Kana sat at the small kitchen table, hands folded on the wooden surface in front of her, when her husband returned from his month long mission. He walked through the front door and removed his gear casually, as if he had only stepped out for a moment.

"I'm pregnant." She said steadily and equally casual.

He paused for a long moment that seemed to stretch on infinitely while digesting the information.

"How far along?" He questioned, resuming the task of removing his shoes before coming to sit next to her in the kitchen.

Kana studied the untouched of tea in front of her that had long gone cold before answering

"Twelve weeks. I had my suspicions before you left. I exhibited all the cardinal symptoms, it was confirmed by a blood test the week after you left."

Ryou nodded in understanding, before asking the same question that had been consuming Kana for the last month.

"Do you want to keep it?" He studied her, trying to unearth the emotions beneath her eternally collected exterior. She continued staring into the tea for a long moment as if it had the answer.

"I'm scared Ryou." Her voice trembled as she whispered her confession to him, though her face remained the same.

He took her hands in one of his before turning her chin to face him and not the cold tea. He looked into her eyes and affectionately rubbed his hand across her cheek. Her normally calculating and confident eyes were filled with anxiety as she looked into the loving ones of her husband.

"I know. So am I, but I will always stand by you, through anything. I love you no matter what, please remember that." He promised.

Kana sighed letting the tension that had been building in her chest for the past month escape with her breath.

"I'm not sure. I do not believe that I wish to terminate, but what if I'm not meant to be a mother? You know how I am. What if I'm too cold, too pragmatic to properly nurture a child?" She said voicing her inner doubts to Ryou.

"You're the strongest woman I've ever known. You have so much love to give, it's just harder for you to show it than most." He assured her, smiling at her softly and tucking a piece of her dark hair behind her ear.

"What if they turn out like me? It's not safe, you know what happened to my brothers, Hayato and his sons were slaughtered and Hitoshi went into hiding at barely 15 last year. I don't want to bring a life into this world just to lose it."

All her deepest fears of motherhood surfaced as she continued, confiding in him. Ryou pulled her close to him wrapping his arms around her tightly as if to shield her from the world. She returned his embrace and buried her face into his shoulder, allowing him to comfort her.

Ryou simply held his wife in his arms for a moment before he whispered,

"I swear to you, I will protect you and our child with my dying breath."

She was 7 months pregnant when she made a grave mistake.

A young boy, a genin, had been admitted to the hospital, barely than 11 years old. He had been run through with a sword causing a large puncture that began in his chest, extending approximately 15 centimeters into his upper abdomen, with an exit wound that mirrored it on his back. He was in critical condition when his team brought him in, barely clinging to life and immediately rushed into surgery.

Kana knew death was a part of the lifestyle of shinobi all too well, especially as a Medic-Nin. She had seen too many deaths to keep an accurate count in her career, being a kunoichi of the infamous Kirigakure. It was simply the way things were.

But the boy looked so much like Hitoshi. And as his heart began to flatline on the operating table as she operated, she felt her heart begin to break and made a decision that would destroy her life as she knew it.

She took a clean scalpel from the tray of medical instruments and removed her gloves before running it across her palm.

"Matsuda-san! What on earth are you doing?!" the forgotten medical assistant cried out as the surgeon was butchering her own hand while their patient lay dying before them.

His astonishment was ignored by Kana who placed her bleeding palm against the boys wound.

"Have you ever done a surgery on your own before Touma?" she asked him unaffected.

"Wha?! Well uh, no. Matsuda-san, what is going on?!" He said confused and beginning to panic. Their best surgeon had lost her mind.

"Well get ready, because I'll be out of commission shortly." she said flatly. Her brow began to sweat as she summoned her chakra in preparation.

'I only need enough to keep him going through the operation, any more will be too dangerous in my current condition.' She thought, determined.

"Blood Release: Breath of Life!" she said pushing her hand down roughly against the open wound.

Her heart felt as if it was in her throat and the assistant medic-nin's eyes were bulging from his face as chakra began to pour from Kana's hand into the boy.

The heart monitor stood static for a moment before jumping back to life.

She pulled her hand back releasing a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"Quickly Touma, finish the surgery before it's too late." She instructed starting to feel faint.

Touma rushed forward resuming her earlier work as she backed away to rest a hand against the wall. She slid to sit against it on the floor, her vision becoming fuzzy. With one last sigh of relief, her eyes closed and her chin fell to her chest as she lost consciousness.

Kana woke up slowly blinking before her hand immediately came to rest on her her swollen stomach. Her anxiety waned as she felt the now familiar fluttering of the fetus kicking.

She finally spoke just as Touma finished knotting his last stitch, surprising the younger man.

"Will he live?" she inquired, tone as cool and collected as always.

Touma's head turned to her, startled, while she began to stand, leaning her weight against the wall behind her.

"He's stable." Touma replied. His astonishment with the surgeon was quickly being replaced with suspicion.

"Matsuda-san, what did you do?" He asked his eyes narrowing at her as he began removing his own gloves.

"Please ensure that he is kept under close observation. I am going to end my shift early tonight, I am feeling fatigued." She commanded as she removed her bloody smock before turning to meet his calculating stare with her own.

"Hai, Matsuda-san." Touma said watching her leave.

Once she was gone he called a nurse in to monitor the boy and walked briskly to the hospital director's office.

A/N: Hey ya'll, this is my first time writing anything really so sorry if it sucks but I had some ideas and really wanted to give it a try. This chapter and the next few will primarily be focused on building up Akira's parent's backgrounds, but hopefully it won't take too many chapters to get into the actual story. Anyways, thanks for reading if you got this far and review to let me know if you loved it, hated it or just need someone to abuse online to feel alive.