This was sparked by the Avengers, when Black Widow said the exact quote. Thanks to freewolf17 for helping me organize the ideas. ^^ Prepare for angst.
Love is for children.
She couldn't remember when she had heard it, perhaps she had been too young for its significance to be remembered, but the phrase echoed in her memory like a soft mantra that formed her being.
She had watched the romances of adolescents, so sure they had found just the right person for them, someone who would understand and accept them forever, only to turn around two years later and find it had all been a delusion.
She had seen teenagers flirt with all around them, so sure that maybe if they just kept searching, they would find that elusive 'soul mate'. Clinging on to the arms of the people next to them, giggling at inane things, pretending to be someone else so they wouldn't have to be alone. Pretending that was love.
As a medic, the few people brave enough – or stupid enough – to brave her wrath had come to her, begging for her to heal their 'broken hearts'. They were so sure it was a physical pain, sure it was something ijutsu could put to rights. The first few times, she had humored them, searching their chest cavities for any discomfort that might cause the pain; but without fail, each and every person had been perfectly healthy. The pain was just a trick of the mind, and she decided it was yet another curse of so-called 'love'. What they felt wasn't their heart breaking; it was the disillusionment that came with realizing something they treasured had never existed in the first place. She began to turn them away, scoffing when her would-be patients tried to plead their cases with her. "You have to be able to fix it! It feels like my heart is ripping into pieces!" "If you heal it, maybe she'll come back!" They acted like children, all of them, living in a world of illusions and deceit, trying to cling to childhood feelings long gone.
She had seen just such a 'heartbreak' in action in her youth. Her great-uncle had been a known womanizer, but every now and again a woman thought she could hold his interest, and eventually his love. Fools. But this one particular woman had kept Tobirama's interest for over six months, and she thought he 'loved' her, and she loved him back. She thought that up until the day Tobirama came back with another woman as she was waiting on the doorstep. From her room upstairs, she had seen the fallout. The scorned woman was crying hysterically, throwing things at her uncle, who looked confused. She heard the words "It wasn't meant to last, I thought you knew that" float up to where she leaned against the windowsill, and watched the woman cry only all the harder. The woman had deluded herself into believing in a false projection, and now that it was shattered, it caused pain. That thing called love – it was just a figment of the imagination. She swore then and there that she would never fall for such a trap.
Of course, she forgot that oath soon after she made it, only to remember it after the fact. Against her better judgment she had started dating a man named Dan, and for a time she was truly happy. She enjoyed spending time with him, talking with him, maybe even thinking about being with him in the future. Then it was all taken away in one harsh night, by circumstances she couldn't control.
She might have thought she had love with Dan – at the time, she had truly believed she loved him. And maybe she did. But was she not a child then? Maybe not in body, but in spirit and expectations. Believing the world would turn out alright in the end, believing she could be happy with a person, have a mutual exchange of truth and devotion to each other. Then it was taken and gone, and in its place was left emptiness. She supposed that may have been better in the end. Better to have her love taken from her before she could realize how foolish she was. Before everything between them turned sour with the longing for dreams that could never come true. Once again, she swore she would never fall for the false trap under the name of 'love'. Only children, trusting children, could survive it without scars.
When Jiraiya tracked her down in her travels after leaving Konoha, he tried to convince her to come back. Which card did he play? "I love you, come back with me". She laughed at that, knowing better than to fall for the pretty words and emotions shining in his eyes. Love was an ideal, a falsity that he had deluded himself into thinking he felt for her. Maybe he felt trust, admiration, even friendship, but none of those was love. This time, she wouldn't take the bait. Even after coming back to the village, she wouldn't let him say the words.
Now, in her 'old age', she had to watch that 'love' deceive people once more. The one who had brought her back, Naruto, was in love with his teammate Sakura. His teammate Sakura was in love with the self-styled avenger on their team, Sasuke. Were any of them happy? No. Naruto wanted to be noticed by Sakura, Sakura wanted to be noticed by Sasuke, and Sasuke had eyes only for revenge. Of the three, he was the only one who seemed to understand the concept – love was for children, and he was no longer a child.
The only love she believed to be true was that of families – the one unconditional bond between parent and child, between siblings, an absolute caring of their wellbeing and emotions. But she didn't believe it to be between the parents. Those bonds came about through absolute trust, and adults knew too much about the horrors of the world to ever offer trust completely. Children didn't have that knowledge at birth: they offered the whole emotion, unguarded, and it was that which had others accepting it. There was no trap in the love of children.
Love was not for those tainted by the world, it was only, and ever only, for the pure, the children.