Yuzuriha's grandmother liked to tease her by calling her "pup".
The nickname was more appropriate than it first appeared: The little Yuzuriha was all paws and ears, grabbing hold of whatever she could get her tiny hands on. People quickly learned that a surefire way to get her to stop crying was to hand her just about anything that happened to be lying around. She'd simply stop her fussing to stare at it and run her hands over it, sometimes for hours. She loved listening to even mundane things – the flowing of water, for instance – and could fall asleep in a matter of minutes if something was put in her room to make white noise like an electric fan.
She was impossible to contain as soon as she learned to walk, and gave her caretakers quite a workout whenever she decided that she didn't want to sit through a lesson. She much preferred to run and test her newfound legs to boring history.
Her first word, even, wasn't one of the usual "mommies" or "daddies" – it was "Inu". She was so fond of the word that she used it as a synonym for anything good, and frequently exclaimed "Inu!" in an excited voice when her favorite foods were served. By the time she was two she'd learned quite a few more words, but "Inu" still topped the list when it came to expressing joy.
Yuzuriha had inevitably shed her small, soft exterior for an adult body – becoming a capable young woman and warrior as a representative of Mitsumine Shrine – but her grandmother still called her "pup", despite all this.
Whenever Yuzuriha would insist that she'd outgrown the nickname, the old woman would simply smile and share a well-known piece of wisdom from the shrine's founders:
"A dog never really stops being a puppy, even when it's big."
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A/N: This was written in response to a "Childhood" challenge on the LJ community Togakushrine.