Penetration

Chapter Eight


Sesshomaru stared up at the Goshinboku in a rare moment when the hanyou was not in its vicinity. He was currently hiding in the village, just inside the boundaries of Sesshomaru’s senses, covering himself with their ningen scent and begging for the acceptance he would never receive.

After spending so long in this rural, backwater province, the daiyoukai was well aware of the opinions held with regards to his brother. The villagers would never welcome Inuyasha into the fold no matter how many low level youkai he fought off; even with the aged miko’s trust, he was still a pariah, a monster from their elders’ history. That would not change.

Inuyasha had to know this. The day he was pinned to this tree by the sacred arrow, he lost all chance of ever being accepted, yet still he remained. In this place he had found companions willing to overlook his youkai blood, and so he remained here. He was like a loyal stray tossed aside by his master, still lingering in hopes of winning back his affection.

He was pathetic. That a son of the noble inuyoukai bloodline would beg and scrape for acceptance into a lowly ningen settlement only made tolerating his miserable existence that much more difficult. And it made his current situation all the more deplorable.

He reached out his hand and touched slender fingers to the scar in the tree’s bark. It had been over twenty years since he had stood before this tree like this; at that time, his brother had still hung suspended in an unnatural sleep, cradled by a growth of vines that almost seemed to support his weight.

Back then, he had opted not to attempt to break the miko’s spell. If Inuyasha was foolish enough to fall prey to ningen emotion, he deserved to be pinned to this tree still. How he had managed to break free of such a powerful spell was something Sesshomaru was not certain of, but he suspected it had had something to do with his miko companion who had recently disappeared without a trace.

It was a display of yet more foolishness that he so obviously pined for her. A true youkai accepted but did not rely on the companionship of others.

However, all notion of accepting or denying companionship was moot for him. He lowered his hand and narrowed his eyes at the tree’s trunk. Despite outward appearances, he was becoming more tense and angry as this trial dragged on. If nothing else, yesterday’s debacle proved that.

In a way, he supposed he owed the hanyou his thanks. He was so on edge that being tackled to the ground had snapped the last thread of his patience and, was it not for Inuyasha’s outrageously preposterous accusation, he may well have injured the half-breed and broken clan law, thereby staining his honour. The penalties for such an act were even more demeaning than what he already had to endure.

Within the confines of his own mind, he could admit the entire scenario had been largely his own fault. Whether he had over- or underestimated Inuyasha by expecting him to draw Tetsusaiga, he wasn’t sure, but it was still clear that his own arrogance had led to him dropping his guard. It would not happen again.

At least Inuyasha had seemed as unnerved by the ordeal as he himself had been. He recalled the way the hanyou had fled almost as soon as they separated from each other. That, however, may have simply been the result of Inuyasha’s strange comments.

There had definitely been embarrassment. The nervous twitching of Inuyasha’s ears and the reddening of his cheeks were clear indicators of that. But it was most intriguing that the embarrassment had grown the more Sesshomaru engaged him in banter. Was it possible that he had stumbled upon a kernel of truth?

The thought was absurd, he decided. Their hate for each other was mutual and so vast that it left no room for any form of admiration beyond a warrior’s grudging acknowledgement of his adversary’s strength. There would never be anything other than that between them.

The daiyoukai realised abruptly that he had been staring at the Goshinboku trying to unravel the inner workings of his little brother’s mind for some time now. He shook his head as though to clear it and turned away from the massive tree. Not only was the effort beneath him, but it was futile as well; the only one who understood Inuyasha’s unfathomable motives was Inuyasha himself.

Sesshomaru turned his attention to other matters. He had been away from his ward and vassal for over a week now. Though he had left them in an area with low youkai activity and the dragon, Ah-Un, would be able to provide adequate protection if needed, he had been away for too long. Jaken knew the consequences for allowing harm to come to Rin, but her protection would be better assured once she was closer.

While it seemed straightforward, it posed a problem. He would need to travel a considerable distance to where they waited for his return and would not be back until morning. Inuyasha would be left alone during this time. Sesshomaru knew full well that the likelihood of a powerful youkai entering the territory during his absence was almost nil, but it was another part of tradition ingrained in his mind. To break any part of that ancient code left a bad taste in his mouth.

It appeared to be his only option, however. The thought of asking Inuyasha to accompany him was absurd, especially with the way the hanyou was deliberately avoiding him. Sesshomaru was well aware of why he had spent a full day in the village when usually he preferred to idle his time away in the forest.

Beyond that, it would reveal to the half-breed that Sesshomaru could not currently be without his presence and, like a dog with a bone, Inuyasha would not simply let that go. To be questioned on the matter would once again put potentially lethal strain on Sesshomaru’s frayed patience.

The daiyoukai turned in the direction of the ningen village, decided. There was no other choice. He would have to ensure Inuyasha stayed in the village until morning where he would be least likely to run into any youkai. How to manage such a feat with his stubborn, wilful brother remained to be seen.

The sun had long since sunk behind the trees and the last hint of orange was disappearing from the sky as Sesshomaru began to walk toward the village. It was quiet all around him, the world caught in a brief moment of relative inactivity as the daytime foragers returned to their burrows and those that were nocturnal slowly emerged.

He paid the small creatures no attention as he passed, forming and dismissing plans to force Inuyasha’s cooperation, using the hanyou’s youki as a guide to tell him how close he was drawing to the ningen village.

That is, until it vanished so abruptly that he stumbled in shock.

For a moment, he was frozen, eyes staring unseeing ahead of him. There was only one thing he could think of that could erase youki like that.

Death.

Inuyasha... dead? Had he failed?

No. He had to be alive. His youki had been quiet before disappearing. It had not been blazing with either fear or anger, nothing to suggest he had been fighting. Unless he hadn’t seen the blow coming. A villager sick of his presence?

No, not that. The aged miko may be the only one in the village to accept Inuyasha, but the rest respected her too much to attack him unprovoked. What, then, had caused his youki to vanish? Something was not right.

Snapping out of his stupor, Sesshomaru’s body condensed into a ball of pure youki and shot up into the sky, hurtling at great speed toward the village, a disembodied, rumbling growl following in his wake.

If his brother was dead, there would be hell to pay.