Chapter 3: The Thing That Hurts the Most.

A blood curling, anguished, pained, piercing scream echoed through everyone's ears. It was my scream. Tears ran down my face, and I was sobbing hard. I screamed again, for about 5 minutes until the ambulance arrived. I looked behind me to see Kawaki talking to the emergency responders. He pointed over to me, and I held on to Naruto's body. They walked over and tried to take him away from me. I just couldn't let go. I felt a hand touch my shoulder. It was Kawaki.

"Papa, you need to let go," he stated, tears flowing down his face.

"I-I-I can't," I sobbed.

"Papa," he demanded.

"No," Kawaki signalled to Naruko and Kiyomi to come over to me. I felt hands on my shoulders and on my chest. I was being pulled back. I let go of Naruto's body.

"NO!! NO! LET GO OF ME!" I screamed painfully. I struggled to get away from their tight hold on me. I used all my strength. But they were hitting my chakra points making me weaker. I heard them sobbing behind me. "STOP!! LET GO!!" I yelled, crying again. The emergency responders had picked Naruto up, and put him in the ambulance. They then shut the door. "NO!! NO ST-'' I broke down again, I fell into Kawaki, Naruko, and Kiyomi's arms. "No, no-'' I sobbed. The ambulance drove away. The kids let go of me, and I crashed to the floor on my knees. I held my hands that were covered in his blood on my head, pulling out my hair, and just screamed. I let out another anguished scream. I cried and screamed until finally I had passed out.

When I woke up all I saw was white. I shifted uncomfortably, and saw that I was on a bench in the hospital. I looked up to see Naruko, who had my head in her lap.

"Oh Papa, you're awake," she said sadly. I saw that she was crying but dried her tears when I looked up at her.

"Why are we he-" I started, but then remembered everything. I stood up as quickly as I could. "Where's Naruto! Is he okay?!" I yelled. She didn't answer me. I saw Kawaki, and Menma, talking to a doctor in a hallway far enough away for me not to hear. Then I saw Kiyomi standing with all the other kids in the corner, talking to them in a very gentle voice, which I had never heard her use before. I decided to walk close enough to Kawaki to hear what was going on.

"We don't know if he's alive or not, he was only brought in a couple of hours ago," the doctor said. "We are trying everything we can," the doctor explained. "If you go home we will send someone over in a couple of hours," he said directly to Kawaki.

"But we can't wait!" Menma yelled. "Your not doing a good enough jo-"

"Menma!" Kawaki yelled. "Yes that would be great thank you," he thanked the doctor and turned to walk towards me. When he reached me he said,

"They say we can go home now," I nodded. "But Papa, I need to tell you something about Mama," he said.

"Y-y-you can tell me at home," I told him. "O-o-okay kids, time to go," my voice broke a little bit. I pulled myself together. Kiyomi motioned over to me and all the kids followed me out of the building.

Once we got home, I told everyone to meet in the living room.

"Okay, I just want to tell you guys-" I paused, bit my lip, and looked up because I felt like crying. "That your Mama will be okay," I reassured. I didn't think that at all, but I had to give them hope. I had felt his heart stop, I'm just hoping they can help him.

"Okay Papa," they all said. Himawari and Minato came to my side and hugged me.

"Papa's right, guys," Naruko said. Seeing the brighter side of everything was just who she was. She took after Naruto. Naruto could see the brighter side of something that was completely hopeless. "Mama will be okay! He's survived way worse than this!" She reassured everyone.

"You're right!" Minato and Himawari agreed.

"Papa, I have to tell you something," Kawaki told me.

"Yes?" I replied.

"Mama-" he started but then I heard a knock on the door.

"Okay everyone go into your rooms please," I told the kids, knowing that it was the hospital, and if they gave me bad news I wouldn't want them to hear. They all got up and walked to their rooms. When I heard all the doors close I walked over to the door and opened it.

"Sasuke!" A familiar female voice yelled.

"Sakura?" I asked. My best friend Sakura was standing at my front door step, she was dressed in her doctor's outfit, her pink hair swaying in the wind, and her green eyes leaking tears. "Hey, what's wrong?" I asked her worriedly.

"N-n-n" she started but broke down crying.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the hospital?" I asked her. She nodded slightly, and then wiped the back of her hand on her eyes.

"I-I-I came here to tell you something," she sniffled.

"What?" I asked. She started crying again, but she said something that changed my life forever.

"N-n-Naruto, he's dead," she sobbed.

Dead. Dead. Dead. Rang through my ears. I felt hot tears running down my face.

"S-s-Sasuke?" Sakura asked. "Are you crying?" She questioned, through sobs.

Oh right. She has never seen me cry. I thought. She pulled me in close to her, and hugged me.

"It's gonna be okay Sasuke," she told me, it was obviously a lie because I knew it was never going to be okay. I broke down there and then. I sobbed, and I had never sobbed that hard before. Not even when my parents were killed, or when I killed my brother. Sakura ran her hands through my hair.

"I-it's my fault," I told her, between sobs.

"No, no it's not," she reassured. I pulled her in tighter, and squeezed. She couldn't breathe but she didn't say anything because she knew I needed her, and she needed me.

"Why?!" I yelled, between sobs. I don't think Sakura knew what to do. She had never seen me cry before. She ran her fingers through my hair again, and along my cheeks.

"Sasuke-" she started, until she got interrupted.

"Papa?" A voice said. It was Sarada's voice. My eyes widened in horror. "Auntie Sakura?" She questioned. "What are you doing here?" She asked. I let a sob escape and she asked. "Papa? Are you okay?!" Sarada walked closer to me and Sakura.

"Y-y-y-yeah I am Sarada, go back to your room please," I demanded through sobs, not looking at her face.

"Not until I know why you're crying!" She told me. I caught a glimpse of Sarada in the corner of my eye. I saw tears flowing down her face, and she looked shocked. Which is because she had never seen me cry before.

"Sarada please," I begged.

"Auntie Sakura?" She asked, completely ignoring my request. "What's wrong with Papa?" She asked through sobs.

"N-n-nothing, go back to your room Sarada," she told her. I focused my eyes on Sakura. All of sudden I felt arms around my back. Sakura noticed and slowly let go of me. I turned around, and fell to my knees. I hugged Sarada as hard as I could. I held onto her like she was the last thing in my life. She was crying so hard, she collapsed to her knees as well.

I then finally figured it out. She knows. I thought. Sarada was quite a smart girl. She could easily figure out what was going on and she did. Sakura was still crying but she fell to the ground and crawled over to us. She hugged me from behind. I hugged them until I felt myself get a little dizzy, and then I passed out.

When I woke up, my eyes were completely blurred. After a couple of seconds I could see properly again. I looked around to see Sarada at the foot of my bed.

"Papa?" She cried hopefully, getting up, and running to my side.

"Hey Sarada," I sighed. She crawled into the bed with me, hugged me, and cried into my chest. After a while I asked. "So you know?" She nodded and started sobbing harder. I let her cry into me for a while until she calmed down.

"I'm the only one who knows right?" She asked.

"Yes," I told her sadly.

"Oh," Sarada sighed, starting to cry again.

"Hey, hey, Sarada please don't cry," I begged her. I can't stand it when other people cry.

"He's gone Papa," she sniffed. She continued to sob. I hugged her tighter when I heard those words come out of her mouth. I felt tears roll down my face.

"Papa, what do we do now?" Sarada questioned.

"Sarada, I promise," I paused. "W-we'll figure something out" I reassured, my voice breaking a little. I didn't believe that. I knew I would never figure it out.

"Good, you're awake," I heard a female voice say. I jumped.

"Yeah I am Sakura," I told her. She was wearing one of my shirts, and pants, and she looked like she had been crying a lot. Her pink hair was messy, and she had bags under her eyes. She had stress marks on her face, and her eyes were a darker shade of green than they were before.

"How long have I been out?" I asked her.

"3 days" she answered dryly.

"3 days?!" I yelled, sitting up quickly and hitting Sarada off of me. "Oh, I'm sorry Sarada," I said, letting her cuddle up against me again.

"Me and Hinata have been taking care of your kids while you were out," she told me.

"Oh, thank you," I said, nodding. "Has your cooking improved at all?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow. Sakura looked annoyed, but she immediately went back to a straight face.

"Sasuke, right now is not the time for jokes," she demanded.

"Sorry," I apologized. "It just keeps my mind off of things," I mumbled, looking down at the ground. Sakura looked guilty all of sudden, but kept talking.

"So," she paused. "Sasuke are you," Sakura bit her lip. "Okay?" She asked. I blinked back tears, and Sarada looked up at me.

"Yeah…" I muttered. Sakura walked up to my bedside.

"Sasuke?" She asked, grabbing my hand. I quickly pulled away. She looked kind of shocked.

"I'm not ready," I said quickly. Sakura cocked an eyebrow, not sure what I was meaning.

"Sasuke, I'm not trying to-" Sakura started.

"No it's not that," I paused, knowing that she was referring to her trying to get me to love her. I tried to choke back tears. "I'm not ready to, how do I say this?" I stuttered, trying to find the words to describe what I was feeling. I always had an extremely hard time expressing my feelings, even when I was a kid. I was just raised that way. "I don't want anyone to hold the hand that he used to hold," I sighed. "I can still feel the feeling of his hand holding mine, and his lips kissing my lips," I paused. "I just don't want that feeling to be replaced with a different person," I told Sakura. "And I really don't want that feeling to go away," I explained, as I felt a tear fall down my face. Sakura started crying, but she nodded.

"Papa it's gonna be okay," a female voice cried. Sarada was crying, and was hugging me hard. I held her tight, because I realized there and then that it was never going to be okay.