InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Road To Forever ❯ Sesshomaru's Plan ( Chapter 10 )

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Inuyasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi. I do however own the title, chapters, plot and characters in this fan fiction that were made up by me and never introduced in the manga or anime.

 

 

" " : talking out loud

 

' ' : thoughts to oneself

 

Italics: thoughts, flashbacks or dreams

 

Bold: Inuyasha's demon thoughts

 

* * : sounds or actions

 

The Road to Forever

 

-Chapter 10: Sesshomaru's Plan-

 

 

Inuyasha and Sesshomaru were less than an hour away from the hanyou's forest. There was one day left before the full moon, and if the ritual was not performed before then, there was little chance that the human woman would survive. If the miko were to die, the chances of Sesshomaru's plan to enlist his brother in an alliance to help him with his upcoming troubles would be slim.

 

One week prior….

 

The Imp-demon nearly tripped as he scrambled through the palace walls. He was exhausted. It was quite late but the urgent news that he had to tell his Lord couldn't wait until morning.

 

“Lord Sesshomaru?! Lord Sesshomaru?! Lord Sessho-”

 

*smack*

 

The small demon ran into a leg that belonged to none other than the Lord of the West himself.

 

“Jaken, there is no need to yell” the demon Lord stated, cold and serious as ever.

 

“Um, yes Milord. I apologize, I was not thinking; but Yuudai has sent a message from that human village! You said that if the half-demon and the girl-”

 

“So it has begun. Very well. You may go.” Sesshomaru interrupted, then turned and walked away.

 

`I wonder what on earth compelled my Lord Sesshomaru to become so interested in the romantic affairs of Inuyasha and a human girl. Normally he would care less what the half-demon does…” Jaken pondered to himself.

 

Normally the imp would have been right. Although Sesshomaru did gain a respect for the half-demon as well as his miko since the battle with Naraku; the scars of betrayal left on him by his father would never disappear.

 

The fact that the Inu no Taisho had left his mate, a noble Inu-youkai, to rut with a human female had disgusted Sesshomaru since he had first heard that the woman was with child. He had wanted to challenge his father and claim the Tetsusaiga and the western lands for himself. By the time that he had found his father however, he was already dead from the injuries he'd suffered fighting Ryukotsusei and his swords were no where to be found.

 

To add insult to injury, many decades later it would be discovered that the great Tetsusaiga would not be left to Sesshomaru. His father had left the sword to the half-breed the human woman Izayoi had birthed. Sesshomaru inherited the Tenseiga, a useless sword of healing.

 

As much as Sesshomaru tried, he could not kill his brother to attain the fang. Even if he could, there was still the fact that the sword had rejected him. He had to admit, even just to himself, that even without the legendary sword the hanyou was indeed strong. Once Bakusaiga had presented itself to Sesshomaru, the Tetsusaiga interested him less. His sword was many times more powerful than that old fang.

 

Since the destruction of Naraku, Sesshomaru had come to terms that his hatred towards Inuyasha had not entirely been justified. Instead of directing his anger towards the one who had wronged him, Sesshomaru focused his hatred on Inuyasha who was nothing more than a newborn pup at the time the events leading up to his father's death had occurred. To blame a pup for the misdoings of the father would be something Naraku would have done. The Lord of the West would never again fall to that level.

 

Much of the journey to the small human village had been in silence. Inuyasha had said nothing since they had left the palace, and Sesshomaru did not feel like engaging in conversation either. He had too much on his mind. He could only hope this business with the miko would not take long so he could return to attend to the palace and the pressing matters he had at hand.

 

Over the course of centuries, the Inu-youkai of the western lands were diminishing. Between all of the civil wars since the death of the Great Dog Demon and being hunted by demon slayers their numbers had decreased dramatically. There was now a total of sixty or so of the youkai remaining. About fifty of these served in the palace, at the royal court, or lived in one of the two Inu-youkai villages in the western lands. The rest were rouges and spread out over Japan.

 

There was little hope that the Inu-youkai would survive another civil war. The remaining houses had been in turmoil over the last two centuries, but most had accepted Sesshomaru as Lord of the West. Quite recently though, things were starting to heat up again as another young noble named Katsurou was gaining support over the remaining members of the Inu-youkai court to challenge Sesshomaru for the title of Lord of the West.

 

Katsurou claimed that he was once a rouge Inu-youkai who had spent his childhood in the lands to the East. The young demon told the court that his father was the late general Isamu who had been at the right hand of the Inu no Taisho until the Lord's death. Katsurou also claimed that after the death of the Great Dog Demon, Isamu fled to the east fearing civil war.

 

Mainly, the court believed this demon was who he claimed to be due to the similar demon markings and coloring as Isamu. In fact, he was almost a spitting image of the former general.

 

However, the ones who had been close to Isamu had their doubts. Isamu had died shortly before the Inu no Taisho after being purified by a priest-- helping his Lord fight off the humans in order to save Lady Izayoi and her unborn son. Sesshomaru had seen his body himself, but did not want to sully the demon's reputation by dragging him into his father's scandal as well into history as being slain by a human.

 

Katsurou accused the blood of the Inu no Taisho to be tainted as he had mated and produced a child with a human. Katsurou also made claims that Sesshomaru was trying to breed out the noble Inu-youkai. He believed the only reason that Sesshomaru would house the human child Rin was that the Lord of the West had inherited his father's lust for human women and desired her as his mate.

 

The Inu-youkai court was outraged by the scandal. Many old wounds concerning the circumstances of the death of the Inu no Taisho were now resurfacing. Katsurou was steadily gaining supporters claiming that Sesshomaru was not fit to rule as Lord of the West. Katsurou suggested that he would be the best choice to rule, and the court would no longer have to be embarrassed following a leader with such a tainted bloodline.

 

Sesshomaru still had his supporters in the court, the main two being Hiroto and Yuudai. Hiroto was a general in the western military and had served under Sesshomaru's father. If Isamu was at the Inu no Taisho's right hand, then Hiroto would have been his left. He had become a father-figure, advisor and role model to the Inu-Lord over the centuries.

 

Yuudai was Sesshomaru's cousin on his mother's side. The two were nearly inseparable in childhood, and as they grew up became strong allies in adulthood. Yuudai had recently been to the lands of the east on a diplomatic mission to encourage trade with Kyou, a Tiger-youkai and lord of those lands. On the way back Yuudai had spotted a massive army of bat and panther demons camped out on the borders of the western lands. It seemed they were planning an invasion.

 

When Yuudai had informed Sesshomaru and Hiroto of this latest development, the two were not surprised. Over the days during Yuudai's absence, Hiroto had been talking to another noble when Katsurou had walked past. The older demon could have sworn that Katsurou did not have the scent of a Inu-youkai. For just a moment, it seemed almost feline.

 

Sesshomaru had also made the same observation while talking to Katsurou. The demon was masking his scent. He was an impostor and needed to be eradicated. However, things were not that easy. The noble court would not easily pass judgement on Katsurou based only on Sesshomaru's claims. A war was going to be inevitable, and with the added militia at the border, Sesshomaru was vastly outnumbered.

 

The Lord of the West had no plans to ever ask his half-demon brother for help in any of his affairs, ever. However, although he had many strong allies, the truth was they did not have the numbers capable of containing the intruders. Inuyasha could easily count as his own army, just as Sesshomaru could, during battle. If the hanyou was brought into the battle, they might stand a chance against the impostor and his army. The trick was getting Inuyasha to do it.

 

The idea had come to Sesshomaru shortly after Yuudai's arrival back to the western lands. There was no doubt that the half-demon was almost completely ignorant to Inu-youkai culture. Having not spent his life behind the place walls or even near another Inu-youkai, there would be very little Inuyasha would have known about certain aspects of their culture. There was also no doubt that the hanyou harboured feelings for the miko Kagome and she reciprocated those feelings.

 

Since Naraku was defeated, Sesshomaru had known that it would have been only a matter of time before Inuyasha sought her out to mate. He had also known that it would only be a matter of time before he would come to Sesshomaru being his only blood relative and Lord of the West to perform the necessary ritual. He highly doubted that Inuyasha would be aware of the effects of a mate's intended mark would have on a human such as Kagome.

 

Sesshomaru had sent Yuudai to the outskirts of the human village to keep an eye on the hanyou and report any change in the woman's scent immediately. His cousin was an expert in stealth and was very good at masking his scent.

 

The Inu-Lord was prepared for his younger brother's arrival when the hanyou had crashed through his palace. Sesshomaru's plan came together--he did not have to ask for the hanyou's assistance, he simply made a trade.

 

The panther-youkai that Inuyasha had nearly died defeating was a general of the invading army that was sent to scout out the western lands for Inu-youkai strongholds. The weapon that he had in his possession simply proved that he had planned to wipe out the western army before it even had the chance to arm itself.

 

Sesshomaru knew that Inuyasha was scared for Kagome's life. He also knew that the woman was bound to have been in insufferable pain for the last week and Inuyasha would go out looking for revenge. It would not take any convincing for Sesshomaru to get him to join in his assault on the invading army. In fact, the taiyoukai was sure Inuyasha would go out looking for them on his own once his woman was safe.

 

In order for his allies to accept the alliance with his hanyou brother, Sesshomaru had made a very controversial decision. He knew the time would come when he would finally have to accept Inuyasha as his brother formally. Now would be as good as time as any. Once they defeated the impostor Katsurou and his army, the nobles of the court would accept Inuyasha as a saviour of the Inu-youkai. He would be worthy of his father's blood and the scandal concerning his birth would finally be put to rest. The family honour would be restored.

 

Sesshomaru did not always understand his brother's human weaknesses. He was disgusted at his lack of manners. He loathed his informality. He abhorred the way he would mindlessly rush into battle. However, Inuyasha was honourable. He stood firm on his word, he was courageous and he fought the evil beings of this world with a righteousness Sesshomaru had never seen before. No, he was not a worthless half-breed. In the end the so called `taint' of his human heart had made him more formidable than any full-blooded youkai Sesshomaru had ever known. This was a man he could call `Brother'.

 

The sun was setting as Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, Jaken and Ah-Un reached the Bone Eater's Well.

 

“Set up the crap here, by that big tree. I gotta get Kagome, I won`t be long.” Inuyasha said as he leapt through the well.

 

“Lord Sesshomaru! Are you just going to let him order you around like that? The nerve of that guy! I should just-”

 

*smack*

 

“That will not be necessary.” Sesshomaru stated after wiping his hand off on his robe having punched the imp on the head leaving a large lump.

 

Jaken looked upon the Inu-Lord with large tears in his eyes. “Could it be that you have forsaken me over a half-demon my Lord?”

 

“Jaken, unload the supplies for the mating ritual and make haste. There is no time for your ridiculous banter. The miko may be close to death before Inuyasha gets to her.” Sesshomaru stared at the imp coldly.

 

Jaken straightened and headed for Ah-Un. “Yes Milord, right away! You can count on me!” The imp-youkai announced unloading the cloth packages containing the necessary ritual items.

 

`Mating ritual? Kagome and Inuyasha are going to be mated? Why wouldn't they tell any of us, and why would Sesshomaru be involved? What happened to Kagome? I don't like the looks of this! I gotta find Miroku and Sango and tell them what`s going on!'

 

As soon as the wind changed direction so he would not be noticed by the taiyoukai, a young kitsune left his hiding spot in the bushes and headed to the village to tell his friends of what he overheard.

 

 

Author's Note: Okay I felt I just had to clear some things up here. Some people were a little confused as to Sesshomaru's sudden change of heart (especially some die-hard Sesshy fans). I was planning on adding a bit with Sesshomaru but I didn't know where to fit it in. Then suddenly, my muse came to me! Aha! A plot! Yay! Unfortunately this didn't help me get any sleep. I got 4 hours sleep last night after staying up all night typing all this out so I wouldn't lose my train of thought. I then worked another 12 hour shift and I'm so done…..ugggh! Six shifts down, eight more to go (ouch!).

 

I added some new characters and I'm no good with Japanese names, so I did some research and found some online that I thought were sort of fitting. Here`s what I got:

 

HIROTO 大翔, åšæ–— m Japanese

From Japanese 大 (hiro) "large, great" or åš (hiro) "command, esteem" combined with ç¿” (to) "soar, fly" or æ–— (to), which refers to the constellation Ursa Major. <<<I picked this name for Sesshomaru's general because in my mind he is a rather large and old Inu-youkai and almost reminds me of a bear when transformed :p I will go into the descriptions of these characters in later chapters as the story progresses.

 

ISAMU 勇 m Japanese

Means "courage, bravery" in Japanese.

 

KATSUROU å‹éƒŽ m Japanese

From Japanese å‹ (katsu) "victory" and 郎 (rou) "son".

 

YUUDAI 雄大 m Japanese

From Japanese 雄 (yuu) "hero, manly" and 大 (dai) "large, great". <<I chose the definition of “great hero” for this one. I don't see him as overly large or manly. In my mind he is slim and very agile. Kind of like a inu-ninja! LMAO! Okay that's a really weird thought, I need sleep!

 

I got so many great reviews and I'd like to thank all of you!

 

kaitlynpope77 (FF)

Deity_of_Anime (FF)

xxMonkeey27xx (FF)

Purple Meltdown (FF)

Eiko007 (MM)

 

*hands fruit baskets because I've been handing out way too much junk lately then runs away because I realize that's a very Hojo thing to do o.0*

 

Alright, I'm obviously in need of sleep so I will go before I say anything else really odd…Again, I don't know when I'll get the next chapter up. But I can't seem to leave it alone :p That was my longest author's note EVER! OMG!