A/N: Missy here! I decided to post some stuff to tide y'all over since we can't really do much with updating stories at this time. These were stashed away for just such an occasion. Hope y'all enjoy! Liz says hi, even though she's sleeping right now. Still recovering from COVID... :'( Alrighty, mandatory disclaimer: I own nothing, Liz owns the plot and her OCs, the rest is owned by Kishimoto-sama!

Chapter 1

No one ever listened. Why didn't anyone care what was happening to her? Were the bruises not enough? Did the broken bones and bloody lips not scream abuse? After a while she stopped trying to hide them, just to see what people would say. But they didn't say a damn thing. They just shook their heads and called her clumsy. Of course, it didn't help her aunt lied through her teeth about what was going on. And then she'd get punished when she got home for not attempting to hide the marks.

She was tired of hiding. She'd hid it for two years. Hiding took too much energy. So instead, she just ignored it. She ignored the pain…ignored the humiliation and degradation. After all, who would believe that the philanthropist who took in her orphaned niece would abuse anyone, much less the child she took in? So she just stood there and took it…her eyes blank as her aunt beat the ever loving shit out of her. And then came the cane…that damn cane that used to belong to her uncle…the man who'd started the abuse.

It was a well guarded secret that her uncle had been a terrible drunk, even going as far as beating on his family when he'd had too much. Perhaps that is why her aunt beat her? As a result of her own abuse, Haruno Taiyuka had taken up drinking herself…to ease the pain. And when Taiyuka got drunk, she got just as mean as her husband had. Only she blamed Sakura for the death of her husband, not the fact that she had hit the Haruno patriarch with his own cane when he'd been abusing her. No, everything was always Sakura's fault.

Sakura laid in the dining room, a pool of her own blood growing around her. Taiyuka had really done it this time. There was no way to play this off as falling down the stairs. The breaks were too uniform. The bruising would show the pattern of the weapon she'd used to beat Sakura with. And she knew it too. As Sakura's dimming eyes looked up at the woman who'd married her father's brother, there was triumph in their slowly dying depths…and Taiyuka could see it. With a shriek, Taiyuka fled the room, running to the car sitting just outside in the rain. The servants were left to deal with Sakura, who was barely clinging to life.

Sakura felt nothing…she felt no pain, no sorrow, no sadness…nothing. She knew she was dying…prayed for it to happen. At least then she'd be with her mother and father once more. She vaguely heard the squeal of tires as her aunt made her getaway. The servants were frantic but terrified to call for help. Sakura closed her eyes. There was no hope for her…no help. No one cared what happened to the orphaned daughter of a disgraced politician. And no one cared that her aunt was the one who'd finally ended her miserable existence.

Machines were beeping and it made his eye twitch. He hated hospitals. Unfortunately, his sister had been transferred here for internship. Even though he was seventeen, his past mental instability deemed him unfit to live on his own. So his sister had packed up their belongings and they'd headed here. And not even two hours after arriving, his sister had been called in to help with an emergency surgery.

As Kankuro was still in Suna with their father, who had tried to talk Temari out of moving, he'd had to tag along with his sister until his father and brother showed up to take him home. Though his relationship with his father was tense, he couldn't deny the fact the older man was trying. Years of psychotherapy had finally made the man see that his actions weren't helping…even if he'd thought they were. So the older red head had given his children their freedom and backed off…much to their surprise. All he wanted, he'd stated sadly, was to rebuild their family and the relationships he'd jeopardized by not being there.

But that didn't change the fact that he was stuck in this damn hospital until someone came to pick him up. With a sigh, he leaned over in the chair he'd been told to 'sit [his] ass down in and not to move from till [she] gets back'. Taking orders had never been his strong suit, but the look on Temari's face had stilled his tongue. It was the same look she'd had on her face the day their dad had told them their mother had been killed. That day ten years ago was burned into his mind.

It had been right before Kankuro's tenth birthday. Their mother had been on her way home from work when a car had rammed hers and she'd been sent careening over the side of the bridge connecting Suna to Konoha. She'd been on her way back from a medical conference. He hissed and turned his face towards the exit, trying valiantly to forget that painful memory. He was stifling a yawn when an agonized scream had him bolting up in his chair. His eyes were wide and searching as the screaming continued. He almost jumped out of his skin when ten people burst through the emergency room door.

The screaming was coming from the gurney being wheeled past him. His eyes widened when he saw blank emerald eyes set in a bloodied face. The doctors and nurses were working on the person lying there and soon the screaming stopped, leaving the person lying there lifelessly on the gurney. His eyes locked with those lifeless ones, void of the emotions he'd often seen in people who were brought into the emergency room. It was like those eyes didn't even see him. He gasped as he took in the full sight of the body lying there. It was obvious that whoever it was, they'd lost a lot of blood. The clothes on the body, as well as the hair, was stained with it.

Cuts and bruises marred the feminine face and he swore he noticed bone sticking out in the arm lying closest to him. He stared in overt shock when the doctors started shouting orders. "She's lost too much blood! We have to do an immediate emergency transfusion or we're going to lose her! Get the operating room prepped, stat!" He stared as a small nurse shrieked.

"Her pulse is dropping, her heart rate is slowing! We're losing her!" Gaara stared at the small, fragile looking female lying on the gurney as it passed him. He gasped when he noticed a single tear trickle down from the corner of her eye before they closed.

"Shit! She must have internal damage as well! What the hell happened here?!" Gaara watched as the doors to the operating room swung shut behind them. He stared after the little female. He'd have expected her face to be drenched in tears, and yet she'd shed only one? His lips pursed and he sighed, sitting back in his seat. He found himself watching the doors as he waited for a ride. Who was that girl? And just what the hell had happened to her?