InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ I Didn't Know I Was Waiting For You ❯ The Dakkunaga ( Chapter 19 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

DISCLAIMER:I paid my roommate to check the litter box and he couldn't find the copyright papers so I guess my feline ninjas failed. Alas I still don't own this wonderful anime.

I am dedicating this to KouseiJL, because your review actually inspired me to write it. Thank you.

AN: "character speech"

*Character thought*

~Character memory or flashback~

/Thoughts a character hears in their mind/

Chapter 19: The Dakkunaga

Tal'Rinoko threw the summons down on the oak desk in her small apartment. Whenever Kenzo got it in his head to show his authority over the clan he summoned Tal'Rinoko. He would then proceed to order her to do some assassination for him. She would do it and his power was reassured. He knew he had nothing to fear from her because she was a stickler for tradition.

Tal'Rinoko was the Shadow Serpent. She was the eldest non-royal member of the clan and the best assassin of the blood. She had never failed to kill a target in the thirty six hundred years she'd been alive. But Tal'Rinoko was old now; she hadn't killed in over four hundred years and didn't know if she would still be effective.

The snake youkai who wore the visage of an old woman of fifty plus years walked across her small living room. She opened the tall wardrobe next to her TV by murmuring the open charm. Inside was an assortment of stealth weaponry. She sighed as she looked at her one time passion. Carefully she chose a small fang dagger, eight talon throwing stars, and the small ninjato of centipede carapace. She closed the wardrobe and reset its ward. After setting her weapons on her desk she went into the bedroom to change.

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The office was small, in a rundown part of Tokyo. It was situated between a small cleaners and a mom and pop corner grocery store. Unless you knew exactly what you were looking for, it was easily dismissed from your mind. It was perfect for Kenzo. Tal'Rinoko sneered at it as she got out of the taxi which had brought her. It had been a long time since she met with the leader of her clan.

Her stride was confident and swift. The bell tinkled softly as she entered the narrow stairway beyond the front door. She wanted to tear out the throat of the little snake asleep on the stairs. She instead decided to silently leap over him to the top landing. Her feet scraped quietly on the landing as she stood before the office door. The snake youkai was still asleep on the stairs.

Tal'Rinoko opened the door to Kenzo's office. He looked up from his computer with a startled expression. His features quickly blanked into an unreadable mask as he realized who his visitor was. He shut off his monitor as Tal'Rinoko moved to the center of the room so that she could see the window and door in her peripheral vision.

Kenzo looked at her and said, "I see you are as prompt as ever Shadow Serpent."

"I am ever at the disposal of the clan, my lord," she said as she bowed to the foolish great grandson of Hotojuki. She had remembered his noble son Lokuto and his vision of finding peace with Inutasho. She remembered his death in the Survalti; he hadn't been strong enough to lead. Lokuto's son Mort'ri'kil had been much like Kenzo, foolish.

Mort'ri'kil had survived the Survalti and had begun the shadow war. She remembered how busy she had been during those decades. That had been the time of Lord Inutasho of the Inukaze. She had killed as she was commanded, but she remembered drawing the line at killing the humans of the Western lands. She still bore the scars of her disobedience on her back, but she had earned the right to refuse assignments against humans. The fool had died fighting a miko who had been friends with Inuyasha. He had died trying to get to the Shikon Jewel in her care.

This led to his son, Kenzo, undergoing the Survalti to prove he could lead the clan. He survived and decided to stand back and let the Hanyou bastard Naraku kill as many Inukaze as possible before he too restarted the shadow war. The shadow was had been going on for close to twenty five hundred years and as new generations of Dakkunaga were born, new fanatics were brainwashed. The Dakkunaga was nothing like the survivors of the Inukaze revolt. The clan was not one she truly knew any longer.

"Wonderful, Shadow Serpent," Kenzo's voice sounded gleeful, "I need you to kill the Lady of the Western lands."

Her eyes widened, "Sesshoumaru has taken a mate?"

"Yes, he has. I need you to kill this bitch, because without her the Inukaze become easy pickings again."

"How do you know this my lord?"

"Do not question me, just kill her! Dismissed," he hissed at her.

Tal'Rinoko stiffened. She knew that there was only one way to end the unjust treatment he gave her, and that was to resign her position as Shadow Serpent, but she wasn't ready to die just yet. She bowed and left. She made sure she closed the door loudly enough to wake the sleeping snake on the steps. He looked up in surprise and then fear. He bowed as she strode past him. All Dakkunaga recognized the Shadow Serpent, and only a fool with a death wish crossed her.

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The first Friday in April found Tal'Rinoko at Tokyo University. She had discovered that Sesshoumaru was posing as a student under his own name. She chose a high tower to watch from and finally saw him moving between classes. He was walking with his arm around a raven haired girl. Using her high powered binoculars she looked closely at the girl and saw the mating mark. Sesshoumaru had followed in his father's footsteps and mated with a human, because even from here Tal'Rinoko could tell she was a miko become earth priestess.

Tal'Rinoko swore under her breath. She took out her cell phone and dialed Kenzo's direct line. "Hello," answered the voice she had come to hate over the years.

"Kenzo," she said with out preamble, "the mate is human. I will not harm her."

"You will do as I command!"

"No, sir, I will not. I earned the right to refuse human targets. I am refusing. Find someone else to do you dirty work." She hung up.

The cell phone rang a moment later, "I invoke the Dakkavalti," said the enraged voice of Kenzo and then the line went dead.

"Are you mad?" Tal'Rinoko whispered as she put her phone away. She then left the university grounds. The trail of venom would begin at sundown. All she could think was, * Is that crazy bastard mad? *

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The stand of trees was old, very old. In the heart of a hidden valley within the mountain the Dakkunaga gathered. The last time a Dakkavalti had been called was over six thousand years ago. At that time the leadership had shifted from the family line of crested serpents to the current line of banded serpents. When Tal'Rinoko arrived in the valley she hoped never to see again, she noticed Kenzo's elite Fangs. They were a smaller group than she remembered.

"The traitor has arrived." Kenzo's voice reverberated off the walls of the hidden valley.

"What are the charges?" called out a voice from the assembled.

"The Shadow Serpent has betrayed her trust, she has refused a direct order to kill the Western lands new "lady"," replied Kenzo.

"The lady is human," stated Tal'Rinoko, "and based on my own survival of the Survalti during Mort'ri'kil's reign, I earned the right to refuse to kill humans."

"This assemblage remembers that challenge and stand by its decision. However Lord Kenzo has declared a Dakkavalti, by what reason do you declare this challenge lord Kenzo?"

"I declare it because the Shadow Serpent refused to free her clan of an enemy who has decimated our ranks over the last month. May I tell the story to the assembled?"

"Yes!"

"The Inukaze gathered as a clan on February second. I sent almost a dozen assassins and spies to gather information and eliminate some of the clan. None returned from that night. In the following weeks every attempted assassination ended in the death of our clan-mate. I decided to have three of my Fangs follow one of the assassins on an assignment. When the assassin had the dog cornered, three Inukaze and that miko bitch appeared. They then slaughtered the assassin. Then she spotted my Fangs who were hiding and only one escaped with his life to tell me. She is coordinating the Inukaze in such a way as to lead us into traps and brutally killing us. Our losses in the last month have been nearly thirty of our clan."

"What do you say in your defense Shadow Serpent?"

"I say it's about time the Shadow War ended, one way or another. If this Lady has the skill to end it, more power to her."

"Let the Dakkavalti commence!"

Tal'Rinoko stepped into the center of the circle and Kenzo did as well. Twenty snake youkai circled them, forcing the Fangs and other onlookers outside the circle. The one at the north readied the toxin in his claws. Kenzo sneered at Tal'Rinoko, "Ladies first."

Tal'Rinoko stepped up the first snake. He dug one claw into her shoulder. She stood strong and moved to stand before the next snake. Kenzo stepped up to the first snake and his other claw scratched Kenzo's shoulder deeply. Anyone could see that he put less poison into Kenzo's wound than he had Tal'Rinoko. The two moved around the circle. By the time both had taken in the poison of half the circle, Tal'Rinoko had almost twice the venom in her veins as Kenzo did.

As Tal'Rinoko moved to the eleventh youkai she carefully cut her tongue with her envenomed fang. She knew through experience that ones own venom helped to reduce the effectiveness of other's toxins. She drank her blood and venom as she moved on to the twelfth youkai. The two challengers finished the circuit of snake youkai.

"Let the fight commence, claw and fang only, begin!"

Tal'Rinoko barely had time to register that they had both survived the test of toxins. They would now fight to the death, fang and claw, to show who the proper leader was for the Dakkunaga. Tal'Rinoko did not want to lead, but she was not ready to die. She fell hard to the ground as Kenzo swiped at her with a toxic claw.

She pushed him off of her with a foot. Then she rolled to the side and spun up to the balls of her feet. Her own claws dripped poison as she opened her mouth to reveal glistening fangs. Her body shirted and a crest burst from her head. She swarmed at the surprised Kenzo and dug her claws in deep as she sank her fangs into his neck.

Kenzo clawed at her back in fear and desperation as her venom entered his blood. With every beat of his heart, the poisons moved deeper into his system. His struggles ceased as the neurotoxin froze his body. Tal'Rinoko shredded him in the next few moments and plucked his heart from the remains. She turned to face the assemblage. She held his heart aloft, "The crested blood rules once again," she crushed his heart in her hand.

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