The front door to Sasuke's house slammed shut with such force that the very walls shook, as he stormed through to his kitchen. Letting out a growl of anger he launched his fists down onto the counter, not caring about any damage he might do to either his hands or his kitchen. He gradually sat down on the breakfast stool behind him, fists still clenched and resting in front of him, tension evident in his muscles. Sasuke attempted to take some deep, calming breaths yet the more he thought about Rinn and Shichiro, the quicker his breathing became. The feelings of rage, betrayal and sadness were growing within him with every second, clawing at his mind and attempting to take over. He forced his eyes shut as the water forming in them threatened to burst forth, determined not to allow the angry, hot tears to flow.

As if he were trying to shut out the world, Sasuke brought his palms up to his face and rested his head on them, hiding his features completely. He sat like this for a minute, thoughts flying around and around his head.

What's going on between the two of them?

Did he try and worm his way in once he knew I'd told her not to visit me?

Is this my fault, for shutting her out?

Does she have... feelings for him?

Has she replaced me?

I wish I'd just gone straight to Rinn's from the hospital. I need to get my priorities right.

…So obsessed with training, with being better than everyone.

Being better than Itachi.

Sasuke bared his teeth as he thought about his brother. About his revenge. He slammed his fists down onto the counter once more, eyes now ablaze with hatred. Sasuke's breathing rate began to increase again, and before he knew what he was doing he was up on his feet and rooting around the back of the cupboard under his sink. He leaned forwards to feel deeper inside the cupboard, reaching behind all the things he had piled up in there to hide one thing.

Sasuke sighed in relief as he felt his fingertips brush against a cold, smooth, curved surface.

A bottle.

Wrapping his fingers around its cool, slender neck he pulled it forwards and out of the cupboard. At breakneck speed, he grabbed a glass from the draining board, crashed it down onto the counter and pulled the cork out of the bottle with his teeth, spitting it out onto the floor. In an instant, the neck of the bottle was resting horizontally on the brim, releasing its intoxicating insides into the glass. Sasuke roughly seized the glass, and lifted it to his mouth, desperate to taste the heavenly liquid...

Yet just before it touched his lips, he paused.

He thought of Rinn, and he slowly lowered his glass until he was holding his drink at the level of his waist. Sasuke felt disappointed in himself for his impulsiveness. He remembered how, when she had first returned to the village, she had caught him drinking excessively as a way to counteract his nightmares, and had told him to come and stay with her instead. Sure enough, whenever he held her close as he slept, he rarely experienced any night terrors. Sasuke also recalled how, a few days later, she had gone through his house with a bin bag, picking up full, half-full and empty liquor bottles and throwing them away, never to be seen again. The one he had under the sink was only there because she hadn't spotted it... She had however, been very firm with him:

"I want to make this very clear to you now, Sasuke. You're welcome in my home any time, and I want you to treat it as your own. Stay with me whenever you like. But if I ever catch even a whiff of alcohol on you again, then don't bother knocking at my door, because I won't have you in my house – let alone my room – if you drink again," she had said.

Sasuke's expression darkened as he thought about this.

Well I won't be welcome tonight anyway, with him being there!

In a split second, the glass was once again at Sasuke's lips.

Again, he paused.

As much as he wanted it – as much as he yearned for it, he yearned for Rinn even more. As upset as he was about the earlier events, he couldn't do it to her. He couldn't do it to himself. It was just liquid in a bottle. It had no power over him. He was stronger than this.

At least that was what he told himself as he placed the glass back down onto the counter with a distasteful "Tsk," escaping his mouth. Leaving the bottle and full glass behind, Sasuke made his way upstairs to bed, preparing himself for a long night.

- X-

Sasuke wasn't the only one who didn't sleep very well that night. Saying her goodbyes to Shichiro an hour or so after Sasuke had stormed out (despite very much enjoying his company), Rinn too had gone up to bed quite early. She had also been tossing and turning all night, her brain going into overdrive.

She couldn't help it. She was worried about Sasuke.

Of course, she was very unimpressed with his behaviour this past week. It was his decision to stop her visiting him in the hospital, and it was also his decision to go straight to Kakashi when he absconded from the hospital, rather than coming to see her first. Of course she was going to turn to her friends for support - to her teammates for support.

Yet...

Rinn had not expected in a million years that she would lean on Shichiro so much, let alone awaken those strange and unexplainable feelings for him. Or end up with him shirtless in her house – however innocent it had been. She thought about how she would feel had it been the other way around, and for her to have come home to find Sakura half-naked in Sasuke's house.

Having said that, she would never have shut Sasuke out in the first place, so he'd have no reason to.

Regardless of how justified she felt she was in her behaviour, or how many times she convinced herself that she was permitted to do whatever she liked in her own house, she couldn't shake off the hurt expression she had seen for that split second on Sasuke's face before he left. To think that she had been the cause of that made her feel terrible.

All night Rinn flipped back and forth between being angry with Sasuke and being worried about him, until at 7am she'd had enough. Knowing Sasuke would probably already be awake, Rinn got out of bed, threw on her long satin dressing gown and slippers, and stomped her way to Sasuke's front door, knocking it loudly. She did have a key, but she was worried after how enraged he had been last night that she ought not to let herself in unannounced.

She was just about to knock again when she heard some fumbling on the other side of the door, along with some cursing. As the door opened with a creak, it revealed a half dressed, exhausted looking Sasuke. He leaned one of his arms on the doorframe to support himself and had huge bags under his bloodshot eyes. Rinn noticed his bare arms bore what appeared to be burn marks, as if his palms and forearms had been singed by something.

Is this because of... Chidori?

The two ninja had yet to utter a word to one another, and the atmosphere was slowly becoming more and more awkward.

"Is there something you need, Rinn?" Sasuke asked gently, pinching the bridge of his nose, rubbing the inner corner of his eyes whilst doing so. He looked absolutely drained.

"I... well... no there isn't anything I need, thanks... I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Rinn replied, unsure of what to say now she was finally face to face with her best friend.

"No, I've been awake for a couple of hours now," he said quietly, one arm still supporting his weight on the upper doorframe. He couldn't look her in the eye, still embarrassed at how much emotion he'd shown last night, and who he had shown it in front of.

Rinn looked up at him sadly, unhappy to see her friend looking so worse for wear.

"Was it the nightmares again?" she asked timidly.

"Something like that..." Sasuke replied, a little more grumpily than he meant to.

To Rinn, it sounded like at the moment she was being a bit of a nuisance to him. She shuffled her weight nervously from foot to foot and fiddled with her fingers. Sasukes eyes followed them as they danced about, but he still could not look up at her.

"I'm sorry... I should go," Rinn said shakily, tearing her eyes away from Sasuke's tired face and turning her body away from him to head next door, back to her own house. Sasuke obviously wasn't in the mood to talk to her at the moment.

Or so she thought.

No sooner had she turned away than she felt a delicate grip on her hand.

"No... Please... don't," Sasuke uttered, now leaning slightly out of his doorway, almost in desperation, as he finally looked her in the eyes. He saw the obvious worry held within them lessen slightly at this act of contact, and she smiled a meek smile at him as she let him lead her inside to the living room of his home. They did not sit down but hovered stiffly somewhere between the kitchen and the sitting area, which was all open plan – Rinn facing the kitchen, Sasuke facing the door. He leisurely leaned back on the dining table, hands gripping onto the edge of it to keep him upright, looking up at Rinn through his bangs. She stood a few feet away from him, both arms hugged around her body – she suddenly felt very self-conscious, and she did not like it one bit. Not around Sasuke. She normally felt so comfortable around him...

"Sasuke, are you OK?" Rinn asked in concern, realising afterwards how stupid she sounded.

He merely nodded in response.

"You look really run-down... Are you sure you should be out of the hospital so soon?"

"You don't look 100% yourself," he retorted quickly.

"I didn't sleep well,"

"Neither did I." He replied, bitterness evident in his tone.

Rinn looked a little hurt by his snappiness, causing Sasuke to look away to the wall and bite his lip. He didn't want to hurt her feelings after all, but he was still in pain himself.

"I'm really sorry about what happened yesterday... Had I known how much it would affect you, I never would've invited Shichiro over," she began.

Sasuke's knuckles turned white as he gripped the table edge at the mention of Shichiro's name. His tension was obvious to Rinn as she watched his bare torso visibly twitch. She paused for a little while, waiting for a response from him. When she got none, she pressed on.

"Sasuke... What is it about Shichiro you don't like? Why is there such a problem between the two of you? Please, I want to understand..."

Sasuke started to look more furious by the second.

"I just want to understand what I did wrong. Please?" She re-iterated, her emotions threatening to get the better of her in her tired and vulnerable state.

Sasuke's eyes noticeably softened at this, and he let out a deep sigh as his grip on the table loosened.

"You didn't do anything wrong Rinn, I just..."

He sighed again, running a lethargic hand through his messy raven hair.

"...I'm just not used to sharing you I guess," he finished.

It was the best answer he could come up with. He couldn't tell her about his (and certainly not Shichiro's) feelings for her. Things could get very messy, and he didn't want to lose her as a friend. Plus, he was too scared to confess the truth to her – not that he'd ever admit that.

"Sharing me...?" Rinn repeated, a little confused.

Sasuke beckoned her forwards so that she was standing closer to him, and took her hands gently in his.

"Ever since we were kids, it's just been the two of us. Apart from those... not so fun years when you were away training, we've been inseparable..." Sasuke continued to stare at their hands, and Rinn could tell that he was having difficulty finding the words to continue – as he often did.

She squeezed his hands with what was intended to be encouragement, but it caused him to flinch in pain. Rinn quickly let go of his hands in surprise, mumbling a genuine 'sorry' and looking at the floor. Sasuke, however, was still focussed on getting across what he wanted to say, the way he wanted to say it, and swiftly picked up her hands once more before he spoke again.

"Walking in to your house, seeing him there, half clothed, and seeing the way you were looking at him..." Sasuke took a deep breath, "I felt so... angry. Angry that he'd almost... Taken my place. That he'd taken you from me." He looked a little dejected as he gently caressed Rinn's knuckles with his rough thumbs.

Rinn knelt down a little so she could peer up at him from under his bangs.

"Sasuke. Nobody could ever replace you," she said, taking one of her hands out of his grasp and placing it onto his cheek. He jumped a little in surprise, but quickly placed his free hand back over hers, holding her palm against his face. Before she could catch her breath, Sasuke had suddenly hooked his thumbs through two of the belt hoops in her trousers and hoisted her to her feet once more. Slowly – almost teasingly – he began to pull her forwards, hips first. With every little tug, Rinn took a small step forwards to maintain her balance, until she collided softly with his bare chest. Looking up at his chiselled features, she noticed a very serious look had overcome him, as if he were deliberating something intensely. Rinn brushed the hair out of his face, causing his eyes to flutter closed in content for a small moment, before he pulled her into a strong and comforting embrace.

Feeling his arms around her once again, Rinn knew that only Sasuke, not Shichiro, could feel like home. He held her tightly, one arm around her waist and hips, the other across her upper back, and he nuzzled his head into her neck, closing his eyes.

Before she could get too settled in the moment however, Rinn spied something she wished she hadn't out of the corner of her eye, now that Sasuke was not stood blocking her view. Loosening her grip on him slightly, she gulped before she carefully spoke.

"S-sasuke?"

He hummed happily in response.

"Where did that alcohol come from?" she asked, her voice already starting to crack.

His eyes shot open.

FUCK.

Sasuke let go of her and stood facing her, grabbing onto her upper arms as if to stop her running away from him.

"Listen... Let me explain! I was going to... But I didn't! I swear I didn't!" He said hastily, shaking her slightly as he spoke, panic and desperation overcoming him.

Rinn looked up at him, her eyes looking watery, yet no tears escaped them. Not yet. But Sasuke could tell that now she was hurting just as much as he was last night. For a split second, some dark part of him told him it served her right, but this disappeared in an instant and he felt even more disgusted in himself with every second that passed.

"Please. You have to believe me! I'm telling you the truth!"

"Regardless of whether I believe if you actually drank it or not, why the hell do you even have alcohol in your house in the FIRST PLACE?" Rinn finally responded, raising her voice slightly. Now it was her turn to feel betrayed.

"Sasuke, we talked about this! We threw out all your bottles – where did this one even come from? Did you go out and buy more?!" she continued, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

"No! No, I haven't bought more! This bottle was left over from last time, I promise!" He insisted fiercely, reaching for her chin as she averted her gaze from him in disgust.

"Rinn?! Look at me! It's the truth!"

"I can't right now. Why the hell did you keep it?! No matter how you dress it up Sasuke, you had a drinking problem. There's no two ways about it. You shouldn't put yourself near any temptation!"

"It was for emergencies..." he said, more to himself than Rinn, who glared ferociously at this comment.

"Emergencies huh? What sort of emergencies Sasuke?" Her voice was low now – dangerous.

"I don't know! It sounds stupid now... But last night I was angry and upset, OK?! I thought the only thing that would help me was in that bottle! I barely slept in that hospital without having you there, and last night, after what happened... I knew I couldn't come back and stay with you to get through the nightmares so, I didn't know what else to do!"

"So it's my fault? You know, you're all the same! Always somebody else to blame for your addiction!"

"HEY! I'm not an addict!" Sasuke yelled viciously, forcefully letting go of Rinn's arms at last, causing her a little discomfort.

"...aren't you?"

"NO! I'll admit, I kept that bottle. I even poured myself a drink out into that glass – that very same glass which is still full – and brought it close enough to my mouth to drink it. But I'm telling you now I did not drink it. Do you really think I'd look so tired this morning if I'd had a drink?! I'd have passed out cold if I'd had it – but I didn't!"

Rinn looked at him sceptically. Sasuke hadn't lied to her much in the past, but she could always tell when he was being untruthful. Today, she was unsure, but she thought he might be telling the truth – as unbelievable and suspicious as his excuses sounded.

"Jesus Rinn, what do I have to do to convince you?!" Sasuke said with exasperation, walking over to the sink, leaning forward onto the counter and sighing loudly as he looked out of the window. Suddenly, he was overcome with irritation.

"Look!" He said loudly, roughly grabbing hold of the bottle and glass still sitting on the counter. Rinn sharply inhaled as she began to worry he might drink it.

But she needn't have worried.

In an almost frenzied manner, Sasuke threw the contents out of the glass and into the sink with a swift flick of his wrist. Then, he tipped the bottle upside down, causing it to empty it insides down the plughole with several rhythmic glugs.

"I don't want it! I don't need it," Sasuke said, once the last drop had drained away.

Rinn, now fully convinced of his honesty, made her way over to him, and wrapped her arms around his waist. His tense body relaxed almost instantly at this, and placed the empty bottle down onto the counter, sliding it away from him to enable his arms to wrap around Rinn in return.

"Thank you," she peeped quietly, "For being strong."

Sasuke knew at once what she was referring to. The fact that he had managed to resist drinking last night.

"Hey, anything for you. You are my best friend after all."

"Anything?" she enquired sheepishly.

"Almost anything..." he replied with a chuckle.