The Baby Problem [sasusaku]

7: Till It Wasn't

It was thirty past two in the morning when Sanae's heart stopped.

Sasuke had woke up out of a dead sleep very suddenly, immediately sussing out the surrounding chakra before his eyes even opened. He knew himself well enough to know that he didn't wake up with his heart-racing if nothing was wrong.

Everything felt fine, familiar. His neighbors' chakra was the only source he felt besides his own and Sanae's.

Then, his eyes flew wide open and the muscles of his heart squeezed so tightly that he almost grasped at his chest because of the pain.

Sanae was asleep on his chest, though, like she always was. Only, she wasn't moving at all. Her body was limp and her chest didn't rise or fall—she also wasn't whining or making little sounds like she usually did while she was sleeping.

"Sanae," Sasuke hissed, sitting up immediately and making sure to keep a good grip on her. "Sanae!"

Cradling her in his arms, sweat started to trickle down his forehead and he looked down at her face.

She looked peaceful, like she was sleeping. Except, she wasn't breathing. Her little heart wasn't beating.

THUMP!

His heart would burst through his chest any minute—he knew it for sure. Hell, he could barely breathe, barely move. All he could do was stare down at her.

"Sanae," he whispered, voice breaking halfway through her name.

It was like his body was moving on its own, as he was too upset to think, or consciously move. In his head, repeated over and over, were five words that pieced together the most desperate chant he'd ever thought:

'I have to save her.'

THUMP!

'I have to save her.'

THUMP!

'I have to save her.'

THUMP!

Completely acting on instinct, Sasuke held Sanae close and body-flickered until he was where he knew he needed to be: the Haruno residence.

The nighttime breeze was chilly against his bare chest, but he was warm and held Sanae tight, as if she could notice the cold in her technically dead state. Houses, buildings, and trees flickered by, blanketed by the thicket of darkness that had fallen over Konoha like a blanket slowly suffocating him.

He didn't bother with the door. Instead, he went in through Sakusa's window: it was locked, but it was nothing to break into. Then, he was standing in her dark, warm room with his dying baby in his arms.

It wasn't a second after he broke in that Sakura flew up, looking at him with wide eyes that were first filled with outrage. She saw the blank, autopilot look on his face, though, and then the unmoving baby in his arms.

"What's happened?" she demanded immediately, paying no mind to the fact that she was in a short, red night gown. Standing, she took Sanae from Sasuke and placed the baby on her bed.

"She's not breathing," Sasuke said numbly, staring as Sakura's hands became shrouded in green chakra.

She hovered her hands above Sanae, brows knitted together in concentration as she moved them up and down her small frame.

"Her heart's not beating," Sakura said to herself, and then began doing CPR immediately.

Sasuke gulped.

Watching Sakura tilt Sanae's head up—the baby's expressionless face—and beginning to do CPR with two fingers felt to him like it was happening in slow motion.