ZERO / BLEACH / TWIST / REVERSE / DYE / RED (here)

Punctuality is the thief of time. - Oscar Wilde

She chose not to tell them.

It was easier that way.

She did tell them of the woman beneath the dream. The same things as last time.

They divided up the research the same way. Hashirama, with his expertise on sealing and ancient runes would examine Naruto and the contract. Itachi would assist however he could. Tobirama would look into their developing theories on dreams and time along with Sakura. Shisui, Sasuke, and Ino would take turns assisting research and protecting Sakura as much as they could.

Ultimately, she knew how the plan would end. It was a pointless endeavor. But she appreciated them all nonetheless. And that's what made it impossible to tell them that they had all failed once before.

When their meeting was over, there was a tense moment as Shisui and Itachi exchanged looks. Their linking spell flowed between them like the deep currents of an ocean. Powerful but quiet. Still, she could feel their magic pinging back and forth between them until Shisui sighed.

"Sakura, do you feel safe going back home? Do you want to stay somewhere else?" asked Shisui.

He had actually asked her that the last time too. And at the time, she had been terrified of raising Madara's suspicions. So she had refused his suggestion. Tiptoed on eggshells around Madara, which, in retrospect, was probably even more suspicious.

"I'll be fine until the new year, Shisui," Sakura assured him this time. "And Itachi," she added. She had the feeling that the concern was coming more from Itachi. The way he wrinkled his nose confirmed that.

It made her chest tighten. The way everyone looked at her.

"You could stay with us. My parents love you," Ino offered.

"Or us. You could use my brother's old room," Sasuke said.

In the end, she turned them all down. It didn't really matter where she stayed. The outcome would always be the same.

As everyone gathered their things, Sakura hesitated.

"Can I see Naruto before I go?" she asked, turning toward the headmaster.

Only the sound of Ino's purse hitting the ground answered her.

It took several minutes of arguing and then threatening to get her way. What surprised her was that it was Shisui, Itachi, and Ino trying to dissuade her. Sasuke stood at her shoulder with his arms folded across his chest.

"This is crazy, right? Say something, Sasuke," Shisui said at one point.

Sasuke just glared. Sakura didn't need a linking spell to know what that meant.

I don't like this, but I've got your back.

In the end, Hashirama led them to one of the upper floors of the administration building. It didn't surprise her that Naruto was being held there. She remembered during her orientation as a student being told that all the buildings of the Senju Academy were covered in some of the best protective spells. She knew for a fact that this was true now since she had helped Hashirama develop some of those spells herself during her capstone project as an undergrad. It didn't matter that she wasn't the one maintaining the barriers herself. It was as if the spells knew that she was the one who had developed them. It just felt right when she reached out to touch the fabric of the magic.

The area of the building that housed Naruto was warded in an especially thick layer of wards. They criss-crossed over the space just in front of the stairs. Hashirama paused there, hands clasped behind his back. Everyone looked at him, waiting for him to undo it. He rocked back on his heels before peering over at Sakura.

"Seriously?" she complained.

"I want to see. If you can get through the first six layers, I'll order you all the books you need for your thesis," Hashirama said.

Sakura sucked in a breath. There was an ancient tome written in dragon's blood that was impossible to find. If she could just get her hands on it… Then she paused to think. Hashirama's smile faded when she retorted, "Doesn't matter since I'll just die at the end of this loop again." Ino let out a strangled "oh" behind her.

Still she took a step toward the shield. This one didn't feel like one of hers. It was a very good spell. The individual pieces were woven together like scale armor. The top layers of the spell overlapped with the bottom, offering a little extra protection. When she skimmed her fingers over the surface, the individual runes shimmered across the transparent surface. They distorted in a shimmer of blues and reds, like oil on top of water.

The classic way to break a spell of this magnitude was to overwhelm it with a sharp force. It would fracture a portion of the shield to create a hole through it. The other way, if she knew how the spell was created, was to reverse engineer the shield to unravel it. That would take a while to study the individual runes and binding elements, but it was the neater solution.

She thought back to the barrier that had kept her locked out of her home's library during one of the earlier loops. Something in her had known how to reach inside the spell to snap one of the structural threads. She extended her hand.

She felt through the outer layer of the shield. It was like sticking her hand outside during a particularly humid day. She ignored the tingling and poking of the spell repelling her hand.

Her pointer and middle fingers extended. They hooked around something that felt like a piece of a spiderweb. When they tugged together, she felt the spiderweb thicken, stinging the pads of her fingers. Then, there was a snap.

The spell collapsed like dominoes falling. Each of the elements snapped apart. The shape of the shield crumpled inwards before it exploded into a million pieces of glimmering magic.

One of her companions drew in a sharp breath.

"You're bleeding," Itachi said. He pushed past the others to examine her right hand.

The pads of her two fingers were bleeding.

She couldn't remember if that had happened the times she had done this before.

Her blood dripped onto the ornate tile.

It was Ino's turn to squeeze past everyone, including Itachi. She pushed him aside to squeeze her hand over Sakura's fingers. A pulse of magic engulfed Sakura's hand, knitting the skin back together.

"Thanks," Sakura said.

Ino just squeezed her hand.

Hashirama should have been all over her, gushing praises and trying to persuade her to teach a class two. That's what he always did whenever she impressed him. Instead, his face was impossible to read as he marched towards the double doors at the very end of the hall.

He undid the barriers on the doors. It was a complicated process that took several steps. The spells here joined like the teeth of a bear trap. And then there was an additional lock on the door itself.

When the door opened, everyone leaned forward to peer inside.

While she hadn't expected them to have stuck Naruto in a prison cell, she was somewhat surprised to find him in such a luxurious suite. It looked like the inside of a fancy hotel.

"Hey!"

Naruto waved from his spot on a large sofa. There was a basketball game playing on the flat-screen TV. The fingers he waggled were covered in bright orange cheese powder.

"You want some?" Naruto offered. He used his clean hand to hold up a blue plastic bowl.

Ino's hand tightened on Sakura's. She pulled back when Sakura tried to step forward.

Sakura set her jaw. She pulled out of Ino's grasp.

"Hey there! Comfy?" Sakura replied, putting a smile on her face. Sasuke looked at his watch.

"It's like 8 in the morning. Are you eating cheese balls?" Sasuke demanded, walking with her.

"Puffs! Ha! Guess you don't know everything," retorted Naruto. He pointed at Sasuke with his orange-crusted finger.

"Shut up," said Sasuke as he pushed Naruto's head away. He grabbed a cheese puff out of the bowl and crunched through it.

Naruto, still laughing, glanced over at the people lingering in the doorway. His smile dimmed.

"So… what's… what's everyone here for?" he asked.

"Well, Naruto… I… want to talk to-"

"Me."

Naruto's blue irises turned bright red. He blinked a few times, then looked down at the plastic bowl in his grasp.

Sasuke grabbed her by the elbow, throwing his body in front of hers. She could feel the heat from his arm as a rope of fire wound around it.

Chains appeared around Naruto's throat and his arms. They were bright silver, glowing icy blue. They were attached to the floor and ceiling in a zigzag formation. The places where the chains connected were marked with concentric circles of buzzing symbols that had suddenly come to life.

Naruto smirked. The expression was wrong for his face.

"Relax. It's not time. I won't do anything," Naruto drawled.

"Yet," Itachi added. He stepped forward to join his brother. His silver knife appeared in his hand. The black runes swirling around the handle grew into vines that twisted up Itachi's hand and latched onto his wrist.

"Yet," the Naruto that wasn't Naruto confirmed. His mouth twisted into a smile that made her shudder.

Sakura felt a different hand land on her shoulder. It slid down to her elbow before a linking spell bloomed against the place where their skin touched. It was Shisui. She reached across the bond to meld their thoughts together.

The second things get bad, I will kill this kid, Sakura.

You can't, she thought back. I need to ask him some things.

I'm not asking for permission. I'm letting you know.

You're so fucking stubborn, she scolded.

So are you. It's a family trait.

Sakura reached back to hold Shisui's hand instead. It was unnecessary. The linking spell would work with or without physical contact. It just made her feel a little better. And from the way Shisui's thoughts grew the tiniest bit less sharp, it seemed that it went both ways.

"Are you living inside Naruto?" Ino spoke up.

Naruto raised his cheese-encrusted finger to wag it at her.

"Is an oyster the shell or the thing inside?" he replied.

There was a pause as everyone processed the words.

"Naruto isn't real," Sasuke whispered.

"H-How is that possible? We've known him for years! He's our friend!" sputtered Ino. Sasuke even dared to take his eyes off Naruto to glance back at Ino, then Sakura. Sasuke's eyes narrowed. As if to ask her why she wasn't surprised. Because she wasn't.

"He's a camouflage," Itachi stated.

Naruto pointed at him, smile stretching even wider. "Bingo. It's a lot easier to blend in when you're just some lovable goofball. You all seemed to like it."

Sakura recalled a conversation from a different loop.

"What can you tell us about spirits who take a corporeal shape?"

"The shape of a person? It would have to be one hell of a contract for a spirit to want to invest all that time and energy into maintaining a human body. But yes, it's possible. And very dangerous if true."

"What's your goal for getting close to me?" Sakura spoke up.

Naruto examined one of the cheese puffs. "Call it protecting a longterm investment," he answered. Which were cold, calculated words that would never come from someone as sweet as Naruto.

The next words out of her mouth made a chill run through the room.

"What would happen if I killed you right now?" Even she shuddered as she asked the question. She didn't even know what had possessed her to ask something like that. Especially after she had just scolded Shisui for saying something similar a few moments ago.

Naruto examined her face, eyebrows rising.

"You wouldn't. Not as you are now," he stated. And then he tilted his head. Red eyes narrowing. "Well, maybe you would. That would be sort of romantic. Or something like romantic, I guess."

That was just like a spirit. To give an ambiguous answer that just raised more questions.

From behind them, Sakura heard Tobirama whisper, "I know." As if the headmaster had said something to him. She began to turn to ask them what they were talking about. Naruto clucked his tongue. He wagged his finger at her.

"Ah-ah. I woke up early just to talk to you. Let's not be rude," he chided.

"What-" Shisui began to ask.

Naruto shook his head. He pointed at Sakura.

"Why would you eat my cousins' hearts?" she asked.

Naruto looked impressed. He picked another cheese puff out of the bowl, examining it like it was a work of art.

"Hm. If I do, it'll be because they taste like yours," he replied. He devoured the cheese puff in two bites. Licked his fingers clean.

"So you've had a taste before," she realized.

He froze.

The expression he made was difficult to put into words. She suddenly felt her breakfast trying to force its way up from her stomach. It was a struggle to keep it down. When his eyes flickered up to meet hers, she felt cold all over.

"Unfortunately," said Naruto with another smile.

"But we have no blood ties. How can that be?" insisted Sakura.

At this, Naruto let out a long sigh. He tossed the bowl to the side, spilling the orange bits of dust all over the cushions.

"You're too smart to be asking me something like that. Instead, you should think about why you haven't completely lost your mind yet," Naruto declared. He let out a yawn that showed off teeth that were just slightly too sharp. He picked at a bit of food that was stuck by his canines. And then he added, "Don't be so half-hearted in your research. There's still time before I gobble you up… dream caster." He said the last part with a mocking tone.

As Sakura tried to come up with another question, the chains around Naruto's throat dissolved. The red faded from his irises until they were blue again. He slowly stopped picking at his teeth. He looked down at his hand, up at everyone, and then over to the bowl of spilled food beside him.

"What were we talking about?" Naruto asked in his normal voice.

Sakura blinked too many times. She felt tears stinging in the corners of her eyes. She tried to force them back in.

"Um… I gotta go, Naruto. I'll… see you," Sakura tried to force her voice to stop shaking.

As she hurried to the door, Tobirama grasped her forearm.

"When you have time, come see us alone," he murmured.

Sakura didn't answer. She pushed him away before she slipped out the door.

Even though she had told Madara not to wait for her, he was sitting at the kitchen table when she got home. She tossed her coat in the air. One of Madara's spells caught it and draped it over a hanger. Just like the one that gathered her discarded shoes and slipped them into an empty spot on the shelf. She climbed the steps, squeezing her hands together and praying that they would stop shaking.

"Hi, Papa," she greeted him as she walked into the kitchen. He raised his eyebrows and nodded before he returned his attention to his book. Sakura scrubbed her hands clean in the sink. The smell of the fruity soap filled the room. She rubbed her hands on a kitchen towel before she glanced at her usual seat next to Madara's at the round table.

"Did you eat?" questioned Madara, eyes still moving across the pages of his reading.

"Uh… yeah," she said.

"Are you gonna sit or hover like some weird bird?" he then asked.

Sakura pulled the chair out and gripped the back of it. Her hands clenched in her lap.

Madara slipped a bookmark between the pages of his book before he shut it.

She had texted him to let him know that she sleeping over at Itachi's place and then going on a coffee date. It was technically true that she had slept in the presence of her cousins. There was no point in lying to him about the date. She had found throughout all these loops that the more she lied, the more things she had to keep track of. It was easier to leave details out or to tell half-truths. And as long as he didn't know who it was, it wouldn't become a problem later on.

Sleeping for 12 hours in the middle of a magic circle was a weird excuse for rescheduling their date. But if Gaara minded, he did a great job of hiding the fact. Sakura barely managed to keep her ginger tea down as she tried to focus on what he was saying.

In that tiny corner of a random cafe, she had forced herself through that awkward conversation with Gaara. It was likely the worst first date in the history of anything ever. But at the very least, when she failed this time around, Gaara would have a chance to avoid ending up a drained corpse on the floor. She had done that for him the last time. She would do it again as many times as she could. It felt right.

"How'd it go?" Madara asked. And then his eyes narrowed as he scrutinized her face. "Bad?"

Sakura struggled to rein in her expression. She looked down at her hands sitting in her lap. She shook her head.

"No. It was… it was good. He was really nice," she said, trying to force a smile.

Madara pulled his glasses down, hooking them into the front of his shirt.

"Sakura, if something happened, tell me."

When she didn't answer, Madara sighed. He reached for her wrist. His hand was warm like it always was. "First of all, sit down. I'm gonna break my damn neck looking up at you." He pulled her into the chair, placing her hand on her knee before he pulled away.

With that same hand, he gestured into the air. His fingers circled and extended seemingly at random. But she knew that he was manipulating the individual pieces of matter and energy into the shape that he needed. Her favorite mug flew out of the cabinet. Coffee poured out of the air, steaming and fragrant. Madara paused his fingers. He looked at her.

"Oat milk," she reminded him.

Madara just stared at her.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "But I know how to do it already," she grumbled.

Madara wrinkled his nose. "Just finish the spell. Practice is always good," he insisted.

She wondered if this was what everyone meant when they said she was starting to sound just like him. That almost made her smile.

She had to be careful to weave her magic in the way he had taught her. Not the way she had practiced with the scrying bones. Because that method, frankly, felt better. The magic flowed. Trying to go back to the old way felt a little like trying to squeeze into jeans that had shrunk in the wash.

The water molecules in the air gathered together. She pulled and pinched the structure until it changed color. When she pointed at the floating mug, oat milk poured down until the black coffee almost turned beige.

"Nice. Efficient," Madara commented. He lowered the mug to the table. Despite his casual tone, he was smiling.

"So do I have to hide a body?"

The question made her jolt. It took her a second realize that he was joking. That was how they always spoke with each other. When she didn't reply, Madara's expression shifted. He searched her eyes for a long time. It was a struggle not to avert her gaze.

"Sakura, what's wrong?"

The way he said her name.

She didn't realize she was crying until he pushed a napkin into her hand.

"No! No, it's fine, Papa. He was really nice. It's not that," she stuttered out, her vision blurring as the tears gathered and fell. Her hands were shaking too hard to hide now.

"Why is everyone so nice to me? I don't… I can't…"

"Why're you saying that? Did someone say something to you?" The coldness of Madara's voice stabbed her through the chest. It made her think of Gaara unraveling into a million pieces while Madara watched. The same icy finality in his tone as he told Gaara that he had never mattered in the first place.

"Papa, I really like you and I like living with you," she choked out the words.

She had never said anything like that to him before.

"Well, yeah. Obviously," he retorted. And then, perhaps feeling that he sounded a little mean, he added, "I wouldn't keep you around if I didn't like you too."

Sakura clenched the tissue in her hand, pressing it to her dripping nose.

"I just wanted to stay with you forever. Am I not allowed to do that?"

It was so unfair. She had never asked for luxury. All she had ever wanted was to fit in. To have a place where she could go without worrying about overstaying her welcome. Everything she had done had always felt like a borrowed experience. Like she was on a trial period until, inevitably, she messed up and was no longer welcome. That was how her own parents had treated her, after all.

Until Madara had taken her in. He had made it so obvious that everything was hers for the taking. Corrected her when she said "yours" instead of "ours". Let her steal his old clothes and cut them up with scissors to make them fit her better. Ran to the store to buy her pads when she panicked over her first period.

When she had first called him "Papa", it had been a strange word. Heavy on her tongue. She had half-expected him to laugh in her face instead of act like that was what he had always been.

Madara's hand rested on her back. It did something between a pat and a stroke, fumbling with affection as always.

"You remember what I said to you a long time ago, kid? You're not alone anymore. I don't half-ass anything," he assured her.

She believed him.

Despite the betrayal. The blood. The lies.

"This place will always be our home. I've got your back. You've got mine."

Those words rang with an odd familiarity. As if he'd said them to her before.

Maybe she was just getting confused. It was hard to keep everything straight after this many times spent running around in circles.

She went to bed early that night. Desperate to see the woman beneath the dream.

The purple door was almost completely covered in black vines now. She pushed it open to reveal the long hallway illuminated in warm light. All the other doors were light but empty. She brushed her fingers along them as she walked past.

When she slipped into her room, it tilted upside down before she could close the door behind her.

Her other self lay on her back.

"Are you alright?" asked Sakura.

"Just a little winded. I'm fine," she replied.

Sakura tried to think of what to say. And then it occurred to her.

"What did Naruto mean? Why haven't I lost my mind yet? Does he know about the loops?" Sakura questioned as she took a seat. Her other self blew out a long sigh.

"He doesn't. And you're not asking the right question. Think of something else."

She wondered what made her other self look at her with such pity and affection all at once. "He said not to be half-hearted…"

Her other self sat up. Her eyes were wide.

"Is that… a literal statement?" Sakura wondered.

Her other self blew out a long breath. "That, is the right question." And then she beamed, wrapping her arms around herself.

"You're doing so well. I'm so proud of you."

Sakura thought back to what Naruto had said.

"Instead, you should think about why you haven't completely lost your mind yet."

The way spirits worded things was always so deliberate. So if it wasn't her who was at risk of losing her mind… maybe it was another person who was like her.

When Sakura lifted her chin, the other woman copied the gesture.

"Have you lost a part of yourself?" she asked.

The other woman's smile was soft, sorrow pulling down the corners of her mouth and eyes. She rested her chin on her knee.

"It's not too horrible. You're right here. I haven't lost my mind… yet." And then her gaze flickered up to meet Sakura's again. "Let me remind you. Pity him. Do not fear him. He's just like a lost child."

Sakura frowned. "Who? Naruto?"

The other woman shook her head.

"…Madara?"

Her eyes opened to sunlight streaming into her room. She could hear the faucet running in the bathroom. Her phone was buzzing on her nightstand. She reached over to tap the snooze button. The faucet shut off.

"Papa," she croaked.

Floorboards creaked. When she rolled onto her side, she found Madara opening her bedroom door.

"You hungry?" he asked. There was a towel around his neck.

"Pancakes," she mumbled.

Madara's eyes flickered over her once. Lingered on her sleep-swollen face.

"Just pancakes?"

"And coffee."

"Alright," he said without complaint, closing the door again.