"Eyes bright, uptight, just girls but she can't be what you need if she's 17. They're just girls…they're just girls."

Kakashi couldn't remember the time or the place, but he remembered the suddenness of it. He remembered it was a slip of the mind and a slip of the hands, and suddenly Sakura's blouse had been thrown across the training field, and they'd done something they couldn't take back.

After that encounter he had stayed away, damning his hands and spiting her face. It had been only a few days later when she'd shown at his doorstep craving more.

"No!" he had been adamant,

"Oh give it a rest, sensei," She purred, her eyes turning to fire, "I could persuade you."

"I'll break your heart." He warned, but his voice was weak with just the thought of her. Sakura made her way past the threshold, and Kakashi's will started to wither,

"Give me a night," she went on, her headband falling to the ground with Kakashi's dignity.

Kakashi couldn't understand it, couldn't believe that those eyes were looking at him, that those words were meant for him. He wasn't Sasuke, he wasn't young anymore.

"I'm not your savior," he'd mumbled, letting his own headband fall to the ground before being wrestled to the ground.

Kakashi couldn't understand how, but Yamato had discovered their sneaking around.

"She can't be what you need," he demanded, as Kakashi's eyes never left the ground, "she's only seventeen!"

He wanted to nod his head, he wanted to agree and call Sakura another heartbreaker, he wanted to say she was just a girl; instead he just balled his hands into fists.

The first night Sakura lost a patient; her hands were frozen to hold. She had kissed Kakashi hard, warm against the cold. One moment Kakashi had been taking off her blouse, and suddenly she was living in his house. The village had finally started getting wind and the looks of disappointment made Kakashi want to die. What had happened to just messing around?

Months later, the threats from Naruto danced around him as he looked down at her naked form.

"Kakashi?" the way she said his name broke his heart. How could she trust him? How could she allow him to do such things to her, and how could she look at him like that? How could all this be for him?

"Kakashi, are you okay?"

"Yo, I think you better go."

"Excuse me?"

"I can't take you." Sakura's face had grown red,

"You just sit at that stone at thirty years old, and you think this is it," There were tears in her eyes, and he wondered if they were for herself or for him. Walking away from the bed, he tried to get dressed, faking composure with his back turned,

"Shouldn't you be fucking with somebody your own age?" When Kakashi heard the bedspring, he'd braced for impact; waited for the fist in the back of his head. When he felt her, she was turning him around, bringing the walls down with the cloth of his mask, and when she kissed him soft and slow all Kakashi could think was, "God help me now."

"They're just girls." Naruto had been saying again, his eyes pleading with his former sensei. Kakashi's shoulders had felt heavy that day.

"Naruto," he sighed, trying to put everything into words. How could he describe that Sakura was in fact his savior?

"She can't be what you need," Naruto had ground out, "if she's seventeen." But all Kakashi could see were her bright eyes and all his mind could repeat was, "they're just girls."

"I told her from the start," Kakashi had mumbled, "this was destined to be hard." But Naruto wouldn't hear it, quitting team; Kakashi could only feel the break of his own heart.

"They're just girls." He repeated to himself as he opened the door. Sakura had curled herself up into the couch, with Pakkun sleeping against the curve of her thighs. The smile had dropped from her face, the greeting dying on her lips.

"Kakashi?"

"I told you from the start…"

"Kakashi," she had risen from her seat, walking over to him, "Kakashi I love you, this was destined to be hard but-"

"I told you from the start," he said again, his eyes hard, "I'll break your heart." When she started to cry, Kakashi wanted to take it all back, he knew this was destined to be hard but,

"'I'll break your heart." Was all he said, but this time it was in defeat, as an apology.

The last time he'd seen Sakura, she had been at the bar, flirting with a sand ninja. Her hand had rested on his leg, as she whispered something in the man's ear.

"They're just girls," Gai had told Kakashi, with a sad pat on the back, "breaking hearts." Sakura's eyes had gone bright, and there was a bang deep within his chest; he kept telling himself that she couldn't be what he needs if she's seventeen.

"They're just girls." He nodded in agreement, taking a swig of his drink. They're just girls…