Author's Note: Hey all! I am so sorry for the longer wait for the update. This weekend has been super busy (but fun!) and I hope you'll all forgive me for not putting up chapter 16 sooner. This one's kind of like a roller-caoster back and forth ride; you'll see what I mean soon. Either way, enjoy, and don't forget to review! ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Kakashi awoke the next morning to the sound of nurses' hushed murmurs and the smell of bleach. Even though he was dizzy, it did not take him long to establish that he was in the hospital. He couldn't figure out why though; hadn't he only taken Benjiro here? Kakashi tried to remember, but found that all his recollections about what he could only assume had been the previous day were very blurry and fragmented.

Slowly, Kakashi opened his eyes and surveyed his surroundings. Indeed he was in the hospital; the sterile white walls and beeping of hospital machinery confirmed his original ideas. A middle-aged nurse stood above his bed, smiling at him warmly. "Good morning Hatake-san. Glad to see you're awake."

Kakashi nodded and asked, "Why am I here?"

"You don't remember what happened?" The nurse's smile turned to a frown at the lack of memory on Kakashi's behalf. "Well, of course not. You were unconscious."

Unconscious? Kakashi wondered mentally. Now he was even more confused than before; he certainly did not remember being unconscious.

"One of our medics found you and brought you in," the nurse told him. "Although you had sustained only a few moderate injuries, you had a bit of a cardiac arrest when you went into anaphylactic shock."

Cardiac arrest? Anaphylactic shock? That was definitely something he didn't remember. How could he have gone into anaphylactic shock? He wasn't allergic to anything…was he?

"Why did I go into anaphylactic shock? What am I allergic to?" Kakashi inquired to the nurse.

"That's what I'm trying to find out right now, if you would just hold still please."

Kakashi did as he was told and held still, his eyes the only part of his body that was moving. The nurse had with her a kit containing a few prickly metal sticks and vials with different coloured liquids. She would take one of the metal sticks, dip it into a vial, and then prick his arm with it. She would then look at how large of a red mark it left on his skin, and write a few things down in Kakashi's medical chart.

Once the woman was finished, and Kakashi felt his skin itch and sting, the investigation as to what allergen affected him was concluded and the results were given. "Hatake-san," the nurse began, "have you eaten any anpan in the last couple of days?"

Kakashi racked his brain for an answer, trying to remember just what he had eaten in the past couple of days. It was difficult, for the days just seemed to blur by him, mixing into one large mess filled with blood and gore and death, but at last he was able to remember that he had indeed eaten anpan in the previous days. "Yes, they gave us some back at base camp."

"Alright. Do not eat it anymore; the sweet beans inside of it are what caused you to go into anaphylactic shock. You're severely allergic."

Kakashi gave a nod to show that he understood, to which the nurse bowed and quitted the room. Before she left, the woman stuck her head back in the doorway and told him, "Your friend should be by shortly. She just went to get changed."

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At the same time Kakashi was having his test, Rin was back at the apartment getting changed. A furious expression – as furious as Rin ever got – was on her face and her fury was shown in the way she angrily fought with the drawer to release her articles of clothing, in the way she slammed the microwave door after putting in a cup of coffee, and in the way she nearly broke the key in the lock when she left the house. Originally she had been quite worried and fearful for her friend's life, but the worry and fear had been replaced with anger. She knew that he would do something stupid like this! Granted, the allergy response was not his fault, but he had still gotten himself overly fatigued and overworked.

She power walked through the streets of Konoha, eager to get to the hospital and berate him for being so irresponsible. As she arrived at the hospital, she smiled politely at the nurses she passed by and greeted several of her patients on the way. Opening the door to Kakashi's room and entering it, however, her face reverted back to its angry features.

"Hi," Kakashi greeted her almost sheepishly.

Rin nodded to show that she acknowledged his greeting and moved to stand diagonally across from his bed. "Don't you ever, ever, ever do that again!" She scolded him sternly.

He rolled his eyes and retorted childishly, "Sorry for having an allergic reaction."

"You know that's not what I'm talking about! You're overworking your body. Don't you understand that what you're doing is unhealthy and can result in death?! You cannot do the same things you did before, because now you have the Sharingan. It depletes your chakra faster than usual, Kakashi. Just think before you decide to use it so much again!" After finishing her rant, Rin sighed heavily and took a seat in the chair near his bed.

"So how are you feeling?" She asked more softly.

"I've been better," he admitted.

"At least you're stable now. You gave us all such a heart attack last night; pardon the pun. We were so worried that you weren't going to make it."

We? Oh shit. "You were there?" Kakashi asked her, feeling mildly horrified. He hoped that her answer was no; that she had not been witness to his hospitalization and anaphylactic shock.

"Yeah, of course I was. I was the one who found you. And I don't blame you for the anaphylactic shock bit, but please, don't strain yourself anymore. It made it extremely difficult for the nurses to heal you and stabilize your condition."

"Sorry."

"It's ok. Just don't do it again."

An uncomfortable silence swept over the pair and tension remained thick in the air until Kakashi attempted to break it by inquiring about his partner. "Is Benjiro ok?"

"Who?"

"Benjiro. The other ANBU that was brought in yesterday."

"Oh, him. From what I've heard he's doing fine, but I'll be going to check up on him in a little while."

"Good. So…" Kakashi hesitated, unsure of whether or not he should ask his question. On the one hand, he really needed to know the answer, but on the other, it could send Rin back into a state of being upset. He shrugged the latter idea out of his mind and decided to ask. "When will I be released from the hospital?"

"Well, the nurse who was doing your check-up tells me that you're close to healing, so you should be released either today or tomorrow." As if picking up on his discomfiture, Rin tacked on suspiciously, "Why?"

"I-I wanted to know when I could leave to go back to the border."

"Excuse me?" Rin asked him incredulously, her eyes wide. Go back to the border? He had just had a cardiac arrest the other night! Was he trying to get himself killed? "Go back to the border? Are you crazy or just plain stupid?"

"Neither," he responded through gritted teeth.

"Your week is almost up anyway! They don't need you to go back."

"I need to go back, Rin," Kakashi insisted. "I need to go fight and prove that I am worthy-"

"Prove that you are worthy? If you weren't worthy, they wouldn't have let you in ANBU!"

"I need to prove that Obito's gift is powerful and that it can be used. I need to prove to them how strong Obito could have been."

When he finished his statement, Rin looked about ready to blow her top. "Of course, this has to do with Obito! Kakashi, I know you feel guilty, but putting your life in danger to satisfy your ego is not going to help the guilt! Didn't you promise that you were only going into ANBU for yourself? That it had nothing to do with Obito?"

"And you believed me?"

"Yes, of course I did! I trusted you; you had no reason to lie to me! Obviously," she commented, standing up, "that was a mistake. And you know what else? What you're trying to prove is impossible, it is never going to work and you'll never be satisfied. When the ANBU recruited you, they did it for your abilities, not Obito's. When they look at the Sharingan inside of you, they still see Hatake Kakashi, not Uchiha Obito. None of them think of what a great shinobi Obito could have been; they only think of how great a shinobi Hatake Kakashi is. They don't see him when they look at you; they only see you! They don't give a damn about him and what could have been! They only care about you and how useful you are to them!"

"I can make them see, though."

"No Kakashi, you can't. No matter how much you want to, you can't."

"So what? Have you forgotten about him too? Do you only see Hatake Kakashi when you look at me?"

"Of course I haven't forgotten about him; don't you dare ever imply that. He is my friend and I love him as such. I will never forget about him. In fact, it seems that I am honouring his memory more than you care to."

Now it had escalated into a verbal battle and pointing fingers. There were some things that Kakashi seemed to be too blind to see, and Rin, being fed up with all this, had taken to harsher methods to open his eyes.

"Honouring his memory? I do honour his memory, by going out and fighting and utilizing the gift he gave me."

"He gave you two gifts that day," Rin reminded him, and explained the concept once she saw the confused look on his face, "one of which is more important than the other! He gave you the eye, and your life! It's about time you started appreciating the second gift."

This shut Kakashi up. Of course Rin was right with what she had said, but Kakashi's mind had been so one-track that he'd never really noticed the second gift until she pointed it out. Although the realization made him feel slightly more guilty – for going out on high risk missions was like gambling your life – Kakashi still did not see how he was dishonouring the second gift. He was simply making the most of his life.

"I don't see how wanting to fight is dishonouring his gift. I am a shinobi, I fight. It's how I make a living, Rin."

"I know it is, but it's almost like you're throwing your life away with ANBU. The missions are so high rank, and your Sharingan can be used for only so little time before you have to cover it back up, leaving you with a dangerous blind spot; it's like every mission you go on is a suicide one! I don't want you to go out on a mission and have them bring you home in a matchbox or worse, not bring you home at all!"

"Rin, I think you're blowing this whole thing out of proportion. I know how to fight and I know how to keep myself alive."

"Maybe so, but you're not going back out there today or tomorrow. You can go for your next shift, but since your one-week is almost up now, and you're in the hospital, I'd strongly suggest that you just stay at home. I'll have the head of the hospital write you a notice to take back to the border next time you go. Or if you find that the stress is too much, you can always resign."

"Rin! I'm not going to resign. Life doesn't work that way; you can't just run away like a coward every time something is hard or you have a problem."

"If it's going to kill you, then you should run away."

"If people need you, if people are counting on you, then you shouldn't run away, no matter how hard something is. You shouldn't give up. That's why I won't die, because I refuse to give up."

Unbeknownst to Kakashi, his words had struck a chord in Rin. Wasn't that what she was doing? Running away from her problems? Wasn't that why she had moved in with him in the first place?

"What if you're scared?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"It doesn't make a difference," Kakashi said, shaking his head. "If you want to help someone, you've got to go through scary things, overcome obstacles."

"And what if you care about them so much that you're afraid of damaging them further through help?"

"It still doesn't matter. If you care about someone you will want to help them and you'll put in enough effort that you will end up doing them more good than harm."

Rin chuckled lightly. The situation was so ironic. She was – unknowing to Kakashi – getting lectured on the moral righteousness of helping people and overcoming obstacles – a subject she definitely felt she needed to be enlightened in. Months ago, it had been her and Team Seven that were trying to increase his morals.

Meanwhile, Kakashi had used his gained intuitiveness to discover that Rin was talking about a topic entirely separate to ANBU or anything she had been yelling at him about. The subject she was referring to was probably more private, and while Kakashi did not feel it his place to pry, he tried to offer some inconspicuous, general support. Perhaps it would help her deal with whatever she was facing. Whoever was up in heaven only knew that she had helped him so much in the past few months. It was about time he had a chance to do the same for her.

"It's ok for someone to be scared. That person only needs to put their fear aside in order to help. Everyday there are people appointed as healers. The real healers though are those who heal peoples' emotional wounds, because emotional wounds are a lot harder to heal than the physical ones."

Rin looked on at him in a mixture of discomfiture and awe. She always had her suspicions that he was mature, but ever since she'd been living with him, she had been granted access to seeing just how mature and deep he was capable of being. Even though for most it would have been something normal, concern or words of advice or whatever he was expressing right now, was very sweet – in Rin's opinion.

"Yeah…" she agreed and for the first time felt unworthy of her title. She had been able to heal only very minor emotional wounds in those she cared about, and it did not bring her any satisfaction – she knew that there were far too many more large, gaping holes through their hearts and raw, ugly scars crossing their bodies in a fresh memory of their pain.

"So," Kakashi spoke after a period of time, "when will I be released again?"

"Today or tomorrow, and whichever day it may be, you'd better head straight home after they release you."

"I thought we went over this already," he sighed heavily, rolling his eyes at her for the second time today, "I have to go back and fight."

"Well then you're not going to be released for a couple of weeks."

"It's not in your authority to keep me here. I can have any ANBU at headquarters release me."

"Why are you trying so eager to get back to the border? You know that you only have about another couple of weeks before they transfer you to the frontlines."

"They won't transfer me; they know how I am with the Sharingan and they know that they need to keep me at the border."

Rin gave a snort of disbelief. "Yeah, because I'm sure that ANBU is real accommodating to all its members' needs."

"They're not as bad as you think they are. They're just people too."

"I know, I know, but I still think that you should just stay at home."

"It does not matter what you think; I'm going to go to the border regardless."

"Well, I have an issue with that and your attitude towards this whole border thing. If you don't promise to stay here, I cannot release you." She saw his mouth open to protest, and she continued on, not letting him get a word in. "And if an ANBU comes to release you, then I will have you transferred to the psych ward for mental deficiencies and explain to them that you are not competent enough to stand fighting."

"How about if I promise not to overwork myself?"

"It will not work. I won't accept any such promise."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't trust you to keep it. You've lied to me at least once; who's to say that you're not just going to lie again to get your way?"

"Rin, come on! I'm a – I can't just waste away in this hospital bed! There are people over there fighting for their lives and our lives and no one is there to help them! I need to go to the border! Either release me, or I'll release myself!"

"Kakashi, if you release yourself, I really will have you admitted to the psych ward."

"Go ahead. Go ahead and ruin everything I've worked so hard to get. Go on. Do it if it makes you feel better." He said harshly, works dripping like acid off his tongue.

"Ruin?! Ruin?! You think I want to destroy your dreams?!" Rin repeated incredulously to him, tears springing up at the corner of her eyes. "How dare you?! You know I want you to be happy! You know I want everything to work out for you, Kakashi! But I also want you to be alive! I just – I can't – I can't believe you. I just can't believe you think I want to ruin everything for you. You know what Kakashi – just – I'll hand over your case files to the nurse who came in to test you, and she'll assess whether or not you're fit to be released. You think I'd keep you here just to ruin your life? Fine. I'm officially not handling your cases anymore."

"I – you know I didn't mean –" Kakashi made a move to retract his previous sentence, but when he looked up, the door was shut and the room was empty. Sighing heavily, he fell back on his pillows.

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"How are you feeling Benjiro-san?" Rin asked, sliding open the door to his room.

"Fine," he replied, grinning. "I didn't know angels worked at the hospital."

Rin blushed lightly at his compliments, her cheeks tinged pink. She let out a cough to clear her throat and then introduced herself. "I'm not an angel," she grinned back nervously, "I'm Rin. I'm a nurse here."

Rin…Rin…Rin…where had he heard that name before? …Of course! With Kakashi!

"Hey Kakashi."

"Yeah?"

"Tell me more about this female friend of yours."

"There's not much to tell. She's kind, she's female, and she's my friend. That's about all."

"I'm sure she's not half as bland as you make her out to be. What's her name at least?"

"Rin."

"That's a pretty name."

"Oh, so you're Rin. Well, Kakashi sure did a crap job of describing you. You're much prettier and way more interesting than he cared to describe.

"Kakashi told you about me? Wait a minute, who are you?"

"I'm Kane Benjiro, pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm Kakashi's partner at the border this week. Yeah, he told me all about you. So where is he? I kind of need to leave soon."

"Well, he's just in the room across the hall."

"Wait, so that was him you were arguing with?"

"What do you mean?"

"I heard you guys from all the way out here! Damn, that sounded pretty intense. Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, sure. Everything's fine," Rin fibbed.

"So then why were you shouting at each other?"

"It was nothing."

"I get it, you don't want to tell me. True, it's not my business to pry into your personal matters, especially since I just met you, but it sounded like you were arguing about ANBU. By the way, what's Kakashi doing in the hospital?"

"He overworked himself, again. And to put the icing on top of the cake, he went into cardiac arrest last night from an allergic reaction."

"I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing, there's nothing you could have done."

"No, that's the thing; I was probably the cause of the exhaustion. I got really badly injured in our battle with an Earth Nin, and Kakashi had to protect me all the way back to Konoha. I tried to get him to leave me there – I really did, but he insisted on bringing me back alive. He said that he wouldn't leave me to die, that I still had important people to live for. He quite literally saved my life; I'm sorry that it caused him damage and discord."

Rin stood in front of Benjiro, a needle filled with anaesthesia frozen in her hand. Her eyes were wide with shock, and guilt began to swell itself and occupy the inner of her stomach. Kakashi had gotten so worked up to save a comrade? Then why hadn't he just said so? She would have understood, she would have accepted it! It could have saved them a whole lot of argumentation! All at once, the day's events got to her and she dropped the needle in her hand, letting it fall clumsily to the floor. There was no other way around it. She needed to confront the problems in her life before they became overwhelming. And she needed to confront them soon. Vaguely, she heard Benjiro's voice ask, "Are you ok?" making her snap back and put on a smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I – I was just surprised. I didn't know that that was the case. Sorry, I was just a bit surprised." She picked the fallen needle off the floor and surveyed it strangely before throwing it into the nearest trashcan and getting a new one. Applying the anaesthesia almost absentmindedly, Rin fought back a fresh wave of tears and looked at the clock – relief flooding into her as she noted her shift was almost over. It would finish soon, and then she'd go home – somewhere she hadn't been seeing much of for the past while.

Author's Note: Whoa, emotional roller-coaster huh? There was much more dialogue in this chapter than I'd intended, but I still loved writing it; hope that the reader(s) all enjoyed reading it. Chapter 17 will be more Rin and less Kakashi, so sorry for all who wanted more Kakashi. Also, I am thinking of taking the "series of inter-related oneshots" out of my summary because - unintentionally - this has sort of turned into a multi-chapter fic and I really dislike false advertising. Thank you to all of chapter 15's reviewers: Piccylo, chibirain94, Sakra-chan, ninbunny alchemist, EndDragon, gumshoe1101, and rileyonline.

Chapterly Challenge: Well, I'd say that last week's method work out very nicely! There were a few who went with the Latin, a few who went with the English and one who went with both! The answer for the Latin one was "Life is merely more than staying alive" and the English one was "The pen is mightier than the sword".

Here are your standings thus far:

Chibirain94 - 10

Catgirl9696 - 15

Sakra-chan - 14

Snappa - 24

Hikari Minamoto - 15

EndDragon - 10

Piccylo - 15

JoiZ. D - 10

Sachie-chan11 - 2

Rileyonline - 15

As for this chapter's challenge, we will again have one Latin and one English. You will only be given credit for one, so you needn't answer both, but of course, if you wish to, please do answer both! Without further ado, here are the challenge(s):

1) Scintillate, scintillate, asteroid minific.

2) Animis opibusque parati.