Phanes

The elf looked at her strangely, still continuing to guide her through the corridors, she felt weirdly nostalgic, like a reminiscent of her times in long-distance missions where she barely knew anything about the place she was now in and needed a guide to show her everything, it didn’t compare though, missions was something she was trained for, meeting her soulmate, not so much. Especially when said soulmates was from an entirely different race, seriously what the hell was the universe thinking?   

Other than her brief interaction with them a while ago her only reliable source of knowledge about elves had been that kind old man, he had settled in Fornost Erain just some years previously after having been a ranger during his entire life, he hadn’t been welcomed exactly but the citizens mostly remained indifferent about him since he was of the “line of Elros”. Honestly it was a friendship she had forced herself in, she knew she wouldn’t be able to love this world, especially with Konoha still fresh in her mind but she was a doctor, and she was the best friend of Ino Yamanaka and Naruto Uzumaki, she knew how important bonds were, even to a chemical level, so she forced herself to make one. It had been an easy pick for the most part as he was the only one who treated her like a human being since the beginning, maybe his previous exploring of the world had something to do with it but she got free lessons and many stories and he got home-cooked exotic food and sometimes after his naps, his chronic pains had improved, so it was a pretty beneficial friendship.   

What she remembered about elves and their soulmates though were how important they were to their race, to the point where they were not allowed to wed anyone other than their soulmate if they had one. Finwë and Finduilas, she remembered, were among those rarities without them. However soulbonds between an elf an a human had only happened twice in history and both had happened with mortal men, she wasn’t told much more about it other than their final fate which couldn’t be more different. 

“We must hurry”, the voice of the elleth finally ripped her out of her thoughts, she wasn’t sure if she had been speaking before, “We must leave before evening falls, and there are still some tasks which have yet to be completed. Though that is mostly due to the humans of this city who will be… accompanying us…” 

“There will be men accompanying us?” curiosity filling her voice, maybe she could manage to slip her team as part of her escort…  

“Has no one told you anything of what has been going on since our arrival?” She sounded perplexed at the notion. 

“Not really” not really cared either otherwise she would have already found everything out, clones and henge made for a particularly useful combination after all, she had been too busy enjoying the most comfortable bed she had sleep in for more than four years, “I have been kept in that room you collected me from since my arrival to the palace yesterday, and I’ve had limited contact with the staff” 

The elleth frowned. “How peculiar,” she mumbled, if you think so, a part of her thought. “Nevertheless, we are set to return to Imladris as soon as possible. Lord Glorfindel cannot be away from Imladris for a great length of time – he is the Captain of the Guard, you see,” Ah nice , a voice murmured , another blond warrior that is to become a crucial role in your life, if he’s loud and extroverted you should sue for copyrights, the thought almost making her smile. 

“I see” How would that lawsuit go though, like, who would she sue? The universe?  

“He is well loved amongst my kin,” the words interrupting her thoughts again, “Which is why it was so strange to hear his soulmate was found amongst the edain,” ah, of course, she was missing that part! Nothing like a sprinkle of passive-aggressive racism for breakfast . “Nevertheless, he has found you now, and all can go back to as it is meant to be.” She added, having switched completely to Sindarin. 

“As it is meant to be?”  

The elleth looked at her then, raising her eyebrow. “Do you think we often make visits to the realms of men besides that of the envoys?” she asked, the answer being a big fat no. “We came here to bring you to where you rightfully belong, given how Lord Glorfindel’s fate will be shared with you”. 

She didn’t answer to that, honestly plans B to Z have been sounding pretty good for a while now. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to meet her soulmate, that had been something she had been expecting since she was a kid, but she didn’t like how exhaustingly complicated everything sounded now. For years now, her only goal had been to bring back her team, nothing else had mattered so she hadn’t planned anything beyond that, she had hopped to finally be able to relax though, not complicate her life even more. This wasn’t the vacation she expected at all.  

She entered the courtyard that she had looked at through her window, a freezing breeze along with the stares of literally everyone welcoming her, joy. Long golden hair caught her attention, sadly not the one she most wanted to see now. His eyes weren’t anything like she had ever seen before, like they radiated gold from inside and cut straight to her soul like it was an effortless task. That with the armor he was dressed in made him look every bit like the noble elf warrior he probably was. 

A very dark part of her couldn’t help but wonder, how much of this was her fate? If the universe had tied her with someone out of her dimension since the beginning had her word always meant to perish then? Had all of her people fighting been for naught since the beginning? She truly wondered… or maybe, maybe somehow, in some way,she had been the cause of it? No, she refused to entertain such ideas, she would not despair to her mere speculation. 

“Your name is Lothris they tell me” His voice was melodious with a bit of a deep tone, his emotions practically radiating off of him, the concern and disappointed feeling almost familiar by now, she nodded. 

“You may call me Glorfindel” he said smiling. It had been a while since she had introduced herself to someone, it almost felt a bit nostalgic so she barely had time to analyze his sudden confusion when a loud voice emerged through the courtyard. 

“OY!” Oh, God please no, please don’t be Naruto, please don’t be Naruto, please- “WHAT THE HELL YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING YOU POINTY-EARED BASTARDS!” …It was definitely Naruto . Well, it has been a good life … hang on, the hell to that, it has been horrible, she was definitely suing now.  

Like the most cliché hero of those actions movies he liked to watch, he stood on the rooftop, the wind gently moving his hair and the sun directly behind his head, Kakashi and Sasuke crouched several steps behind him, like it was some kind of weird superhero movie and they were about to stop the evil villain in his track.

She was going to absolutely skin these men alive.  

Jumping straight from the roof ( which, hello? Not using chakra in front of non-shinobi for what?) in front of Glorfindel and looked directly into his eyes, which, to be honest, were kinda comically high for Naruto, he had never been the tallest guy , he pointed an accusatory finger at him. Kakashi and Sasuke soon followed the action with Kakashi a bit to her left, most likely already planning their scape plan, and Sasuke in front of her, raising a protective arm to cover her. 

How sad that she could not enjoy their clearly well-timed reunion due to the crazy amount of tension that was spiking right now in the courtyard. Most soldiers had already drawn their weapon, several arrows now pointed straight at each member of her team waiting for their next action. 

“Who the hell are you anyways?!” demanded Naruto, “And what do you want with Sakura-chan ‘ttebayo!?”  

“Naruto” oh, how she wanted to be able to shout to him now, but if suddenly several plants started moving uncontrollably it would be the last straw, and it was just like 9 a.m. too…  

“What?” He turned to look at her, “Wait, what are you wearing?”. 

“Look, at his forehead” she almost hissed. 

“Eh?... HAAAHHH!!!” This was gonna be a long day, wasn’t it? “What the-, Tha-? You have the same mark!!, It can’t be, how?!!” Well at least the situation seemed to have calmed down a little as it seemed both parties understood that there was no immediate danger, the elves though, were looking unsure at Glorfindel who was trying to get Naruto away from him, who was in turn trying to check whether his soulmark was actually real. An excruciatingly long day . 

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“Sooo… these are your uncle and brothers? She heard Glorfindel ask unsure. 

“Yeah” she replied forcing a smile, at least that was the cover they had previously decided, Sasuke and Naruto were her siblings, which worked perfectly since they did share ancestors at some point even if very distant ones, and Kakashi was their young uncle (after his insistence) that took them in when they were twelve.  

“I… see” he looked towards her team who were now sitting and tied down. Not long after the stunt they pulled, several guards from the king’s army appeared. Trespassing, property damage, disturbance of public order… she could go on and on about how much they had messed up, she genuinely did not know what Glorfindel did for them to not get immediately thrown in jail, not that she would have let them, but the action still counted. Probably due to them being elves and the king’s own desire though.  

“I’m terribly sorry about them, we’re everything we have left and they got paranoid after I didn’t arrived home yesterday, they’re still teenagers…” never mind that they had been considered adults by the shinobi world for many years now, if she could use it for her pity speech she would, maybe it would even distract him for the fact that they had been literally on the roof of the palace and then jumped straight in front of him with no apparent injuries. 

“Don’t worry” he smiled softly, “I understand the worry for a loved one, you must be very dear to them” he was almost whispering by the end. 

“Oy! Stop flirting with my sister!” interrupted Naruto “Don’t think I wouldn’t beat you up cause you’re a girl!” 

The atmosphere got really quiet then. 

“Naruto,” said Sasuke with his most ‘are you kidding me voice’, “He’s a guy.” 

It wasn’t until some seconds later that Naruto finally mustered his response, a very smart “…huh?” followed by a “NANIII?? B-but he’s so pretty? And look at his hair, it looks better than Neji’s how could he be a guy? I mean yeah, he looks really weird for a girl but so do all of the other pointy haired people, I thought they just had a different constitution!”. 

“Can’t you see he’s wearing an armor you idiot?” 

“So what! Girls wear armor too; you can’t be that narrow-minded!” 

“Hah?! You were the one saying that he was a girl because of his hair usuratonkachi!” 

“W-why you” 

Sakura looked at her soulmate then, the man looking so lost right now, that poor guy, he should have run when he had the chance. At least mostly everything had been settled or that’s what it seemed at least, people around were just doing their own task though she did notice that most elves looked quite frequently in their direction. 

“Is everything ready now?” She asked him, making him flinch, Naruto and Sasuke were continuing their banter in the background with Kakashi looking so done. 

“Ah-, yeah, everything has been ready for a while” his tone relaxed then, “you will be travelling in the carriage, it is the safest option and the more comfortable one, the journey will be long after all, just over a week is our estimate,”” he said now looking at her clothes, “your family will be with you.” Ah, that’s what she wanted to know, that decision had probably been a mixture of both a courtesy to her and the fact that her team were now most likely considered criminals in Fornost Erain, not that it mattered to her anyway, she got what she wanted. 

“Has no one told you anything?” he asked, looking unsure once again. “Is that why you’re dressed so lightly?” 

“Ah, not really” she said, starting to feel just a tiny bit annoyed, “like I told the elleth from before no one has explained anything to me since my arrival in the palace. I have merely been shunted from place to place while preparations were made without my knowledge,” okey maybe she was a little mad, but she was allowed to be petty occasionally! 

“Did Sadril not tell you her name?” Glorfindel murmured, mostly to himself, “There is no time for you to change, besides, all of your clothes seem to be dresses of a similar sort to the one you wear, I would have thought they would have kept a ward of the king more well-informed of the situation…” he trailed off. Yeah buddy, that title was just for them to be able to gift her to him without being red-face from shame, still, she decided to take pity on him.  

“Will you not be cold?” she inquired. “I will be inside the carriage – somewhat protected from the winds and elements” the wind particularly, had been specially annoying for a while now. 

“I am dressed far more warmly than you,” he pointed out “and cold doesn’t affect elves the same way it does to humans” huh, interesting, “here” he said, taking of his silvery grey cloak from his shoulders and wrapping it around her shoulders “I hope this will keep you warm on our travels. I will be riding at the very forefront of our… convoy, should you have need of me,” he explained, smiling brightly “Consider the cloak but a gift.” 

She watched him go to where a group of elves were, giving orders and arranging positions. 

“My, my, wasn’t that a romantic encounter" Kakashi´s teasing voice came suddenly from behind her shoulder, where he was giving his classic crinkled smile, Naruto and Sasuke were behind him looking pissed, as she noticed without surprise that they had already freed themselves. 

She inmediatelly felt embarassed, tying to hide her blush with anger “Don’t be ridiculous sensei, we barely just met.” 

“Yeah” said Naruto almost grumbling, “that guy looks dumb anyway, looks like his entire race feeds out on leaves.” 

She rolled her eyes looking towards the group of people, it was strange thought that this unusual sight was meant to be the beginning of a new path. 

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The carriage did not stop moving, making small jumps once in a while during the path, something she was familiar enough with. Her team had finally managed to explain what happened, apparently Naruto accidentally touched the butterfly before it could touch a paper making it explode, so they couldn’t read her message, assuming the worst, they had searched thought the entire city until they found her in the courtyard, and everything else was history, she was just glad no one had seen them frantically searching the city in the middle of the night. 

She was now seated on a backed bench behind the driver's seat, her team distributed through the carriage being unexpectedly quiet, she felt thankful for now though. It had been a while since they passed the gates, and she enjoyed listening to the surrounding trees. It had been one of her greatest reliefs while living in Fornost Erain, just stepping into the forest and hearing their melody, they were definitely more expressive than those of Konoha, mostly since the latter didn’t actually talk, also the fact that they called her Princess of trees was definitely flattering.   

“Neee…” Ah, there it was, she was actually getting worried , “Sakura-chan, are you…” she hadn’t actually expected the hesitation in his voice “alright with this?”, he finally looked at her. 

“What do you mean?” They were speaking in their native language, which got them a look from their carriage driver. 

“Well, you know… meeting your soulmate and all, and him being… that.” 

“‘That’ is called elf.” 

“Yeah, I knew that already teme! I mean it like… Ahhh! If you’re okey with all of this, meeting your soulmate is supposed to be like a really big moment in your live you know, it’s just that we’re…” 

She smiled softly as a warm feeling envolved her, Naruto was truly too kind for his own good “Don’t worry, I’m fine”, she then felt Kakashi looking at her with his too knowing eyes. 

“Its fine if you don’t want this Sakura, you aren’t obliged to anything” She knew that, hell she had been very aware for many years since her childhood, they lived in a military directed world after all, while many exceptions to soulmates had been done throughout history, the moment she discovered her soulmate wasn’t located anywhere in the fire country, she knew the possibilities of her actually ending up with him were infimal. She had even considered Sasuke for a while since he was one without a soulmark, but she loved him too much like a brother to actually risk the relationship. 

“We’re here for you, whatever you desire we will support you” He added after her prolonged silence. 

“I know” her tone sounding both solemn and relieved, as she looked straight to their eyes and smiled “Whatever happens from now on, I know I can count on team seven.” 

The mood was soon ruined by Naruto crying out her name, yet the feeling remained for a long period of time. 

Evening came soon enough and their company came to a halt, she noticed her soulmate and his radiating accumulation of emotions. One would have thought after having met her team he would have wanted to stay away from them as long as possible. 

“We will be resting here for the night,” he informed them and then he was off joining the other elves in their preparation, it seemed they were pretty good at improvising a camp, not as good as Konoha ninjas, but that might just be pride speaking. They were tempted to offer help, but everyone just seemed too busy to disturb so they just sat down around some trees and started talking. 

“The constellations just seem so weird though” remarked Naruto. 

“It is going to take a long while until we can identify them, but I’m sure it’ll be all right, After all there's no challenge my little student can't overcome right?” 

“Ha! You got it Kakashi-sensei! We’re gonna be experts of the constellations in no time dattebayo” 

“Mm” came the agreement of the Uchiha. Kakashi gave them a closed eyed smile. She looked towards the moon with a small smile on her face; it did feel reassuring that there wasn’t any deity that wanted to destroy the world sealed in this one.  

“I see you like the stars” the conversation died down as they all look at Glorfindel, who was looking straight at Sakura. 

“They’re quite beautiful” she answered, “so is the moon”, Glorfindel hummed in agreement. 

“My people are very fond of both the moon and the stars, so there may be more in common between us than you perhaps think” he said while looking at the sky seemingly lost in his mind, his attention seemed placed on one specific star though. 

“That language you were all speaking before, is that your native language?” Curiosity filled his voice as he then looked at her with interest. 

“Indeed, it is” she said offering him a place to sit beside her. 

“Strange language, I’ve never heard sounds quite like that before” well living in different dimensions tended to create those kinds of differences she supposed  “not in a bad way at all” he added fastly “just odd, I’m sure our scholars would be interested in learning your native language and documenting it”. 

Well, she wasn’t exactly sure she wanted a to teach a bunch of elves her language, mostly since it was one of the few things she still conserved from her world. It was now one of the things that connected their team too since they were the only people that could talk it here, there were also things they discussed that just weren’t meant for everyone to hear, and elves had a particularly sharp hearing. Still, it was nice of him to want to preserve part of her culture, and it wasn’t as though it would do more than inconvenience them since there was also ANBU sign language, among others, which they wouldn’t be able to replicate anyway since some codes required chakra signals. 

“I think you might like Imladris” he suddenly said, nervousness filling the air, it was then she realized she had stayed quiet for a while, her team sepulchral silence probably hadn’t helped either. 

“Many who have seen Imladris have been ensnared by its beauty,” he explained, “and it certainly will be a sight to see after our time spent in Fornost Erain.” 

“Well, that's not a very high bar to clear” always count on Naruto to never shut his mouth “that place smelled like shit all the time”. Glorfindel looked a little appalled at his harsh language yet seemed happy enough that he was taking the initiative to speak to him. 

“I can assure you Imladris counts with a good waste system, and most smells there tend to be pleasant” he tried answering though Naruto still looked at him dubiously. 

Seeing this, Glorfindel then proceeded to enumerate all the developments in Imladris, which, she really didn’t wanna sound rude but, everything sounded pretty basic at most. Suddenly though, Naruto’s stomach started grumbling which made the culprit start laughing nervously. 

“Maaan, I’d kill for some ramen right now.” 

“What’s ramen?”  

Oh, her poor soulmate, naively ignorant about how much he messed up, Kakashi and Sasuke seemed to be on the same opinion if their horrified twin looks were to go by. Naruto immediately looked at Glorfindel as if he had just insulted his entire family line. 

“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT RAMEN IS???!!!” Well, there went her peace.  

It had been more than half an hour since she had to hear every single dam detail about ramen, Glorfindel seemed to have realized his mistake after the firsts five minutes and had tried to subtly change the conversation (amateurs mistake), yet that had only managed to fire him up more. Right now, he just was looking miserable with a polite smile. Kakashi and Sasuke, already used to these situations had toned out a long while ago, as had she, so they all perked up when they heard someone coming in their direction, something which Glorfindel noticed. 

Sadril, if she remembered her name correctly, came closer, almost hesitantly to inform them that dinner was ready, that did manage to shut Naruto up to Glorfindel instant relief. He would probably think twice now before asking Naruto a question ever again. 

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The next few days followed a similar pattern; she would just stay in the carriage talking with her teammates or sitting in silence. Sometimes during the breaks, Glorfindel would join, ending up even learning some very basic words in their language. She had gotten used to the looks of either strangeness, disgust, or curiosity each time she used her native tongue in front of everyone else, and had also been informed by her soulmate that apparently, they thought the language sounded expressive and exotic, probably keeping the negative comments to himself though, he was kind like that. 

Naruto however, had started complaining about the lack of activity lately. Since they had stopped their daily sparing sessions, he had been feeling restless. It fell on deaf ears though as they couldn’t risk being found out, even with shadow clones, one particularly hard bump on the road and they would be out and discovered. It really shouldn’t have surprised her at all when a commotion started honestly, the universe always tended to align with his wishes somehow. 

She tried to prevent her boys but by that time it was already too late, for some reason Sasuke had jumped right off the carriage with Naruto following inmediatelly. The edo tensei, although restoring their clothes, didn’t come with their weapons included, for Sasuke’s sword misfortune, yet they had knifes and small daggers in Fornost Erain, and it had always been an unwritten rule of shinobis to always have some kind of weapon hidden in your body.  

Sakura and Kakashi exchanged looks, they followed the boys immediately. 

“Lothris!” a terribly distraught voice called her “What are you doing here?!” Glorfindel shouted, putting his hand on her shoulders “Go back to the carriage immediately, we are under attack” before she could answer however, a shout nearby grabbed their attention just in time to see Naruto stab an orc who had almost beheaded one of the human soldiers. Sakura felt Glorfindel freeze, she really couldn’t blame him, Naruto and Sasuke were a sight to behold. They were moving fluidly, without a single move going to waste and in perfect harmony with one another, covering each other’s back and leaving no weak spots for the orcs. They were definitely showing off and also releasing tension after being cramped for the most part during days, yet that was only evident to her because she knew them, for everyone else it probably looked like a majestic dance of effortless movements from clearly experienced fighters. 

It seemed the orcs had finally cached on to the danger they were in and had started to run away, it was then she noticed the trees were moving too, killing every single orc that tried to escape , they were adorably protective of her, as she had come find out.  

Either way, the danger was gone even if the panic and confusion hadn’t died down yet. She moved slightly which finally got Glorfindel to react as he looked at her, and then at her boys as though he had never seen those two before. It wasn’t until another elf arrived and called him that he started reluctantly moving and took his eyes off of them. 

They were now all using chakra enhanced hearing inside of the carriage to check on the situation outside, Naruto and Sasuke have had enough sense to at least not get their clothes dirty though they knew they would receive a scolding later. 

“The trees are awake,” came an elven voice she didn’t recognize, “We should move on quickly after we have dealt with the bodies remaining above the earth… I do not know what has stirred them or their rage…” 

“I doubt we would either” her soulmate answered, a part of her wondering why they sounded so concerned . The secondborn on the other hand just sounded appalled at the knowledge that the trees could apparently move on their own. 

“What should we do about them?” another voice asked, Sasuke and Naruto flinched in their seats, clearly remembering their previous adrenaline-filled actions with clarity now. 

“Who?” 

“You know who we are talking about, you have seen how they fight, they weren’t even attempting their best, we do not know what kind of danger-” 

“We will not do anything” he interrupted, saying his statement with an air of finality “they have had many chances of attacking us during our travel if that was their objective, and when they fought, they fought against our enemies, some of you may even owe them their life. They have come here as brothers, not soldiers, do not forget that.” 

The silence perdured for several minutes in the carriage until Kakashi opened his mouth “So?” he said looking straight at Sasuke.

“So what” he answered, his tone cutting

“Are you going to tell us why you decided to jump straight towards the enemy and put our covers in danger?”

Sasuke flinched at the accusation, looking away from Naruto’s burning stare on his right. He looked frustrated for a moment before replying in a tone much softer and calm “… I don’t know”, they all looked at him in silnce for a second before Kakashi continued.

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I don’t know okey!” he suddenly shouted “I don’t know what came over me, It was those creatures there’s something about them” he continued, his voice sounding more unsure the more he talked, however before Kakashi could continue questioning him the sounds of footsteps interrupted them, she recognized his golden hair as he opened the carriage. 

“Are you all alright? Is anyone hurt?” He said, looking towards her now brothers. 

“Nope, everything alright here” answered Naruto merrily. 

“That’s a relief to know”, he then turned to her “If anything like this ever happens again, which I pray to Eru does not, I want you to remain in the carriage or in the safest place possible, I would not want you falling in danger’s way again.” 

“You really shouldn’t worry about me Glorfindel” she told him almost grinning “After all, I was trained together with my brothers” and of all the things that had happened till now, this is what he was most surprised off. 

Rude.  

They certainly hadn’t been expecting any more visits after their little encounter with Glorfindel yet several minutes later they heard a hesitant knock on the door, there stood a soldier, one of the humankind . It’s the one Naruto saved from being beheaded by an orc , her mind supplied her. 

“Umm,” he started unsure “I-, I just wanted to thank you for saving my life earlier” he said finally looking at Naruto in the eyes. Everything fell in silence as no one quite expected this development, it was soon broken though with Naruto’s enthusiastic answer, always quick to absorb every feeling of gratitude like the sun he was, and immediately gifted him one of his heartwarming smiles. The man was obviously not expecting this kind of reaction and quickly excused himself and ran off. It still left her with a weird sense of hope, maybe this change would truly be for the best . 

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The feeling of awe and amazement just kept growing the closer they got to Imladris as did her nervousness, the strange hope she had felt yesterday had all but banished, leaving behind a newly discovered sense of dread.  

This is it; this was to be her home. She really wished that didn’t panicked her as much as it absolutely was, but this was her reality. This last week she had just been pushing her situation to the back of her mind, letting herself be distracted by her team, yet seeing the place everything felt too real now and she wasn’t sure what to feel.  

A part of her revolted at the idea. Too soon , it said, you're not ready, you're not ready! But would she ever? Did she even want to be ready? She was in no way ignorant to the opinion those of these lands seemed to have of her, what assured her living with the elves would be any different other that she was tied to one, especially when they were no signs they thought any different than humans about her.  

Sakura wanted so badly to believe everything would be different, yet she was so tired of all the sneers and hissed comments radiating disgust, if she was still treated this way in her soulmate home, the person who was fated to bring her upmost happiness, then the situation was truly hopeless as selfish as that thought may be. And this time it wasn´t just her who would suffer but also her team who had already suffered too much. 

Ah, all her anger suddenly transformed into grief as she finally realised the horrible truth. She was truly such a selfish creature she hadn’t even realized it until now. It’s true that she brought her team back because she fully believed they didn’t deserve their end, because fate had gone too far, and maybe that was her only selfless act as the other truth was unmasked. She couldn’t bear being alone, she had been so scared of that fact while hiding it with anger, because she knew, no matter what she had promised Naruto, that such a life was not one she could bear living, and yet she still had been so very scared of death.  

God she wanted to cry. 

“Sakura” a voice called her, Sasuke’s voice , “Are you alright?” Ah, it seemed she hadn’t been hiding her emotions as good as she wanted as even several elves were looking at her weirdly, like a puzzle they had to resolve . 

“don’t worry, I’m fine” she tried to answer yet sharingan users were too observants for their own good for he looked at her expecting an explanation. She fidgeted slightly. 

“Are you guys ok with all of these?” the question a bit familiar. They looked at her confused. 

“What do you mean Sakura-chan?” asked Naruto this time. 

“It just, well everything just happened so fast and you guys barely even had time to adapt to this world like I had and now we're here and I haven’t even bother to check whether all of you were alright with all of this, I mean everything is just so strange and new and they're not even humans so how it is all-” 

“Woah, woah, calm down” her rambling was cut by Naruto, “I’m not getting what the problem is?”. 

“It would seem our little hime has forgotten what a team is” said Kakashi, a tint of sadness mixed with his smile, “I’m afraid you’ll need more than a few tall pixies to get rid of us” 

“Those who break the rules are scum,” the moto so very familiar to her, to all of them “but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum” Sasuke finished, a lesson he took too long to learn, a lesson he never planned on breaking again. 

She wanted to cry again, this time for a very different reason though.  

“Lothris!” a voice suddenly interrupted, “Narutto, Saske and Kakasi too” he was still having trouble pronouncing their names it seemed. 

“What happened?” she asked her soulmate as he helped her get out of the carriage, such a gentleman. 

“Lord Elrond wishes to greet all of you,” he said, pulling her towards the steps of the largest building where what was undoubtedly a family waited to greet them. “What with all of you being the newest residents of Imladris along with you being my soulmate,” he added, concern still written on his face. “He is very kind” he added.  

She shared a look with her team, all of them coming to a unanimous agreement, Kakashi speaks, said man almost groaned. 

“Is there some kind of ceremony to this?” she asked, looking upon the elf with the silver circlet who seemed to her to be looking upon her as though she was an interestingly shaped ball of dust he had just found behind the sofa. 

“No, you simply need to stand there beside me and be greeted” Glorfindel said, she relaxed a bit, this wasn’t a fully uncommon situation and she felt amused at the annoyance of her team at the elves' clear emotions.  

“Lothris, Kakashi, Sasuke and Naruto of the desert,” Elrond said, as she stiffened at the address having forgotten where they had assumed they came from. She felt Glorfindel and her team confusion at the revelation, clearly having no prior knowledge about this. 

“They think we come from Suna?” she heard Naruto muttered, luckily in their language. 

“I welcome you to Imladris,” he stated, seemingly the only one that wasn’t suspicious of them due to their supposed origins “These halls welcome you for as long as you wish to stay” 

“Thank you, my lord” answered Kakashi, always the diplomat. Most attention then came to him and his probably unusual mask, or maybe his hairstyle? She wondered. They were dismissed in favour of the baths that awaited them, separated by gender if she remembered correctly. 

“I will meet with you when the dinner bell sounds,” Glorfindel told her, before turning to the same elleth who waited off to one side – evidently under some instruction from someone. “Sadril will show you to the baths, given they may be slightly different to that which you are used to, I will guide your family instead” 

She gave one last look to her team, feeling a bit nervous about being separated and then turned to the sea blue eyes waiting for her, “Come” ordered the elleth as they walked towards the baths. 

They had hot water. 

She was staying.