To be with you
o00o
My mother left for a mission two months ago. It was by no means an easy mission, my father, my brother, and myself were told the risks before she left. But she had promised to take care and to come back.
She had returned from the mission 3 days ago barely alive. She had put everything forth to healing her team, her seal had been released, her chakra drained. Yet despite her highly regarded healing prowess, she was not waking up. Her listless, pale, frail body was attached to every machine possible.
I had spent the day with my brother and father at the hospital; we had all spent every moment there since her return 3 days past. Tsunade had finally told us off, told us to go home. We were all exhausted; none of us had slept in days. My brother had not gone to the academy since the news and I hadn't taken any missions. My father, he just sat quietly by her, his eye never leaving her face.
If he was not my father, if I hadn't spent my childhood memorizing his signs of emotion or trying to read his thoughts, searching for any signs of disproval or distaste I would not have seen it. He was pleading, begging for her to come back to him, to us. I know from the whispered conversations between mom and dad and those of his friends that dad was on a downward spiral before mom stepped in. That they both had been worried about people's reactions about their relationship; that it had been tough in the begging with the Leaf general populous sideways glances and whispers. But their friends had always been supportive.
Mom once told me she had never seen dad so happy until the day he held me. I think the moment she opens her eyes will top it for him, I know it, I want it. Tsunade always pulls dad away to talk in fast hush tones, but I know my mom is a great healer and so is Tsunade. She will pull through.
We all dragged ourselves home after being ejected from mom's hospital room. "The sick need their rest and by the look of it so do you three" Tsunade had chastised until we finally did leave.
We arrived home; my dad and my brother went to their rooms. I couldn't make it; I ended up on the couch, the exhaustion finally consuming me. There was a knock at the door, maybe several. Why was no one getting it? I began to stir, memorizing coming back, I was on the couch, my mom was in the hospital.
By the time I reached the door, it must have been several minutes. The messenger was trying to look annoyed but failed. I knew looking into the young chunin's face what message he was about to give, I think I always knew.
I didn't say a word, I just went to get my dad. He headed for the door while I poked my brother awake. By the time we ended up on the couch it the messenger was gone. My father turned from the door.
"Your mother is gone"
We left for the hospital soon after, in a daze numb to it all. I had yet to cry though I could feel the want and need to. I couldn't yet, it wasn't real.
We arrived at the hospital and were taken to her room, Tsunade was there, clipboard in hand, a stern face but a wetness around her eyes not fully whipped away – it gave away her own emotions.
My younger brother stayed as my father and I went behind the curtain to look at my mother. Tsunade pulled the sheet from my mother's face. I was pulled away from everything, I was nothing, and my mother was dead. Her pink locks splayed around her like a wreath of sakura flowers.
I was broken from my trance by the most heart wrenching sound made by my father. He let out a soul-numbing scream that transformed into crying. I looked over to see his heart break and mine broke as well.
That was five years ago, and to this day my father's scream is the worst sound I have ever heard. He has never cried in my 15 years of life before her death and never since then.
At night, when I come home late from a mission, I can sometimes hear him, "I will always love you. Wait for me Sakura"
My father died yesterday. I look at his gravestone now that everyone left.
Hatake Kakashi
Loving father and husband
Devoted Ninja
All I can think is he must be with her now.