Born Anew

Chapter 28

Kakashi POV

I've been standing outside room 153 for about fifteen minutes now. I'm so nervous to walk into that room. What if she's disfigured forever? And it would be all my fault. The nurse doesn't tell me anything about Karin's condition and my heart is beating three times faster than usual.

After glaring at the doorknob for another minute, I finally decide to go inside. I twist the doorknob. The first thing I see is Karin lying in that bed looking so small and fragile. Her red hair is spread over her white pillow and she's lying on her back, looking frighteningly pale.

I step into the room, half expecting that she's going to open her eyes and look at me. But she doesn't. Bruises mar her arms and face but she looks like she's sleeping. Peaceful.

The door opens behind me. "Sir?"

I turn around after a moment. A nurse in a white coat gives me a small smile.

"How is she?" I whisper, half afraid that my voice will break if it goes any louder than the tone it's at now.

"Externally, she's fine, except for the bruises you see. Internally... She's fallen into a coma."

I feel all the blood rushing from my face. "Coma?" I can't help but stare at her like she's lost her mind. Or have I? I don't even know anymore.

My heart has trouble beating normally, I realize. It's just jumping around in my chest, exactly like my emotions.

"Yes, she's in a coma. The baby's fine but she hasn't woken up from her coma since she arrived here a few days ago."

I nod stupidly, half hearing and half not hearing the nurse. "Do you know how long she'll be in the co-" And then it hits me. "I'm sorry, baby?"

"Yes. She's about three months into her pregnancy," she says matter-of-factly. "The baby will remain in her womb until the baby is full term, assuming she doesn't wake from her coma by then."

But my mind can't seem to process what she initially said. Baby? It can't be. I'm not ready to be a father. I can't father a child. And I especially can't do it alone. What if Karin never wakes up from her coma? And the baby will be born to this world with only one parent, a parent that doesn't remember the love of his father and never knew the love of his mother. I'm a broken person, I think cynically. Utterly broken. And now my child will be the same.

I can't even wonder if this is my child. Unless Karin was not only sleeping with me but with someone else. And she didn't strike me as the type. The timing falls perfectly with the first time we slept together. The child has to be mine.

I swallow. "I can't..." Without finishing my train of thought, I turn and leave the room. I walk out of the hospital room and bump into Sakura, who's barking out orders to all the nurses. As soon as she sees me, her eyes narrow. "Kakashi-Sensei, I thought I told you to rest for today."

But I'm too numb to respond. How do I live with this knowledge, knowing that my child will enter the world with only one twisted parent. What do I do?

Then something sparks within me. Kurenai was dealing with the same problem. After her lover and my close friend Asuma Sarutobi died, Kurenai was left alone to raise the child she was pregnant with. Maybe I could talk to her?

But something else nudges at my mind. Lady Tsunade, Karin and I agreed to speak with Naruto after the war had finished about Karin being his aunt. And now he'd never know her like that.

"Sensei?"

When I look up, I gaze straight into Sakura's worried face. "Are you okay? You look so out of it."