Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha

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In hopes of finding information on the restoration of Tetsusaiga, InuYasha and friends made the decision to wander the countryside aimlessly in hopes of locating an all-knowing guru of swordsmith-ery.

Unfortunately, all they had managed managed to accomplish so far was quite a bit of the aforementioned aimless wandering.

But Kagome was not one to let a long period of otherwise-unoccupied time go by without taking the chance to get to know her new dog-eared friend a little better.

"InuYasha?"

A few seconds elasped before InuYasha responded; he was staring with distracted interest at the trees on the horizon. "Yeah?"

"Tell me about your childhood."

InuYasha scowled. "I don't want to talk about it. My childhood was a traumatic experience; it scarred me for life and left me with deep seated trust issues!"

---------------------flashback---------------------

An eight-year-old InuYasha scampered his way home for dinner with a surprise for his dear mother stowed carefully in one of his pockets. Upon seeing two little girls of his age, he swerved to greet them, a proud grin on his face. "Hey," he called cheerfully. "Wanna see what I found in the forest?"

The two girls jumped back, squealing. "Ewww! Don't touch us, dirty hanyou!" They were, of course, referring to the mud that coated him liberally from head to foot. He had been wallowing in the swamp, after all.

InuYasha was somewhat taken aback, but he figured that nobody could deny the coolness of his new pet. He pulled it from his pocket to show them, holding it close to their faces (just so that they could get a really good look).

The girls shrieked and ran, leaving InuYasha standing forlorn and rejected in the middle of the road. A single tear dripped down his cheek, leaving a pale track in the mud. He gazed sadly into the eyes of his pet frog, who judging by appearance could have been the larval stage of whatever Jaken was.

---------------end flashback---------------

"... And that's how it was my whole childhood, Kagome." InuYasha finished his story, glaring in the direction of the ground. "They would call me dirty, just because I was a hanyou; they would scream and run from me. That's the kind of prejudice I've had to deal with."

"Oh, InuYasha..." Kagome was horrified; she'd had no idea that there was such injustice in the world. "I'm so sorry." She threw her arms around him in an impulsive hug.

InuYasha froze. "Um... thanks..." Her boobs are touching me...

Kagome pulled back and smiled at him. "Now aren't you glad you got that off your chest?"

"Uh... yeah, I guess," InuYasha said cautiously.

"Hey! Stop lagging behind!" Shippou yelled out from where he was running around under Miroku, Sango, and Kikyou's feet, and generally making a nuisance of himself.

Sango shrugged. "We can take our time. I know a shortcut."

"A shortcut to where? Do we even know where we're going?" asked InuYasha.

"Well, that's just..." Sango floundered for a moment. "Not important. This shortcut is a family secret, and thus infalliable."

"If you say so."

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AN: Whoa, this is like, my shortest chapter ever. Not even two pages in OpenOffice. Mostly, I was feeling really happy today and wanted to write because a) my humanities professor extended the deadline for the research paper five days; and b) my anatomy and physiology professor canceled class for next tuesday. Both of which puts me in a very, very good mood.