InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Vengeance ❯ Chapter Forty: Awful Indignant ( Chapter 41 )

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or storyline. This fic is only for entertainment purposes only.

A/N: Whew. Sorry about the long wait. Finally got one out, and I will be having more within the week. =) Also more Sess and Kag, I promise! Thank you for all the support and reviews, especial thanks to Hito, you spurred me on, and Vyncent, you concern was a jeweled light in the darkness of delay, and to Amy F. who has always inspired. I do need opinions though. Many reviewers have wanted to know how many more chapters will be added to Vengeance, and to be honest, there is still quite a bit to the story. But I am wondering if I should end this part of the over-all story in a few chapters, and begin a "sequel" story where all the nice lovey-dovey waffy stuff occurs...and the ultimate finale of Naraku, of course. "The Price of Vengeance" is getting bulky, and will be even more so with continuation. How do y'all feel about sequels and split stories? Good or bad? Let me know, I beg of you! Thanks and take care!

Chapter Forty (Awful Indignant)

Grunt.

"Eyah!"

Slam!

"What the hell is wrong with my sword?!"

Muerr.

"Totosai!"

"That was MoMo, not me, InuYasha. Can't you tell the difference between a bull youkai and a master sword smith?"

Grunt.

"Totosai! What the hell is wrong with Tetsusaiga?"

"What do you mean? Have you hurt my precious treasure? Oh, Tetsusaiga, has that impetuous half-breed damaged you?"

"Watch out!"

The sword smith jumped back, out of the heavy fang's descent.

SLAM!

"Oh. Is the sword too heavy for you?"

Growl.

"Don't flash your fangs at ME, InuYasha!"

"If you don't tell me, old man, in the next instant, just what the hell you did to my sword, I'm going to---" Amber eyes darkened ominously.

"Manners hardly run in your family, InuYasha, but you should be more polite to an old youkai like myself."

"If you don't---" Sparks of red flashed over the narrowed amber eyes.

Muerr?

"Yes, yes, MoMo. I'm coming. Just a minute."

"Now, just YOU wait a minute, Totosai!" InuYasha seethed.

"Stop your howling, InuYasha. If you would let me get a word in edge-wise---"

Growl.

Sigh. "Dog demons are all alike. Always in a great hurry." Totosai shook his head at the impetuosity of youth.

"Totosai..."

With an agility belying his age, the sword smith jumped on the broad back of his bovine companion, who merely snorted at the solid impact and blinked his three eyes with resignation as he swallowed the juicy roots of the grass he had been chewing.

"Where the hell are you going?!" InuYasha demanded as Totosai winced at the volume youthful lungs could achieve. The Tetsusaiga, heavy point on the ground, flared once in white fire and diminished into the dented blade that hid its power. The hanyou slammed the lighter blade into its sheath with unnecessary force, glaring at the youkai sword smith.

Bulging white eyes blinked in surprise. "You think I'm going to sit around here waiting for someone evil enough to claim that awful stick of Kaijinbo's to come passing by?"

Quick as a flash, InuYasha's hearty fist swung out, toppling the sword smith over the other side of MoMo. The bull youkai turned and regarded his fallen friend before bending down to grab up some more of the tasty green hillside they stood upon.

Totosai rested on his head for a moment, cradling the long wooden mallet in his claws and regarding the hanyou with thoughtful eyes. InuYasha stood, arms crossed and feet braced, his hard amber eyes glowering at the old youkai.

"You don't give up easily, do you, InuYasha?" Totosai said rather mildly, given the circumstances and his upside-down position facing the hanyou's bare feet. The boy's toe-claws were as white as those decorating the end of his fingers, the sword smith noted idly. How did he keep them so clean tramping around barefoot in the dirt like he did?

A faint growl claimed the sword smith's attention, and he realized just how precarious his perch was. Once realization struck, the youkai fell over with a muffled, undignified grunt. Laying on his back, he blinked up at the sky.

"Totosai..."

"I'm awake. I'm awake." The old youkai grumbled before cracking his jaw on a yawn. All of that stupid energy was wasted on the young. Shrugging his shoulders and cracking his neck, the youkai jumped back to his feet with a single, vigorously age-denying motion.

The hanyou's attention was on the evil sword Kaijinbo had created, and Totosai couldn't stop the grimace that crossed his bland features. When he thought about the stupid young apprentice with his awful lust for power...

*Well, all's well that ends well.*

Kaijinbo had met his end on the blade of his master's forging. Tetsusaiga had defeated the stupid power-mad youkai, although the blood-lusting Toukijin had done its part, too. The sword with it awesome awfulness had overwhelmed the weak defenses of its crazed creator, and had sent the possessed sword-apprentice after InuYasha. It was a good thing InuYasha had lasted until his transformation back into a half-demon. Even though the hanyou often derided his human side, and he was, of course, more vulnerable in that state, he was still strong and powerful, for a mere ningen.

*Still, thank the holies the boy only transforms one night a month.*

InuYasha' impatient scowl broke into the the smith's idle speculation. "You still haven't told me, old man, what's wrong with my sword."

Totosai scratched his balding head, his tall hammer leaning against the other shoulder. "Well, lemme think."

Silver-white hair swirled as the hanyou spun around and stalked over the the evil sword. Toukijin was sunk in the earth, the violet-streaked fuchsia haze of its anger visible to the naked eye. The cursed blade flared once as InuYasha neared it, and then subsided into glowering ineffectively at the hanyou with the swirling mists of its malignant aura.

InuYasha unhooked the sheathed Tetsusaiga from his side and slid into a cross-legged position on the grass, cradling the fang in his lap. Totosai cast a side-ways glance at MoMo, who was happily chomping tender bits of grassy greenery, triple eyes half-lidded in contentment, before walking over to the hanyou's side and flopping down in his own squat.

A hip cracked as the old youkai sat down, and InuYasha sent him a sharp look at the noise, amusement sparking golden in the amber eyes. Totosai returned it with a sour glare.

*Just you wait, puppy. Your turn will come in time.*

Both of them stared at Toukijin's discontent, although Totosai's rambling mind was not on that particular blade, but on the one the hanyou clutched possessively in his arms. That was good, the hanyou should keep a hold on the gift of his father. It was, possibly, the only thing that could save the puppy from himself, and the powerful inu blood of his demon father.

"You know, InuYasha, that it was Tetsusaiga that kept you from losing your soul to that blood-sucking inu side of your nature." Totosai began rather mildly.

"What?" InuYasha's head whipped around to stare at him before his thick, black brows came down to glare. "But Tetsusaiga was broken, you idiot!"

"Oh." He'd forgotten about that. "Then what was it that called you back from the demon?"

InuYasha dropped his amber eyes to the grass at his feet. "I don't know." He said, chagrined. "Sango was there, and SesshouMaru."

"That old tyrant?" Totosai harrumphed to himself. *I wonder what THAT means. Has SesshouMaru been tested as well?*

InuTaisho had come to him, years past him wanting to bother and count, and required the forging of two swords for his sons. That old crafty bastard had known well what the raging blood of his inu heritage could do, and had sought out a way to control it for both of his sons. The Western Lord had spent years studying the problem, seeking knowledge over the known---and unknown---worlds...

He recalled the words he had written to InuTaisho in the ink-splattered chicken-scratch of his own hand: "Tenseiga was made for the first son, and Tetsusaiga for the second. Each to protect, and each to guide." He had delivered the swords to the Lord at that time, and InuTaisho had been more than pleased with their forging. He had disposed of them as he'd seen fit, Tenseiga for his first-born and pure-blooded youkai son, Tetsusaiga for his second, hanyou boy.

SesshouMaru should have been pleased with his own sword. It was a powerful blade, equal in strength to Tetsusaiga and the best Totosai had ever forged in a long career that had brought him little recognition but much pride. But that arrogant ass had only seen Tenseiga as worthless, a blade that could not cut, could not wound and maim and bring destruction.

*Stupid puppy.*

Another stupid puppy was sitting beside him, and Totosai marveled sometimes at how InuTaisho, whom he had greatly respected and admired, could have fathered such brats.

"Well?" InuYasha demanded impatiently.

Totosai blinked. "Eh?"

The hanyou let out a gusty hmph of breath. "I'm still wanting to know why my sword is so damn heavy, old man!"

"Oh." Totosai's eyes twitched over the sheathed blade cradled in the puppy's arms. Another hefty sigh from the impatient hanyou made him blink and come back to the subject.

"Yes, yes. Well, Tetsusaiga was forged from your father's fangs---"

"I KNOW that, you old codger! And you used one of MY fangs to fix it!" InuYasha roared at him, still unsettled by what he considered Totosai's vicious trick at getting one of his fangs out of his mouth. He touched the healed left fang with the tip of his tongue. The old man had been right, his canine had grown back. Still, it had hurt like all hell.

"That's the problem, then." Totosai said with some satisfaction at finding the cause of the hanyou's trouble with the blade. "The balance of the Tetsusaiga is off. Your fangs are different from your father's, you know. You'll get used to it...in time."

InuYasha wasn't pleased at THAT particular bit of news. Amber eyes slitted, he said in a soft, menacing voice, "You aren't going to tell me that I just need practice, are you, old man?"

"Um..." Totosai eyed the hanyou, and then ducked, avoiding the hanyou's powerful fist. He couldn't avoid the other one, though, and he fell over with a throbbing head. "Eow..." He moaned, dropping his beloved hammer and clutching his abused noggin.

"Stupid puppy!" He groused, falling on his back.

InuYasha just crossed his arms and glared, the sheathed fang in his lap.

*Why do inu always resort to violence to get their point across?* He moaned mournfully to himself, his head pounding. Indignance finally made a call, and the sword smith jumped back to his feet, his calloused hand neatly picking up his hammer. He glared at the glaring hanyou, and puffed up his cheeks.

InuYasha ducked, wary of the youkai's fiery breath, but Totosai was just cracking his jaw in agitated distraction. The loud snap of sound made the black brows shoot up and the hanyou regarded him like he was crazy.

He had to get one last point across, and then he would be done with the impetuous puppy. Grimacing as his poor, abused head throbbed again, Totosai scowled and said in a rush, "Keep the sword with you at all times. I don't know how your demonic nature was suppressed before, but it probably won't happen again. Tetsusaiga and Tenseiga are the only things that can keep your father's raging blood at bay, and you better heed my words, InuYasha, when I say that you must not allow yourself to become seperated from Tetsusaiga."

The hanyou scowled at him, white claws clutching possessively on the sword. "Tetsusaiga is mine, old man."

Totosai just snorted. "You better take better care of my precious sword, puppy!"

InuYasha jumped to his feet. "What the hell do you mean by THAT, old man?"

The sword smith just chuckled. At least the puppy was paying attention. Time to get going. He didn't want to hang around when the personage who had commissioned Toukijin's forging came looking for the hostile blade.

Diving for MoMo's brown back, Totosai spun his hammer in a wide arc and smacked the startled bull youkai on its rump to get him started. MoMo mooed a protest, spitting out his juicy lunch.

"Hey!" InuYasha shouted at him. Totosai raised a hand in fond farewell, while the long mallet circled down with more impetus. MoMo got the hint, and shot forward, his speed taking him far enough away from the indignant hanyou that (by the time the dust had settled down) he was a mere speck behind him, the angry aura of Toukijin a lessening intensity in the air that that foolish puppy refused to leave unguarded.

Totosai snorted as MoMo settled into a more amiable pace underneath him.

*Better him than me. Poor puppy.*

*~*~*~*~*

*I am forever humiliated.*

The dismayed imp regarded himself in the polished surface of the mirror that revealed, all too well, his humiliation in full. Dressed in a trailing yellow kimono with bright pink poppies covering the silken expanse and a rather garish orange scarf that circled his poor head like a crown, his yellow eyes bulged at the awful image that stood boggle-eyed in the mirror.

"Jaken-sama! You look pretty!" Rin clapped her hands with delight. Her own kimono of blue-leafed green glory was crossed with an over-long obi of the same orange color as his kerchief. Where the brat had gotten the awful clothing was beyond the indignant imp, but he suspected that that evil henchman Suyo had had a hand in it.

Sorrowfully turning away from that awful image in the mirror, Jaken wished with all his might that the Lord was here to stop this utter nonsense. Without the inhibiting presence of the austerely dignified Taiyoukai, the ningen girl had turned into an unmanageable tyrant, ordering him into the most obscene clothing, demanding he sacrifice his own august dignity on the altar of her "Let's pretend". Dressing him up was one of her favorite past-times, only secondary to her consuming need to drive him to distraction with her inventive pranks.

There was a faint scratching at the door, and Jaken snapped out a waspish answer to the request for entrance. The screen was slid back and the youkai servant bowed to him, his shock at Jaken's rather unorthodox appearance only noticeable by the slight whirling of mild pink eyes.

"Master Jaken. Master Suyo requests your presence; there is a messenger from the border who wishes words with you."

Testy, for the impish advisor was NOT in the best of moods, Jaken snapped back. "Where is he, fool?"

Rin popped her head out from the dusty trunk she had been digging through. Producing her prize---a giant fan almost as wide as she was tall, and painted with white birds on a violently blue background---she smiled, showing a full set of strong white teeth. Her adult tooth had grown in fully over the Lord's long absense. "A guest? Jaken-sama, we have a guest?"

"No, you stinking little turnip. Don't you ever listen? Stupid ningen! He said a messenger has come, NOT a guest!"

"Ooh!" Rin dropped the fan to clap her hands in excitement. "Someone new! Come to visit me?"

"No, you stupid little girl! Don't you ever lis---" Jaken cut himself off with a giant, world-weary sigh. Of course the stupid little turnip of a ningen never listened to him. Crossing his arms (hard to do in the bulky sleeves of a full-sized woman's kimono), he kept his grumbles to himself---mostly---and glared at the bowing youkai, who's absurdly pink eyes were now whirling amusedly at the pair of them.

"Well?" He demanded of the servant, impatient with delay.

"Master, he is awaiting you in the hall." The servant's long nose nearly touched the stone floor in obeisance.

"Very well. Come, Rin." Jaken picked up the trailing hem of his yellow robes and stepped over the prostrate servant, who TRIED to stop him...

"Er...Jaken-sama..."

"WHAT?" Jaken's yellow eyes bulged and his beak nearly split in half with the vehemence of his frustration.

The youkai merely bowed lower, to Jaken's glaring ire. Ignoring the stupid servant, the imp turned sharply to the left, going down the hall where the messenger would be waiting for him. Trailed by a giggling Rin, who had once more taken up her prized fan and was idly snapping it open and shut, the imp was the very figure of outraged dignity.

Even wearing an orange scarf and bright pink poppies.

*~*~*~*~*

Suyo awaited advisor Jaken's arrival before allowing the messenger to speak of what brought him from the border to the Taiyoukai's own fortress. With typical discretion, he had made the nervous kitsune comfortable, offering the wide-eyed youkai the customary refreshment and a token greeting. Although the Taiyoukai had left him, Suyo, in charge of his affairs while the Lord was away, Suyo had a feeling that what this young youkai had to say was important, and that Master Jaken should be there to hear him.

Arms folded, he sat at his ease across from the nervous kitsune, who kept eying the rich trappings that decorated one of the smaller of the Lord's receiving chambers. When Jaken, at last, arrived, the young kitsune nearly jumped out of his skin as the large, paneled doors were slammed open by the impatient imp.

Had he such a feature, Suyo would have lifted an eyebrow at Jaken's attire. Instead, his pink eyes widened a fraction, and he had to hold back the sudden urge to laugh. Jaken was resplendent in bright yellow and pink-poppied silk. The advisor's scaly head was wrapped in a scarf of hideous orange, the matching obi knotted about the waist of his young charge.

*I see.* Suyo appraised the equally-resplendent form of the ningen girl behind Jaken. Rin was in green silk, blue leaves dancing across the wrinkled hem and coinciding with the eye-popping blue of the fan she waved at him in greeting. Waving that giant fan nearly knocked the small girl off of her feet, and she giggled as she lurched into Jaken, who squawked out a protest before grabbing up his hem and making a sharp, bobbing bow in their direction.

The kitsune's eyes widened in shock, and his green eyes shifted toward Suyo as he fidgeted, at a loss for words. Under the spider youkai's bland expression, the young kitsune recovered himself, and he made a proper bow toward the imp, only his furry red tail twitching in violently suppressed merriment.

Kitsune were particularly adept at seeing the hilarity in all seriousness.

"What is this nonsense about?" Jaken demanded irritably. Rin was eying the furry kitsune with twinkling brown eyes over the jagged top of her awful fan, her little pigtail peeking out like a short black tail of its own. The kitsune's mouth twitched, all nervousness forgotten in light of the ridiculous ensemble who had come to meet him, representing the cold Taiyoukai in pink poppies and blue atrocities.

Suyo cleared his throat, not wanting to lessen the Taiyoukai's innate lordliness TOO much. The Lord had a reputation to uphold, after all.

"Young fox, may I introduce my Lord's first advisor, Jaken, and my Lord's ward, Rin." Suyo said with an extra ounce of emotionless superiority.

The kitsune bowed again. Jaken merely jerked his head, and Rin nearly fell over from the weight of her fan and the dragging hem of her kimono in her own lop-sided attempt at a proper bow. Jaken's eyes bulged at the girl's clumsiness, and the imp was too busy screeching discontent at the young, giggling girl to pay attention to the kitsune, who had closed his eyes on them all and recited his message from the heart. In youthful enthusiasm, the kit concentrated hard on what he had been given to say, ignoring everything else around him in his eagerness to speak his message word-perfect, for the honor of his clan.

Amid the shrieks and giggles, Suyo barely made out the messenger's words, and in growing shock, the spider youkai sharply asked for them to be repeated. But the fox demon had finished, and forgotten his message in staring at the imp and girl, who stood beak to cheek, orange scarf to black pigtail, screeching and hiccuping back laughter at each other.

*Impossible. The kit must be mistaken.* Suyo thought to himself, suddenly cold. There was no way the strange miko could be carrying a child...

"Kitsune." He said sharply, and the young fox flinched under the faint red glow in the spider servant's pink eyes. Jaken had thrown his claws up at the girl, who had fallen over into shrieking laughter, rolling on the floor. Squawking his outrage, the imp tried to help the little ningen up, only to come tumbling down on the stones beside Rin in a billowing whirl of eye-wincing colored silk. The poor kitsune's green eyes darted from the tangle on the floor to the eerily cold stare of the four-armed spider demon on his other side.

"Repeat yourself." His left fore-hand made a sharp, cutting gesture, making the kitsune apprehensive. Flushing with embarrassment, the young fox youkai mumbled a bad apology.

"I...I've forgotten." The kit was flushing brighter than his tail, and Suyo reined in his impatience with iron control. He could hardly blame the kitsune, he himself could hardly think with all the caterwauling between Rin and Jaken behind them.

"Your message has been received then, fox." Suyo handed the fidgeting fox a token of thanks, although he should be more severe with the distracted youkai and his forgotten message, he excused the kit's embarrassment as punishment enough.

Even as the spider servant gave the kitsune his token, the young fox's eyes were rolling back toward the undignified display of imp and ningen tumbling on the floor shrieking at each other. Sharply, Suyo said, "You may depart when you wish."

The kitsune flushed again, and beat a hasty retreat out of the hall.

Suyo followed the fox out of the room, his eyes narrowed in deep thought. Could he trust the word of the kitsune youth? Had he heard correctly? The Lord's spies were competent, they had been proven invaluable in the past, and rarely mistaken.

He wondered, idly, if he should hope they were mistaken THIS time.

Whether or not it was true, the Taiyoukai must be informed of this. The youkai's message had not included any knowledge of a possible male responsible for the miko's condition. He could not bring himself to think of the word "pregnancy".

Not yet.

The youkai had simply been curious over the sudden absence of half the small group of allies that had formed around InuYasha, the Taiyoukai's hanyou brother. Lord SesshouMaru had employed their services in the past, using their information to keep a distant eye on his half-brother. The knowledge of the miko's pregnancy was hardly a secret, she was protectively cared for by the aging miko of the village and the others who remained with them. The hanyou and the taijiya, however, were gone.

*My Lord must know of this, and as soon as possible.*

But where---and how---to find the Taiyoukai? There had been no word from him in the past two months. While an absence of this length had not been uncommon in the past, the Lord had been more diligent in his responsibilities since he had taken the girl Rin into his custody and care.

The shriek of the girl's laughter behind him gave Suyo some comfort. The Lord would not be so absent as to leave the girl on her own for too much longer.

The accompanied shriek of indigant outrage from Jaken comforted the concerned spider demon even more.

Jaken would not be able to survive Rin for much longer.