Been talking to a lot of pregnant women and seeing movies with birthing scenes on them a lot. I blame society.
No I am not a doctor, a nurse or even a medical student. I don't pretend I am any expert in midwifery, or attempted midwifery anyway.
This will confuse you. It's pretty nameless.
W h a t W e n t W r o n g ?
She was no medic-nin. All personnel capable of defending themselves, by shinobi standards, were out in the battle tending to the wounded. She was just an ordinary nurse. She didn't use chakra. She did paperwork and checked blood pressure. She had only been working in the hospital for the year. She didn't know enough nor had the skills to treat the poor woman who was twisting on the bed in agony.
But the hospital was empty of all but people exactly like her. There was no one to help. Nothing could be done.
But, this nurse at least knew enough too know that there was a large possibility the umbilical cord was wrapped around the babe's neck and he was surely tuned the wrong way.
There was no way this baby would be coming breech first and breathing.
There was just no way.
So she gave up on panicking and stood dumbly nearby while the woman moaned and cried out and never once looked directly at her. Because she, unlike the nurse, was a ninja. And she knew how to focus on her task despite the irrational amount of pain she was in.
Right now her task was to bring her child into the world so she could love him and teach him and read to him and name him.
So she paid little attention to the woman in the white uniform who stood by her feet watching on in silence, and began to push because she didn't know what else to do short of cutting her own uterus open.
The nurse watched the woman's pale cheeks flush with effort and frowned a little. She looked worse then most women in labour. She was too weak now. She'd die too.
Still, the woman might have been aware of this considering the decided expression on her face.
She didn't feel like she knew enough to help in any dramatic way. And now several minutes had past while the redhead wheezed and hissed and cried and moaned and it looked like the baby was to be forced out breech or not.
So the nurse did little things, here and there. She helped the woman sit up and she helped ease the new body out- breech first as she'd known. She caught him- he was quiet of course and the silence was only emphasised by the loud cries the woman gave out as she struggled to do the instinctual thing. And then she went quiet.
When the baby was free, unstrangled and wet, she took him into her arms and brought him to the bench. She checked his airways and his small heart. No. no movement.
She used a small clamp and shut off the umbilical cord about a foot away from the tiny body and then cut off the excess with the sterilized scissors.
Quite patiently, she moved into the next room, the doors swinging shut behind her and she moved to the large sink and spun the tap. Filling one basin with cold water (which wasn't as cold as it should have been), the other with hot (which was far hotter then it should have been) and submerged the still baby and her arms up to her shoulders in the cold water. Out they came and down into the hot. Up and out again, and down again back into the cold. She followed as suit until she had lost all the feeling in her arms- which she hadn't been paying attention too in the first place.
It may have been the eighteenth plunge that when she pulled up out of the cold that the babe made the first noise he ever had.
A little cracked wail- quit pathetic. But it stoped the nurse form drowning him again and she stood for a moment before moving towards the bench and lay the now squirming baby down on the towels- checked his airways and little erratic heartbeat and wrapped him up.
She left him on the bench and stood over the boy. His wails got louder and he struggled against the yellow towel as if he had the strength. He was bright pink, perhaps more so then the usual new born because of the scolding water. Her arms were in the same state. And now her uniform was drenched down the front and a little bloody.
She considered the baby for minute. Oh, how he was screaming! Did he know he'd already lost his mother? Was he screaming blame at her for not having helped? Or was he cold?
She might have started sharking him by the shoulders- not to hut him, just to quieten him down, had the doors not burst open. And in a very un-shinobi like manner the man raced in.
She didn't take note of his rank or his appearance. He could have been a genin for all she cared for later on. Although it was unlikely.
He looked around quickly as if he was skittish and then came closer, eyes on the wailing bundle on the bench.
"The Hokage wants information on Uzimaki Kushina's condition.
The nurse looked from the baby, to the shinobi, to the closed still doors behind her where the dead woman lay behind them on a bloodied bed. What a strange scene it all was, everything was so quiet and slow and she was sure trying to move now would have felt much like walking through water.
"She's resting." She told him.
He nodded and put out his arms. And she lay the baby in them. He juggled the crying bundle and moved a hand too his weapon pouch.
"He has a message for her."
He held out a scroll and she took it. Unconcerned by the smudges of blood of it.
"The Hokage says everything is explained in there. It is vital Uzimaki Kushina receive it. I've been orded to bring him the baby." He continued.
She nodded dumbly and looked to the window. It was clouded with smoke and she wondered briefly what was to become of her village. She wasn't a patriot, its just that it was her home and it concerned her what might happen to her small house and her pet cat.
"This child is healthy?"
Not that it mattered really. It was just a cat.
"He's alive." She told him and shrugged.
The shinobi didn't seem to care for more of an answer and she didn't really mind that he hadn't told her or proven he had been sent by the Hokage or even a leaf village patron. She had never met the man, but to be the leaf village's leader he must be great and she was just an average person. Not at all great in any measurement. Who was she to question anyone he sent?
The ninja was gone the way he came. And she was grateful the loud child was gone.
She stared at the doors for a long time. Forgetting all about the battle for a moment in favour of studying the tiled floor and the colourful posters on the walls. And then she wondered if the village had won or the great big threatening creature howling outside.
She turned around, passed through the doors and sat down in a chair across from the dead mother and let out a sigh. She looked at the scroll in her hand and then put it safely into the pocket of her uniform.
Perhaps it was time to think about moving.
Er………..
Wow. Drama. May take this down depending on the response it gets.
Did anyone get it? No? Run along now.