Rinn stayed glued to Sasuke's side as Guy carried him back to the village. She hadn't been this close to losing him for a long time, and she was feeling giddy with worry. Being an excellent medical ninja herself, she knew that the body was much easier to heal than the mind. She was angry that she did not have the skills to heal Sasuke herself and felt like a failure. Seeing him in this vulnerable state made Rinn want to cry, and she was terrified that there would not be an easy cure.

Watching her catatonic friend like a hawk, she suddenly jumped in front of Guy, stopping him in his tracks.

"What is it, Firinne? We need to get Sasuke back as soon as…"

"His arm," she interrupted, eyes glossed over as they threatened to water.

Guy looked at her in confusion.

"His arm is broken," she stated, Guy now noticing the colour of her eyes had desaturated to a cold white.

So this is the jutsu we got a glimpse of at the chunin exams…

"Hey, what's up?" Tastuo called as he and Shichiro caught up to them, Shichiro's eyes darting straight to Rinn. She was starting to look a little worse for wear.

"Sasuke's broken his arm," she said for the third time, now activating her healing chakra and stepping towards Sasuke's injured limb.

Guy took a step away.

"Now Firinne, I appreciate your compassion for your comrade but we need to get back –"

"PLEASE!" she exclaimed a little louder than she meant to, bursting into tears.

Shichiro rushed over to her, placing a supportive arm around her shoulders as her legs threatened to buckle from underneath her.

"Please… Please let me do something…" Rinn begged again, looking at Guy pleadingly.

Shichiro's heart broke for her as he tried to steady her on her feet.

She must feel so helpless right now.

Shichiro shot a sharp glare at Guy, ushering Rinn closer to Sasuke, daring him to take another step away. However, Guy was moved by Rinn's display of emotion, and stayed perfectly still. He bent down slightly, allowing Rinn to access her friend more easily as he continued to support Sasuke's weight on his back.

"Sasuke Uchiha is lucky to have you as a friend," Guy said, smiling comfortingly at Rinn as she worked as quickly as possible. Gently holding Sasuke's arm straight with one hand, she healed with her other, palms glowing with a green hue.

In no more than a minute or two, she was finished, and her hands stopped emitting chakra. Yet she still held onto his arm, unable to bring herself to let go.

"Ok Rinn, you can let go now," Shichiro said softly, as Rinn stared off into space. He ever so gently took her hands away from Sasuke's arm with his free hand, one at a time. Still holding her up with his other arm he pulled her closer to him, now wrapping both of his arms around her as she started to weep again.

"Shh… Shh… Sasuke's going to be OK. Please don't worry," he whispered soothingly, unsure of what he could say to comfort her. He was sure that she was thinking the worst, and to be honest so was he. Shichiro had seen what Itachi's jutsu had done to Kakashi – a jonin – so who knows what it had done to Sasuke.

Guy coughed awkwardly, signalling to them that it was time to resume their journey. Kindly waiting for Rinn to find her feet again, he waited for a confirmatory nod from her before they took off once again. As Rinn resumed her position at the front of the group with Guy and Sasuke, Shichiro dropped behind to travel alongside Tatsuo, giving him a worried look.

"I don't like where this is going, Tatsuo," he said, frowning.

"Are you serious?! You're getting jealous again now?" Tatsuo replied, starting to get hacked off.

Shichiro shot him an angry glare in response.

"Don't be ridiculous. I mean I don't like where this is going for Sasuke. He's been hit with a very powerful technique, and his mind is broken," he clarified, causing Tatsuo to feel a little embarrassed that he'd jumped to conclusions. Again.

"Oh sorry dude… But he will be OK when we get him to the hospital won't he? The medical corps will fix him up?"

"I don't think it will be that easy."

"What do you mean?"

"Healing the mind isn't the same as healing the body. Rinn knows that better than anyone. I think that's why she's taking it so hard."

"But she's one of the best medical ninja in the village? The medical corps even said so during the chunin exams, remember?"

Shichiro looked at Tatsuo and exhaled in exasperation. He could be so utterly dense…

"Tatsuo, that's exactly why she's so upset. She feels that she should be able to fix him, but she doesn't know how. I think this is probably the first time she's not been able to heal him," he explained, as simply as he could.

"Oh… I get it now. Poor Rinn," Tatsuo said, hanging his head slightly.

"We are going to need to support her as much as we can with this. I think Sasuke will be in this condition for a while," Shichiro mused, still concerned for his teammate.

"Yeah… 100%" Tatsuo responded in acknowledgement. As they picked up the pace to catch up with the others, there was a look of determination on the two boys' faces.

- X -

Rinn watched helplessly as Guy placed Sasuke down onto the hospital bed, medical staff rushing in to clean him up and help the young ninja to the best of their abilities. As she zoned out, focusing on his vulnerable form, she didn't realise that one of the nurses was trying to get her attention.

"I'm sorry, Rinn isn't it?" she said, recognising Rinn's bright orange hair from the medical help she had offered during the chunin exams.

Rinn nodded in response, her puffy eyes still glued to Sasuke.

"We just need you to wait outside please, whilst we make your friend more comfortable," the nurse continued, sympathy evident in her eyes.

Rinn, now making eye contact with the nurse, nodded again, before slowly making her way to the door.

"Your friends are waiting for you," she said as Rinn reached the door, trying to offer some comfort. She then drew the curtains around Sasuke's bed as they began their work.

Letting out a sigh of sadness, Rinn left the room, closing the door behind her. In the hospital corridor, Shichiro and Tatsuo were waiting for her, concern evident on their faces. Neither of them knowing what to say, they stood in an awkward silence for a moment as Rinn stared at the floor.

"Let's get you a nice hot tea from the canteen," Shichiro finally said, his brows furrowing as he studied her vacant expression.

Tatsuo shot him a look as Rinn continued to stay silent.

"Come on, I'll take you," Shichiro pressed, placing an arm around her waist and ushering her forward.

With Tatsuo following behind, they made their way through several bleak looking corridors, eventually coming to a large hall where food and drink was being served. Pulling a chair out for Rinn and encouraging her to sit, Shichiro decided they could all do with some refreshments.

"So… tea for Rinn, what can I get you Tatsuo?" he asked, as Tatsuo started to check his pockets for some stray coins.

"It's on me," he clarified, earning a grateful smile from his teammate.

"A coffee please my good friend! Thanks!" Tatsuo said appreciatively. Shichiro nodded and went to wait in the queue.

"Hey, Rinn," Tatsuo said gently, "Sasuke's going to be OK you know."

Rinn looked up, her gaze meeting Tatsuo's caring chocolate eyes, clearly not convinced.

"He'll wake up, you'll see," he continued encouragingly, patting her hand.

"You think?" she replied, this reassurance from her friend suddenly snapping her out of her daze.

"Yeah, Sasuke's a tough cookie!" he answered, as Rinn looked at him hopefully.

"I hope you're right…" she trailed off, looking slightly downcast once more.

"Is there something else Rinn?" Tatsuo asked. He was excellent at reading people and could tell that there was something else bothering her.

Rinn bit her lip and stiffened slightly, looking rather reluctant.

"Is it about the fight you had with Sasuke yesterday?" he enquired knowingly.

Rinn nodded.

"You know, you shouldn't feel bad. It sounded like he was acting like a right dickh-"

"Tatsuo, I basically told him I didn't think Itachi was a bad person!" Rinn interrupted, her eyes starting to water again.

"And now look what's happened!" she continued, "Itachi has absolutely destroyed him, and if he never wakes up, his last memory of me will be… will be…"

Unable to finish her sentence, Tatsuo scooted his chair closer and wrapped his arms around her. This act of kindness only made Rinn's emotions skyrocket, and she sobbed into his chest for what felt like the thousandth time that day.

"Who knew there could be so much water inside one person, eh?" Tatsuo commented, trying to cheer her up.

Rinn let out a tiny giggle through her intermittent sniffles, letting go of him to poke him on the shoulder.

"Tatsuo. How many times? The human body is at least 60% water," she scolded, with a small smile.

Tatsuo grinned back at her with a goofy look on his face.

"Yeah yeah, you know what my memory is like," he said in defence, laughing.

At that moment, Shichiro approached the table with their hot beverages. He took one look at Rinn before scowling angrily at Tatsuo.

"What did you do?" he asked Tatsuo accusingly.

"Eh?"

"Honestly! I leave you for two minutes, and you've already managed to upset her!"

"No - he didn't," Rinn interjected, "He's actually been really sweet."

Shichiro sighed, grabbing the bridge of his nose in irritation.

"Fine, whatever you say. Let's have our drinks and then we can check in on Sasuke," he said, placing the tray down in the centre of the table and pulling out the empty chair, sitting down with his teammates.

- X -

Rinn's feet stopped moving as they reached the door to Sasuke's hospital room. She felt so anxious that she couldn't take another step. She didn't know if she was ready to fully face the condition he was likely to be in for the foreseeable future.

"You can do this," Shichiro encouraged.

"Yeah! We'll be right here the whole time!" Tatsuo chimed in, gesturing to her to turn the handle and go into the room.

Taking a deep breath, Rinn grabbed the handle and yanked it down, the metallic clunk of the latch seemingly echoing down the entire corridor. As she stepped through the doorway, her eyes fell onto Sasuke and she immediately forgot herself and rushed to him, kneeling down beside his bed and taking his hand in hers. Now all cleaned up, to most it would just look like Sasuke was just sleeping, but Rinn knew better. It was barely there, but she could still see pain in his features. In what felt like a fruitless attempt at bringing her friend comfort, Rinn gently brushed his bangs out of his face, continuing to soothingly caress his hair.

The nurse tending to him stood at the foot of the bed, clutching her clipboard and smiling at Rinn as she watched this unencumbered display of affection. Tatsuo and Shichiro had also made their way in, standing close to the nurse. After realising that Rinn probably currently lacked the capacity to ask the relevant questions at this point, Shichiro took it upon himself to do so on her behalf.

"How is Sasuke doing?" he asked the nurse, who placed her clipboard down into the tray at the foot of the bed, turning to face him.

"Physically, he's doing great. His observations are looking good, and he has no further injuries that we need to be worried about," she began.

Rinn listened from Sasuke's bedside, knowing what was about to come next.

"Mentally, however, we don't seem to be having much luck. For all intents and purposes, Sasuke should be able to easily get up and walk out of here, but he remains unconscious. The medical corps came to have a look at him, and have confirmed that he, like Kakashi, has suffered intensive psychological damage at the hands of Itachi's genjutsu. We simply don't have a medical ninja in this village who is capable of healing these kinds of ailments," she continued to explain.

Both the boys' eyes shot down to Rinn, expecting some sort of reaction.

"The village has a medical library, right?" she asked, still watching Sasuke intently.

"Yes, we do, but those texts are much too advanced, even for someone with your talents Firinne," the nurse responded sympathetically.

"There's no harm in just reading them though, is there?" she replied indignantly.

"Rinn…" Shichiro began, unsure of where this path would lead her.

"Look, I'm not going to do anything. It's too risky – if I get it wrong, I could make things a million times worse. I'm just sick of being in the dark about these things. I need to push myself to become more skilled in illnesses of the mind, even if it is just the theory…"

Shichiro understood. This was Rinn's way of 'doing something'. Although she wasn't stupid enough to try anything new she learned on Sasuke (he hoped), at least she wouldn't just be sitting there helplessly.

"Thank you for the update, nurse. When are visiting hours?" he asked, knowing Rinn would probably regret not remembering to ask that once they left.

"You're all very welcome. You may visit between 1pm and 8pm, just make sure you check in with reception when you arrive, so we know who is here. Aside from today, there should only be two visitors at any one time please," she said, moving towards Rinn and crouching a little to reach her level.

"We will take excellent care of him Rinn, I promise you," she said, gently squeezing her upper arm in reassurance.

Finally taking her eyes off Sasuke for a moment, Rinn turned to smile at the nurse.

"Thank you."

- X -

Over the next few days, Rinn visited Sasuke like clockwork. She would spend the mornings either training or reading medical texts in the library, then arrive the hospital 1pm on the dot. She would stay with Sasuke until 2:30, then train again until she returned at 7pm. Not feeling right eating without him, she would always bring her dinner with her inside a small pot, telling Sasuke about her day whilst she ate. Although he remained unconscious throughout, she was sure he could hear her, however crazy that sounded. On occasion she could even get a response from him when she held his hand, his fingers twitching subconsciously - particularly whenever Rinn told him she had to head off!

Now was one such moment.

"As if I need to feel any guiltier about leaving you here, Mr Uchiha," she said, a slight playfulness in her eyes as she sighed.

Rinn stood up from her chair which was placed at Sasuke's bedside, taking care not to yet let go of his hand.

"I have to go home now Snapdragon – it's already gone 8. I'm surprised they haven't been in yet to hurry me along!" she joked. As she began to loosen her grip on Sasuke's hand his fingertips twitched as if trying to close his hand around hers once again, yet it was as though he didn't have the strength to hold a proper grip.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she said, brushing his hair from his forehead and planting a quick peck right in the middle of it, eyeing the fresh white flower on his bedside table as she made her way to the door. She took one last glance at her friend as she shut the door tightly.

Sakura was the one leaving the pretty blooms for Sasuke – she visited when Rinn wasn't there. Rinn was grateful that someone else could watch over Sasuke in her absence, much to her teammate's confusion. Tatsuo had seen this as a prime opportunity to tease Rinn, expecting her to be jealous of Sakura's affections towards Sasuke, yet he was sadly mistaken. In fact, Rinn had actually asked Sakura if she would like to visit Sasuke together, but she politely declined. Even Sakura could see the bond that Sasuke and Rinn had, and she wanted to respect their privacy.

As Rinn reached the exit of the hospital she grimaced at the dark blustery environment outside. It was already starting to rain, and she wrinkled her nose up at the prospect of arriving home soggy and cold. Cussing under her breath, she removed her jacket and held it over her head, stepping outside. She was just about to take off into the night when she spotted two hooded figures standing against the outer wall of the hospital, huddled under a large umbrella.

"RINN!" one of them yelled, waving.

She walked towards them, soon realising these damp looking individuals were actually her teammates in their raincoats.

"Hey guys, what's up?" she asked, peering at them from under her jacket, which she was still holding over her body as a makeshift umbrella.

"Get under here idiot!" Shichiro said, grabbing her wrist and dragging her underneath the umbrella where it was much drier.

"As you came straight from training, we thought we'd come and meet you," Tatsuo explained, "We knew you wouldn't have anything with you to wear in the rain, so we brought an umbrella for you too!"

"And a coat," Shichiro finished, pulling a waterproof from a deep pocket in his cloak.

"Aw guys…" Rinn gushed, carefully putting on the coat within the small confines of the umbrella's shelter.

"You didn't have to come all the way here in the rain," she said.

"Well, you spend so much time looking out for Sasuke, so someone needs to look out for you too, right?" Tatsuo replied, grinning.

"Thank you," she said gratefully, thankful that she had such caring comrades.

"Come on, we'll walk you home," Shichiro said, ushering her down the pathway to exit the hospital grounds.

As they walked, they talked mostly about their training. Shichiro had been working on further perfecting his sensory techniques, especially his range. Tatsuo, already incredibly skilled with fire jutsu as an offensive technique, was now testing it defensively. Unfortunately, being the hot-headed ninja he was, he didn't really use his brain as much as he should and would often burn himself. Luckily, Rinn was usually nearby to help heal his wounds, and they were now becoming more infrequent the more skilled he became. After somehow managing to combine her offensive and defensive techniques against Itachi, Rinn's task was to try and replicate this. Not only that, but she had also managed to fire a projectile attack at him with her red chakra. Normally, she would have to make physical contact with an opponent to inflict damage with this technique but being able to hit the target from afar would make her all the more dangerous. Rinn was trying her best to recreate what she had done when confronting Itachi, yet she just couldn't seem to get her body to comply. The most she could manage was to throw up her forcefield and activate her red chakra inside it – admittedly this was already an improvement on her previous capabilities, but it still wasn't enough for Rinn. On top of that, she was reading as many medical texts as her brain could possibly digest, still not any closer to finding a way to heal Sasuke.

Rinn let out an irritated sigh as she walked with her teammates.

Now I know how Sasuke was feeling. I'm not getting anywhere. With my medical jutsu or my combat techniques.

She sighed again.

"Hey, we'll have less of that please missy!" Tatsuo said, shoving her playfully.

"Sorry… I'm just feeling so frustrated at the moment…" she replied.

Tatsuo stopped in his tracks and feigned shock.

"Wow, I never thought you and Sasuke had that kind of relationship Rinn!" he said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Rinn stared at him blankly as Shichiro also came to a halt, rolling his eyes as if he were dealing with a small child.

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently, not understanding what he was getting at.

"Well, unconscious Sasuke means no hanky panky – no wonder you're so… frustrated," Tatsuo said, thoroughly enjoying watching Rinn's face turn bright red when realisation dawned on her.

"You cheeky little shit!" she said, laughing slightly, swiping at his head with her fist.

Tatsuo quickly ducked, missing her punch, and ducked under her arm, running off ahead giggling with glee.

"Right, that's it!" she said to nobody in particular, tearing off after him with a grin on her face.

Shichiro stood there in disbelief, blinking. He sighed deeply as he grabbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

"Why me?" he mumbled to himself, as he too headed after them into the night.

- X -

The next morning, Rinn felt a little more upbeat than usual. She had been touched by the subtle kindness of her friends and realised that she had a lot to be thankful for. Sasuke, although unconscious, was doing really well. Her abilities were coming along nicely and even though she couldn't exactly replicate the attack she unleashed at Itachi, she knew she wasn't far off. She had gotten through countless medical books, and although she had not yet found anything she could use to help Sasuke, she knew it wasn't time wasted and would likely come in useful one day. Overall, she felt like today was going to be a positive day.

After dropping her home last night, her teammates had very chivalrously agreed to walk with her to the training grounds for their morning session. As per usual, they arrived at 08:30 on the dot.

Typical Shichiro.

Rinn locked the house as she left, smiling to herself as she pictured Sasuke reminding her how important it is for her 'safety' to keep the door locked at all times. As the sun shone through the trees, casting pretty patterns in the shadows on the path, the three ninja made their way to the training grounds, ready for a hard day's work.

Imagine their surprise as they arrived there to find their sensei, Toru, already there waiting for them. He was perched lazily on a rock, eating an apple. Shichiro looked at him with a confused glance as he placed Rinn's bag (which contained the packed lunches she had made) carefully onto the grassy floor.

"Unusual to see you here at this time of day, Toru-sensei," Shichiro said, as his teammates exchanged nervous glances.

Their sensei was caring and hardworking, but he would always let them get on with their training uninterrupted unless they needed help.

"You're being sent on a mission," he replied, in a tone that was a little sterner than usual.

The three ninja looked at each other excitedly. They hadn't had any proper action since the chunin exams.

"It's reconnaissance," Toru stated, still looking a rather uncomfortable.

Rinn and Tatsuo rolled their eyes in disappointment, whilst Shichiro narrowed his suspiciously.

Why is Toru acting so strangely? A simple reconnaissance mission is nothing to worry about…

"Where?" Shichiro asked, desperate to get to the bottom of it. Something was fishy.

"You're being sent to gather intel about Orochimaru."