**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the quote below. I just own Sintary ^^

"Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes."
― George Orwell, 1984

Sintary appeared by the river at dawn that morning. She stumbled after landing and eventually fell to her knees. Her bright kimono tarnished with blood. The weight of the blood on the fabric caused the loosened outfit to stick to her. Her hair also stuck right onto her, dampened with blood. She was literally covered in blood from head to toe. The mission had not gone smoothly on her end.

Sintary held herself still feeling phantom hands sliding up into her hair and forcing her into uncomfortable situations and positions. Sintary leaned forward and emptied her stomach at the recent events. She felt her hair slowly get pulled back despite being slick with blood.

"Please tell me you remembered to pack a tooth brush and tooth paste for me?" Sintary asked with her hoarse voice.

"Of course I did," her lover's soft voice assured her. He stepped back and rolled open the scroll for her. He pulled out the dental care for her and gently handed it to her.

"Thanks…" Sintary said as she took the supplies.

"I also have soap and shampoo." Itachi told her pulling those out as well. He looked up to see his teammate nearly by the river, brushing her entire mouth. "Don't brush so hard, you'll cause your gums to bleed." He warned her.

Sintary spat out the toothpaste –which she noticed was laced with blood—and walked back to Itachi to grab the rest of the bathing soaps. She knelt down and got close to his face, matching his blank face.

"You'd do the same if you had a dick shoved down your throat."

And with that she took the stuff and walked back to the river leaving her stoic partner to dwell in his own thoughts on her comment.

Sintary peeled off the ruined kimono and tossed it to side for her comrade to burn it as she got into the calm river. She sighed, wading in the water before completely going under. She stayed under for a while before finally coming up. Her lungs burned for air, but none of that compared to what she endured –at least in her mind. Sintary looked down at herself. She could see the bruising on her calves, her thighs, her hips. She felt her stomach lurch again seeing black and blue hand prints embedded on her hips. Her face twisted with disgust as she began to scrub herself raw. Her hands slipped on the soap several times resulting in her nails scraping her skin on occasion. Sintary just needed to wash the events away. Every single place he touched, she needed to be rid of. She scrubbed the top layer away basically.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her hand. Sintary gasped as she was pulled into a tight embrace and immediately began to struggle.

"Sintary."

The kunoichi froze hearing that commanding voice. It was then she realized she had tears running down her face.

Itachi looked down at Sintary. He had let her go on too long. She was fairly pink and had several scratches along her arms and legs. He could only imagine she would begin pulling out her hair if he had allowed her to wash it on her own.

"Itachi… you're getting wet…" her sweet voice reached his ears. But it wasn't normal; she was scared.

Itachi sighed internally. They went through this every time they went on these missions. Some were… better than others; other's like this she was a wreck. He knew she had begged the Hokage to not send her on those missions, but he had been relentless. While Itachi was her commanding officer, he took orders from the Hokage, and if the Hokage requests her to go with, she had to go with. Blood, violence, war, she could handle anything else but this. Yet this was most missions required her to do.

Itachi pulled his beloved closer to him, not caring in the slightest that he was getting wet. He knew the hug would calm her down even further. Once she seemed relaxed, Itachi gently took the shampoo and began washing out any filth that remained in Sintary's hair. While being methodical, Itachi was very gentle with her hair. It was another tactic that calmed her down. Itachi soon finished and let her rinse the remaining soap out before he began to massage her shoulders. Again, he was just trying to get her to regroup. Itachi worked his way down her arms before pausing.

"What's this?" Itachi inquired about the thick black, cuff around her pale, slender wrist.

Sintary slowly looked at the contraption in question. "Shit," she breathed. "He… He figured out that I was a kunoichi, and still wanted to go ahead with his… plans. So, he grabbed this cuff and, well, no more chakra. I've been unable to use it. That's why I was so bloody… I had to use a weapon to kill him."

Itachi slowly nodded, frowning. "It doesn't look too complicated… I should be able to get it off."

Sintary just nodded. "We can do that after we set up camp for the night." Sintary said. "I really just want to get dressed in my gear again."

Itachi nodded as they got out of the river and headed towards where he had set up. He pulled out Sintary's long, black clothes. Sintary pulled them on, feeling the heat of a fire spark up behind her. Sintary slowly turned around and walked towards the fire to sit by Itachi. She curled up next to him as he looked over the black seal.

Itachi's nose twitched as he looked closer at the seal. "Do you smell that?" He asked

Sintary sniffed the air around them and looked at her wrist. "It smells like burning flesh." She said.

Then it hit her. Sintary's fists curled up as she felt the searing pain in her one wrist. "Dammit." She hissed before biting her lip. As if it weren't bad enough, she felt the pressure increase followed by a sickening crack. Sintary cried out as she felt her wrist begin to break.

Itachi frown only increased as his eyes set with determination. He began to do the necessary hand signs to release the cuff, but they had other issues.

"Get down!" He exclaimed tossing his body over hers.

The building she had gone into blew up and the impact extended all the way out into their safe heaven. Out of the ashes, he felt enemy nin heading their way.

"Dammit," Itachi swore and immediately picked up Sintary. He tossed her over his shoulder and headed for the trees, running fast as he could away from their enemy. Itachi's red eyes scanned for any place he could find to hid Sintary while he took care of the enemy. He quickly found one and stashed Sintary away before setting up webs of genjutsu. It would by him enough time to get his partner out of that contraption and get them out of there.

"Itachi," Sintary breathed when he came back to her. She had broken into a cold sweat. "It's poison. That's why my skin is burning." Sintary panted holding her wrist.

"We need to get that off you. Now." Itachi said urgently as he knelt beside her.

He, again, preformed the hand signs quickly. This time he was able to release the seal. It broke apart and fell down on the ground. They were met with bubbly, burnt flesh all around her wrist.

"Holy shit," Sintary panted holding her wrist. "You have no idea what it feels like to be zapped with chakra." Her eyes became unfocused as she swayed a bit. "I feel dizzy…"

Itachi's eyes narrowed as he gripped her shoulders. "Sintary, heal yourself." He commanded firmly.

Her eyes slowly became focused again, and she nodded.

"Right, heal myself…" She said slowly.

Sintary's hand began to glow green as she began to extract most of the poison from her body. Sintary breathed slowly as she focused at the task at hand. Her wrist throbbed and honestly, she just wanted to collapse into an oblivion. All her nerve endings tingled and not in a pleasant way.

"I think I got most of it out." Sintary told him panting. "I can't be sure though."

Itachi nodded and pulled her onto his back. "We're done here anyway."

He immediately began racing through the trees again. There was no way she was dying on his watch. It wasn't just because she was his girlfriend, his lover. No one died on Itachi's watch so long as he could help it.

Itachi pushed himself even harder as he felt Sintary slipping. Her grip on him loosened as she began mumbling useless words. His body burned with protest, but he knew they couldn't be further from the gates.

"Just a little further," he muttered on his breath.

Itachi could see the shinobi guards waiting for him at the gates. They had sensed his alarming approach and were ready for anything. He also sensed a few medical kunoichi present, ready to assist if needed.

He came sliding to a halt after he jumped from the last tree. Itachi pulled Sintary off his back and quickly handed her to the medical nin.

"What are we dealing with?" One asked.

"Poison and sexual assault." Itachi told her.

With that information, the medical ninja rushed her off to the hospital for immediate attention.

One of the ninja looked at Itachi with slight worry on his face.

"Hey, Uchiha," he said. "What happened?"

Itachi turned his attention to him. "Later Kokuro. The Hokage will be expecting me." He said before vanishing to the tower.

Hi everyone! I bet none of you expected an update this quick! I hope enjoyed the story!