Disclaimer: All rights for Inuyasha are reserved by the brilliant and wonderful Rumiko Takahashi.

I wrote this for a challenge and since it has a semi decent word length, I decided to let it stand alone. Now onto the short one-shot! :)

Back to the Basics

It had all started earlier that day, when they'd run into some unexpected trouble. After the battle, victory had been acheived, however, everyone had come out injured in one way or another. Perhaps annoyed that he'd been caught up in the scuffle, or maybe for another unknown reason, Sesshomaru had scoffed and challenged Inuyasha's ability to defend his pack. As usually the hot headed hanyou had been gravely offended and immediately snapped back a nasty rejoinder; and so they'd fought, snipping at the others pride, attacking any visible weakness.

It wasn't till the end of their spat that Inuyasha had broken their time old flow. After hours of mindless sparring, the Hanyou had fallen to one knee, his fire rat robes and silver hair damp with perspiration. Panting raggedly he glared up at the demon who casually sheathed his sword.

"You lack both discipline and skill, little brother," A disdainful dismissal.

Inuyasha wiped at his brow and spat the blood in his mouth to the dirt at his brother's feet.

"S'not as if I had anything so fancy as a teacher, you bastard. It's hard to care about fancy tricks when running scared for your life. In the thick of things, it don't matter how the opposition is cut, so long as they're what ends up dead and not you."

The stoic demon huffed, eyeing the knicks and bruises he himself had not inflicted, "An amateurish and uneducated point of view."

Ears laid back and fangs flashed in a defensive snarl.

It was then that Inuyasha changed the flow, "I don't remember you ever offering to rectify the matter, asshole."

It was then that Sesshoumaru effectively shocked them all, "You never asked."

Amber eyes widened and white ears swiveled in unease ease. The rest of them were similarly shocked. Sesshoumaru? Offering to help?! Only one pair of brown eyes seemed to be more contemplative than shocked. Sango however kept her thoughts to herself and thus, in the burgeoning silence, it was Miroku who broke the tension. "Are you implying, my lord, that you are willing to take a student?"

Inuyasha's jaw dropped but before he could rip into the Monk for opening his big fat mouth, the taller demon snorted.

"Tomorrow, rise before dawn, little brother. Let us see if your bark can back up your bite."

With that he spun on his heel and left the clearing.

It seemed the Lord of the West had just taken on a pupil.

Shippou and Miroku rushed forward to attend a suddenly green in the face Inuyasha. Kagome began to follow but paused as she caught Sango's sorrowful expression. Sensing that her friend was troubled the dark haired teen changed direction with little fuss.

"It was a bit shocking wasn't it?"

Far-away brown eyes lifted to meet those of inquisitive blue-grey.

"Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru, I mean." The girl clarified when her friend remained silent.

Sango 'hmmed' softly before cupping her elbows with either hand. "I don't think its so shocking actually." Kagome blinked, "…Really?"

The older girl nodded thoughtfully "Mm. He watches him you know."

Black eyebrows furrowed, "I don't understand. Who watches what?"

A sigh, "Sesshoumaru watches Inuyasha during every battle."

Blue eyes widened, "He does?"

"Have you ever seen how Sesshoumaru will push Inuyasha a certain direction, making him take a stance to defend a certain way, as if purposefully?"

Kagome shook her head, "No, I never really noticed…I always just thought they were trying to kill each other. So, these stances... they're important?"

"My forte was never a sword but my father always used to say this: 'The basics in swords-man-ship are like the soul to the human body. While it is possible to learn some of them without a teacher, it's not a good idea. Because the sword is an art form that is very deep, with many layers and levels, self training can too easily result in an inflated sense of confidence and retard your ultimate development.'"

Kagome cocked her head to one side thinking hard, "That's all well and good, but I'm not sure I get what you're implying, Sango-chan."

Brown eyes closed and the Taijiya smiled sadly, "I think 'His Lordship' cares more than he'd like to let on…" shrugging pink clad shoulders, Sango turned on her heel. "Or perhaps I'm just over thinking it."

As she watched Sango walk away, Kagome realized with a start, that she was the only one left in the clearing. Quickly hefting her pack she jogged after her friends, lost in thought.

Could what Sango said be true? Was there something behind Sesshoumaru's cold actions toward his sibling?

Eyes lifting from their perusal of her brown leather loafers, Kagome considered the backs of each of her traveling companions in turn.

She didn't think it'd be a mystery that would be easy to solve.

FIN

Let me lie to myself that Sesshoumaru might have a soft spot, and is merely implimenting a form of very rought tough love when he beats his brother senseless. (At least for the duration of this oneshot) ;) lol

On a more interesting note, I had a lot of fun doing side research for this piece. Japanese swordmanship is deep stuff my friends. Seriously its pretty awesome, and very complex. I had fun reading up on the subject, and also watching some awesome videos on actual technique demonstrations; It might not seem as "cool" at first as one would imagine when thinking about sword fighting, but I found the videos highly impressive. But anyways I wanted to clarify that the quote Sango makes was not completely an origional creation. I read it in an article somewhere and though I totally lost the source, I want to point out that though I totally changed the wording, that the sentiment is not my own and thus I can't take full credit.

For documention sake this was origionally posted and written for the live journal community Dokuga_Contest's Oneshot Challenge, on September 5th 2012. The prompt being: Technique. The Word count stands at 804 words. It placed 1st in the polls which always tickles me pink. :)

Hope you all enjoyed! Oh, and remember:

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