Uchiha Akai was used to failure.
Dead last in his class. Dead weight to his squadron teammates. Dead to his clan. He'd known, heard, and felt it since forever that he was a failure as a ninja.
He wasn't exactly an optimist, but never in his life did he expect success, save for his proposal to Yumeka. The birth of his first newborn would've been the second exception if life wasn't ready to throw him a sour twist.
"I don't know why the midwives were all fully booked today—"
"... tell me... time..." Yumeka's gasps interrupted.
Akai saw more sweat had clung to her skin. It dripped from her brow and pooled at her temples and dampened the thin strands of hair stuck to her face; her finely combed hair now a splattered mess. She could barely turn her head and control the shake in her voice.
He couldn't, either. Less than ten minutes had passed since they shared their sweet moment outside the safe-house. He'd paced around the large room of the safe-house, from the clock, to the window and bed thousands of times, which still hadn't calm his racing heart.
"It's still October 10th. Twenty past midnight. Ten since the last you asked," Akai answered, turning only to see her wince once more.
He winced with her. He couldn't bear the sight of her gritted teeth, clenched jaw, fingers that dug into the sheets or curled into fists. The horrors of stepping into an ambush of explosive tags and ninjutsu on the battlefield couldn't compare with this. Her breath had fallen to short, shallow bursts and there was nothing he could do about it but hold her hand and pray.
"... time... seems to be... passing slower... than earlier... ugh!" Yuemka grimaced again.
It was unlike anything before.
Akai felt her arms go limp first. Then the rest of her body followed. His worst fear for today had come. Immediately, he helped her into a sitting position and pressed her lower back.
"It broke... didn't it? You're... in labor."
She slumped into him and gasped for relief from the pain—relief that he couldn't give her.
"It's... wet... contractions... ugh... you were right... worrying... tenth day on the tenth month... inasupicious..."
Akai felt a kunai wedge into his throat.
The date of delivery wasn't supposed to be auspicious. But the days leading up until this moment had been fraught with peculiarity. A chill in the weather had killed many trees in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Patrol in and around the village had tightened tenfold. No one, civilian or ninja, could book the midwives for delivery at the hospital. He wouldn't have bothered in any case as it would expose their pregnancy at a time when the Uchiha clan was also growing more restless by the day, but...
"... stop talking, Yumeka. Deep breaths. It'll be alright. We'll welcome our little daughter safe and sound, okay?"
"... yes... dear." She exhaled.
"We're going to relax. We're going to gently not resist the contractions. We're going to push with our little daughter. We're going to bring to her to see the moonlight tonight."
"... pushing... lay me down... better..."
He complied. He caressed both her hands that dug into the bed-sheets and stroked her straining face.
"Yes... that's it... it's going to be alright—"
The words were stuck halfway in his throat. He seemed to have felt the violent contraction before she did.
Akai tightened his grip on her hands and shut his eyes as Yumeka let out a guttural cry.
"It hurts—!!"
The building premonition erupted inside his chest. He never liked it when Yumeka cried, but this was different. The entire atmosphere was heavy, suffocating, not just his chest, and there was no more time to analyze it.
"No—keep pushing, Yumeka! I have the hot water boiling already. I'm grabbing it—you have to hang on!"
Akai picked the tub and kicked away the kunai that seemed to appear out of nowhere. He was not even halfway to Yumeka and the bed when a robed figure suddenly flashed before his eyes.
"There are... civilians?"
SPLASH.
The tub of sterile hot water splattered all over the floor.
Akai met eyes with the figure and the woman he carried. Their spiked blonde and silk-like red hair couldn't be mistaken by anyone in the Ninja world, even for civilians like himself.
Fourth Hokage... his wife... and a child?
They froze.
"Ugh...!"
The groan snapped Akai back to his senses. He saw the Hokage couple turn to the direction of Yumeka and prepared to make a mad dash for it. He gritted his teeth and gripped the tub closer to his body when—
"—GRAAAAAAA!"
He'd mustered enough courage to ignore the Fourth Hokage over the resistance of his body, but the sudden pressure in the atmosphere—pressure from an amount of Chakra he couldn't even fathom—was too overwhelming. His ears rang. His vision clouded. His knees buckled.
He could barely handle the pressure, so Akai knew Yumeka—
"Mmmmmmmnnnnn!!!"
And then world around him became too loud, too fast, too cruel. He wouldn't stop shaking. His ears pounded like his own heartbeat was screaming at himself. If only he wasn't weak—if only he was stronger—then he could protect her.
And then something hit. The pain. The grief. The rage. His insides shattered and caught fire all at once. His chest ripped open with the weight of his wife, his family that he couldn't protect.
"Minato! Get a grip... the village... I still have... enough Chakra to protect these two... I will not let a... a fellow woman... die on my watch..."
"Got it. I'll be back before you know it. And to you—"
He saw the Fourth Hokage's blue eyes land on him. They were firm but pleading.
"—please take care of my wife and son."
And then he was gone in a flash.
Akai turned to the red-haired woman now laying next to Yurime in a numb daze.
"M-my name is Kushina... the water... your child... head is out..."
He snapped back to his senses. "Yumeka! Just a little more! You need to push!"
"Mmmmmhh—!!"
"Yes... Yumeka-san... keep... going..."
"Just a little more... Yumeka.. please... make it... both of you... Yumeka! Yumeka? How are you, Yumeka!"
But she didn't respond. Her eyelids was drooping shut as with her tense body.
"She'll... be alright... my Chakra... removed the blood clots..." Kushina said, bringing her own child closer her chest. "Congratulations... it's a baby girl... healthy... you need... to wash her..."
Kushina didn't need to say more. The second he heard that Yumeka was alright, he'd already begun to heat and refill the tub with water.
"Fire Style... Fireball Jutsu..."
The fireball could barely be called that. It came out as a little bigger than a candleflame. It couldn't be used to threaten enemy ninjas in any way with his meager Chakra and poor Chakra control, but lighting a campfire and boiling some water was no problem.
The world moved in slow motion while Akai placed his newborn daughter in the gentle steam bath. She was small, soft, and so fragile he thought she'd melt under his touch. He wiped her down with a towel and placed her by her mother's side, knowing she'd want to call her by her name when she awoke, hoping her presence would help with her awakening.
Her name.
Yurime, Akai thought. He wiped the wetness on his cheek. She hadn't cried, but he did. He wanted that to be part of her name. Yurime of the Flowers. Bloom into quiet strength and beauty, like a lily unfolding at dawn. Like your mother.
"... w-what's... her name?"
"Yurime," Akai answered instantly, looking down.
But Yumeka was still out cold. It was Kushina who greeted him.
"Uchiha Yurime... a beautiful name..." she continued.
Akai felt a burning behind his eyes.
... she... she didn't seem to recognize me earlier.
He didn't miss the rigidity beneath her gasps just now. As the Uchiha waste on the battlefield, he developed a very good instinct and perception on danger to survive. And though Kushina looked like she was on her last breaths, she could still speak. She had enough Chakra to impart to Yumeka. With the Fourth Hokage seemingly able to teleport in and out of the safe-house, he knew he needed to be wary of her intentions... however bad they might be.
"... but I... can't believe... I saved an Uchiha child... under these circumstances..."