Reise zu Reinkarnation

XVI.

“He’s losing too much blood!”

“Hurry! Get me those gauze wraps!”

“Move it! Get those bandages now!”

“Get the baby out now! I need to concentrate!”

Naruto listened to the shouts of the medic nin, staring at Sasuke through the glass. His chest was covered in blood, his legs were covered in blood, and everything that was Sasuke was covered in blood. Naruto’s nails scraped on the glass, fighting to keep his temper in check. She was doing the best she could, after all. Sakura was barking orders, her gloved hands covered in blood – Sasuke’s blood – as she fought so hard to sew up the chest wound that was bleeding far too quickly for her to stop and fought to get their child delivered before any complications could arise. The blonde was covered in blood himself, chest still heaving from the hours of merciless murder he’d inflicted on the streets. Of course, the fighting was over now, bodies being cleaned up and blood being washed from the buildings and streets. Most of the jounin that had fought with him had pulled rank on him and forced the Rokudaime to go to the hospital to wait for Sasuke.

Now it just seemed Naruto was waiting for their child.

Sasuke had stopped screaming only minutes ago, chest heaving for air as his blood began to stop flowing, instead just trickling as Sakura and several others pumped healing jutsus into his body, forcing the brunette to stay conscious and stay awake. Someone tugged at his wrist and Naruto let himself be dragged away from that window to the bathroom, allowed to wash and change his clothes.

When he returned to the window, Sasuke wasn’t in any better shape than he had been when Naruto had left to wash. Sakura was still barking orders, doctors and nurses were still running here and there, fetching towels and bins and blood packets, bandages and gauze and thread, everyone moving as fast as they could to save the life of the man on that table. Naruto pressed his forehead against the class and winced as Sasuke screamed again, his sounds drowned out by Sakura’s commands to push.

There was just far too much blood.

A baby’s wail echoed in the room, and two nurses took the bloody child from Sakura so she could focus on Sasuke’s wound, and it took all of Naruto’s will power to keep from rushing into that room to take his child from those unfamiliar hands. But he had to let them work. He was here only to observe right now and he couldn’t afford to cause a scene that would distract the medics from their work. He had to wait for them to come get him, and he’d gotten good at waiting.


Sasuke was in pain. He felt cold and he couldn’t get warm, and he couldn’t tell Sakura that he was so cold because he couldn’t get his voice to work. Pain ripped through his body and all he could do was scream. He knew he was dying. There was no other way to explain the pain. Sasuke fought not to writhe as he felt needles slide into his skin, as he felt hands on his thighs, spreading his legs open. He fought not to panic, screaming as flesh parted to a knife’s blade, as hands reached into his bulging stomach to remove his child. He saw Sakura, heard her screaming but he couldn’t understand her. He was too cold, far too cold.

Sasuke heard his child crying and tried to move to see the babe, tried to get a good look at the child that would be his legacy but found he couldn’t move. Everything he heard and saw was simply a murmur combined with blurry images, familiar faces appearing and disappearing in his line of sight. He turned his gaze to the window then and smiled as what he saw there warmed his soul.

Snowflakes, simple little snowflakes, danced outside the tiny window in the operating room, slowly drifting down to the ground outside. Sasuke watched the rare event with a smile, thinking to reach for a little flake, hoping to catch one. His hand fell short though, and a warmer larger hand caught his, holding it tight. Sasuke rolled his eyes to look up at a familiar face, unnatural sapphire blue eyes staring into his own, bright with tears.

“Naruto,” Sasuke breathed.

“Sasuke,” Naruto replied, his voice choked with tears. “Look, Sasuke, our son.”

Sasuke inched his head a little bit to stare at the tiny face so close to his own, the babe’s sapphire blue eyes staring at his mother. Sasuke reached to stroke the child’s face but his arm refused to cooperate.

“Sasuke,” Naruto said, getting the brunette’s attention again. “Sasuke, you have to live, okay? You have to live so we can raise our baby together.”

Sasuke swallowed, tried to lift his hand to point out the window. “Naruto… look. Snow. Haku… Haku’s blessing us.”

Naruto turned slightly, looking at the window and then looking back at Sasuke. “Yeah, snow. You wanna go out and see it, right? You’re gonna have to get up.”

Sasuke simply shook his head and looked once more at their son, finally commanding his hand to stroke the baby’s cheeks. “Haku.”

Naruto nodded, holding their son close to his chest. “All right, we can name him that. But you have to live so you can help me raise him.”

Sasuke frowned, listening to the mumbling coming from Naruto’s mouth. He couldn’t understand his lover, feeling sleepy. He felt Sakura at his other side and tried to look at her, tried to tell her he wanted to sit up. But he couldn’t get his mouth to work, couldn’t get his tongue to form the words he wanted to say. She was crying, her hands glowing softly as she performed healing jutsu after healing jutsu until the glow just stopped. Sasuke looked back at Naruto, watching him cry as well. He couldn’t hear what Naruto was saying though, and just tried to smile. He tried to reach for his son.

“I want to hold him.” Sasuke said, but no one heard him. He wasn’t even sure if his voice was working anymore.

But he wanted to hold his son. He wanted to hold Haku before–

“Sasuke? SASUKE?! SASUKEEEE?!”