A/N: Here's the reason I was unhappy as a child....but I should warn you that it won't be all smiles and rainbows.

I don't really remember my father. I was only a baby when he went off to fight in the war. But even then I knew that he wouldn't be coming back.

I was told years later by my older sister, Hana, that our parents had a fight about my father's participation in the war.

My mother begged him not to go, telling him it was too risky. My father, however, stood by the values he was raised with that he had a duty to defend our village with his life.

The war went on for a couple of years....and by the time I was 7 my father was a distant memory.

My mother's personality completely changed upon finding out her husband had been killed in action. She became more short-tempered, taking her anger out on the first thing she could lay her hands on....me.

You see, I was the second child of the pair of twins she had before the war. She only was expecting to have one child....my brother Kiba.

When I became a surprise baby that no one knew about, my mother was upset. She already had my sister Hana, and now she had a boy. It was clear that I wasn't wanted from the minute I entered the world.

My father was my protector, convincing his wife to keep me despite her wishes. At the time, she agreed to do so....and everything seemed perfect.

After my father died, I lost that protection. My mother used me as an outlet for her grief. I didn't fight back....and how could I at the time?

Years went by...and the time came for my brother and I to start our training.

The only happy moment in my life since my father's passing was when I was given Eriko.

Kiba and I trained with our nindogs Eriko and Akamaru...if one could call playtime training, that is.

Upon entering the academy, I became more serious about my training and aimed to make my mother proud. But that never happened, and by the time I was 17 my fate was sealed in the Chunin exams.

My team was comprised of myself and my two friends, Hanara Hyuuga and Shana Aburame. We were trained by my brother's sensei, Kurenai. Mostly, we trained ourselves...and we had a false hope that we could succeed by ourselves against well-formed opponents.

We couldn't have been more wrong...

After round two, I succumbed to an unseen injury I had apparently sustained during the exam. Shana wasn't much better, having had her legs broken just hours before we made it to the tower.

Hanara was the only one of our team to move on to the preliminaries for the third round...but she too was injured and ended up in the hospital.

We eventually recovered from our injuries and a year later were back in the exams once again. This time, however, we all passed the entire exam and were named chunin.

You would expect my mother to be proud of me now, right? She didn't even go to watch the exams! I was tired of the hate and the pain...so I packed a bag of items and I left.

My only companion was my nindog Eriko.

I moved from place to place, never lingering anywhere for too long. I had almost given up hope for finding a place to live.

Luck seemed to be on my side, however, and I found myself outside of a lesser-known village....the village hidden in the Sound.

I snuck in through the gate, keeping to the shadows until someone caught sight of me and captured me.

I said my name was Kimiko Summers, and I needed a place to stay.

They were understanding, and they took me to the Otokage...who was none other than the former Leaf Sannin Orochimaru.

Orochimaru showed me mercy and gave me a place to stay in the village.

I befriended the person who found me in the village, a odd yet curious person named Phoenix.

It was not 5 years later that a figure from my past finally caught up with me.

I was called to Lady Kera's office. She took over when Orochimaru stepped down.

She told me there was someone wandering around the village looking for me.

When I heard the person's description, I immediately knew who it was. I was dismissed from the office, and I immediately when searching for him...

Shino Aburame

I saw him sitting at a table alone, and in all the years I had known him he had never looked so sad and defeated.

I approached with caution and froze when I saw his posture straighten.

He turned his head....and our eyes met for the first time in years.

"Kimiko?" he asked, a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Hi Shino" I replied, a small smile on my face.

He stood up from the table, and upon moving close to me he hugged me tightly.

We spent the next hour or so catching up on what had happened in our lives as I walked us back to my apartment.

Once inside, we sat on the couch in silence.

"Will you ever come back?" he asked, breaking the quiet.

"I...I don't know. I want to know that I feel safe and secure there. But as long as my mother is around....It just won't feel like a home anymore" I replied.

I felt an arm wrap around me, and I leaned closer to Shino.

"Take your time hun. I will always be here for you" were the last words I heard as I drifted off to a peaceful sleep for the first time in the past five years.

A/N: That is it for now. Wow this is almost 1,000 words! I hope this started to explain my story. Phoenix and Kera are based off two people I knew from Google Plus a long time ago.