Take This To Heart: KakaSaku

Breakdown

When she was eighteen, she broke open in front of him.

She had been so busy at the hospital after the end of the war, people were always getting injured even when the world was drenched in peace. She had been going around, her hair long and grown out since the end of the war, chasing her in slightly wavy curls, a slight bounce in her step. When she received her next patient from the nurses' station, her eyes had gone wide and she ran, clutching the folder to her chest as she counted the doors on her left.

When she found the room Kakashi was in, she all but slammed the door open.

The man was sitting on the bed, shirtless with his mask on, reading his damn book as a towel was pressed over the very large and very concerning gash on his chest. He looked up, shutting the book a Sakura heaved, chest constriction and he only blinked lazily at her. "What are you doing here? It's three in the morning." His tone was still very mature and it was deeper, and her brows furrowed as her voice caught in her throat. It had been three months since he left, three, and he hadn't even told her he was leaving in the first place!

She was angry, lips pressed in a fine line as she all but slammed the patient folder onto the table before stocking over to him. "I'm working Kakashi, this is normal."

His brows furrowed, hitai-ate abandoned beside him along with his ruined shirt. Now that his genin team was grown, he had returned to an active member of Anbu, not that he minded. If it meant Sakura was his doctor, then he didn't mind getting hurt at all. But the girl was exhausted, dark bags under her eyes and he gently grabbed her wrist from his chest, healing the deep wound. "When was the last time you slept?"

She sighed, rolling her shoulders, and Kakashi studied her fingers. They were long and feminine, dainty, but could kill him without a second thought. "I don't remember."
He hummed, and she moved her hands along his torso, digits engulfed in a soft emerald hue that made her eyes seem even brighter. Kakashi wanted to ask her to get some sleep, he wanted to ask how she had been doing. What was Naruto up to, still following Tsunade around?

But tears welled in her eyes, dripping down her nose as she bowed her head, landing on his pants, such gorgeous fingers trembled against his skin. He was alarmed, and he was worried, why was the almighty Haruno Sakura crying? She pulled her hand back, hitting him lightly with a closed fist on his chest, and hiccupped. "Dont you ever scare me like this again, you hear me?"
His worried gaze softened, and he nodded, putting his hand on her shoulder as she cried. Her knees collapsed under her, and Kakashi was quick to grab her, placing her in a chair. He watched as she buried her face in her hands, crying out so loudly, and not caring if it was in front of her sensei.

She had not grieved for the first love the war had taken from her, and she missed Sasuke terribly. By the time they had returned to Konoha, people needed medical assistance, the village needed help, people were always getting injured. Pulling 48 hour shifts back to back with only six hours off in between; Kakashi was wondering how she was handling things, all these things by herself. Naruto had grieved for Sasuke, Kakashi had not grieved, rather than accepted it, people had moved on, it had been two years. She didn't want to be the one to pronounce Kakashi dead, she worried about him, cared above all else, but she was a brave little girl despite her weaknesses. The hardest heart to heal is the one that started out broken.

So when she was eighteen she broke down in the presence of the only man who could comfort her without a single word.