Author's Note; I'm sorry for being late on updating! I was away from internet this past weekend and I couldn't update until today since I had forgotten where I saved this chapter O..o? Yea, I know! And to explain, it's because I'm taking each individual chapter and making them separate documents and deleting them from the copy of the original draft so I know where to update from next and I accidentally didn't realize I saved this in my documents file instead of the made file for this story.

Naruto; Excuses, excuses!

Sasuke; I agree with you there dobe.

Me; Shut up, both of you! I've had a really hard time this past weekend :(

Itachi; I'll ground you both if you don't lay off...

Naruto; And how would you ground us Ita?

Sasuke; -glares-

Itachi; Simple ... Naruto won't see Gaara anymore for a whole month and Sasuke will be made to be as social as possible.

Gaara; Screw you! Take my Naruto away and I'll kill you! -Growls-

Naruto; Gaa-kun, don't listen to him, he's just mad because Tenshi is being an ass again.

Itachi; ... -Leaves.-

Sasuke; -Raises an eyebrow- They're fighting again?

Naruto; Yea, I overheard the conversation on accident ... but it wasn't really hard since Itachi was yelling and you weren't home to hear it. Ita was very pissed off.

Me; Lay off and let them read the damn story already! O..o!? Enjoy the chapter everyone :D

Chapter 17

Naruto

My whole body hurt. I felt like I was tied up by my wrists two feet off the ground and beat with an electric whip on every inch of my body. My head was pounding and I felt like I was laying on a rock. Every time I tried to move, it sent shots of pain through out my entire body, its point of origin; the middle of my back.

At some point, I could hear Gaara's voice, but it sounded so distant and so weak that I made myself believe it wasn't him, or anyone for that matter. Sometimes I could hear Sasuke and Itachi, but they were the same as well. One time I heard Tsunade's voice telling me to wake up, but I was awake, wasn't I?

After a while, the voices became quiet and I felt myself get surrounded by darkness. It was so thick that I could swim in it, but somehow I could still breathe like it was just air. I felt myself sinking in this darkness too, but every once in a while, I would hear the words 'don't give up' and 'keep fighting' that I would force myself to try and get to the surface of this darkness, but with each movement I made to the top, my body felt like it weight more and more.

But giving up is never in my vocabulary, and neither is it in my way of life, so I kept fighting until I reached the surface of that darkness and found myself opening my eyes a little bit at a time and groan when I tried to move my heavy body, and I only managed to move my right arm off either the bed or my stomach, I couldn't tell. But I knew I was alive and not in hell when I saw Gaara float into my field of vision and his eyes water before I felt him start clinging to me as he cried.

How long was I out for? I remember going to work and starting to put sandwiches together, and I always zoned out until my shift was over Monday morning at five, an hour before I had to be at school. So it had to be Monday … it just had to be.

"Get Tsunade!" I heard Sasuke's voice say to someone over Gaara's sobbing in my ears.

I tried to speak, but nothing came out of my dry throat, but apparently Gaara heard my silent pleas for water as he let me go and came back with some water, gently lifting my head so I could swallow it without choking, but I still ended up coughing after the first few swallows, but it became easier once my dry mouth and throat felt relieved and Gaara took the water bottle away.

I whined, wanting more, but he put a finger over my lips as he spoke. "Too much will make you get sick, you need to take it easy Naru."

"H-How long have … I been out?" I got myself to ask a little louder than a hoarse whisper. "And wh-where am I?"

"You're in the hospital … and you've been out for almost a whole week." Gaara answered before I felt his lips on mine and then my forehead. I could feel one of his hands petting my hair back.

"What happened, anyway?" I asked, wondering what the hell happened, but I don't remember if I've asked already or not.

"Well, we went to pick you up from work, and I found you on the floor." He answered, and I frowned. Did I really black out instead of doze off? "We also noticed you had taken your back brace off too. You're lucky that you didn't hurt your back more than it already was."

"I'm sorry." I said, feeling the tears well up in the corners of my eyes before Gaara clung to me again and held me in his arms before I felt him being pulled away and a bright light shined in my eyes before I realized that Tsunade was standing in front of me. I wanted to smack her hand holding the flashlight away from my face, but they were still too heavy to move properly. But luckily the light was gone in a few seconds and I had to blink quite a few times before my vision came back to normal.

"Well, gaki, you're lucky you didn't suffer from major head trauma when you fell and hit your head." She said, and I could tell she was still pissed off at me, but happy at the same time. "You're also lucky that your back wasn't injured more."

"And Naruto, you no longer work there …" Itachi's voice said, startling me because I had no clue he was even here.

"Why?" I asked as I glared at everyone in the room.

"Because, the place was closed down, permanently." Itachi explained, and I paled.

"What the hell am I going to do now?" I whined, trying to shift my body in the bed a little bit so I could sit up, but I was stopped the second I moved my arms to do so by Gaara putting a hand on my chest.

"Don't move, please." He said, and that got me worrying.

"Why can't I move?"

"Because I said so moron." Tsunade barked. "And your brace is off at the moment, you were comatose when we admitted you, so you didn't move a single muscle while you were here."

"Who's my nurse?" I asked, hoping it was Matatabi.

"Your nurses are Saiken and Kurama. And warning you now, Kurama has problems with troublesome patients and is not afraid to put you under sedation if you piss him off." Tsunade said, and I gulped loudly.

"If he touches me I'll kick his ass so hard he won't be able to sit for a month!" I yelled, pissed off because she knows full well that I have lost all trust for male nurses.

"He's as straight as straight can be, gaki, and besides, I can actually trust him. Today is his first day on the job." Tsunade said with a raised eyebrow as she crossed her arms at me.

"I don't give a rats ass." I spat, tensing up a little because I tried to sit up.

"Well Matatabi will let me know if anything happens." Tsunade said. "I have to go and check on the other patients before I go home." And with that she left.

"Home? What time is it?" I asked, it couldn't be night time already.

"It's almost eight in the evening, and you're probably starving. I'll order some Ichiraku ramen for you." Sasuke said before he dragged Itachi out of the room, leaving me alone with Gaara.

"I'll stay here Naru." He said as he pulled up a chair and sat next to my bed, grabbing my right hand and stroked it softly with his thumb on my palm. I felt like I was breaking inside because I knew that deep down inside him, that he was pissed off at me for doing what I did.

"I'm sorry Gaara." I whispered.

"No need to be sorry, okay?" He said. "You're here and that's all that matters."

"You're too soft on me." I chuckled lightly, knowing if I laughed harder than I did, my back would hurt like someone took a white hot prodding iron to it.

"I know, and you know how I am towards you. I can't ever be mad at you for very long." Gaara said with a smile, something I hadn't seen in a long while.

"I know … I know." I nodded, yawning a little bit.

"Just promise me something, okay?" Gaara asked, and when I looked at him, he was serious.

"What would you like me to promise?"

"Promise me you'll never do that again."

"I promise." I smiled, pulling my hand out of his and held out my pinky.

Smiling back at me, Gaara grabbed mine with his and we shook on it before he leaned in and kissed me on the lips. I smirked and grabbed his bottom lip with my teeth gently, and I honestly think he growled at me before I felt his fingers weave themselves through my hair to the back of my head, pulling me closer as we deepened the kiss. I could feel my skin crawling with excitement when I felt his tongue slip its way into my mouth.

I don't know when my eyes closed, but I know that I would have fallen out of the bed when Gaara suddenly pulled back at the sound of a camera taking a picture of us two making out for the first time in just about a week and I immediately started feeling pissed off, because I knew exactly who it was that took a picture.

"What the fuck do you want Itachi?" I asked before Gaara could, and I genuinely sounded pissed.

"I now have blackmail on both you two and my brother." Itachi smirked, just when Sasuke came into the room and looked puzzled to see how Gaara and I were beet red and pissed off now.

"Itachi … what the hell did you do?" Sasuke said, but I knew deep down he wanted to yell and pulverize his older brother.

"You show anyone that, my father will find out and he'll -" I started saying and cut myself very short to make sure no one heard what I was about to say. And dare I say it, they were all looking at me, wanting me to finish my sentence. Gaara, especially, wanted me to finish what I was saying.

"He'll do what?" He asked, and I knew I was in for it if I didn't think of something quickly.

"He'll probably keep me locked up in our basement and never let me see the daylight again. He's completely against same sex stuff." I lied, well, half lied, but I knew he'd sell me off to some man whore sex ring to make sure I was out of his life for good.

Like hell I'd tell Gaara, Sasuke and Itachi that, not when they know how he's with me already.

"Well, Naruto, your ramen is here, would you like to eat now?" Sasuke said as he walked up to the side of my bed and put a box down on the table next to me, and I could have sworn I was drooling at the smell of it.

"I'll put your bed up into position for you, but lets put that brace on before we do anything." Gaara said, and he was right, I'm never taking it off unless I'm changing or taking a shower ever again.

I hadn't realized that the brace was only unfastened until Gaara lowered the blanket to about my waist and started snapping it into place, that's also when I realized that it was a different back brace from the one I had before I blacked out.

"Did baa-chan make me get a different back brace?" I asked.

"Yea, she said this should fit you better than the other one did, and she was right." Gaara answered when he was done and pushed the button on the arm of the bed and my head started to go up.

It felt like major relief when I was able to finally sit up because I now wasn't laying directly on my back like I was, and I think everyone realized how much stress was taken off of it when I let out a breath that I didn't realize I was holding.

"Well, you're finally awake, Naruto." An unfamiliar female voice said when the door opened back up, and I tensed again, only because I didn't recognize her at all.

"And who the fuck are you?" I asked, glaring at her, her short green hair making a huge contrast against her golden eyes, and she was smirking, which made me even more pissed, until I saw the guy standing behind her with red hair and red eyes.

With my only hand that wasn't strapped with IV's or anything else, I reached and grabbed the back of Gaara's shirt and pulled on it, hoping he'd get the message that I wasn't comfortable anymore. Hell, I didn't even know I was shaking until I realized my hand was in a fist.

"I'm sorry, but he can't come in." Gaara said, giving his famous death glare to the red head as he crossed his arms. He was deadly serious when he was calm like this.

"Don't worry, I don't feel like going in anyway. His hair gives me a headache." The guy said, and I glared.

"Well sorry that I'm not weird like you two!" I found myself yelling.

"Don't worry, my hair isn't natural." The woman said as she laughed a little. "And you really don't remember me?"

I blinked, staring at her for a moment, then it finally dawned on me.

"You're the one that helped me get in here on day one!" I said, though it was loud enough to be called a yell as I pointed at her.

"You finally remembered." She smiled.

"You can come in, he stays put or I'll rip him to shreds." I threatened, but the last bit was actually a promise.

Then the red head nurse rose an eyebrow as he crossed his arms.

"I'm sure that Tsunade explained the situation to you two." Itachi said, hoping to get some light on the small misunderstanding.

"She did, and that's why I'm not going in." The red head said. "I'm here to help, but if the one that's getting my help and wants to do nothing but kick my ass I'll stay away. But I have a few suggestions that I'd like to say that might help you trust in me a little bit."

"Like I'd listen to you, jerk." I said as I pulled Gaara back a whole step, I didn't like how the red head was looking at me.

"Since I'm new here, I have to follow a registered nurse, and that's Saiken, if you wouldn't mind me coming in and observing, keeping my hands in your view at all times, I'll never lay a single finger on you." The red head said, and I rose an eyebrow.

"What are you getting at?" I asked.

"What he's saying, Naruto, is that he has to follow Saiken around until he gets the proper training he needs to help. He is on day one and it's a full week before he can officially help someone." Saiken explained. "I swear, if he lays a finger on you, you won't be the only one kicking his ass. But I don't think he will anyway."

I growled as I glared at the two, I honestly wanted him to go as far away from me as possible, but it looked like that was never going to happen. "Fine, whatever, I don't care, but one or two of these three better be in the room when you two get here" and I forced myself to let go of Gaara's shirt and eat my ramen that Sasuke and Itachi went out of their way to get. I didn't want to let their offer go to waste, it's not cheap getting a box order of ramen from Ichiraku.

"Well, I just came to say hello Naruto, we'll be back in a few hours." Saiken said, and I could see her wave as her and the red head left the doorway and I could finally relax once his red eyes were finally off of me.