The Price of Vengeance

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

Chapter Three (Suggestion)

Lord SesshouMaru walked steadily through the dark forests on the borders of his lands, idly scanning the undergrowth for potential threat. He did not fear any real menace, he was too powerful to worry over the small mechanisms of smaller youkai and ningen. He did patrol his lands routinely, however, making certain that his vassals knew, simply by his presence, that he was always aware of them.

He was alone for this journey. He had made his small charge Rin stay back at the castle, under Jaken's supervision. Not that Jaken was any good at supervising the small, impetuous human girl. It was faintly amusing how the little ningen ran circles around the exasperated imp. Her devotion to the Taiyoukai of the Western Lands was touching, though he did not worry over his own feelings toward his adopted girl.

His subjects had been aghast at his keeping of the ningen brat, but the Lord never cared what his vassals thought. As long as they served him, he did as he pleased. And it pleased him to keep the young girl. She was amusing.

For now.

A faint scent came to him on the light breeze. Lord SesshouMaru's golden eyes narrowed as he easily identified the familiar stench.

*Naraku.*

With lightning quick reflexes, he twisted to the side and cleared the brush. He stared down at the kneeling white baboon with the red-tinged eyes.

"Naraku. You wish for your own death appearing on my lands." The Taiyoukai sniffed delicately, and froze minutely. No. It wasn't Naraku, but a puppet. SesshouMaru's coldly arrogant face stayed serenely blank, but his lips twisted faintly with a sneer.

"So. You fear to meet me directly, then."

"It is but a small precaution, my lord SesshouMaru." The puppet bowed, for every sound and appearance the demon-raised hanyou.

"You are tedious. Why are you here?" The Taiyoukai stood unpreturbed, as still as stone.

"I have a notion for you, my lord." The puppet said, amusement clouding his velvet voice.

"I have no care for you notions, hanyou. You are annoying me with your presence, and that is a dangerous path you tread, vermin." Lord SesshouMaru replied coldly.

A husky chuckle came from the white baboon. "Ah, but we have a common enemy. We both seek to hurt the half-breed InuYasha. And I told you at our last meeting that I would enlist your aid again sometime in that pursuit."

The Lord's eyes narrowed, the only sign of his impatience. "You were lucky you escaped that time, hanyou."

The puppet Naraku held up a thinly clawed hand for patience. "I understand how much you hate your brother. I harbor similar sentiment, my lord."

"Your sentiment is no concern of mine. InuYasha is easily disposed of." The golden eyes were chilling, the unemotional voice icy.

"Is that so? He has seemed to escape you quite a few times, Taiyoukai." The baboon mocked.

A faint yellow-green glow between the claws of the inu youkai's right hand was the puppet Naraku's only answer. The baboon stepped back into the brush, putting a pacifying hand up.

"Wait, Lord. You act rashly in killing a mere puppet. I have a suggestion that would be to our mutual benefit."

"You are a fool, hanyou. You will die for your insult." The Lord growled faintly as his eyes tinged with blood.

"I know of a way you can hurt InuYasha, hurting him more than if you just killed him." The baboon hastily said as the poisonous glow brightened in the Taiyoukai's hand. "You can humiliate him more than he humiliated you by taking the Tetsusaiga."

The poisonous whip cracked through the air, splitting the white robes of the baboon in two and chopping off the head as the whip snapped back. The white leering head rolled over the ground to rest facing SesshouMaru. A green glow suffused the eyes momentarily. "Maim the hanyou in the heart, as he maimed you in the arm." Naraku's voice taunted the Taiyoukai. "Take the young girl who keeps him company, and you will humiliate him worse than he humiliated you."

The whip cracked through the air again, shattering the furred mask into pieces.

*~*~*~*~*

The small kitsune cub crept into the darkened interior of Lady Kaede's hut on the edge of the village. Faint red light came from the banked fire, making the kit shiver as he remembered how close the fire of the flaming forest had come. His tail was singed, as was one paw, and he was covered in black smears of sooty ash. He wasn't aware of his own small pains, only worried about his dear friend, Kagome.

Kagome had protected him in the tree, shielding him from the dancing sparks and reaching flames as the trees burned around them. Even as InuYasha had rescued her from the burning tree, more sparks had caught in her clothes and hair. As soon as InuYasha had cleared the razed forest, he had put them out by beating at them with his Fire Rat robe, but the girl had already passed out from the pain.

Shippo remembered InuYasha's despairing howl when he couldn't immediately revive Kagome. He had clutched the girl in his arms, not knowing if she lived. Blood had soaked through the rips in her shirt, mixing with the smoldering ash and soot that covered her too-white skin. Blood that had come from his own claws as he gripped her shoulders in her desperate jump to safety from the burning tree.

It had been Sango who pulled InuYasha away long enough for Miroku to check the girl's faint breathing. Kagome had whimpered in pain, and her eyes had fluttered open momentarily. "InuYasha..." She had murmured softly before falling back into blessed darkness.

InuYasha's fanged grin of happiness had not been what Lady Kaede had been expecting when she saw the hanyou carrying the hurt girl from the smouldering woods. She had been out and about, directing the men of the village with picks and shovels to try and make a fire break between the fields of the village and the roaring flames as InuYasha's forest burned. Looking askance at the devil's smile on InuYasha's face, she had quickly directed the hanyou to take the girl into her hut. Shippo had scampered in after them, not wanting to leave his Kagome for a single moment. But the Lady Kaede had started taking off the burnt and shredded remains of Kagome's shirt, and sent the two worried males back out with a sharp look.

Sango had gone to help Lady Kaede, but had emerged some time later with burn salve to help tend the minor injuries of the others. Shippo had refused to sit still long enough for her to check his own singed fur. He didn't care. He was only worried for his Kagome.

"K-Kagome?" He whispered hoarsely as he crept into the hut. Lady Kaede, who had been sitting with her eye closed against the wall, looked up sharply.

"Shippo." She said softly as the fox cub crept to her side.

"Lady Kaede. Is K-Kagome going to be all right?" Shippo asked desperately as the priestess put a comforting, gnarled hand on his head.

"Aye, child. Kagome will be fine. She is just resting right now. Ye must be quiet and not disturb her."

"May I see her?" Shippo asked in a strained whisper, anxious to see that his Kagome was all right for himself. He could barely make out the faint form of the girl as she lay at the far end of the hut, covered by a shielding blanket.

"Only for a moment, and ye must not wake her." Cradling the kitsune cub, Lady Kaede stood up stiffly. Her old bones were getting tired, and it had been a long night. On soft, silent feet she approached the still form of the girl and knelt, setting Shippo down at her side. Shippo stretched out a paw, tenatively, before sitting big-eyed at the resting girl's side.

*He loves her like a child its mother.* Lady Kaede thought to herself, watching the small fox cub out of the corner of her one good eye. *But then, what else is to be expected? The poor child lost his family so young, and Kagome has been mothering him for the past three years now. But there may be heartache in this. When Kagome returns to her own time once and for all, she will not be able to keep the little kitsune with her. There is some cause for concern.*

Kagome was laying unnaturally still. Usually she curled up on her side, with one hand on her pillow, and Shippo snuggled close to her. Now she lay on her back, the only sound her faint breaths in and out as she slept. Those faint sounds reassured Shippo immensely. His Kagome was going to be fine! Relief washed over him, and the tired cub fell asleep watching his beloved friend, leaning against Lady Kaede's lap.

Smiling tenderly at the small kit, Lady Kaede scooped his limp body up and deposited it on the blankets beside Kagome. The cub would not disturb the girl now that he was sleeping soundly, and both of them would be reassured by the other's presence.

"Sleep ye well, children." The old miko whispered as she turned away to her own sleeping mat.

*~*~*~*~*

The first rays of the sun emerging on the horizon woke InuYasha from his exhausted sleep in the crook of a tree. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he scanned the horizon. He could see both the village and the forests they called his from this tree, which was why he preferred it to any other that lay close to the village. Idly tightening his hold on the Tetsusaiga, which he cradled in his sleep like a child, he stretched his senses out to the waking world around him.

The smell of burnt, wet ash filled the air, overwhelming most of the other scents around him. Faint smoke, inky black and foul, still hung over the remains of his forest. The villagers had successfully combatted the fire by clearing shrub and dousing it with water from the nearby river. They had somehow managed to build a channel from the waterways to the fireline. With a ready supply of water available, the raging conflagration had been extinguished.

Feeling responsible, Miroku had dragged InuYasha with him to help the villagers fight the fire. They had only stopped when Sango had come to treat the few burns they had both received combating first the Ash-demon and then the resulting forest fire. InuYasha felt as achy as an old woman, his muscles overstretched and sore.

*And if I feel this bad, I can imagine just what the others are feeling. Frail humans.* InuYasha thought idly as he blinked against the flooding sunlight as it broke over the green forest and across the blackened remains in the center. That very frailty was one of the things InuYasha wanted to avoid at all costs, hence his desire to become all demon. *Then nobody could mess with me, not even that creep, SesshouMaru.*

Why was he thinking about his stupid brother right now, anyway? Something ate at him, something about that particular youkai they had fought and killed last night. Not one for long thought or intense speculation, InuYasha let the worry go. More moved by action, he finally stirred and stood up on the swaying branch, his clawed toes holding him steady. Stretching, he felt the warmth of the sun reviving his tired muscles.

*Much better. Being a demon beats being a human any day. Even if I am only a half-demon.* Strapping the Tetsusaiga to his side, the hanyou sprang down from the tree.

Time to go find that Jewel shard.