The crows flew past like an angry, squawking whirlwind. Sakura growled under her breath as they whizzed overhead, batting her hair – now so long she'd had to braid it to keep it tame – about wildly in the wind they created. Dust swirled up into the air in a quick burst, and after a beat a crow rose into the air from where it had been flying just a tad too low. The detestable sound of the birds, accompanied by the muffled shouting from behind the thick doors of the hall, was enough to give her a headache.

She'd ducked out early on, having no interest in sitting about listening to neither Gandalf's morbid warnings of Sarumon's retaliation, nor to Aragorn and the King getting steadily louder and more vehement in their argument of what was to be done about it. From what she had gathered, the King wanted to move the whole city to some sort of Keep where they would supposedly be safe, which Aragorn seemed to think was a tremendously bad idea. Having Sarumon's spies fluttering about over the city wasn't helping tempers any either, and Sakura for one had had enough of sitting around not doing anything. It was with a resolute look that she got to her feet.

"What are you planning Lass?"

She almost, almost, jumped when the dwarf appeared next to her. Either he was getting sneakier or she was getting rusty. She stored that thought away for perusal at a later time, and tilted her head toward him in greeting.

"Thought I might even the odds a bit," she said darkly, with a nod toward the mass of black still flying about.

Gimli looked doubtful. "How are you planning that then?"

The smile she gave him was almost amused.

"You know Gimli my friend, sometimes I think you forget that I'm a ninja."

He didn't have time to reply before she darted off.

Sakura hopped from rooftop to rooftop, revelling in the familiar whoosh of wind past her ears. Her braid flapped behind her, but she found the leather vest and boots that Eowyn had provided immensely comfortable and surprisingly easy to move in. Yes, she thought, this is where ninja's belong. Up high. She glanced up to find that the birds were changing course, still circling over the city but it was a moving circle; it was moving toward the only oddity in the city – in other words – her. Perfect. She cleared the gates in a single easy leap and landed with a soft thump and a minor crack as the ground shifted under her. She spared a second to check that the crowd of birds were still focussed on her, and then took off running again.

You want to know about me do you Sarumon? Alrighty then.

She reached an open field. The birds swerved, momentarily thrown off course and into disarray, when Sakura skidded to a halt and threw a punch into the earth. Dirt and dust was thrown up like a fountain, and for a second it hung in the air. And just as fast, the dust cloud dropped like a stone to reveal three Sakura's where one Sakura had previously stood. The three Sakura's began to run, round and round in a wide circle, adding more and more chakra to each step, running faster, kicking up more and more dust with each consecutive arc.

The birds screeched and tumbled about, formation forgotten in favour of a baser instinct; the crows found themselves surrounded by a wall of dust and dirt, and panicked. The birds higher up attempted to fly toward the open sky directly above, but two columns of grit streaked through the wall and two Sakura's emerged from them mid-leap. A tag, detonated in the air, was enough to force the flock back down. And then the tags were everywhere, spinning in the miniature dirt-tornado and exploding like fireworks on Guy Fawks. Sakura's clones poofed out of existence as the dust began to settle and the air took on a rather sudden scent of barbequed chicken.

And that's why I didn't need to cheat on the first part of the chuunin exam, she thought with a satisfied smirk. Cha.

She was unpleasantly wrenched out of such happy-thoughts by a meek squawk. A single bird was haphazardly winging its way away. Goddamit. Why is there always one? She grunted and readied a kunai, only to watch as a sleek arrow sailed overhead and neatly struck Sarumon's last spy down. The soft muzzle of Legolas' horse nudged her shoulder, and she patted it absent-mindedly as she stowed her weapon. Then she took the offered hand and let the elf swing her up behind him, leaving the area with a last appraising glance to make sure there were no more crows alive.

"The King has made his wishes clear. We are to ride to Helm's Deep. Gandalf will not be accompanying us, he rides to intercept the young Lord Eomer and his men, and bring them to our aid."

"Well, now is the time to do it," she mused in response, with a glance over her shoulder to the fallen spies of Sarumon. "Has Gandalf left yet?"

"I believe so. Once he realised what you were doing he sent me to you immediately." Legolas peeked over his shoulder at her with a cheeky grin, "He asked me to commend you on a most ingenious intervention."

"What can I say," she said lightly, "I'm a genius."

Sakura twisted her torso around to flip the flap of her hip-pouch up, and took a cursory glance at the contents - carefully cupping her hand to shield them from been blown away as she did so. She frowned unhappily when she saw how many of her exploding tags she had used up – there were just three left. No more Sakura-fubuki-no-jutsu's for a while then. She grimaced a little, and made a mental note to track down some paper. Legolas, having been watching her out of the corner of his eye, waited for her face forward again and wrap her arms around his middle, before he gently urged Erod into a gallop back towards the city. The soldiers had already begun preparing the city for evacuation.

They slowed to a trot approaching the gates, and as they neared Theoden's hall it was a struggle to get through the crowd, even atop the horse. Everywhere, civilians were tugging small carts or pushing wheelbarrows, carrying bags and small children; all the while Soldiers shouted out instructions and patrolled in two lines either side of the long chain of citizens.

Aragorn stood out on the terrace, packing up Hasalof's saddle bags with a tense set to his shoulders. Gimli was waiting for them, stood next to a thickset wooden box which was clearly intended to help him mount – despite his best efforts to appear that he was standing next to it by chance only. Legolas halted his steed by it, and Sakura obligingly hopped down so Gimli could take her place.

"Convenient," she observed innocently, "Someone leaving a box here." The dwarf scowled at her. She laughed, and moved over to Aragorn.

"I saw your trick with the birds," he murmured gratuitously, "You have bought us some time." He frowned as looked toward what Sakura presumed was the direction they were headed. "But I fear even that will not be enough." He looked grave.

"Where is it that we are going? I thought it was supposed to be a safe place."

"It has thick walls and deep caverns, to be sure. But if they trap themselves there they will have no where to go."

"A double-edged sword?" She frowned.

"I fear so."

They stood in silence for a moment, watching as the Rohirrim rounded up the stragglers and the civilians ambled into some sort of formation, ready to set off. She didn't like it. There were children down there, and they were going to be out in the open regardless of how safe or not-safe their final location was – She tightened her new riding gloves without thinking. Somehow her 'ninja-senses' were telling her they were in for a rough trip. Even if she had slowed down Sarumon's little aerial spy-system, he was sure to have other spies, other means of following them or predicting where they were – they were moving a whole city for goodness' sake! No wonder Aragorn was already wound up.

"Where is Naruto when you need him?" she muttered under her breath.

Then the order was called to move out, and Aragorn swung himself up into the saddle. He patted Hasalof's rump in invitation. Aragorn watched the debate play out on her face, and made the decision for her. He reached down and tugged her gently toward him by the wrist.

"Save your strength Sakura, we will need it before long. At the very least ride with me 'til you have recovered what you lost with that little stunt you just pulled."

She fancied she saw a brief flash of jealously run across Eowyn's face when she hopped up behind him – Surely not? – but the other woman disappeared into the crowd before she could be certain. Sakura grimaced as she wrapped her arms around Aragorn's torso, all the while thinking that if it was what she thought it was, Eowyn had terrible timing.

The trip was uneventful to the point of being boring, Sakura began to think. Aside from the occasional bratty kid that tried to pull her hair, and Gimli's stories about Dwarven women and their beards, there was nothing but grass, rocks and the occasional tree to think about. She and Legolas had long since abandoned the horses in favour of running ahead, and doing a little discreet scouting. She had to hand it to the elf – he would make a pretty damn good ninja with feet that light and senses that keen. Of course, there were the two cavalry scouts as well, young (rather thick) men that charged ahead on their horses in a completely non-discreet manner, and ignored Sakura every time she hissed at them to "be a little less fucking obvious, idiots". (This was usually accompanied by a string of swearwords in her own language, and a few in elvish, which she picked up from Legolas.)

She groaned as they charged ahead once more, disappearing out of sight over a rocky hill. They were currently winding through a mess of rocky outcrops, where the ground alternated between flats and dips, and to the right of the procession lay a series of steep cliffs. There was a river at the bottom, judging by the muffled roar of moving water in the background and the vague scent of dampness in the air. There was a faint whistle, and what sounded like a thump, and elf and girl simultaneously perked up. Sakura didn't need to channel chakra to her ears in order to hear the pained cry of the second scout as he was struck down. In an instant they flew over the outcrop, only to come face to face with two dead scouts, two dead horses, and several snarling drooling dog-like beasts.

Legolas unleashed a barrage of arrows, before Sakura shoved him backwards with a sharp command to warn the others. He heeded her without question. She could vaguely hear a shout being taken up over the ridge, but the growling noises and sneering Orcs in front of her were occupying her thoughts rather more at this point in time. Sakura reached for her kunai pouch, slit the throat of the first beast to jump at her, and wordlessly added this moment to her mental "Why-I-Like-Cats" list.

And then all hell broke loose.