front of the handsome prince before him. ‘What did he just say?’ he asked himself, as he heard nothing over the roar in his head. ‘Roar? Shit!’ he silently cursed. His element was in uproar over this young prince. It was so loud he couldn’t hear anything else. He studied the young youkai in front of him as he finally quieted his element. He was able to hear the youkai repeat his question and was about to answer when his knees gave out. His last thought before blackness took him was how much he loathed looking weak in front of such a lovely young demon.
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Sesshomaru was extremely worried. ‘What could have possibly been strenuous enough to exhaust such a powerful youkai into passing out? Remembering the smell of blood from earlier, Sesshomaru began to really worry. ‘No one could survive losing that amount of blood! I thought it belonged to something that he killed.” He looked over at his brother and saw the same question mirrored in his eyes. Once Inuyasha laid Lord Takeo onto a futon in the healing wing, Sesshomaru handed him the scroll.

Reading it thoroughly, Inuyasha nodded at Sesshomaru in thanks, and then turned to leave stating, “Please stay with him Sesshomaru. Tell him he is welcome to stay as long as he wishes. Also,” he paused at the door, “Tell him I have a favor to ask of him. He can speak to me at any time today. I must go, Akira is here.”

Watching his brother finally leave when Sesshomaru nodded agreement, Sesshomaru then turned his attention to the male who was so tall his feet were several inches past the edge of the futon. “Who are you,” he asked himself out loud. Still pondering this, he stood out of the raccoon healer’s way as she proclaimed Lord Takeo severely exhausted from food deprivation and blood loss.

“Just look at the number of wounds that are still healing. He must have been ambushed on his way here, poor dear,” Saki stated as she stripped him of all garments except a strangely designed undergarment that she left on for his modesty.”He was even attacked from behind, the cowards,” she continued, “I hope he killed them all.”

Anger seethed through him as he saw the raised welts on Takeo’s back from healing wounds, ‘How dare anything so filthy touch something so perfect!’ ‘Like you?’ a snide voice in his head said. Ignoring the voice for the moment, he continued looking at him although he was nearly completely naked, which made Sesshomaru’s blood heat. He could tell that Lord Takeo was extremely well built with his strange clothing on, but seeing him without clothes made Sesshomaru think a kami had visited him in mortal flesh. He was male perfection. He hoped, perversely, that Takeo would let his blood red hair grow out now that he was to stay in Japan. ‘If he stays in Japan’ the dark part of his mind said, ‘after he realizes that you, a sullied, ugly, male demon lusts after him, he will run as far away as possible.’ Sesshomaru flinched at this cruelty, but realized it was right. His problem was unnatural, disgusting and shouldn’t be aimed at such a handsome male as Takeo.

He chose a dark corner in the room to sit in as he kept his word to his brother and waited for Takeo to wake. Hours passed, the noon meal long gone and before he realized it, Sesshomaru fell into a deep sleep, one untroubled by nightmares.
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Takeo woke to twilight. Confused as to where he was, he sat up. Seeing the young prince asleep in the corner, his memories came rushing back. He looked around the room, realizing he must have been brought here when he collapsed. Sensing he and the prince were not alone, he whipped his head to the door, where another youkai stood. “Where am I?” he decided to ask, looking at the sparse room around him. For some reason his eyes strayed back to the young prince he met this morning, “I don’t think I caught his name.”

The youkai stepped into the room and kneeled on the floor by his futon, “I am Lord Inuyasha, Taiyoukai of the West. That is my younger brother Sesshomaru. You are in the healer’s wing of my castle. We brought you here after you collapsed. Apparently the healer believes you were ambushed, is this correct?”

Takeo hadn’t thought of that as a possibility. Since this was Inuyasha, then he knew without knowing how he knew, that Inuyasha would never have let that many low level demons live to cause damage to his lands. With frustration lacing his voice, but keeping it low nonetheless, he said “Unless I stumbled into a nest of low level youkai, which is unlikely considering I know you wouldn’t allow that to happen, then it must have been. But who would dare insult Lord Makoto in such a way as to attack someone who was under his protection? Who would be crazy enough? That is pure stupidity.”

Takeo’s eyes had once again strayed back to Sesshomaru, so he flinched guiltily when he heard Inuyasha growl. Thinking that he had offended Inuyasha by staring at his brother, he turned to apologize when Inuyasha started speaking, “Naraku that filthy hanyou! How is he still getting word to his minions? Makoto himself examined the minds of everyone in the castle and he says there are none here who would help Naraku. He must have mind speaking abilities, as Makoto feared and Naraku’s speaking range must be great.”

Silence filled the room as Takeo thought about what Inuyasha said. Deciding to go ahead and ask his question, Takeo tried to ask delicately, “What is the story of Naraku. You speak of him with great hatred. Why would he have sent those low lives to try to kill me?” he asked in confusion.

Inuyasha looked at him for a few minutes, as if to test him, or maybe he was measuring Takeo’s sincerity, but nonetheless he began to speak, “It all has to do with what Naraku did to Sesshomaru fifty years ago.”

Takeo sat there for the next hour, his heart in pain for Sesshomaru, as he was told how fifty years ago Naraku had come here seeking a mate. He had spotted Sesshomaru in the castle gardens and asked Inuyasha for permission to mate him. Inuyasha, knowing of Naraku’s sadistic nature denied him repeatedly. Eventually Naraku got angry enough to insult Inuyasha and Sesshomaru both, threatened that if he could not mate Sesshomaru, then he would take him away and make him his personal slave. Enraged, but wanting to protect his mate who was heavy with child, he banished Naraku from his lands. Two days later, Sesshomaru left for his morning walk and never came back. When Inuyasha followed the scent trail of his brother, it ended in a clearing in the nearby forest. It was saturated with the smells of blood, sex, semen, and Sesshomaru’s tears. Inuyasha broke off the tale at that point, fighting back rage and helplessness as he cleared his throat. Takeo himself was beyond enraged by this point, even though he could sense that the tale was only beginning.

Takeo forced himself to listen as Inuyasha spoke again, “The bastard thought it appropriate to take his innocence on my own lands. I couldn’t contain myself and transformed. I ravaged the forest until none of it was left. Only my mate was able to calm me down. I had destroyed the scent trails in my pain and rage. We searched for months; six to be exact. All of us cardinal lords searched until our men and supplies were exhausted. And then one day Makoto showed up out of nowhere with a small, pitiful, bloody bundle. It was Sesshomaru, and yet it wasn’t. For weeks after we got him back he would only eat if we commanded him, and he kept asking us to beat him. He said he deserved it, but he never told me why. Nothing we said changed his mind. Then one morning he came down to breakfast and ate without me telling him to. He never asked anyone to beat him again. He did however ask me to teach him how to fight. I thought I had my brother back, so I did. It wasn’t until he had mastered everything I taught him that I realized the laughing, gardening, kind little brother I had was gone and in his place was a cold, unfeeling stranger. Takeo,” he said, pausing for a minute to wrestle with emotion, “he was only sixteen. Sixteen!! This never should have happened to him! I vowed to myself that when I found Naraku, I would make him beg for death. It took me fifty years to catch that coward but I found him. In six days he will be executed. But Sesshomaru has to face him first.”

‘This was good news,’ Takeo thought, but the look on Inuyasha’s face made Takeo think something else was about to be said to change his mind, “Sesshomaru won’t admit it, but he is terrified of Naraku. Makoto tells me he struggles with himself. Takeo, he thinks it’s dirty to like other men. He beats himself up about it. I knew he didn’t like women back from before he was taken by Naraku, but that bastard made him think that it was disgusting. He knows better than to intentional hurt himself, so he overworks his body in the dojo. He is not meant to fight; it is just not in him to kill. He needs someone to guard him, not only from Naraku and his plots, but also from himself.”
Inuyasha paused here, because he realized that Takeo had caught the drift of his statements. Takeo really thought about it. He already felt intensively protective of the young prince. He also felt possessive, but shoved that thought away. He studied Sesshomaru in the moonlight from the window. His porcelain skin seemed to glow, his bluish white hair to shine with a light of its own. He could freely admit to himself that he was attracted to him. Takeo felt he should warn Inuyasha of his own secret, “Inuyasha, I must tell you a couple of things first. I am attracted to males and to your brother in particular. Do you really think it would be in Sesshomaru’s best interest to have me as his protector? I do not trust myself to not try to pursue him. Also, I cannot protect him from what I cannot see and from what you have told me about Sesshomaru and Naraku, don’t you think it’s possible that Naraku is feeding Sesshomaru’s self disgust from his dungeon cell?”

A fury like none other stole over Inuyasha as he marched out of the room in hurried strides. Takeo had barely enough time to think that perhaps he had offended him with his confession when the shoji slid open to admit both Inuyasha and Makoto.

“Why didn’t I think of this sooner,” Makoto was muttering quietly to Inuyasha.

Quickly donning his trousers, Takeo approached the youkai surrounding Sesshomaru, and said quietly, “If he could get to Sesshomaru, then he could get to everyone else as well, including the other cardinal lords. If the majority states that they believe he is innocent, you would have no choice but to let him go.”

Inuyasha shook his head while Makoto kept his attention on Sesshomaru, “No the cardinal lords are much more powerful than Naraku so they could easily block his attempts. They also have the skill to protect their families as well. It is their servants and guards that we must worry about. I had thought Sesshomaru more powerful than Naraku, but I had just begun to be too careless. Sesshomaru is not meant to be strong, at least not in that way; it goes against his very nature.”

Inuyasha turned back to Sesshomaru as Takeo thought over what he was just told. “He must be protected,’ his element roared at him. “How will you protect him from Naraku’s manipulations?” he asked Inuyasha.

“Through a very powerful barrier that will last until Naraku is dead. It is very complex, but Makoto excels in all things related to the mind. That is why I trust you with Sesshomaru even though you are attracted to him. Makoto would not trust you if you were plotting to abuse Sesshomaru. And I trust Makoto with my life. Makoto cares for him like a son,” here Makoto nodded his head in agreement.

Takeo felt warmed that he had finally found a place that didn’t hate someone for liking their own sex. ‘Perhaps I can live here and save this prince from Naraku and himself,’ he thought with hope. “I will stay and protect him with my life,” Takeo vowed just as Makoto finished.

As soon as he finished speaking, Sesshomaru’s eyes opened in wonder and then he said, “The dark voice…it’s gone,” as a tear rolled down his cheek. This was the first time Takeo remembered hearing his voice, and Takeo knew, as shivers of heat raced down his spine, that that voice could command him to do anything and he would do it. It was beautiful and intoxicating at the same time.
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Sesshomaru didn’t know what happened, one minute he was dreaming peacefully, the next Makoto was in his mind. ‘What are you doing here?’ Sesshomaru asked Makoto. Makoto answered with power in his voice, ‘I am here to banish Naraku’s voice from your mind.’ Makoto then began chanting in that same power filled voice. The boundaries began to shake and then everything went black. ‘Makoto,’ Sesshomaru called, scared. He hated the dark. Things could hide in the dark; bad things happen in the dark. Then all at once, the dark voice echoed in from all sides, ‘You think he could love such filth as you. All he would want you for is a good fuck. It would be painful, that’s all you deserve for having such nasty thoughts about him.’ The voice paused, and Sesshomaru was glad because for everything that was said, a cut was made on his skin to match the cuts on his heart. The horrible words kept coming and coming and Sesshomaru curled up on the floor and cried, silent tears running down his face.

Then it was as if the words were muted and all he heard were the voices of the people he loved. His brother complimenting him on his flower arrangements, Kagome exclaiming over the garden he made for her for her birthday. Shiori running up the stairs to hug him. Makoto finding him in that cave, tears in his eyes. The relief on his brothers face when he woke up in room. Inuyasha’s strong hug the day Sesshomaru ate his meal on his own for the first time. Self satisfaction in knowing upon mastering sword fighting, he would never be helpless again. The voices of his family and friends, his most treasured memories, surrounded him in a swirl of gold, blocking out that hateful, awful voice. The longer it spun around him, the lighter the room became, until it was as if sunshine had broken through the walls of his mind.

He cried tears of happiness and relief as he realized that all of the cuts on his skin were gone as if they were never there. The depression and self hatred were gone as if they hadn’t belonged there in the first place. Then he heard the deepest, most entrancing voice he had ever heard in his life say the most beautiful words in creation, “I will stay and protect him with my life.” And just like that, Sesshomaru felt the last of Naraku’s spider webs leave his mind and heart. Then he opened his eyes and looked up at Takeo and said, “The dark voice…it’s gone,” and smiled a real smile. Sesshomaru knew, deep down, that Takeo could heal his heart, if he could just let him.