Chapter Three: Day 1.2

Sakura's alarm clock jangled next to her head. Her eyes popped open. She sat up quickly and looked around. She threw the blankets off of her and looked at her legs. No lacerations.

She jumped out of bed and looked at herself in the mirror. She reached up with her hand and touched her face. No puffy eyes.

It was all just a dream, Sakura thought, a twisted, multi-layered dream.

The young kunoichi looked at the calendar, and naturally I dreamed that it was today…twice…because I knew that that was tomorrow. I think. She frowned and then shook her head. This is nonsense. I've got to get a grip.

Sakura dressed and hurried toward the front door. She stopped and looked at her parents in the kitchen. Her mother looked up and smiled, "are you off to meet your team or do you have time for breakfast?"

"Breakfast would be great," Sakura said. She smiled and joined them. Just a dream.

After Sakura had finished breakfasting with her parents, she headed to the training ground. Dream or not, I was completely helpless. I need to be able to help in a crisis, not create more of a problem.

When Sakura arrived at the usual training ground, Sasuke was already there as she had expected. What she hadn't expected was for him to be sitting cross-legged on the grass with his eyes closed. He was building chakra the same way he had been the day before. No, in the dream. It was just a dream. Sasuke does this all the time.

She sat down next to him and started building some chakra herself. It'd been awhile since she'd done the exercise. Sasuke cracked an eye open at her. She had her eyes closed and was focusing on her task. Sasuke sighed in relief and closed his eye.

Naruto soon arrived but instead of calling out to Sakura he joined them, sitting down with his legs crossed.

When Kakashi arrived an hour late he found his genin working away without him. "Hm, maybe I shouldn't have shown up at all," he said. All three sets of eyes snapped open.

"You're late!" Naruto said. Sakura didn't feel comfortable doing it with him. That's what she had done in her dream.

"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."

Sakura's jaw dropped. As she stared at him Kakashi caught her look. "Everything okay Sakura?"

Don't panic, she thought, sometimes he reuses excuses. I must have just heard that one before and incorporated it into my dream.

"Sakura?" Kakashi asked when she didn't respond.

She shook herself, "sorry sensei, I was just thinking about how you've used that one before."

Kakashi's face took on a strange look. Sakura squinted at his mask. Is sensei pouting?

"He hasn't," Naruto grumbled, "but it's still a lie."

"Yeah," Sasuke said. "It hasn't rained in weeks."

"He hasn't-?" Sakura said slowly. Then she looked at the forest, where the ninja in black had come from before.

Kakashi frowned and followed her gaze. He looked back at her, "are you sure you're alright-?" He froze, his attention snapping back to the forest.

That was all the confirmation Sakura needed. "Run!" She yelled at her teammates and took off toward the village center. Naruto and Sasuke, confused, chased after her.

"Sakura, what's this all about?" Naruto called. Then he heard metal on metal and turned mid-stride. Kakashi was fighting a dozen black-clad ninja in the clearing and more were appearing. "Wha-? Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto started to turn back.

"No!" Sakura cried, pulling on his arm. "We only get in his way!"

"Maybe you two do," Sasuke said, pulling shuriken from his pouch and running back toward Kakashi.

"Sasuke no!" Sakura screamed.

Kakashi turned and looked toward his students at Sakura's cry. He paid for it with a kick to his back. He moved with the roll, punching one of the enemy who wasn't expecting the sudden redirection. The jonin flipped up into the air to avoid the enemy's kunai, throwing a few of his own. Two ninja in black fell to the ground with kunai in their chests. Upon landing on the ground once more, Kakashi spun to avoid a kick. He grasped the man's foot and threw him into two other ninja who just came running up. Chidori burst to life and Kakashi ran at three of the enemy in a row, striking each in the heart as he passed.

At this point Sasuke had joined the fight. He threw several shuriken and shot a small fireball at a third enemy ninja who was approaching. "Sasuke," Kakashi said while trading blows with a kunai-wielding enemy. "Go get reinforcements. Don't stay here, I can handle this." A kunai with a paper bomb flew toward Kakashi's head. He spun, caught the kunai, and launched it back at the sender. It exploded mid-air, killing three of the intruding ninja.

Sakura watched it all, trembling. It was real. It was real. Why is my dream real?! Naruto ground his teeth and joined the fray. Sakura did nothing to stop him. She was closing her eyes, willing it away.

"Just thought you could use the help," Sasuke bantered back at Kakashi. He didn't see the enemy approaching from behind him.

Naruto jumped in, slamming his fist into the face of the ninja flanking Sasuke. "Don't forget about me."

"Get out of here idiot," Sasuke said. "You heard Kakashi, go get help."

"I heard him say that to you," Naruto said, fighting one of the few remaining enemy with a kunai. "Not me."

"Would both of you just get out of there?!" Sakura cried. Suddenly she felt a presence behind her. Before she could even draw a breath, something flew past her head and a man fell dead directly behind her, a kunai handle sticking out of his face.

Kakashi threw a handful of shuriken at a black-clad ninja heading for Naruto and the battle was over. There had been thirty of the mystery ninja in all. Kakashi pulled his headband back down, not remembering when he'd uncovered his left eye. He was spattered in blood. After giving Naruto and Sasuke a once over, he began to walk toward Sakura. More Leaf ninja were arriving and they surveyed the carnage.

An ANBU with a leopard mask teleported next to Kakashi. "Everyone alright?" he asked.

"Fine," Kakashi responded. His eye was on Sakura though. She was still shaking. "That one," he pointed at the last ninja he'd taken down, "should still be alive."

The ANBU nodded, the man was instantly gone. The body of the enemy ninja Kakashi had pointed out was suddenly missing also.

Kakashi walked over to Sakura and looked down at her. "We need to talk," her sensei said quietly. Naruto and Sasuke had joined them.

"What do we need to talk about sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Sakura knew they were coming," Sasuke said, staring at his teammate in disbelief.

"I thought it was a dream," Sakura said. She was shaking harder than ever.

"Not here," Kakashi muttered so only they could hear. He took off at a run toward Hokage Tower, setting a hard pace. His three students followed closely behind him.

"Now Sakura," Kakashi said. "I want you to start from the beginning. We need to know everything."

Team seven was in the Hokage's office. They stood before Lord Third's desk. The old man occupied the chair behind it, smoking his pipe.

"I thought it was a dream," Sakura began. "It had to be."

"What was a dream?" the Third pressed.

"I dreamed today already happened. Twice actually," Sakura began slowly. "This is the third time I've lived through this day now."

There was silence in the room. Kakashi added weight to her statement with his own observations, "she knew things that she couldn't have possibly known." He remembered her claiming that he'd previously used the excuse for his lateness that he'd just thought up that morning. Then he remembered her reaction when Naruto had said that it was new. "She knew that the enemy ninja were going to attack and when. But it also surprised her, like she didn't really expect it to happen. Lord Third she's not a spy."

Naruto looked between Kakashi and the Third Hokage. "Of course she isn't a spy!" Naruto shouted.

"We have to consider it as a possibility Naruto," the Third said. "However, stranger things have happened. Jutsu gone wrong, time distortion, the will of the gods, whatever it is that's happened to Sakura is out of our realm of understanding."

"Wait," Sasuke said, "are you saying it's more likely that Sakura's experiencing some sort of time distortion rather than her being a spy?" Everyone stared at him. "Makes sense." They all nodded.

"Maybe we can use this to our advantage," the Third said. "Sakura, what happens after the first attack? Are there more enemy ninja? Where do they come from? What do they want?"

"I don't know," Sakura said shuddering suddenly. "I didn't see them the entire second day."

"What happened the second-?" Naruto began but Kakashi cut him off with a hand.

Sakura kept looking at Kakashi and then at the ground. Tears were forming in her eyes. "Maybe we can talk about this a little later?" The Third said gently.

Sakura bit her lip and shook her head. "No, this is important and there may not be a later. The first day after," she looked at Kakashi again and stifled a sob, "after they attacked. They'd killed Kakashi-sensei. They were going to take his body and," she sobbed out the last part, "sell it". She wiped her eyes hurriedly, trying to get the rest out before she lost control of herself.

Naruto's jaw was slack. He looked from Kakashi to Sakura and back again. Sasuke glanced at Kakashi out of the corner of his eye. It made the genin nervous that his sensei didn't look even mildly surprised at this news of his dead body being sold. What was even more alarming was that Lord Third was nodding understandingly.

"And the one said that collecting a bounty wasn't what they were here for," Sakura said. "I don't know if they attacked again because they killed me too." Sakura hid her face in her hands, her hair falling forward to hide her further.

Kakashi knelt next to her and put a hand on her shaking back. She threw her arms around him, a gesture all too familiar to her now, and began to sob. Kakashi, unused to this, almost fell backward in surprise. Then he slowly put his arms around his crying student. Naruto tentatively put out a hand and patted Sakura's back. Sasuke said, "it's alright Sakura, we won't let that happen."

"Yeah," Naruto said. "You get some rest and we'll take care of them."

"No," Sakura said looking up, eyes wild. "I can't go to sleep. If I do this day will start over again."

"Then we'll stay up with you," Kakashi suggested. He looked at his other two genin.

"That's right," Naruto said. "We're a team."

Sasuke hummed in agreement.

Kakashi took his team out for dinner that night. He figured jokingly in his head that if the day was going to start over anyway, he wouldn't lose any money. The jonin explained to her parents that Sakura had had a trying day and wanted her team with her. Seeing the stricken look on Sakura's face, her parents couldn't help but agree to let them stay until their daughter fell asleep.

Hours after the Harunos had gone to bed, the male members of team seven were still lounging around in Sakura's room. They'd played every game Kakashi could remember from his brief childhood and some he made up on the spot, including a one that involved shadow puppets.

Every time Sakura, or either of his other two students for that matter, began to fall asleep Kakashi was reminding them of why they were there. This always put energy back into Sakura immediately. By eleven o'clock however, Naruto was becoming less and less attentive as his eyelids drooped.

At last it was 11:59 and all three watched the clock on Sakura's nightstand. "Almost there," Kakashi said. He eye-smiled at Sakura.