I don't own InuYasha, Sesshomaru, or any other cannon characters. The only ones I own are my OC's. I do not own the song in here either.

Chapter 25: Life Lessons

InuYasha glared at the three young male ningens from behind Tsukiko's legs. He had been playing in the river while Tsukiko caught his dinner, when the three boys had seen him, and chased him, calling him names and throwing rocks at him. Tsukiko had stopped them, using her war fan to push them back against a large rock. And now the three were cowering, praying for the kami's to save them from the 'evil' youkai. But Tsukiko was making no moves to kill them.

Pulling on her kimono to get her attention, InuYasha held up his now bruised arm.

"They hurt me Tsu, they were going to kill me!"

"And what would you have me do InuYasha?"

"Aren't you going to kill them?"

When Tsukiko shook her head, the little hanyou frowned.

"They are gonna be just like all other ningen, their gonna kill lots of us when they are big, so why not just kill them now?"

"So just because their kin have killed many of our kind, you would have me kill these boys for a crime that does not warrant death?"

InuYasha's little ears laid back. He hadn't thought about it like that.

"So what are you gonna do?"

Tsukiko smiled a little, and ran her clawed hand through his fine white hair, before walking up to the young ningens. She fixed the first with a chilling glare, before raising her hand, and slapping the youth hard across the face. All of the others heard the young man's jaw break, and watched in horror as he fell to the ground, moaning in pain; his jaw hurting so much he couldn't scream.

Both the others got similar slaps; one sported a broken nose and deep scratch across his face, while the other had a broken cheek bone and eye socket.

"So tell me InuYasha, did you know why I did not kill those human boys?"

Tsukiko looked down at the little hanyou who had her hand in a vice like grip with his own as he walked beside her.

"I dunno..."

"Nobody can kill another person for the sins of their kind or kin, when that person had not committed the sin. Those boys wronged you, yes, but they did not do anything that deserved death. Their kin may have slaughtered many youkai and hanyou, but they themselves have not. To kill them for wrongs they themselves did not do is wrong, and by not doing it, you are the better person."

InuYasha looked away in thought.

"One day you will understand, little Yasha"

InuYasha stared in horror at the sight before him. A dozen humans, dressed in strange armour, were standing by the corpse of a large snake youkai, and even more were hacking into it with knives, taking off skin and digging out bones. And Tsukiko was taking them right towards them!

Tsukiko watched InuYasha as his face took on a look of horror and fear. She continued to walk across the plain, making no efforts to hide herself from the taijiya who were dealing with the snake youkai up ahead, even releasing more of her aura than usual to show them that she was strong enough for them to not want to deal with. She may still be an adolescent, but she was no pushover.

With InuYasha clinging to the back of her kimono with a death-grip, she slowly walked past the large group of taijiya, who stopped working to assess her. She gave a slight nod of her head to acknowledge them, before continuing. The taijiya gave shallow bows in return, before going back to work.

When they were out of earshot of the taijiya, InuYasha tugged at Tsu's sleeve.

"Why did they kill that youkai, but hardly notice us?" Tsu smiled down at him, before reaching out and rubbing him behind his ears.

"They are taijiya, demon slayers. They are hired by both humans and higher youkai to deal with rouge youkai, who destroy and kill everything in their path. They did not attack me because I showed no interest in attacking them, nor have I attacked any other ningen. And they would not attack you, because you are just a pup."

"So they only kill bad youkai? And they leave everyone else alone?"

"Hai, and sometimes they even work with youkai to slay bad youkai." InuYasha nodded his head slowly.

"Maybe one day I can be a taijiya too, so I can help get rid of bad youkai who try and kill hanyou like me."

"Maybe one day Yasha, but now..." Tsu lifted InuYasha's mop of white hair up, showing the tangles, sticks and leaves underneath. "You need a bath so I can brush your hair."

Tsukiko relaxed on her tree branch as she watched over Inuyasha. The little hanyou was splashing about in a stream, trying to catch dinner for himself. She was indulging him, having shown him how to catch a fish, and for the last hour he had been running up and down the river, trying (and failing) to catch his dinner. From her post in the tree, she could clearly see the pup and the area surrounding him, and all her other senses extended around her, so as not to be caught off guard. Well... almost as if she could not be caught off guard...

Feeling a sting on her neck, she raised her hand and wacked where the pain was. And down floated old Myoga.

"Oh, its just you Myoga. What are you doin here?" Myoga shook himself un-flat.

"Ah.. well... Yuugao wanted me to give you a report, and said she'd take off my arms one by one till I went... And do you know how hard you were to find young lady!"

"Um... yeah? I am well aware of how hard I am to find, old man." Picking him up by the collar with her claws, she held him in front of her face.

"So... what does Yuu want me to know?"

"Well... the young lord Sesshomaru is preparing to travel his territory, much like you are yourself, Yuugao believed you may want to know in advance... Oh, and we have unfortunately received word that the younger son of the former Inu no Taisho has gone missing, and is presumed dead..."

Tsu raised an eyebrow, before turning the flea around to face the river. She pointed a clawed finger towards InuYasha.

"Missing and presumed dead... huh."

"Oh! Master InuYasha! Master InuYasha! He's alive!... wait.. how come he's with you?"

"Long story, but Sessh already knew... didn't he correct the reports?"

"Ah..." Myoga thought back for a second, then shook his head. "Iie, he did not say a word when he was told."

"Typical, stupid dog..."

Ok, so that was just a bunch of cute little bits and pieces. I didn't want to just jump strait to the next major plot point, so I decided to write a few cuter bits. I hope you like 'em ;3

Eggbert 3000: Well, this chapter is the 'raising' one, or at least the younger InuYasha being raised X3 You will see what I mean in another chapter or two.

Everliss the wolf: X3 cuteness is just as fun to write as read. If you have an account on here, you can PM through the account page, under "private messages".

Royal Kitsune: Little Inu makes every InuYasha story better

KursedFire: Mwahaha! There WILL be more Satoshi... but I cant tell you when X3

Soldier of Passion: ^^ Thank you! I can tell you, that whats planned already will have everyone either squealing "Kawai!" or "Awwww! ^^", and/or giggling till they hyperventilate X3

Ivy's Siren: Thank you ^^ I have a rather large collection of documents with all my plot ideas on it, and with both my own ideas and twisting up the cannon plots to include Tsu (not directly most the time X3 ), I have quite a story planed, even if i tend to run off my own plan quite a lot on a whim X3

LightningRip: X3 I thought you'd like having Yuu in the chapter

Ouran21: X3 Glad you liked it X3

Steph the bat 11: *clean up the mess from exploded bat* Did I post this in time? Good luck at your concert.

Dontgotaclue88: Thanks X3 Within the next few chapters, there will be far more Sessh and Tsu bits :3

Ive just gotten to volume 40 of InuYasha ^^ The episode with Kohaku defending the castle.

Well, now to get on to chapter 26 ^^