"You'll never catch me!" She gleefully shouted back to her father, as he made a failed attempt at scooping her up.

"Oh just you wait little Miss Atsui Hisakata! I'll get you yet!" He playfully replied back as he got up off the ground; Ready to continue his pursuit after her.

Atsui took off running again but had to think fast. She thought back to academy class this morning. They had just started covering the basics of what to do when being followed by the enemy. First thing was to find and an adequate hiding spot then asses the situation from there.

She looked around and spotted a rather large tree to hide behind. In one swift movement, she shifted her course and swung around the trunk and landed on other side of the tree. Almost immediately after situating herself, she placed her hand to her mouth and held her breath remembering the next words of her sensei: 'After you have successfully done that, you must remain silent. Even the slightest sound could alert the enemy as to your position. It is imperative that you remain absolutely quiet when in hiding'.

Her father came running up into an empty grove of trees and quickly scanned the area, but saw no trace of his said prey.

"Oh Atsui!" he chimed, hoping to get a response from his usually 'quiet challenged' daughter.

Atsui remained silent though. She wasn't about to blow her cover. She peeked around, but saw the direction of his glance shifting towards her and whipped her head back around.

"I know you're here, you silly thing." He sang out again, but still no response. After a few more minutes of silence, a rather confused look came to his face as he began to scratch the back of his head.

Atsui peeked again and had to stifle back a few escaping giggles. Her dad always looked so funny when he was confused.

"Hmm, maybe she really isn't here. Guess she made a dash for the village instead." He muttered aloud to himself and quickly darted in the direction of civilization.

After she was sure he had left, she crawled out from behind the tree and stood watching in the direction her father had left. She couldn't help but feel a little guilty for tricking him. He might get worried when he didn't find her there. It would probably be best to catch up to him and let him know she was okay. She didn't even make it one step, when suddenly a huge shadow surrounded her. A jolt of panic shot through her mind. She twisted around only to come face to face with the owner of the ominous darkness. She closed her eyes and let out a yelp, expecting the worst.

"Geeze, didn't know I was that scary."

That voice, it was her dad's. She slowly opened up her eyes and looked up into his heart warming smile.

"Daddy! Don't scare me like that! I thought you were an enemy!" She cried leaping up to cling to his arm for comfort.

Now he was the one feeling guilty.

"Oh, I didn't mean to spook you that bad. You gonna be okay my lil' moon beam?" he cooed as he pulled her into a hug.

"I…I think so…but…" She asked quivering.

"Yeah? What is it sweetheart?" he asked releasing her so he could talk to her.

"How is it you were still here? I saw you head for the village." She asked quizzically.

Her father couldn't help but smile. He always seemed to do that when she asked him questions. He told her it was because she always kept an open mind, which was a very useful tool as a shinobi.

"Oh that's easy" he laughed and pointed to the route he had 'taken' earlier.

Atsui looked in shock as an exact copy of her dad came slinking up. This 'dad' gave a wave to her and suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"A shadow clone!" She exclaimed in excitement. "No wonder you were in two places at once!"

"That's right! That teacher of yours has been doing a good job, almost too good. I really didn't know where you were, all I could do was wait for you to come out." He said sheepishly.

He took hold of her hand and began to head for home. It was almost sun-set, and now that Atsui really thought about it, they still hadn't had dinner.

"Daddy?" Atsui asked almost in a whisper.

"Hmm?"

"If I ever really did disappear….would you really just leave?"

Her father froze in his tracks. The sudden cease of movement startled her. He just stood there for a moment then crouched down to her eye level, and gazed into her eyes. Atsui stared back, noticing that his eyes suddenly had a pain in them. Had she said something bad? She didn't have much time to react. Her dad suddenly pulled her into a deep hug.

"I will never….ever….just leave you. I would give my life and search the ends of the earth until I was absolutely sure you were safe and happy."

His words were so filled with pain. It was heart-breaking; she had to do something to make him happy again. She hated it when people were sad. No one deserved to be sad.

"Okay then, if you are going to the ends of the earth then I will go to the ends of the universe to make you happy!" She replied sappily.

He gave a laugh and let go to look at her again.

"Oh would you now?"

"Oh yes I would! And if I can, I'll go even farther then that!" She held her arms out wide to emphasize just how important this was.

"Alrighty then, I'll make you a deal. I'll promise to stay with you and make sure you're happy if you promise to stay with me and make sure I'm happy. Is it a deal?" he asked her holding his hand out for a shake of approval.

"It's a promise!"

Promise…

The word echoed in her mind. She didn't want it to leave. It was the only thing still tying her to him, but like all good dreams it had to end.

Atsui just laid there in bed, desperately hoping the dream would continue. The trouble with dreams is that with the bad ones, you can always wake up and realize they aren't real, but with good ones, you always wish they were. It had been ages since she had had a dream about her father.

He had been killed five years ago, when she was about ten. A rouge ninja had infiltrated their family's estate. Her father had stood up against the menace to protect the family secrets and kekkai genkai. The Hisakata family's Bloodline Limit truly was a powerful one, and to fall into the wrong hands would bring great devastation, to not just the clan, but the Moon Village itself and its allies. The enemy's plans were brought to an end, but her father lost his life as well.

He had died valiantly and she could not be prouder of him, but she couldn't help but feel guilty of being selfish, for hoping that he hadn't and that he should have just retreated like everyone else. She missed him so much.

Her mother had died on mission when she was barely two. Sadly though, she has no recollection of her. Her father always said that she was a lot like her mother. How they acted, how they talked, how they cared for people. From how her father described her, she must have been an amazing person, and Atsui couldn't help but feel proud that she was turning out to be so much like her.

Atsui glanced over at the clock on the bedside table and yelped at the time it read.

"5:30! If I don't get going on those chores, I'll be late meeting Amaya and Uzu!" She said kicking the covers off and leaping out of bed. She quickly slipped out of her pajamas and pulled on her tank top and capris. She slid one arm through her jacket, grabbing her hair brush at the end and quickly popped the handle in her mouth. She pulled the other sleeve on as she made her way to the mirror and began to brush out her mangled bed hair. She dashed over to the bedside table and grabbed her head protector, and tied it together behind her neck letting the protector hang necklace style. She carefully pulled the knot tight, but made sure as to not to get any of her hair caught in the knot. Running back to the mirror she did a quick look down to make sure nothing was too obviously out of place. Being pleased with the results she headed out of her room and got straight to work on collecting the laundry baskets.

This was very routine for her. Ever since she was sent to live with her uncle after her father's death, she had been subject to doing all the daily chores. She didn't mind though, if she didn't do them, who else would?

Her Uncle was her father's brother, and also the head of the family. The funny thing is, as hard as she tries, she can never actually remember ever visiting her uncle when she was younger. I mean she had 'seen' him on a few occasions when she was younger, but had never ever had any actual contact with him. Her father seemed to keep her away from him and didn't associate much with him, himself. She learned why after just the first few days of starting to live here.

He does seem to have a some what violent nature, and his habit of drinking doesn't seem to help, but she decided early on that she would never bring her self to complain. It was very kind of him to let her stay and she sees it as being very fortunate that he has decided to be her guardian, and seeing as he is family, she has promised to show nothing but the utmost respect for him.

Besides, doing the chores made her feel like she was benefiting the family. After all, family is one of the most important things in the world isn't it? And what are a few chores anyways.

After promptly picking up all the laundry, she delivered them to the wash room and started the water. She went to the shelf and fished out the soap and began to pour it into the water. The water began to bubble as the soap hit surface. Suddenly, from out of the silence of the morning.

"SSSSUUUUUUUUIIIII!" an outraged voice called out.

Atsui cringed. He had used 'that' nickname again. That couldn't possibly be good.

"Sounds like Uncle Kushin is up." She muttered to herself trying to stay optimistic with the situation.

She left the wash room and quickly came to her uncle's room and tapped on the door.

"Yes Lord Kushin?"

"Wha?...who is it? Ehh come in so I can see you!" he barked. She could tell he was in one of his hangovers.

Atsui slowly opened the door as if it were a ticking time bomb ready to go off at the jerkiest of movements.

"It's Atsui, you wished to see me?"

"Where is breakfast? You trying to kill me, cause I'm starving in here!?" He shouted while still lying in bed. A wave of relief ran through her, but she stayed on her toes. Just because he was lying down now, didn't mean he wouldn't get up at a moment's notice, and if he got up, it could spell big trouble for her.

"I was…just going to start it after I…got the laundry going."

"Do you think I care about laundry? No! I'm hungry now! And you better not burn it this time either! You must be the worst cook in the world. I don't see why I even keep you here, but I guess good help is hard to find these days…YOU'RE STILL HERE! ARE YOU STUPID! GET MOVING!" He ranted each word would get louder. Atsui could see he would only get angrier the longer she stayed.

She darted out and shut the door tight behind her. The stress of the situation came flushing out as she leaned up against the door and sank to the floor until she was sitting. Certain doom had just been narrowly escaped for sure.

He seemed to be getting angrier with her every day. It was getting harder to get out of these situations. She was very lucky this time.

She sighed.

"Well I'm not getting anything done just sitting here." And with that she headed for the kitchen.

Every second counted, the longer she took, the angrier her uncle would get.