Don't hate me after this chapter please...
Chapter Fourteen
There was an insurmountable feeling of pain that lingered within Naruto. Although he did experience a lot of physical pain, probably more than most Omegas, the type of pain he felt was oppressive. As if he was doomed to linger in this gray plain of existence with a towel shoved down his throat, choking him, gagging him. He claws at his throat, coughing, wheezing, eyes wide and panicked, pain bringing tears to flow hotly down his white face, but he can't get the object from out of his throat. He was doomed.
Doomed to live a life that was better off not living. A life in which the only thing he could think of at all times was the cloth shoved in his throat, a life where only pain invaded his senses. A life without Sasuke.
They say that coma patients can be aware of their surrounds and even hear conversations happening around them. To Naruto, it was as if he was listening from the bottom of a lake. Looking up through the muggy waters as he floated just above the bottomless abyss beneath him, he could hear muffled and garbled sounds on the surface above. Sometimes he would try and swim up, to break the water's surface and hear what the voices had to say to him, but then he would remember that choking feeling of breathing air, the feeling of the cloth down his throat. No, down here was much more bearable. Down here the pain was muffled.
Time passed indiscernibly.
Had it been an hour? A week? A year?
Did it even matter?
But then, after a while, at a certain time that was impossible for Naruto to tell when, he felt something.
It was a feeling Naruto hadn't felt in a long time and it came from not above the water's surface, but from beneath him. It lurked below in that dark abyss. Naruto had been afraid to go down there, where the water got so dark you couldn't see the end of it, but this feeling that arose from down there, it felt so… familiar. And then Naruto realized what it was, that ancient feeling that felt so right and warm. It felt like Sasuke. Only, slightly different, but still warm, still him.
However, as quickly as the feeling had come to him, it began to draw away. As if it was a small candle flame barely holding on in a windstorm, it was faltering and flickering in and out of Naruto's consciousness. Above the water's surface, he could hear a commotion. People were rushing around, yelling, panicking. Was it Sasuke? Was it him? Or were they scared for the little light that was barely holding on? If only Naruto could hear them, maybe he could help this light. Maybe. …
No.
No, it was too painful. If he broke through the water, he would be in a world without Sasuke.
But…
Maybe.
Maybe, he would have this light, whatever it was. It seemed a lot like Sasuke, it was warm like him and felt like him. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad.
Naruto floated away from the flickering light beneath him, praying that it would hold on until he got out of the water.
"Don't…die…"
"What? Tsunade, look!"
It was Sakura's face. Her cute pink cheeks and pink hair and pretty, wide eyes. She felt like home, and seeing her face made Naruto feel safe.
"Oh my God, you're awake."
An older woman with blonde hair stood over his left side, she wore a white lab coat and held a syringe in her hand.
"Naruto? Can you hear me?" Sakura began stroking the boy's head.
Naruto hummed, his throat was painfully dry, but he croaked out a "yeah."
"Water, I'll get you some water." Sakura stood from his side and left the room.
The older woman sat herself on a stool next to the blond, she reached over and touched his hand that had tubes and wires taped to it. "I'm sure you're confused and scared," She began. "I'll try to explain everything as gently as I can."
Naruto nodded.
"My name is Tsunade, I am a doctor and friend of Iruka and Kakashi. They brought you here after everything that happened with Orochimaru's gang. Do you remember what happened that day?"
Naruto recalled not just that day, but that whole week. Meeting Sasuke, falling in agonizing love, getting kidnapped then rescued by Itachi. Mating with Sasuke, getting separated from him when Orochimaru's gang came for revenge, only to find out that Orochimaru was alive and that Sasuke was dead. Killing Orochimaru, getting shot, then trying to save his friends only to be caught in the middle of a standoff between two clans. It was all so vividly clear, but it felt like a lifetime ago. Naruto nodded his head again, a few tears rolling down his cheek.
Tsunade clenched her jaw, "Well, you fell into a coma. You've been asleep for almost a month."
Naruto wasn't surprised by those words, it felt like he had just woken up from nap: more exhausted than before he went to sleep and confused by everything around him. But wait, if he'd been asleep for a month does that mean they already had Sasuke's funeral? Did they go ahead and have it since they didn't know if he'd ever wake up again? Naruto's eyes went wide and he squeezed Tsunade's hand.
"Sasuke," He cleared his throat, "The funeral?" It was hard to speak.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow and Sakura came back into the room then, bearing a water bottle.
"Here you go," She handed Naruto the water.
"Funeral?" Tsunade questioned, her voice hitched with confusion.
Naruto said nothing and took a long, relieving gulp of water.
"You know," Tsunade continued, unsure of what the blond was implying just then. "Sasuke isn't dead."
Naruto took a swift breath in causing him to choke on some of the water. He leaned forward into a coughing fit and Sakura rubbed at his back. Sasuke wasn't dead? What? "But," he tried speaking through each forced cough, "Iruka said—Orochimaru got his—revenge."
Tsunade and Sakura exchanged quizzical looks before Sakura put the pieces of the puzzle together. "You know," Sakura leaned Naruto back against the pillows after his coughing died down. "Iruka had told me how he thought Sasuke and a few other people were dead. He had talked to Kakashi over the phone just before Orochimaru got to the house, but the line had kept breaking up and he couldn't tell for sure and was surprised to find that no one had actually died. Just some bad injuries."
Sasuke's alive.
His mate
Is
Alive.
"Where-"
"He's in the room down the hall." Tsunade already knew what the blond boy was going to ask. "We were going to move you both to Iruka's house but I found out…" She paused and looked to Sakura.
The pinkette smiled and rubbed Naruto's shoulder. "Naruto, you're pregnant."
And just like that, it all made sense, the light, the feeling of Sasuke, it was their baby, their unborn child. Their baby was the reason he was compelled to wake up. But, he had also felt something was wrong with the little light, the baby, it was so weak when he was in the water.
Instead of rejoicing, crying, or even smiling like Sakura had expected him to, instead, Naruto's face clenched with worry. "Is the baby okay?"
Tsunade was shocked, she thought it was peculiar that Naruto had awoken when he did, but to also know that something was wrong…he must have some crazy motherly instinct. "The baby was having a hard time actually," she said, "it's very young, but it wasn't getting enough nutrients even with all of the vitamins I've been giving you. The baby needed you to be up and producing energy and natural vitamins for it. Just now, you almost had a miscarriage. Thankfully, since Sakura was already here with me today, I was able to stabilize the baby."
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.
"I do, however," she continued, "want to get you up and moving around as soon as possible. I'm going to do some tests on you then we'll see about getting you off your ass." She smiled and stood from her stool, pulling over a trey with equipment on it.
The rest of the day had been exhausting. After the tests were done and Tsunade confirmed that he was in good health, Sakura had helped walk him into the kitchen for some real food. His muscles felt like jelly, like he'd just ran a marathon even though it couldn't have been farther from that. They gave him bland broth with crackers for dinner, careful not to upset his stomach. After that, they had him walk up and down the stair case a few times and around the house a few more times, trying to get his heart pumping and his legs used to the movement. Thankfully, he'd only been out for four weeks so his body hadn't gone completely useless, but in the end he was still exhausted. A shower was just what he needed and the cool water on his warm skin felt as if he was washing away all of the worry and doubt. That didn't last long. Soon, it was time for bed; Naruto had been scared for it in all honesty. Scared about the possibility of him closing his eyes and not opening them for another month, but even more scared to face his mate.
Tsunade had carefully explained how Sasuke was also in a coma, and how his coma could have a much more serious cause. "Sasuke may never wake up." Was a sentence he never had wanted to hear. For some reason, it was more terrifying than hearing that he himself had also been in a coma. Still, he would much rather have his mate alive, only sleeping, than dead. A part of him wondered if that was selfish.
Sakura opened the door to the bedroom and Naruto stepped inside. There, laying in the large bed on the opposite wall and hooked up so several monitors, was his mate. His strong, caring, mate. Naruto's heart fluttered and tears filled his eyes, his nose stung, and he shuffled as fast as his jelly legs would allow him over to the bed. He sat at the edge where Sasuke laid. He looked thinner, his hair was slightly longer and he had the workings of a thin beard.
"We shave him once a week." Sakura said as she walked over, "He looks kinda good with a beard, right?"
Naruto cracked a smile, it was nice to see his mate, not as scary as he had anticipated. But he only wished Sasuke could hug him in his arms. He would give anything to be wrapped in a tight embrace and planted with a wet, open-mouthed kiss on his lips.
"Tsunade said I can stay here for the night since it's already late, I'll be in the room across the hall if you need anything."
"Thanks Sakura," Naruto stood and hugged his best friend tightly.
Sakura hugged him back and sniffed, "I'm so glad you're awake. Oh, and the others will be over tomorrow, they're excited to see you too. For now though, get some sleep." She kissed the blond's forehead and smiled once more before leaving the room.
It was dark but the slight glow from the monitors and machines hooked to Sasuke allowed Naruto enough light to shuffle around the bed and slip in under the covers. He scooched as close to his mate as possible and laid his head on the raven's chest. There was a machine that beeped in time to Sasuke's heartbeat, but hearing the actual thing thump steadily through the layers of skin and clothes was the most comforting. He drank in the smell of Sasuke, musky and earthy. Although not as thick and pungent as when he was awake, it was just enough to tickle Naruto's nose and make him smile with the sense of comfort. Even when his mate was unconscious, he still felt the most safe by his side.
Warm tears dampened Sasuke's shirt where the blond laid his head across his chest. It was a silent cry for everything that has happened to the pair of mates and their unborn child, and as Naruto drifted into sleep, breathing in his mate's smell, listening to his heart beat, he couldn't help but also begin thinking of baby names.
There was nothing.
Only darkness.
So impenetrable that Sasuke couldn't see his own hand in front of his face. He couldn't feel anything beneath his feet or even any clothes against his skin. There was no smell that lingered in the air, no taste in his mouth, not even the sound of his own breathing to alert even one of his senses. There was quite literally nothing. Any man would go insane. How could you prove that you were even alive with nothing to sense? But that was the point.
Here, caught in-between life and death, Sasuke knew he had nothing to prove. Only his memories were there to comfort him. He recalled when he was a kid, his mom in the kitchen cooking dinner, his dad lounging by the T.V. He would beg Itachi to go outside and play soccer with him, those few times his older brother had said yes were some of his favorite childhood memories. Not all of his memories were that serene and picturesque, though. After a certain part in his life, Sasuke was sure he'd never be able to create memories as nice as those ones again. He was stricken with the memories of family's downfall, friends of the family breaking off and disconnecting, his brother leaving his side. The people he had killed, the things he had done. They say the worst torture for man is leaving him with his own thoughts.
But then, Naruto came into his life and suddenly, Sasuke had a new memory he didn't hate the thought of. The feel of his Omega's soft skin, his sweet, sticky scent, his sultry voice. It was all so perfect. Sasuke could float in this endless void for the rest of eternity as long as he had Naruto to remember. But the memories were still too few, and he was a greedy man. He wasn't quite sure when, but at some point he began living not for himself, but for Naruto. The blond Omega, his mate, was the only reason he needed to get up and fight, to protect, to love, to give everything he absolutely could to. It was all for him. But, as time labored on, the memories began to fade.
What did his mother look like again?
How old was Itachi?
Did his childhood house have a fence around it?
So quickly they faded more and more, and then, the last thing he wanted to happen began to creep out of his mind.
How did he meet Naruto?
His eyes…They were blue…right?
Yes, they were definitely blue; Sasuke remembered how they looked like the ocean. He tried so hard to grasp and keep hold of every detail he possibly could.
He has blond hair.
Blue eyes.
He has those cute little scars on his cheeks.
His scent is really sweet, like peaches.
He is his mate.
Blond hair.
Green eyes.
Cute scars.
Sweet scent.
His mate.
Hair.
Eyes. What about his eyes?
He was sweet.
He wanted him to be his mate.
Peaches.
Mate.
Who?
Naruto.
Naruto is his mate.
His mate.
He smelled like….what?
His….
Who?
XxX
It was dark.
And…wet?
His chest, it's damp.
A smell. So faint, and distant. What is that smell?
XxX
How long has it been?
The smell comes and goes, but now it's here again.
What is it?
It's stronger. What is that smell?
Peaches.
It's peaches.
It's…familiar….
There was a sound. Another sense that Sasuke hadn't used in what felt like eternity. It was a soft, smooth, sound. Though quiet, almost like a whisper that could barely echo inside a cave. Although Sasuke had no way of feeling even his own legs, he willed himself to move towards the sound and the scent. Unsure if he was walking, crawling, swimming, or even flying, he only hoped he was moving.
The sound became stronger, the scent sweeter. Words became discernable from the sound.
"—ine, my only sunshine—"
It was a voice. It was..singing? The voice…it was so familiar too, like the scent… whose voice was it? Who smelled like peaches?
"you make me happy—"
Sasuke moved as fast as he could towards the sound, somehow, he had to know who this was. They felt important to him. He NEEDED to know.
"—you'll never know dear, how much I love you."
The voice was so close, so loud, it was right next to him.
"So please don't take my sunshine away."
"Naruto."
"Sasuke?"
Ok so don't hate me, I was going to make one giant chapter for the finale but thought that this was such a good spot to end this chapter on. IM SORRY I know Im HORRIBLE. lol But I think the real reason I made another chapter is because I need help with baby names! I don't really want to name the kid Baruto but if you guys want me to then I will, otherwise, please HELP ME and suggest something ANYTHING.
Also, the worst part about writing on FF is they force you to write in their formatting. Which means, I can't put in double spaces or asterisks or anything for dramatic affect, sometimes I forget this and come back to my writing later and am super confused about how it looks. They do, however, let us use line breaks but I use those only for POV or scene shifts. So that's why in two places you saw that I put the symbol 'XxX' that's basically me just doing a double space, so it just means a slight change in time. Sorry if that was confusing or unclear! darn you FF and your format conversions!