"I need to speak with Tsunade!"

The Konoha guard looked skeptical. He was an older man, and he knew Itachi's face. Kakashi was asleep in Itachi's arms after crying himself asleep again; Itachi didn't want to wake him, anyway. "Look, kid," the man said gruffly, "I'd like to believe you, but if I believed every Akatsuki member who came by and suckered me into letting them into the village, I'd be put on trial for treason, and then executed. Not to mention the village would be in shambles, and the Hokage would tear me to pieces before I even got to my death date."

Itachi's Sharingan eyes slowly slid closed. The man had never made eye contact focusing instead on Itachi's hands, seemingly waiting for the moment when Itachi slipped up and attacked. Itachi knew he wasn't getting in this way. There had to be some other way. Well, maybe if he made this a little more convincing than words…Itachi took a step closer to the walls on either side of the huge gates. He set Kakashi down against the wall and stepped back again, the same guard he had spoken with watching his every move. The rest of the six guards on duty also kept their eyes trained on him; as if it would do any good. Itachi could incinerate them all in half a second if he wanted to. Itachi stripped off his black cloak, dumping it on the ground behind him. The man watched still, curiosity piqued. Itachi then began removing every hidden weapon from his body. Kunai, shuriken, wire, tags, bombs, scrolls, and senbon fell to the ground with clatters, thumps, and rustles of paper as Itachi went about ridding himself of weapons. Finally, he pulled one last kunai out of his ponytail, and spread his arms. "Believe me now?"

The man seemed taken aback, but still shook his head. Itachi sighed, and closed his eyes. "I'm half-blind when I do this, so don't expect anything too fancy," he grumbled. When his eyes opened again, they were a dull coal color, and decidedly lacking in sight. "How about now?"

Well, if he's blind, he can't do much, the man thought to himself. Guess he's serious, if he's willing to risk it. Disarming himself and rendering himself blind…still, we need to keep a close eye on him. "Fine," he finally consented. Itachi nodded once and walked over to Kakashi, picking him up again and striding right back over to the guard with suave ease. He gave him an expect arch of his eyebrow, waiting until two flustered guards stepped up on either side of him and stepped through the half-open gates. Itachi recognized these two as lower-ranking ninja, and also recognized that he needed to see very, very well in an enemy village, unarmed, and weighed down by his injured lover. He would need to just dodge everything, partly for image, partly because he was almost physically unable to do anything more. He slowly introduced his Sharingan again, hiding it behind an illusion of deep black eyes. These two idiots wouldn't even be looking at his eyes; they weren't quite the bravest of warriors.

Itachi was surprised to find that, even in the fog of the early morning, the streets were practically deserted. A single person here and there stared, but that was all there was to it. Itachi followed the guards closely, making it clear he was with them. They led him rather swiftly to the Hokage's Tower, seemingly wanting nothing more than to be rid of the Uchiha. Itachi didn't blame them; he was getting sick of following two quivering lumps of flesh. Finally, after trekking down the middle of Main Street for several agonizing minutes, Itachi was presented with the towering Hokage's Building, backed by the rising sun. He wasted no time; he walked right through the door opened for him. In his arms, Kakashi stirred; Itachi mounted the stairs undaunted, knowing he needed to get Kakashi to Tsunade as soon as possible. Every time he looked at those bruises on Kakashi's pale skin, it made him want to throttle Pein.

One of the men who had escorted Itachi through the village knocked on a door at the top of the stairs and straight down a hallway, stepped aside and swallowing hard. "She might be a little cranky," he warned, clearly trying to hide the shaking in his voice. Old enough to know Itachi, but young enough to count as an inexperienced whelp. "It's early…"

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

Itachi stepped back as the door angrily swung open, and a tall, blonde woman with the largest chest Itachi had ever seen came careening out, screaming bloody murder. Itachi couldn't even decipher half of what she was saying, but he suspected it was along the lines of, "How dare you disturb my nap?!"

"Tsunade," he said sharply, "If you would kindly abandon your selfish sleep for four seconds, I believe I can catch your attention."

Tsunade rounded on Itachi, about to say something further when she caught sight of his face. "Uchiha," she growled, all her comical rage suddenly very real. "How dare you set foot in this village again after what you did! What have you done to him?!"

Itachi brushed past her into the office, not saying a word and sitting down in one of the chairs across from her desk. Tsunade, baffled and floored alike by Itachi's blatant disrespect, followed numbly. Itachi held Kakashi across his lap, supporting his weight with his right arm wrapped around his slender shoulders. Itachi vaguely felt Kakashi stirring, and turning into his shoulder. He smiled softly, waiting until Tsunade could see before placing his hand against a deeply visible hand-print on the side of Kakashi's face. He matched up the fingers, the heel of the hand, and the vicious nail scratches that had dripped blood long dried.

"It's too big to be mine. I didn't touch him."

Tsunade seemed terribly stricken at this realization, stepping closer to Itachi and leaning over Kakashi's still form. "Hey…Kakashi," Itachi whispered, gently pushing Kakashi up a bit more in his arms. "Come on, I know you're awake."

Kakashi whimpered softly, shaking his head and shrinking back into Itachi's arms. "Stop," Itachi said firmly. "Come on, it's Tsunade. She won't hurt you, I promise."

"As long as I keep my mouth shut about her true age."

Itachi could barely withhold his snickers. Tsunade's left eye seemed to twitch. "Alright, Kakashi, I don't know what the hell happened here, but an explanation would be nice. So, I'm going to put that little comment behind me, because obviously you've been through hell."

Itachi's face immediately darkened. "Can we talk about this later?" he mumbled, through gritted teeth. "I don't want those memories to have to surface for him again."

Tsunade exhaled slowly, both nostrils flaring as she did so. "Alright," she said. "Just give me the gist of it. I want some justification for why you're so insistent on seeing me personally, Itachi. And I also want to know what happened to him."

Itachi looked absolutely murderous. "The crudest of medical examinations will tell," he growled. "But I'll tell you, so you don't even have to touch him. Lord knows how he'd react. How long ago did he vanish?"

Tsunade's eyebrows furrowed. "Several months," she said slowly. "What's that got to do with it?"

"For those 'several months,' he was a prisoner of Akatsuki. Pein, our leader, took him, enslaved him, and broke him. Then, he was pretty much passed around the hideout from our cruelest of members and beaten, starved, tortured, and raped. Finally, he ended up in my hands. I couldn't bring myself to hurt him, nor could I bring myself to let him fall back into the hands of his abusers. So, I brought him back to you. I am risking my life to do so, Tsunade. The least you could do for me was grant me an audience."

Tsunade's eyes had been progressively widening as Itachi spoke. The Uchiha spoke in such a way that she couldn't possibly disbelieve him. He had anger in his voice that shook Tsunade, and sent shivers down her spine. She took a slow, halting step back from Itachi, his glaring eyes almost accusing her. Kakashi hadn't objected at all, suddenly seeming very quiet in Itachi's arms. Itachi himself held Kakashi like a possessive lover-which Tsunade strongly suspected he was. Kakashi shivered slightly at the memories he was suddenly bombarded with. Itachi broke gazes with Tsunade, hurriedly turning all his attention to Kakashi. "Are you alright?" he said, his voice so low it could pass for a whisper. Kakashi nodded, but leaned on Itachi more heavily than before. Tsunade shook herself fiercely, as if doing so could rid her of the horrifying tale she had just been confronted with. She stepped closer to Itachi again, vowing to herself that she wouldn't be a coward now. She crouched down in front of Itachi, laying on hand on the side of Kakashi's heard and watching the corresponding shiver he gave, shrinking away from her touch.

"He still holds this phobia," Itachi murmured, "of being touched by another human. His mind has just become so accustomed to seeing human touch as pain, so his subconscious reflex is to flinch away. Human hands have brought him nothing but suffering and agony."

Tsunade sighed, sitting back on her heels and allowing healing chakra to envelope her hand. She delved into Kakashi's brain, quickly taking inventory of any pain, numbness, or discomfort Kakashi had. She was shocked at what she saw: bone fractures, muscle lacerations, bruises, cuts, and countless other injuries, some of which were months old and had never healed properly. Scar tissue in places she had never seen it before. Scars in places she had never seen. Tsunade was almost shaking herself when she had completed her examination.

"I am thoroughly amazed," she finally said, "that he is still alive and moving. By all means, he should be on the floor in agony right now. But, somehow, he is sitting perfectly calmly in your lap, as if he feels no pain at all. His pelvis is fractured from a particularly harsh rape, both of his legs have multiple fractures in many different places, both of his arms have breaks, and his wrists both hold strained tendons. His face is perfect, though: I guess they wanted to keep him pretty. His brain, though, has sustained massive trauma emotionally, and barely less physically. I am astounded he still has all his memory. He shouldn't be able to remember a thing. Nor should he be able to think and reason, and his sense of sight should be severely screwed up. I expected his spinal cord to have ruptured from all the hits it took. His ability to move his muscles properly should also be impaired; and yet, he sits here, acting perfectly fine. He has traces of multiple drugs in his system, which I suspect were used for various heinous purposes. Itachi, were you even aware he was being drugged?"

"He wasn't while he was in my care," Itachi said vehemently. "I cooked for two, and nothing else got in behind my back. Unless he was doing it himself, he was not drugged."

"Knock him out, wake him up, amplify pain, suppress it, amplify pleasure, impair judgment-they also got him good and drunk a few times, judging from the awful state of his liver. His internal organs are so messed up…internal bleeding off the walls, he shouldn't even be able to pass food completely!"

"Bowel movements normal, he tells me," Itachi said, amazed. "Damn…is he really that messed up?"

Tsunade nodded. "Unless this is all some terrible new jutsu Pein developed, he is severely injured, and I don't know how he is still in one piece."

Itachi shook his head, leaning over and placing a gentle kiss on Kakashi's cheek. "What have you been hiding from me?" he murmured, offering Kakashi a small smile to let him know he didn't mean it. Kakashi shook his head; he still wasn't completely comfortable with the entire situation.

"Well?" Itachi asked. "What now?"

Tsunade growled softly, stepping over to her desk and opening a drawer. "This will clear everything up," she said, unscrewing the lid and shaking out two pills into her hand. "I suspect that he was healed, but the person who healed him didn't want anyone to know he or she was healing Kakashi. So, he or she hid the healing under a guise of all the damage combined. Not only would this keep himself/herself safe, but it would make Kakashi tormentors ease up. They don't want to kill him, so they'll stop when his bones start breaking." Tsunade walked back out from behind her desk, handing Kakashi the two pills and a small glass of water. "Swallow," she commanded, stepping back to wait. Kakashi swallowed the pills without hesitation, chasing them down with some water. Tsunade glanced at the clock on the wall, ticking off thirty seconds. "These work very quickly," she said, watching the clock. When the second hand had gone halfway around, she stepped up to Kakashi again, and laid her hand on the side of his head.

This result was much different.

"The only thing still remaining is some very minor internal bleeding, a few cuts, scrapes, and bruises, and that fractured pelvis. Every drug was cleared from his system, every injury healed impeccably-damn, someone's good!"

Itachi felt a chuckle rise in his throat at the realization. "Konan," he murmured. "Little devil, she would. Oh, but I love her for it."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, moving her hand to Kakashi's hip and resting it there. Green chakra swelled up again, healing the broken bone beneath her hand with the ease of nearly forty years of practice. Tsunade noted how, as soon as Kakashi saw where her hand was going, he turned away, raising his hands to Itachi's shoulders and taking a firm grip on the Uchiha's slender shoulders. Itachi wrapped his arms around Kakashi, holding him tightly and assuring him nothing else was going to happen to him. Tsunade had to say, she was intrigued by the two. Their relationship was something beautifully pure: it was what love was truly supposed to be. Two people who loved each other very much, and would die for each other. Two people not caring about what the world would say about them. Two people willing to give up everything for the one they truly cared about. Tsunade removed her hand from Kakashi's hip as soon as she was finished repairing the damage, and decided to leave the rest. It was all superficial.

"Itachi, I need to put him in the hospital for a day or two. Just for observation."

"Then I'm staying, too."

Tsunade glared at him. "You'll stay in the prisons."

"By his side," Itachi swore. "Never leave for a second."

Kakashi edged closer to Itachi, as if to reinforce what he was saying. Tsunade knew, in that second, that she couldn't possibly tear them apart.

"I am putting ANBU in that room."

A/N: I listened to so much emo music writing this…does it show?