Gotta Get Thru This

"….this is my brother…Sesshoumaru." InuYasha introduced and crossed his arms over his chest. His black eyebrows were drawn tightly together and his lips set in a thin-lipped scowl.

"Half. Brother." Sesshoumaru growled simply; his eyes never once left Naraku.

"Feh, whatever!" InuYasha glowered and looked away.

InuTaishou, quite wide-eyed, stared at the older and angrier version of his beautiful son. He thought of Takemaru naked so he would not get a hard on from the sight of this Other Sesshoumaru.

The young Naraku, on the other hand, was very amused. "So…you think I’m this other guy? I’m guessing he’s the villain of your time?"

Sesshoumaru, tall and mighty as ever, strode slowly and cautiously over to the young Naraku. He stopped walking once he was three feet away from the handsome, if not, pretty dark-haired boy. He inhaled the boy’s scent in deeply, one of his eyebrows arched from concentration. Once he was satisfied, he stopped his inspection of Naraku and simply stared at him, as if he had reached a rather significant conclusion.

"Oookay, so now that you’re done sniffing me, inu, what now?" Naraku, for some unexplainable reason, or so he thought, felt heady and nervous being so close to Sesshoumaru.

"You are not Him. You are not the hanyou I seek…" Sesshoumaru muttered more to himself than to the boy.

"Uh huh. If what this InuYasha character says is true…you’re a totally different Sesshoumaru? If that is true, where did you both come from? And this…other…being you seek?" Naraku, being clever and full of intelligence, was quick to address the obvious issues.

Sesshoumaru did not seem to hear him because he had finally noticed InuTaishou. His chilled eyes locked with the fervent eyes of the Great Dog Demon Lord. Shock made him go rigid at first, then mixed emotions forced his knees to feel weak. Although not visible to the eye, his body fiercely trembled.

"…you died…for that goddamn woman…and…that…hanyou…" Sesshoumaru bitterly bit out; to all who know of Sesshoumaru’s icy exterior, it is startling to view him with so many raw and wild emotions etched so deeply in his visage and his voice. "…I wanted…to protect…you…"

Clearly Sesshoumaru had had some kind of severe nervous breakdown, for after his grievous words, he had promptly fainted.

InuTaishou, too stunned to function in any way other than breathing and staring, failed to catch him.

Fortunately, the keen and swift Naraku caught the fallen inu youkai. Sesshoumaru’s sheer weight, probably due to his armor and clothing, forced the boy to take a couple steps backwards.

"Why did you catch him? You should have let him fall flat on his pretty face!" InuYasha growled and rolled his eyes.

"I would never let Sesshoumaru fall. This one is no exception to that…" Naraku objected, his smoldering scarlet depths never deserted said inu youkai’s bishounen face. ‘…He’s different somehow from the Sesshoumaru I know…but still, I feel as if I know this one…’

"InuYasha. I see now what you were telling me about. Its a shame to see two feuding, stubborn brothers. I feel, though, that everything is not what it seems. I do not understand everything right now. Could you tell us more of what you know on how you arrived here?" InuTaishou, too, couldn’t part his eyes from the slumbering demon.

"Well, all I remember is that I jumped down into the Bone-Eater’s Well to go get Kagome, I think, but something strange happened. Something hard smashed into me from behind and some weird red light flashed…and I woke up by the God Tree. Then I smelled a familiar scent, so I followed it and found…your son." InuYasha explained in the best way that he could; he wasn’t quite sure what happened himself. It really puzzled him and he hated thinking, so that certainly pissed him off.

"As soon as Sesshoumaru recovers, we’ll have to question him as well, of course." InuTaishou replied quietly, not sure what to think of at this point. He didn’t fail to notice that the kitsune had recently seated himself at Sesshoumaru’s side.

"He doesn’t look so dangerous when he’s sleeping. He almost looks like a…angel or something." Shippou commented; he had been silent during the whole ordeal. Sometimes, he knew just when to keep quiet and when to talk.

"Whatever." InuYasha grunted, but silently, he agreed with Shippou.

"He’ll be fine, I think, for now. But Sess is still missing…" Naraku sighed and out of old habit, he stroked the unconscious inu youkai’s silken silvery hair.

"Hai, I know. Damn, I should have watched him! But I didn’t. Not only have I failed him, I seemed to have failed this other Sesshoumaru as well!" InuTaishou grumbled this more to himself, as if to reprimand himself. His claws bit deeply into the palms of his fisted hands, fury and regret mainly edged him on.

Instinctive nature finally kicked in and InuTaishou felt a protective instinct emerge more prominently from within him. His pup was in mortal peril and he could feel it as definitely as the wind blew his hair behind him.

Little did he know that innocence had been stolen.


TBC


A/N: Sorry its so short! I go to school and work, unfortunately. I might post the next chapter tomorrow, k? BTW, I will reply to reviews next chapter, okies?