Feeling less like an emotional train-wreck, Sakura snuck into her room to find Merry snoozing in her chair, Pippin sprawled across her bed, and a plate of cold meats and salad between them. 'Awww' they brought her some, she smiled gratefully and carefully lifted the tray so as not to disturb them. She took it to the arched window and perched on the sill, one leg up and bent; the other dangling to the floor. She relaxed against the pane and ate quietly, enjoying the peace. She felt rather ashamed of her moment of weakness in front of Aragorn, but she was thankful for his words. It seemed there was a lot of bottled up emotion from the past two weeks which had needed to come out. She made a mental note to both apologise and thank him later.
The platter was quickly finished off, and her stomach emitted little growls of satisfaction that had her giggling quietly to herself. She was feeling more like herself. It was amazing what a long nap, a good cry and a meal could do for a girl's temper. She glanced over at Merry and Pippin, who were still, respectively, snoozing quietly and snoring loudly. So they were her friends now huh? She laughed a little to herself and stood up. It was a little disappointing to think that she might go home soon without really getting to know them. She placed the tray on the dresser, tossed blankets over the sleeping hobbits, and casually jumped out of the window – much to the shock of the elves walking below. She didn't even acknowledge them as she bounded over their heads into the trees. She wanted to thank Aragorn now.
As it happened, she found him. But she instantly felt like a voyeur as she stumbled on the intimate scene. He stood with Arwen in a close embrace, on a little bridge over a stream, under the softly swaying trees. It was incredibly romantic…and private she reminded herself. She crept away, and with a few leaps landed in a tree some distance away. So that was why he was so protective of her before.
She glanced back enviously. Beautiful, brave, and totally in love with a man who loved her back. She sighed, wondering if Arwen knew how lucky she was.
…
…
…she then promptly smacked her head against the trunk. Now was not a good time to think of Sasuke. Instead she focussed on the trees. They really did remind her of home, and she sighed wistfully. She hadn't even thought twice before jumping into them the same way she had in Konoha. Her thoughts flashed back to that group of elves she'd passed. Or rather, that had passed under her as she leapt out of the window and over their heads. Oops.
She was going to have some explaining to do when she met this Lord Elrond that everybody kept talking about. She hoped he wouldn't be angry at her – experience taught her to be on the good side of nobles (no matter how much of a prick you thought they were – see Prince of Wave country mission) She relaxed on her branch, swinging her legs thoughtlessly as she glanced over herself. She needed a bath. She fingered the tears in her shirt and medical skirt. And probably a change of clothes. She grimaced, imagining herself in an Arwen-style dress. She was willing to bet that people here still had a lot of those old-fashioned modesty issues, based on the clothes. Then again, she hadn't noticed anything like that before. But she'd worn her cloak almost constantly in her travels with Aragorn and the Hobbits, so it may not have been an issue, that or they were too busy running for their lives to notice such things. If someone tried to put her in a dress that long there certainly would be issues from her end. She entertained herself imagining an old-fashioned maid fainting in shock as she declared that she wanted male clothes. Yes, she was definitely feeling better. The thought that she might go home soon was making her giddy. She grinned to herself, imaging appearing with a pop, right in front of her teammates, who were just about to depart on a frantic inter-dimensional search for her.
It had been a long two weeks, she thought ruefully, as the tendrils of homesickness crept into her heart again. She eyed up the trees, thinking of races with Naruto, and training with the team and missions where each bound brought you closer to victory. Sakura was struck with an urge. She glanced around, no hobbits or elves or lovers about. She turned her gaze back to the trees ahead.
Ah, screw it.
She launched herself forward with a chakra enhanced push, and landed on all fours on a branch across the clearing. She wondered how long ago it was that she started taking this feeling for granted? The feeling of the wind tugging at you as you flew from tree to tree, defying gravity? With that thought in mind, she pushed off again, flipping around to plant her feet sideways on another trunk, and using it as a springboard to flip back onto the first. When she got home, the first thing she was going to do was challenge Naruto to a treetop race. She was pleased to find that the homesickness was abated somewhat.
Might as well have some practice.
And she was off, diving through the trees. She launched off one tree, caught the branch of another and used her momentum to spin her body around it and send her flying in another direction. She flipped backwards off a trunk, planted her feet and somersaulted over one branch onto another. She ran with her arms flying behind her and tried to do it on all fours like Naruto sometimes did. She jumped. She bounded. She leaped. She ducked, rolled, spun, flipped, dived, and somersaulted. She tumbled out of the trees with a giggle as the garden came to an end and flipped herself over to land gracefully on her feet. And then to stumble backwards as she looked up to see several stunned elves, an Old man with a pointy hat and Aragorn. She flushed, conscious of the fact that she hadn't been conscious of anyone else at all during her wild run through the trees, and had consequently most likely startled a fair few Elves along the way. Not to mention this lot. Oops again.
She coughed into the hand to hide her embarrassment, and stood up straight.
Aragorn looked amused, and addressed the stately dark-haired elf next to him, "Lord Elrond, this is Sakura, whom I have been telling you about."
She felt her embarrassment return tenfold. Oh why oh why of all the people…she moaned in her head.
Lord Elrond inclined his head toward her, and she ducked a quick bow in greeting. She bit her lip awkwardly, as it became clear that they were waiting for her to speak. She opened her mouth, hoping against hope that something intelligent would come out.
"Um…I like your trees…"
Fuck.
