safety [Kakashi Hatake x OC]

ninety-nine

Eri struggled heavily with sitting back during the war. If it were up to her, she would probably still be fighting alongside the other shinobi even though new life was growing within her. 

She heard here and there about the battles that ensued, but she wasn't allowed to be involved in anything regarding the war. Tsunade knew it would be worse for her if she did. Nonetheless, for as long as the war waged, the girl couldn't sleep, could barely eat, and spent most of the day watching through the windows through the forest, praying that she could know something about what was happening.

But she couldn't. If she tried to ask anyone, she was shut down and told to rest, which only angered her more, so she didn't want to deal with it. She also - obviously - couldn't see anything, no matter how hard she tried.

Eri constantly shifted from overwhelming worry, to frustration, to anger, to anxiety, to tears, and back through everything all over again. She had grown to love Konoha and the other ninjas, and Sakura and Naruto and Kakashi so much that she hated that she couldn't fight with them, and she feared more than anything that they wouldn't come back home. How concerned she was about her beloved and the father of her unborn child was amplified by at least ten times.

Suddenly, a flash of light consumed the sky, and as soon as it did, Eri felt the entirety of her consciousness pull from reality and slip into the dream world. Her body went numb, and she was completely still.  She was encompassed in the the genjutsu cast over the world and she couldn't even know it.

----------

Eri couldn't tell how much time had passed when she woke up. The sense of imminence and danger that was in the air had dissipated, and the sky opened up with a fresh rain. It seemed somewhat solemn, but peaceful. Streams of sunshine pierced through some of the clouds, illuminating patches of trees and the glowing green of dewy leaves.

Tears silently slipped down her cheeks. There was an unspoken understanding and awareness that the war was over. Peace was renewed in the shinobi world. All that was left was for her to wait for her hero to come home.

Time passed slowly as she was waiting for Kakashi, and he couldn't get to her soon enough.

But something was wrong as Eri got out of bed a few mornings later - the morning that the Konoha ninjas were expected to return home from the battlegrounds. She felt nauseous, yet she still crawled out of the sheets after a night of tossing and turning and not getting more than an hour of sleep.

Her stomach dropped, her body froze, and her heart twisted in the most extreme emotional pain she had ever experienced. Her heart had never been full and vulnerable enough to be broken before then, but she was sure that that was the feeling that coursed through her veins.

Dark red had bled through the bedsheets to where it was already browned at the edges of the stain, and it had soaked through her underwear and seeped into the hem of her beloved's shirt that she wore to sleep in. It didn't smell like him anymore because everything smelt like blood.