Kakashi looked down at the squabbling children and felt himself age ten years.

"You can't just show up! There are rules!"

That was Sakura. If only she could channel that know-it-all passion into something other than—

"Do you need to shriek? We're right here. Tch, so loud."

Ah, yes, Sasuke. Though he kind of had a point, he didn't need to be such a supercilious prick. Especially about—

"Hn. I was designated a member of this team by the Hokage himself." The boy with the shaggy ebony hair, Madara, crossed his arms over his chest and sneered at the pair of them, unimpressed. "Though perhaps I should request a more suitable fit."

Kakashi sighed internally. Well at least that was too subtle for—

"Huh? Whaddya mean?"

Of course Naruto would jump in now.

"Suitable fit?" asked Sasuke, brow ticking.

"Suitable fit!"

Kakashi closed his eyes when he saw Sakura's little fists bunching up at her sides. Here it comes.

"Would someone explain to me what he means by—" Naruto's voice rose an octave in frustration.

"You stuck-up prick!" shrieked Sakura, taking a swing at Madara.

Madara dodged her effortlessly, while Sasuke shot a moderate katon jutsu at him from between his lips. Exasperated and excluded, Naruto leapt into the fray to assist his teammates.

'Assist' being loosely interpreted.

Kakashi leaned back against his tree branch with a sigh and opened his book.

"Are you allowed to read that around minors?" asked Madara, peeking over Kakashi's shoulder.

"Aren't you supposed to be training?" drawled Kakashi, visible eye not leaving his book.

From below came shouts and screams ranging from confusion to anger to disbelief as Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura punched and pounded each other on the dusty training ground. It didn't sound like they'd noticed Madara had left them yet.

"I've left them a few surprises."

—which was when Sakura's shrieks sharpened into those of terror.

"Snakes! Snakes snakes snakes! Oh kami, save me, Sasuke!"

"I'll save you, Sakura!"

"Get away from me you cretin!"

"I'm trying to help—ow!"

Kakashi's shoulders slumped.

"Not a fan of snakes, I see," remarked Madara.

"That comes later," quipped Kakashi, turning the page.

"This bond-business is wasteful," said Madara as they sipped their ramen broth at Ichiraku. Chopsticks and ceramic spoons clinked against their bowls as the aromatic steam warmed them.

"Madara," said Kakashi, his tone cautioning.

"No it isn't!" Naruto glared at Madara. "Bonds are the most important part of a team, right Kakashi-sensei?"

"Mmm!" said Sakura with a firm nod.

There was a pause while Naruto and Sakura turned to glare at Sasuke.

With a pained sigh, Sasuke gave a half-hearted, "Hn."

"See!" cheered Naruto.

"I disagree. I think one's loyalty should be to one's clan and family; and from there, the clan works together to support the village."

The clinking of spoons quieted as the members of Team Seven stared at their bowls.

"What if you lost your clan?" said Sasuke.

"What if you're civilian and never had one?" said Sakura.

"What if you never knew your family?" murmured Naruto before he sucked in his bottom lip.

"I think what's important, and what's happening, is that sometimes a team is a family," said Kakashi, giving Madara a fatherly look. "I think that's a very good bond. Don't you?"

Madara looked at the other members of his team with new understanding.

"Do you have a family, Madara?" asked Sakura, making a genuine effort to get to know their newest teammate for the first time.

"No immediate family," said Madara after a moment of glancing at Sasuke. "Only distant relatives."

Sakura nodded. "Well… if you want to be part of our Team Seven family, you'll just have to form bonds with us!"

"Yeah! And you'll have to stop being such a dick. Sasuke's covered that territory pretty thoroughly."

"Who're you calling a dick?"

"Oh, just this asshole on our team who's a—ghkkkkk!"

"Would you two cut it out, you're going to spill your—ARGH! It's all over my new shirt! And my hair!"

Kakashi glanced from his bowl down to young Madara; to his surprise, the boy was lost in thought.

Sakura's skin crawled and shivers ran down between her shoulder blades.

He was staring at her again.

"What?" she asked tersely, as their team ran through the forest.

"It's so impractical," said Madara.

"What is?"

"Your hair."

Sakura sniffed at him and ran faster; Madara easily caught up with her again.

"You should at least braid it and pin it back."

"And you'd know all about kunoichi hairstyles because…?"

Madara blinked as his expression shuttered.

He turned back to their path and didn't speak again.

As they sat around the campfire that night on their escort mission to a nearby village, Naruto and Sakura entertained their employer while Sasuke sharpened his kunai. Across from them, Madara and Kakashi sat while Kakashi read.

"Something on your mind?" he asked Madara.

Madara glanced at the lively group across from them before turning back to the fire.

Following his gaze, Kakashi noted how Madara's eyes lingered on Sakura's long hair.

"She will grow out of it. Probably," he said, pulling up his book again.

To Kakashi's surprise, Madara huffed. "It's going to get her into trouble. She isn't skilled enough to…" He bit off, turning away.

Kakashi peeked over the top of his book to catch Madara's cheeks colouring.

"She does listen to reason; you need to find the right angle," said Kakashi, pretending he hadn't looked at Madara.

"Hn," grumped Madara, poking the fire with a stick.

When Sakura woke, it was to find a heavy weight upon her chest, pinning her arms down.

"Huh?" She mumbled, wiggling around to get loose. "Naruto, if you're cuddling me again I swear I'm going to—" Her eyes opened wider as she looked up into Madara's inky eyes. "What are you doing!?"

"Sit still," he ordered, his fingers tangled in her hair. Several hair pins were caught between his lips, leading him to slur and murmur his words.

"Are you playing with my hair?!"

"No. You're going to loosen it."

"If you don't get off me right now—"

"Done," he said, slipping in the last hair pin. He stood and backed away, gesturing in the direction of the river. "You can go see."

Lifting her hands to her hair, Sakura glared at Madara. "If you've done…" She patted her hair, brows furrowing. "What did you do?"

To her surprise Madara swallowed before affecting his usual cross-armed, confident stance. "French braids down each side of your head. Then I folded them into each other at the back. Now they're more like a…" His words trailed off and he shrugged.

"A…?"

"Hey Sakura, neat crown!" called Naruto, waking up with a jaw-cracking yawn. "It's really pretty! I like your wispy bangs."

Sakura looked at Madara, her brows tilted with confusion, her eyes warm.

"It's more practical," he muttered. He cleared his throat. "I'll get breakfast started."

"Ah," said Sakura quietly. She touched her hair gently, smiling to herself.

Several years later

"Leaving?" asked Sakura as she answered her apartment door. As she'd done ever since that mission, years before, she wore her hair in a braided style. This time her bangs were pulled back in several strings of thin braids that met behind her head; the rest of her hair flowed freely. It was the weekend, duty-free, and she allowed herself a small luxury of loose hair.

"Hn. I need to head back. I didn't intend to stay so long," said Madara. "Sasuke and Naruto are away, and Kakashi is 'lost on the road of life'."

Sakura smiled, though sadly. "I know you said before you wouldn't be here for long… but I guess I forgot," she said, shrugging one shoulder. "I didn't realize so much time had gone by."

Madara's dark eyes were intense as they held hers.

"I suppose I forgot, too," he admitted quietly.

Sakura bit her lip.

"Think you'll have time to write? Where are you going, anyway? You never told us where you were from?"

Taking a breath, Madara smirked. "You'd never believe me if I told you," he said.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Always the mysterious one."

He glanced down at her lips. "Some mysteries are worth it."

Sakura's cheeks coloured as she noticed his interest. She ducked her head, huffing under her breath. "What are you saying?"

Wetting his lips, Madara stepped closer, close enough to feel her sweet breath along his collarbone, close enough to smell the faint scent of her fruity shampoo, close enough for him to share his heat.

"I look forward to the next time we meet, Sakura," he whispered, lips ghosting across the shell of her ear.

Then before she had time to react, he kissed her earlobe, pulling back with a soft smile.

"Until then," he said, and disappeared from her doorstep.

Blushing fiercely, Sakura pressed a hand to her cheek and tried to swallow.

Tsunade and Kakashi met him in the forest, the seals already carved into the earth in the small clearing.

"Hurry up or you won't make it. Again," added Tsunade, glaring at the young man.

"Whatever keeps delaying you on these nights?" asked Kakashi with an eye-crease smile.

"Hn," said Madara, though there was a certain smug quality to his voice.

"Enough, get on with it," sighed Tsunade. She gestured to the middle of the seal. "Hop on it. And remember, for this to be permanent, you need to be focused on remaining in your own, proper time. No more of this flitting back and forth. One of these days you're going to fubar the timeline, and who knows what'll happen," she said.

Kakashi shrugged, bringing his hands together. "Don't you have someone waiting for you?" he said, thinking of Hashirama.

Tsunade brought her hands together, too.

The pull and tang of chakra lit the air.

Standing in the middle of the now-glowing seal, Madara's expression shifted.

He brought his own hands together to complete the triad.

And smirked.

"I do."

AN: Rougher than usual because I wrote it in a rush. Sorry!