Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ One for the Ages ❯ Chapter Five: The Great Sibling Rivalry ( Chapter 5 )

One for the Ages

By Gan Xingba

Chapter Five: The Great Sibling Rivalry

 

Kurama gazed out upon the picturesque image of the sun setting on the small village in front of him as he relaxed against the trunk of a large tree.

 

`To think that someday this primitive little village will be the grand metropolis of Tokyo,' he thought in amazement. `It's truly remarkable.'

 

The village was apparently used by Inuyasha's party as a staging area, since Kagome could travel to her own time through the nearby well and an elderly priestess named Kaede provided them with free meals and a place to sleep. After failing to find any hint of Naraku's location after two days of uneventful searching, the group had decided to return to the village so Kagome could stock up on supplies and attend school at least once while everyone else could plan the team's next move.

 

This had put both Yusuke and Hiei in sour moods. Yusuke was still intent on finishing the mission as fast as possible, and Hiei...well…frankly everything put Hiei in a sour mood.

 

`He does seem particularly on edge lately though,' concluded Kurama Perhaps it's that I made him give Kagome the jewel shard from that forest. Or maybe…'

 

“Hey, Kurama!” called out Kuwabara from the entrance to a Kaede's home, cutting of Kurama's musings. “Dinner's ready!”

 

“What are we having?” asked the fox demon as he started to walk towards the hut.

 

“Some sorta' soup-thing,” replied Kuwabara with a shrug. “I just hope there's enough for all of us.”

 

They walked through the front flap of the hut to find everyone, aside from Hiei who was missing as usual, already seated and eating. Kaede herself was also absent, but this was because she was out curing a sick man in a farm just outside of the village.

 

“Give me a bowl of that stuff, and make it extra big,” Kuwabara ordered as he and Kurama took a seat.

 

“Nice manners, dolt,” Yusuke muttered while Kuwabara seized his bowl of stew and shoved spoonful after spoonful into his mouth as fast as he could.

 

“So, have we figured out our next destination?” inquired Kurama after he had received his stew from an eager-to-serve Shippou.

 

“Unfortunately, we have absolutely no idea where Naraku is at the moment,” answered Miroku. “He's very good at hiding himself.”

 

“Pathetic,” Hiei said as he stepped into the hut. “How is it even possible that you can't find a demon with that many jewel shards?”

 

For a few moments, all the others could do was stare in bewilderment at the fire demon's unexpected entrance. Removing his sheathed sword from his belt and propping it against the wall, Hiei sat down in the only place available, that being between Sango and Kuwabara.

 

“Well I'll be damned. Three-eyes showed up for dinner,” commented Yusuke with a smirk.

 

“There was nothing to hunt,” explained Hiei. “It's not like I'd be around you fools by choice.”

 

“Feh. It figures,” Inuyasha grunted, not bothering to stop eating while he spoke. “You're too good for us right up until you need something, and then you expect us to help. We don't have to give you nothin'.”

 

“Cut it out, Inuyasha,” chided Sango, and handed Hiei a bowl of stew. “Here. It's still hot.”

 

Miroku couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as Hiei grunted and took the stew from Sango. Nobody else seemed to pay any heed to the seemingly insignificant exchange and had already moved on onto another discussion, but there was something about the situation that made him feel a little uneasy.

 

“I should be able to sense this Naraku guy. I'm really awesome at that,” boasted Kuwabara in an attempt to solve the group's problems.

 

“I'm afraid that's unlikely, Kuwabara,” refuted Kurama. “If it could be done, it would have by now.”

 

“Hold on a second,” interjected Shippou, trying his best to mimic Kurama's scholarly tone and posture. “Didn't Naraku's powers weaken for a night a little while ago? Couldn't we just wait until that happens again?”

 

“That may work, but we'll need to be relatively close to him if we want to pinpoint his location,” contested Miroku, his attention now on the conversation. “That means we'll still need some sort of lead to start with.”

 

“Leads? How do you find leads on someone like this?” asked Yusuke skeptically.

 

“Not leads in the conventional sense, Yusuke,” amended Kurama. “I'd say our best bet is to force him to make a move. We should do anything we can to provoke him into coming after us.”

 

“Naraku just sends minions to do his dirty work. He never shows himself,” stated Sango. “Besides, we're already Naraku's main adversaries.”

 

“Then half our work is already done,” responded Kurama with an assuring smile. “We should be able to figure out the general area he is hiding in based on his attacks.”

 

Inuyasha appeared on the verge of asking how in the hell that was possible, but realized that the answer would be way over his head and decided to remain quiet. After a few moments of silence, Hiei set down his empty bowl and rose to his feet.

 

“If that's all that needed to be discussed, then I'm leaving,” he said on his way out the door. “I've had my fill of idiotic discussions.”

 

“Truthfully, we should all try and get to sleep soon,” recommended Miroku after Hiei had disappeared from view. “We've been traveling a lot, and we should all be ready to go when Kagome gets back tomorrow afternoon.”

 

Everyone agreed with his suggestion, and only a couple hours after finishing their dinner, they were all sound asleep.

 

000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

Yusuke came to consciousness when he felt something bump against his foot. He squinted his eyes to try and see in the darkness, and his eyes adjusted just in time to see Inuyasha silently exiting the hut through the entrance flap.

 

`What's he up to?' he wondered. `I'd better follow him.'

 

Being careful not to bump anyone like Inuyasha had, he tiptoed out of the hut. When he exited, only the night greeted him, and Inuyasha was nowhere to be seen. While scanning the area, though, he did see Hiei sleeping in a tree no more than thirty meters away from the hut. The sight made him smirk.

 

`Would ya' look at that. He's makin' progress. Next thing ya' know, he'll be giving people hugs,' thought Yusuke, fighting back a chuckle.

 

Even though he didn't have an audience, Yusuke couldn't stop himself from coming up wise smart-ass remarks. It was his nature.

 

`But back to dog-boy...' thought Yusuke as he surveyed the area again. `If I can't see him, guess I'll have to sense him,'

 

He recalled Inuyasha's energy aura from his memory, and then concentrated on finding it. It didn't take long, since Yusuke had done this same type of thing many times before, and there weren't many strong aura's in the area to begin with. Upon located Inuyasha's aura, Yusuke dashed of in that direction. Normally, he wasn't prone to such sudden acts of effort, but Inuyasha hadn't been the only one he'd sensed. Someone else was with him, someone strong.

 

He finally caught sight of Inuyasha, and hid behind a rock to try and keep his presence unknown. He did, however, feel the need to see and not just hear what was going on, and therefore poked his head out ever so slightly to get a full view of the area.

 

Inuyasha was standing in the tall grass of the plane facing four beings. To say the least they were a strange group. The one Yusuke had sensed earlier was standing in front of the others. He was a tall, regal looking fellow with long silver hair and elegant, flowing garments complete with some sort of furry pelt hanging off his right shoulder. The others in the group were far less impressive. One was a tiny imp that made Hiei look like a giant, another was a scaly two headed steed of some kind, and the last one was, of all things, a little girl.

 

“Sesshomaru! I thought I smelled your stench! What do you want? Why are you here?” demanded Inuyasha, putting a hand on his sword's hilt.

 

“Just passing through, my dear brother,” answered the tall one, though his tone was not nearly as polite as his words. “But since you've had the nerve to impede my progress, I think I'll kill you instead.”

 

“I'd love to see ya' try!” countered Inuyasha and unsheathed the Tetsusaiga

 

`Wait…Inuyasha has a brother? And they want to kill each other? But why in the hell…?' Yuske wondered, his thoughts becoming extremely confused now.

 

As Yusuke tried to analyze the situation, Inuyasha leapt through the air at Sesshomaru, bringing down his mighty blade in a downwards strike. All he managed to do was create a large hole in the ground, though, for Sesshomaru easily dodged the attack, and took the opportunity to draw one of the swords dangling from the left side of his belt, a bastard-sword which he wielded on handed. It was only now, as Sesshomaru parried a series of horizontal cuts from Inuyasha that Yusuke realized something.

 

`That guy only has one arm! This just keeps getting weirder and weirder.' he observed bluntly.

 

Not only was it getting weirder, it was getting more dangerous. Sesshomaru blocked a cut intended to take off his head, and countered with a kick to his brother's gut that propelled the half-demon backwards through the air. With hardly a moment's hesitation, he fluidly swung his sword downwards, and a wave of blue energy was unleashed from the blade towards his adversary. Inuyasha managed to recover from the kick just in time to escape death but immediately had to raise his sword in order to avoid being cut in half.

 

The two brothers stood there in a weapon deadlock, each struggling to overpower the other. Normally, Inuyasha would be able to overcome Sesshomaru due to his lack of a left arm, but Inuyasha had been forced to lean back block Sesshomaru's attack, and was thus in a position with very little leverage.

 

`That's it. I'm ending this,' decided Yusuke, and formed the shape of a gun with the fingers on his right hand.

 

“Spirit gun!”

 

The duelists were forced to leap apart before Yusuke's blast created a crater where they had been standing. Neither of them was too pleased about it, either.

 

“You!” yelled Inuyasha as Yusuke came sauntering out towards the battlefield. “Stay out of this! This is my business!”

 

“Can it, Fido. I'm taking over from here,” stated the boy as he stepped in front of Inuyasha and began to size up Sesshomaru.

 

“You got no right! This is a-” Inuyasha began to protest, waving his word about indignantly.

 

“What? A family matter? Give me a break,” said Yusuke with disgust. “First, it stops being just a family matter when you start swinging swords at each other. Second, you were losing, and I never lose.”

 

“Listen, punk, you've got no idea what in the hell your talking about! I'm fighting him! Period!” bellowed Inuyasha livid with fury.

 

“If I lose he's all yours,” Yusuke said with a grin. “Promise.”

 

“Feh, fine,” conceded Inuyasha with a huff. “If you wanna' get yourself killed it `aint my problem.”

 

“All right then, here's the deal,” declared Yusuke, looking intensely towards Sesshomaru. “I fight you. If I kick your ass, you leave and stay out of our way, and if you kick my ass, then you two freaks can start beating the crap out of each other again. Seem fair to you, or are you as much of a sissy as you look?”

 

“Do not speak so to Lord Sesshomaru!” yelled the little imp in an annoying little voice. “He could crush a mortal like yourself with just one finger!”

 

“Was I talkin' to you, midget?” said Yusuke, giving the imp an intimidating look.

 

The imp gave out a small yelp and hid behind the two-headed beast in fear. The little girl, however, simply looked at Sesshomaru with worry and anticipation.

 

“If it is your wish to die, then I shall grant it,” threatened Sesshomaru, and sheathed his sword. “I'll kill you without even drawing my sword. Tokijin's power would be wasted on a mortal such as you.”

 

“Big talk from a one armed guy wearing eye liner,” taunted Yusuke as he got into his fighting stance. “Let's see if you can back it up.”

 

Instantly, the standoff ended, and Sesshomaru dashed towards Yusuke with poison gas streaming off of his hand. Seeing what was coming, Yusuke went airborne, and Sesshomaru's poison nails hit nothing but air. However, the demon took advantage of Yusuke's lack of maneuverability in the air and sent an energy whip flying at the boy with a flick of his wrist. Fending of the whip with his left hand, Yusuke pointed his right fist towards the demon and gave a triumphant smirk.

 

“Shotgun!”

 

The storm of blue energy bolts lit up the night as they flew towards Sesshomaru. The demon managed to avoid most of them, but one clipped him in the shoulder, followed by two in the chest. They didn't hurt him that much, but they were enough to throw him off balance and prevent him from moving, which was exactly what Yusuke had needed. The result was Yusuke charging right at Sesshomaru and landing a devastating haymaker that sent the demon hurtling through the air.

 

“Still think you don't need that sword?” jeered Yusuke as Sesshomaru fell to the ground with a thud.

 

“Lord Sesshomaru!” called out the little girl starting to race over to where he had landed.

 

“I'm fine, Rin,” assured Sesshomaru as he stood and dusted himself off. “You should find some cover. It may become dangerous here.”

 

“Yes, my lord!” complied Rin eagerly, and ran over to the two headed beast. “Let's go, Ah-Un.”

 

Yusuke watched as the girl led the beast towards the forest, followed by the frightened little imp. He shook his head as he thought about the oddity of the situation.

 

“Man, you're one messed up guy,” Yusuke said, still smirking. “A one-armed demon with a feminine side who would kill his brother in an instant, but you let a little kid tag along with you? Maybe you'll make sense when you're unconscious.”

 

As if Yusuke had never spoken, Sesshomaru once again unsheathed Tokijin, and ran right at Yusuke. The first attack was a stab aimed for the boy's heart, which Yusuke easily ducked, but he was kneed in the chin by the follow up attack. He managed to regain his balance just in time to jump backwards and avoid a slice intended to decapitate him. However, he was once again hit by a quick follow up attack, though this time it was a sidekick into his right kidney. He managed to absorb the blow, though, and stayed standing. This allowed him to lash out at Sesshomaru with a kick from his right leg, and forced the demon to momentarily back off.

 

“All right, now I'm gonna' get serious!” Yusuke declared, the arrogant tone now mixed with one of rage. “That means it's lights out for you!”

 

With a primal scream, the air around him seemingly exploded as his spirit energy burst to life from within. Too angry to wait even another instant, he leapt at Sesshomaru with unmatched tenacity. His fists tore through the air like they were fired out of a machine gun, and forced Sesshomaru on the defense momentarily. However, Sesshomaru was the one with the sword, and when he finally got in a slash at the boy, the battle changed.

 

Sesshomaru swung the blade in a deadly arc at Yusuke, which the boy avoided and then attempted to counter. After avoiding the attack, Sesshomaru made his own counter with Tokijin, and the process repeated itself for what seemed like several minutes. It would have been fairly boring to watch…were they not moving so fast that the untrained eye would see nothing but a blur. Even Inuyasha was having a little trouble counting all of the cuts, punches, and kicks that had been dodged as the two zipped this way and that all over the battlefield trying to gain an advantage.

 

Finally, Sesshomaru leapt away, tired of the repetitive sequence. Before Yusuke could act, he raised Tokijin above his head.

 

“Die,” he commanded, and brought the blade down as he had done earlier against Inuyasha.

 

Once again the blue wave of energy sped towards its target, only this time the target did not dodge. Instead Yusuke let his spirit energy swirl about him in a protective barrier, and, leaped headlong into the torrent of energy. For an instant, it appeared that he had been disintegrated by the attack, but then he emerged from the other end, with his right index finger and thumb forming the shape of a gun that was aimed right at his opponent.

 

“Spirit Gun!” he roared, and his signature beam of blue energy leapt from his fingertip.

 

Sesshomaru was able to raise Tokijin into a defensive position and get his feat set for the attack, but he had no time to try and dodge. The demonic weapon held off the blast for a moment, but it was quickly overcome, and the demon's entire upper body was enveloped in the blue energy. Unable to resist any further, he was carried backwards by the blast until it finally evaporated and he once again found himself lying face up in the dirt.

 

“You should be grateful,” panted Yusuke with his anger now gone and the cockiness returned. “I didn't have much time to charge it up, so it wasn't at its full strength. Otherwise you'd be dead.”

 

“I doubt it,” Sesshomaru managed to say between labored breathes as he slowly rose to his knees, and finely stood his feet, swaying dizzily. “My attack took a lot out of you as well.”

 

While the Lord of the West was indeed right that Yusuke had used a lot of power to break through Sesshomaru's attack, he hadn't received any actual damage since he had surrounded himself with a barrier. Sesshomaru, on the other hand, had been caught off guard, and felt the full force of the Spirit Gun. As such he took a lot of damage. The clothes on his torso had been ripped to shreds, and what remained was covered in blood from the wounds all over his body, including one on his forehead that bled profusely.

 

“Face it, I beat the hell out of you,” said Yusuke triumphantly as he noticed Sesshomaru's condition. “Now get outa' my sight.”

 

“You have not defeated me,” denied Sesshomaru, but when he tried to step forward he was forced to use his sword like a cane to hold him up. “However, I cannot waste any more time toying with you now. I shall finish you later. Rin!”

 

“Yes, my lord?” asked the little girl as she popped her head out of the bushes she had been watching from.

 

“Get Ah-Un. We're leaving.”

 

“Right away, Lord Sesshomaru!”

 

Inuyasha and Yusuke looked on as Sesshomaru wearily mounted the beast and slowly rode off into the hilly grassland with Rin and Jaken in tow. Only when Sesshomaru was completely out of view did Inuyasha sheathe his sword.

 

“I hate to say I told ya' so…” said Yusuke, flashing his trademark smirk at the half-demon. “Wait…no I don't.”

 

“Feh. Don't let it get to your head, punk.” snorted Inuyasha, and turned to leave.

 

Not being insulted by Inuyasha was about as close to a compliment as most people would ever get from him, so Yusuke simply chuckled and wearily began to follow. However before Yusuke could even three steps, a callous voice came from behind the two, almost making Yusuke fall down in surprise while Inuyasha whirled around, hand on his sword.

 

“You should have killed him,” stated Hiei. “He could prove a nuisance.”

 

“Geez, Hiei! I thought you were asleep,” Yusuke said with a dramatic sigh of relief. “One of these times you're going to give me a heart attack.”

 

“One can only hope,” retorted Hiei, though there was no hint of sarcasm in his voice.

 

“Don't worry about that loser,” spoke up Inuyasha, answering Hiei's original question. “If he shows his ugly mug again, I'll cut it off.”

 

`And I thought I had a messed up family…' thought Yusuke, before suddenly yawning, overcome with exhaustion.

 

“Damn. Let's head back,” he suggested as he rubbed his eyes. “I need some shut eye after that.”

 

“I'll stay out a little while longer. You never know with Sesshomaru…” decided Inuyasha, before bounding off into the night.

 

By that time, Hiei had already departed for his tree, leaving Yusuke to walk back to the hut alone in the moonlight.