Chapter Four: Day 1.3

The alarm clock on Sakura's nightstand jangled insistently. Her eyes popped open. The morning sunlight was streaming in through her window. No. Sakura picked up the alarm clock, slid the window open, and threw it out into the street. "I just won't go anywhere or do anything," Sakura said to the empty room. "I can't be a burden if I'm not there."

An hour after her alarm went off, her mother was knocking on her door. "Sakura, shouldn't you be going to meet your team soon?"

"No," Sakura called back.

"Can I come in?" the woman asked.

"No," Sakura repeated.

There was silence on the other side of the door. Then, "I'm here if you need me." Sakura heard her mother's footsteps retreating down the hall.

The kunoichi lifted up her arms and slammed her fists into the bed. Sakura wanted to get up, to do something, but she'd only get in her team's way. Kakashi-sensei had handled those ninja just fine until he thought he had to worry about them, about her. She was just a burden. She stared at her ceiling. Another hour passed and there was a knock on her bedroom door. "Sakura?" It was her mother again. "Your team is here to see you."

"Don't let them in," Sakura called.

The door opened and Kakashi stepped in, Naruto tried to squeeze in past him. Sasuke stood in the hall, arms crossed. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" Kakashi said, smiling.

"Kakashi-sensei, don't you know anything about privacy?" Sakura said, covering her head with the blankets in annoyance.

"I thought that went out the window after the mission where we found Naruto washing his only pair of underwear in a stream," Kakashi said.

Naruto's face grew red, "Sensei! You said that was a team seven secret!"

"Don't worry," Kakashi said brightly, "no one can hear us."

"Ino," Sakura said, sitting up suddenly. Team seven looked at her blankly.

Naruto said, "Ino can hear us? How?" He looked around.

Sakura ignored his words and looked around at them. "Out, now, I have to change."

Kakashi ushered the boys out of the room and he closed the door as he exited himself. Sakura donned her clothes and threw her long pink hair into a high ponytail. When she'd finished she came rushing out of the room. She grasped Naruto and Sasuke's arms. "Come on, we've got to go!" She called a hasty goodbye to her parents as she dragged her teammates out the front door.

"No need to shove me," Naruto complained.

"Let go of me Sakura," Sasuke hissed. She didn't pay any attention to either of them. Kakashi followed slowly, a little bewildered.

Sakura marched the three of them straight to Ino's house. The kunoichi was putting out flower displays in front of her parents' shop, just as before. "Ino," Sakura said pulling the boys up to a halt.

Ino looked up and immediately struck a pose despite her work apron, "good morning Sasuke." The blond winked at the Uchiha.

Sakura over-road Sasuke's replying hum. "We don't have time for this Ino, where's your father?"

Ino was both startled and irritated. "He's having breakfast, why?"

"May we come in? It's important."

"Sakura," Kakashi cut in, "maybe you should clue us in on why you need to see Inoichi."

The pink-haired girl turned to her sensei. "I need him to look into my mind so I don't have to keep explaining this to you three."

"Explaining what?" Sasuke asked grumpily.

Sakura just shook her head. Inoichi came down the stairs into the shop followed closely by Ino.

Kakashi addressed the clan head, "I'm so sorry to be bothering you at this early hour."

Sakura cut him off, speaking bluntly to Ino's father, "I need you to read my mind, please. It's not a dream and this will save time."

"Um," the blonde man looked from Kakashi to his student, "are you sure?"

Sakura nodded, "this is the only way."

Inoichi was taken aback. This was indeed an odd request. Most villagers were afraid of him because they thought he could read their minds just by looking at them. Most ninja avoided having their minds picked over at all costs. Sakura looked up at him determinedly though.

"Okay, let's sit down," they followed the clan head up the stairs into the dining room of the apartment above the shop.

Ino's mother passed them on her way down. She was going to open the shop for the day. "I'll be back down in a minute mom," Ino said, following the group to the table.

Sakura sat down and Inoichi turned his chair to face her. "Just relax," he said. He put his hand to her forehead and closed his eyes. The group stood in silence, watching the pair. Suddenly Inoichi opened his eyes. He looked at Kakashi, who had been standing against the far wall. "We need to see the Hokage right away."

Kakashi simply nodded, hiding his surprise. He pushed off of the wall he'd been leaning against and said, "let's go," to his team.

The six of them headed back down the stairs. When Ino tried to follow them into the street her father said, "Ino, stay here."

"But dad-"

"Help your mother," he ordered. The breech in security that had allowed the events he'd witnessed in Sakura's mind to happen was disconcerting at best. Then there was the issue of what the ninja in black were after.

When Inoichi and Sakura had explained everything the Hokage sat back and folded his hands in front of him. "And you have no idea how this cycle began Sakura?" the Third asked.

The kunoichi shook her head. "This is the fourth time I've lived this day and nothing I've done has made any difference. It was just a regular day of meeting my team for training until the ninja attacked."

"Nothing extraordinary happened yesterday either," Kakashi added. "We completed a mission that involved weeding a man's garden."

"According to Sakura's timeline we have an hour before these ninja arrive at the training grounds," Kakashi said.

The Third nodded, "so we'd better discover why they got that far in the first place. Sakura, you'll go to the village wall with your team of course," he gave Kakashi a nod, "and see what happens there so you can report to me when you get to your next today." The Third seemed to smile at the absurdity of the thought.

Team seven nodded and departed to the part of the village wall closest to their usual training ground.

"So we just have to sit here all day?" Naruto asked yawning.

"The enemy will be here in thirty minutes Naruto," Sasuke scoffed.

The blonde sat up, "hey that's right! What do they look like Sakura?"

"They're in black Naruto," Kakashi answered for her. "Now pipe down and keep a sharp lookout."

Thirty minutes later, just like Sakura had known they would, the first wave of the enemy came running silently up to the walls. The wall guard was ready for them and cut them down before they could even begin scaling the structure. The same happened with the second and final wave.

Several of the ninja were caught alive and the prisoners were brought to Inoichi for interrogation. Team seven followed behind the group of prisoners. "That was lame," Naruto said. "We didn't even get to fight any of them."

"Shut up Naruto," Sakura muttered softly. She was looking at the ground, holding back tears.

There was another hour of waiting in interrogation. Finally Inoichi came into the room they were waiting in. "They're after one of our forbidden scrolls, trying to restore their clan with it."

"Why do I feel like I've heard that one before?" Kakashi asked. He turned to Sakura but she shook her head. The silver-haired jonin stood up and shrugged. "Well now we just have to wait and see if there are more coming." He turned to his students, "you guys wouldn't want some ramen would you?"

Naruto jumped to his feet. "You'll treat us sensei? Really?"

Kakashi shrugged, "why not? I'll just get the money back tomorrow. Right Sakura?"

She smiled weakly and said, "yep, just like the last time you treated us."

Kakashi stared at her. Naruto said, "this is really weird."

"No kidding," Sasuke said.