Naturally, he didn't reply to her words. It was too be expected. He frowned and mumbled something that sounded like he was saying she was weird. She supposed it was fair enough. She was weird. At the very least she wasn't normal, but neither was he. "Better to be weird than normal and boring." she shrugged a reply and after that she was silent. She really had nothing to say, and she was certain he wouldn't care to hear it even if she did. So silence suited them both well enough.<br/><br/>She found herself lost in thought for a while, remembering the horrors of her childhood, wondering about whether her brother lived or not. Still, even when she was lost in thought, she was aware of her surroundings, to the point that she was aware enough of him to notice that he noticed that she was lost in thought. She gathered he didn't care, of course, it kept her quiet enough, so that seemed to suit him just fine. She took him for the type of person who would be content not to speak for days, and even more content not to listen to anyone else speak for days. She tolerated the silence well enough, it didn't bother her, and she preferred it over most conversations, but she was never silent for days. She would sing or hum to herself, even talk to herself sometimes. Not in a weird way, more thinking out loud.<br/><br/>She understood what it felt like when everyone had expectations for you, when they praised you and congratulated you. When she was a child, the latter hadn't bothered her. She enjoyed when her parents praised her, although she had felt bad when her brother seemed occasionally overshadowed by her accomplishments. He had been considered a prodigy, and she had been expected to live up to his accomplishments. She had, and she had surpassed him, becoming a prodigy herself. She had far exceeded everyone's expectations, which led to a great deal of praise aimed at her. She didn't mind it so much at first, but after a while she grew tired of it, especially knowing that it was hard for Arashi to listen to them constantly praise his little sister, seemingly forgetting all of his accomplishments. She knew he felt somewhat put out, even though he never said so, she tried to make him feel better, but it didn't seem to make a difference. He still seemed to love her, but after everything, she wondered if it had been an act, if he had left with Orochimaru as a sort of revenge. Or if he had done worse things. Of course, she didn't know if he was even still alive, let alone if he had left with Orochimaru, and she hated that she doubted him, but she couldn't allow herself to be some foolish girl blinded by love or any other emotions, blindly loyal to someone simply because they shared blood. She wanted to believe that she was wrong and her worries were unfounded, but she dared not hope for such things. Hope breeds eternal misery. If she was certain of nothing else, she was certain of that.<br/><br/>She glanced his way for a brief moment once she had snapped out of her thoughts, before she returned her attention to the road. She wasn't really uncomfortable with the silence, just a bit bored. The road was boring, the pace was boring, and the silence was boring. It was a combination of things, really.<br/><br/>She glanced back at him when he stretched his arms above his head before signaling that he was going up. "Oh thank god." she grinned, thankful for the change. Moments later she leaped into the trees, landing gracefully on a branch. She followed after him, seconds behind for but a moment before she caught up to him, leaping through the trees, bounding from branch to branch with silent, nimble grace. She loved the feeling of the wind in her hair as it tossed the white locks around her face, rushing through her hair, her ears. It wasn't quite as exhilarating as flying, but it was fun enough in its own rights, and it was about a close to flying as most people would ever come. She would have considered taking flight, but she didn't care to give away this ability, or rather the reason she had the ability, to someone she barely knew, even if she had a feeling he might understand better than most.<br/><br/>The flying would just have to wait. For now, she was content to leap through the trees at speeds most humans couldn't even imagine. Not that most humans could imagine leaping through trees period. The thought brought a small smile to her face, which lingered because she was actually enjoying herself a bit now. No matter how well he hid it, she could tell he was enjoying it, too. She could see the grin, even if it barely showed. She smiled a little more at this, having not honestly expected to ever see him smile at all. Given his usual attitude, it was easy to believe that he never smiled. She hadn't believed such silly things, but it wouldn't have honestly been terribly surprising. At any rate, she had a feeling that he didn't smile nearly as much as most. Hell, she smiled more than he did. Many of her smiles were fake, of course, but no one knew the difference, and fake or not, she still probably smiled more than he did, and her life so far had been a hell most people couldn't even imagine. But she didn't care for people to know that, which was why she hid behind smiles and jokes and feigned happiness. It was easier that way.<br/><br/>It shouldn't take them too long to reach the sound village at this rate. Not that there was a hurry to reach their destination or complete their mission. She wouldn't mind getting it over with, though. It wasn't an exciting type of mission to begin with, and so far her traveling companion had proved to be less than entertaining. Some might even call him a kill joy. He hadn't even managed to crack a smile when she had been silly. She'd even given him the perfect opportunity to insult most people and he'd passed it up. Oh well, it was to be expected, even if it was boring. She supposed she'd take it over an annoying chatty Cathy, anyways. Being stuck on a mission with a boring, annoying person who liked to talk was the worst. So at least there was that.