Chapter 11: Getting Up Again

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke…

Previously on Impervius AI

Neji yawned, sitting up on the couch.

He wasn't sure what had woken him, but one look at the clock told him it was only three o'clock in the morning. He almost went back to bed when he noticed that Gaara wasn't there.

Neji jogged around the apartment to make sure the boy really wasn't there before going off in search of him.

Where would the redhead go and this time of night?

Jogging down the halls past the cafeteria and the other rooms, Neji noticed the door to Sasuke's room had been left open. He walked in and noticed lights on it the lab area. Was Sasuke out of the hospital already?

Walking into the lab, Neji was greeted with a sight he never expected to see again. It made him smile. A pair of big blue eyes looked up at him when he entered and a bright smile was flashed his way before a finger was placed in front of the smiling lips in a silencing gesture.

Gaara was fast asleep on Naruto's lap a small smile on his face.

-Getting Up Again-

The next morning, Gaara couldn't wait to get up and head down to the hospital. Neji had made him get dressed and eat first, but after that, he'd run down to Sasuke's lab and made sure Naruto was fed and showered, which he was.

After that there was nothing to do but take the boy down to Sasuke.

Gaara didn't want the raven to have to suffer any longer, it just wasn't fair, and he was far too proud of himself to pass up the opportunity to see Sasuke happy again. Naruto seemed just as excited, though Gaara had to guess because the boy only meowed at him. The boy hadn't come out quite like new, but Gaara had done his best and only hoped Sasuke was happy with that.

Naruto looked completely normal if you ignored the blonde ears, tail and whiskers. That and he couldn't seem to speak normally anymore.

Neji walked the two of them down to the hospital and upon seeing the three of them, all the nurses squealed, a few of them showing them the way to the Psych ward while other's ran off in search of Lady Tsunade.

Gaara ignored them and followed the nurses.

It wasn't long before they were standing outside the door. Naruto didn't see any point in waiting. He pushed the door open and would have darted over to the boy if Gaara hadn't held him back.

Sasuke really did look horrible.

Naruto obviously saw this and started trying all the harder to get away.

"Mew!"

The blonde screeched, hands trying to grab at the Uchiha from where he was being held back in the doorway.

"I don't want another cat Neji."

Sasuke's voice sounded hoarse. He didn't bother looking up at them and kept his head down in his hands which had been wrapped from finger tip to elbow in bandages.

"You should know I can't handle that right now."

"We didn't bring you another cat Sasuke. I'm not that stupid."

Neji nodded to Gaara and the redhead let go of Naruto, watching as he darted across the room, landing flat on Sasuke's lap. The force was hard enough to send the boy back into the wall that the bed he was sitting on was up against.

Sasuke didn't really have time to see what hit him because in the next few seconds, Naruto was in his face licking his nose and cheek out of happiness. Gaara found it a little disturbing. There were times and places for that sort of thing, and here didn't seem to be one of those places.

Sasuke pushed the blonde away from him a little so he could figure out what was going on.

Gaara had never felt better at seeing the Uchiha smile so genuinely. He pulled Neji out of the room and the two of them headed back to their apartment to give the two some time alone.

----------

Sasuke pulled back from the ball of energy that was attacking him.

It hadn't made sense and having something so openly sitting on him was making him a little angry. He wasn't in the mood for this.

However his anger disintegrated upon meeting two happy blue eyes staring back at him.

"Naruto?"

"Meeew."

Sasuke laughed and wiped the near tears from his eyes as the blonde cuddled against him. He held Naruto like the world might end if he let go. He couldn't believe the boy was there, and looking someone like he had all those years ago. He was too happy to care that he must have looked like hell.

Naruto was alive.

"How'd this happen?"

He asked himself. Naruto seemed to think he was asking him, because he immediately pulled back and started moving around, reenacting the way he'd been brought back.

Indicating the hair on his tail, Naruto played with a little bit of the hair and then pretended to place an invisible hair down in front of him. He moved his hands and made little growling noises to indicate that something had covered the hair, and then his hands flew apart and his fingers stretched out.

"Boom!"

He said excitedly. Sasuke understood, which was somewhat of a great feat since 'boom' wasn't exactly the right word to describe the bone discs and tissue that had been strung together to make the boy. But Sasuke had understood what he'd meant. He'd made Gaara after all and knew exactly what the machine did.

He laughed and smiled at how cute the blonde looked while he was explaining.

"Who brought you back?"

Naruto grinned widely and moved his hair back, making a heart shape with his hands and placing it over the left side of his forehead.

"Mow!"

Sasuke shook his head and tried to keep from laughing.

Naruto was too cute for words.

"Your adorable you know that?"

"Mew?"

"Yes you."

Sasuke watched Naruto blush and nibble on the tip of his finger. He'd always had that habit whenever Sasuke showed affection for him. It just made the Uchiha want to squeeze the boy in a bear hug again.

Sasuke had forgotten how much he loved Naruto.

Now the redhead had given him a chance to find out again. It'd been too long since he and Naruto had really gotten to do much together. After the first year Naruto had been turned into a cat, Sasuke did everything with the cat perched on his shoulder, in his lab coat pocket, or following at his heels.

They'd slowly grown out of that stage though, much to Sasuke's displeasure.

He hadn't realized how much he'd enjoyed the boy around until he'd been taken from him in one of the cruelest ways possible.

He wasn't going to let that happen ever again.

----------

Over the weeks that followed, things started to calm down.

Tsunade had had a fit, seeing her nephew had been brought back from the dead and was more or less normal again. No one had really known how much she liked Naruto until then. She'd always been so stern with him and they'd often called each other names. The blonde had always been on the woman's nerves.

But it had been their way of showing they were family and loved each other.

Gaara had been fooled.

Sasuke had been moved back to his rooms, but he'd had nightmares every night until the machine in his lab had been moved. It'd been such a hard blow for him, he hadn't been able to set foot in his lab for the first week without getting flashbacks and breaking down.

The reanimation machine had been moved off into one of the storage rooms connected to Sasuke's lab so that no one else could tamper with it, but Sasuke didn't have to look at it either.

He never went in the storage areas anyway.

Naruto had been the one least fazed by everything that was going on.

He'd continued wandering around the space station, occasionally showing up with dead mice or spiders as presents for Sasuke. He'd also been one of the loudest people on board like he'd never actually been transformed and killed.

He'd show up at Neji's apartment and meow at Gaara for hours, telling him about his daily adventures probably.

Not that Gaara understood him.

Poor Neji had been the one stuck in the middle of all this. He'd been sent out flying to their neighboring ally station a few times to trade things, he'd been helping Sasuke get used to things again, and he'd been trying to get Gaara and Naruto onto a few of the training jets. He'd been so busy helping all of them that he hardly had time to do things with just Gaara.

Gaara himself, had also been busy.

He'd been sneaking off to the jet hanger early every morning and after Neji fell asleep to play around in Neji's new jet.

He was determined to learn what all the buttons did so that soon, he could go flying with the boy again, like they used to. The new red jet seemed to be made for the both of them and Gaara wanted to get off the station.

He'd been stuck there long enough.

When Neji wasn't busy, he'd take Naruto and Gaara out in some of the practice jets just to get them used to flying again.

More often then not, the two of them would end up crashing the padded simulation jets into each other. He knew perfectly well that it made Neji worry. The boy had been hoping Gaara remembered how to fly, but he seemed to be missing the key point, which Gaara conveniently never reminded him of.

Gaara had never flown a jet.

He'd been the jet. He remembered which chords had done what in their old plane and had flown according to the colored cords, not the buttons or steering controls. He'd never had to hook himself into the computer either just to communicate with people.

This was all new to him.

Gaara just never said anything to Neji. He pretended to be confused when in truth, Gaara was almost ready.

He was learning to fly with Neji.

Not the normal jets.

But the out of date one that he liked better, the one that Neji flew. That was all that mattered to him. Now if he couldn't fly that one, then there'd be something to be sad about.

Gaara wasn't the only one having problems though.

Naruto was also trying to re-learn everything. Not only had the boy been out of a jet for years, but he was just as hopeless with buttons and controls as he'd always been.

Late at Night, Naruto would often join him in the hanger and the two of them would play around in their designated jets. The blonde would sneak into storage and fly his old, muted orange jet out into the hanger so he could work on it.

The boy was amazing when he had the right plane.

The one that'd been adapted for him.

"I think it's time we headed back now. We've done as much as we can for one night."

Naruto nodded in agreeance with him and quietly backed his plane back into the storage area connected to the back of the hanger. The two of them had once again, spent most of the night preparing their planes.

Only this time it was a little different.

This time, the two of them were completely finished learning. They'd mastered their planes again and were ready to fly.

Nothing was going to bring them down again, and Gaara couldn't wait to see the look on Neji's face the next time the two of them flew together.

He'd be surprised.

The thought of the Hyuuga being too surprised to speak made Gaara grin sadistically.

----------

"Hyuuga, Naara, Haruno."

Tsunade greeted them as the three pilots bowed in front of her desk, waiting to hear what she had called them in for.

"We've received word from the Searin. They are practically on our doorstep and this time they don't plan of knocking."

Neji shivered. He hated the Searin.

"What are they after now?"

Tsunade sighed, knowing that none of them were going to like this.

"They are coming back for Gaara against the counsel's orders. They've been considered a rouge station and are not to be trusted any longer which means we need to be careful and be ready for them. There was a leak on our ship that apparently let slip that Gaara was still in working order. And that he had been made into a human."

"So their after the human and the machine that did it now."

Shikamaru looked a little worried, which didn't help Neji take the news any better. The Naara was the one that was supposed to be cool about everything. He was the rock that Neji held himself up on when he didn't like something he was hearing.

He couldn't afford to fall apart with the captain of his unit in the same room.

"What are we going to do?"

Neji asked quietly, wishing they could just take down the entire Searin station and be done with it.

"We'll have to fight them naturally. Taimun Station has been informed and they'll be here soon to aid us. We can't allow them to get their hands on our station's secrets. They are ours and there are still things we don't know about them. When they are perfected then our methods can be distributed to the other stations, but right now is not a good time."

Tsunade rubbed her eyes.

"How long before the redhead and the blonde are ready to fly."

"They're ready."

Neji lied, hoping his face was straight enough that she'd believe him.

The brunette pilot knew that they didn't have enough time to train Gaara and Naruto any longer. They needed everyone who could fly, out on the battle field. Neji just hoped he could cover for them and keep them from getting hurt.

Neji and the others were dismissed from their late afternoon meeting and he quickly ran back to the apartment to make sure Gaara was ready to go.

They only had an hour before they needed to be in the jets and ready.

Neji was getting scared all over again.

The last time this happened, he'd lost Gaara.

He wouldn't be able to survive that again. He wasn't strong enough. Once was bad enough, but twice was far worse then his own death would have been. Gaara had grown on him even more, now that the boy could be with him outside of the plane. They ate together, talked, watched movies and other harmless little things that made Neji's heart beat faster.

He couldn't lose that.

Not now.

For those of you reading Aishiteru Academy... the second book is up under Haku and Zabuza...

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

And for those of you wondering, the story is almost over... These next few chapters are going to be the finale...

-Himitsu