I know I should really be focusing on my other stories instead of posting a new one, but this one just demanded to be written. It's been on my mind for days and it was finally time to just sit down and write it out. It's completely out of my comfort zone, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated and welcomed! I will still continue to write chapters for my other stories and will continue steadily updating them as long as inspiration decides to stay by my side!

Anyway!

I do not own Naruto or its characters, just the plot to this story!

If you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!

S Lyubov'yu,

Casper

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Sakura Haruno silently sighed at the situation she had found herself in. Never in her twenty years of life did she ever think she would have ever ended up like this. Less than a month ago, her life had been damn near perfect, but now, all she wanted was to crawl in a hole and disappear. About three weeks ago, she had been given a notice by her landlord stating that she would no longer be welcome on the property and that she had two weeks to vacate the premises. She had been given no reason for her surprise eviction and she couldn't help the tears that sprung to her eyes every time she thought about it.

Considering the short amount of time she had been given to find a new home, pack her things, and remove herself from the building she'd been in, it was easy to say that she had not been able to find a place that would rent to her. She'd had no choice but to check into a questionable motel room that she knew had been used for illegal activities on more than one occasion. The burn marks and hastily patched holes in the walls of the room were evidence enough. But she knew that she couldn't afford to stay at the motel forever. Her income was limited and paying daily fees to keep the room and having to constantly go out to eat were effectively draining her savings at a rapid pace. If she was lucky and decided to skip a few meals, she could maybe afford to keep the room for another four or five days.

After her bank account was bled dry from paying room fees, there would be nothing left to put down a deposit for an apartment either. Sure, she had a job, but it was barely keeping her in the motel room at the moment. There was no way that she would be able to save for a place and pay for her room at the same time. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she knew her time was limited and she knew where she would ultimately end up if something didn't change.

She would end up homeless on the streets.

And while she wasn't afraid to physically defend herself from anybody who tried to hurt her on the streets, she was still at a disadvantage.

You see, Sakura Haruno had not uttered a single word since the age of twelve. At twenty years old, the pink haired woman had been a mute for almost half her life. It wasn't that she'd woken up one day and decided that she no longer wished to speak to people, it was the fact that she couldn't bring herself to. At the tender age of twelve, she had experienced horrors that no human or animal should ever endure. She had been lucky that the only thing she'd lost was her voice.

Especially when she could have easily lost her life.

Since that day, eight years ago, Sakura had pretty much chosen to keep to herself. Her parents hadn't understood why she had suddenly stopped talking to them, she suspected that they didn't particularly care either. She'd never had much of a relationship with the people who had given her life to begin with. Even as a small child, she had known that they held some sort of hatred towards her. What she had done to deserve such harsh feelings from her parents, she still had no idea.

And so, one night when she had been sixteen years old, she had packed a bag full of her clothing and walked straight out of her parent's home, never to return. She suspected that they hadn't even noticed, or even cared that she'd run away. As far as she knew, the police were never called and she was never reported missing. She had still attended school everyday and had even managed to graduate with decent grades. She knew that she easily could have been a straight A student, but had chosen to keep herself out of peoples sights.

Since losing her voice eight long years ago, Sakura could easily say that she hadn't had a friend since. She wasn't even sure that she could consider the kids that talked to her when she was just a child even counted as friends. From what she could remember, her teachers in early elementary school had told the children that they were all friends and that was just how it was. Sure, kids would talk to her here and there, but they never attempted to truly get to know her.

Now that she was older, she was honestly grateful for that.

No friends meant there was nobody for her to disappoint.

All in all, she was perfectly content with being completely alone in the world.

As far as she knew, there was only one person in the world that truly cared for her, and that was the woman she worked for.

The woman seemed to understand how she felt without her even having to communicate with her. She was grateful that her boss knew Sign Language and it made it a lot easier to 'talk' to the woman, so to speak. But there was only so much her blonde haired boss could do for her. With Sakura not having a voice, there were only so many jobs that she could take on. She couldn't answer phones or sit at the front desk anywhere and direct people to where they needed to go. No, she was forced to settle for organizing files, helping with patients cleaning routines, helping in the hospital kitchens, just about any job in a hospital that didn't require her to speak to people.

She was lucky that the staff at the hospital was totally supportive of her and didn't judge her for not having a voice. Sure, visitors to the hospital sometimes got frustrated when she wouldn't answer their questions with words, even when passing nurses would try to explain to them that she was a mute and that she wasn't trying to be rude. But at moments like that, people never cared about another person's problems, only their own. But Sakura never blamed them, she understood how they felt and would always shoot them apologetic smiles as they walked away.

It was at moments like that where she wished that she was able to bring herself to speak.

But after consulting her boss, Tsunade, about her condition, she had been told that due to the length of her silence, there was a chance that she would require surgery if she ever wanted to speak again. Surgery that would consume her in medical debt. When Tsunade had brought surgery up to her as an option, she had even offered to put the young woman on her insurance so it would be covered. But Sakura declined.

While she appreciated the blonde's offer, she didn't want to intrude on Tsunade. The woman had already done so much for her and she couldn't bring herself to ask for more. While speaking to people again sounded like a pleasant idea, the pink haired woman didn't know if she was truly ready for something like that yet. Eight years of nothing but silence would do that to a person.

But now, while she sat in her musty motel room, Sakura almost wished that she had taken Tsunade up on her offer. She knew full well that if she was able to speak, that she would have no problem finding a second job to help pay for expenses and that finding an apartment would be so, so much easier. She had let her pride over rule her better judgement and now she was paying the ultimate price for not accepting the help when it was offered.

Sakura knew that if she asked, Tsunade would have an appointment set up for surgery that same day, but she couldn't bring herself to ask her boss for help now. Not when she had hit rock bottom. She didn't want to look desperate in front of the one person who seemed to genuinely care about her wellbeing. She didn't want to seem liking she was begging.

Even at her lowest, Sakura refused to allow her coworkers to see her in such a state. While she knew that they would stand up for her when a patient's family was being rude and impatient with her, she wasn't friends with any of them on a personal level. They were coworkers, nothing more, nothing less. She knew she couldn't ask any of them for help. At that very moment, everything seemed hopeless.

With those thoughts in mind, Sakura could not bring herself to hold back her tears any longer. She buried her face in her hands and allowed the flood gates to open. She cried silently for what seemed like hours and poured out every ounce of grief, loneliness, and sorrow that seemed to engulf her very being. And through it all, through all the tears, she only wished that she could scream her sorrows to the heavens.

And no matter how many times she tried, nothing ever came. Countless attempts at making even a single sound always ended in failure. She was almost ashamed to admit that she couldn't remember what her voice even sounded like. She couldn't remember what her laugh sounded like. Was it quiet and adorable? Was it loud and horribly obnoxious? She couldn't even remember.

And every time she was bombarded with those thoughts, it only compelled her to cry harder. And as the tears came, her only wish was to hear the sounds of her own cries.

But nothing ever came.

Okay, so this is just a bit of an introduction to the actual story. There's going to be quite a bit going on in this story and I can't wait to really get into it. But for now, I just want people's opinions on the idea for the story. The chapters after this will not be as short as this one, if anything, this is more of an intro chapter.

Do you think it's worth continuing? Do you want to see what happens next?

Do you want Sakura to regain her voice?

Do you want to find out her backstory and find out why her voice left her?

Let me know in a review. If enough people want to see this continued, I will continue it at once.

I do not use a beta, so please excuse any spelling or grammatical mistakes I may have missed during editing.

As always, if you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!

Until Next Time!