The Red String of Fate: New Generation

Flatlining - Mizuka / Bloodlines - Kakashi

Mizuka found herself running down the hallway toward the operating room, her doctors coat flying out behind her. She was already pinning her hair up; if she was being called to the OR, she was going into surgery. As she reached the prep area, she looked into the window to see who was on the table.

Hinata Hyuuga.

She looked as if she were still bleeding from the mouth, even with the breathing tube in. Shizune was in there already, mask on and chakra orbs blazing, trying to keep her alive. Mizuka scrubbed up and ran inside, putting her mask on.

"What the hell is going on?"

Shizune looked up, exhausted.

"She was ambushed by a group of rogue shinobi not far from the village on a mission. They've been neutralized, but she's in bad shape, Z. I don't know if we can save her."

She looked into Hinata's face. She was white as a ghost. She was flatlining. She wasn't going to make it. Her life was about to be snuffed out. Her life with Naruto, their blood line. All gone. She wanted to throw up. This was the worst feeling. But, maybe she could do something...

"Shizune! Move!"

She slammed her hand down on her still chest. Please let Baby be okay. They should be, right? She had so much chakra that her skin would tear when she became upset. What was a surge to someone else?

"Healing art: Rhapsody of Life jutsu!"

"Mizuka! No!"

The last thing she remembered was the flash of blue filling the room. This had to work. It had to.

***

This couldn't be happening.

These kinds of things happen to him, not her.

He wished it could be him instead.

Kakashi felt completely helpless sitting on a chair next to his pregnant wife's hospital bed, his face pressed against her small baby bump. He couldn't stop the tears from falling and wetting her sheets and his mask.

Please be okay. Both of you. Please.

He heard the room door open.

"Okay, Kakashi. I have the rest of the test results. She's going to be fine. Both of them are."

He felt Tsunade's gentle hand on his shoulder.

"What... happened?"

Tsunade pulled up a chair next to him.

"She was on duty when Hinata Hyuuga was brought in fresh off a mission with severe life-threatening injuries. I think Mizuka overestimated her own abilities while pregnant, using her Rhapsody of Life jutsu, completely depleting her chakra. She's lucky she's carrying the child of a shinobi with a powerfully strong bloodline. This may have turned out differently otherwise."

Tsunade placed a hand gently on her sibling student's belly, rubbing it gently.

"My bloodline saved her?"

"I believe so. I have this theory on bloodlines: there are stronger ones and weaker ones. Strong ones possess powerful amounts of chakra, which translate into more powerful jutsus and such, while weaker lines possess less chakra, thus limiting abilities and jutsus. Blood lines such as the Uchihas, the Hyuugas, and the Hatakes possess powerful abilities. Your father was a war hero, and you are the sixth Hokage. The Haruno's are less impressive, aside from Mizuka and Sakura, nobody in their clan has done anything considered noteworthy. That's not to say that a clan can't become more powerful. But there are also ways around it. An example would be Guy and Lee, mastering the ability to open their inner gates. And Mizuka has worked her way around her weak bloodlines.   The immense amount of chakra in her body wasn't enough to compensate for the change in her body chemistry.  The point is, your child may have acted as a chakra surrogate for your Mizuka to keep her alive until her body could begin to restore its own."

Kakashi was shocked.  

"You really think my bloodline is that powerful?"

"Kakashi, I've watched you deplete your chakra at least twice and not die. The fact that your body could not only handle, but utilize, another powerful clan's kekkei genkai is a testament to your power."

They sat in silence for a while before Tsunade finally stood up.

"If your unborn child has this kind of power, I can't wait to see what Baby Hatake can do outside of the womb."

She tousled Kakashi's messy hair and bid him farewell, telling him that she would check in soon and leaving him, once again, with his wife and unborn child. He was still trying to wrap his head around everything that Lady Tsunade had just told him. He had never particularly thought of himself as extremely powerful or particularly special. So for an elite healer to tell him that his clan's bloodline saved his wife's life sounded almost absurd. But, here she was, alive because of his bloodline. Because of his baby. Because of him. He placed both hands and his face against her bump again, kissing Baby Hatake. He felt a fluttering in her womb.

"I can't wait to meet you, kid..."