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

Call no man happy before he dies, he is at best but fortunate. -Solon

Everyone pleaded with her not to, but Sakura visited Naruto one last time in December. It was still the first week. Too early for the events of her inevitable death to begin unfolding in earnest.

Itachi looked at her as if she had just asked him to punch her in the face. Shisui paced back and forth, alternating between looking terrified and enraged. Sasuke grabbed her hand. At first, she thought he wanted to cast a linking spell between them. When her magic reached out, Sasuke shook his head.

"Just for moral support," he told her, giving her hand a squeeze.

"It's so unsafe, Sakura," Shisui pleaded, coming to a stop in front of her.

"I know that, Shi. He's killed me before… more than once," Sakura reminded him.

"But never before New Year's Eve," Itachi mumbled.

"Itachi. Come on," Shisui groaned, turning on his heel to look at Itachi. Itachi was shaking his head.

"I don't like it either. But if that's true, then…" Itachi trailed off.

"It's three against one. We're going," Sasuke interrupted their argument. He shoved past both of them, pulling Sakura along.

As they hurried outside the shop, Sasuke glanced over his shoulder at her.

"For the record, I hate this idea. I just want to get it over with," Sasuke told her. She smiled at him.

"I know. Thanks, though."

"For what?"

They stopped at a crosswalk. Itachi and Shisui were half a block behind after rushing to lock up the shop.

"For having my back," Sakura explained.

Sasuke snorted. "Why would I not?" he grumbled.

Itachi and Shisui caught up just as the light changed. They didn't say anything to each other during the walk and subsequent subway ride to the Senju Institute. She swiped her key card and climbed all the way up to top of the administration building. The same wards blocked off the hallway as last time.

Sakura didn't hesitate. She forced her hand through the outer layer. This time, when she grabbed the threads of the magic within, she yanked hard. Blood dripped from her fingers, fizzling against the bonds of the spell. The entire thing fractured and cascaded to the floor like an avalanche of shattered ice.

"Sakura, you're-"

"I know," she snapped, already moving on.

When they reached the double doors at the end of the hall, she raised her hand. Blood oozed from the cuts on her fingers. She spread her fingers out before she slammed her hand against the surface of the barrier. Her blood fizzed when it made contact with the spell. She waited for the bonds of the spell to loosen before she twisted her hand to the right.

The outer layer of interlocking spells sprung free of each other in bright green sparks. The more she twisted, the more the spell began to unravel. She pulled her hand away from the door. Her pointer and middle finger left two streaks of blood. She stared at the dark red marks.

"Yours is potent. You don't need a lot."

Although the supports had fallen away, the lock was still holding together. Sakura scrutinized the remaining runes that glowed in the surface of the wood. She looked at her hand. The door. Her hand.

Break.

"We should just call the headmaster. He can und-"

Sakura balled her injured hand into a fist. She thought of the garish green lightning that streaked across the crimson sky in her dreams. The burst of electricity that filled the air with the smell of ozone. The energy gathered in her fist. She smashed it into the surface of the spell. Cracks radiated from where she made contact. Her magic flowed through her skin, injecting into the door and following the path of the cracks.

"Holy shit."

The rest of the spell shattered and dissolved. The door swung open.

"Sakura, what the actual fuck was that?" Sasuke whispered.

She didn't answer as she stepped into the suite.

The demon once known as Naruto was lounging on the sofa again. This time, he was laying upside down, head dangling off the cushions with his feet up in the air. There was a black and white movie playing muted on the flat-screen TV. Empty soda cans and takeout containers sat on the corner of the coffee table. He glanced at them when they entered. His eyes were red, but otherwise, he still looked like Naruto.

Silver chains were wrapped around his throat and arms, connecting him to the ceiling and floors. They flared with icy blue energy each time he moved. But he lounged around like they weren't even there.

He looked at his bare wrist, like he was checking the time.

"You're a little early to deliver my dinner. You still have a few weeks," he said. He flashed his teeth at her. A chill ran down her spine.

Fire crackled up Sasuke's arm, mimicking the pattern of his veins. He took a step in front of Sakura. Itachi joined him. His silver knife appeared in his hand. The black runes swirling around the handle grew into vines that wrapped around his wrist.

"The contract keeps you from eating me this soon. You're all talk," Sakura called his bluff. She clenched her hands into fists, trying to stop them from shaking. She didn't look as Shisui grasped one of her elbows. It helped a little. It grounded her.

"Mm. What a clever little morsel you are," sighed Naruto. He examined his nails. Then his gaze flickered to her. "I suppose you have more questions."

"Just one."

He gave her a smug grin. "Go ahead."

"What is Madara? And don't say 'an arcanist'. I mean, if he's not a human, what is he?" Sakura demanded.

"You want me to talk shit about my contractor? Hm." He didn't bother to sit up, tapping the tips of his fingers together. Suddenly, his red eyes flitted to her. She couldn't stop herself from flinching. He sneered.

"What gave it away, I wonder? He's got the act down," asked Naruto.

"Just answer her question," Sasuke snapped.

Naruto didn't even look at him. He held a hand up. "Irrelevant parties remain silent, please." His stare drilled into Sakura.

She grimaced. Then she said: "He said that humans were filthy."

The demon held her gaze. His smile softened.

"Now why would he say something he doesn't mean?" he chuckled.

And then he shook his head a little. "Alright. You've given me something, so I'll give you something too. Your arcanist is something you're used to. In fact, there are lots of them in this city. Something so common to your eyes that you might not even notice it anymore," he told her.

He raised a hand. A gust of frigid air blasted them out the doorway. They toppled over each other. Sakura ended up squished under Itachi's arm as the door slammed shut behind them. The spell she had shattered rumbled to life again, sealing it over and over again with blazing runes.

"Everyone alright?" Shisui was the first to speak.

They grunted in chorus.

"I think my nose is bleeding," Sasuke announced, clamping a hand over his face.

"I might have kicked you in the face. Sorry," Itachi told him. Sasuke groaned as he sat up.

Sakura lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling. She huffed when an arm wrapped around her to heave her upright. It was Shisui.

"You good?" he asked.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm ok," Sakura exhaled, still feeling a little disoriented.

They made their way out of the administrative building. Sakura texted Tobirama to let him know that she had shattered at least one of his spells. And then added a half-hearted apology.

I felt it. Next time, please just ask one of us to take you through, he replied.

"Great," Sasuke sighed when they stepped outside. He rubbed his hip. "All that for another fucking riddle."

Sakura pocketed her phone. It knocked against the loose scrying bones that she always carried with her.

"You'll never get a straightforward answer from a spirit. It's not in their nature," Itachi lamented. Seeing the look on Sakura's face, he tried to smile. Failed miserably. Sakura patted his arm as she walked past him.

"Yeah. Same," she said.

"Where're we going?" Shisui called after her.

"Don't know. It's too cold to stand around," she yelled back.

"Ow! Don't fucking hit me!" she heard Sasuke complain. Shisui caught up to her, throwing his arm over her shoulder.

"Let's get pho. I'm hungry," said Shisui.

"We had pho last week," Itachi reminded him, appearing on Sakura's other side.

"Taiwanese beef noodle soup," Sasuke suggested from behind them.

All three of them "ooh"-ed in response.

She knew they were doing it on purpose. Putting on brave faces and keeping things light. Not that it could change the future. But for this moment, she could pretend that something other than tragedy was waiting for her.

And for that, she was thankful.

Christmas day rolled around. And even though Sakura would have preferred to just stay in bed, she knew it would break everyone's hearts if she didn't at least open up their presents.

She remembered another Christmas in a reality that never was. Where Sasuke had lost his brother and his cousin, and he had grown quiet and small in their absence. She preferred this Sasuke. The one who rolled his eyes and squabbled with his family over the color of the ornaments on the tree.

This time around, she cast the spells to drape the banisters with garlands and to hang holly from the doors. All the twinkling lights filled the house with glitter. Madara complained about the noise as they chattered and set the table, but she knew that he would've sent them all out of the door if he actually cared.

They crowded around the kitchen table on Christmas. All five of them. Music playing low in the background. The smell of cinnamon and orange filling the air from the candles that burned suspended in each room.

They opened presents, argued about what movie to watch, and raided Madara's stash of good whisky. She laughed so much that her cheeks and her stomach began to ache.

Madara caught her sitting on top of the steps past midnight. Itachi and Sasuke had already gone to sleep in one of the many guest rooms. Shisui was snoring on the sofa in the living room, despite their many attempts to wake him.

She had her back to him. But she could tell it was Madara from the way he shuffled his feet in his slippers. She patted the space beside her.

The floorboards creaked as he settled next to her. Their knees bumped together in the narrow space.

"Can't sleep?" he asked.

"I can," she answered, "Just don't want to."

He took off his glasses, let them dangle from the chain around his neck. He rubbed the bridge of his nose where the pads had left marks.

Ever since visiting Naruto, she had spent every spare moment thinking about his non-answer answer to her question.

"Papa."

He grunted.

"What's something you're used to that there's a bunch of in the city? Something so common that you might not even notice it anymore?" It couldn't hurt to ask him at this point.

She half-expected him to mock the question. She had considered those words a thousand times already and they still sounded like gibberish. To her surprise, Madara leaned his head to one side, humming as he seriously thought about it.

"Pigeons," he finally answered after some time.

"What?"

"Pigeons," Madara repeated without a trace of irony. He met her stare.

"Explain, please," she sighed, head dropping into her hands.

"What do you mean 'explain'? They're all over the fucking place. I half-expect one to pop out of my sandwich at the deli. They're fucking rats with wings," Madara ranted.

She stifled a snort. She was aware of Madara's distaste for all types of birds. He wasn't above hexing the birds that dared to shit on his precious car. And if too many birds gathered on the power line outside the apartment, Madara had been known, on occasion, to open the window to shout at them.

"This whole city is covered with them. Can't walk a block without stepping in bird shit," Madara went on, scowling.

"Then why don't you move?"

He made a face. "You're still working on your thesis."

"You could move and I could join you after I graduate."

Madara snorted. "Where would I go without you, weirdo?"

He glanced at his wrist. "Alright. I'm heading to bed. What about you?" he asked, groaning as he got to his feet.

Sakura didn't particularly have anywhere to be in the morning. But she still held her hand out to Madara. He pulled her up. As Sakura turned, she caught a glimpse of the old clocktower through the window. It loomed in the distance, hands deceptively small as they crawled around the green face.

Madara followed her gaze.

"Ah. That fucking thing," he grumbled.

Her eyebrows rose. "You don't like it? You made it."

Madara shook his head. "I designed and enchanted the mechanism that runs it. I didn't design that ugly piece of shit," he told her. And then he glared at the clocktower.

"If it was up to me, I wouldn't have rebuilt that fucking thing in the first place. But the city offered me too much money and I was kind of broke at the time," he told her.

Sakura held her breath. She had heard lots of Madara's stories before. They were usually about other people. He rarely spoke of his own past. She wasn't even sure how old he was. Older than the headmaster of the Senju Institute, she thought. But even that was a guess.

"Rebuilt? Did someone break it before?" she wondered out loud. That wasn't something she had learned in all of her years of living in this city.

"Happened a long time ago. The fucking moron that built the clock in the first place didn't know what he was doing. The whole thing… collapsed."

The way he trailed off made her look at him.

She had never seen that look on his face before. Her heart ached for him. But it was a pain that she couldn't touch, rooted so deep inside of him.

She hugged his arm. That made him look at her. She smiled.

"I'm here. Don't be sad," she told him.

Somehow, those words made Madara look even sadder.

New Year's Eve arrived.

Sakura woke to a silent morning.

She made her way down to the kitchen, shivering and wishing she'd pulled a sweater on. A few water spirits playing in the sink waved at her. There was a note on the kitchen table. It was from Madara. He had run out to buy more coffee beans.

Sakura pulled out a chair and had a seat there. She smoothed Madara's note. One of the edges was jagged, like he had ripped it off the pad too quickly.

Everyone had arrived last night. New Year's Eve was the perfect excuse for them to gather. And she had made her cousins promise to stick together when they traveled. As long as they stayed inside the house, they wouldn't be safe until night rolled around.

She had spent many nights agonizing over why a demon after her heart would go through the effort of killing off her cousins like that. Hunger didn't seem like the right answer.

When the answer came to her, as she lay half-asleep in bed one night, she had almost smacked herself in the head.

She recalled a loop where Sasuke had thrown himself into danger.

"That's Shisui's attack. How are you doing that?" Sasuke demanded.

Naruto's neck cracked, head swiveling at the wrong angle as he turned his attention to Sasuke. A grin stretched his mouth too wide.

A strange, gravelly voice rumbled up his throat.

"I ate him."

The memory still made her stomach turn. She tried to block out the sounds of Sasuke's screams. The squelch and snap of his ribcage ripping open.

Sakura shook her head, trying to banish the thoughts. She slapped her hands against her cheeks.

What mattered was this. The demon ate her family because their hearts somehow tasted like hers, blood related or not. And by doing this, he was able to gain some of their abilities. It made sense why Naruto, who had always been a wind type, was able to use fire in those final moments.

So she kept her family close. Even if there was nothing she could do to save them, like always. At the very least, they would be together for this one.

She heard creaking on the stairs. When she looked up, Sasuke was stumbling his way down. His hair stuck up in every possible direction.

Sasuke paused on the bottom step. He squinted at her.

"You okay?" he rasped, still half-asleep.

Sakura shook her head.

He scratched his stomach. "Yeah. Stupid question, I guess."

"Yeah."

Sasuke took the last step off the stairs. He went to the refrigerator. Opened it. Stared inside, squinting at the lightbulb like it was the sun.

"Sasuke."

He peeked around the fridge door at her.

"Why are you always so nice to me?" she wondered.

Sasuke stared at her. She stared back. He shut the fridge and just stood there, thinking. And then, he held his arms open.

"What're you doing?" she demanded, wrinkling her nose. He wrinkled his right back at her.

"You're the one being weird. Just… just fucking get over here," he snapped at her.

Laughing, she got out of her chair to hug him. She even rocked them back and forth a few times. Sasuke tolerated it surprisingly well before he finally pushed her away.

"Feel better?" he asked.

"…You know what? Yeah."

Sasuke hid his smile as he scratched at the stubble growing on his cheek.

Itachi and Shisui made their way to the kitchen a little while later. Ino walked into the house on the heels of Madara, who had let her in. She smiled, but took no time in distancing herself from him as quickly as possible.

"$10 for a fucking bag of coffee beans," Madara complained, dropping it on the table. He grumbled about something else as he stalked off. With a wave of his wrist, he sent the coffee maker filling with water. At the same time, the overpriced bag of coffee beans ripped open. The beans spun through the air, grinding themselves before landing perfectly in the waiting filter.

The coffee tasted perfect. Maybe because Madara had been the one to teach her to brew coffee. And to cook pasta ("Salt the fuck out of the water. Yeah, I know I used a bad word.").

The day went by too quickly. It seemed like she blinked and suddenly, she was standing in the living room. The alien green clocktower mocked her from afar as it announced that had just turned 11.

Suddenly, she felt like she understood what Madara had said a little better.

"That fucking thing," she whispered his words.

In this moment, it truly felt like an evil eye glaring down on the city.

Madara had disappeared a while ago. She knew that he was down in the library, setting up his ritual. She hoped that Gaara had the sense to stay away. She hoped that the unraveling wasn't too painful for him this time around.

Even though she knew it didn't matter, she cast a shield around the house. When Shisui squeezed her in a hug, she wove another barrier around him. Each of the threads of magic interlocked until it covered his body in an almost-invisible mesh. She did the same for everyone else. Her hands were shaking by the time she got to Ino.

As the seconds ticked by, Sakura felt heat growing in her pocket. She could feel the thrum of magic beneath the soles of her feet from somewhere below. There was a pause. And then part of shielding spell fractured. Glass shattered.

"Let's go," she said, getting to her feet.

Sasuke took her hand. Squeezed it before he released it. She didn't understand why until Itachi took her hand instead. The beginning of a linking spell spilled across her palm. And for the first time, she rejected it.

"It's alright. It'll all be over soon," she assured him as she looked him in the eyes.

She brushed past her cousins. Her pointer and middle finger were already extended. They hooked around the air. This time, she looked down to witness the invisible thread slice through her skin. Drops of blood welled up from beneath her skin, staining the thread before it snapped. The buzz of the barrier dissipated. She opened the door to reveal the library. One of the huge windows facing the street was broken. Shards of glass were scattered across the floor.

The scrying bones in her pocket began to grow hotter and hotter. She could feel them sizzling against her skin. The fabric of her jeans began to smoke.

"Sakura," Ino whispered, shaking her arm.

"I know," Sakura replied without looking at her.

When she pulled one of the bones out, the black cracks glittered with moisture. They sizzled in her palm, burning into her skin.

Break me.

"Why?" Sakura asked.

The voice was so clear now. No longer a cacophony of whispers that blurred together.

"There you are. It's dinner time."

Sakura raised her chin. Naruto stood at the foot of the stairs. Blood dripped down his chin. She immediately searched for Madara. He sat on the floor some distance away. He was pale and there was red on his shirt. He gripped his forearm, face contorted with pain, but he was alive.

"Wha-" Madara began to mouth to her. She didn't catch the end of his words. The scrying bones reclaimed her attention.

Break me to make us whole again.

Naruto began advancing up the stairs on all fours.

"Sasuke! Itachi!" Shisui shouted, pushing ahead of her. He was wreathed in flames.

"Got it," Sasuke replied. He angled his body in front of hers.

"Keep him away from her!" Madara shouted. Magic crackled like static in the air. The smell of blood and old paper filled her head.

Sakura gripped the bone in both hands. It was the rib again. It always seemed to be that one.

"Sakura, what a-"

She snapped the rib in half.

At the same time, she felt something crunch in her left side. There was a moment. And then magic jolted through her as her own rib broke.

Finally, the scrying bones sighed with relief.

Blood began to gush from the jagged edges of the rib. It spilled down her forearms, dripping to the floor. And the remaining bones in her pocket began to seep blood into her jeans.

Shisui was attacking Naruto with a set of chains made from fire. He struggled to wrap them around Naruto's throat while avoiding sharp claws. Itachi shot fireballs from his mouth to try to give Shisui some distance. Sasuke had his back to her, fire curling up his arms, his shoulders tense. Ino wielded a whip made from water, standing there as if she knew how to fight. Sakura knew she couldn't. Combat magic was one of the few areas Ino had struggled with as a student.

Only Madara was looking at her. His eyes wide.

"You idiot. I'll clean this up."

The words left her mouth before she had even realized she had spoken.

The world tilted sideways. She hit the floor. Blood soaking into her shirt now. The pain radiating up from her side, crawling through her lungs, seizing her heart.

"Sakura!"

Everything went black. Sounds and smells faded too. Until all there was darkness.

She drifted.