All Because of a Kitsune

Sesshomaru’s Ward

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything of or related to YuYuHakusho or Inuyasha.

“Kagome, who made you so upset?” Yusuke was already cracking his knuckles in preparation for pounding whoever hurt the young miko. “Tell me now, so I don’t have to go around pounding information out of everyone else, before I pound whoever made you cry.”

Kagome laughed a little nervously. “Well, I don’t really know where he is right now; I think he’s trying to start a fight with his brother.” Yusuke narrowed his eyes at her, disbelieving. “Listen, even if he doesn’t like me, he’s still protective of me and his brother wanted to talk to me, so Inuyasha wants to fight him.” Once she realized she said his name, she clapped a hand over her mouth.

“Inuyasha, huh?” Yusuke was smirking widely, especially when she appeared to panic. “Hey, Hiei! Could you do me a favor and find this guy?” Yusuke didn’t look back to see his partners’ reactions, just watched his cousin, who seemed to relax a little when he said Hiei’s name, but panicked when she looked at the forbidden child.

Hiei was smirking. Oh, how he could torture the hanyou by telling the detective who and where he was, but the panic in the miko’s eyes made him reconsider. Sighing dejectedly, he gave a ‘hn; ask Koenma,’ and turned his head away.

Kagome sighed in relief and smiled again. “Don’t worry, Yusuke; he isn’t worth it.” With that, she picked up her broom and started walking to the house.

Yusuke scowled at her back and turned to the others. “Inuyasha… doesn’t that mean ‘dog demon’ or something?” He saw Hiei smirk and narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“Hn. It means ‘female dog demon.’” Alexeron let out a yip of laughter, drawing their attention back to him.

“You guys don’t think that Kitsune is Alexeron, do you?” Yusuke asked, tensing as he felt a powerful aura appear around them.

Alexeron smirked and began running around, acting as though he wanted to play. Me, that foolish thing? He projected his voice across all their minds and watched their stunned reactions. This Alexeron thinks not.

He stopped prancing and wagged his tail in amusement. Yusuke shifted into a fighting stance and looked around, glancing at the house more often than not to ensure his family’s protection. Kuwabara was panicking and whirling around frantically, wide-eyed. Kurama was calmly running his hand through his hair, pulling out a seed but not transforming it yet. Hiei was simply scowling. You’re going to expose yourself, Kitsune.

Speaking only to Hiei, Alex answered. Not really; I merely like to mess with your companions’ minds. Hiei grunted, but agreed. Alex snickered then spoke to all of them. Good luck on your search; this Alexeron will be harder to find than you had hoped.

Much to the Spirit Detectives’ aggravation, the fox called his aura back to him, leaving no sign that it had ever been there. “How can he do that?!” Yusuke yelled out his pent up frustration since he couldn’t punch something without possibly damaging the shrine.

Kurama too sighed in annoyance and placed the seed back in his hair. –I could learn to like this guy, Red.- Youko was impressed at their target’s skill; the only thing wrong was that they both had eyes for the same girl. –This could get a little ugly though…-

A beeping brought everyone from their thoughts. Yusuke’s contemplative slightly angry look became overly irritated as he pulled out his communicator from his pocket. “What do you want, Toddler?”

“Yusuke, don’t call me Toddler!” Koenma seemed to collect himself for a moment, coughing into his hand. “Now, what have you found out?” Yusuke considered not telling him anything, but remember this ‘Inuyasha’ person.

“I’ll tell you, but you have to look something up for me.” He smirked at the baby demi-god’s stuttering. He loved riling the toddler up; it could turn out to be very entertaining. After a few moments, the Spirit Detective heard his ‘employer’ sigh.

“Alright; what do I have to look up?” Smirking triumphantly, Yusuke gave him the name Kagome had let slips. “I’ll get the files on him and show you later. Now, what have you learned?”

Yusuke became frustrated again and ran a hand through his hair. “Well, he made contact. My cousin apparently adopted an orange fox, and we thought he might be this youkai, but all of the sudden we heard his voice and felt his aura. He told us that he wasn’t the fox and good luck on finding him!” He was ranging now, having no other way to vent out his anger. “He completely disappeared! There wasn’t a trace of him!”

Kurama spoke up from behind his friend, looking over his shoulder at Koenma. “Also, I believe he is interested in Yusuke’s cousin.” The avatar had to jump back as Yusuke whirled around, fist ready to pound him into the ground. He raised his hands defensively. “It’s only a suspicion, I don’t truly have any solid proof as of yet.”

Yusuke was about to yell at him for even thinking that Kagome could be more involved than she already was when he heard his cousin’s voice from her window. “Guys! Okaa-san has lunch ready! And Yusuke, don’t beat on Shuiichi-san!”

Yusuke scowled and waited until Kagome had disappeared from the opening before raising to the communicator to face Koenma again. “Gotta go, Toddler. Anything else?”

Koenma’s face appeared thoughtful. “Keep your eyes out and watch your cousin, just in case.” Yusuke nodded then snapped the communicator shut.

Turning to his friend, he sighed a little. “Well then, let’s go.” The others nodded and followed the growing scent of oden.

“Oh good, you’re all in here.” Kun-loon herded the boys into the kitchen and seated them at the table. “Yusuke, do you know when you mother is going to arrive?”

The teen shook his head absently as he gazed at the steaming pot of oden in front of him on the table. Kagome was going to flip if they started without her; in fact, she should have been downstairs already. “Oi, Souta, where’s Kagome?”

The child choked on slightly on his drink. “Um… She’ll be back in about an hour.” His voice was small, a little afraid of what Yusuke would do in response to the news that she was gone. “A friend in trouble called…” Kagome had told him that Yusuke was looking for the fox she brought home and that he wasn’t to tell his favorite cousin anything about her travels through time.

Hiei read the boy’s thoughts and stood. Kun-loon didn’t’ ask him where he was going, and his ‘friends’ let him be – he wasn’t one for human interaction. Once he got outside, he jumped up to Kagome’s window. She was pacing, apparently trying to get the nerve to face Sesshomaru. Why she didn’t just wait until she said she would go, he wasn’t sure, but it had to be important.

Rolling his eyes, the forbidden child walked up to her and picked her up. “H-Hiei! What are you –” Before she could finish, Hiei jumped back out the window and dashed across the shrine to the well house. Alexeron was already there in his elemental kitsune form. He jumped on the youkai’s shoulder as he passed, and they all fell through the well.

“I didn’t know you could pass through the well, Hiei.” The forbidden child heard Kagome’ voice, but barely registered he words as he gazed at the forest around him with hidden interest. “Well, I’m happy you can, even if I don’t understand why…”

“Hn.” It wasn’t as indifferent as usual, but he didn’t mind – he was only talking to Kagome, and she could already read him better than Kurama – what was the point of hiding it from her?

Hiei was marveling at the untainted scent in the air around him, until he caught the smell of inu youkai, kitsune, and hanyou on the other side of the forest. “The kit, hanyou, and future-king-of-Makai are on their way.”

Alexeron watched the miko and forbidden child happily. Now both of his friends could travel through time with him. When he heard that his sensei was coming, he yipped and jumped on Kagome’s shoulder to wait.

“Oh no!” Both youkai turned their heads to watch Kagome’s face twist in panic. “If Inuyasha sees you here, he’ll get mad and accuse me of stuff I don’t have time to do!”

Hiei wanted to smirk at the possible implications of her last statement, but he could only scowl at quickly she fell back into the role of the lovesick girl who tried to please Inuyasha . “Kagome, you –”

Before he could finish or Kagome could try to push the forbidden child down the well, Inuyasha burst through the tree line, face set in a scowl. Hiei nearly attacked the hanyou, but Kagome’s expression became as indifferent as his own and she placed a hand on his sword arm. “Don’t, Hiei.”

He gently pushed his blade back into its sheath while glaring at the hanyou, who was growling at him with a hand gripping Tetsusaiga’s hilt. “Hn. If he attacks me, I will kill him.” He saw Kagome nod from the corner of his eyes, but focused on the hanyou.

Inuyasha nearly choked when he saw Kagome’s nod. “You… You’d let him kill me?! What the hell?” He felt betrayed, but when she turned to him with a blank gaze, he cringed. How could he forget that she was upset about something?

“Hiei is his own person, and he doesn’t take orders, though I’m surprised he stopped once.” She smiled slightly in thanks at the forbidden child, who merely grunted softly. “I you attack him, I won’t be able to stop him from defending himself, and I have no doubt that he would protect me, too, if need be.”

Inuyasha opened his mouth to question her, but a child’s cry stopped him. “Kagome!”

Hiei took one step back, out of the way of the flying fire fox that had bolted from the trees. He watched with amusement as it latched onto Kagome’s neck, surprising her out of her façade. His amusement vanished when he saw the emotional pain that shone in her eyes now that the indifference was gone, even if she smiled down at the kit she had told him so much about.

“Hello, Shippo. How are you?” Shippo mumbled something against her neck, never loosening his grip. Hiei could see that he was afraid, probably of Sesshomaru, who at that moment walked through the trees.

“So you have finally arrived, Miko.” The future King of Makai’s expression was still emotionless, but Hiei, who could see behind emotionless masks such as his own, could see the curiosity and amusement hidden in his eyes. “This Sesshomaru did not expect you for at least another twenty-four hours.”

Kagome pried Shippo off her neck and bowed respectfully to the taiyoukai, much to Inuyasha’s shock and disgust. “I apologize for my tardiness, Sesshomaru-sama, but it was unavoidable. Once I received a chance to come here, I took it, though there is an uncertain amount of danger to it.” She didn’t want to admit that she didn’t want to face Yusuke again quite yet. Returning to her full height, she gestured to her companion. “This is Hiei, a friend of mine from home.” The quiet Jaganshi nodded respectfully to his future superior, and, to his shock and slight discomfort, received a faint bow in return instead of a nod.

“Kagome-sama!” A young girl, almost an exact replica of the miko, ran through the trees and glomped the older girl’s leg, thoroughly distracting the group.

Alexeron waited patiently before he yipped a greeting and ran over to his sensei, circling him happily. The taiyoukai’s eye twitched, but a slight smirk graced his lips as he watched his student. |Are you well?| Alexeron stopped in front of him and smiled, nodding, knowing that through his cold exterior, Sesshomaru truly did care for those he found worthy. |And the curse?|

Alex smiled wider. It’s breaking more and more.

|So I see.| The kitsune blinked then realized the image of his true self was standing behind him, smirk in place and arms crossed over his chest. |Can they see it?|

Alexeron romped over to Hiei and jumped on his shoulders. Hiei can. You’re eavesdropping, aren’t you? The question was directed at the forbidden child, but the answer was already known.

No. You were broadcasting, so I wasn’t eavesdropping, merely listening. Alex let out a bark of laughter, and Sesshomaru smirked. It was then that they noticed the questioning and curious gazes of the others, and the wary gaze of the hanyou.

Hiei smiled softly at Kagome and shook his head, indicating that nothing was wrong, and then glared at the hanyou who growled viciously. Alexeron yipped again and ran to jump onto Kagome’s shoulders, causing her to laugh. Shippo giggled with her, but he still cowered away from Sesshomaru. You should talk to the miko more often; your student and I have a bet that you’ll relax around her. Hiei smirked over at Sesshomaru, who arched an eyebrow.

|I will, perhaps not today, but in the future.| The forbidden child blinked then smirked again, turning back to Kagome, who started playing with Shippo and the girl. |That is Rin, my ward.| Hiei nodded, but was still wondering if she would truly stay safe – this era was more dangerous than the future.

Are you ever worried about her? Hiei saw Sesshomaru blink and explained. I know of a place where she’ll be safe. There are next to no demons there besides me and my two companions; all the others, we kill. She’d be safe there, and Kagome placed a barrier around it. The forbidden child didn’t know why he was so willing to help the human child, but it might be because she minded him of his sister and the miko he had befriended.

Sesshomaru watched the forbidden child closely. |That is the reason this Sesshomaru wished to speak with the miko.| He wanted Rin safe, but was uncomfortable with possibly not being able to check on her every now and then. |Where would you take her?|

Hiei was startled out of his reverie by the cold taiyoukai’s voice, but didn’t answer immediately – the knowledge of the future was dangerous. He glanced at Alexeron who paused as he ran away from Rin and Shippo to nod then continued his game. So the fox wanted to protect the girl too… Now Hiei didn’t feel quite as insecure, not that he would show it anyway.

Five hundred years in the future. That is Kagome’s home, and mine. Hiei turned to Sesshomaru to watch his reaction. Nothing. The forbidden child smirked faintly then continued. As briefly as possible, though it was still a long time, during which Kagome, Shippo, and Rin sat down to rest while Inuyasha grumbled darkly, he explained the three worlds and how youkai weren’t allowed in Ningenkai. Since she is so young, she will be able to adapt easily and will be much safer.

Sesshomaru didn’t answer for a long while, watching his ward almost drift off to sleep. Alexeron trusted Hiei and approved of the plan, and the miko had already proven herself to be very caring for the girl. Finally, he released a heavy breath – not a sigh, though. |This Sesshomaru will allow you to take her with you, but only if this Sesshomaru is assured that I am still breathing in your time.|

Hiei had to suppress the urge to grin. Trust me, you are more than just breathing, Sesshomaru-sama. He didn’t reveal that he was King of Makai, but his confidence reassured the taiyoukai. You’ll probably be able to tell the exact time that we come back into that time.

Sesshomaru nodded. “Very well.” Hiei saw the others jump slightly at his voice, and walked back to Kagome. “Rin.” Immediately, the girl stood and ran to Sesshomaru to hug his leg, smiling like there was no tomorrow.

As Hiei explained to Kagome how the girl was coming with them, all the while ignoring the hanyou’s protests and curses, he heard Sesshomaru assuring Rin that he would come for her soon. Rin smiled brightly, giving Sesshomaru another quick hug before running to where Alexeron sat with Shippo.

Kagome smiled and nodded. “I can agree with that.” She, too, wanted the girl to be safe, and her mother would love having another little girl around the house. She called Rin and Kitsune and hugged Shippo before bowing to Sesshomaru. Hiei nodded to the taiyoukai then turned to follow the miko.

“Oi! I didn’t say you could leave yet!” Inuyasha made to follow them, but Sesshomaru intercepted him, pinning him to a tree with his claws around his half-brother’s throat. “Teme! What do you want with Kagome?!”

A smirk slowly formed on the taiyoukai’s face. “You have no idea of what the girl is capable of, that is your mistake, foolish little brother.” Without another word, the Lord of the West disappeared, leaving a shocked and slightly fearful hanyou.

“Kagome…” Shippo had stopped waving after his mother-figure when Sesshomaru had blocked Inuyasha, and now he watched as a bolt of silver and red tore through the forest. He looked after Inuyasha with narrowed eyes.

“He’s gotten meaner, especially since she came with that other demon…” Whimpering, the kit looked in the direction Inuyasha had gone, the well, and the direction Sesshomaru had disappeared in. Glancing back at the well, he began running after the taiyoukai.

He didn’t realize that Inuyasha would be distracted before he ever got to the well.

“You do know that we’ve been gone for over an hour, right?” Kagome jerked to a stop at the forbidden child’s statement, causing him to smirk. “The detective is going to rant for another hour when we get back.” Kagome sighed dejectedly, knowing there was no way around it, then turned to Rin.

“Rin-chan, we’re going to a place that’s really different than you have seen with Sesshomaru-sama.” She knelt in front of the girl and tried to explain the future to her. Hiei and Alexeron watched her talk to the girl fondly. Though it was a lot to take in, Rin was quick to learn and understand that she shouldn’t speak of demons.

After about a half-hour, the four of them were ready to go back through the well. Kagome picked up Rin while Alexeron jumped onto her shoulders, and Hiei held the miko’s shoulders and jumped through the well.

Yusuke was pacing the living room, trying to calm down. Despite Kurama’s assurances that his cousin was fine, he was still worried. Not only was Kagome hours late, but his mom hadn’t shown up and Hiei was still missing.

“Yusuke, for the last time, they are fine. If you’re so worried about your mother, why don’t you give her a call?” Kurama was starting to get annoyed by his friend’s constant pacing, so he was relieved to see that Kuwabara was too busy playing with Buyo to make things worse.

“Alright, alright,” Yusuke grumbled, running a hand through his hair. “I’ll call her.” Mumbling a few choice words he made sure Souta didn’t hear, he walked to the phone and dialed his home number. When his mother answered groggily, he groaned. “Mom, please tell me that you’re not still in bed.”

“Yusuke? Oh, hi! Yeah, I just got up…” Yusuke sighed heavily, making Atsuko giggle. “Don’t by mad. You know how I get at the bar.” Yusuke sighed again, but gave a short ‘uh-huh’ in response. He definitely knew – he often cleaned up the messes. “Don’t worry; I’ll be there tomorrow. I’m sure Kun-loon-nee-chan will let you spend the night.”

“Alright, bye, Mom. Yeah, love you, too.” He hung up the phone and was about to start pacing again, much to Kurama’s displeasure, when he heard the door open and the patter of paws across of the floor.

“Tadaima! And I brought someone.” Yusuke immediately headed toward the door, a lecture on the tip of his tongue, but he stopped abruptly at the sight in the door, causing his teammates to bump into him.

Standing in the doorway was Kagome, with her hands on the shoulders of a girl that could be her clone. The girl’s hands were tucked behind her back, and she wore a white and orange checkered kimono. What else surprised him was that Hiei stood calmly behind the girls, as if he never left. “What on earth…”

The child beamed up at their audience brightly “Hello! Rin’s name is Rin!”

AN: Well… I didn’t see that coming! Expect a modern Sesshomaru, King of Makai, to make his appearance in a coming chapter!

Um… about my… long wait in posting this… I started writing this two years ago, as many of you know, and my writing style has changed a lot since then – I actually plan out my plot now-a-days! – so I’m trying to continue writing this without going back and revising everything. I’m trying to figure out what exactly the plot for this story is, so please give me time.

Thank you for reading!