Thirty Kisses Theme 10 - #10

It was the night of their tenth anniversary, and he was dying. His lungs were blackened and his throat stripped dry and he was dying. The coughs wracked his body so violently that they had been forced to put him on a respirator, and a nurse had to come in to clean it of blood every half hour. She was by his bed holding his hand, running her fingers over his knuckles, over the gold band on his ring finger, soothing him as he died. She had said her goodbyes; they did it every night before sleeping, for they were ninja, and could die any day.

She had almost lost him before, the night he was cut open collar to hip by the sand jounin. But he had managed to struggle into the Hokage's office still, almost killing himself in the process of warning the village of the Sand-Sound alliance. Thanks to him, their casualties during the attack had been a third of what they estimated had they not been warned. The Third Hokage still reigned, though he was searching for a successor even now, having survived an assault by Orochimaru, who had been forced to retreat from the four ANBU squads surrounding their leader.

Hayate flat-lined at three in the morning on the day after their tenth anniversary. Yuugao held his hand, biting her lip to keep from crying. The news that he had brought to Konoha had saved it, but sometimes during the time his illness had taken a turn for the worst, she had wondered what it would be like if he had died that night twelve years ago. Would it have been easier to take if he had died suddenly, bled out on the top of that roof? She would be the one to come home to their son and tell him his father had died. But at least she could tell him now that he had loved him, and that she had held his hand when he went.