Accidental Loss
~I will love you after the rain falls down
I will love you after the sun goes out
I'll have my eyes on you
After the world is no more~
"Hi, my name is Akio. For my project on 'Who is my hero?' I chose my father." He paused from the nervous feelings he was having, but continued on to say, "Cause...if it wasn't for him...I wouldn't be here."
The sixteen year old stood before his class. His raven black hair was spiked in the back just like his father's used to be. His onyx orbs glanced to his mom, who was sitting at the back of the class, then to his sister, Hana, who asked her teacher if she could sit in on his class for the presentation. He pulled out a poster board that held a picture of his father, it was the one of the only picture his mom had that Sasuke was smiling in and that was their wedding picture.
Akio placed it on the white board so it hung for his class to see it. Below the picture were details and a paper he had to write why his father was his hero.
He looked to his teacher who nodded for him to continue with what he was saying.
"It was sixteen years ago today, when my father saved my life."
From The Past
Sasuke walked into the kitchen with his nine month old son in his arms. He wore black jeans, with a dark red shirt underneath a black button up one. The sleeves were short so he didn't need to bother rolling them up. His son was dressed in a small outfit with the color of blue for his pants and red for his shirt. Small white socks covered his feet to keep them warm.
Sakura was at work today since she was called in for an emergency at the hospital. He was off work as a private investigator, for the week and so he stayed home to watch their son. Sakura was already pregnant with another on the way, though she was only a few weeks along, so she still had a long ways away.
He had what most guys would dream of having. A loving wife, a beautiful child, soon to be two, and a high paying job, which paid for the two story house they were living in. Sasuke smirked when the little boy in his arms grabbed his hair and pulled.
"Ok Akio, dad needs to keep his hair intact. Can't have you making me go bald now can we?"
Sasuke pulled the boy's hands away from his hair and looked at him with a smile. Akio smiled with a toothless grin as he giggled. The young baby's hair was raven colored, short and thin, it was still growing and would continue to do so until he had a full head of hair someday.
Sasuke grabbed a bottle and prepared the milk that Akio would drink for his meal. Once he had the bottle ready he walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. He maneuvered around so Akio was lying in his arms and brought the bottle to the small boy's mouth. Sasuke turned on the TV, and changed it to the news channel.
They had been having some strange weather lately, which included strong winds, a lot of rain and even thunder and lightning. That prevented Sasuke and Sakura from taking Akio to the park or even on walks outside together. He watched as the weather person spoke about the upcoming storms and Sasuke just hoped Sakura would be safe driving in it.
It wasn't long until Akio finished what he could of the contents of the bottle and fell asleep in Sasuke's arms. Sasuke himself lay down on the couch with Akio resting against his chest. He sighed and closed his eyes; he didn't know he'd fall asleep, until he awoke thirty minutes later. Which shocked him, since he didn't plan on sleeping.
He decided he would put Akio in his crib and headed up the stairs. Once he was sure Akio wouldn't wake up he headed back down to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge. He walked into the living room and stared out the open window. He noticed the sky getting darker, but daylight still hadn't gone yet.
The sky was being swallowed by ominous clouds that you would see in a horror movie and it made Sasuke feel a little uneasy. He didn't like the feeling at all, and it made him wonder if something was going to happen.
He flinched slightly when the phone rang and went to pick it up. He muttered to himself about freaking when it started ringing. It was cordless so he was able to walk around without getting tangled in the cord. He made that mistake when he bought the phone that had the cord with it, Sakura got tangled in it and got frustrated with him for even buying it.
"Hello." He said as his greeting.
"Hey Sasuke, its Sakura."
"Hey babe, what's up?"
"Um, I might need to stay later than I thought. From all the winds and floods causing the accidents on the roads, well we're just swamped with people."
"Alright, just be careful when you do leave, call me when you do?"
"Yeah I will, how's Akio?" She asked curiously.
"He's asleep right now, he just ate about half an hour ago."
"Sorry you have to do all of that by yourself."
"Its no problem, you went through the birth, I can handle feeding, changing and putting him down for a nap."
"Yeah, yeah, I know."
She smirked and Sasuke knew it too. He was about to reply to what she said when he heard a crash outside.
"Hang on a sec Sakura."
"Alright." She said uncertainly.
Curiously he walked toward the front door and opened it; he was nearly knocked off his feet from the strong wind. But that wasn't what made his blood run cold. The huge cyclone of wind heading towards his house caused his eyes to go wide. He ran back into the house just as he heard the hurricane alert on the television.
A bright red screen appeared with an alarm that was deeper and slower than a fire engine's alarm. Sasuke didn't waste any time, he had one thing to do and that was to get Akio to safety.
"Sakura, I have to go."
"Sasuke, what's wrong?"
"There's a huge hurricane heading this way."
"WHAT!?"
"Sakura stay where you are, I don't want you to get caught in it. I need to get Akio and head down to the cellar."
"Sasuke I-"
"No time Sakura, I gotta go."
Before she had a chance to say anything, Sasuke hung up the phone. She nearly dropped the phone in her hands when she set it back on the receiver. Her hands were shaking as Tsunade came into the area she was in. She didn't see the silent distress Sakura was in and just spoke to catch her attention.
"Sakura we need to get the back up generators, that hurricane could knock out the power."
When she didn't respond, Tsunade walked over to her and stood in front of the chair Sakura was sitting on. Sakura's white lab coat was over her dark pink shirt, which matched her black pants and black closed toed shoes. Tsunade placed her hands on both of Sakura's shoulders and shook her lightly.
"Sakura? What's wrong?"
"That hurricane." She began. "...It's heading towards my home, Sasuke and Akio are there-"
"Oh no."
Sasuke hurriedly ran up the stairs and heard Akio making small noises. The crash outside must have woken him up, or that's what Sasuke presumed. Sasuke picked him up and grabbed a blanket, which he quickly wrapped around Akio's body. He felt the house begin to rock as he ran down into the underground layer of the home.
Akio began crying once all the noises from things being picked up and crashed to the ground got louder. Sasuke hugged him tight, while whispering to him that everything would be okay but he doubted himself when he felt the house above him being crashed into and broken down. The Hurricane was right above them and from the sounds of it, it was already tearing the house apart.
He didn't think twice as he turned and went to the corner of the cellar and set Akio on the ground and wrapped him securely with the blanket. He removed the shirt he had over his red one and added that to Akio's padding. Sasuke then huddled himself over his son as he felt the ceiling above him fall and crash onto his back. He grunted with pain as the weight got heavier on his body, but he didn't let himself give in, fearing his weight would crush the boy beneath him.
Once the pieces of the ceiling had stopped, Sasuke maneuvered himself so he was lying on the ground with his arms still covering Akio. He was injured he knew there was no denying the pain he felt in his body, Akio was silent as he reached up and touched his father's face as Sasuke's vision finally went black.
"Sakura, you have to get over here." A blond male said through his cell phone to his pink-haired friend who was on hers as well, luckily those still worked.
Him and Hinata were running down the street seeing as how the hurricane was gone. They watched as it went straight through his best friend's home. Once it was gone, Naruto had immediately out of the house he and Hinata lived in, he didn't give his safety a second thought.
They each wore black pants and shoes that were tossed on recklessly, Hinata wore a tan shirt and Naruto had a dark orange one. They didn't care how they looked when they left the house, they just wore whatever they had and threw on their shoes.
"Naruto what are you talking about?"
"Your house, it's been completely trashed and wrecked."
"Oh God! Sasuke and Akio were in there. Please tell me they're ok, I'm leaving with an ambulance right now." Sakura said as she hopped into the front seat of the emergency vehicle on the passenger side.
"Ok, we're gonna look, get here as soon as you can."
"Naruto I can't see them." Hinata looked around quickly, and started to remove the debris around, desperately trying to find her friend's husband and child.
"Naruto what's happening?"
Naruto looked and spotted Ino, Shikamaru, Neji and Tenten heading their way. They felt the same way about the way Hinata and he dressed, they didn't care and just wore what they had on.
Ino was wearing black shorts with a purple shirt and black flip-flops. Shikamaru had on a green shirt that was wrinkled slightly, while his blue jeans were matched with his black shoes. Neji and Tenten both had black jeans, with black shoes. Tenten's shirt was a pink maternity shirt since she was three months pregnant while Neji's was white.
"We think Sasuke and Akio may be under what's left of their house. Sakura told me that they were at home when the hurricane hit."
"Damn, come guys start looking!" Neji stated as he stepped into the pile of the remains of the house and began digging around.
It didn't take long until police cars and rescue crews arrived at the ruthlessly destroyed home. Naruto figured Sakura must have called them on her way over here, she was a worry-wart when it came to her family and friends. Suddenly an ambulance arrived with its lights blaring, Sakura didn't wait until the vehicle completely stopped when she opened the door and jumped out.
"Have you found them?" Her voice cracked when she spoke.
"Well now that you've got the rescue team here, we may find them quicker."
The adults that were there searched, each having some trouble moving larger pieces of the debris. Sakura was starting to get worried; it would take all of them to move just one section of the house. They couldn't guess where they might be; if they took any longer they could suffocate from what was on them.
Sakura was beginning to get scared once she was approached by the rescue team. She looked to them as they began to speak to her.
"Ma'am we don't have the time to find them, they could suffocate if they stay under there too long, time just isn't on our side."
The pink-haired woman finally let the tears she was holding back fall down her face. Hinata placed a hand on her friend's shoulder and tried to comfort her but she didn't know what to say. She never was good with comforting words in situations as bad as this, none of them were actually, even Sakura struggled with words when Ino had a miscarriage a few months ago. Dealing with tough situations just wasn't one of their strong points.
But just as they were going to give up, Sakura heard crying, and soon that crying reached the other's ears. She recognized that cry and it was one all too familiar to her.
"That's Akio!" Sakura exclaimed.
The rescue team quickly followed to where the crying was coming from, they urged Sakura and her friends to get out of the way as they lifted up the debris where the cries were the loudest. Once they finally dug deep enough to the lower area of the broken house they found Sasuke and Akio.
"Oh dear god!"
The rescue team lifted Sasuke over and pulled Akio from the wreckage. One member of the team handed Akio to Sakura and to her surprise he didn't have a scratch on him. But when the other member that was done in the pile spoke up, her fears came back.
"We need a stretcher and an oxygen tank now!"
They had Sasuke on the stretcher and were wheeling him to the ambulance. Sakura looked in fear and shock at the condition he was in. He was badly beaten up, and she felt that he wasn't going to pull through this. She got into the back of the ambulance and grabbed her husbands hand, while she held Akio in her other. She gasped when his hand clenched hers.
Sasuke's vital signs were irregular. When his heart rate began to increase she looked to his face and saw it was scrunched up in pain. He opened his eyes as she spoke to him to keep him awake. He could hear her, but just barely, his head was bleeding and he most likely suffered some heavy head damage.
"We're losing him!" One of the paramedics shouted to the driver, which indicated him to go faster.
His onyx orbs glanced at her before they slowly closed while his heart stopped and so did the grip on her hand. She shook him as the paramedics grabbed the heart defibrillator and ripped his shirt off more to get better access to his chest since all of the hear monitor cords and other vital sign mechanisms were connected to him.
"Clear!" The machine gave a wave of electricity to his body but there was no change.
"Again! Clear!
They retried several times until they arrived at the hospital, where his heart did start back up and they rushed him to the emergency room. Sakura was left with Akio just outside of the room they went into, it wasn't long until their friends arrived and tried to calm Sakura down, which included Hinata taking Akio to hold him while Ino and Tenten tried to reassure her.
He seemed like hours had passed and they wondered when they would know what was going on. But when the doctor, Tsunade, walked through the doors, her face held a forlorn look. Her eyes told them all they needed to know, but Sakura refused to believe it.
"Sakura, I'm sorry. From what I was presented with and how Sasuke shielded Akio with his body, the weight from the house collapsing just crushed him."
Sakura stood motionless as her eyes replenished the tears she cried earlier. She began shaking her head telling herself this wasn't happening to her and Akio. He couldn't be gone.
"Tsunade, there must be something you can do."
"I'm sorry Sakura, he has internal bleeding that we can't stop, the organs that were crushed and torn were his vital ones. I'm afraid he doesn't have much time. You can go stay with him if you want, but he's not awake."
Sakura nodded and grabbed Akio from Hinata's arms, Naruto watched with tear filled eyes as Sakura walked back into the room to spend the last remaining moments with her unconscious husband.
To The Present
"I didn't fully understand what happened since I was so young, but as I grew older, my mother told me the story about how he saved my life. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about it. He gave his life for mine, and to me that is a true hero."
The class clapped for his project well done even if some of the students had tears in their eyes. Sakura and Hana were no different, they had cried through his presentation no matter how much they tried to hold back the tears.
The bell rang as all the students gathered their belongings and left the class. School was over and for that Akio was grateful. Sakura and Hana walked up to him and Sakura just hugged him tight as Akio shed some tears from his eyes.
"Your father would be proud you know?"
"Yeah I know mom."
"That was a great presentation bro." Hana said as she hugged him, she was only a year younger than Akio.
"Mom." Akio turned to his parental figure. "Uh, can we go to the graveyard?"
"Sure."
The ride to the graveyard was quiet and slightly sad. Neither of them liked to come here, but they did anyway to visit the man they missed. Akio was too young to remember anything about his dad, and Hana never got the chance to even see or spend time with him, but they knew what kind of person he was thanks to Sakura and the stories she told them. Not to mention the ones they received from Naruto.
Akio knelt down in front of a tombstone that read:
An amazing dad
A True friend
An incredible husband
One true hero
"Dad." Akio's voice cracked from the tears that were threatening to make their way to the surface. "I don't know if you can truly hear me, but I wish you could have been there today. Mom said you would have been proud of me."
It was just for a second, but Akio could have sworn he felt something or someone place their hand on his shoulder. And from that touch his tears began to fall, Sakura cried with him as she knelt down to embrace her son, as Hana knelt to hug them as well.
~I've had My eyes on you ever since you were born
I will love you after the rain falls down
I will love you after the sun goes out
I'll have My eyes on you after the world is no more~
A/N Well, I had to get in the mode for a sad part in the next chapter of Let Me In.
So what do you guys think?