Years before the epic saga you know, the hanyou Inuyasha was a small child. He was orphaned at a young age when both his father and mother died, but even being half a demon, how does someone so young survive?

You see, a long time ago he had to go from place to place to get food and water. He never stayed in one spot for too long, because the humans drove him out and taunted him for being a half demon. He didn't belong with demons or humans, no one wanted him. But for a short period of time, he was taken in by a little demon girl…

It was the spring. The cherry blossoms were particularly beautiful this year, but that wasn't something Inuyasha cared about. He had been very hungry for weeks, and needed something, anything to eat.

There was a pack of orphaned young demons nearby, and Inuyasha grudgingly knew that they would have food, and he might be able to get some from them.

"Hey!" a wolf demon called out to him, "what do you think your doing!"

Inuyasha backed up a little.

"He's a half-breed!" another demon cried, "I can smell the human in 'im!"

"This isn't the kind of place for half-breeds." The wolf demon sneered, "Why don't you go back to your human mother?"

"She's been dead for two moons." Inuyasha said in a barely audible voice.

"Did you hear that!" cackled another young demon, "his mommy's been dead for two moons!"

The twenty or thirty of them laughed manically. "Ha! Jus because your filthy human mother kicked it doesn't mean you can waltz in here like your somebody! We don't allow half-breeds in our pack!" the wolf demon snorted.

But before Inuyasha could say anything about that, a little girl walked up to the wolf demon.

"Stop being so mean to him!" she screamed, "He's an orphan just like us!"

"Oh shut up!" snorted the wolf demon, "a pup like you doesn't understand the difference between the higher class and the half-breeds!"

The little girl climbed up the wolf demons shoulders. She was a great deal shorter than him, but twice as bold.

"Just because we take you in doesn't mean that"—

--But before he could finish, the girl yanked on his head. He choked for a minute, but he fell to the ground gasping. The girl gave him a few kicks to the side. She walked past the other orphans who backed out of her way and walked over to Inuyasha.

"Come on." She said, putting her skinny arm on his shoulder, "let's find you something to eat."

The girl led Inuyasha to a small river. She started cooking some fish over a fire for the both of them.

"Im sick of those guys," she huffed, "they think their better than everyone. Even other demons! Not just hanyou, but they think that wolf demons are better than dog demons, that if your more powerful than someone you can do whatever you want to them… I've had it with them im not going back."

Inuyasha looked away. "I can't help it im a half demon." He said.

"Of course not!" the girl said matter-of-factly, "and there's nothing wrong with being half demon."

"Yes there is."

"No there isn't!" she frowned, "you should be proud your demon parent found a human wonderful enough to love as much as —maybe even more— than any demon. Its rare to find humans that wonderful, but your demon parent did."

"My father was the demon," Inuyasha stated, "But I never thought of it the way you put it."

"See?"

"But I still want to be a full demon."

The girl handed Inuyasha a fish. "Here. It's yummy. You better like it because this is the first thing I ever cooked."

Inuyasha nodded thankfully. "Um…" he paused, "my name is Inuyasha."

"Wow. That's a coincidence." The girl grinned, "My name is Inukasumi!" she handed Inuyasha another fish. "Say… Maybe we could stick together? You know, for a while."

Inuyasha stared at her. Why would any full demon want to be friends with a hanyou? But then again… she was young. He nodded and smiled, feeling like he belonged at last.