Love, Actually

Chapter 8

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On the way to the hospital, the messenger's words kept reverberating in Sasuke's mind.

"There's a lot of unnatural bleeding too and Kanzaki-san fears it might be placental abruption."

"… Fears it might be placental abruption…"

"…Placental abruption…"

During the long months Sasuke spent helping Kagome, he had read many, many books on pregnancy and childbirth. He wanted to know what to expect from the pregnancy as well as what could go wrong. So it made sense that he knew all about placental abruption.

It was an uncommon but nevertheless serious complication of pregnancy. It only occurred in one in every 150 pregnancies and it often happened suddenly, usually in the later stages of pregnancy. No one really knew what triggered it, but it was the bleeding behind the placenta, between the placenta and the wall of the womb. It deprived the child of oxygen and nutrients and caused heavy bleeding in the mother. If untreated long enough, both mother and child would die.

Sasuke grit his teeth and quickened his pace. How could he let this happen? Kagome hadn't been feeling well when he last saw her. He should have insisted she get a check-up. At the very least, he should have escorted her home. Maybe if he did, he would have been able to notice this sooner!

If Kagome and her offspring died, Sasuke would never be able to live with himself.

By the time the three Ninja finally reached the Konoha hospital, Sasuke had worked himself into a right state of panic. He strode over to the desk, grabbed the receptionist by her collar and brought her face only inches away from his.

"Higurashi Kagome," he snarled. "Where is she?!"

"I-I don't know!" she stuttered out, staring wide-eyed into Sasuke's activated Sharingan.

"Check." His voice promised death.

He let go of the receptionist and she hurriedly sorted through the papers on her desk, all the while shivering under the killer glare he was directing at her. Sasuke almost felt like grabbing her again and telling her to hurry when she pulled out a chart from the pile.

"Here!" she squeaked out, flipping through it. "It says that one Higurashi Kagome has been brought to Operating Theatre 3. It's on the third floor. Take the elevator in the main area up and turn left. Walk to the end and make a right. It's at the end of that corridor."

The three Ninja quickly left the counter and took to the stairs. (Being Ninja, they had no patience for the elevator.) As they neared their destination, Sasuke sensed two familiar chakra signatures and he felt the dread build in his heart.

"Oi, what's Hinata and Sakura-chan doing here?" Naruto piped up from beside him.

"That's what I'm going to find out," Sasuke replied darkly.

When they finally had the Operating Theatre door in sight, Sasuke could also see the two women standing in front of it. Hinata stood near the wall, constantly stealing glances at the closed doors. She was unconsciously twiddling her thumbs, a sure sign that she was anxious. Beside her, Sakura was pacing from one end to the other. Her complexion was pale and her arms crossed over her chest. She positively reeked of guilt.

Sasuke marched up to his wife, who startled at the sight of him. "Sakura, tell me what the hell happened now."

The woman had stopped her pacing. She looked him in the eye and struggled valiantly not to cry. "I-I didn't mean for this to happen. I-I just lost control of my temper when she said all those things and I started shaking her…" her voice trailed off and a few tears leaked out.

"If Kagome dies because of you…" Sasuke said, his voice snarling, and Sakura flinched.

"Sasuke." Kakashi's voice was calm. "You need to calm down. Getting angry with Sakura won't change anything. Kagome is strong. She'll be all right."

The Uchiha let out another snarl of rage and turned away from her. He clenched his fist and swung it sideways, hitting the wall with a loud bang and leaving a slight indent. He let his hand drop to his side and he closed his eyes, taking in deep, even, breaths. Once he had suitably calmed himself down, he opened his eyes again and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. He tried to push the bloody images of a dead Kagome out of his mind.

It wouldn't happen. Kakashi was right. Kagome was strong. She would be fine. She had to be fine… But what if she wasn't?

Naruto had moved to Hinata and the woman took one look at the blonde before launching herself in his embrace. The normally hyperactive man was still and silent as his wife trembled in his arms.

Once she had calmed enough, Naruto asked softly, "What happened Hinata?"

The Hyuuga heiress took a breath and started telling them about the events that led her and Sakura up to that point. By the time she finished speaking, Naruto felt a wave of pity for Sakura after hearing the kind of day she had gone through. He was sure Kakashi and maybe even Sasuke felt the same. Then again, after seeing the angry look the Uchiha sent his wife, maybe not. Heartless bastard.

"How is Kagome now?" Kakashi asked, his voice serious.

"We brought her to Kanzaki-san but by then the bleeding had become quite serious. She ended up calling for Tsunade-sama and we were told to wait outside but so far, there's been no news," Hinata replied and Kakashi let out a tired sigh.

He walked over to Sasuke, who had remained silent throughout Hinata's explanation, and leaned against the wall next to him. He slipped his hands into his pockets and spoke no more.

"Ano sa," Naruto began uncertainly, "Sakura-chan, just now that messenger guy said something about Kagome-chan having a placential abrupting?" His face scrunched up at the difficult word. "Do you know what it means?"

The woman looked stricken. "No, I don't. Sorry Naruto."

Sakura had specialised in combat healing and poisons. She hadn't bothered studying much about pregnancy before, because really, what kind of mission situations would involve knowing how to deliver babies? Now though, she couldn't help wishing more than ever that she had.

"Oh." Naruto couldn't hide the disappointment in his tone.

"Placental abruption dobe," Sasuke spoke up softly, his voice monotonous. Everyone turned to stare at him in surprise. He ignored them and continued on. "It's a bleeding in the womb. It deprives the baby of oxygen and nutrients. It happens in late pregnancies and no one really knows what causes it. If it's serious enough, it can cause premature births and the baby can be born with growth problems. In worst cases both mother and child can die," he growled out.

"Well, Kagome-chan is strong," Naruto said. His voice was stubborn. "She won't die."

Sasuke glared at him. "Sometimes, being strong isn't enough. Or do I need to give you some bloody examples before the fact sinks in to that thick head of yours?"

Naruto glared back, but said nothing. No one in the corridor said anything after that.

The tension could be cut with a knife.

Naruto was standing beside his wife, his body twitching in anxiety and fear. It almost looked like he was the expecting father. Hinata was twiddling her thumbs, trying to ease her anxiety. Sakura kept pacing the corridor, chewing her lower lip in nervousness. Kakashi's face was like a blank slate. It was impossible to read the emotions on it. Only the tenseness of his posture betrayed his true feelings.

Sasuke kept glancing at the closed doors. His stomach was doing backflips, his palms were sweaty and his legs felt like jelly. How long had Kagome been in there? What was taking so long? Was she doing all right?

His worry was slowly driving him insane. He wanted to scream.

He didn't care if Tsunade was in there helping with the birth. The Godaime Hokage may have been a very good medic, but it didn't mean she was a god. She couldn't save everyone. People still died under her watch, her lover included.

Sasuke glanced at the doors again and cursed that they were soundproofed.

The silence was unnerving. It was killing him. The doors prevented him from hearing anything. There weren't any windows on the doors too so he couldn't even see what was happening in there. If Kagome was using a very colourful range of swear words to threaten the father's manhood and curse his name to the seven depths of hell, Sasuke wanted to hear it. Even if she was cursing Sasuke's name for supporting her decision to remain pregnant, the Uchiha wanted to hear it.

He wanted to hear that she was okay, that she was doing all right.

A Kagome cursing up a storm from the pain was always a much better scenario than a Kagome who was pale and unconscious and possibly bleeding to death on the operating table.

If she died… Sasuke closed his eyes and breathed out deeply.

He didn't know what he would do. Maybe his guilt would finally make him take his own life. But wait. How could he ever face Itachi again in the afterlife? How could he tell his brother that it was because of his carelessness that led to the death of Kagome and her offspring?

Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts when the doors finally opened.

Tsunade stepped out, her hair tied in her usual pigtails and a surgical mask pulled under her chin. A thin sheen on sweat covered her forehead on the look on her face was serious. The Uchiha felt his stomach drop as he straightened up from the wall and uncrossed his arms. He feared for the worst.

"How is Kagome-chan and the baby, baa-chan?" Naruto asked, his voice unsure.

Tsunade let out a tired sigh. "The bleeding was serious but fortunately, we've managed to stop it. We've also given Kagome several rounds of blood transfusions so she's doing fine now. She just needs a lot of rest. The birthing took a lot out of her."

The tension in the corridor seemed to dissipate and everyone let out the breaths that hadn't realized they'd been holding since Tsunade came out. Hinata leaned against her husband in comfort while he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Sakura closed her eyes and silently thanked the gods. Sasuke and Kakashi broke out into small, but real smiles.

"And the babies are doing fine," Tsunade added cheekily.

Everyone in the room except for Sasuke and Tsunade blinked in shock. What?

"B-babies?" Naruto squawked, his voice high and screeching. "Kagome-chan's got more than one baby?"

"Yes. Hence the term 'babies.'" The woman smiled amusedly. "She has twins. A boy and a girl. They're a bit smaller from the premature birth, and will need to spend some time in the incubator, but other than that they're perfectly healthy."

Naruto whirled to Sasuke and pointed a finger at him. "Oi, teme! Did you know about the babies!?"

Sasuke snorted. "Obviously, dobe."

"Then why didn't you say anything before?!" Naruto eyed him with suspicion.

The Uchiha shrugged nonchalantly. "You never asked."

Naruto looked seconds away from pouncing on Sasuke again and starting another brawl. He would have too, if Tsunade had not hit him in the head with her (thankfully not chakra-infused) fist.

"No funny business! This is a hospital!" she barked.

Naruto grimaced, rubbing his head. "Sorry, baa-chan."

The doors of the room opened again, this time with two nurses wheeling out the babies.

Sakura found herself staring at them, enraptured.

"This is Itachi," Tsunade said, motioning to the baby that was currently awake. "He's the elder one."

Everyone in that corridor was aware that Kagome had a history with Uchiha Itachi. With the exception of Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi, they only knew the basics though.

Kagome and Itachi had been childhood friends. Following the Uchiha Massacre, she went missing. Only her blood had been found at the Compound and everyone assumed that Kagome had been killed as well, until 8 years later she turned up with Sasuke in tow.

From the brief report she'd given the Hokage and the Council when she first returned, Kagome had actually followed Itachi out of Konoha and stayed with him all that while until his death. Then she went hunting for Sasuke, convinced him not to destroy Konoha and had come back with him to help the Alliance in the Fourth Great Ninja War. After that, she and Sasuke had settled back down in Konoha and had sought to clear the elder Uchiha's name.

The Ninja present all knew that Kagome and Itachi had had a very close relationship (Why else would Kagome have named her son after him?) but they weren't sure what kind of a relationship it was.

They may have been lovers, or just even been close friends.

But all in the years she'd been back in Konoha, Kagome never once spoke about Itachi. So no one ever asked.

As the five Ninja stared at the baby, there were a slew of reactions. Naruto looked positively amused at the thought of the baby having the same name as a former S-Class Criminal. Hinata had a slight bush on her cheeks. She was completely taken with the infant and looked like she wanted to have one of her own. Sasuke had a small, but real smile on his face as he stared down at his older brother's namesake. Kakashi was wide-eyed and looked so lost, like he had no idea what to do and how to act around this miniature-sized human who looked up at him in curiosity. Finally, Sakura looked pained at the sight of the baby's appearance.

Itachi, like the man he was named for, had coal black eyes and a small tuft of dark hair on his head. He had inherited Kagome's nose and the shape of her eyes but still resembled a typical Uchiha with his fine features. Sakura glanced at her husband incredulously. Would he deny being the child's father again if she asked him right now?

If he did, she would smack him, hospital be damned. Genetics didn't lie.

"And this is Isuzu," Tsunade said softly, indicating to the other baby while the nurse took Itachi away.

Sakura both wanted and dreaded to see how Isuzu looked like. There was a high possibility that Isuzu would have her brother's colouring as well, and it would only be the final nail in the coffin that Sasuke was the father.

Isuzu, unlike Itachi, was fast asleep so the pink haired medic couldn't see what colour her eyes were.

"She has Kagome's eyes," Tsunade spoke up, seemingly able to read the forefront question on everyone's mind.

Isuzu was smaller in size than her brother. She seemed to strongly favour Kagome in looks. Even at this young age, Sakura could tell that when Isuzu grew up, she would be as beautiful as her mother. There also appeared to be no traces of hair on Isuzu's head. But when the nurse wheeled Isuzu away, Sakura saw something glistening above the baby's head.

Her mouth slackened, and she felt her heart jump to her throat. She realized faintly that Isuzu did have hair after all. It was just hard to notice right away because the hair had been too little and the colour had been too light.

Isuzu's hair colour was silver.

Sakura whipped her head to the right, staring at her ex-sensei is shock. Kakashi-sensei? He was the father? But… What?!

"But, if you really want to know, I suggest you retrace your steps and think back on who Kagome was hanging around with and how she was behaving during the month she got pregnant," Sasuke said.

The man frowned, thinking deep and hard about Sasuke's words. A few minutes of silence passed before he looked at the Uchiha, his expression still puzzled. "Sasuke, instead of giving me a vague answer tell me exactly who is the father of Kagome's child?"

"Fine," Sasuke said softly, looking Kakashi in the eye. "I'll tell you."

Both the Copy Ninja and the hyperactive blonde on the couch (who had been eagerly watching their conversation with bated breath) came to attention. Sasuke spent a few moments thinking how to phrase his answer to the man. But finally he just settled on the most straightforward one.

"It's you dumbass," he snapped.

Kakashi watched in silence as the sleeping Isuzu was wheeled down the corridor to the birthing ward. His skin was clammy and probably pale under his mask and he felt like his heart was trying to explode out of his chest.

When he, Naruto and Sasuke had been on their way to the hospital, Kakashi had only spared one brief moment to doubt the Uchiha's words. There was no way he could be the father. No way. (He and Kagome had sex?! His brain wanted to scream in denial. When?!) After that, the man spent the rest of his time being worried about Kagome's life to think much about it.

It was only when Tsunade had come out and announced that Kagome was doing fine that the silver haired man started thinking about it again.

No, it was impossible. He couldn't be the father.

Even after he'd seen baby Itachi, he had still been deeply in denial because at first glance, the infant really resembled an Uchiha. A possible explanation would be that the black hair came from Kagome while the black eyes, fine features and narrow jawline came from Kakashi, but the Copy Ninja still refused to accept it.

No, baby Itachi didn't take after him at all. It was just a coincidence. Sasuke was the father, not him. It was either Sasuke or someone else with dark hair and dark eyes.

There was no way that Kakashi could be a father. Not after the kind of life he had led, the mistakes he had made.

Kakashi firmly refused to believe the notion that he had somehow fathered children until the moment he saw Isuzu. His breath had caught in his throat and his very world had been remade the moment he caught sight of his silver hair on her head.

Gods, she had really looked so much like her mother.

But again… He was the mysterious father of Kagome's children. How did that happen?

Kakashi couldn't figure it out. He had been out of the village for six months and hadn't even known she was pregnant until he came back. How was he supposed to have fathered children if he didn't even remember sleeping with her?

Iruka had said that Kagome had been eight months along. What was Kakashi doing at that particular period? He struggled to recall.

Eight months ago… That was the month when… Ah. His breath caught. Of course.

He remembered it now. It had been the anniversary of Rin's death. Kakashi had been drinking heavily in a bar, drowning in his grief. He'd eventually met a woman and they'd started drinking together. She'd told him that she had been drinking in someone's memory too. The woman's face had been blurred by the alcohol he'd already consumed but Kakashi had vaguely remembered running his fingers through her long, dark hair. He remembered thinking how much it felt like silk.

He'd taken her home after that and they'd had a few rounds of drunken sex before falling asleep in each other's arms.

The next morning, Kakashi had woken up alone in his apartment. The sheets beside him had long since gone cold. He'd had the worst hangover of his life and only hazy memories of the night before, and of the woman. Kakashi had always assumed that he'd slept with an unknown Kunoichi who'd purged her presence in his apartment so he wouldn't be able to track her down in the future.

But he'd been so wrong. It turned out the woman he had slept with back then was Kagome.

And the Copy Ninja now had two children. He was a father.

Fuck. He was a father. He had a son and a daughter now. Twins. What was he supposed to feel? What was he supposed to do? Kakashi hadn't the faintest idea about what fatherhood entailed. He could barely remember his own father, now dead and gone from his life for nearly 27 years. He didn't know anything about diaper changing or bottle-feeding. Kakashi was not father material. He was a Ninja, not a father…

Fuck. He was a Ninja, and a famous one at that.

Even with the current Ninja Alliance, he had made many, many enemies over the long course of his career. What would he do if his enemies ever found out about his children and came after them for revenge? If they died because of him, if Kagome died because of him… Kakashi couldn't even think about it…

The door of the operating theatre opened again, and this time Kagome was wheeled out. The Copy Ninja froze.

"Careful," Tsunade warned, "She's regained consciousness for now but she's still under some heavy painkillers. Some of the things she says might not make sense."

Kagome was lying flat on her back in the gurney, no longer in that bloodstained dress. They'd changed her into a hospital gown and there was an IV tube taped to her wrist, filled with a clear sort of liquid that was most probably the painkillers Tsunade spoke of. Her eyes were barely open. She looked small, tired and pale.

"Kagome," Sasuke said soothingly, moving to her side. "Are you all right?"

"Hello Sasuke." She brought her hand up to cup his cheek. Her thumb brushed tenderly across his eye.

"Hello Itachi," Kagome continued breathlessly, and the Ninja around her blinked at the sudden change in name. Were the painkillers making her confuse Sasuke for his brother? Now older, Sasuke bore a great resemblance to the man, but still… "Did you see baby Itachi?"

Sasuke wasn't offended or hurt by Kagome's mistake. Instead his expression softened just a tad, and he nodded. "Yes."

"Good." Kagome smiled, and there was something inexplicably heartbreaking about that smile. "Good."

Her eyes then roamed drowsily around the corridor, taking in the faces of everyone gathered there. When her gaze landed on Kakashi, who was tense and staring at her with wide eyes, she paused.

"You. You're not supposed to be here," she mumbled. Exhausted and disoriented from the drugs, she didn't notice the man flinch at her words.

"I can't tell you. I'm not supposed to tell you. You can't find out about them," she continued sleepily, much to everyone's confusion. Tsunade hadn't been kidding when she said that Kagome was under some heavy painkillers. "I don't want you to find out about them. You'll just break their hearts because you're too lost. You're lost and you don't even want to find your way out. I won't let you hurt them. I won't. I won't. I won't."

"Kagome," Kakashi said, finally finding his voice. "I would never hurt them." He sounded horrified at the very thought of it.

"You will. You've hurt me because you're lost, so you'll hurt them too," she replied, and her eyes filled with tears. "You always end up hurting me…"

"I…" Kakashi didn't know what to say or what to do. He was always helpless against crying women.

"Shhh Kagome," Sasuke finally whispered, putting the Copy Ninja out of his misery. He ran a gentle hand through her hair, making her focus her attention on him. "You and Kakashi can talk later when you're feeling better. But right now, you need to get some rest, okay?"

"But my children…"

"They're fine," he soothed. "You'll see them again when you wake up. So sleep now. They're safe. You're safe. Sleep."

"Sleep?"

A nod. "Sleep."

"Okay." Her eyes fluttered shut, and in moments, she fell unconscious.

The other Ninja were silent for a moment as they digested Kagome's strange behaviour. They hadn't known what to say when she had been talking with Kakashi and Sasuke, and they hadn't understood the context of most of the things she'd said. Were they just nonsense? Or did they have a hidden meaning to them?

No one was able to figure what she meant. (Well, no one except Sasuke, that is.)

Tsunade cleared her throat and directed her gaze at the nurse, who nodded and wheeled Kagome away to a room on the same floor. The Slug Princess followed after them down the corridor, needing to get back to the Hokage Tower for work.

Kakashi watched the gurney until it disappeared around the corner before turning to his former student.

"Sasuke…" he began hesitantly. The man was so terribly confused about everything. He had tons of questions but no real answers, but fortunately he knew the one person who would be able to help him find them. "I need you to explain what Kagome meant when she said all those things to me. I know she must have confided in you about that."

Sasuke looked at him, not denying his statement. His expression looked considering. He had already broken one promise. Would he break another?

"Please." There was so much emotion put in that one word.

The Uchiha finally nodded, sighing. He would. "All right."

"Thank you," Kakashi said sincerely, before hesitating. "And I think you need to tell Sakura about it too."

At the mention of his wife, Sasuke glanced at her. She was standing on her own near the wall, looking horribly guilty and confused with everything. She was absently chewing her lower lip in a way that Sasuke knew meant that she was affected by something deeply. Occasionally, her eyes would flicker from Kakashi to Sasuke. It didn't take a genius to work out what it was about.

Sasuke sighed softly. Kakashi was right. This was something Sakura had to know as well.

His wife didn't understand the kind of relationship he'd shared with Kagome. Sasuke knew that if he wanted his marriage to Sakura to last, he would have to tell her about it. That meant talking about the major thing that tied him and Kagome together.

Itachi. Sasuke's heart clenched.

He needed to tell Sakura about Kagome's relationship with Itachi, so that she could understand why Sasuke felt such an obligation to her. It would hurt him to dig up those scars again, and like Sasuke had said before, he hated showing weakness to anyone.

But this… He knew it was important to both of them. And so he would do it.

As for Kakashi… The man wanted to know the meaning behind Kagome's words to him. Unfortunately, the answer wasn't that simple. It was a long and complicated one, developed over the span of two decades. The man would have to think back on his history with Kagome as well as know what she did when she wasn't with him to understand where she was coming from. It would take a lot of time to explain it out to both of them, and even then it wasn't good enough.

Some things were better understood by seeing, not hearing.

Fortunately for him, Sasuke had a way to show them. He would use his Mangekyou technique, Tsukuyomi. It was a quick and efficient solution. Although it required a large amount of chakra to use, it wouldn't make much of a dent in his reserves. He would be able to show them years of events in just a few seconds in the real world.

"If you want your answers you'll have to look in my eyes," Sasuke told the Copy Ninja, who nodded solemnly in reply.

The Uchiha turned to his wife. "Sakura," he called. The woman startled and her eyes snapped to her husband when she felt him emit a massive flare of chakra. As both Kakashi and Sakura met his gaze, they found themselves staring into the blood red orbs of Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

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End Chapter

Hello my lovelies. From here on out, it's the flashbacks. :)

So, in this chapter, I made Kagome's pregnancy a bit more serious. Placental Abruption is a real complication of pregnancy, though not a common one. And if you'll notice in the writing, I was very careful to hide the twins. She and Sasuke knew about it, but never mentioned it to anyone. Why? Because they're trolls.

Kakashi and Kagome's interaction is also different, mainly because she's high on painkillers. *laughs* I found his behaviour OOC in the original. So I made him more hesitant about being a father here.

Now about the Hatake Twins! As always, Itachi is named for Uchiha Itachi, and Isuzu is named for Nohara Rin. The Kanji for Suzu can also be read as Rin. Kagome chose those names because Itachi was her precious person while Rin was Kakashi's.

Please let me know what you think!

~Beans