Author's Note: warnings for character death and mentions of suicide. This is a loop story.

Chapter 1: Day 1.0

There went her alarm. Sakura Haruno groaned, rolled over, and slammed her hand onto the jangling alarm clock. She dressed with care as she did every morning. The kunoichi wanted to look her best for Sasuke. She spent particular time with her hair, the long pink locks hung past her shoulders. She brushed her mane one hundred times, re-parting it three times, and fluffed it up as much as possible.

"There," she said to herself. She observed her hair and figure in the mirror from every angle, winking at her reflection occasionally.

She looked at her clock and yelped at the time. Taking one last look in the mirror, she hurried out of her house. She quickly called goodbye to her parents as she went. She didn't hear their responses since she was already out the door.

Sakura walked down the streets of the Leaf Village. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. The kunoichi didn't notice. She was in a rush to get to the training ground. She had to get there before Naruto did so she'd have some time alone with Sasuke. Kakashi-sensei would not be there for hours but Sasuke usually showed up early to do some extra training. That's when Sakura would strike. She smiled to herself and her smile grew wider when she saw the flower shop ahead and to the left. Ino was putting some displays out front.

"Good morning Ino," Sakura said too sweetly.

"Good morning Sakura," Ino replied coldly. "Going to the training grounds?"

"How did you guess?" Sakura said with mock surprise. "I'm meeting Sasuke there for some practice before the rest of the team arrives. It'll be just the two of us."

Ino growled. "You just wait Sakura. You may be on Sasuke's team, but it's me he'll fall for! How can you expect him to be interested in someone who's on his team? That he sees get dirty and sweaty every day? Ew."

Sakura started to growl back in anger.

"I mean, he probably just sees you as 'one of the boys'. I'll always look perfect when he's around." Ino winked. "Whereas you'll look like a slob." The girl giggled, heading back into the store. "Enjoy your training."

Sakura stomped down the street, her anger rising. I'll beat that Ino pig no matter what! I'll just have to take extra care not to get sweaty during training. I can't let Sasuke see me like that.

Her anger had dissipated by the time she arrived at the training ground. As she had predicted, Sasuke was already there building chakra. She sat down cross-legged next to him. "Good morning Sasuke," she said brightly.

"Hm," Sasuke responded, not opening his eyes.

"How was your night?" She pressed.

"Fine," he said shortly, still not opening his eyes.

"My evening was terrible. My mom told me I had to clean my room, like I was a little kid or something. I tried to tell her that I was a genin now and that she couldn't boss me around. Then she told me go to my room, completely ignoring what I was saying. My dad didn't back me up at all. He said what my mom said, goes. I couldn't believe him. I knew she wouldn't understand but at least he-."

Sasuke's eyebrows twitched and he opened his eyes. "Could you be quiet?"

Sakura immediately went silent, her wide eyes on her crush. He was looking at her now. Now they could really talk and share their feelings.

"Sakura!" a voice called across the grass. Naruto had arrived.

"Oh no," Sakura groaned. "He's early."

"Sakura," Naruto said again, running up. "How was your night?"

"None of your business Naruto," she snapped. "Why can't you just be quiet so Sasuke and I can talk?"

Naruto looked hurt but Sakura didn't notice. Sasuke had stood up. "Oh, 'morning Sasuke," Naruto muttered.

"Hm," Sasuke responded. "I suppose Kakashi is going to be late again."

"Probably," Sakura said, latching onto the longest sentence Sasuke had uttered so far. "He's so annoying that way. I can't believe him sometimes. How does he expect us to take him seriously?"

"You're a fool if you don't take him seriously," Sasuke said shortly.

This made Sakura clam up. Naruto tried talking to her again but she shut him down. The three of them sat in silence, waiting for their sensei. At last, one hour later, Kakashi appeared.

"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura chorused. Sasuke said nothing.

"Sorry I'm late," Kakashi responded, scratching the back of his head. "But the road was flooded, so I had to help ferry these schoolchildren across so they didn't drown."

"Lair," Naruto and Sakura chorused.

"It hasn't rained in weeks," Sasuke muttered.

"Anyway, I thought we'd spar today," Kakashi said brightly. "Sakura, you'll be with me and Naruto and Sasuke, you two can spar."

Sakura groaned inwardly. Sasuke usually beat her quickly and Naruto went easy on her. Kakashi pushed her though so she'll probably start getting sweaty and gross. She couldn't look like that in front of Sasuke. Sakura opened her mouth to protest the suggested arrangement but Kakashi wasn't looking at her. She saw that he was stock-still, half turned away from her, staring into the woods. She looked over at Naruto and Sasuke and they were frozen, looking between their sensei and the woods. Naruto's eyes were wide but Sasuke's eyes were narrowed, trying to see what Kakashi saw.

"Run, now," Kakashi said tightly, withdrawing a kunai from his pouch.

"What?" Naruto said, confused. Sasuke was tugging on his teammate's jumpsuit, pulling him toward the center of the village.

"Sensei what is it?" Sakura asked bewildered.

A dozen shuriken shot out of the woods. Kakashi jumped in front of Sakura, who had frozen in fear. He deflected four kunai, then grabbed Sakura's arm. "Run!" he shouted to the boys as he pulled her along. Naruto and Sasuke had dropped to the ground to avoid the shuriken but were now up and running. Kakashi followed them, releasing Sakura now that she was with the program. The jonin turned around to deflect a fresh volley of throwing stars.

They soon reached some buildings near the grounds. Sasuke and Naruto jumped behind a low wall. Kunai landed on and shot over the wall just as they disappeared. Sakura was running past a house on her right when Kakashi, who was right behind her, grabbed her arm again and threw her behind the corner of the house. Kunai whizzed by.

Sakura got up, rubbing her knees, there were grass stains on her dress now. "Sensei what was that for," she said but shut up when she looked up. Kakashi was flat against the wall, peaking around the corner of the building. A kunai stuck out of his left shoulder.

Sakura gasped, "sensei you're bleeding."

"I imagine so," Kakashi responded. He returned some shuriken at the unknown enemy and Sakura heard metal meet metal.

She could see Sasuke and Naruto across from them, throwing their own shuriken from behind their wall toward the enemy. A ninja dressed all in black approached their position from the side, flanking them. "Sensei," she gasped.

"I see him," Kakashi said. He took aim and threw his kunai expertly at the enemy. It struck him square in the neck. He dropped like a stone. Sasuke whipped his head around to see the enemy fall. He turned to see where the kunai had come from and spotted Kakashi and Sakura behind the house. He almost smiled, then his eyes widened and his jaw went slack. He shouted something that Sakura couldn't hear. A kunai with a paper bomb struck the ground near Kakashi's feet. In an instant Kakashi turned around, grabbed Sakura to shield her, and tried to leap away. Too late.

The bomb went off. Sakura was deafened by the blast. A ringing began in her ears. She coughed as her lungs filled with dust and blinked to clear her vision. Something heavy was pinning her to the ground. She twisted her head around to see what it was. It was Kakashi. Dark blood trickled down his face from under his headband. He was completely still.

Sakura stared. "Kakashi-sensei?" The silver-haired ninja did not move. He did not scratch the back of his head and apologize for landing on her. He did not look up with an eye-smile and tell her everything was alright. "Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cried more earnestly. The ringing in her ears took up her entire world, that and her sensei's bloodied, unmoving form. She tried to wriggle out from underneath his dead weight but gave up when she felt the skin of her legs tear. Warm blood meandered down her calves and ankles.

Suddenly a new thought struck her and in a panic she cried out, "Sasuke! Naruto!" She cursed her own stupidity a moment later. She couldn't hear their replies, even her own calls were a muffled murmur in her ringing ears. Worse still, she'd given away her and Kakashi's position. This thought gave her a boost of adrenalin and she attempted to pull herself free with new vigor. As she pulled, she felt the debris making long scratches across her legs. She didn't care. She needed to find Sasuke and Naruto. She had to figure out what was wrong with Kakashi.

At last she pulled herself free. Standing and turning around, she could see that wooden beams and other pieces of the house had also fallen on top of her and her sensei. Kakashi was lying face down, covered up to his waist in pieces of the building that they'd used as cover. There was dust and bits of lumber strewn everywhere. The wounds on her legs stung as she knelt by his head.

"Kakashi-sensei?" she shook his shoulders a bit to try and wake him up. "Sensei, we need to find Sasuke and Naruto." The jonin did not move. "Sensei this isn't funny," Sakura said, getting angry, "we can't stay here."

Sakura paled, "sensei?" She shook his shoulders again, "Kakashi-sensei?"

As if in a dream, Sakura removed one hand from Kakashi's shoulder and reached out to gingerly touch his neck. She waited, moved her fingers and waited again. She moved her fingers to a different part of his neck, then another, again and again, she waited less and less each time, frantically now, searching for a sign of life.

They'd all learned to take each other's pulses in the academy, she'd never had this much trouble before. Finally, desperate, she put her ear on Kakashi's back and listened. With each passing second of silence her panic grew more pronounced. "No," she whispered, looking at her sensei's still form, "it's not possible. It's not possible. It's not-" a half scream half sob escaped her throat.

"Sasuke!" she screamed at the top of her voice. Her hearing was coming back now and her own strangled cry split her ears but she didn't care. "Naruto! Please! Sensei he's-." She choked off, unable to say the word.

"Over there," she heard. Three men appeared from out of the settling dust, all of them were dressed in black. Sakura pulled out a kunai and backed away but they weren't interested in her. "I don't believe it," the first man said. He approached first and was looking at Kakashi's body or more specifically, his silver hair. "You got the copy-ninja."

"What?" the second man said, joining the first in looking at Kakashi. The second man said a string of words that Sakura had never heard but she could guess the meaning of. "How much is he worth?"

"Who cares what he's worth, he's not what we're here for," the first man said.

"Are you crazy?" the second one said. "There's a small fortune lying right here."

"Let me see," the third man said, shoving the other two aside. He ripped Kakashi's headband off, pulled his limp head up by his hair, and ripped his left eyelid open. The third man whistled, "it really is him." But that was drowned out by Sakura's scream

"Don't touch him," Sakura cried angrily. She brandished her kunai and charged at the third man. The first man intercepted her, caught her wrist, and swung her around, throwing her back the way she'd come.

"I can't believe you got him with a paper bomb Ko," the first one said as if nothing had happened. He wanted to enjoy this moment.

"Well," Ko said boastfully. "My paper bombs are very effective."

"Shut up, both of you," the third man said, standing up. He was looking at Sakura. "The only reason you got him was probably because he was protecting this girl." He followed the blood trail from underneath Kakashi's body to Sakura's legs with his eyes.

"But why would he protect her?" the first man asked, casually dodging the kunai that Sakura had just thrown at him.

"She's probably his student, like those other two we killed just now," the third man said. "Or just a fellow ninja, who cares? This village is more focused on protecting their ninja than their land. Kill her and let's get what we came for. Hosho, seal his body. It'll give us time to figure out who'll pay the most for it."

Ko threw a kunai at Sakura and she dodged it. However, it had just been a diversion. Ko was behind her instantly and Sakura felt cold steel slide across her throat.