Sasuke lifted his head and looked up at Sakura's parents standing in the doorway, looking at him with identical masks of fear on their face. Sasuke opens his mouth to speak, but can only sob. Shaking his head slightly, he buries his face in his daughter's hair, trying not to notice how she was trembling in his arms. He knew it wasn't the cold that made her shake, but he couldn't seem to get control of his emotions. Standing slowly, Sasuke moved first one arm, and then the other so that his cloak opened, then fell closed around his daughter. Without so much as a backward glance, Sasuke turns away from Sakura's parents and heads off into the dark, crying silently now as he held so tightly to his last link to his one true love.
By the time Sasuke got home, he'd managed to gain control of his emotions, but the control left him empty, as if he could feel nothing if he couldn't let the pain free. Stepping into the room, Sasuke kicks the door closed behind him, shutting out the world. Moving silently through the room, he lays Mikoto in his bed, pulling the blanket up over her. The girl was silent, eyes closed, but her cheeks were still wet with tears. Sasuke wanted to say something to comfort her, but he knew it would be even harder to tell his daughter than it would be to tell Sakura's parents. Turning away from her, Sasuke paces across the room to stare unseeing out the window.
A soft sound from behind him makes Sasuke turn. Mikoto was sitting on his bed, still huddled in the blanket and staring at him. The light coming in the window had started to lighten toward dawn, and Sasuke realized that he'd just spent a few hours standing at that window. He turns and makes himself move across the room toward his daughter. He stops as he steps past his desk, something catching his attention. Turning his head to look at the desk, Sasuke frowns, then hurries over and moves around the few papers that were still resting on top of it. Stepping back, he looks around on the floor behind and under the desk. Nearly panicked, Sasuke moves back up to the desk and shoves the papers to the floor.
Sasuke jerks back as if stung when Mikoto slips out of the bed, moving across the room to take his hand. Sasuke closes his eyes and takes a very deep breath, holding it for a moment to calm himself, then turns and kneels in front of his daughter. "I'm sorry Mikoto, I was looking for something. I had a ring I was going to give your Momma. It was my Momma's ring. It was on my desk, but-"
"Momma's wearing it Daddy."
"What?"
"Momma's wearing the ring. After you went away with Uncle Naruto, Momma stood up and saw the ring on the table. She stood and looked at it for a long time and she cried. I thought she was sad, but she picked up the ring and put it on and she was smiling. Momma was crying, but she was happy."
Sasuke smiled absently, automatically trying to soothe his daughter. "Adults do that sometimes Mikoto. We cry when we're really happy. Adults don't make much sense sometimes."
Mikoto nods and steps forward, wrapping her arms around her father, cuddling in against his chest. "You aren't smiling though, Daddy. I can tell you're sad. I'm sorry you're sad, Daddy."
Sasuke feels his eyes well up with tears again, wrapping his arms around his daughter, holding her tightly. "Thank you, Mikoto."
After a few minutes, Sasuke picks her up and carries her back over to the bed. He settles her back into his bed once more and tucks the blanket around her. He sits on the edge of the bed, humming a tune his mother used to hum when she wanted to soothe him when he was younger. When Mikoto finally drifts off to sleep, Sasuke slips off the edge of the bed and sits on the floor. He sits quietly, watching his daughter sleep as light gradually fills the room, trying to figure out how he was going to tell her that her mother was dead. Slowly he begins to drift off, the adrenaline rush from earlier long gone, and now that Mikoto was sleeping, he had nothing to hold exhaustion at bay. He'd just laid his head on the bed when someone pounded on the door.
Jerking awake, Sasuke jumps up and runs over to the door before the pounding has a chance to wake Mikoto. As he yanks the door open, a scathing remark ready for whoever it was pounding on his door so early when his daughter was trying to sleep, Sasuke notices just how much light had filled his room. He'd fallen asleep himself. Not for long, but he had slept as he knelt there on the floor. As if the realization had flipped a switch, Sasuke began to feel tension and aches begin to fill his body. He'd stayed to long in an unnatural position, and his body was protesting now that he was upright and moving. Trying to ignore the pain, Sasuke opens the door the rest of the way, shocked to find Kakashi standing on the other side of his door.
"I don't know why the hell I didn't look here first."
"Kakashi? What are you talking about? What are you doing here?"
"Sakura's parents said you came for Junko, but they didn't know where you'd gone to. They said you just left. I've been all over this damned village looking for you. I even went out there to the Uchiha compound looking for you. I should have just come here first. I guess I'm not thinking any more clearly than anyone else"
"What are you doing here?"
"Lady Hokage sent me to find you. Sakura woke up and was asking for you."
The world spun and retreated, leaving Sasuke in a well of unreality. His ears were ringing and he couldn't feel the door where it was gripped in his hand. He was looking at Kakashi, but it was like he wasn't really seeing the older man, as if he were a memory. When Sasuke speaks, his voice sounds distant and tinny in his ears. "Sakura? But... Ino said Sakura's dead."
"Ino didn't wait around long enough to know one way or the other. She doesn't have enough control yet to be able to do the kind of healing Sakura needed, but luckily, Lady Hokage came along right after she left and was able to do what needed to be done. She sent me to find you. I'll watch Junko, you go to the hospital."
Still dazed, Sasuke steps past him, heading in the direction of the hospital, and after a few steps he's running, tears streaming from his eyes. He doesn't see the destruction as he runs past it. He doesn't see the injured ninjas working beside the uninjured ninjas to help clean up the damage of the battle. He sees nothing, and yet still manages to weave through people, debris and buildings until he finds himself outside Konoha's hospital. He stops and stares up at the building, suddenly apprehensive. When he catches his breath, Sasuke squares his shoulders and hurries into the building. He spots Tsunade immediately and stops in front of her, hands clenched into fists at his sides.
"How is Sakura? Is she really alive?"
"Yes, she's alive. Wait Sasuke!" Tsunade reaches out and takes his arm, pulling him back as he tried to hurry past her to find Sakura. "She was hurt badly. She'd used so much of her chakra trying to heal as many people as she could that she was left weak with exhaustion. She didn't have a chance or the ability to defend herself. I'm still not clear how the man got that close to her because there were so many others nearby." Tsunade stops and shakes her head, clearly angry about the breach. "She took a pretty severe blow to the head, but what almost got her was the kunai that took her in the heart. The damage was massive. I wasn't sure at first I could heal her quickly enough."
"But, you said she's ok now, right?"
"She's not dead, but she's far from all right. Right now it's touch and go. We're all working hard to keep her alive, but her heart took quite a bit of damage. I'm hopeful, but cautious. She's woken up and asked for you several times. I'm going to let you in to see her, but only if you promise to not stay long, and to not upset her. Right now the worst thing you could do for her was get her worked up. She needs to rest."
Sasuke nods but says nothing. When Tsunade starts walking, he falls into step beside her, tension singing along every one of his nerves. When they stop outside of one of the rooms, Sasuke takes a deep breath and holds it for a moment, trying to calm himself before he walks in. He reaches out for the door, but Tsunade stops him with a hand on his arm. "Only a few minutes Sasuke. I mean it."
"I understand."
Giving Tsunade one last look, Sasuke pushes the door open and steps in the room. His heart breaks, threatening to stop completely at the sight of Sakura laying on the bed, wrapped in bandages and looking frighteningly pale. Sasuke moves silently into the room and sits carefully on the edge of the bed. He reaches out to take her hand and stops when he sees the glint of gold in the dim light. Pulling his hand back, he looks down and feels a tear slide down his cheek at the sight of his mother's ring on Sakura's hand. He reaches out and gently traces a finger over the slim, golden band and more tears fall.
"Sasuke-kun... I love you."
Sasuke blinks back tears and lifts his head to look down at Sakura. "I love you, Sakura. That ring looks even better on you than I expected."
"Yes."
"Yes what?"
"Yes, I'll marry you, Sasuke... kun."
