"Life sucks. And then you die.I should be so lucky."--Jacob Black;Twilight

My body shook with silent,ragged sobs,convulsing as I struggled to keep myself from making any noise and giving away my position. Blood stained the left side of my face,and I couldn't see out of my left eye. The tears flowed faster and harder as I listened to my father curse and swear in the next room. My name was mentioned amongst those words,spoken with derision and hatred. But as much as my father might hate me,I hated him far more than the whole world combined could ever hate a single man,but with that hate came fear.
I stifled another sob as his voice rose,bellowing threats and accusations that stung almost as worse as the pain in my eye.
Abusive,vehement,relentless,and drunk,he was the equivalent to the monster from a child's darkest nightmares.

But for me,he was ten times worse than that. He was my nightmares,and because of that,I hardly ever slept. In the waking world,nothing changed,for he invaded both realms.
I don't remember the last time I truly slept,nor could I ever remember ever finding happiness in the very few dreams of the past. There was no escape,awake or asleep;I was afraid to run,fearing that he'd pursue me through my dreams,stopping at nothing so long as he could inflict pain upon me again.
My mother was dead. She'd died trying to save me--from him,of course. My father took no notice,he took her death in disregard,and it did nothing to bring him to his senses.

However,if he had been drinking heavily before,my mother's death provoked him to double his alcohol intake. Unfortunately,he is a violent drunk. He sought me out as his personal punching bag,taking his ever-changing emotions out on me...my only chance of survival was to hide from him,dodging every possible conflict. Years of abuse had taught me to be fast,and in his drunken state,my father was often too slow to land a proper hit. Today,however,he had caught me off gaurd and had come from behind me and slammed me against the wall,pinning me there and shouting various threats.
I was unable to hold back tears,but my crying only made things worse. He had slashed the left side of my face with a kunai,and dropped me to the floor. At that point,I ran off to hide,and now my father was searching for me. My tears stung the gash on my face.

This was a situation I knew all too well,one I had learned to deal with by experience.I had concealed myself under the broken cupboard--he'd kicked a sizeable hole in the wood-and-enamel finish--and focused on entirely on keeping as quiet as possible.I flinched now and then as he hissed more threats,but his slurred speech was hard to understand;Hell,most of his words hardly formed a comprehensible sentence,but the curse words were clearly defined,as there was always an extra bit of emphasis on those words--and my name was always said spitefully,as if venom had been injected into his very words.

The noise died down after a few minutes,my dad's violent words subsiding as he gave up on searching. For the time being,at least. I had no intention of coming out of hiding--I knew this part of my father's "game",as well--he would attack me as soon as I showed up again,and there was no gaurantee I'd be okay if he caught me again.
A clicking noise sounded just outside of the cupboard,jerking me out of my daze. Out of habit,I cringed further back towards the wall,immersing myself in murky,empty darkness.

I remember thinking that if the noise I was making didn't give me away,then the silence surely would. The scratching noise did not cease,but got louder,closer. My azure eyes widened,or at least one of them did.I forced myself not to breathe,I locked all my muscles into place and kept completely still.A shadow formed outside,slinking along the edge of the cabinet and closer to the makeshift entrance my father had created. It was dark outside of the cabinet as well,mind you,so I couldn't make out the fuzzy shape that formed just outside of the entrance.

The shadow slipped through the opening and placed itself directly in front of me,barely 5 inches from my face...and this confused me. My father was about 5"11',and the figure before me was barely over a foot tall.I didn't get much of a chance to guess who it was--I knew,as soon as the creature settled itself gingerly next to my crouching form,who this was. The creature fixed its golden-amber eyes on my marred face...
Tobi.

This "creature" was merely just a man,the only person I knew to trust. Tobi was an Uchiha,his clan was known for their ability to copy jutsus and other such abilities. The jutsu he used now--a transformation jutsu--was actually forbidden move,learned from a sacred scroll or book. According to Tobi,he was still working on acquiring new forms...
He usually took the form of a massive wolf-like dog,but his current form was one I did not recognize.

I held out my arms,almost imperiously,and the small human-creature crawled into lap. My my fingers brushed absently through his long,silky fur.I pulled my face into a look of concentration as I tried to figure out what he was supposed to be. His long,fluffy tail twitched in amusement at the expression I was making.I observed that tail,especially,now that he'd moved it. Bushy and soft,dark fur collided with a lighter shade at its tip. The rest of his fur was so dark that it blended into the darkness,except for the chest fur,which was strikingly white.
I had never seen an animal like this before,and I was therefore clueless as to what it was.

"I'm a fox!" he scoffed playfully,as if it were the most obvious fact in the world. To anyone who wasn't me,it probably was.
"Riiiiiiight."I replied,my voice trembling as I struggled to keep the volume down.
He notice this,and his eyes flashed with sympathy,anxiety,and something else...something I couldn't recognize. Anger?Resentment?Whatever it was,the color of his eyes changed momentarily as it passed,to a bloody red.I knew this to be sharingan,the legacy of the Uchiha clan.

"What happened?"he asked flatly.I was once again stirred from my reverie. His tone was gentle,but he was obviously fighting to keep anger out of his voice. He hated my father,probably almost as much as I did,for he knew everything--about my mother;she was dead,my father's cruelty,and everything else. He even knew about my handmouths--they were tightly shut as I stroked his fur--and about my abilities with clay. Once,he'd asked why I didn't simply just blow my father up.

He had transformed again,into his human form,so that my head now rested against his arm.

Now,he kept as level of an expression as his temper would allow,casting murderous glances towards the room where my father's grunts and snores could be heard.
"He's drunk..." I began.
"Obviously. But how did this," he gently stroked my injured facial features,
"How did that happen?"
I shifted my forlorn gaze downward and replied,"I really...shouldn't tell..."
"Why the hell not?!" I flinched at his sudden outburst."Because..."

You know that feeling you get right before you cry?Imagine that as a facial expression--it's the closest thing you could get to how my face probably looked right now...Tobi noticed this,of course.
"Well,that settles it!" he stated matter-of-factly.
"Dei,stay close and follow me,alright?"
"But...why?" I couldn't help but ask. Tobi,whose face was uncovered by his mask for once,beamed mischievously in reply.
"It's time I got you out of this hell-hole. Deidara,think fast--I'm kidnapping you!"