Too Far to Reach (Kakashi Love Story)

[38] A Speech

Eiko eyed the pile of napkins in my lap that I had forgotten about, and she reached her hand out to grab them. "What are these?"

"No!" I snatched all of them up before she could even graze any, holding them close to my chest. She gave me a strange look, then looked back down at a napkin I left by accident, which had the last of my speech written on it. Picking it up, I looked back over at Eiko, and she had an expression that said that she saw a little of it.

"Are you writing your will?" she inquired.

"It's...well, I don't know what to call it." I stared sadly down at the writing scrawled all over the paper napkins. "It's more of a speech. I don't plan on giving it though."

My eyes flew open as my gag reflex triggered. Leaning over the side of my bed, I pulled my waste basket closer to me, and started puking an endless stream of bloody gastric acid. Mostly blood, though. The napkins scattered everywhere across the floor, all out of their original order.

Eiko quickly rushed out of the room, bringing back two other nurses a couple seconds later. One checked the machines I was hooked up to, another gently patted my back as if that would help, and Eiko tried to make sure I was "stabilized." My heart rate sure wasn't.

The stomach fluids slowly began to cease, the blood just loosely leaking out of my mouth now, coming to a stop in a very agonizingly slow way like an old faucet.

"Are you okay now?" the nurse that was patting my back soothingly asked.

I spluttered up another drop of blood, which ran down my chin. The nurse handed me a napkin, and I wiped my chin with it, until I realized that it was one of the napkins that I wrote on. I threw it to the ground and held my head in my hands. "I'm getting the shakes..."

"Why don't you just sleep for a while?" Eiko asked. "Your heart rate...it was dangerously high. You need to rest a little."

"I've been sleeping for hours...I don't want to go to...oh God..."

"The blood loss is immense," the nurse examining the machines said worriedly, "and the stomach acid has burnt through her stomach lining." Her voice lowered to a nearly inaudible whisper. "The poor girl can't take much more of this."

Eiko put a hand on my shoulder. "Get some rest. You need it."

I sighed begrudgingly, settling myself back into my covers, my eyes not wanting to close the slightest bit; they just stared up at the ceiling, feeling lost, as if they meant to be looking at something else. Eiko took a couple of minutes generously picking up all of my napkins, all out of order no doubt. I thanked her and told her to set them on my bedside table.

The nurses all left the room in a line, but the last one out stopped when she ran into someone.

"Oh, sorry, but Tomiko isn't taking any visitors right now." There was a pause when I couldn't hear the other person's voice. "She just had another...'episode' a minute ago. She needs to rest up." A longer pause followed this time, and the nurse's sincere voice snapped a little. "Fine, just make it quick, would you?"

Her footsteps echoed down the hall, and the partially-closed door to my room pushed open more, Hiroshi stepping in. His face was streaking with tears.

"Tomiko, a--are you o--okay?" he choked out, sniffing.

I nodded a little, even though it wasn't true, and patted my bedside. "Hiroshi, I need to talk to you."

He walked over slowly, taking small intakes of breath in an attempt to not to make loud gasps, even though it wasn't working. As he sat on my mattress, I cringed a little, tightening my fingers around the edge of my blanket. The pain was terrible, like a whole layer of my stomach skin had been completely obliterated.

"W--What is it?" He wiped his cheeks on his sleeve, taking a very large gulp of air.

"I need you to do something for me," I said in a low whisper, looking down at the opposite side of the floor.

He tried leaning forward a little to make eye contact with me. "What do you need me to do?"

I hesitated, then lifted my head up slowly, my eyes fixing perfectly onto his like a puzzle piece. "I need you to be a leader. For me. Please."

"A leader? What...What are you saying?"

"Repopulate the Kobayashi clan," I responded immediately, "and tell stories about our ancestors. Our dead families. Bring the nations together. Help everyone move on, and allow yourself to move on as well. Live out my brother's dream."

"What was your brother's dream?" he asked.

I gave him a dead serious stare. "You must become the Mizukage of the Mist. Finally reconnect the Aqua Village back to the mainland."

Hiroshi's lip trembled. "The...The Mizukage? That's impossible!"

"I know you will do it. You're a born leader; just gotta stop that crying stuff." I smiled a little at him, but then spit my new baby-barf into the waste basket. Picking up the folded pile of napkins, I took a minute to place them all back in order, and then handed them over to him folded once again. "Please give these to Kakashi. Tell him to read them at my funeral. I spent hours last night putting my last meaningful thoughts into there."

He took them in his hand and began to unfold them, but I put my hand over his.

"Please, save them for after my death. I don't have much time left, and I'm not sure how much time I do have. These are my last requests for you; will you comply to them?"

There was a very long pause as Hiroshi stared down at my palm over his, which was holding the napkins. Then he spoke. "Of course, anything for my lost love."

~~~~~

Chocolate, Twizzlers, Hedley, Gnomeo and Juliet, Real Steel, Men in Black, and writing; how I spent my Saturday night.

Well, this was originally planned to be the last chapter, but then I didn't feel like it so I'll make it next chapter, or something.