InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Tale of Sesshoumaru ❯ Inheritance: Getting What's Coming To You ( Chapter 40 )

Disclaimer: I do not own copyright to any of the Inuyasha characters. Wish I did. I make no profit off of my fan fiction. Wish I did.

 

Disclaimer #2: I do own the characters of Akanesuji/Akane, Smart Ass, Hizumeha, Kuza and Manatsu. If you would like to borrow them, please contact me at skycladstrega@yahoo.com for permission.

 

Disclaimer #3: This fan fiction is rated R for violence, sex, gore and supernatural yummy goodness. If you are under the age of 17, I suggest getting your parents permission to read this. I am not responsible for any psychological damage my rantings might bring you :^P

 

 

 

Akanesuji thought the poor boy's head would burst and so she dismissed him, asking him to call on the horse youkai and have them return to her service. Everything would be settled just as soon as she could get a decent answer out of him. The mares finished cleaning the barn, doing quite a good job and she requested to Jaken that dinner be served out there for her. She had Hizumeha build a platform for Sesshoumaru to sit upon so that he would be raised above all the others. The horse thought it stupid, but didn't say a word. His mistress would observe protocol while in state and he could not convince her otherwise.

 

Much like the last time they had come, the girls were shuffled off to the women's wing while the men were sent to the men's wing. Even Hizumeha and the mares were separated as was custom while at court. If they were to spend the evenings together, he would have to visit them or they would have to visit him in secret. It may sound like a terrible plight to be separated so, but it always made for romantic adventures. For some couples it was a blessed relief, but for others a game of quiet looks, stolen kisses and secret rendezvous.

 

When dinner time had come, Rin and Shippo had run off to play and Sango and Kagome couldn't find them. They had no choice but to attend on time, Jaken calling for them and pestering them down the hallway. They were dressed in the lovely kimonos given to them before, proud to wear them as they had not any other occasion to do so. When they arrived to the barn, they were seated first on an impromptu floor of layered tatami mats. A fire was set near the middle, keeping the place warm against the large opening.

 

InuYasha and Miroku were next to enter, Akanesuji watching them enter. Miroku, ever polite, bowed to her and she nodded her head to him with a wink. The inu didn't, choosing to sit where the tanuki pointed him to, a spot next to Kagome.

 

How beautiful she looked in her green and white kimono. He had forgotten how graceful and feminine she could be outside of that little school girl outfit. He smiled at her, his golden eyes bright. She blushed and turned away, all under the watchful gaze of the Western Lady.

 

Hizumeha was next to enter, his wives trailing behind him in a line from highest ranking to lowest. They were placed across the center aisle from Inuyasha and his friends, each bowing according to their station. The male a bow from the waist, while the women dropped completely to their knees, their foreheads on their hands at the ground. Inuyasha and the others watched the respectful display carefully, noting how the women did not seem to resent their positions and the stallion waiting for word to raise. It did not take long for Akanesuji to return the greeting and have him seated.

 

Rin came next, escorted by Shippo and Akane gave a little frown. Shippo was not her suitor, nor was he even her rank. While it was very cute, it was not appropriate. She took in a deep breath and stiffed a little, trying to ignore Rin's joy of having him at her side and not behind her. When the little girl bowed before her mother, Akanesuji was quick to snarl her lip at the kitsune so that the human did not see. Rin took her place next to her on the platform. Now everyone waited for his lordship.

 

Who took his own sweet damn time.

 

They sat staring quietly at each other for what seemed like forever. When his gleaming white kimono, hair and mokomoko-sama appeared in the door, everyone bowed except for InuYasha who only gave him pissy looks under the crop of his bangs. Sesshoumaru gave him in return the single arched eyebrow and the hanyou have him a stuck out tongue in return.

 

Standing on the platform, then taking his seat, he looked around the room at every bowing form. Even Akanesuji bowed her head as best she could in her doggy form and that pleased him. He looked to Jaken, who stood to his back diagonal and the frog gave a clap to signify all could relax. A second look to Jaken started the dinner. The frog nodded to the tanuki male and female to bring in the food.

 

“Did you see our darling daughter?” Akanesuji said quietly to her husband, who was stiff backed and looking all the world like a apparition of death itself. Jaken was quick to serve him first, putting before him a small personal table filled with bowls of rice and raw fish.

 

“No.”

 

“She had Shippo escort her,” the lady said in hushed tones. “At her side.”

 

Sesshoumaru looked down to his daughter, who only looked up with a flirtatious grin. He squeezed his eyes together and she knew what that meant. She was likely going to get a spanking later. In defiance she squinted her eyes back, a bold move against her father that she had never done before.

 

He squinted harder, his left eye beginning to twitch and his lip raising just that one or two little millimeters that meant “back off.”

 

She flared her nostrils out and knitted her brows together. Rin was digging in.

 

That was when the biggest battle of his life truly began. A battle that would go on for ten years. Oh by the Kami, it was puberty. “You will not forget your place,” he whispered to her between closed teeth and stiff jaw muscle.

 

She made her face like a calm pool of water and became a total blank. She turned to face the room and lifted her nose and chin up high enough to say “I'm ignoring you.” Sesshoumaru did the same, turning his own face outward. She would think herself the winner, but only until he got a hold of her later when her bottom would be red and on fire.

 

Akanesuji was awfully glad she had the limited facial expressions of a dog because she disparately wanted to bite her bottom lip and snicker. Shippo ducked behind Kagome, choosing to sit on the side farthest away from the lord and lady of the Western lands. Far away was good. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Rin and her father were at odds over him.

 

Sesshoumaru picked up his chopsticks and started picking at his meal. Every silent moment that dripped by was becoming more and more painful. It was Miroku who opened the floor with the first sentence, breaking the ice so to speak and hoping to elevate the mood. “Thank you Lady Akanesuji and Lord Sesshoumaru for inviting us all to visit you.” He repeated sentiments that had already been expressed earlier. That was safe. That was easy.

 

“I am sure my wife is glad to have you,” the inuyoukai answered, glad that the second course of seaweed with sesame seeds had arrived. He wasn't going to say that he was glad because that would be a lie. He wasn't glad to have any of them here right now. Not with the place in a state of shambles, his wife in her true from and Naraku somewhere recuperating for the next round.

 

“Now that you have your wife back, you're a total ass again,” InuYasha said in a low steady tone. “I liked you better when you needed our help to find her.” Kagome smacked the back of his head and apologized.

 

“It's alright, Kagome,” Akanesuji said before her husband could say anything in return. “We have just had a terrible week. I am very glad that you all accepted our invitation. We have much business to discuss.”

 

Inuyasha swallowed. He knew what was coming.

 

“Oh?” the monk asked, tilting his head to the side out of curiosity.

 

“Yes. I would like it if Inuyasha would reconsider his brother's offer of a military position here. As you can see, I am in need of good soldiers to protect the estate.”

 

Sesshoumaru thought he was going to choke and he held his breath trying not to cough up a small wad of seaweed. Everyone was looking at him except for his wife, who knew why they were all looking. They expected him to throw a fit at her or something of a similar vein. She felt she had to preempt it and so she continued on her topic. “Earlier this week, my lord Sesshoumaru publicly declared his unending hatred for court and how he despises being here. That has opened up many grand possibilities for InuYasha, should he decide to take them.”

 

Once again everyone looked to Sesshoumaru to see if he concurred with what she was saying. He only stared straight ahead, waiting. Listening. He wanted to hear the rest of it before choking her to death.

 

“As I am lady of the Western lands, and second only to my lord husband himself, I will take care of these lands to the best of my ability. Part of that duty is to assure that these attacks will not happen again.”

 

Miroku plugged his face with another bite of food before talking again. “Please do not find offense in what I ask, but what is in it for InuYasha to stay here?”

 

Akanesuji smiled. If InuYasha would not broker his own future, it seemed the more intelligent monk would. “I offer him reinstatement of title, land and holdings. I will pay for his brides out of my own expense and guarantee that his children have title and privilege.”

 

“What about inheritance?” the monk was quick to ask, pulling an even more important consideration to the forefront.

 

“Line of succession states that our son will be heir.”

 

“And if anything should happen to both Sesshoumaru and your son?” he asked, picking at his food again casually.

 

“Then InuYasha becomes lord. I shall not stand in the way. I have my own lands past the mountains that I could return to.”

 

Miroku looked to InuYasha. “That is a very good deal. Akanesuji is honorable. She would not go against her word.”

 

Now all eyes were on the younger inu who was fuming under his shirt. Kagome was staring at him rather dumbfounded, waiting to hear what he would say. In fact, everyone was waiting for him to say something. Any thing.

 

“I will not consider it until Naraku is dead,” he finally answered. It was an excuse he had formulated earlier in the day in case this kind of discussion had come up. “I will keep on hunting him down until I find that mangy ass and kill him.”

 

Sesshoumaru gave out a slow breath of relief. Akanesuji had spoken honestly, and there was nothing for him to be ashamed of in his earlier confessions, but since the attack he had found himself wanting to stay closer to her, to settle here for a while in safety. With InuYasha turning her down temporarily, he would not have to deal with him here on the grounds. He could protect his wife and his lands himself. “It is my hope that you kill him as well,” Sesshoumaru spoke.

 

“You could make it a little easier and join our hunt, my lord Sesshoumaru,” Miroku added. “It would certainly go faster if we teamed up.”

 

“Tired of chasing the air, monk?” the inuyoukai asked. In their several years of wandering around Japan looking for jewel shards, they still had not found the monster and dispatched him. Several times they had found his lair and entered, only for him to pack it up and move it again.

 

“I have reason to want to hurry. Every year that goes by increases my chances of dying by this hole in my hand. I would eventually like to marry and have children.”

 

“Yes,” Akanesuji commented. “You are well known for asking every available womb to provide you a son.” Sesshoumaru looked to her and she ignored him. He wondered if the monk had ever asked her. He knew she would have turned him down of course, being so in love with him. The thought of that made him smile to himself, but still, it was a matter of honor if the monk had ever propositioned his wife.

 

Sango turned her head away, to which Miroku blushed in embarrassment. It was very true that he was flirtatious, but he never wanted to hurt the one he would happily choose to settle down with if he could just get rid of the hole that would be the death of him.

 

“Why don't you just take a wife now Miroku? You could settle here as well. I could use a monk at Sieobo's temple.”

 

“I too cannot consider marriage until Naraku is dead. It would be irresponsible of me to marry before this curse is lifted. Though I greatly appreciate your kind offer.”

 

“Then it seems we have no choice but to band together and attack Naraku if anyone is to have any sense of peace. Sesshoumaru, my love, when would you like to go?”

 

Sesshoumaru relaxed a little a took another bite to delay answering. “I suppose we could go in the spring.”

 

Akanesuji tilted her head in thought. “Spring would be too late. He will have already had several months to recuperate. We should really leave tomorrow and try to catch him before the snow comes, now while he is weak.”

 

“You are in no condition to be hunting.”

 

“Bullshit.” Everyone was looking at Akanesuji now. No one expected the great lady of the Western lands to cuss like a sailor, nor refute her lord in front of everyone. “I defended myself pretty well until you got here. If I had had a weapon in my hand I could have killed him myself.”

 

“You survived an attack without a weapon?” InuYasha asked, thinking it rather impossible.

 

“Sure, that is why I am in this state now. He's couldn't cover all of me at this size. If we worked as a team, I am sure we could defeat him together.” She turned to her dear servant. “How about it Hezumeha? Ready for another hunt?”

 

“Oh no you don't.” Sesshoumaru interjected. “You are not going out with him on a hunt.”

 

“And why not?” Akanesuji asked, her suspicions about his true feelings concerning Hizumeha now confirmed.

 

“You're staying here.”

 

“I'll go where I please.”

 

The room looked like a captive audience at a Punch and Judy show. They just knew the fur was going to start flying any moment now and everyone sat on edge. The gang had never seen Sesshoumaru and Akanesuji together and their dynamic was certainly interesting. Hizumeha had seen it all before, so he just continued to eat, but kept his eye out, waiting for her to either kick him out or to storm out herself. It could also devolve into their usual brawl where he would have to lick her wounds and they would be apart for a few months. Come to think of it, they had gotten along for the last year. It was about time they got into a big squabble.

 

“You let me go to Hell,” she said, pointing her nose in the air away from him.

 

“Because I knew you would survive it.”

 

“Well obviously I survive this too.”

 

“I don't know that. Do you survive because you go or do you survive because you stay? I say it's because you stay.”

 

“I wish I had never taken you through the well.” Akanesuji turned her body away from him in an obvious display. Terribly unladylike, but effective none the less.

 

“What?!” Kagome cried. “You know about the well?”

 

“Well of course I do,” the large dog said. “You told Sesshoumaru all about it last time you were here deep in your cups. You should really watch your saki more carefully.” She then looked at InuYasha intently. “I even know about you asking Kagome to stay here with you forever.”

 

InuYasha never had a chance. All he could do was bow his head and try to hide under his fluffy white bangs. Sesshoumaru laughed out loud. He couldn't help it. It was one thing to endure his wife's clever machinations himself, but a whole new thing entirely to see her tear into someone else. She was good. Damned good. She would have that boy running scared with his tail between his legs in no time.

 

Either that or she would really have him here as his captain. Either way, she would play him like a musical instrument and that would be very, very entertaining. He had always hated the idea of her being a manipulative bitch, but when when it was directed at his brother, he certainly approved.