This is for more mature readers. Nothing truly raunchy, but some nudity and sexual thoughts. Nothing that an older teen hasn't dealt with, in my experience.

The Secrets of Inuyoukai

~oOo~

What An Inuyoukai Wants... But Can't Have

The moonlight rippled over the surface of the river, showing the rocks up only as dark shadows touched with the glow of silver. The hunter paid no attention to the beauty before him, focusing only on the scent he had followed. It was dissipating now, swept away by the waters and the cooling of the body. Keen eyes went to work looking for any incongruities, separating out what naturally belonged in order to find his prey.

There. Caught in the rocks a little over midway through was a bit of cloth and the water undulated strangely. Swiftly he leapt to the cluster of rocks and plunged his hand into the water. Hair teasingly tangled in his fingers as he searched for a hold on the body. He finally snagged the remains of an obi and cleared the rest of the river in a final jump.

Knowing the hazards of remaining in the open, Sesshoumaru wasted no time checking the woman he held. Hefting her over his shoulder to free up his arm, he started looking for a defensible position with shelter from the air. He didn't need Naraku's saimyousho reporting this back to their master. He found a copse of trees and dumped the body across his legs, lip curling at his own actions. Damnable woman. Ignoring the press of full breasts against his groin he rapidly struck several times halfway down her back, using his leg as a bar to shove the water out of her lungs and stomach.

Satisfied he had cleared out as much as possible, he extended his senses to check for any other serious injuries. What damage he could sense she would be able to heal once she revived. Good. He wouldn't have to do any more for her. His hand rested on her back, feeling the crumpled, ridged skin beneath his palm. It was the only thing marring the creamy expanse. That and the foul edge to her scent, he thought, reminding himself of her origins... her owner.

Sesshoumaru's fingers traced over the scarring, controlling the urge to burn away all evidence that she belonged to another, and leave his own mark and scent behind. The insignia of the spider was as offensive to his eyes as Naraku's stench was to his nose.

The woman lying across his lap suddenly quickened- breath and warmth returning to her suddenly. She tensed at the brush of claws against her back before reason provided the fact that while the legs beneath her were definitely adult and male, the hakama were white. Naraku disdained white other than the baboon pelts he was so fond of.

That she was at least partially naked with her torso draped across Sesshoumaru's lap was the final conclusion her not quite fully functioning brain drew. She could count blades of grass if she was of a mind to, or she speak up and find out just how she wound up in this position. While laying here sounded the most pleasurable, there was an acrid burning scent in the air that probably did not bode well for her body's welfare. Kagura placed a very high value on herself, so she wrapped the wind around herself and was across the clearing in a heartbeat. If I had a heartbeat, that is...

She looked across the way at the faintly smiling inuyoukai. She couldn't quite repress a shudder at the glowing green of his dokkasou, giving him a splendid view of her tightened nipples before she crossed her arms and looked pointedly away from him. Faint hissing sounds came from the ground as the acid burned its way through layers of dead foliage. The stench filled the clearing with a throat-searing bitter tang.

"That's all it would take, foolish woman, to put you out of your misery and gain you that freedom from Naraku you so desire."

"What sort of fool do you think I am, Sesshoumaru? I wish for freedom, not death!"

"Yet you are powerless to claim either."

Her garnet eyes narrowed. "I offered you shards of the Shikon Jewel to help me defeat him and you told me to use them myself. The bastard holds my heart! Any sign of rebellion or deceit and he will kill me like he's killed off my siblings." The wind witch's face turned cynical. "It's not like he creates any of us out of what he considers strong or useful pieces, just what is expedient to drop as he reforms himself."

Sesshoumaru's attention was grabbed by the last part. "Reforms himself?"

Something he doesn't know? Did Inuyasha not tell him? Kagura re-evaluated the worth of her information. "Sesshoumaru, free me from Naraku. I will give you everything I know about him, just promise to free me."

His eyes went flat and she knew that last outburst had cost her. She took a deep breath. "I do not have the power to kill Naraku, Sesshoumaru. Even if I had shards of the jewel I still would not have what it takes to kill him and I do not have much time left before he tires of me. Already he is suspicious and leaves me to fend for myself after his twisted plots."

"That is why I had to fish you out of the river yet again?"

"Your brother caught me off guard with that new attack of his."

"Yet you are alive."

"Alive? You had me in your lap. Surely you noticed the absence of a heartbeat." I don't dare ask why I was there, though. His face is like a mask again. If only he would help me! "Naraku holds my heart. All it would take is one moment for him to destroy it… and with it me. I am no fool, Sesshoumaru. I want the freedom of the wind, not the freedom of death.

"Naraku throws off bits of his humanity along with each of us he creates. Each time he chooses a powerless night, each bunshin he throws off, every chance he gets he throws off more of Onigumo, whom he hates. Sister Kanna was an experiment and thus has little emotion. With me he threw off impetuosity, Brother Goshinki bottomless hunger, Juromaru the mindless urge to fight and Kageromaru was a collection of base emotions. He has even cast off his human heart, leaving it in the babe Mouyomarou protects."

"Are you sure his heart is with Mouyomarou?" Sesshoumaru kept a steady gaze on her as the beginnings of a strategy began to come together.

"Hakudoshi says it's so, though he's not the most trustworthy of informants. I don't know how long he'll wait before resorbing that heart again... something about it is vital for Naraku to reach his strongest self." She paused, then finished telling him all the information. "He recently went back to Hakureizan... I don't know why, though."

Sesshoumaru looked lost in thought and Kagura wished that she had more covering. The chill air pulled the river mist into the trees and left her skin prickling with the cold. Her hair flowed down her body and gave some protection, but it was still wet in places. If only I could shake it out! But that would mean turning her back on Sesshoumaru. Not a chance. Informant or not he'll still kill me, the bastard. Her pebbled nipples pressed into her arm and she fought to control a shiver. I'll not give him the pleasure of mocking me.

Unbeknownst to her, the stoic demon had noticed her troubles minutes before. He concealed the smile in his eyes as she shivered discreetly as possible. He really couldn't decide what would be more entertaining… tormenting her in these little ways or seeing the expression on her face if he were to take her up against a tree until she smelled of nothing but him and sex.

A vision of those full breasts rose in his memory and he shuttered his eyes. I should just kill her. She is a weakness... A drop of poison slid along the sides of his nail and dripped from the tip of a wicked point onto his hakama. The silk stood up to the onslaught as the poison caused the air to shimmer as it quickly evaporated. All his options seemed to be enticing.

Kagura drew herself up and dropped her arms. They were just breasts and it wasn't like that irritating dog was paying her any attention anyway. There was a storm coming. She could hear the whisper of it in the sighing of the wind, the call of turbulent gusts in her very bones. The air currents wisped up her arms and caressed her body, a thermal lending her its heat. She heard music that seeming only called to her; all others deaf to its siren call. It was the singing, sighing slither of the high aether currents calling her, beckoning her to ride the wind. She listened to it long enough to gain heart and reached for the feather in her hair.

Sesshoumaru had watched the change in her, his nose picking up the scent of the wind changing its pathways to warm and protect the woman. The skin on her torso and those full breasts smoothed, losing the chilled prickles and bluish tinge. Her areola reddened to a shade much darker than her eyes and browner, becoming a color he would almost compare to dried blood if it hadn't been so vibrantly alive. Stirrings within his hakama had his most sensitive anatomy brushing against the cool silk, sending a frisson of sensation through his loins. Uneasily he contemplated the fact that lust was one of the emotions he had yet to chain to his will, until the movement of her arm grabbed his attention. Before she could use the feather she had plucked from her hair, he rose and lashed his whip in front of her.

"I did not say you could leave. I have more questions."

Her ruby lips curved upwards slightly as she covered her start. "Unfortunately, Sesshoumaru, you don't always get what you want." Her eyes flashed. "I did offer that right to you, but you declined," she ended the statement with a teasing lilt. "Time's up and I have to go before Naraku's spies find me here. I'm sure an important youkai such as yourself has much more to do than wait around for a thank you. Goodbye, Sesshoumaru."

She left him in a swirl of wind and he watched narrow-eyed until she was out of sight. Damnable woman. He turned and disappeared into the trees. Jaken better not be asleep. Then again, it would be a good excuse to stone him. He ignored the little addition in the back of his mind, as long as Rin is safe.

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This was my first attempt at something more erotic, in 2006 or 2007, way back before Kagura died and Sesshoumaru regained his arm. I wasn't at ease posting it back then, but I think I've cleaned it up enough it doesn't look like a fourteen year old's version of eroticism. There was a notation this was for Quirkyslayer... so Paynesgrey, this one's a very belated whatever it was for you!