How It Could Have Been

Days Go by

How It Could Have Been
Chapter 74: Days Go By

The following five years were halcyon days for Inuyasha, and indeed for everyone surrounding him; even his two hanyou friends had widened out in friendship after finding out that among youkai they were not so different looking as they had always thought before. They had even accepted training from the Palace masters in various ways and their strengths had been admired. True, those at the Palace were used to hanyou and in any case any who had genuinely disliked the thought of half breeds had left long ago. Therefore it wasn't a true representation of the population, but it was a far wider field than either boy had known before.

There was never a dull moment for the children at the Palace and the next milestone was reached by Kouga, which meant that lessons for the boys took another turn. The official ones which taught how bodies and voices were changing and preparing the youth for adulthood, were boring and understood, but the unofficial ones were more fun. Hearing Kouga's voice make strange sounds as it dipped between that of a childish cub and that of an adolescent wolf, sometimes in mid sentence, was far more fascinating and a great deal of fun for the younger boys at Kouga's expense.

There was a down side too, the gulf in their ages suddenly seemed huge and Kouga found that he had more in common with the two older hanyou than with his classmates. He looked forward to the days off when Jinenji and Gyuoh would come over and the older boys would rather spend their time together and Inuyasha felt left out again. Only once did he rebel though, and lead a small party of spies out to where the older boys had gone, they had a den in the forest where only adolescents were allowed.

But after watching in amazement at the older boys who were seeing how far up a tree they could shoot their urine and then comparing the sizes of their privates with one another, the younger boys had burst out laughing and been chased away. Of course none of them could wait until it was their turn to be initiated into these rites of adolescence, but it would be quite a few years until the first of them started to notice his voice changing. Kouga had to leave for over a week while his tribe celebrated his transition from cub to adult and when he came back he was full of the tales of all that had been done in his honour; making the younger ones long for their own times.

Kouga also came back with a great sense of self importance; his celebration had also confirmed his status as pack leader once he had fully matured, until then, he had to still have protection from some of the wolves, although more and more were accepting him. However his ego had been inflated by all the praise of his obvious strength, speed and power; not to mention his growing charm.

He couldn't seem to help falling back on his old failing of trying to boss the younger boys around again, especially targeting the three sons of Inu no Taishou. None of them however were going to tolerate that for very long, both younger boys were definitely Alpha and told him so in no uncertain terms; as for Inuyasha, he wouldn't let his own brothers pull that trick. Kouga spoke haughtily to Inuyasha;

"It's only natural that you should listen to me Inuyasha; I shall be leader one day, you will have to bow to me then."

"Never, you jumped up wimp. I suppose you think that I should bow to every alpha, well I don't. You are so stupid Kouga; do you think I should be all obedient to any Alpha if he was only a worm or an ant?" Inuyasha said scornfully, before he launched himself at Kouga and tussled him to the ground. Kouga was shocked, he was bigger and stronger than Inuyasha, especially since his body had started to mature; but he wasn't expecting the smaller boy to charge him, however he wasn't going to let Inuyasha have his own way and he started to retaliate.

Both boys were hauled apart and held up to eye level by the scruffs of their kimono by Inu no Taishou who had intervened before the scuffle became too heated. His face was stern but his aura was not angry.