With Konoha on the edge of war, Naruto was sent to aid an ally in a different fight, and went missing in battle. His friends are sent to find him, but what they didn't expect was to find him deaf, mute, and silent as the grave. Whoever the fool was that said "silence is golden" was sorely mistaken. STRONG Naruto

Printed Words

"Talking"

"Thoughts"/ "FlashBacks" / "Radio Calls"/ "Written Words"

The Loudest Silence

Chapter 8: Take Me Home

The Konoha shinobi spent that evening in different states of excitement and disarray.

After leaving the Center for the Silent, and the voiceless Naruto behind, the four sent a broadcast radio message to their colleagues still searching different parts of the city to tell them that they'd found Naruto, and that he was alive.

Though none of them could quite imagine Naruto without his hearing, voice, or memories.

Kakashi had been displeased at their decision to leave Naruto at the medical center. Not that Shikamaru blamed him. He himself would have been more comfortable if they had brought Naruto with them immediately. But Shikamaru also understood the delicate situation at hand. It wouldn't have been fair to Naruto to ask him to come with a group of ninja who had chased him for the better part of the day, especially since he seemed comfortable in his current surroundings. The blond had obviously made himself right at home here. It was bad enough that he would be leaving for a place he didn't remember without giving him time to adjust to the idea. However, Kakashi was very against leaving Naruto where he was. After he, Neji, Chouji, and Kiba met up with the rest of them, the one-eyed jounin nearly left to go bring Naruto back himself.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly if you thought about it, it was Sasuke who jumped to Naruto's aid.

Kakashi seemed dead set on keeping Naruto close, but after Sasuke's harsh argument, he finally agreed.

The others were completely engrossed by the idea of Naruto – the loudmouth shinobi – being unable to speak. When Sakura explained the method Naruto used of using his hands to communicate, Tenten excitedly found the nearest bookstore, and purchased a book that taught the Sasaki clan's sign language.

All that night, the book was passed around between Tenten, Lee, Sakura, and Hinata, all trying to learn how to at least "spell" to their friend. Kakashi watched them practice with his sharingan alight, quickly memorizing the different hand positions as if they were seals for a jutsu. Neji also observed the group, never joining in, but undoubtedly learning as well. Chouji, Kiba, and Shino attempted to have Shikamaru teach them, but none of them picked it up very quickly. Ino attempted to learn with Sakura, but soon got tired and went to get her much needed "beauty sleep."

Only Sasuke seemed completely uninterested in the group's enthusiasm to learn how to communicate silently. Shikamaru sent him a questioning look to his position to the side of the camp, asking if he wanted to attempt to learn, but the Uchiha only scoffed slightly and turned his attention to the weapons he was sharpening.

But later that night, when the Konoha forces had all gone to sleep in their tents, a soft rustle of paper woke the lazy Nara. Cracking his eyes open, he saw Sasuke, his eyes glowing dimly red from his sharingan, Tenten's book held intently in his hands as he devoured every page.

Everyone was up early the next day. The excitement of seeing their long time friend and colleague made it impossible for anyone to stay asleep for long after the sun began to rise. And so it was that the large group of shinobi crossed the village of Shizuka to stand outside of the Center for the Silent and entered it, Sakura leading them inside.

Inside it was just as full as it had been the day before. Nurses wearing the blue and grey uniform stood all around, some signing to adults standing around or whispering quietly to each other, but some had their eyes fixated in the middle of the room, gazing sadly at the large, but rather short crowd there.

What looked like practically every child in the entire village was gathered in a large group, most sniffing or with tears in their eyes as they looked at the man in front of them. Squatting down to their level, still dressed in simple blue clothing, was the one they had longed for so long to see.

Naruto was smiling softly at the kids gathered around him, his hands moving gently as he signed to them, looking for all the world like he was their older brother. Blue eyes glanced upwards over the heads of his vertically challenged farewell comity, and for a split second his gaze was fixated on the faces he could not remember. The look didn't last for long, and his eyes traveled back to the children almost instantly. Pushing himself up, Naruto stood, looking down at the kids who seemed to have realized that he was getting ready to depart.

Naruto began to sign down to them again, his posture becoming more rigid and his face glowing with an intensely serious light.

"What's he saying?" Sakura murmured to Shikamaru, unable to recognize most gestures.

A small smirk twisted up the corner of the lazy ninja's mouth, and a small chuckle could be heard from Kakashi as he watched his blond former student. "He's telling them to cause mayhem…but to watch out for the head nurse or they'll get into trouble," Shikamaru clarified for the others.

"And he says it with such a serious expression," Kiba shook his head, but the smile was clear on his lips.

"Even without his memories, Naruto's still Naruto," Ino said wistfully, resting her arm on Sakura's shoulder.

One of the younger kids in front of Naruto, a small boy probably no older than four or five, suddenly broke out of the group and rushed forwards, throwing his arms around Naruto's legs with a loud sob. As if it was a signal to the rest of them, the entire crowd of children raced forward, all surrounding the whiskered man and trying to hug him. With a slightly sad smile, Naruto reached down to ruffle the hair of those he could reach.

"I hope you'll bring him back for a visit," a motherly voice said from the side, drawing the ninja's attention away from Naruto. The matron of the center was gazing at the scene before her, a few unshed tears glistening in her eyes even as she smiled at the crowded blond. "He's been such an influence on them all. I would hate for them to never see him again."

"Of course, madam," Kakashi said without hesitation, his single eye focused on her. "We wouldn't dream of keeping him away."

A hand came up to wipe an escaping tear from her eye. "Thank you very much, shinobi-san," she said in a grateful voice. "If there anything we can do for him…anything at all, this entire village owes him a great debt, and we would be honored to assist him in whatever way we can."

Most of the Konoha group didn't know what to say. They could clearly see how much Naruto meant to the people here, and many felt guilty at taking him away. But Naruto was needed in Konoha…for the village's safety as well as his own. Naruto had to come back with them…but it didn't make the goodbye any easier to watch.

The adults and assumed parents of the kids finally stepped forwards, taking the crying children into their arms. Naruto gave them all a few last embraces before walking over towards the door and the ninja waiting for him there.

His eyes darted around at the large group, looking every person in the face. He gave them all a grin, but even to someone who didn't know him as well as they did could have seen the strain in the smile. Naruto came to stand next to the matron, and raised his hand to his head in a wave.

Eager to make a better impression than the previous day, Sakura stepped forwards, and mimicked the wave Naruto had given them. Using one finger, she pointed to herself before tapping two of her fingers on their sides together, and then began to spell with her fingers. "Hello! My name's Sakura!" she signed.

Naruto's eyes instantly got brighter when he saw the familiar hand motions. With one hand turned sideways, he swiped his palms across each other, brought his two index fingers together in a quick touch, and pointed at her with a twinkling smile. "Nice to meet you!"

With an excited grin, Sakura then began to point at the rest of the Konoha group, each shinobi finger spelling their name to Naruto, who seemed to be growing more and more relaxed around them with each introduction.

Ino was one of the last to sign her name, and standing next to Sasuke, who appeared to be looking disinterested with the situation, began to spell his name to Naruto for him. But having only truly learned the letters for her own name, Ino's botched spelling attempt ended up looking like a very sloppy,

A…S…S…

Which made Sasuke scowl darkly and push Ino's hand down before correctly finger spelling his name with a much greater ease than most of his team.

While Naruto silently sniggered at the sour expression on the face of the boy he now mentally dubbed 'Assuke,' Kakashi raised a curious eyebrow at yet another display that conflicted with the apathetic air Sasuke seemed to try so hard to project.

With introductions finished, Naruto fished down into his pocket, pulling out a notepad and pen. Scribbling hastily, he turned the pad around, handing it to Sakura.

"So we're going to Konoha, right? That's where I'm from?"

Sakura took the pad and paper, trying to ignore the painful twist in her stomach at having to explain her best friend's own life to him.

"Yes! You're a member of the ANBU force. You and I were on the same team together when we were younger!" Sakura wrote back to him. She couldn't help but to add the last bit. A part of her heart was aching for Naruto's memory to spark, to suddenly remember all the times he used to ask her out and chased that damn cat…

A smile broke out across Naruto's face when he read the page, and wasted no time in writing his reply.

"And you're sure we're not going out or anything?"

Sakura's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, and the paper was almost instantly shoved back to him with a very simple, "No."

"Bummer," Naruto wrote with a pout on his face.

Kakashi stepped forwards, taking the pad from Sakura before things got out of hand. But instead of using the paper, Kakashi begin to use sign language, proving that he lived up to the name copy-cat ninja.

"We're sorry to take you away from someplace familiar, but hopefully by returning to your home, you can regain some of your memories," Kakashi signed to Naruto, much to the confusion of the rest of the Konoha group. "We'll go to Konoha now, but I'm sure the Hokage would let you return here for a visit whenever you want."

"It's fine, I want to get my memories back," Naruto replied with a grimace, an obviously relieved look in his eyes that someone could communicate with him so easily. "Not having them is annoying as hell."

The end of his sentence earned him a swat on the head from the matron, and he had the decency to look sheepish as he gave her an apologetic smile. "I guess that means I'm leaving," Naruto signed to her.

The woman eyes overflowed silently with tears, but she smiled at the blond young man who she'd cared for these past months. "Be careful, don't cause much trouble, and make sure you come back to see us someday!" she lectured, and somehow, one could almost hear her stern voice just by looking at her.

Naruto's smile stretched wide across his face, and he closed the distance between them, giving her a tight hug as he rested his chin on the top of her head. When he pulled away from her again, he brought both of his hands to his mouth, and with a gesture that could have been like blowing a kiss, he signed, "Thank you…for taking care of me."

As for the "Assuke" joke, if you know (american) sign language, the "A" and the "S" are very similar, which is why Ino got mixed up! I saw an opportunity with Sasuke and I took it :)

Not a lot happened in this chapter, and I'm sorry for that. But it's taking me too long to write everything that I had originally intended for this chapter, so I'm stopping it at the best place I can cut it. Hopefully I'll be able to update soon! Thanks everyone for sticking with my infrequent updates.

As for the short chapters, I'm really sorry, I know some of you have asked for longer, but I intended to keep the story with short chapters. It forces me to keep the plot moving forward, which is something I have a hard time doing, so I hope you forgive me! But its very unlikely that the chapter lengths will change. They'll probably stay within the 1,500-3,000 word range each.

Thanks for all your well wishes and for reading!

~Ducky